by Scott H. Northrup
I want to share with you tonight a true account of an event that happened in our modern world just last November. I am relating this event to you because you will not likely find it in the newspapers or on CNN news. Why? Because those media are largely controlled by people who do not believe. People will call me a "kook" or "gullible", but that's okay. I have this account on the basis of the testimony of dozens of credible witnesses. If it only takes two or three witnesses to sentence a man to death, should we not also believe a man raised to life on the testimony of dozens of clear-thinking people?
I am referring to the well-documented (in Christian circles) account of a Nigerian pastor named Daniel Ekechukwu who died in a car crash. He was pronounced dead at the hospital by a practicing M.D. who wrote out the death report. "Patient brought in dead at 11:30 p.m. No chest movement, no breathing, no pulse, no heart sound, pupil dilated and fixed. DEMISE. Plan: for removal to mortuary." He was transferred to a mortuary and was administered a harsh chemical injection by the mortician to slow down mortification. He lay on a slab between two other dead people for over twenty four hours.
Meanwhile, his wife Nneka was reminded of the verse in Hebrews 11, "Women received their dead raised again to life." As she pondered this passage of scripture, this woman of faith was seized with the conviction that she would see Daniel alive and well again. She aggressively pursued the extreme agenda of having Daniel's body taken to the large church in Onitsha where the well-known German missionary Reinhardt Bonnke was preaching. On Sunday morning, a day and a half after the demise of her husband, she went to great lengths against much opposition to get custody of the body and, loaded in a coffin, she brought it to the church. The security people would not permit the corpse to be brought into the church compound, but eventually, because of Nneka's stubborn persistence, they relented and allowed the body to be brought into the church basement, if only to keep the crazy lady from making a further scene. Once in the church basement, two church staff members were guarding the body, laid out again on a table with much effort because of rigor mortis. Two other members of the church staff joined the guard.
Bonnke continued to preach unaware in the sanctuary above. But then the impossible began to happen. The stomach of the corpse began to twitch, then drew a breath, and soon began to breath in short bursts. The pastors threw themselves into prayer and began to massage the body from head to foot, describing it initially "as stiff as an iron rod." Then, at 5:15 p.m. Sunday afternoon, nearly two days after death had been pronounced, Daniel opened his eyes and sat up. For a while he was still incoherent, and so was taken to a place where he could regain his strength. Within only hours he had regained full coherence and consciousness. Not only was he brought back to life, but all the horrible injuries from his car crash were miraculously healed. Hundreds of people began to press in to see this "resurrection man."
Here are the fully substantiated facts. For two days Daniel did not breathe, his heart had stopped, he had been injected with a harsh chemical. He was carted about in an airless coffin over bumpy roads. And yet he is alive and well today without any ill effects, no brain damage, nothing. This did not take place in a private setting. It was a public event, an open yet unplanned demonstration of revival from death. Nneka was convinced that if she could get Daniel into the atmosphere of faith where Bonnke was ministering, God would raise him up. "Be it done according to your faith," Jesus would say. In the gospel of John, Jesus also said that believers would do the same works as He did. In Mark's gospel He said that it was by our standard of measuring that it would be measured to us.
So now you've heard. How big is your standard of measure? And if you disbelieve, ask yourself why? Is it because you fancy yourself as a critical thinking person? Or is it because it happened in Africa that you won't accept it? What does that say? Or is it because you just don't WANT it to be true?
@ copyright 2002 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.