As it turns out, many of the places where the initial reports on websites of the 16 that were raised from the dead have now either been pulled or modified. The actual proof that was submitted turns out to be doctored and surely not the actually newspaper article itself.
The initial source article I found via Twitter has now been modified as well: Check it out here.
While some have pulled the story, I have chosen to leave it up as a point of us in our faith being honest and authentic to the hype we sometimes run with and I'm all for the dialogue that it generated—no sense it deleting the discourse. Someone goofed and for some reason, the cover page I posted in the previous blog is obviously not the one that was printed in the Sunday, January 16 edition of the O'Diario Newspaper. Even I personally tried to track down the real cover after the comments began on my post and only turned up with the one PDF everyone else was seeing. At the same time, my friend has a friend in Brazil (yes, this could be the "telephone game" one commenter spoke of) and is trying to get more details to the story, as I'm guessing everyone is scrambling to do now that we know something hasn't been right.
Personally, I'm not saying I doubt someone was raised from the dead just because some newspaper article can't be produced. It's one thing if you aren't of faith in the ways of Jesus and want to argue proof—I want proof too! However, it's totally ironic when the Christians cry out for proof of resurrection when the only proof offered to believe that Jesus Himself was raised from the dead is a 2,000 year old compilation of books, histories, poetry and letters, written down by "God-inspired men" over the course of many years. Sigh. Come'on, Church!
The 2,000 year old story of Jesus holds true for me, not just because of what is in the text, but because the text leads me to encounters with Jesus in my life today that His resurrection now gives access. It's about a real God with a real son, encountering me on a daily basis with grace, mercy, provision and many a sign and wonder.
The point is: someone screwed up somewhere in this whole Brazilian resurrection story and maybe, as many of my commenters have said, this is doing more harm than good. However, I'm still contending for Jesus' own words:
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.—John 14:12
We should be doing what Jesus did, healing the sick, feeding the poor, freeing the slaves and demonized, raising the dead. And yet, we are barely getting this justice thing down with poverty in our world. I want the greater things, and in order to get to the greater things, I gotta go after the starting line Jesus put us on 2,000 years ago.
Raise the dead in us, Jesus, so we can raise the dead around us.
hey, just wanted to say thanks so much for being honest about it all and leaving up the article and comments. I'm in Brazil, in the capital, and trying to get to the bottom of this. We're getting there... almost... should be figured out in the next couple of days if it really happened or not, and why the fake newspaper article...
Posted by: Emily | January 25, 2011 at 04:03 PM
Hi Joel-
I just wanted to thank you for your decision to keep this subject and this discussion alive. Yours seems to be one of only a handful of websites now that still either has this story posted or hasn’t closed comments altogether. I guess it’s in my OCD nature, but I’ll literally keep following up on this until I just can’t stand to do it anymore. Compared to those still active “in the field” in ministry, I’d probably be considered a heathen, but no matter how sarcastic I can be or how sharp my tongue is at times, I really do believe from the bottom of my heart that the type of thing being (falsely) reported is totally possible through Christ. He and I have had our falling outs, but this is the culture in which I grew up, and instead of running from it or fighting it, I know the right thing to do is to come to terms with it. I know from experience how easy it is to become cynical, and with all of the modern distractions it is all too easy to lose focus….this isn’t a world you’d ever expect to cling to that “ol’ time religion”. And I TRY to keep my own pride and ego in check when investigating this type of story, and that is partially because of people like you who seem to really get it and who want to make a real impact…not in a grandiose overblown fashion, but in a direct and personal way. I also realize that no matter how horrible of a witness I believe organizations like Bethel and Healing Herald have decided to provide with this false resurrection story, the worst thing I could do is raise cyber-havoc, start with the hateful mockery, etc. I know I’m not here to fix everybody who won’t own their mistakes, I make plenty of my own. It is just genuinely disheartening to see churches that have become famous due to signs and wonders run so quickly from a single instance where someone associated with them has been caught in what looks like a pretty grievous hoax. They leave their followers in a lurch by not discussing it and trying to let it just die quietly, and they give so much more ammunition to those who are already leary or do not believe altogether. In my opinion, that is where the line gets crossed between serving God and sharing Christ with the world, and serving and protecting yourself and the trappings you’ve created by promoting the types of signs and wonders that are now ALL in question due to the way this has been handled.
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks and let you know that your message and your desire to promote healthy and fruitful dialogue in this matter is greatly appreciated.
Posted by: Maurice | January 26, 2011 at 01:56 PM
I live in Brazil and have been following this story over the last few days. My findings, if you're interested, are on the blog www.paulcull.org/blog
Paul Cull
Posted by: Paul Cull | January 26, 2011 at 06:42 PM
Joel,
I think your follow up was amazing. You stuck true to the message of Jesus without getting caught up in the hype, or anything else. You stuck through with the message of the Lord- the true essence of it. And I bumped into your blog by accident, and I'll subscribe :)
Posted by: Mishell | January 30, 2011 at 07:16 PM
I completely second everything Maurice said also :) I appreciate it as well.
Posted by: Mishell | January 30, 2011 at 07:17 PM
Howdy all,
I recently had the chance to revisit Caleme, Teresópolis, where the resurrections were supposed to have occured - sadly, it is obvious now that this never happened.
I recorded a video of my trip to Teresópolis, which is avilable on my blog at http://www.paulcull.org/blog/?p=1131 and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEDRd09L4pI
Regards
Paul Cull
Posted by: Paul Cull | July 14, 2011 at 07:12 AM