68 Sermon Illustrations on Miracles

It is he whose very infancy not only startled a king, and made him fear his throne, but also affrighted the powers of darkness, and silenced the heathen oracles; whose childhood puzzled the knowledge of the aged, and confounded the doctors of the law; who ruled the course of nature, and made the strong winds obey him, and could walk on the billows of the sea as on a pavement; who fed multitudes by his word, and healed all manner of diseases without medicine; who could command them to leap that were cripple, and make them see the heavens and the day who had been born blind; and who could cast devils out of their possessions, and restore the frantic to their wits; who could break the gates of death, and open the doors of the grave, and call back the spirits of the buried carcasses. Henry Scougal.

It is related that a certain man who was afflicted with a cancer in his leg went to perform his devotions in the Church of St. Cosmo and St. Damian at Rome; and he prayed most earnestly that these beneficent saints would be pleased to aid him. When he had prayed, a deep sleep fell upon him. Then he beheld St. Cosmo and St. Damian, who stood beside him; and one carried a box of ointment, the other a sharp knife. And one said, "What shall we do to replace this diseased leg when we have cut it off?" And the other replied, "There is a Moor who has been buried just now in San Pietro in Vincole; let us take his leg for the purpose." Then they brought the leg of the dead man; and with it they replaced the leg of the sick man, anointing it with celestial ointment, so that he remained whole. When he awoke, he almost doubted whether it could be himself; but his neighbors, seeing that he was healed, looked into the tomb of the Moor, and found that there had been an exchange of legs: and thus the truth of this great miracle was proved to all beholders. Mrs. Jameson.

"Miracles," says Fuller, "are the swaddling-clothes of the infant churches;" and, we may add, not the garments of the full-grown. They were as the proclamation that the king was mounting his throne; who, however, is not proclaimed every day, but only at his accession. When he sits acknowledged on his throne, the proclamation ceases. They were as the bright clouds which gather round and announce the sun at his first appearing: his midday splendor though as full, and fuller indeed, of light and heat, knows not those bright heralds and harbingers of his rising. Or they may be likened to the framework on which the arch is rounded, which framework is taken down as soon as that is completed. Trench

"I regard a miracle," said uncle, "to be merely such an interference wi' the established coorso o' things as infallibly shows us the presence and the action o' a supernatural pooer. What o'clock is it wi' you, sir, if you please?"—"It is half-past twelve, exactly, Greenwich time," replied Smith. "Well, sir," said uncle, pulling a huge old timepiece from his pocket, "it's ane o'clock wi' me: I generally keep my watch a bitte forrit. But I may hae a special reason noo for setting my watch by the railway; and so, see ye, I'm turnin' the hauns o't around. Noo, wad ye say that I have violated the laws o' a watch? True, I hae dune what watchdom, wi' a' its laws, cooldna hae dune for itself; but I hae dune violence to nane o' its laws. My action is only the interference o' a superior intelligence for a suitable end; but I hae suspended nae law, violated nae law. Weel, then, instead o' the watch, say the universe; instead o' moving the hands, say God acting worthily of himself: and we hae a' that I contend for in a miracle; that is, the unquestionable presence of an Almighty hand working the divine will. And if he sees fit to work miracles, what can hinder him? He has dune it aftener than once or twice already; and wha daur say that he'll not get leave to do't again?"

In Fleming's Christology it is stated that a deist, visiting the sacred places of Palestine, was shown the clefts of Mount Calvary. Examining them narrowly and critically, he turned in amazement to his fellow-travelers, and said, "I have long been a student of nature, and I am sure these clefts and rents in this rock were never made by nature, or an ordinary earthquake; for, by such a concussion, the rock must have split according to the veins, and where it was weakest in the adhesion of parts; for this," said he, "I have observed to have been done in other rocks when separated or broken after an earthquake; and reason tells me it must always be so. But it is quite otherwise here; for the rock is split athwart and across the veins in a most strange and preternatural manner; and, therefore," said he, "I thank God that I came hither to see the standing monument of a miraculous power by which God gives evidence to this day of the divinity of Christ."

The following account is given in a letter from Rome, dated May 28, in the year 1825:—

"On Whitmonday was beatified, in St. Peter's at Rome, a Spanish Franciscan friar, named St. Julian da St. Agostino. The church was hung with crimson damask, illuminated with wax candles, and ornamented with large paintings, representing several miracles ascribed to him while living, as well as after his decease. One of them afforded considerable amusement. It represented St. Julian, who it seems was cook to his convent, in the act of taking several half-roasted birds from a spit, and restoring them to life, clothing them miraculously with feathers, and enabling them to fly away! The Te Deum was sung, and followed by a prayer addressed to this new saint. High mass concluded the ceremony; and in the afternoon the pope entered the church, and prayed before the portrait of the new St. Julian."

When the reformation was spreading in Lithuania, Prince Radzivil was so affected that he went in person to visit the Pope, and pay him all possible honors. His holiness, on this occasion, presented him with a box of precious relics. Having returned home, the report of this invaluable possession was spread; and, at length, some monks entreated permission to try the effect of these relics on a demoniac who had hitherto resisted every kind of exorcism. They were brought into the church with solemn pomp, deposited on the altar, and an innumerable crowd attended. After the usual conjurations, they applied the relics. The demoniac instantly became well. The people called out, "A Miracle!" and the prince, lifting up his hands and eyes to heaven, felt his faith confirmed. In this transport of pious joy, he observed a young gentleman, who was keeper of this rich treasure of relics, to smile, and appear by his motions to ridicule the miracle. The prince, with violent indignation, took our young keeper of the relics to task; who, on promise of pardon, gave the following secret intelligence concerning them:—He assured him, that in traveling from Rome he had lost the box of relics; and that, not daring to mention it, he had procured a similar one which he had filled with the small bones of dogs and cats, and other trifles, similar to what was lost. He hoped that he might be forgiven for smiling, when he found that such a collection of rubbish was idolized with such pomp, and had even the virtue of expelling demons. It was by the assistance of this box that the prince discovered the gross imposition of the monks and demoniacs, and he afterwards became a zealous Lutheran.

A priest in extreme poverty resolved to get credit for a miracle. He put the yolks of several eggs in a hollow cane, and stopped the end with butter; then, walking into an alchouse, he begged to fry a single egg for his dinner. The smallness of his repast excited curiosity, and they gave him a morsel of lard. He stirred the lard with his cane, and, to the wonder of the surrounding peasants, produced a handsome omelet.—This miracle established his fame; he sold omelets and got rich by his ingenuity.

Dr. W. H. Thomson, in his book on “What is Physical Life,” says that “once, while talking to a roomful of the naturally bright people of a town in Mount Hermon about the achievements of Western civilization, I happened to tell a toothless old man present that in our country we had skilled persons who could make for him an entirely new set of teeth. Glancing round the room, I noticed some listeners stroking their beards in a fashion which I knew meant that I was telling a preposterous yarn. Fortunately I had with me an elderly Scotch friend who had a set of false teeth, and on explaining the situation to him, he forthwith opened his mouth and pulled the whole set out. The Arabs jumped to their feet in fright, not sure but he might start to unscrew his head next, for had any of their venerated ancestors ever seen such an uncanny performance with teeth? They afterward said that never would they have believed this if they had not seen it.”

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Some wealthy Africans, with whom Kruger was traveling in the desert, found the food-hampers gone astray. “You are a great believer in miracles, Oom Paul,” said one of them. “Why can’t you arrange for heaven to send me victuals by the crows, as they were sent by the ravens to Elijah.” “Because,” said Oom, dryly, “Elijah was a prophet with a mission; you are a fool with an appetite.”

Sermon in James series. Divine healing through prayer. James 5:13-16

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DIVINE HEALING

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I. When prayers are answered.

A. Had Marie been healed by God?

B. The Bible is full of miraculous healings.

II. Pentecostals have been the biggest promoters of divine healing.

A. Three main arguments: Gal 3:14; Isaiah 53:4-5; James 5:15

1) Jesus redeemed us from the curse, which includes illness.

2) Old Testament prophecies made healing claims for Messiah.

3) God honors faith.

B. Corrections.

1) Paul's curse is not the Law's curse.

2) Matthew applies Isaiah's prophecy to the healing ministry

3) The "faith" passages are key to divine healing.

III. We have a taste of God's promises, not the totality.

IV. God still acts today.

A. We have no ironclad guarantees, but miracles do happen.

B. What James says about healing.

1) The sick person should take the initiative.

2) Anointing oil has a variety of interpretations.

3) Physical health is intertwined with spiritual health.

C. Don't underestimate the power of prayer.

Gorbachev in discussing the new Soviet policy of "perestroika" and its ensuing changes was quoted in Newsweek as saying, "Jesus Christ alone knew answers to all questions and knew how to feed 20,000 Jews with five loaves of bread. We don't possess that skill, we have no ready prescription to solve all our problems quickly."

Falwell feels these words were well chosen and intended to make an impression on Christians in America, but prays that God will lead this man to open up doors for the gospel in his country.

The American Baptist, Nov/Dec 1988, p. 5:

Same quote. Comment: "And what would that patriarch of pure communism, Karl Marx, think about such Christological allusion? If, as Marx stated, "religion is the opiate of the people," then Gorbachev might well be guilty of substance abuse."

Wife of John A.T. Robinson, noted Bible critic, has been touring U.S. Her husband was a great blasphemer, writing "Honest to God." Ruth thinks Cain's wife, Joshua's standing sun, miracles and resurrection are all myths. They were written so that the greatness of Jesus (who made mistakes and was not virgin-born) could be expressed.

#189

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Review of several books on the "Signs and Wonders" theology. They believe other Christians need to be converted to the full power of God. Skepticism is explained as an over-reliance on the scientific attitude (though the reviewer notes that this attitude grew out of Christian convictions.)

Sermon in Joshua series. Overcoming problems with God. Joshua 6:12-20

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YOUR WALLS CAN TUMBLE DOWN

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I. Everybody's got a Jericho.

II. Joshua faced the biggest obstacle of the whole campaign.

A. Fairly large city, with massive walls.

B. God has special plans on how it will be taken.

C. What kind of strategy was this?

III. The walls came a' tumblin' down.

A. How did it happen?

B. Archeological evidence.

IV. What can God really do for us?

A. Miracles can still happen.

B. The greatest miracles may be in our soul.

V. Remember that God can work things out his own way.

VI. God keeps his promises.

A. Rahab and family saved.

B. God loves you enough to save YOU.

C. God can handle your problems.

Examples of theological doubt and heresy:

In July 1984 David Jenkins was consecrated as the Bishop of Durham, England. He was very controversial because he denied the Virgin Birth and questioned important aspects of the resurrection of Jesus. Three days after his consecration, lightning struck and fire severely damaged the nearby York Cathedral. Religous leaders weren't the only ones to suggest a connection.

Consider a survey done 25 [now 50] years ago among American Baptists:

22% are not absolutely certain God exists.

31% are not convinced of the Virgin Birth.

38% are not convinced Jesus walked on water.

43% have some doubts Jesus will return to Earth.

33% have doubts that the Devil exists.

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Pew survey results for American Baptists in 2020:

17% are not absolutely certain God exists.

38% think the Bible is not the Word of God or is not all literally true.

8% don't believe in heaven or are not sure it exists.

18% don't believe in hell or aren't sure it exists.

66% believe right or wrong depends on the situation - there are no clear standards.

Cinema is the most holistic of art forms. It is visual, stealing from the tool chests of painters and photographers. It is text-based, drawing on the potentials of literature and drama. Finally, film is musical; filmmakers have never been bashful about ransacking the finest and most varied musical libraries for their scores and soundtracks.

Given their holistic nature, perhaps it is no surprise that movies have recently gravitated toward magic realism, a literary genre that tries to wrap itself around all dimensions of reality. It is magic in its inclusion of the transcendent and the “fantastic.” It is realism in that it is not set in a wholly fictional world, such as Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Nor do its characters move back and forth between two separate worlds, like the children in Lewis’s Narnia tales, who dwell in “our” world (wartime Britain) until they pass through a portal (the wardrobe) into another, enchanted universe. Instead, in the novels of such magic realists as Gabriel Garca Mrquez, Isabel Allende, and Alice Hoffman, the ordinary and the extraordinary are inextricably interwoven. Now filmmakers have begun to exploit the potential of these conventions.

A salient theme of magic realist films is that people have their lives transformed once they get at least one foot outside the modern, technological world. For instance, director Mike Newell’s British protaganists in Enchanted April (1992) find realistic magic at a villa overlooking the Italian Riviera. Newell’s Into the West (1993) has two Irish children discover life-giving marvels in the real world when they are borne along by the animals and folk epistemology of Gypsies who ramble the countryside in horse-drawn caravans.

Such a transformation is at the heart of Bill Forsyth’s quirky classic Local Hero (1983). Forsyth’s movie concerns a Houston oilman who is thrust out of his high-tech world into a Scottish coastal village. The character, played by Peter Riegert, is charged with buying out the entire village so a gargantuan refinery can be built on its strategic site. At first the quaint customs and slow pace of the village bemuse Riegert. Sometimes they also irritate him. Stripped of the high-tech accouterments of his trade, he can report to Houston only by phoning from a bright-red telephone booth, which he plies with pocketfuls of coins, and which produces a chancy connection with a Houston boss whose office is appointed not only with a state-of-the-art telephone but also with its very own planetarium and observatory-quality telescope.

So disencumbered, Riegert’s oilman can begin to see the village as the beautifully located and genuine community it is. (My favorite haiku springs irresistibly to mind: “His barn having burned to the ground, he could see the moon again.”) Eventually he can notice that the pretty marine biologist he comically tries to romance has webs between her toes. She is nothing less than a scuba-diving mermaid. At the last, known as something unique and far better than the site of one more oil refinery, the village is not bought out. But to his credit, Forsyth does not succumb to sentimenality and let Riegert’s character escape once for all to the Scottish village. The oilman returns to Houston. The film ends with him on the balcony of his apartment, gazing out over traffic and its rising, honky clatter. He has not abandoned his technologically overwhelmed world, but he can now see it and know it for more than he did before. Mermaids use scuba-diving gear. Who knows, there may be a mermaid driving one of those cars.

Likewise, Bille August’s The House of the Spirits (1994), with its story ranging from the late 1800s into the 1970s, shows us men and women who use technology but do not have their field of vision reduced to the merely physical and material. The heroine of House (played compellingly, as always, by Meryl Streep) is a woman of European descent, born and living in South America, and possessed of striking paranormal powers. As a girl, she demonstrates psychokinetic abilities by moving, without touching it, a vase across the table. She sees into the future, correctly predicting the outcome of political elections and-quite disturbingly-the death of a beloved family member. Arrived at adulthood she will kiss ghosts and, after her own death, deliver ghostly kisses. As her daughter later observes, she dwells in a world where “logic and the laws of physics [don’t] always apply.”

The world of modern, technological materialism is one where logic and the laws of physics (as we understand them) always apply. In its earlier days, materialism was not quite so totalitarian. It allowed that the nonmaterial might exist but strictly quarantined it to a world separate from ordinary and day-to-day “real life.” This is the uneasy limbo probably still occupied by most modern, Western Christians. The so-called supernatural might occasionally intrude on the natural, but if it does so, it is committing exactly that-an intrusion. The natural and supernatural worlds are best kept apart. The supernatural had better not occur often, and when it does, it must appear with bells and trumpets or other conspicuous warnings that mark it as clearly alien. Better yet, it might also be confined to antiquity. Thus the miraculous “really did happen” in the distant past-a Messiah, for example, really did rise from the grave-but once God knocked the cosmic pinball machine from tilt back into play, he and his ilk could return securely to heaven where they belong.

Yet this naturalistic world-view, even when modified to allow God to have acted once, is in the vast sweep of history stunningly parochial. So far as we know, it is only the modern West that has imagined that the whole of existence is restricted to that which can be physically detected or scientifically regulated. Even such significant early moderns as Columbus believed themselves to have seen mermaids (which he remarked in his ship’s log to be “not as beautiful as they are painted, for they had something masculine in the countenance”). And to this day, in places where modernity has not yet wholly triumphed, there are persistent reports of events and phenomena that defy naturalistic explanation.

This outlook, much more than the parochial modern perspective, strikes me as like the biblical world-view. Yahweh does not seem to be confined mostly to a room somewhere beyond the stage of the human drama. In fact, the Lord is quite often on that stage, if sometimes hidden in the scenery. The Israelites are constantly seeing this Supreme Character at work. When Pharaoh refuses to release the people, the Lord has hardened his heart. When Pharaoh finally relents, that act is no less of the Lord. Similarly, Jesus’ miracles are not announced with blaring trumpets and set off from everyday life. He shows the truth and character of God not by summoning legions of angels from the clouds, but by spitting in the dirt and rubbing mud in a man’s eye. In short, I suspect magic realist filmmakers such as Mike Newell or Bille August can help us imagine and live in the world as the Bible depicts it much more fittingly than could such strict modernists as Cecil B. DeMille. (DeMille’s haloed Jesus was quite reassuring. You always safely knew when you were confronted by God in the flesh, and needn’t worry about missing him in the guise of a prisoner or a beggar.)

So, besides what I take to be the considerable and often enjoyable art of these magic realist filmmakers, I think they offer practice in seeing the world as Christians ought to see it. That does not mean we must indiscriminately reassert the literal reality (whatever that highly modern category means) of mermaids and leprechauns. Nor does it mean we must uncritically endorse clairvoyance, ghost sightings, or any number of “New Age” trappings. What it does mean is that we need no longer continue being tone-deaf to the spiritual and colorblind to the wondrous. Here is the message we are getting from magic realists (and recent philosophers of science, for that matter): The world is not so small, not so easily contained and controlled as we once thought. The modern scientific vocabulary need not be our only vocabulary, nor does it necessarily and always trump competing vocabularies. There are other, and significant, and real ways to cut up and categorize the world. And some of these other categories may help us to see and reclaim things we have long missed.

A scene near the end of The House of the Spirits typifies the way magic realism can give us salutary practice in reperceiving the world, in terms less constricted than those of materialistic modernity and more appropriate to the richer terms of the Christian faith.

Meryl Streep’s character has died. Her daughter has been abducted and tortured by a military junta. Bruised and despairing, the daughter lies alone on a prison floor. The ghost of her mother comes to her, awakens her, takes her head in her lap, and exhorts her to “fight to live, for life is a miracle.” Of course, one way to hear these words is the modern, liberal way, which is to hear “miracle” reduced to the merely symbolic. As the liberal theologians put it, why hanker after multitudes fed and a Messiah bodily risen from the dead? Life itself is a miracle.

Yet in The House of Spirits, it is not a liberal theologian but a ghost speaking. Earlier in the film, ghosts have been shown capable of opening doors, of sighting by multiple witnesses. What this decidedly unmodern ghost is saying is that life is wonderful in all sorts of ways, including many that cannot be captured or comprehended by naturalistic reductionism. In the world of magic realism, the daughter revives, and lives. So may we.

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Copyright (c) 1995 Christianity Today, Inc./BOOKS & CULTURE Review bccurrtk5B50245815

Sermon on miracles. Psalm 77:11-15

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MIRACLES

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I. Do miracles happen today?

II. Science and miracles.

A. Our modern reluctance about miracles stems from science.

B. Miracle: An immediate act of God, with no natural means used.

C. Few modern miracles can be attested scientifically.

III. Miracles in the Bible.

A. Three aspects of miracles in the Bible.

B. No sharp distinction God's providence and his miracles.

C. Bible miracles are not just "unnatural, unexplainable" events.

D. Why God "interferes" in this world.

IV. Miracles and revelation.

A. Miracles are intended to deepen a person's understanding of God.

B. Miracles cluster around critical periods in sacred history.

C. Problem of evil miracles. Deut 13:1-5, 2 Th 2:9

V. Modern miracles.

A. Some Christians experience miracles on a daily basis. Jn 14:12

B. Other Christians believe miracles should be very rare. Mt 12:39

C. Miracles may be rare, but they can happen.

VI. Expect God to do great things.

A. True illustration of miraculously answered prayer.

B. Don't neglect your own natural abilities.

C. The greatest miracle is God's gift of salvation.

#3482

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[Skeptical assessment of miracles]

David Hume's essay "Of Miracles" (1748), written more than two centuries ago, still is timely. As well as being a topic of interest to Hume's contemporaries, miracles played a role in natural theology - the attempt to prove the existence of God, and sometimes human immortality, on the basis of observation and experience - and this was a subject that also interested Hume deeply.

What is a miracle? In the vernacular we use the term MIRACULOUS to characterize an event that is extremely unlikely - at odds with the normal course of experience - such as a "miraculous escape." A miracle in this (weak) sense is a very improbably event.

Hume had a stronger sense of "miracle" in mind, namely, something that violates a law of nature. It is in this sense that miracles have commonly featured in religious systems of belief, as the means by which God has been thought to have demonstrated his power to his chosen people. The question that Hume addresses is: Are we justified in believing that miracles have in fact occurred? He argued for the very strong conclusion that we are never justified in believing that a miracle ever occurred.

A common misunderstanding must be corrected - Hume was NOT claiming to show that miracles have never occurred. Proving negative existence claims is notoriously problematic. Hume's claim was the importantly different one that we are never rationally justified in believing that miracles have occurred. That is, Hume addresses the epistemological issue of what is rational to believe, rather than the metaphysical question of what is and is not possible in our sort of world. The argument has two parts:

1. First, Hume argues that the evidence AGAINST miracles is usually very

strong. He advanced this principle: No testimony is sufficient to

establish a miracle unless that testimony be of such a kind that its

falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours

to establish.

2. The second state of the argument claims that even though the evidence in

favor of miracles MIGHT outweigh the evidence against them, IN

PRACTICE THIS NEVER HAPPENS. Hume maintained that there never was a

miraculous event established on sufficiently strong grounds to

warrant rational belief in its occurrence.

There are four factors that undermine the credibility of any claim in support of the miraculous:

1. The problem of witness credibility.

2. Human credulity (our desire to believe).

3. The tribal origins of superstition.

4. Claims of the miraculous are confronted by conflicting testimony, which

cancel each other out.

Article concludes with a section on the virtues of skepticism.

[A skeptical view of miraculous healing, but one with which believers need to be familiar. - Holwick]

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT FAITH HEALING

The notion that prayer, divine intervention or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure illness has been popular throughout history. Miraculous recoveries have been attributed to a myriad of techniques commonly lumped together as “faith healing.” During the past forty years, several investigators have studied this subject closely and written about their findings.

Louis Rose, a British psychiatrist, investigated hundreds of alleged faith- healing cures. As his interest became well-known, he received communications from healers and patients throughout the world. He sent each correspondent a questionnaire and sought corroborating information from physicians. In FAITH HEALING [Penguin Books 1971], he concluded, “I have been unsuccessful. After nearly twenty years of work I have yet to find one ‘miracle cure’; and without that (or, alternatively, massive statistics which others must provide) I cannot be convinced of the efficacy of what is commonly termed faith healing.” [1]

During the early 1970s, Minnesota surgeon William Nolen, M.D., attended a service conducted by Katherine Kuhlman, the leading evangelical healer of that period. After noting the names of 25 people who had been “miraculously healed,” he was able to perform follow-up interviews and examinations. Among other things, he discovered that one woman who had been announced as cured of “lung cancer” actually had Hodgkin’s disease — which was unaffected by the experience. Another woman with cancer of the spine had discarded her brace and followed Ms. Kuhlman’s enthusiastic command to run across the stage. The following day her backbone collapsed, and four months later she died. Overall, not one person with organic disease had been helped. Dr. Nolen reported his findings, which included observations of several other healers, in HEALING: A DOCTOR IN SEARCH OF A MIRACLE, a book that I heartily recommend [2].

C. Eugene Emery, Jr., a science writer for the Providence Journal, has looked closely at the work of Reverend Ralph DiOrio, a Roman Catholic priest whose healing services attract people by the thousands. In 1987 Emery attended one of DiOrio’s services and recorded the names of nine people who had been blessed during the service and nine others who had been proclaimed cured. DiOrio’s organization provided ten more cases that supposedly provided irrefutable proof of the priest’s ability to cure. During a six-month investigation, Emery found no evidence that any of these 28 individuals had been helped [3].

The most comprehensive examination of contemporary “healers” is James Randi’s THE FAITH HEALERS [4]. The book describes how many of the leading evangelistic healers have enriched themselves with the help of deception and fraud. Some of Randi’s evidence came from former associates of the evangelists who got disgusted with what they had observed.

Randi’s most noteworthy experience was the unmasking of Peter Popoff, an evangelist who would call out the names of people in the audience and describe their ailments. Popoff said he received this information from God, but it was actually obtained by confederates who mingled with the audience before each performance. Pertinent data would be given to Popoff’s wife, who would broadcast it from backstage to a tiny receiver in Popoff’s ear. After recording one of Mrs. Popoff’s radio transmissions, Randi exposed the deception on the Johnny Carson Show. First he played a videotape showing Popoff interacting with someone in the audience. Then he replayed the tape with Mrs. Popoff’s voice audible to illustrate how Popoff used the information.

Randi also exposed the techniques used by evangelist W.V. Grant, who calls out people in the audience by name and describes their ailments. Grant obtains this information from letters people send him and by mingling with the audience before his show. To help his memory, he uses crib sheets and gets hand signals from associates who also use crib sheets. After one performance, Randi was able to retrieve a complete set from the trash Grant left behind! Following another performance, Randi found that some members of the audience had given false information about themselves, their ailments, and their medical care. For example, after “Dr. Jesus” had “put a new heart” into a man supposedly awaiting open-heart surgery, Randi found that the details (including the doctor and hospital named by Grant) could not be corroborated.

Grant’s subjects typically are “slain in the spirit” and fall backward into the arms of his assistants. In 1986 I observed from a few feet away what happened when he encountered an elderly woman who did not wish to fall backward when he touched her forehead. Grant pushed his fingers into her neck so hard that she could not remain standing. I also watched him “lengthen” the leg of a man who limped up to the stage, supposedly because one of his legs was shorter than the other. The audience may have been impressed with this feat, but I was not. Before the show began, I noted that the man was one of Grant’s assistants and walked normally.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

In 1988, two investigators reported that their thorough search of the scientific literature had located only three controlled examinations of the effects of prayer by third parties on people who were unaware of the prayers. Of these, one (described below) claimed benefit but was poorly designed, whereas the others found no benefit and were well designed. Surprised by the small number of published studies, Witmer and Zimmerman asked 38 journal editors whether they had ever received but rejected a manuscript on the subject of intercessory prayer. They also asked the editors to ask their readers whether they knew of any such study, published or unpublished. No editor or reader responded affirmatively [5].

The study most often cited as evidence that third-party prayer is effective was carried out in the coronary care unit at San Francisco General Hospital. The study compared 192 patients who were prayed for by Christians located outside the hospital with 201 patients who served as controls [6]. The published report stated that the prayed-for group had fewer complications. However, the author’s tabulation was not valid because he scored interrelated complications separately and therefore gave them too much weight. The average length of hospital stay, which was not subject to this type of scoring error, was identical for the treatment and control groups [5,7].

IS ANYONE HELPED?

Is there any evidence that faith healing works? The first step in approaching this question is to specify what should be considered proof that an ailment has been healed by a supernatural method. In my opinion, three criteria must be met: 1) the ailment must be one that normally doesn’t recover without treatment; 2) there must not have been any medical treatment that would be expected to influence the ailment; and 3) both diagnosis and recovery must be demonstrable by detailed medical evidence.

If I wanted to demonstrate that I had an effective new treatment method, I would take pains to document the basis for my belief. For example, if I thought I could cure cancer with prayer, I would begin by making certain that patients I worked on actually had cancer. I would obtain their records, talk with their doctors, and have independent physicians examine them to determine their current status. After administering my treatment, I would conduct careful, long-range follow-up studies and report the outcome in detail.

Has any “faith healer” ever sent for the medical records of a client? Or had a client examined by a doctor before and after healing is administered? Or inquired about a client’s health months or years after the healing? Or even kept statistics to indicate what percentage of people with various ailments appear to have been helped? Or compiled data that an independent investigator could verify? As far as I know, no healer has ever done any of these things. On the other hand, many cases have been documented in which people with serious disease have died as a result of abandoning effective medical care after being “healed.”

Thus, as far as I am concerned, there is no reason to believe that faith healing has ever cured anyone of an organic disease. What about functional ailments — in which the symptoms are bodily reactions to tension? Some people who visit “healers” may feel better because the experience causes them to relax or because of a placebo effect. But any benefit of this type should be weighed against the fact that people who are not relieved may conclude that they are “unworthy” and become depressed as a result. Money spent for a fruitless experience with a healer is another negative factor.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

A number of religious sects favor prayer over medical care. Christian Science is probably the best known of these groups and is the only form of faith healing that is deductible as a medical expense for federal income tax purposes. Christian Science contends that illness is an illusion caused by faulty beliefs, and that prayer heals by replacing bad thoughts with good ones. Christian Science practitioners work by trying to argue the sick thoughts out of the person’s mind. Consultations can take place in person, by telephone, or even by mail. Individuals may also be able to attain correct beliefs by themselves through prayer or mental concentration. “You Can Heal,” a pamphlet of the Christian Science Publishing Society, states that “every student of Christian Science has the God-given ability to heal the sick.” Two weeks of class instruction are required to become a practitioner.

The weekly magazine Christian Science Sentinel publishes several “testimonies” in each issue. To be considered for publication, an account must be “verified” by three individuals who “can vouch for the integrity of the testifier or know of the healing.” During the past few years, believers have claimed that prayer has brought about recovery from anemia, arthritis, blood poisoning, corns, deafness, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, skin rashes, total body paralysis, visual difficulties, and various injuries. Most of these accounts contain little detail, and many of the diagnoses were made without medical consultation.

As far as I know, no systematic, medically supervised study of the outcome of Christian Science healing has ever been performed. However, a recent study suggests that devout Christian Scientists, who rarely consult doctors, pay a high price for avoiding medical care. The study was performed by William F. Simpson, Ph.D., an assistant professor of mathematics and computer science at Emporia State University. Dr. Simpson compared alumni records from Principia College, a Christian Science school in Elsah, Illinois, with records from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, and published his findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Even though Christian Science tenets forbid the use of alcohol and tobacco, the death rates among those who had graduated from Principia between 1934 and 1948 were higher than those of their University of Kansas counterparts — 26.2% vs. 20.9% in men, and 11.3% vs. 9.9% in women [8]. A subsequent study comparing the mortality of Christian Scientists and Seventh-day Adventists (who also are admonished to abstain from cigarettes and alcohol) found even greater differences [9].

Rita and Douglas Swan, whose 16-month-old son Matthew died of meningitis under the care of two Christian Science practitioners in 1977, are not surprised by these statistics. Angered by their experience, she founded CHILD, Inc., to work for legal reforms that can protect children from inappropriate treatment by faith healers. So far, they have collected 140 cases of children who died in this manner. Information about her group can be obtained by writing to P.O. Box 2604, Sioux City, IA 51106.

Membership in the Christian Science Church has been declining steadily. Since 1971 the number of practitioners and teachers listed in the Christian Science Journal has fallen from about 5000 to about 1800, and the number of churches has fallen from about 1800 to about 1300.

IS SPIRITUALITY HELPFUL?

A 1996 poll of 1,000 adults found that 79% believed that spiritual faith can help people recover from disease [10]. This idea is also popular among physicians. Although many studies have found associations between various measures of religiosity and health, no well-designed study has demonstrated that religious beliefs or prayer actually benefit health.[11]

REFERENCES

1. Rose L. “Faith Healing.” Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1971.

2. Nolen W. “Healing: A Doctor in Search of a Miracle.” New York, 1974, Random House Inc.

3. Emery C.E. “Are they really cured?” Providence Sunday Journal Magazine, Jan 15, 1989.

4. Randi J. “The Faith Healers.” Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books,1987.

5. Witmer J, Zimmerman M. “Intercessory prayer as medical treatment? An inquiry.” Skeptical Inquirer 15:177-180, 1991.

6. Byrd R.C. “Positive therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer in a coronary care unit population.” Southern Medical Journal 81:826 829, 1988.

7. Posner G., “God in the CCU? A Critique of the San Francisco Hospital study on intercessory prayer and healing.” Free Inquiry, Spring, 1990.

8. Simpson W.F. “Comparative longevity in a college cohort of Christian Scientists.” JAMA 262:1657-1658, 1989.

9. “Comparative mortality of two college groups.” CDC Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report 40:579-582, 1991.

10. McNichol T. “The new faith in medicine.” USA Today, April 7, 1996, p 4.

11. Sloan R.P., Baglella E., Powell T. “Religion, spirituality and medicine.” Lancet 353:664-667, 1999. The full text of this article can be accessed online by registering at the Lancet Web site and going to the contents page of the Feb 20th issue.

Sermon in Personalities of the Passsion series. Luke 23:6-12

JESUS AND THE FOX

=================

I. Religion quest.

II. The original dysfunctional family.

A. Antipas, son of Herod the Great. Luke 3:1

B. Married his brother's ex-wife, Herodias. Luke 3:19

III. Herod hears of Jesus.

A. Thought his enemy had come back from dead. Luke 9:7-9

B. He is curious about Jesus and wants to meet him. Luke 9:9

C. He begins to think of Jesus as a threat. Luke 13:31-33

IV. Herod confronts Jesus. Luke 23:6-12

A. A special episode, not in other gospels.

B. Herod wanted to see a miracle.

C. Herod was interested in Jesus but for the wrong reasons.

D. Herod rejects Jesus. Luke 23:11

V. One thing Herod got right.

*

A professor was doing his best to discount the miracles of the Bible. He said, "Take for instance the crossing of the Red Sea. We know it wasn't the Red Sea, but a different body of water that was only 6 inches deep." From the back of the room came a cry, "Praise God for the miracle!" The annoyed teacher asked, "What miracle?" "Well," explained the student, "God must have drowned the entire Egyptian army in only 6 inches of water!"

The Jesus of Scripture was a miracle worker and a great healer - “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:30-31) Twelve men on the day of Pentecost received power from on high to perform miracles and heal the sick. The infancy of the church was characterized by the blessings of miraculous power to heal and administer to those in need.

Biblical healing was indisputable. In Acts 3, a lame man was healed who had been lame “from his mother’s womb” - over 40 years (Acts 4:22). The Sanhedrin acknowledged they could say nothing against what had happened because it was positive proof a miracle had occurred. Even the enemies of Jesus never denied His miracles. “And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’ -- that they might accuse Him.” (Matthew 12:10) Notice they accepted the power of Jesus to heal - they were more concerned about whether He could do so on the Sabbath or not.

Biblical healing was to confirm the word. “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.” (Mark 16:20) The purpose of miracles was to confirm the gospel message that was preached. Jesus used miracles to confirm His authority, His Sonship, His relationship with the Father and His teaching - “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me.” (John 10:25) As noted above in John 20:30-31, the miracles John wrote about were to prove Jesus to be the Son of God.

Biblical healing was never accommodating. Paul left Trophimus at Miletus sick (2 Timothy 4:20), encouraged Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach sake and frequent infirmities (1 Timothy 5:23) and wrote of how sick Epaphroditus had become - almost to death (Philippians 2:25-27). Why didn’t Paul just heal these people? Why didn’t Paul have someone heal him of his “thorn in the flesh?” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9) Biblical healing was not done to attract attention nor to gain popularity. John 5:36 shows the mission of Jesus - “For the works which the Father has given Me to finish -- the very works that I do -- bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.” On five occasions Jesus commanded those healed to “tell no man.” (Matthew 8:1-4; 9:27-31; Mark 3:7-12; 7:31-37; 8:22-26)

Biblical healing dealt with all kinds of diseases and afflictions. Not once did they require a preliminary interview with those to be healed. Never did the lame, blind and dumb fail to be healed and they were never “culled out.” There were no failures and no excuses offered. Aeneas had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed and was healed; Dorcas was raised from the dead; “Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.” (Acts 9:32-43; 19:11,12)

Biblical healing was not always based upon the recipients faith. Some now excuse their failures by charging “a lack of faith.” The man who had been sick for 38 years did not know who Jesus was until after he was healed (John 5:5-13). The man born blind did not believe until after he had been healed (John 9:35-38). Elymas was struck blind by Paul. Did he believe before this miracle? (Acts 13:8-12) It has never been true that you could be healed miraculously if you had faith - consider Paul’s request in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9.

Biblical healing never suffered relapse. Those healed by Jesus and the apostles never failed. Their miracles were complete and decisive. Those healed did not “begin to feel better gradually.” Jesus never performed partial healing. Jesus and the apostles never made faith a uniform condition of healing.

Modern day “healing” can do none of the above. Modern day “miracles” cannot strike anyone blind (Acts 13:11), feed five thousand as found in Matthew 14, walk on water, calm the storm, raise the dead, heal the sick, make the lame to walk, cure blindness, deafness nor any such thing. The witch doctor in Africa can present as many testimonials as any healing group can today. If it proves one, it proves the other. God’s Word stands true!

Kent E. Heaton Sr.

207 N.E. 4th Avenue

Trenton, Florida 32693

352-463-6916

Email - kerux@svic.net

Web - www.svic.net/kerux

A teacher was doing her best to discredit the miracles of the

Bible. She said, "Take, for instance, the crossing of the Red

Sea. We know this body of water was only 6 inches deep." Immediately

from the back of the room came the remark, "Praise

God for the miracle!" Annoyed, the teacher asked, "What

miracle?" "Well," explained the boy, "the Lord must have drowned

the whole Egyptian army in just 6 inches of water!"

My Source:

THE GOSPEL OBSERVER, 8/1/99

Publication of Tri-State church of Christ

Ashland, KY

A non-institutional church of Christ

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THE GREAT PRETENDERS

by Tracy Schell

When one is faced with an illness for which medical science offers no hope, people will look for other alternatives, anything, which will offer some glimmer of hope. This can lead people down the road in search of the elusive miracle. This is the situation my parents found themselves in shortly after learning of my diagnosis at the age of 17 months as having a disease typically fatal by the age of three. Given no hope by the best specialists in the field at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, they turned to their belief in God for miraculous help.

IN SEARCH OF A HEALING

My mother, having been raised Baptist, with other relatives having somewhat charismatic beliefs, hoped that the miracles like those in the Bible might still be happening today. After all, many today claim to have these miraculous Bible abilities and many claim to have been healed by miraculous means. Although I was quite young I can still remember a few of these attempts at healings and I want to share with you my memories of what was to be learned from them.

A well meaning friend of the family gave my parents a copy of a book called “Healing Hands” by George Chapman of London, England. Having some flight benefits which were about to expire, my mother, brother, sister and I all went to London.

At the time I was four years old and my memories of those times are like snapshots of people, places and things. I remember it as my first plane ride on a 747, a one night stay in New York, arriving in England late at night at an old fashioned Country Inn, and room service bringing up hot tea and sandwiches, playing on a carpeted staircase, two large dogs which roamed the downstairs pub and dining room, a taxi ride, double decker busses, the palace, the changing of the guard, and many other things, mostly trivial. One thing I remember almost nothing about is George Chapman. I remember being in an office, and that is about it. I know from my mother that I did see him. I have always thought it strange that I can remember the color of the curtains in the hotel room (white) but nothing of this visit. I think the reason for this is obvious. Nothing miraculous happened, nothing even noteworthy or memorable. When I was around six I was taken to see Kathryn Kuhlman. She was perhaps the leading faith healer of the time (along with Oral Roberts). Incidentally, she was the mentor of a current well known faith healer, Benny Hinn of Orlando. I remember a large auditorium and seeing people on canes, crutches, and many in wheelchairs. I can recall talking with a young man in a wheelchair whose loved ones had obviously taken him to many crusades of this type because he knew the routine well.

On this occasion my grandmother went with us. She believed in this type of preacher. She often watched Oral Roberts and others like him. She was a diabetic who had to take daily insulin shots. She made it onto the stage with “Kathryn the Great” and had hands laid upon her. She fell back as if struck with some great power. I remember asking afterwards what it was like, and she said it was like being shocked or struck by lightning. I am sure to this day that she honestly believed that. But the fact remains that she continued to take insulin till the day she died. No attempt was made to get me, or anyone else with a visible handicap, on the stage. No one was cured of anything I could see. Certainly, I was not, the young man in the wheelchair near me was not, nor was my grandmother.

Yet friends and well-wishers always insisted their congregation could get the job done. So there were other attempts locally. I recall a Pentecostal friend invited us to her church where people were supposed to write on a piece of paper the miracle they needed. It would be granted! I wrote, “I want to walk.” But neither I nor anyone else with a visible problem was helped. Another failure. It was always the same.

REFLECTING ON THE FAILURES

What effect did these failures have? On my parents, none. Their faith in God remained strong. Yet the faith of some people is shattered while others look for some slight, or even imagined, improvement as a rationalization to continue looking for a miracle. For some reason, people see these failures as stemming from either one of two possibilities, namely, (1) a lack of ability on God’s part, or (2) as some failure on their part, such as a lack of faith. Yet there is a third possibility which most people overlook: God is not performing miracles by or through these men; they exercise no miraculous power at all.

DO THE HEALERS TODAY HAVE THE POWER OF GOD?

Are the miracles allegedly being wrought today the type of miracles read about in the Bible? As I have learned from firsthand experience, they are most assuredly PRETENDERS. It became evident to me when I first started studying the Scriptures and comparing the nature of miracles in the Bible with what I had seen.

Many faith healers today claim to heal the deaf, but do any do as Jesus did? He restored a severed ear (Luke 22:50-51). They claim to make the blind see, but how do we know if the subject was truly blind? Why don’t they heal Ray Charles or Ronnie Millsap? These are two well known singers the world knows are blind. Why don’t Oral Roberts, Robert Tilton and Benny Hinn heal them? Recently Benny Hinn claimed to heal a woman with AIDS. I don’t know if she had AIDS or not. But we all know that Magic Johnson has AIDS. Let Hinn heal him.

THE CRY FOR MONEY

They are always raising money to feed the hungry of the world. Could they not feed the hungry the way Jesus did in Matthew 14:15-21? Why do they even need to ask for money? Can they not get it from a fish’s mouth as Christ did in Matthew 17:27?

THE DIFFERENCE IN THEN AND NOW

Who among today’s healers raises the dead? I am not talking about someone who was “clinically dead” for a few minutes. I am talking about someone dead and buried. When Lazarus died, Martha met Jesus at the outskirts of Bethany, and she expressed belief that had he been there while her brother yet lived, he would not have died. Jesus promptly told her, “Thy brother shall rise again.” Martha thought he spoke of the resurrection at the last day. It did not occur to her that he would be raised within moments. Even when Christ commanded them to roll away the stone, Martha said, “Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.” His flesh had already begun to rot, Martha thought, and it was too late. But not for Jesus. “He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth” (John 11:20-44).

No so-called healer of today ever did anything of this magnitude, much less in front of so many witnesses. Does the shoe pulling parlor trick of W.V. Grant lengthening a supposedly shortened leg compare with the inspiring account of Jesus making a withered hand whole? (Mt. 12:13). Do the silly antics of Benny Hinn blowing on people compare with the miraculous feeding of 5000 men with just 5 loaves and 2 fish? (Matthew 14:5-21). Robert Tilton says you have to “plant” a faith seed by making a pledge of at least $1,000 to get your miracle. Did Christ or any of his disciples ever ask for money before or after performing a miracle? No, in fact, Jesus commanded them to perform miracles freely (Matthew 10:6).

Some people ask about all those people who go on stage and are “slain” by the spirit? Are they all liars? No. But they are all caught up in the same psychological state of mind. It can best be explained by an old fable I recall.

THE PRETENDERS’ NAKEDNESS

There was once a king who was preparing for a great parade before his subjects. He ordered his tailor to prepare him a magnificent suit. This troubled the tailor for he had no fine fabrics. So he devised a story for the king about a magic cloth only the wisest could see. The king “saw” it for he was the wisest of the wise. So a proclamation was made to the people telling them of the special suit that was made. The day of the parade came, and there went the king down the main street naked as a jaybird. Yet the people remarked one to another about what a wondrous suit the king was wearing, for only a fool could not see the suit, and none wanted to be a fool, so none could admit the truth. Finally, a small boy, still in the simple innocence of childhood, said, “The king is naked.”

The king was naked and The Pretenders are impotent, but who will say so? Their sick stay sick and the maimed are still maimed. But the crowd plays along. In reality, healers do not even fare well when compared to the magician, David Copperfield. He has made lear jets and the Statue of Liberty disappear before our eyes, levitated a train car, and walked through the great wall of China, or so it seemed.

CONCLUSION

The difference between magicians and “miracle” workers is simple. Magicians promise entertainment, hurt no one, make no pretenses, and blame no one but themselves if they fail. They are magicians. “Miracle” workers promise healing, put themselves forward as great powers of God, and leave multitudes sick, suffering and disillusioned, and blame the disappointed sufferers for the failures. Yes, they are The Great Pretenders.

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DRL NOTE: It is not all that frequently that I will quote from non-institutional publicatons, but the article above came from one uniquely qualified to address the subject matter and I thought the article was exceptionally well written. I hope you are able to profit from it and help others to understand the folly of “The Pretenders.”