7 Great Lies of Organized Religion – Lie #8
Where I grew up, they said: “Miracles don’t happen anymore. They ceased with the disciples.” I believed what they told me.
Dozens of personal experiences and medically documented cases have caused me to do a 180 on this. Miracles are REAL. The idea that miracles are fake is literally the 8th lie of Organized Religion. (Fake miracles masquerading as real ones are the other side of that coin, by the way… and there are many fake miracles.)
Miracles are far more common than many would have you believe. Today, I share several of my own personal experiences. And several thoroughly documented events.
Before we dig in, I need to tell you a conversation with my younger brother Bryan, whose story I tell in my book Evolution 2.0 and on my site www.cosmicfingerprints.com.
Bryan had gotten a Master’s Degree in Theology at Master’s Seminary in Southern California. Master’s is very conservative and holds a doctrinal position that miracles ceased after the disciples. He’d spent time in the ministry including a stint as a missionary. Because of mounting doubts, he was bailing on the whole thing.
He says to me:
“Perry, I’ve studied the New Testament inside and out. I’ve studied Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. And you know what? There is NOTHING in the Bible whatsoever to suggest that miracles should stop.
“So… WHERE’S THE MIRACLES???”
I rifle through my mental file folders. I’ve heard lots of stories 3rd hand. No personal experiences of my own to report.
(Gulp.)
He continues: “Every single supposed ‘miracle’ can be explained by sleight of hand, placebo effect, or wishful thinking. There’s no such thing as a medically documented miracle.”
He was definitely right about the New Testament part. Nowhere is there so much as a hint that the miracles were going to go away. In fact miracles are held out as proof of the authenticity of Jesus as the Son of God. From healing the paralytic to forgiving sins to feeding the 5000 to rising from the dead, all are offered as things only God can do.
I was quite concerned that he was right about the placebo effect and the wishful thinking. Made me queasy.
Felt like a sucker. A mark. Gullible.
Plus, when you turn on the TV and see the faith healers plying their trade, most of us run out of the room screaming. Educated people are way too smart for that, right?
What if all this stuff about miracles is hocus-pocus and Santa Claus? What an icky, shameful feeling.
My eyes were suddenly wide open for information that would either confirm or deny this.
For several months I was almost persuaded that he might be right.
But little by little things started happening. The evidence began to point the other way.
Experience #1: I had lunch near Cincinnati Ohio with an old co-worker named Charlie Keck. September 27, 2002. Charlie was an engineer who lived in Tipp City Ohio. His wife was named Geri, and she’d had lupus.
She’d *had* lupus. But she didn’t have it anymore.
She and Charlie had treated it for years, prayed for years that it would be healed, and it wouldn’t budge.
Then one morning at her Bible study, a woman suddenly stood up and said, “God just told me to pray for you, to be healed, RIGHT NOW.”
So they did. And Geri felt this warm sensation flushing through her abdomen and the lupus was healed. Just like that. No more doctor visits, no more treatments. The whole chronic disease, gone.
Experience #2: I got to Rajahmundry, India in June 2007 with the customer service manager at my company, Jeremy Flanagan. Jeremy, as it turns out, has been having experiences like this himself. Healing people.
At a church service one Sunday, the pastor, Isaiah Gottimukkala, invites anybody who wants any kind of healing prayer to line up in front of Jeremy. Jeremy calls me over to help him and we start prayin’ for people.
One woman, maybe 60 years old, had fallen a year ago and hurt her arm. She could not raise her elbow past the middle of her chest. When she moved her arm up and down she complained that her shoulder would crack and pop and Jeremy and I could feel that too, when we put our hands on her shoulder when she’d move it.
He started praying for her. Probably spent 15 minutes. By the time Jeremy was done both shoulders felt identical, there was no cracking and she could raise her arm above her head on her own strength.
I asked her to do it for me and I snapped a picture. She said it didn’t hurt anymore and both arms were equally good.
Another lady, Mary, maybe 30 years old, had somewhat recently had brain surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. She pulled her hair back and I could tell just brushing my hand over her head that there was a big piece of her skull taken out and a large indention on her head.
She complained that she’d been having seizures since the operation, and she has had no feeling anywhere in her left arm.
Jeremy started praying that God would heal her entire skull and put everything back. We prayed for her and prayed for her. After about a half hour her head hadn’t changed but she started feeling tingling on her skin and by the time we were done, she said she could feel everything with her left arm exactly like her right arm.
No success on her skull filling in. Not yet anyway. But she was VERY excited about the feeling come back in her left arm!
We go home, and 2 months later I email Pastor Isaiah’s brother, Ananth. I want to know if these people are “still healed.” (Or did the problems come back? It sometimes happens.) Here’s his reply:
Respected Mr. Perry Marshall,
Greetings from India!
Thank you very much for your prayers.
Your trip to India was amazing. Many were healed and increased their faith in God. They are sharing their testimony to many people. Many times they are asking about you and Mr. Jeremy for prayers. We told them that next year definitely they will come to pray for you and for many.
I would like to share the testimony of my Grand mother(My father’s mother). Her name is Mrs. Suvarthamma and her age is 75. She was suffering from severe headache and neck pain from so many years and also if she takes anything from her mouth she will be feeling pain in her throat.
After your prayers She is completely healed. She is very happy and doing all the works easily irrespecitve of her age. God did miracle in her life through your prayers.
Another women named Mrs. Mary, Her age is 30. She had operation on her head. Hair was fully sworn and the head was like smooth sponge. She used to have pain on her head daily. and also her hand is not working and she doesnt have any feeling on her hand.
After your prayers she bacame healed. She feels her hand and she can do works with that hand normally as another hand. Praise the Lord.
Every one hearing of her witness, asking us about you and requesting us to bring you back to India.
These are some of the Miracles happend because of your prayers.
My brother Pastor Isaiah and his wife Surekha and all the boys of the Rajah Boys Home and Pastors in the Deep Forest are sending their greetings to you.
Thanking you Sir,
Yours faithfully,
Ananth
I’ve told you about two people there in Rajahmundry India. There were many more – most got some benefit, some didn’t seem to get any. These are the most dramatic examples of what happened. But I’ll tell you one thing: I learned that prayer CHANGES things. Especially when administered the way the apostles always said to.
I fully understand that a lot of people reading this are very, very skeptical.
As well you should be.
After all, you weren’t there, were you? No you weren’t. You only have my word to go on.
Well, I forgot to bring my portable MRI machine on the plane so I could do before / after scans of all these people, and as concerns this particular event, my own eyewitness testimony is about as good as I can provide right here.
If you’ll stick with me, later in this article I’ll give you information on publicly documented miracles that you can investigate for yourself. Meanwhile I’ve got more personal experiences to share.
Experience #3: In the spring of 2008 a “revival” broke out in Lakeland Florida. Hugely controversial. A guy named Todd Bentley, a Canadian Harley-riding preacher guy with jeans and cowboy boots and covered with tattoos started healing people in this crazy tent meeting.
It grew and grew until 5,000 to 10,000 people were showing up every single night. This went on until August 2008. The whole thing caved in when Bentley was found to be having an affair with one of his staff members.
(Hey, I told you this thing was controversial. Wait, there’s more…)
I jumped on a plane and flew there to see the whole thing for myself. I was there May 27, 2008.
On the hotel shuttle bus to the meeting I met a woman from Hong Kong who had flown to London to pick up her daughter, a college student who had severe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The daughter was skinny as a rail and looked like the walking dead. They were there to get healing.
I get there and the whole place is a freaking nuthouse. Loud music, crazy people dancing and singing, and rolling around on the floor. This Todd Bentley guy is marching around the stage, shouting, kicking people, slapping them, proclaiming them healed.
Across the stage the people go. Bentley is yelling all kinds of proclamations. At one point he stops and says:
“I’m telling you right now, somebody in here has been deaf in one ear for 34 years. Who is that? Thirty-four years deaf. The Lord just spoke to me. Come up here.”
I’m in the center section near the back. About 20 feet from me, over my shoulder and to the right, a guy raises his hand. “That’s me. I went deaf from a gunshot 34 years ago today.”
Bentley prays for him and he’s healed, instantly. You can watch this in this video:
The man’s name was Brian Burgee. He’s pastor of Rock Church of Tampa Bay.
Brian’s story was reported in the Charlotte Observer on June 19, 2008. You can read it here.
I met Charles Chandler, the reporter who wrote it. We have a mutual friend who lives in North Carolina. Chandler followed up with the people described in the article personally and checked their stories.
I was there that night. I saw it happen with my own two eyes.
This article is referenced on Wikipedia. My neighbor is the editor in charge of the Todd Bentley page on Wikipedia. The healings in Lakeland were such a hot potato, most of the mainstream media wouldn’t touch it.
When people are really getting healed and things are happening that the establishment claims are impossible, mostly what you get is silence. Or irrational protests from people who still insist it’s impossible.
(Not all that different from atheists trying to tell me DNA isn’t actually a code.)
Experience #4: I have a friend named Noemia Cessito. She and her husband Jeronimo run a school, church, AIDS hospice, medical clinic and feeding program in Beira, Mozambique. I went to visit them in the summer of 2003.
Mozambique is extremely poor. Luxuries that westerners take for granted are simply unheard of there.
Noemia tells this strange story:
When I arrived in Mozambique in 1984, the country was in the middle of a 15 year civil war. It was a hard time. A lot of people were dying not just from the fighting but from starvation.
One evening our church met for prayer. People started to pray for things like shoes, a chair, a shirt, a loaf of bread. I never heard anyone pray for a pair of shoes or a loaf of bread before. I had always prayed: “Lord, please provide for my needs.”
So, I was sitting beside this little six year old girl and we divided into pairs to pray. That little girl began to pray, “Oh God, give shoes to my brother, Carlos. Oh, God, give some some bread to my sister Maria. And I said “Amen” to each of her requests.
Later at home, I got down on my knees to pray some more and when I was kneeling, I was trying to pray for the war because I had heard about a terrible battle on the Zamebezi river.
In the middle of thinking about that, I got this desire for some ice cream. I thought, “Good Lord! How could I possibly think about ice cream now when there is so much war and starvation?” But yet, deep in my heart, I heard a voice saying, “Ask for some ice cream from God.”
I ignored the thought. How could I possibly ask for ice cream when so many people are starving and are in so much need? I continued to pray. But my mouth started to water because I so wanted to have some ice cream. And then I began to cry. I didn’t have the courage to say, “God, please give me some ice cream.” I knew that I could, but I didn’t have the courage.
But, then at the end of my prayer, I said to God, “God, I would sure love to taste some ice cream.” And then, I cried some more. I thought, how selfish can I be! There are so many suffering and starving. I was crying because I was homesick for Brazil, and I so wanted a taste of ice cream.
About noon the next day a truck from Zimbabwe drove up to the door where I was staying and the driver got out and knocked. He wanted someone named, Naomi. I didn’t understand English at that time but he kept saying Naomi, Naomi and I finally realized that Naomi must be my name in English.
So I took the package and when I touched it my heart froze. I knew right away what it was because the box was cold.
So I asked the driver, “Who sent this? Where did it come from?” He didn’t understand me but finally through gestures I got out of him that someone at the airport gave him that box to deliver to “Naomi.” It had been flown in on a plane from South Africa. To this day I have no idea who sent it or where it came from.
Well, I put that little carton of ice cream in the freezer of the refrigerator with a sense of overwhelming gratitude. It was then that I began to understand that I can ask from God even the most insignificant things.
Since then I’ve faced a lot of hard times. I’ve nearly died of malaria, and I’ve gone hungry. But, as the many difficulties arose, I would remember that carton of ice cream. It’s the biggest lesson of my life.
Experience #5: I’ve got a friend named Jess Smiley. She and her husband Sam live about 2 miles from my house. We go to church together.
The last 7 years have been HARD on Jess.
7 years ago her husband Jamie contracted leukemia, a form that is lethal. After a 2 year battle she lost him.
In the fall of 2007 her son Alex was 11 years old. He had started developing bruises on his skin and a doctor’s appointment revealed that he too had leukemia.
Wow. An 11 year old boy with leukemia. Imagine facing that.
Alex went through 9 months of brutal chemotherapy treatments and it went into remission.
18 months later, it came back. With a vengeance.
More chemotherapy. More prayers. More desperation.
Alex chose to stand up and FIGHT.
Since Alex was losing his hair, several of his friends, including Dylan Fancher, all decided to shave their heads as a sign of Solidarity with Alex during his healing and recovery process.
Below is a video of Alex shaving Dylan’s head in the restroom of Alex’s hospital room:
Alex Smiley shaves Dylan Fancher’s head: Solidarity, and Friends Forever
Just the day before, Alex had begun his Chemo treatments. (The joy of shaving Dylan’s head sorta made up for the first day of chemo.)
That was July 6, 2009.
On Wednesday, October 14, 2009, an infection raged out of control and Alex died. A young man full of promise, gone at age 13.
Jess had remarried since Jamie’s death. She lost both her husband and first-born son to leukemia.
She made it through Alex’s funeral under the care of friends, lots of prayer and a couple pints of vodka.
Words cannot express how grieved we all were. We all prayed so hard. For Alex to be healed. For this curse to be lifted. But Alex lost the battle. For whatever reason, rescue did not come.
Jess soldiered on.
It just so happens that we were with Jess at a church conference in Toronto. On the night of January 20, 2010, God SPOKE to Jess and in a moment of laser clarity, showing her that He was pushing a “reset” button on the destiny she thought she had lost. He was restoring to her what she thought was no more.
That night God also gave her an impartation of JOY and LAUGHTER.
The bitterness and the grief melted away and she began laughing with delight. For weeks she was almost giddy and exuberant.
It was like nothing I had ever seen.
All I can say is, you had to see it for yourself to fully appreciate it. I’ve told you some miracle stories. People getting healed of lupus, deafness and paralysis are all remarkable. But being healed from aching loss and sickening sorrow over a lost husband and dear son – that one takes the cake.
It’s not that she doesn’t miss Alex or Jamie. Or that she doesn’t still grieve. It’s just that the bitter sting has been taken out. Jess experienced a literal impartation of the beautiful scripture of Isaiah 61:
For those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.
My friend, I do not know why Alex and her husband were taken from us. God alone knows the answer to that question.
But God did minister to her in her sorrow in a most profound way.
YOU have also lost loved ones.
YOU have also had unanswered prayers. We all have. I know the feeling of exasperation and desperation when you pray and it feels as though those prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.
Jess Smiley knows that feeling too. Believe me, she does.
You pray for the uncle or aunt or grandpa or child. Your prayer doesn’t get answered the way you want it to. It’s bitter and dark.
But you know what…
You only have to experience ONE undeniable miracle and then you KNOW. After that, there is no going back.
And that’s what happened to me. I’ve only shared a small collection of stories. There are others. They’re real and I’ve seen them with my own two eyes.
Experience #6: 0n April 17, 2012, I was at a conference in Moravian Falls, North Carolina, sitting right next to a woman named Dierdre from Sydney Australia when she was healed after 40 years of severe hearing loss in one ear. Here’s me interviewing her about what happened:
Remember Brian Burgee from Tampa Florida, above, who was deaf in one ear and was healed in 2008? With the Dierdre experience I have now seen TWO people who were healed from deafness in one ear, both from childhood accidents, both deaf in that ear for more than 30 years. I was a personal direct witness and I have both testimonies on video. Recall that Burgee’s healing was also verified by reporter from the Charlotte Observer.
I solemnly attest to you that all these people and experiences are true and I have reported them to the best of my ability.
I will never again be at the mercy of theories from someone who thinks miracles are fake. Cuz I know they’re real.
But they are my experiences not yours.
Do you want God to show up in your life?
Then right now I give you permission to ASK HIM. If you seek God you will find Him.
But there’s something else I wish to offer you as well.
And that is:
Documented evidence of other miracles.
1. The book “Real Miracles” by Richard Casdorph, M.D., medically documents 10 miracles. Each chapter is a case study of one miracle, including doctors reports, xrays, etc. It reports ailments like huge tumors, Multiple Sclerosis and cancer vanishing completely, with medical documentation.
If you’re the least bit curious about this, just go ahead and buy the book. It’s on Amazon.
2. In Catholic circles, the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima on October 13, 1917 is very well known and has been exhaustively documented. Literally 70,000 people including all kinds of newspaper reporters and people of every age and background testified to what happened near Fatima, Portugal. The event was predicted in advance on July 13, August 19 and September 13 that same year by three children. Which is why thousands of people were there to witness it.
Wikipedia does a good job of summarizing what happened. (Yes, I understand, if you’re a protestant you probably don’t relate to the “Virgin Mary” stuff. That’s OK. There’s no rule that says you have to.) I encourage you to study the event for yourself and see if there isn’t substantial evidence that something miraculous occurred.
3. In September 2010, the Southern Medical Journal published an article titled: Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Proximal Intercessory Prayer (STEPP) on Auditory and Visual Impairments in Rural Mozambique. The official publication can be found here and the original authored manuscript from Indiana University can be found here. 24 people were tested; hearing of deaf subjects improved by 10-60 decibels. Vision of some of the blind subjects also improved, ranging from none to 15X.
I am personally only 1 degree of separation from the healers involved in this study. Here in Chicago I have some friends Nathan and Liz Stanton. They were married in Mozambique by pastor Heidi Baker who is a missionary there. For the Southern Medical Journal research, Heidi Baker partnered with Global Awakening in Mechanicsburg Pennsylvania, who sent a teaching team to my own church not long ago.
Heidi Baker is well-known in Mozambique for going into villages, asking villagers to bring her their deaf, then healing them. At minute 5:56 you’ll see Heidi Baker heal a deaf woman in front of a large crowd of people, live:
This video is an excerpt from the movie Finger of God. by Darren Wilson. He’s the narrator of this documentary. I’m personally acquainted with him, having met him in November 2009. Darren himself was ardently against miracles until a relative experienced a miracle he could not explain, which launched him on a journey of investigation.
4. On Friday August 30 2010, Delia Knox was healed after two decades of paralysis. She stood up in her wheelchair in the Mobile Alabama Convention Center and walked around the room in the presence of thousands of eyewitnesses.
The following report appeared in the Mobile Alabama Press-Register, September 2, 2010:
MOBILE, Alabama — On Christmas Day 1987 singer and evangelist Delia Knox lost the use of her legs after a car she was a passenger in was struck by another vehicle driven by a drunken driver.
Now, on a video made last Friday, Knox is seen walking for the first time in 22 years during a revival at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center.
The video, which is on YouTube and on the site of the Mobile church run by Knox and her husband, Levy Knox, is said to be a testament to not one, but numerous miracles said to have taken place during the Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival.
You can watch the YouTube video of the live healing taking place here:
On Thursday October 21, 2010, Delia Knox returned to her home town of Buffalo, New York and into her mother’s arms. The local TV station WIVB Channel 4 taped the homecoming and reported the healing:
Finally there are some things that need to be said about miracles. Quoting 1 Corinthians 12:28:
“And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.
“Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But eagerly desire the greater gifts.”
If you’re a Christian, I challenge you with this:
Most of the church, the protestant church in particular, has been actively disobeying this command. These verses clearly present a hierarchy of authority and gifts:
1. Apostles
2. Prophets
3. Teachers
4. Workers of Miracles
5. Healers
6. Helpers
7. Administrators
8. Those who speak in tongues
The protestant church has amputated #1, #2, #4, #5 and #8. The teachers and administrators have been left in charge.
Paul said to desire the greater gifts.
The church has been banning them.
I know pastors and seminary professors who’ve been fired from their jobs because they believed in miracles. How tragic and anti-Christian that is. I have a friend who had severe ADHD and was deaf in one ear. He was healed of both at once in May 2007. He won’t let me use his name and picture here on my blog because his father is a prominent figure in evangelical Christianity and news of a miracles might threaten his dad’s career.
And we wonder why the church is anemic??? We wonder why there’s an atheistic bias in the western world? It’s no surprise church has become a flaccid, legalistic, boring institution. A dreary way to kill an otherwise enjoyable Sunday morning.
It’s because 5 out of the 8 spark plugs have been yanked out. The engine is coughing and sputtering on 3 of its 8 cylinders.
Why are “Cessationist” arguments invariably so complex and insert all kinds of assumptions which themselves have no scriptural support?
MANY Christians say to me, “Absolutely I believe God still heals. God can do anything He wants to. God just does it whenever he chooses to now. He doesn’t heal through healers.”
If that’s you, I’ve got a question for you:
Can you show me ONE place in scripture – Old or New Testament – where ANY person was healed without a healer?
Cessationists often say “The gifts were only present for the apostolic age – a short, special period of time to validate the apostles so they could finish writing the scriptures.” Where did they get that?
The Bible never says anything of the sort. When Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14 “Earnestly desire the greater gifts”, was he only talking to apostles?
Cessationists are often skilled rigorous expositors of scripture, but the cessationist arguments don’t meet their own standards of interpretation.
The church has sliced off one of its testicles and thrown it in the garbage. No wonder it doesn’t feel like a man.
This is one of the reasons that TV healing ministries have become such a circus: it’s partly because most of Christianity has marginalized the healing gifts. This is why some healers are charlatans. But it’s a whole different world when you see people whom you’ve known for years get healed in person, with your own eyes – not on TV. When you experience it for yourself, like I have.
My friend, let me assure you: When the church begins to operate on all 8 cylinders, it becomes a force to be reckoned with. As all my friends who’ve been healed will attest. The atheists and cynics and religious gestapo can whine and moan all they want to, but real people are being set free every day.
(Oh, and I haven’t said a single word about the awesome power of prophetic people. I’ll save that discussion for another post.)
You’re invited. If you’re ever in Chicago, come to Greater Chicago Church, 705 Jackson Boulevard, Oak Park Illinois on a Sunday morning and I’ll introduce you to some of these dear friends. They’ll look you in the eye and tell you their stories and you’ll know it’s all for real. If you need healing, they’ll pray for ya, too.
The same thing is happening in every city and town in the world. It’s seldom in the newspaper or on TV. But maybe that’s for the better. Cuz it’s going on just the same.
In Matthew 11, Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist was in prison. He was depressed and discouraged. Nothing was going the way he’d planned. He had grave doubts because his prayers weren’t being answered.
John sent a message to Jesus.
When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
Amen.
Perry Marshall
P.S.: There’s a popular atheist jingoism these days: “Why doesn’t God heal amputees?” It’s often stated with spitting anger and venom. The assertion is made that there’s no such thing as an amputee whose arm grew back. This held up as proof positive that miracles don’t exist.
To date I haven’t personally met an amputee whose arm has grown back. Today I told you what I have seen. The closest I’ve come is my friend Yosef Bender from Chicago. Yosef was at a Kathryn Kuhlman healing service many years ago. (Casdorph’s book “Real Miracles” investigates 10 of Ms. Kuhlman’s healing incidents.) Behind Yosef was a woman who had one arm that was too short with a single finger at the end instead of a hand.
From the stage, Kuhlman called out that there was someone up in that section whose arm was deformed. A few seconds later, Yosef heard this intense commotion and loud crying behind him. He turned around and this woman’s hand had fully grown back. She was so happy she was crying hysterically.
This is as close as I’ve personally gotten to a healed amputee.
Documented histories of healed amputees do exist. The Miracle of Calanda occurred in Calanda, Spain in 1640, according to 17th century documents. The documents state that a young farmer’s leg was restored to him after having been amputated two and a half years earlier. This event is described in detail in the book Il Miracolo by Vittorio Messori. This is described in detail on Wikipedia.
I rather suspect there are at least a few healed amputees out there. Will the skeptics listen to their stories? I don’t know. Will they change the skeptics’ minds? I don’t know. But if you want to think for yourself investigate these things on your own, I recommend that you start by reading “Real Miracles” by Richard Casdorph, M.D.
They don’t call Satan “The Great Deceiver” for nothing.
Fair enough.
So then if you say “I’m not going to ever believe in miracles, just in case they’re from Satan,” does that prevent you from being deceived?
If the miracle is from God and you don’t believe it, aren’t you likewise deceived?
According to Jesus, which is the worse sin?
It’s not a matter of believing. It’s a matter of interpreting. What you may call a miracle I might call natural.
Satan the Great Deciever? What about Romans 1.28-32. it appears to me to be saying that God deliberately decieves people. and then says that they are worthy of death for not believing.
That’s not at all what Rom 1:28-32 says. Just before those verses, Paul states that God made the truth evident to men but they rejected it. So, because they did not see fit toacknowledge God, He gave them over to a depraved mind. So it is man’s rejection of God that causes men to be deceived. God never deceives. To say He does is blasphemy.
It is also written: “For this cause(they received not a love of the Truth) God shall send them a strong delusion that they believe the lie. That they might all be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness”
I just have a question for Perry. If this forums begins with the statement:”The Unvarnished Truth About Religion, Christianity and Spirituality in 2014″
Why is every comment “moderated” and deleted if not found to meet your standard?
Every word here and elsewhere is on record in the vaults of Heaven.
I have Lupus, spent thousands of hours praying in teh Spirit for healing. No miracles and not for a lack of asking or faith. Why? This has ruined my life.
Bryan,
I don’t have any profound answers for you…. except to say that time spent with God is not wasted. Keep pursuing. I give you this scripture:
Isaiah 45:1-3:
“This is what the LORD says to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
to subdue nations before him
and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him
so that gates will not be shut:
I will go before you
and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron.
I will give you the treasures of darkness,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the LORD,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
On Lupus, checkout http://www.vegsource.com/. The store has a Get Healthy Now Series on DVD. Complying with God’s health laws as in Genesis 1:29 and Daniel 1 have provided the cure for Lupus.
Dear Bryan, my heart goes out to you.
We are not do judge God’s love for us by the so-called “miracles” that we are hearing about today.
Remember the beautiful story of Hannah who was not able to bear children?
Her husband had her and another wife who could bear and she was constantly distressed over this.
The husband’s reply was absolutely remarkable, and quite possibly what your story means:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=1Sa&c=1&v=2&t=KJV#s=237002
Perry,
To say i appreciated this blog bit is a huge understatement.
I wept and heaved deeply reading these accounts. Jess’ story is similar to my own. Although there is lots of complicated clean-up needing to be done, i am more intensely aware of His presence, hand and voice in my life amidst the ongoing clean-up work.
I was burdened with images of people close to me in need of great healing; God moved me to immediately intercede. It seemed that i would come apart if i didn’t.
Thanks for obediently sharing your experiences.
Perry I never met a Christian who denied miracles still happen .
I doubt you have either. I get this all the time, if you don’t agree with my personal experiences you don’t believe in miracles at all. However this Rock and Roll -Signs and Wonders Christianity just did not exist before the 19th century so one must believe that Martin Luther , Jon Huss and so many others who died or were willing to die to preserve the word of God were non-Christian morons.
Just like the Big Bang, all the church fathers were false prophets and you know the truth because you felt it.
Martin Luther disagreed with you, so did Issac Newton, so does my Bible.
There was only one reason for signs and wonders, as a sign to the unbeliever and that has nothing to do with the argument you make .The unbelievers think you are nuts. That is the truth.
Using your experiences instead of the Bible to argue Christianity is wrong.
Pro 28-26
Well said Forrest Charnock – wow!
If the early Jewish and Christian faiths didn’t have a problem with abortion, why is it such a “bad” thing now?
Christians have generally been opposed to abortion since the earliest days of the church. Note how many people in the Bible – David, Jeremiah, John the Baptist – were called into ministry literally from their mothers’ womb. See Jeremiah 1, for example.
John Donovan, I am very interested to learn of the evidence to back up what you say about the Jewish and Christian faiths not having a problem with abortion. This is completely new information I hear.
Perhaps individual Jews and Christians have not had a problem with abortion… but the Bible is clear that murder is against the law. Life starts at the moment of conception, therefore abortion is murder.
It’s too easy to intellectualize abortion. But if you’re honestly seeking to know the truth, then go do some research.
Go learn about the actual implements used to do an abortion… what actually happens to the fetus during abortion… what it looks like when it comes out (usually in multiple pieces). It ain’t pretty.
Ryan Healy
P.S. Perry – feel free to edit or not publish if I’ve said too much here.
Dear Perry,
Thanks so much for inviting me to participate in this fascinating discussion! It’s Ash Wednesday (I am a Catholic), the beginning of Lent, and I went to Confession (now called “Reconciliation,”) and received Communion for the first time in many years. I can’t help but think that your invitation and my “reconversion” to Christ are all linked! I believe there are NO coincidences!
Your article was very moving. I have never personally witnessed miracles such as you describe, nor do I know anyone to whom such things have happened. However, I’ve read many accounts of people who have, and I’m convinced that miracles do happen, and I would love to witness one myself! Actually, Catholics are predisposed to accept miracles, because we believe that the priest, when he pronounces the words “Body and Blood” and makes the Sign of the Cross over the flour wafer (“the bread”) and a chalice with a little wine in it, at Mass, that the bread and wine are actually changed into the real Body and Blood of Christ! It’s called the Doctrine of Transubstantiation: the bread and wine, according to this doctrine, acquire the substance of Christ’s Body and Blood, even though they still appear to be ordinary bread and wine. So we witness a miracle every time we go to Mass, and some of us go to Mass every day! That’s what I intend to do during all the forty days of Lent.
We believe Christ is physically present in the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle, the upright, golden case beside EVERY altar in EVERY Catholic Church worldwide, and we believe that He waits for us to visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament whenever the church sanctuary is open. I’m going to visit Him many times this Lent.
Even though we Catholics are predisposed to miracles, the Church, thankfully, is very, very circumspect about declaring that any event was a true miracle. It only does so after a long, exhaustive investigation. That’s all to the good, because, as several people here have said, correctly, Satan is ever ready to deceive us.
But it was precisely because of two miracles (that I did not personally witness, though I saw the evidence of them and was convinced by it) that I have now returned to the Church after all these years. The first miracle was the Shroud of Turin. Oh, I know, the Media pronounced the Shroud to be a Medieval forgery as soon as the results of the Carbon-14 tests done on it were announced in (I think) 1980. Many scientists who had worked on the Shroud, however, were not convinced, so they continued their work. They have now proved conclusively, first, that the C-14 tests were wrong, and that the Shroud probably dates to the first century; second, that the image of the Man on the Shroud, which matches EXACTLY all the accounts of the wounds of Christ documented in the Gospels, is the image of a dead man’s body in which rigor mortis had set in; third, that the image was not produced artificially by any technology known to either history or science; fourth, that the image was produced by a brief, intense flash of some unknown energy that came from the body itself; fifth, that the bloodstains on the Shroud are human blood; sixth, that the bloodstains were transferred to the cloth BEFORE the image was made, because there is no image under them; seventh, that since the bloodstains are not smeared, as they would have been had the body been unwrapped and removed, that the image was made as the body PASSED THROUGH THE SHROUD! What all this means to me is that the Shroud of Turin is what sceptics and believers alike have been searching for for two thousand years: physical evidence of the Resurrection! In fact, it is a PHOTOGRAPH of the Resurrection!
The other miracle I spoke about is actually a large group of miracles associated with one woman: Myrna Nassour, a Syrian Catholic housewife from Damascus.
James,
I agree with everything you have said. I’ve never written about the shroud but I’ve got a half dozen books on it and you’re entirely correct. It is a photograph of the resurrection. I should interview someone who has studied it intensively.
And yes the Catholic church has both been open-handed towards miracles and also very cautious about declaring them so.
I suspect that if you direct your attention towards miracles and ask God to let you experience them, in time they will become commonplace. That is what happened to me.
Sorry, I didn’t get to finish my account of the second set of miracles, those involving Myrna Nassour. In 1982, when Myrna was 18 years old, she began having visions of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. In short order, icons of a famous apparition of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Soufaniyeh (a district of Damascus) began exuding olive oil scented with spices, and the same olive oil began exuding from Myrna’s face and hands! By this time, all of Damascus was beating a path to Mryna’s door trying to get a glimpse of what was happening. Then, the miracle healings started. People who came to Myrna’s house began to be cured of a huge range of diseases and maladies, everything from broken bones to shriveled limbs and cancer. The healings were discovered to originate in the oil that exuded from the pictures and Myrna, and even in just visiting her house.
The Virgin told Myrna that She expected her to travel thoughout the world healing people and giving them the message that Mary and Her Son wanted all the Christian churches to reconcile their differences and unite in one Church, as at the beginning of Christianity. The Virgin said that that was the purpose of the healings, to draw attention to Her message: that Christians must unit again in one Church.
Myrna did as she was directed. She travelled throughout Europe and America in the years that followed, healing people and giving the message of Christian unity.
Soon after her travels began, Myrna began receiving the Stigmata, that is, the wounds Jesus suffered at His Crucifixion began appearing on her body. Not only the wounds, but the pain, as well! Myrna still travels, but most of the oil has stopped now, as well as the Stigmata. Myrna says that the Virgin has told her that the healings and other miracles have diminished because her instructions have not been followed.
Every word of what I’ve just recounted is documented in 31 videos available online. Google Myrna Nassour and you should be able to find them. They are the most extraordinary videos I have ever seen. One can see the oil oozing from the icons and from Myrna’s face and hands. One can also see the wounds of Christ appearing on her body, and, after several hours, disappearing. Your can see and hear the testimonials of people who were cured of practically every disease and disability possible.
You’re probably asking: Why hasn’t the Media jumped on this? Excellent question. I don’t have the answer, however, I suspect that since our Media really isn’t the “free press” it’s cracked up to be, the “Powers that Be” don’t want this message to be widely known. The “Powers” prefer atheism and agnosticism. People are much easier to manipulate when they have no hope.
Perry, I definately agree with you. As a member of the organized Seventh-day Adventist Church, I/We believe in present day miracles. Miracles occur at all levels. Life itself is a miracle. There is the miracle of conversion to Christ – Create in me a pure heart (Ps 51), to more dramatic miracles, the authentic speaking in tongues, healings, just two mention two of the infinate variety of present day miracles.
God Bless You Perry,
Scott Nelson
Really great post, Perry. LOVED it.
I’m guessing you’ve heard of Jim Rutz (James Rutz), yes? He’s a famous copywriter. Lives in Colorado Springs just south of me.
He wrote a book called Megashift. It also includes documented miracles… the kind of stuff that sends shivers up your spine. The kind of stuff that makes you cry.
And if you REALLY want to stretch your faith, then pick up a copy of The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun. A truly amazing story; more documented miracles. One of the best books I’ve ever read.
Ryan Healy
Hello Perry, I’m not sure how or why this account of your personal experiences ended up in my inbox but I can assure you that I do, along with millions of others, believe that miracles happen. I’m guessing that you’ve read one of my blogs that calls into question the validity of some claims like the ones you tell of. Your fantastical stories are really cool and well written but they do not, in any way, sway my faith in the one and only good and perfectly just God. If believing these tales helps you believe in God, that’s great. I hope the motivation for your telling of them was not to sell something related to your own ministry. I’m sure it wasn’t. All the best, Bill
Perry,
Thank you for your email. I too was taught miracles don’t happen anymore. In my growing up years I saw real miracles as my guardian angels saved my life several times. Of course there is no scientific proof. Later I spent thirty years in the medical field in various capacities. There I saw the clinically dead brought back to life. I saw cancer disappear before my eyes, and other miracles, some documented, but few documented as a miracle. The one I want to tell you about is one I saw nearly thirty years ago. You might have seen this man yourself. This man came to town and held miracle meetings. He was blind in one eye. He,for some reason I don’t remember, had one eye taken out completely. He had prayed for God to retore his sight. God did, but not the way the man thought he would. God restored his sight but not his eye. He could see as well through the empty socket as he could through his good eye.
At his first meeting he asked the audience if there was anyone in the audience who had medical experience. No one came forward, so I raised my hand and he asked me to come down. He first asked me to examine his empty socket to assure everyone it was indeed empty. I examimed it well, though it was very obvious there was no orb in the socket. Then he asked me to take some gause and an eye shield that he had in new boxes there with him, and bandage his good eye so he could not see. I took gause pads and completely covered his good eye. Then I took a solid, opaque, aluminum eye shield and taped it over the several layers of gause padding. To make absolutely sure there was no light able to reach through the bandages and the aluminum shield, I placed two layers of white, cloth bandage tape over the top of the shield. Then, he asked me to see my driver’s license. I took it out of my wallet, and handed him my license. He took it and read all the information off it. Then he asked me for any bills in my wallet. I showed him a couple and he read the denomination, year of issue, serial number and secretary of the treasury – all correctly. I had not seen this man before I entered the building. He then started calling people out of the audience by seating position and description. There is no way in this natural world he could have seen through his good eye, and even if the people in the audience were plants, I certainly was not. That man had 20/20 vision with no eye in his socket. Someimes in trauma cases they used to do a partial enucleation where they left part of the eye in the socket. This was not the case here. I did a thorough visual examination of the empty eye socket, and palpated around it. This was a true miracle that I defy any one to find fraud in. Thank you, Tom Lyons
Hi Perry,
My wonderful Gran, Peggy Liebenberg was diagnosed with a tumour on her lungs and there were x-rays clearly showing the large mass on her lungs. She was then scheduled for an operation in two weeks time from the date of dignosis up in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Gran being Gran she refused to simply accept this and went home to search the scriptures and the Lord gave her Psalm 118:17 “I shall not die, but live and declare the works of Jehovah”.
She stood firm declaring this scripture but followed the doctors orders and went up to Johannesburg for her surgery. Upon arrival they took follow up x-rays and the cancerous mass was completely gone, there was a small scar in it’s place as though someone had already operated on her.
My father is a medical doctor and he reviewed all the medical records related to her case and can confirm that there is no logical explanation for the miracle.
This in itself is amazing but I think that the greatest miracle in her life is that she lost her unbelieving husband to a massive coronary at age 49 and then later she lost her youngest son in an airplane accident whilst he was training as a fighter pilot. He had recently given his life to the Lord before the accident and then the Lord took him.
Despite all this pain and heartache she always remained firm and unwavering in her faith and was a constant source of encouragement and support for our family.
She has since been taken by the Lord and her constant prayers will be sorely missed by our family but we will never forget her and the example of true faith and commitment she displayed.
God bless you Perry!
Hi Perry
I enjoy much of what you have to say but don’t agree with all of it. I was wondering what sort of group you fellowship with .Since you don’t approve of “organized religion” who do you study with, who would you point to for sound teaching etc ? I would like to know more about where you are coming from. P.S. I think I have some insight on the miracle question if you are interested.
I am not against “organized religion” in some wholesale fashion. I am simply about pointing out abuses that commonly happen with it. I don’t advocate people becoming hermits. We need to be in community. I go to a Vineyard church which has been a great place for me. Prior to that I attended Willow Creek, a mainstream protestant megachurch (not charismatic at all) and prior to that I grew up in a very conservative protestant church in Nebraska. Menonite roots, also not charismatic. So I’ve been in multiple streams of Christianity.
Johannes Tritheim, the Abbot of Spamheim, the greatest astrologer and Kabalist of his day says: “The art of divine magic consists in the ability to perceive the essence of things in the light of nature (astral light), and by using the soul-powers of the spirit to produce material things from the unseen universe, and in such operations the Above and the Below must be brought together and made to act harmoniously. The spirit of Nature (astral light) is a unity, creating and forming everything, and acting through the instrumentality of man it may produce wonderful things. Such processes take place ACCORDING TO LAW. You will learn the law by which these things are accomplished, if you learn to know yourself. You will know it by the power of the spirit THAT IS IN YOURSELF, and accomplish it by mixing your spirit with the essence that comes out of yourself. If you wish to succeed in such a work you must know how to separate Spirit and Life in Nature, and then the substance of the soul will appear visibly and tangibly rendered objective by the power of the spirit.” (Quoted in Dr. Hartman’s “Paracelsus.”)
Eliphas Levi, the staunch Christian, calls the Astral Light “the body of the Holy Ghost”.He shows it very truly “a force in Nature,” by means of which “a single man who can master it …might transform the face of the world.”; for it is the “great Arcanum of transcendent Magic.”
The Knowledge of Roger Bacon did not come to this wonderful old magician by inspiration, but because he studied ancient works on magic and alchemy, having a key to the real meaning of words. Roger Bacon, the friar, was laughed at as a quack, but his discoveries were nevertheless accepted, and are now used by those who ridiculed him the most. His discoveries, such as gunpowder and optical glasses, and his mechanical achievements, were considered by everyone as so many miracles.
“Miracles” are only the result of laws not yet discovered by our science. In reality there is no such thing as a miracle, but the apparent miracles, whether performed by Jesus, Buddha, Simon Magus, or others, all occur under the laws of Nature. The scientific thinking in this matter is that all things have, as a basis, subtler matter; everything, including man, is in fact, threefold: there is the outer physical form, the indwelling vital soul, and Spirit. Magic as a science is the knowledge of these principles, and this knowledge can be applied for good or bad purposes. Hence the importance of motive in the use of this knowledge.
Good stuff ,whatever the excuse or question jesus heals,so amaizing even in our doubt sometimes his grace comes in am a victim of heald pain with very limited time and who knows how much the pain was a result of.this is how i pra.”GOD i come before you as i am a sinner and with no need of mercy please lord heal me like you said you would ,i think of alcers but it may be more than that, you know better you created me ,be with my mum tooo and al wh are beliving in you .i love you lord .AMEN.”
I am not disputing what you say, but, answer this, Why was the Apostle Paul told my grace is sufeciant for you, did not he Paul ask to be curried (healed)three time, aand Christ said my grqce is all you need, and Paul recieved no healing, My understand is that their are no signs given for faith today, then yes but, now no. for we are saved by God’s un-merited favor alone. no signs and wonders are given for just that purpose.
Am I wrong “Please explain” or is it a mix up in translation of words?
Sumner Morrill Koch
celestials1938@msn.com
PS:
I know it has nothing to do with my faith in God, for we were chosenj in Christ before the foundation (disruption) of the world (cosmos)
I do have much more interesting comments, if you like, I’ll be glad to give them.
SMK-1938
Sumner,
Nowhere in scripture will you find every request being granted by God. Even Jesus prayed “Father remove this cup from me.” God chose not to take away Paul’s affliction.
But does this therefore mean that miracles do not exist?
I direct you to the resurrection of Christ – that was God’s answer to “Take this cup from me.” God did something greater.
My friend who’d been to seminary was right: He could find no argument from scripture that miracles have passed away, because there is no such argument from scripture. Most people adjust their theology to match their experience. This whole blog post is to state my experiences – because many people doubt and they need to know, YES, miracles are plentiful. Especially once you begin to investigate. My experience matches what you see in scripture: that miracles are real. They don’t happen 100% of the time. But they do happen.
I have never had any fixed beliefs or doctrines, for doctrins save nothing anyway God is the saviour, doctrins do not, I myself will fellowship with anyone t6hat calls upon the name of the Lord out of a clean heart… PERIOD
SMK-19 3-8s or is it “8888”
I assume 1938 is the year you were born?
Your 3-8 comment caught my attention because 888 is the number of Jesus when you convert his name to a number.
All Greek and Hebrew characters are also numbers. The study of the meaning of Biblical numbers is gematria. Jesus in Greek = 888.
Ryan
Yes, You are exactly correct I was born 8-12-1938
my grand mother on my fathwers side was born in 1888. what is the number you dial free in long distant calls. Is not it 1-888 and so on. 8 being a superfect number and is the number of the Christ (messiah) of the elohim family of God.
In the Christ of God!
What more can I say?
Sumner Morrill Koch 8-12-38
God-Speed
The “LORDS” day is at hand
What are your thoughts on the Book of Jasher ?
I’m not familiar.
Ward,
I’ve read passages of the Book of Jasher. From what I can tell, while providing additional historical detail not found in the scriptures, it corroborates everything in the Bible.
I view it as an historical book — not necessarily “God-breathed” — but valuable nonetheless. Similar to how you might view the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus.
For instance: The Book of Jasher sheds light on why Esau was willing to sell his birthright for a bowl of soup. Who in their right mind would do such a thing? The details in Jasher fill in some of the missing details.
Ryan Healy
HI,
PERRY
I DO BELIEVE IN MIRACLES, ALTHOUGH I HAVE NOT WITNESSED ANY.My question to you is, how do we know what is true and not a fake? I grew up in a penticostal environment, then as an adult, was saved and baptised in a baptist church.I no longer attend any church. The church,s association with politics, ie telling it,s people how to vote, is wrong.Lately i have missed church. I wish i could find one like you mentioned in your post. I have been reading books by Edgar Cayce and wondering if reincarnation is really true.What do you believe? i am so thankful to receive your literature. i believe you are a God send.
Respectfully
Ruby
Ruby,
As a Christian, I do not accept reincarnation as true. Paul wrote, “It is appointed for men to die once and after that comes judgment.”
Ruby,
There are a lot of things I don’t accept myself but that does not make it an untruth. Christ is the saviour, doctrines or works of the flesh save nothing.
In fact the early church taught re-incarnation, not ressurection, this is an added doctrine used for control, by a Church heirarchy that should not exist. Christ is our head, He is the Head of the body-Church. You answer to Him and to no other, especially a human head. “Christ, alone”