Demos Shakarian ( hy, Դեմոս Շաքարյան; 21 July 1913 – 23 July 1993) was an American businessman of

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

origin from Los Angeles who founded the

Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International The Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International (FGBMFI) is a fellowship of lay businessmen. Its main purpose is to bring interest to the Christian gospel. Theologically, the organization has its roots in Pentecostalism. The headquarters i ...

(FGBMFI). His story and the story of FGBMFI is the subject of the book ''The Happiest People on Earth'', written by John and Elizabeth Sherrill (''Guideposts'' Magazine) and published in 1975.

Early life

Demos was named after his Armenian grandfather, who, with most of his relatives were exiled in the late 1800s from

Erivan Governorate The Erivan Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with its centеr in Erivan (present-day Yerevan). Its area was 27,830 sq. kilometеrs, roughly corresponding to what is now most of central A ...

(Armenia) to Karakala (Merkezkarakale) village,

Kars Oblast The Kars Oblast was a province (''oblast'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire between 1878 and 1917. Its capital was the city of Kars, presently in Turkey. The ''oblast'' bordered the Ottoman Empire to the west, the Batum Oblast ...

, Russia, for their heretic folk-protestant religious views. In Kars they met and joined like-minded

Spiritual Christian Spiritual Christianity (russian: духовное христианство) is the group of belief systems held by so-called ''folk Protestants'' (), including non- Eastern Orthodox indigenous faith tribes and new religious movements that eme ...

''Pryguny'', denominations of various volunteer settlers and religious exiles from Russia. Among the ''Pryguny'' in Romanovo village was a "Boy Prophet", Efim Gerasimovitch Klubnikin, who, as early as 1855, when he also lived in Erivan Governorate, began to have visions of an unspeakable tragedy and warned that all must flee to a "place of refuge." In 1895, neighboring Spiritual Christian '' Dukhobortsy'' in

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

staged a mass protest against the military, burned their guns, about 400 were jailed in Kars and

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

, half exiled, and about 2,000 died. The main road from Kars to Tiflis passed through Romanovo, where Klubnikin now lived and witnessed the passing of hundreds of escorted Spiritual Christian prisoners. Writer Leo N. Tolstoy protested to the Tsar about this cruelty, resulting in aid from the Society of Friends, London, and the Canadian government to move over 7,400 (about one-third) of all ''Dukhobortsy'' to central Canada. Immediately other Spiritual Christian tribes in Kars and Erevan petitioned to follow the ''Dukhobortsy'' to Canada. A Russian businessman in Los Angeles, Peter A. Demens had been promoting California to immigrants from Russia for a decade, objected to ''Dukhobortsy'' settling in Canada, and personally diverted most all non-''Dukhobor'' Spiritual Christians arriving after 1901 away from Canada to Los Angeles, while the

Freedomites The Freedomite movement consists of a split-off of the Doukhobors, a community of Spiritual Christians began a mass migration from Russia to Canada in 1898. The Freedomite movement first appeared in 1902 in Saskatchewan, and later in the Kootenay ...

began protesting against the Canadian government. As large groups of ''Pryguny'', including the Shakarians and Klubnikins, began arriving in Los Angeles in 1905, most settled within a mile of the

Azusa Street Revival The Azusa Street Revival was a historic series of revival meetings that took place in Los Angeles, California. It was led by William J. Seymour, an African-American preacher. The revival began on April 9, 1906, and continued until roughly 1915. ...

as it was starting, and were delighted to meet spiritual faiths in America similar to theirs. Demos Sr. died while working on the construction of the

Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad The Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad was a rail company in California, Nevada, and Utah in the United States, that completed and operated a railway line between its namesake cities (Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, California), via Las Ve ...

in Nevada, and his young son Isaac became the head of the family. Isaac married Zarouhi Yessayian, and he became a prosperous dairy farmer in Downey, California. Demos Jr. entered the family business and their dairy herd grew, becoming the largest in the world at the time. He married Rose Gabrielian in 1933.

Evangelistic campaigns

Shakarian used his organizational abilities to facilitate evangelistic campaigns, in particularly working with Charles S. Price. Other evangelists at his events included Tommy Hicks and

William Branham William Marrion Branham (April 6, 1909 – December 24, 1965) was an American Christian minister and faith healer who initiated the post-World War II healing revival, and claimed to be a prophet with the anointing of Elijah, who had come t ...

and

Oral Roberts Granville Oral Roberts (January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009) was an American Charismatic Christian televangelist, ordained in both the Pentecostal Holiness and United Methodist churches. He is considered one of the forerunners of t ...

. Shakarian spent most of his adult life building the Fellowship for free. Even honorariums that were given to him at speaking engagements he would deposit them back into the ministry. Every year at the annual board meeting he would resign his position as president, step out into the hall, and allow the 200 man board to vote on the next president. The Fellowship grew into over 190 countries. Hundreds of other ministries were birthed from the Fellowship. Shakarian played a key role in working with

Paul Crouch Paul Franklin Crouch /kraʊtʃ/ (March 30, 1934 – November 30, 2013) was an American television evangelist. Crouch and his wife, Jan, founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) in 1973; the company has been described as "the world’s l ...

to help launch

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its ...

(TBN).

Joel Osteen Joel Scott Osteen (born March 5, 1963) is an American lay preacher, televangelist, businessman and author based in Houston, Texas. Known for his weekly televised services and several best-selling books, Osteen is one of the more prominent figu ...

’s ministry started from his father

John Osteen John Hillery Osteen (August 21, 1921 – January 23, 1999) was an American pastor and founding pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, from its beginnings in 1959 until his death in 1999. His television program, ''John Osteen,'' ran for 16 ...

. Shakarian played a key role in saving that ministry in the early days. When John was removed as a pastor due to his beliefs in the

Pentecostal movement Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

, Shakarian immediately caught a flight to be with John, convinced him not to quit but to start his own ministry wherein Shakarian funded the launching of John's first tent meeting.

The Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International

Shakarian noted that his tent campaigns mainly attracted women, and

was established to encourage more participation by men by providing a platform for businessmen to give religious testimonies. The plan was supported by

, and under his leadership, the FGBMFI had chapters in over 190 countries. Richard Shakarian is now international president of FGBMFI.

Beliefs

Shakarian was a third-generation Pentecostal, and he believed in the "Full Gospel", that all the supernatural events in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

should be understood literally, and could also occur today. In particular, he believed that God healed the sick and injured (including on one occasion his own cattle herd from tuberculosis), and that Christians filled with the Holy Spirit received visions and promptings from God, including direct messages. Shakarian considered that although God sometimes prompted him to pray for healings, he was primarily to be a "helper", as defined by

I Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians ( grc, Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους) is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author ...

12:28. He also believed that the rise of the Charismatic Movement was a harbinger of the

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messian ...

, and that there would be a persecution of Christians in America just before this occurred.

References

External links