Deadraiser: The Movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxPvsedaJQcNew Apostolic Reformation (NAR) filmmakers have released a new feature-length documentary promoting NAR teachings.Deadraiser--produced by Mountain Light Cinema--profiles a group of people who travel to hospitals, accident scenes, and morgues around the world with the goal of bringing dead people back to life.The film's official launch was timed for October, and churches throughout the United States are hosting Halloween showings.A Grave TopicThe Deadraiser Web site describes the film this way:

Can dead people come back to life? Is it happening today? DEADRAISER is a captivating documentary exploring modern day resurrection stories. A true supernatural adventure, this film follows a dynamic group of spiritually empowered individuals from wide-ranging theologies, backgrounds and locations as they team up to live out the words of Jesus Christ recorded in Matthew 10:8.

The individuals profiled include:

• Tyler Johnson, author of How to Raise the Dead and and founder of the Dead Raising Team, an organization that travels to morgues--at the request of grieving loved ones--and prays for resurrections (Johnson's team claims to have seen 11 resurrections to date); and
• Rodger Frievalt, the senior pastor of Victory Center Church in Madison, Wisconsin, who teaches a "One Day Supernatural Healing and Activation School," to equip Christians to walk in supernatural power, including healing the sick and raising the dead; and
• Jesse Birkey, author of Life Resurrected and firefighter/paramedic who claims to have seen the dead raised in the back of his ambulance; and
• Michael Trzcienski, a self-styled "kingdom revivalist," who travels to churches and teaches Christians how to live the "supernatural lifestyle" of healing the sick and raising the dead; and
• Chauncey Crandall, a heart doctor who claims to have witnessed God raise one of his patients from the dead.

Dead Wrong

First, I want to be clear:  I have no problem believing that God can--and has--raised people from the dead. God can do anything He wants to do, and He still does miracles today. Thus, I think it is possible, for example, that Dr. Crandall did observe a genuine resurrection on his operating table.

But it is a far cry from claiming that a doctor saw one patient rise from the dead to claiming that all Christians should expect to see people rising from the dead on a regular basis.

The Scripture verse that the film cites in support of its teachings about raising the dead is Matthew 10:8.

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.

This verse records the instructions Jesus gave his Twelve disciples before he sent them on a mission to minister to the Israelites in Jewish Galilee. But NAR leaders see, in this verse, a command for all Jesus' followers at all times.The problem with this view, however, is that healing the sick and raising the dead are never depicted as normal activities of the Christian life anywhere in the New Testament. Yes, it is true that the Gospels describe Jesus healing the sick and raising the dead, as well as his disciples during special missions (Matthew 10:1-8; Luke 10:1-23). Also, in the Book of Acts, the apostles and some of their close associates performed miracles in the name of Jesus.But this is very important: even in Acts--a book known for miracles--the apostles never taught that all Christians are supposed to work miracles. And this teaching never shows up in the epistles either--which are the books of the New Testament that most generally lend themselves to prescriptive interpretation.So, what we see in the New Testament are descriptions of miracles that were performed by Jesus and his disciples (and their close associates), but no prescriptions that all Christians are supposed to perform miracles. It seems best, then, to understand the miracles in the Gospels and Acts as foretastes of the arrival of the full kingdom of God, when people will experience no sickness or death.There simply is no Scripture that indicates that the normal Christian life includes raising the dead.See my post Deadraiser: The Movie (Part 2).-- By Holly Pivec