Reinhard Bonnke: My evangelism experience in Africa

Reinhard-Bonnke

Reinhard Bonnke

Reinhard Bonnke
World famous Christian evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke, has narrated his experience while evangelizing in Africa.

Wherever he goes, a lot of aura goes with him. Wherever he holds his crusades and fire conferences, people literally flow in like rivers into the ocean. Reinhard Bonnke has become a factor in Christian or perhaps religious circles across the globe. When he visited Lagos in what tagged the “Great Millennium Crusade,” a sea of hands and heads waved in the sky with the gentleness of giant savannah grasses responding to the gentle push of the wind. As hand went from left to the right, a joyful noise from beneath. It was the roaring of millions of peoples. It went on for minutes on end. Never before in the history of the National Stadium had such chants of victory been heard in its vicinity. And an endless account of miracles followed- the lame walked, the blind see… that has been the landmark of the German evangelist to Africa – prosperity, signs and wonders.

Questions on miracles have dominated religious debates for ages. Virtually all scriptures, the Hindus Veda; The Christian Bibles and the Muslim Quran are replete with accounts of extraordinary performances. Indeed all belief sacred or profane come complete with incredible violations of the laws of nature. To make such breach believable, the name of the Almighty only need to be dropped. The religionists simply in the majority are avowed believers in the miraculous. They will offer their lives to defend that belief.

But doubting Thomases also exist. These tiny minority of skeptics have always challenged the believers to show the sense in their claims. Regrettably, religion, the world over, does not lay claim to sense of logic! One of the most cynical attackers of the concept of miracles ever produced by history is David Hume, 1711-1776.

Hume argued that miracles or prodigies are nothing more than the product of warped thinking and eloquence. To him, they should not be believed. In his elaborate work, Concerning Miracles, Hume argues that no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be a such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to establish. For good measure, he came down hard on what may be the most inconvenient miracles to the human sense. “When anyone tells me that he saw a dead man restored to life,” he writes “I immediately consider within myself , whether it be more problem that the person should either deceive or be deceived or that the facts which he relates, should really have happened. I weigh one miracle against the other; and according to superiority which I discovered, I pronounced my decision and always reject the greater miracle.”

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The Humean test, skeptic insist must be applied to all claims of miracle. But, oh, how Hume must shift uncomfortably in the Sepulcher at the rivers of prodigies that go with Christian crusades today! The renown philosopher, however, left a vital question unanswered. What would his reaction be if he were to see the dead raised from the grave? Or better still would he remain an incurable pessimist if he were to be the object of miracle?

So much for philosophy and its unanswered questions! At least, one man, Daniel Okechukwu, would not be bogged down by its finesse. He is an example of a Lazarus rescued from the valley of the shadow of death. As the story goes, Okechukwu, a pastor, sustained serious injuries and became unconscious during an accident. He was rushed to a hospital in Owerri. On arrival, however, he was certified dead. Two other hospitals confirmed he was dead like a dodo. In fact, a mortician prepared the corpse for embalmment and a death certificate was issued. It was now the third day. Yet Okechukwu’s wife could not come to terms with the cold reality of the husband’s demise. On the third day, when rigour mortis had set in, the corpse, already in a coffin arrived the venue of a crusade by Bonnke in Onitsha. And there the miracle happened. It was a rare feat which Bonnke himself admitted. “I have not seen often the dead raised. What we saw with Daniel Okechukwu, I have never seen before myself with my own eyes. It’s an awesome miracle, it’s been in the whole world.”

Bonnke was not born an evangelist, let alone a miracle worker. His encounter with Jesus came at the tender age of nine after he had stolen some money from his mother. “She caught me red handed, but instead of punishing me because that was what I deserved, she put her hands around me and said ‘Reinhard you are on your way to hell because you are a thief.’ He narrated to TheNEWS with the tone of one conversant with the pulpit.

It is indeed a man of the pulpit, having worked as missionary in Lesotho and as an evangelist in various parts of the world for decades. Bonnke was born in Germany to a father that was both soldier and a pastor. He was born during the Second World War and spent his early childhood with his mother in a refugee camp in Denmark. On return to Germany at the end of the war, he heard God telling him, he would one day ‘preach the gospel in Africa.’ But his father had put his eyes on Bonnke’s elder brother as a successor. Anyway he later attended a Bible College in Wales where he first met an African. Now Africa is home and he has traversed all the nook and cranny of the continent preaching the Word and performing miracles. In this interview with TheNEWS, the German evangelist gives a blow by blow account of his life and the source of his power.

Read more here:http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2016/07/reinhard-bonnke-my-world-war-11-refugee-experience-miracles-and-evangelism-in-africa/http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2016/07/reinhard-bonnke-my-world-war-11-refugee-experience-miracles-and-evangelism-in-africa/

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