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Strange miracles in sleepy Timaru | Through the Year with John Wesley from kiwiconnexion
   • Through the Year with John Wesley  

Hi, I' David Bell, welcome to this episode of Through the Year with John Wesley.

At the intersection of faith and theology, the intersection of life and philosophy is a highly controversial subject. Miracles. Are they real? Do they happen?

Let's have a look at a very important case. It all happened in Timaru, a pleasant provincial town in New Zealand's South Island. The large and vigorous Pentecostal congregation of the New Life Centre witnessed a number of miracles.

Among these were healings of some very diverse conditions and diseases. A club-foot was healed, goitre was cured, along with diabetes, and fibrositis, there was the lengthening of a leg and cures of bad teeth. The Timaru Herald reported 6 July 1960 that quote “James Boswell, 16 months walked unaided for the first time.” Unquote.

The healing was the result of a ministry by A S Worsley, a visiting American evangelist. As news of the miracles spread, audiences grew, sometimes up to 400 strong. Worsley seemed to indicate that he might even raise the dead if sufficient numbers of participants gathered and were prepared to exhibit sufficient faith.

The Timaru branch of the British Medical Association declined to comment. The local branch of the NZ Optometrical Association issued a warning. Patients ought to continue to take prescribed medication, particularly those who suffered from glaucoma.

Some of the miracles were about bad teeth with old amalgam fillings turned to pure silver. The South Canterbury branch of the NZ Dental Association issued a statement. Members had examined several cases from the faith-healing meetings.

But from the records, "held by the respective dentists it has been clear that in no case can the claims be substantiated."

The Rev Clyde Carr, a Presbyterian minister and at the time the sitting member for the House of Representatives deplored what was occurring and asked the Minister of Health to, "take action to prevent the malpractices of quacks and other unqualified people who assumed duties for which they were not equipped."

After a time it all died down. Many faithful Christians do expect miracles of healing to happen.
They are fond of Jesus' saying, “With God, all things are possible.” The cooler, more analytical approach doubts disruptions to the inexorable laws of nature.

So miracles are at the intersection of faith and philosophy. Athens was the home of the Academy, the philosophical schools. Jerusalem was the city of God. But the great theologian Tertullian scathingly asked, "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?"

He went on to say that if Christians had Christ there was no need for further disputations. Yet despite Tertullian's sweeping assertion, the problem can't be so easily swept aside. Even among Christians there are famous disputes about biblical miracles and miracles after the end of the biblical era. So it's not at all simple.

And I am personally rather delighted about that. Because Athens has everything to do with Jerusalem and Jerusalem has everything to do with Athens. Perhaps in the explanation of things by science and logic we can still feel and sense the miraculous. The explanation itself may be both the miracle and the seeding of more miracle.

But I suspect the crowds who showed up to be healed by the evangelist Worsley wouldn't be convinced. More from kiwiconnexion
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