No presence of human blood discovered on consecrated host

 

 Indianapolis Archdiocese probes parish’s alleged Eucharistic miracle

... a “young woman” ... described seeing “drops of blood” on two consecrated hosts. The hosts had apparently fallen on the floor Feb. 21 and were placed in water and kept in the tabernacle to dissolve. A day later, what the woman saw instead, she claimed, “looked like a very very thin piece of skin with blood on it.”

A CUP founder confirmed in an email to OSV News that the same woman, who wished to remain anonymous, took the photos of the apparently blood-stained hosts that were posted on social media. ...

No Eucharistic miracle in Indianapolis, archdiocese confirms after lab tests

... “A biochemical analysis of a host from St. Anthony Catholic Church in Morris, Ind., that was displaying red discoloration revealed the presence of a common bacteria found on all humans,” the statement said. “No presence of human blood was discovered.”

The March 24 statement confirmed that the host had “fallen out of a Mass kit used at the parish, and when it was discovered, red spots were present. ...

Catholics believe that upon their consecration at Mass, bread and wine become Jesus Christ — body, blood, soul and divinity — while still retaining the appearances of bread and wine. ...

 

 

The Roman Catholic miracle machine just keeps pumping them out, this time in the spirit of trendy inclusiveness lol

They really had to reach back for this one.

 Lourdes confirms 71st miracle — the first for an English speaker; miracle occurred in 1926

The miracle at the French Marian shrine actually occurred in 1923, but what is important, you see, is that the Lourdes Bureau confirmed it in 1926. But because of communication difficulties, the Archbishop of Liverpool never got the necessary documentation until now.

The subject had lost use of his right arm, suffered from epileptic seizures, and had partial paralysis in his legs due to "medical treatment" after being wounded in 1915 during the Great War. He was "immediately, instantly" cured by immersion in the waters of the spring at Lourdes, on the third day of a pilgrimage, of course. 

“And John Traynor is the first case of healing of an English-speaking patient,” de Franciscis said. “Most of the miracles are French. There are Italians too, a Belgian and a German. But there were not any English speakers yet.”

“I am personally sensitive to this,” the doctor concluded with a smile. “I myself am Italian, born in Naples, but of an American mother, from Connecticut!”

 

 

Rod Dreher is going to need a better book, a degree in Greek from Dallas Theological Seminary, and three more wives if he hopes ever to compete with Hal Lindsey

 

 

 Hal Lindsey's The Late, Great Planet Earth was translated into 50 languages and sold 35 million copies by the year 2000.

In 2020 Dreher reported his The Benedict Option had sold over 70,000 copies. His Live Not By Lies has sold over 200,000 copies, "by far my bestselling book".

 

Meanwhile the British and Foreign Bible Society estimated in 2021 that printed copies of the Bible number somewhere between 5 and 7 billion, as reported here.  Just between the invention of the printing press in 1454 and 1815, it is estimated that 1.3 billion copies alone were produced.

 

Signs and wonders, miracles and prophecies, sell.

 

Is it an accident then that Dreher's latest book is a book about all this woo-woo? "No one but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." Methinks of Lindsey Dreher doth protest too much.

 

"unconventional beliefs regarded as having little or no scientific basis, especially those relating to spirituality, mysticism, or alternative medicine: some kind of metaphysical woo-woo". 

 

Clueless Rod Dreher: If young people demand a sign, by golly Christians should give it to them (buy my new book all about it!)

 

 The number of ex-Christians continues to grow, especially among the young, but there has been a significant and unexpected change. Atheism is mostly dead among the young — but they aren’t coming back to Christianity. They are going to various forms of the occult, as well as taking up using psychedelic drugs.

Why? Because they are desperate to have an experience of transcendence, of mysticism. They need to have an experience that tells them that there is more to life than mere materialism. As concerned as we should be about this development, it also offers us Christians an opportunity. It will continue to be hard — harder than ever, maybe — to convert people by using reason. But [we can make inroads] if we talk about the miracles of Padre Pio and others, if we talk about approved Marian apparitions, if we talk about the reality of spiritual warfare in the stories of people like the late exorcist Gabriele Amorth, and Father Carlos Martins, the popular American exorcist whose podcast The Exorcist Files is not only entertaining, but has lots of strong practical advice. 

-- The shameless grifter, quoted here

 

And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. ... Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

-- Mark 8:11-12, 38      

An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it ...

-- Matthew 12:39

A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it ...

-- Matthew 16:4

This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it ...

-- Luke 11:29

 

Signs and wonders and miracles, oh my: When you've seen one, you've seen them all

 

  No wonder to us, who have conversed with too many strange actions, now to wonder at any thing: wonder is from surprise, and surprise ceases upon experience.

-- Robert South

The Shroud of Turin dates to the time of Jesus . . . IF it was kept around 20-22.5 degrees C and relative humidity of 55-75% FOR THIRTEEN CENTURIES OF UNKNOWN HISTORY

https://nypost.com/2024/08/22/world-news/ai-recreates-possible-face-of-jesus-from-turin-shroud/

 

LOL, C'mon man.

Turin Shroud Study Claims Controversial Cloth Does Date to Time of Jesus

The authors said the results of their analysis were "fully compatible" with analogous measurements obtained from a linen sample whose dating, according to historical records, is A.D. 55-74, and consistent with the hypothesis that the Shroud is a 2,000-year-old relic.

The authors note that the results are only compatible with this hypothesis under the condition that the artifact was kept at suitable levels of average temperature (around 20-22.5 degree Celsius, or 68-72.5 degrees Fahrenheit) and a relative humidity of 55-75 percent for 13 centuries of unknown history, in addition to seven centuries of known history in Europe.

Head of Christ, Warner Sallman 1940

 

She's still dead, Jim

 

 Many of the monastery’s visitors said they believed Sr. Wilhelmina’s body to be miraculously incorrupt. ...

“Sister Wilhelmina's body was not embalmed, nor was there anything to preserve her in the state in which we buried her,” [the abbey’s superior, Mother Abbess Cecilia Snell] explained. “There were bugs eating at the foam under her, but none had touched her body or her habit - the latter’s failure to deteriorate being a phenomenon just as miraculous as her intact body!” ...

Many visitors to the abbey since the discovery of her intact remains have voiced belief that their preservation is “miraculous,” and noted incorruption after death is a sign often associated with saints. ...

In De Cadaverum Incorruptione, written in the mid-1800s, Pope Benedict XIV stated that an incorruptible body should only be considered miraculous when its lifelike condition is maintained for a great period of time.

More.

Against the Pharisees' core tenet of resurrection, Luke's Jesus insists it is superfluous

  

And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. And he said unto them . . . There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:  And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.       

-- Luke 16:14f., 19ff.

cf. John 5:45ff.:

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

The first miracle of Carlo Acutis, eucharistic enthusiast, is unconvincing: Brazil is overrun by faith healers and Catholics needed a win of their own

 

 In Brazil, a boy named Mattheus was healed from a serious birth defect called an annular pancreas after he and his mother asked Acutis to pray for his healing. ... Mattheus was born in 2009 with a serious condition that caused him difficulty eating and serious abdominal pain. He was unable to keep any food in his stomach, and vomited constantly. ... Fr. Nicola Gori, the priest responsible for promoting Acutis’ sainthood cause, told Italian media what happened next: “On October 12, 2013, seven years after Carlo's death, a child, affected by a congenital malformation (annular pancreas), when it was his turn to touch the picture of the future blessed, expressed a singular wish, like a prayer: 'I wish I could stop vomiting so much.' Healing began immediately, to the point that the physiology of the organ in question changed,” Fr. Gori said.

-- Catholic News Agency, October 12, 2021, here. 

When Matheus got home, he ate beef and French fries and did not vomit afterward. His mother later testified that this was the first time in his entire life that this happened.

At the next ultrasound scan, the doctor confirmed that the morphology of the pancreas has completely changed and become normal. One doctor declared that it was now a textbook pancreas, an organ that was so perfect that it looked unreal. When Father Tenório saw Matheus’ tests, he reported the facts to the postulator of the beatification of Carlo Acutis.

-- Catholic Stand, December 28, 2021, here. 

An abdominal X-ray of a patient with an annular pancreas will show the double-bubble sign, indicative of duodenal obstruction. Ultrasound, which is the first-line examination in the investigation of abdominal pain in children, reveals a fluid-distended duodenum and can identify the second duodenal portion incarcerated by pancreatic tissue. On computed tomography, pancreatic tissue surrounding the duodenum can also be seen. In most cases, endoscopy is also performed. 

However, it should be borne in mind that even if the radiological and endoscopic findings both suggest an annular pancreas, the definitive diagnosis is established only during surgery. In patients with symptoms of obstruction, laparotomy can reveal a band of pancreatic tissue surrounding the second portion of the duodenum, supporting the diagnostic hypothesis, which can be confirmed by examining the resected specimen.

-- Radiologia Brasileira 52 (4), Jul-Aug 2019, here. 

 

The subject underwent only ultrasound. The diagnosis of annular pancreas was never certain in the first place.

9news.com.au

John of God 'monster' making millions with barbaric surgery and 'blessed' pills

Mark Saunokonoko

Dec 18, 2018

---

The controversial John Faria has worked as a celebrity faith healer for the last four decades in a small town in central Brazil, becoming widely known as John of God.

He became famous for conducting "psychic surgeries" that he said could cure diseases, including cancer. Thousands of Australians, many terminally ill or suffering from debilitating sicknesses, have reportedly visited Mr Faria's compound deep in Brazil's interior.

Mr Faria's critics have argued the faith healer is nothing more than a charlatan, fleecing the vulnerable for millions of dollars.

One of the accusers is Mr Faria's adult daughter, Dalva Teixeira. She called him a "monster", while others have claimed he molested them as children. Mr Faria has strenuously denied the allegations of more than 300 accusers.

Oprah Winfrey famously visited Mr Faria in 2012 to feature him in an episode of her massively popular worldwide syndicated show. Afterwards, Mr Faria's questionable star rocketed to dangerous new heights.

In a since-deleted column on oprah.com, Winfrey wrote that she was overwhelmed by the experience of seeing Mr Faria cut into the breast of a woman without anaesthesia and that she left feeling "an overwhelming sense of peace".

Yesterday, in a statement to Reuters, Winfrey said: "I empathise with the women now coming forward and hope justice is served."

Oprah's peaceful experience watching Mr Faria wield his scalpel was markedly different to Australian reporter Michael Usher, who along with a 60 Minutes crew was invited inside the self-styled healer's compound in 2014.

Usher said it was hugely unsettling to watch Mr Faria use scalpels to slice open peoples' flesh or scrape away at their eyeballs, none of it done with an anaesthetic. That Mr Faria would shove scissors down the noses of ill people who sought his help left Usher distressed.

"John of God is not a surgeon, he is not a trained doctor," Usher said after the 60 Minutes segment aired.

"Yet he is presented with a tray of medical instruments, scalpels and all sorts of scissors. He takes a scalpel and scrapes eyes. He sticks knives and scalpels of some sort down the back of people's throats. He shoves scissors down people's noses, and he claims he is getting to tumours. He claims he is getting to the root of people's illness. He claims he is getting to what is making people ill or sick. None of it is done with an anaesthetic and you don't even know if what he is using is sterile."

According to 60 Minutes, Mr Faria's faith healing compound, which has been visited by supermodel Naomi Campbell and Brazilian footballer Ronaldo, has made tens of millions of dollars. In 2014, a Fairfax report stated 18,000 Australians had journeyed to see Faria. The self-styled healer has claimed to have treated millions of people.

 John of God has boasted he is blessed with healing powers from a divine "Entity". He claimed the entity can cure the blind, the paraplegic, the cancer-stricken and other illnesses.

"I can understand why people search for spirituality," Usher said of the thousands flocking to Mr Faria, despite long-circulating rumours of sexual abuse and his unscientific and barbaric medical techniques.

"I can understand people's faith. I understand how powerful hope is. What I cannot tolerate is someone like John Faria taking advantage of people who only have hope left."

Located in Abadiania, 130km south-west of the capital city of Brasilia, Mr Faria's compound, Casa de Dom Inacio, is filled with people from Brazil and hopeful visitors from around the world wearing all white. Neutral clothing makes the wearer more open to healing energy, according to believers.

Usher said there were no miracles to be found in the compound, just exploitation.

Meeting John of God is free. But he has built a multi-million-dollar enterprise through other strategies.

On the compound he prescribes his visitors sessions on crystal beds, which cost $25 per session. The crystal beds, which appear to be a kind of sunbed projecting light through crystals, are believed to earn Mr Faria $1.8 million a year.

 Blessed water is sold for $1 in standard plastic bottles. From a Faria-run pharmacy, blessed herbal pills are selling for $25 a bottle. It is estimated the blessed pill generates $40,000 a day, more than $14 million in a year.

An Australian doctor who travelled with 60 Minutes tested the pills, which he found to be simple passionflower herbal supplements.

When Usher sat down with Mr Faria, several of the faith healer's minders stood close by. Asked if his practice was more about money than miracles, the interview was quickly shut down. Walking away from the cameras, Mr Faria ignored questions about alleged sexual abuse.

The most recent allegations which led to Mr Faria handing himself into police surfaced last week.

Several individuals appeared on Brazilian Globo Television show to recount charges that he had been sexually violent with them or relatives. After that, authorities were contacted by more than 300 other accusers, including de Faria's adult daughter, Dalva Teixeira.

In an interview published by Brazilian magazine Veja, Ms Teixeira said that under the pretense of mystical treatments he abused and raped his daughter between the ages of 10 and 14.

She said her father stopped after she became pregnant by one of his employees. Ms Teixeira said she was beaten so severely by her father that she suffered a miscarriage.

 "My father is a monster," she said.

It is unknown how many Australians, if any, may have lodged complaints with Brazilian police or could have been potentially abused by him.

One of Mr Faria's biggest supporters is an Australian man named Robert Pellegrino-Estrich.

In 2000, Mr Pellegrino-Estrich wrote The Miracle Man, a book documenting the supposed healing powers of Mr Faria. The book, said to be available in 16 languages, is seen as being instrumental in raising awareness of Mr Faria around the world.

Mr Pellegrino-Estrich currently lives in Brazil, and he has for many years been paid by Australians who use his travel advisory services to assist their visit to Faria's centre.

Nine.com.au contacted Mr Pellegrino-Estrich for comment, but he did not respond.

Australians have not always had to make the pilgrimage to Brazil to meet Mr Faria.

In 2014, despite concerns from NSW Fair Trading, the John of God roadshow rolled into Sydney, where an estimated 6000 people paid $295 for a day ticket, or $795 for the full three-day experience.

 

https://www.9news.com.au/world/john-of-god-inside-faith-healers-compound-psychic-surgery/e201d8c6-2090-46a7-aa2f-78b84c1e520c

It doesn't say what the first miracle of Carlo Acutis was, but the second was performed by . . . a surgeon

 Carlo Acutis to be first millennial saint: Pope Francis recognizes miracle for canonization

The recognition of the second miracle attributed to Acutis’ intercession makes it possible that Acutis could be canonized during the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year.

 

Eschatological prophets don't leave gospels behind

 

p52, a 2nd century fragment of John from a codex

Jesus trying to keep his miracles quiet is in the news, by Father John Perricone, Ph.D., who alas in "Is Christ a Magician?" can't even get Matthew 16:4 right:

But, to our more serious question above. We should preface these words by God’s: “It is a wicked and perverse generation that asks for signs and wonders” (Matthew 16:4). 

The verse says nothing about wonders, which is a technical term most familiar to us from the Book of Acts, but also from the little apocalypses found in the gospels. The verse in question goes like this:

A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

The father is right that we observe a Jesus who does occasionally try to keep his miracles quiet. They are "often accompanied by a stern admonition to tell no one". The thing is, not all the time. And the Christian gospels are replete with them nevertheless. 

Mark's Jesus is even more emphatic about this than is Matthew's. Mark's Jesus was unequivocally against signs of any kind, not even the sign of the prophet Jonah, and not just to the Pharisees, but to his entire evil generation.

It's a downright odd thing for someone to say who is supposedly leaving a trail of them in his wake in exorcisms, healings, and nature miracles. The gospels proclaim a miracle worker who wanted the miracles kept quiet? This is akin to the problem known as the Messianic Secret. "I'm the Messiah, but don't tell anyone".

The eschatological context of this sign business is preserved by Mark, although at a distance, as it is by Matthew in like manner in his doublet of the saying (Matthew 16:1ff., 27):

And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign [σημεῖον] from heaven, tempting him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. ... Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

-- Mark 8:11f., 38 (cf. Matthew 12:38f.; Matthew 16:1ff., 27; Luke 11:16, 29f.).

The emphasis of the eschatological Jesus is on his message of repentance, not on his deeds.

Vincent Taylor recognized long ago that the eschatological Mark 8:38 was quite out of place where it is.

A lot of things seem loosely connected together in Mark, not just this. Just read the form critics.

In Mark's unskilled hands, signs likewise aren't yet quite exactly the same thing as miracles either. Miracle in Mark is instead typically referred to, when it is referred to at all, as the palpable expression of divine authority [ἐξουσία] (Mark 1:27; 2:10; 3:15; 6:7), or of divine power [δύναμις] (Mark 5:30; 6:2, 5, 14; 9:39).

And from the start, Mark presents Jesus as more than willing to demonstrate to the Scribes his divine authority to forgive sins by performing a miracle to prove it (this despite later noteworthy teaching requiring mutual forgiveness between men if there is to be forgiveness of men by God, in Mark 11:26, which is rather different; is that blasphemy, too?):

But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.  

-- Mark 2:10ff., Matthew 9:6ff., Luke 5:24ff. (similarly John 10:37f., 14:11).

We go back again the other way, though, in Mark 11:27-33, where Mark presents a Jesus who will NOT condescend to the chief priests, the Scribes, and the elders to demonstrate by what authority he had cast out of the temple the buyers and the sellers, the money-changers, and specifically the sellers of doves:

And Jesus answering saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.

So which is it?

 

In the same willy-nilly fashion, Mark has Jesus do an exorcism, a resurrection, and a healing of a deaf/dumb man in Galilee, one which Jesus wants declaimed, but the others which Jesus wants kept quiet:

Howbeit Jesus suffered him not [to follow him], but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel. 

-- Mark 5:19f.

And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat. 

-- Mark 5:43

And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; 

-- Mark 7:36.

So which is it?

  

Eventually Mark inexplicably makes Jesus actually respond positively and at great length to the question from Peter, James, John, and Andrew "what shall be the sign" of the coming of the destruction of the temple, in Mark 13:4, the beginning of the infamous Apocalyptic Discourse.

But why would Jesus do that, all of a sudden, and condescend to a question about signs  if "no sign shall be given"?

Obviously the Apocalyptic Discourse is post-resurrection re-interpretation of Jesus' original eschatological message that judgment was imminent. The warning had been the man and the message, but he got himself crucified, and with the man now gone they are in a new situation which is under pressure to explain itself. Like the supplied endings to Mark, the Apocalyptic Discourse bears all the marks of another time and other hands. But that is another matter.

As quickly, however, as Jesus deigns to entertain such talk of the sign of the end, Jesus warns in 13:22 that it is false Christs and false prophets who will come and do "signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect".

And with that we're right back to negativity about signs, which shows just how much that view was the original, dominant view going back to the historical Jesus and persisting beyond him in their memory.

So no sign it is.

(The positive embrace of miraculous signs in the supplied long ending in Mark 16:17, 20 may be dismissed as unoriginal to Mark on stylistic grounds, and not in the least because it conforms to the later ideas expressed for example by Luke in Acts).

 

This picture painted by Mark shows overall that he is confused and indecisive about what exactly to present as the actual content of Jesus' message, which Matthew and then Luke in their turn attempt to smooth over and remedy. It is one reason why Mark was not that popular in early Christianity. The relative paucity of witnesses to Mark, and the missing ending, if it really is missing, after 16:8 as late as Codex Vaticanus is . . . kind of a sign.

In the case of Mark 8, Matthew and Luke retain the harsh, negative evaluation of sign-seeking, but they augment the unequivocal "no sign shall be given" with "except the sign of Jonah", i.e. that the resurrection of Jesus after three days in the belly of the earth is the ultimate sign to this generation.

So the miracle of the resurrection is THE ONE legitimate sign, but none of the other miracles are signs? What are they then? Or were there no other such signs? Matthew and Luke haven't really thought this through. But of their post-resurrection re-interpretation of the original saying Mark knew absolutely nothing.

This is yet more evidence that the tradition is not solid, to put it mildly, and that the evangelists are willing, shall we say, to tamper with the word of God for theological reasons.

The solution of Matthew and Luke does little, either, to alleviate the wider problem involved, which is the failure of this evil generation to have faced the final judgment of the coming Son of Man predicted by Jesus.

But it is evidence of a trajectory of re-interpretation we see running through the Synoptics culminating in John, where we come to the explicit development of the completely different, positive understanding of sign as miracle.

And whereas the Synoptic witness is full of miracles by other names, and against signs more than not, miracles are now routinely called signs in the Fourth Gospel:

Turning water into wine at Cana of Galilee (John 2:11);

Destroying the "temple" "of his body" and rebuilding it in three days (John 2:18f);

Nondescript miracles which Jesus did in Jerusalem (John 2:23) which impressed Nicodemus (John 3:2); 

Healing a boy who was near death (John 4:48), Jesus' second miracle in Galilee (John 4:54);

Healing many who were sick (John 6:2);

Feeding the five thousand with five barley loaves and two fish (John 6:14, 26, 30);

Jesus' miracles generally (John 7:31);

Healing the man born blind (John 9:16);

John the Baptist performed no miracles but was right about Jesus (John 10:41);

The Pharisees are beside themselves what to do with Jesus, who does so many miracles, after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead (John 11:47);

Some of the people hailed Jesus (triumphal entry into Jerusalem) as if he were king because of the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, as did also some of the authorities (John 12:18, 37); 

The appearance of Jesus in his crucified body to doubting Thomas was one of many miracles Jesus did after his resurrection (John 20:30). 

This last example in John rings the composition with the 2:18 allusion to Jesus' resurrection and echoes the re-interpretation of Mark 8 observed in both Matthew and Luke, who feel compelled to supplement Mark's "no sign, period" with "no sign but the sign of the prophet Jonah . . . who was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale" (Matthew 12:39f.; cf. Luke 11:29f.), which they put forward as a type of the resurrection.

The resurrection itself has now become a tool for proof of the truth of a different gospel, whereas Jesus as eschatological prophet had nothing to prove. Jesus insisted on the imminent end for this, his evil generation because "the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15).

"Repent ye and believe the gospel".

That Jesus, the historical Jesus, was not interested in vindication by miracles and heavenly portents, but in actual demonstrations of repentance by his hearers, so that a few at least would be saved from that imminent judgment. Without those demonstrations there isn't any belief, and no salvation.

The new Jesus emphasizes the believing, which many can now get indefinitely into the future, even from a book:

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. 

-- John 20:30f.

The miracles are now constitutive of the message, so much so that John's Jesus can say:

. . . though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. 

-- John 10:38.

Whereas one may aver that to the final eschatological prophet who followed John the Baptist, the palsied fruit of repentance was a good thing (Matthew 3:8), not something to be healed from:

And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

-- Mark 9:45.

In the Catholic Church, God does miracles from time to time which just coincidentally validate its central Eucharistic rite

 

“One of our eucharistic ministers was running out of hosts and suddenly there were more hosts in the ciborium. God just duplicated himself in the ciborium,” an emotional Crowley told the faithful. ...

“They were running out of hosts and all of a sudden more hosts were there. So today not only did we have the miracle of the Eucharist, we also had a bigger miracle. It’s pretty cool,” the priest said.

There's even a traveling Eucharistic Miracle Road Show which promotes the Eucharist, not unlike the traveling Protestant revivals and camp meetings common in America where powerful moves of God produce dramatic conversions at altar calls, miracles of speaking in tongues, divine healings, and the like.

A Vatican-endorsed exhibit “Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” featuring documentary evidence of 152 such miracles, has visited over 3,000 churches on its international tour.  

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

More.

There are miracles, and then there are wonders

It was near a miracle to see an old man silent,

since talking is the disease of age;

but, amongst cups, makes fully a wonder.

-- Ben Jonson

Trump miracle election: Someone, somewhere, lets a dim pall fall upon 7.6 million former Obama voters who fail to vote for Hillary

Who's laughing now?

Obama received 69.5 million popular votes in 2008, but as of tonight 7.6 million of them failed to show up for Hillary for some reason.

Hm.

After 20 years at Bethel Church in Redding California, "miracle worker" Bill Johnson still hasn't put the region's top employers out of business

If his book When Heaven Invades Earth is to be believed, "miracles" occur so frequently at Bill Johnson's hands at Bethel Church that that's "the normal Christian life", as he calls it.

Close readers of the book, however, will note that none of the people who experience these so-called miracles seem to have last names.

Not only that, you can't be sure of their first names either.  "Some of the names of the people mentioned in this book have been changed. The author has done so where he felt anonymity is essential", we are informed in the fine print on the copyright page.

This is despite the fact that the miracles are supposed to "reveal the nature of God", not hide it under a cloak, "bring courage" instead of such caution, "reveal His glory" and "give Him glory", not make one wonder if he's really telling the truth.

One would think that if so many miracles were happening at that church that the scads of recipients would be writing their own books about it instead of Johnson. One would think that the population of Redding would have burst by now as people beat a path to it instead of stagnating as it has. One would think that its hospitals would be out of business by now.

And yet after 20 years of Bill Johnson, almost half of the jobs of the top four employers in Redding remain medical jobs at Mercy Medical Center and Shasta Regional Medical Center.

Redding, California, in fact remains "the medical hub of rural far northern California", according to the Wikipedia article.

The new pool of Bethesda it is not.

A ridiculously conceived healing miracle from Bill Johnson's When Heaven Invades Earth: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

From the Expanded Edition (2013), pp. 26f., italics in the original:

"He told us his problem was carpal tunnel syndrome. ... [W]e laid our hands on his wrists, commanding the tunnel to open and all numbness and pain to be gone."

But there is nothing "closed" in carpal tunnel syndrome which needs "opening".

The idea of "opening" reflects a misunderstanding of a treatment method in which the name given to a treatment technique has been transposed to a misconceived description of a healthy outcome.

Apart from the non-invasive treatment methods which are initially preferred because about a third of cases self-correct anyway without treatment, the last resort is surgery, either the more invasive open carpal tunnel release surgery, or the less invasive endoscopic carpal tunnel release surgery.

The identical object of both surgical techniques is to get in there and sever a ligament which puts pressure on the nerve causing the numbness and pain.

You either open up the wrist in the traditional manner with a scalpel, or go in through a much smaller incision with an endoscope equipped with smaller cutting instruments.

Always keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.

Miracles have declined in proportion to the increase of our wealth

 

 

 An old chestnut related by the dear departed F.F. Bruce in his 1988 commentary on Acts 3.6:

According to Cornelius a Lapide, Thomas Aquinas once called on Pope Innocent II when the latter was counting out a large sum of money.

“You see, Thomas,” said the Pope, “the church can no longer say, ‘Silver and gold have I none.’”

“True, holy father,” was the reply; “neither can she now say, ‘Rise and walk.’”

A preposterous miracle: Jesus can raise Lazarus from the dead but must ask others to roll away the stone

Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

-- John 11:39