The Great Medicine Show - the truth about miracles in the apostolic church.

I went back to the FPC Baton Rouge last Sunday. I was looking forward to the sermon by Dan Davis, a pastor of some renown in that organization. I was anticipating a well thought out, thought provoking sermon. I was not disappointed. The sermon was titled’ “Jesus Christ, the Man of Miracles.” It was much more coherent than Kevin Cox’s, and even brought up an interesting point of view that I’d never heard of and found food for thought. I will post a brief summation of the sermon here. 

   "Jesus Christ, Man of Miracles"

“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.” ISA. 35:5-6 (KJV) 

I can think of probably three times in the Bible where Jesus actually refused to use his miracle power. In the wilderness, after he had been fasting 40 days, Satan came to him and said, “turn these stones into bread.” Jesus could have used his miracle-working power to turn those stones into fresh bread. But he said, “no, I will not use my miracle powers for myself.” 

His suffering and death on the cross, Jesus refused to use his miracle powers. The Bible said he could have summoned legions of angels to relieve his suffering, but for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. His miracles were absolutely amazing. They were astonishing. And they were performed with great ease. He never broke a sweat. He never got nervous. He performed miracles with such ease, it was usually just a word that he spoke. His power, and his authority were so complete, that even the winds and the waves obeyed his voice. No problem is too big or too small for him. In Hebrews 13:8 it says, “…Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.” What he did yesterday, he can do today. What he did for the 1st century church, he can do for the 21st century church. I’m trying the inspire a little faith this morning. Come on folks, Jesus is here! Let’s believe in him for a miracle.”

 The sermon itself was much longer, but this is the core point. As the sermon went on, he gave more examples of Jesus’ miracles, including the feeding the 5,000, and calming the raging storm on the way to Galilee. This whole time, I was assuming this sermon was just a filler. The Man of God didn’t get a message this week, so he decides to just expound on what a wonderful miraculous man Jesus was. Something everyone can agree on, and sure to bring the claps and shouts of approval. But towards the end, he called up two audience members to “testify” about the miraculous power of God in their own lives. It was then that I realized that this was simply a subtle and clever rendition of my least favorite type of sermon: the medicine show.

       

Do you remember the medicine show? They were touring acts that went from town to town in the 19^th century, selling miraculous sounding, “cure-all” elixirs to gullible people. They were usually a dubious concoction of alcohol, opiates, household cleaning liquids, and whatever else. Thankfully, people started becoming more careful of what they put in their bodies. Pharmaceuticals became much more reliable during the industrial age, their curative claims more thoroughly vetted before being sold. Thus, the medicine shows became obsolete. The spirit of the medicine shows live on, however. The Apostolic church, (among others,) want you to believe in the miraculous, cure-all power of “the name of Jesus.” Just like the peddlers of old, they claim “his name” can fix anything and everything, from unfaithful husbands to terminal diseases. And, just like the peddlers of old, they are trying to sell it to you.

I think one of the main things that holds people back from leaving the Apostolic church, is fear of the supernatural. If you grew up in the church, you learn about demons and hell from a very tender age. As you “grow” in the church, you are taught that your words have power in the spirit world, and on earth. One of the most used bible verses in this context is Mathew 18:18:

“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Mat. 18:18 (KJV) In other words, things you say on earth can come true. Different religions take this concept to different extremes – some believe that whatever people say will literally happen – but the apostolic church adds a sort of caveat to this. Whatever you command to happen “in Jesus name,” will come to pass first in Heaven, then on earth. Depending, as always, on the amount of faith of the user. They apply this concept to everything. From healing, to casting out demons, to baptisms, to prayers of protection, to the correction of wayward husbands, everything. Speak the name of Jesus over it, and there you go. Problem solved. If that doesn’t work, take it to the alter of a church. Your pastor and as many people as can crowd around you, will pray with you over your problem. (it's just as uncomfortable as it looks.) The miraculous, cure-all power of Jesus name is backed up by one testimonial after another. These testimonials all hinge, however, on a common logical fallacy; post hoc ergo propter hoc. After this, therefore because of this. Take a look at this short story:   “One day, when I was a boy, my family went on a road trip to a service out of town. On the way home, our van broke down. It wouldn’t start. We didn’t have a phone, and we were miles from help. So my daddy laid his hand on the dashboard and hollered, “in Jesus name!” and the van started, and we went home.” This is a story told to me one time by a preacher, and it makes a good example of post hoc. The van started when you uttered the name of Jesus, therefore uttering the name of Jesus made the van start. Stories like these abound in Apostolic culture. And they are taken very seriously. But all they really do, is take credit for things that would have happened on their own anyway. If a person breaks their leg, and they go to the alter to pray for a miraculous healing, they obviously won’t get it. But, when their leg heals after months of treatment, the name of Jesus is thanked for the “healing.” They prayed for a healing “in Jesus name,” therefore when the leg eventually healed, it was because of that prayer. Shaky as it is, Apostolics absolutely depend on this system. They bring their problems to the alter for prayer every Sunday. If they or their family is sick, or they're in financial difficulty, or any other problems they're having. And it’s not just because of blind faith. It seems to truly work for some people. I have heard dozens of stories from the pulpit in my life of incredible miracles happening at church services. Tales of blind people being given sight, of deaf people receiving perfect hearing, even of people being raised from the dead. Indeed once, when I was at a camp service, I saw with my own eyes a girl stand up out of a wheelchair during prayer. Stories like this make you excited. They give you hope. They make you want to invoke that kind of power of God into your own life. They make you pray just a little harder, for God to work such a miracle in your own life. At least, this was the case for me.  It never occurred to me, however, to follow up on these people. I mean, if someone was raised from the dead at a church service, it would make headlines. If so many people were miraculously healed of a disability, you think you’d hear them talk about it a lot more. Even in the Bible, when Jesus performed a miracle, the recipient would tell everyone they possibly could about it, and people would crowd around Jesus in the thousands. I'd mention it, anyway. The fact of the matter is, there never is a miracle taking place.  That girl I saw stand up out of the wheelchair? She was back in it after service was over. You see, just because you are in a wheelchair doesn’t mean you can’t walk at all, or stand. There are varying degrees of injury or disability that make you need a wheelchair. When someone is prayed over for a miracle, and they stand up out of their wheelchair, everyone lauds the power of “the name of Jesus,” for the miracle. But these events are truly not very impressive, when you know all the facts of a case. If someone who was blind from birth received sight during a prayer service, I would agree that that truly was a miracle. However, this is never the case. If it was, I assure you it would be all over the media, both Christian and secular. If the simple invocation of the name of Jesus really did have healing power, I’d call it despicable to keep this power confined to podunk country “healing” services, when there are so many injured, disabled and sick all around us. The "power of the name of Jesus," is the snake oil the Apostolic church markets and sells to the people. But why? The simple answer is tithes, and offerings. A collection plate is passed around at service, and you deposit at least 10% of your weekly paycheck. (Not counting the dollar you’re obligated to give your kid for the Sunday School offering collection.) What they do with your money is, of course, up to them. It’s nice to think that the bulk of the revenue goes into feeding the widow and orphan. But after all, parking lot sound systems don’t grow on trees. it wont build itself! This sermon was a relatively subtle for a medicine show sermon. Some “healing” services are much more entertaining, with a hellfire spitting preacher jumping from pew to pew, screaming in fluent glossolalia. But really, all they are doing is peddling false hope. Their methods are very dubious, and rely entirely on post hoc to prove their efficacy.  In my opinion, the church should indeed be a house of miracles. The miracle of a desperate pregnant woman finding shelter and security for her and her child. The miracle of rehabilitation for drug addicts and alcoholics. The miracle of ex-cons being given employment and help reintegrating into society. The miracle of the sure knowledge of a hot meal, and shelter for the night for those who need it. But in reality, secular organizations tend to far outshine local churches as regards miracles, and I remain unimpressed by the show.