Modern-Day Resurrections: Are They Real?

A Documented Miracle?

Bonnke says countless salvations have resulted from Christ for the Nation’s video about Daniel Ekechukwu’s rising from the dead in 2001 in Nigeria. After one charismatic church showed it at a Sunday night service, the enthusiastic altar call prompted the church to order 9,000 copies.

Bonnke’s 2014 book, Raised From the Dead, renewed interest in the story. The book includes a photo of Ekechukwu in his coffin and another of him holding his death certificate.

“We have seen this video spread across the world and I’ve heard many testimonies of people who got saved as a result of it,” Bonnke says. “I think it is a wonderful tool in the salvation of souls. One can say this is a miracle that has stood the test of time.”

Indeed, it still sends chills down the spine of Robert Murphree. The filmmaker is currently working on a documentary in Norway about the Holocaust and Christians who helped rescue Jews during World War II.

In 2001, Murphree was en route to a crusade when Bonnke diverted him to the Nigerian town where Murphree interviewed witnesses about the incident. Murphree calls it one of the best-documented miracles he has ever observed.

Whether the man’s wife, pastor, doctor, mortician or others, all the stories lined up. After talking to dozens of people, the producer thought, “If this is a hoax, there are so many people involved it would be a giant theatrical production to pull this off.”

Ekechukwu’s story especially impressed him. Murphree recalls Ekechukwu walking in looking weak and often needing water. Since the man’s wife had such vivid memories, the filmmaker thought hers would prove more interesting.

“I said, ‘I guess that’s all you have to contribute,’ and he said, ‘No, there’s more,” Murphree says. “He started talking about what he had experienced. It shook me and all of us there.

“I had the fear of God on me for several days. I hardly slept for two days and two nights after this. This was a work of the Holy Spirit and the whole thing had a message. At the core it was a salvation message and a sign.”

Yet, doubters soon appeared. They alleged such discrepancies as the lack of visible injuries to Ekechukwu’s face despite reportedly striking the windshield during the accident that supposedly killed him.

Another critic cited the lack of an autopsy, coroner’s report and police report, and conflicting accounts concerning the time the patient was dead.

In an online account posted in 2004, the leader of the Nigerian Humanist Movement labeled it a “fraud.” Among other things, Leo Igwe said medical experts told him that if the patient went three days without embalming fluid injected into Ekechukwu’s body, his abdomen would have been swollen.

Murphree understands the objections that continue to dog this story, saying he feels compassion for the critics.

“I understand why this would be a hard thing for them to accept,” the producer says. “But we were there. When you see things and sense the presence of the Lord meeting you at different stages … sometimes you have to walk by faith. I can understand why this would be way too much to take in—but it happened.”

Biblical Contradictions

Eyewitness evidence doesn’t persuade doubters, though, who cite contradictions between testimonies of reported visits to heaven and the biblical record. Such concerns have resulted in a number of books and a resolution from the Southern Baptist Convention about the sufficiency of Scripture regarding the afterlife.

Although acknowledging the Bible includes accounts of such resurrections as Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus, it does not include any report of the afterlife, said the resolution. It was adopted at the 2014 annual meeting.

Matthew Hall, the Louisville, Kentucky seminary professor who helped draft it, says fascination with near-death (NDE) and post-mortem experiences have existed throughout American religious history.

Hall, an administrator and professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says the current wrinkle is the way such accounts have leaped into the publishing world alongside their “democratization” via online postings.

Hall says many heaven observers focus more attention on relatives they see than God; if Jesus is present, He’s presented as someone there to put an arm around someone’s shoulder than the Christ who holds the cosmos together.

“When you look at heaven accounts, there’s very little of God and the biblical there,” Hall says. “I’m not convinced these experiences are on the rise. I am convinced publishers discovered they sell.

“It says something about the books Americans want to buy and read. I’d want to particularly look at that phenomenon and say: What does it tell us about evangelicals? Are we holding fast to that biblical authority?”

In her book, Testing the Spirits, now-retired Wheaton professor Elizabeth Hillstrom writes: “It is possible that some NDE accounts are grossly exaggerated or even outright fabrications, concocted for profit, publicity or attention.”

Though Hillstrom wrote those words 20 years ago, they are still relevant following young author Alex Malarkey’s admission that his story of visiting heaven after a serious car crash was a hoax. Malarkey was 6 years old at the time of the accident, which left him in a coma for two months.

In an open letter to “marketers of heaven tourism,” Malarkey—whose father co-authored The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven—said he made up the account because he thought it would attract attention.

“When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible,” Malarkey wrote. “People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible.”

In January, Tyndale issued the following statement: “(In January) Tyndale learned that Alex Malarkey, co-author of The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, was retracting the story he had told his father and that he recounted in the book they co-authored for publication in 2010. It is because of this new information that we are taking the book out of print. For the past couple of years we have known that Beth Malarkey, Kevin’s wife and Alex’s mother, was unhappy with the book and believed it contained inaccuracies. On more than one occasion we asked for a meeting with Kevin, Beth, Alex and their agent to discuss and correct any inaccuracies, but Beth would not agree to such a meeting.”

The incident shows why no one should put any stock in resurrection accounts, says St. Louis-area apologist Kurt Goedelman. The founder of Personal Freedom Outreach says many resurrectionists are “frauds” and questions placing any faith in their grandiose stories.