1) `MIRACLE CURES` SPARK FURY (Sunday Life)

2) Resurrection Man German pastor `bought unborn baby back to life & Crues star backs preacher Bonnke (Sunday Life Part Two)

3) MINISTER HIT OUT AT BONNKE CLAIMS (Newsletter)

4) ARE THE MIRACLES CLAIMS OF REINHARD BONNKE REALLY TRUE?

`MIRACLE CURES` SPARK FURY

A German evangelist, who boasts that cancer victims, the blind and disabled are healed at his crusades, is under fire over plans to visit Ulster. A Free Presbyterian minister last night branded Renihard Bonnke`s claim as "Blasphemous", accusing the preacher of "cruel exploitation" But over 15,000 tickets have been already been snapped up for controversial Bonnke`s Odyssey Arena, next month. Bonnke claims Biblical style miracles at his crusades, saying: "When I step on a platform, often without any touch of mine the blind begin to see, the death to hear, the dumb to speak and the cripples to walk.

`Miracle` man `s Bizarre Show Comes To Ulster

Top local preacher hits Out

BONNKE`S miracle claims have been described as "blasphemous" by a leading Free Presbyterian cleric. The Rev David McIlveen accused the German evangelist of cruelly exploiting vulnerable people. "We believe in the possibility of healing through prayer," said Rev McIlveen. "But we also fully recognise the terrible danger of exploiting the subject of healing. "It's a tragedy that it has become a business which exploits. It is very sad. It is not Biblical," added the minister, a close aide to Dr Ian Paisley. And he expressed anger at Bonnke`s boast that, whenever he stood on platforms across the world, "the blind begin to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the cripples to walk".

"It is blasphemous," said Rev McIlveen. The minister believed Jesus used miracles to impress upon people his powers, but once Jesus ascended to Heaven, miracles no longer happened in the same way. He said Bonnke and similar preachers emphasised the physical and distracted from the true spiritual message of the gospel.

Evangelist Who Claims He Can heal the sick

Claims: Bonnke claims to heal

This is Herr Bonnke in his own words, claiming the sick and disables are healed in his wake. "When I step in a platform in Africa or India or anywhere else, often without any touch of mine the blind being to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the cripples to walk, and those driven to madness by clinging spirits of evil are released. "It is not psychology, for babies are healed, even in the womb." Bonnke makes the claim this month on his CfaN website. Another website report about a recent Bonnke crusade in Africa declares: "The healing power of numbers reported evidence of the miraculous & Miracles happened as if copied from the gospels and the book of Acts." Bonnke`s `power phrase`, which he urges his followers to say out loud is: The IMMOVEABLE is now MOVEABLE!; The IMPOSSIBLE is now POSSIBLE; The INCURABLE is now CURABLE!"

`Miracles happened as if copied from the gospels`

A CONTROVERSIAL German evangelist, who boasts God uses him to heal the terminally ill, the blind and the disabled is bring his roadshow to Ulster. So-called miracle worker Reinhard Bonnke has booked three nights Belfast's centre - which can seat up to 10,000. And his organisation - Christ for all Nations (CfaN) - says 5,000 seats for each night of the crusade have already been snapped up. But Bonnke`s act was exposed in a recent TV documentary, which highlighted his treatment of the poor and sick at a mass rally in Nigeria.

The film showed the evangelist making claims that he can, through God's power, rid them of polio, breast cancer, blindness, deafness, tuberculosis and other serious conditions. Bonnke even claims that "supernatural reconstructive surgery" healed a little boy, who was born with a defect in his genital area. He has offices worldwide, but his work in Africa, where he often preaches to excited crowds of over 500,000. But Bonnke`s miracle claims have sparked outrage and disgust among more orthodx Religious leaders.

Critic: Rabbi Kushner slams Bonnke

One American religious leader said of Bonnke and other so-called miracle workers: " I hope God has a special place in hell for people who try to enrich themselves on the suffering of others"
Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of the best selling book, `When Bad Things Happen to Good People`, added: "To tantalise the blind, the lame, the dying, the afflicted, the terminally ill, or to dangle hope before the parents of a severely afflicted child is an indescribably cruel thing to do. "To do it in the name of God, to do it in the name of religion is, I think, unforgivable," said the Massachusetts based Rabbi, who himself suffered the loss of a degenerative disease.

And Joseph Hough, President of the Union Theology Seminary in New York, also hit out, saying he felt great hurt for people who were deluded by such so-called healers at mass rallies. "It breaks your heart to know they are being deceived. They are genuinely hoping and believing. They'll leave there thinking if they don't get a miracle it is because they didn't believe enough. The religious leaders made their comments on the recent documentary, `Miracles`, which highlighted the work of Bonnke and another charismatic preacher. But CfaN were furious over film makers Antony Thomas` programme.

"The programme was made by one man (Thomas) with a particular view. He used the material in a particular way & it was a manipulative piece of journalism," claimed CfaN spokesman, Penny Thompson. "It was not a balanced programme." She claimed that praying for the sick only represented a "small part" of Reinhard Bonnke`s crusade, adding: "We are not a healing ministry." But CfaN own website is full of claims of the miracles and photographs of people patently cured of illnesses. Bonnke claimed 78 miracles happened at the crusade in Nigeria. And on stage he was filmed shouting: "In the name of Jesus be healed from polio" and "all cancers I curse in the name of Jesus.

Praying For an e-miracle

HERR BONNKE claims you don't have to meet him to seek a miracle - you can e-mail your request to him! And it is not just your health but your finances and marriage that can be healed. The evangelist invites web browsers to gift between $35 and $250 to his Christ for all Nations ministry for the miracle. Browsers are asked: "Do you need a miracle of HEALING in your body & in your emotions & in some areas of your life and circumstances? "Do you know someone who could use a supernatural bolt of healing power to surge through their being &" "LET US PRAY FOR YOUR HEALING MIRACLE!" says Bonnke. Donations - "if the Lord leads you to do so" - can be made by credit card or cheque.

`We want miracles`

A TV film captured the heartbreaking scene backstage at one of Bonnke`s crusades as the serious ill pleaded to meet the miracle man. In the words of the filmmaker, the sick were "auditioned for their performance value". One of Bonnke`s aides was filmed telling an ill man: We want miracles, we want healing. We don't want somebody that wants to be prayed for to be healed & We want people to see that God can heal. We want only those that the miracle has been performed already." The desperate people who were barred from the stage tried again and again to show that God has rewarded their faith with a miracle. Meanwhile, Bonnke`s men tried summoning up the power of God to induce miraculous recoveries.

On the stage an old man desperate to prove he can see again is seen grasping at a handkerchief being waved by Bonnke. But film maker Antony Thomas said it later emerged that the old man had never actually been blind. Penny Thompson of Bonnke`s CfaN organisation, which has offices in England, admitted that the back stage section of the film had been "distressing", but claimed it had been misleading. She said that during the crusade a large area is set aside, where doctors and CfaN counsellors examine those wanting to be healed. The people are examined to avoid false claims. "We are trying to see if people are being healed. "It is done because we don't want to do what he (film maker Thomas) accuses us of." Penny Thompson added: "I'm very sorry that he chose to misrepresent Reinhard.

And she claimed her boss was a very solid guy". "Everything that Reinhard does is based in scripture, " she said, adding that "enormous benefits flowed from the crusades". " In Lagos, the appalling levels of violent crime have dropped since our crusade last year. That information has come from official police sources. Whole countries do change," she added.

Preacher versus witch doctor

REINHARD Bonnke was dubbed "the voodoo priest" in a recent TV documentary which focused on the so-called miracle worker. For Bonnke claimed that a witch doctor was struck down with a severe asthma attack after he whispered Hallelujah! To him. Antony Thomas, who wrote and directed the recent TV documentary `Miracles`, believes Bonnke is popular in Africa because he taps into the continents old religious and superstitions. "Bonnke is the `voodoo priest`, casting spells on his enemies and summoning up good and evil spirits as he dances to the beat of the drum," said Thomas.

Bonnke, who speaks in a thick German accent, told a 500,000 crowd in Nigeria how he was too powerful for the witch doctors. "One day, four witch doctors came to my meeting. They came together, they said `oh! oh! oh! Bonnke is powerful, we cannot curse him`. "These four witches called by telephone to America, to the biggest witch in California. They said (to the witch), we will give you a fist class ticket if you come to Africa to curse Bonnke." Wiping sweat from his eyes and becoming ever more animated, Bonnke continued: " I said, as I always do, one little Hallelujah! "And as God is my witness, that one little Hallelujah! Was enough. " At the same moment that I said `Hallelujah!`, the witch from America got a severe asthma attack.!" The huge crowd greeted Bonnke`s claim with ecstatic cheers. At the end of the open air rally in Benin City, 15 people were killed in a crush. According to the TV film and a report in Christianity Today, the victims died in a crowd stampede at the end of the opening night or the five night event.

But Penny Thompson of Bonnke`s CfaN group, said the trouble happened well away from the event, and was sparked by attacks on women by hooligans. The following night the father of a child killed in the tragedy tried to bring the body on stage, desperately hoping Bonnke could revive the child. The next night, the distraught man placed the dead child on the bonnet of Bonnke`s Mercedes, in the hope of a miracle.

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Resurrection Man

German pastor `bought unborn baby back to life
( Article by: Stephen Gordon Sunday Life May 27 2001 )

Belfast- Bound `miracle man` Reinhard Bonnke has claimed a latter day `resurrection` during one of his African crusades. The controversial German evangelist, who boasts God uses him to heal cancer victims, the blind and disabled has added a resurrection to the list if Biblical-style miracles at his religious rallies. Bonnke makes the claim in a report on his April 2000 crusade in Khartoum, Sudan. The report on his Christ for all Nations website is headlined `Resurrection power in action`.
A women, whose baby had died in her womb and was to be removed the next Monday, wept with joy as her child suddenly jerked to life - it will be born soon," readers are told. The "flood" of other miracles at Khartoum included, according to Bonnke: " A women with bent and twisted legs found they had straightened. A women who for 10 years had always to be carried, stood and walked for all to see. "Notable miracles restored the blind, death and crippled like a flood. It stunned those present, and, indeed, the news stunned the whole city as if Jesus Christ had visibly descended into Green Square.
Bonnke`s reports added: "This was all new in Khartoum & The news ran through the city and attendances leaped to 85,000, then 150,000 and upwards to 210,000. Herr Bonnke regularly claims such miracles at his crusades the Third World. He claimed God worked 78 miracles in one night during his crusade in Benin City, Nigeria. CfaN also boasted "spectacular healing sessions at Bonnke`s rallies in the west African coastal city of Calabar.
"As always, the Word was confirmed by signs, more than could possibly be mentioned here. "By a Word of Knowledge, Reinhard called a woman out with a tumour of the womb, and that tumour instantly disappeared. "Mr Imoh Isong, blind for five years, instantly saw again, and so did many afflicted men and women. Deafness and crippling conditions gave way before the power of Jesus."
And Sunday Life revealed last week how Herr Bonnke`s American website is offering miracles by e-mail. The evangelist invites readers of his CfaN website to e-mail their request for a "supernatural bolt of healing power", saying "let us pray for you healing miracle". He suggests the miracle request be accompanied by a gift to his ministry of between 35 US dollars and 250 US dollars "if the Lord leads you to do so."

Crues star backs preacher Bonnke

TOP Irish League soccer star Stephen Baxter says he fully supports controversial evangelist Reinhard Bonnke`s visit to Ulster. The Crusaders striker - a prominent member of the Elm Pentecostal church - says he will be leading 200 young people from his Bangor church to see German preacher, at the Odyssey Arena. Already over 15,000 tickets have been sold for Bonnke`s three appearances on June 21,22 and 23. Baxter was among a group of local Pentecostal churches leaders who met representatives of Bonnke`s Christ for all Nations (CfaN) ministry at the Culloden Hotel, as they prepared the ground for the evangelist visit.

He says CfaN were launching the crusades at the meeting and were warmly received by local church people. " We are behind the trip and behind what will happen on the trip, I'm sure," said the Crusaders star. Sunday Life last week quoted Free Presbyterian minister David McIlveen angrily denouncing Bonnke`s flood of healing miracle claims as "blasphemous". Baxter responded to that comment, saying: "I think that is contentious. "You've got to be careful & because you should never underestimate the power of Christ. "Yes, you should always look into things & but when asking God for a miracle, you should never be quick to say this can't happen. Of Bonnke`s claim that a dead unborn child was resurrected in the womb at one of the crusades, Baxter replied: " I've heard these stories, I believe it is possible. If Christ wants to do it, if Christ can form this universe, who are we to question Him. But the soccer star believes recent media reports have put too much emphasis on the healing side of Bonnke`s work, saying the evangelist's main purpose was to preach salvation.

He said he fully understood concerns that people may be given false hope, through claims of miracle healing. And he stressed that he did not speak on behalf of Reinhard Bonnke. "But what I would say is, when Christ does move upon someone's life in healing, I believe it can be done. He quoted a Christian friend whose wife had defied doctors by recovering from cancer after being told she had only two weeks to live. "They have fully trusted in the healing power of Christ, and she is still here five years later. "Can these things happen? My answer is that I believe it is happening. I also believe there are people who aren't cured. " I don't have the answer as to why some are cured and others not."
The footballer was also critical of a recent TV documentary, which focused Bonnke`s healing claims. "I felt it was harshly dealt with (in the TV film), possible one-sided." Baxter added: "If Reinhard Bonnke comes and preaches the Word of God & if it is not of God, will be exposed."

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