Man raised back to life in Jesus' name

Minister lies when he said god gave him the gold tooth!Toronto Globe and Mail, 27 March 1999, p. A6A Guiding HandThe president of Canada's only Christian television station admitted
Thursday that it was a dentist, not God, who gave him a gold tooth.Earlier this week during an on-air fundraising telethon, Dick Dewert told a CJIL-TV audience in Lethbridge [Alberta] that after extensive prayer, God had worked a miracle in his mouth."I've got a gold tooth I never had before," he said, repeating the claim several times over the next few days.However, Mr. Dewert's long-time dentist, Dr. Jack Sherman, though a
skilled practitioner, would hardly call himself a dental god.He informed his patient Thursday morning that there was nothing biblical about the appearance of the glittering filling--he had put it in about 10 years ago.

DENTAL MIRACLES ARE LATEST FASHION IN "ANOINTING" CHURCHESWeb Posted: June 29, 1999Chew on this. Another bizarre wave of convulsive religiosity, proof that god is showing His presence through mysterious "signs and wonders," may be about to explode on the nation's Pentecostal religious landscape. The Man Upstairs is working miracles again, according to some. No, he's not providing us with a cure for cancer, a recipe to end baldness, even the solution to Fermat's Last Theorem. Answers like that might give even a hardened skeptic cause for pause.Instead, He's coming with a mouthful of miracles. Literally. Some say god is turning their dental filings into gold, although there is argument as to why exactly the corypheus of the Universe would be doing this.The story begins last March, when two high-profile evangelical ministers in Canada claimed that following a round of intensive prayer, God implanted a gold tooth, or turned a preexisting silver amalgam filing to solid gold. Dick Dewart told a radio audience during a fundraising marathon of this incredible event. A similar claim was made by Willard Thiessen, host of a Winnepeg religious radio show and President of Trinity Television. By May, however, the stories changed. According to the Canadian Press, a "chastened" Thiessen admitted that the gold tooth had actually been implanted by his brother Elmer, a dentist. "I'm embarrassed to tears about this, I thought I had a miracle," Thiessen lamented. "Please check with your dentist," he hastened to add, before claiming such divine intervention.Thiessen continues to maintain that God does work through dental miracles, though, and says that in the 1970s, cavities in his wife Betty's mouth were mysteriously filled without the benefit of a session in the dentist's chair.Dewert also recanted, admitting that his longtime dentist, Dr. jack Sherman, put the tooth in about ten years earlier. "It was an honest mistake," Dewart insisted. "I was sincere in what I said. When miracles appear to be happening, it's easy to get excited and, in my case, jump to conclusions."The case of the Divine Dentist would have ended there, at least for most folks. But now, a wave of "dental miracle" claims has erupted in Omaha, Nebraska, where more than a dozen people in four churches insist that their dental work has miraculously been transformed into gold. According to the Omaha World-Herald newspaper, the reports began around June 2 and have increased since then. The claims have "triggered widespread excitement and talk among Omaha Pentecostals," notes the paper, and "two pastors have addressed the issue from their pulpits. They call it the work of God."Reporter Julia McCord cautions, "None of the reports of transformations has been verified scientifically..." and "Independent dental professional are skeptical. They say it is impossible for one metal to be transformed into another."Even so, a minister at one "mega-church" where the dental miracle claims first surfaced insists that those claiming the divine fillings "are reliable people." Most have been with the church for "several years." Some pastors are accepting the authenticity of the miracles, while others fear that their churches will be ridiculed as a result of the outlandish claims. Rev. Les Beauchamp, a senior pastor at the Trinity Church Interdenominational where the first miracles were reported on June 2, told his congregation that these amazing dental procedures are in the "signs and wonders" category referred to in the Book of Acts.

One of the newest methods that we have to replace old, worn out silver/mercury amalgam fillings is by casting porcelain in the same way that gold is cast. Even ten years ago, only gold could be fabricated by the “lost wax process” that was developed by the ancient Egyptians to make jewelry for the Pharaohs. Now, through the most modern technology, porcelain can be liquefied under tremendous heat and pressure to resemble molten glass and pressed into intricate patterns to the most exacting dimensions. The results, as you see here, are spectacular. Not only do porcelain inlays and onlays fabricated in this way have the precise fit of the gold restorations of old, but owing to the space-age adhesives that we have, restoring a tooth in this way actually strengthens and stiffens it, making it less likely to break in the future. That is something that could not be done even with cast gold without the need to cut away large amounts of natural tooth structure in order to create mechanical bracing. Here, with cast porcelain, we can preserve all healthy natural tooth structure and create restorations that leave the impression that the tooth or teeth never even had cavities! Now that is a miracle!

Faith writes:I did NOT say "Follow God for better health" Percy, I quoted JESUS telling a man He healed to "Go and sin no more" and I referenced Proverbs where people are admonished to avoid sin and practice righteousness and ill or good health is often the consequence.

Faith writes:Also, the Book of Proverbs is full of admonitions of sickness as a result of sin, and improved health is promised for obedience.

Yes this is my opinion ALSO, but the FIRST thing that has to be noticed is that I WAS JUST PROVIDING A CITATION, WHICH CRASHFROG EVEN NOTED, why can't you? This is what the Bible says. So that if someone is going to start arguing with me about what the Bible says they are arguing with the Bible and not with me.

And second, Trixie's accusation that because I quote the Bible on one topic means I am therefore ignoring another Biblical theme is incredibly absurd and annoying.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you find my answer contradictory but her insinuating irrelevant post admirable.

Theodoric writes:Actually it isnt up to me to prove it is not a miracle. It is up to you and those that profess it is to do the proving. YOu cannot prove soething is not. The onus is on those that claims something is sopmething to do the proving. YOu see here is the problem with a lot of this faith stuff. Fundies always insist on nonbelievers proving that soemthing isnt when those professing have to prove it is.

But the whole issue is what a miracle is....and you are attempting to frame a miracle in a verifiable empirical framework

whereas I am attempting to assert that a miracle can be relative to an individual.

Besides....even if miracles were objective, there still is no way to "capture" the essence of a claimed supernatural event.

I need not prove anything to anyone...and they, if they wish, can make jokes about I.P.U.'s and Bigfoot.

It is NOT up to us to prove it. You claim that every issue needs to be framed via empirical observations? I've got news for you---you and your ilk are not the final standard by which to judge the idiosuncracies of life.

Trixie's first retort to my post was a complaint about "my reasoning" when all I had done was quote the Bible.

You perfectly well know that the Bible is full of God's will to cure the sick, so what kind of game are you playing anyway?

Please excuse me if I say that I can't think of this question as anything but absurd, disingenuous, dishonest, manipulative.

Oh nonsense

You're playing games

I wasn't suggesting that you had said any of this - I was trying to exlain where I was coming from

BS. You didn't need to SAY it. You were implying what jar always says, that I "worship ink on paper" and that I disregard the Bible's message of compassion. And "where you are coming from" seems to be this absurd idea that I personally somehow disregard the message of compassion in the Bible simply because I gave some evidence for the other topic of how the Bible says that disease is related to sin.

Trixie's accusation that because I quote the Bible on one topic means I am therefore ignoring another Biblical theme is incredibly absurd and annoying. How on earth could anyone read the Bible and not notice the abundance of teachings on healing? Why is she accusing me of this irrelevant side issue of this whole other Biblical theme when the topic is the relation of disease to sin and all I've done is provide a citation to this topic?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you find my answer contradictory but her insinuating irrelevant post admirable.

when the topic is the relation of disease to sin and all I've done is provide a citation to this topic?

Right, by targeting me rather than her.

If the Bible is to be relied on for information on God and it provides two diametrically opposed pictures of Him, how do we decide what picture is correct?