ASSIST Ministries reports on the 5th International Christian Medical Conference, in Norway:
…These doctors, from places like Bolivia, Brazil, Burundi, China, Indonesia and Vietnam, were all Christians who believe in the power of prayer and the fact that there are times when medical treatment has to give up – and then God’s Power takes over.
…They met under the auspices of the World Christian Doctors Network (WCDN) and Dr. Yoon-Seok Chae,
…During the two-day gathering, doctors took turns in presenting case studies of miracles they had experiences with the date flashed on a big screen and then allowed questions from the medical audience.
These ranged from a man being raised from the dead, to a detached retina being healed, to other diseases both large and small.
Dr. Armando Pineda, who is now based in Florida and is Director of the World Christian Doctors Network USA, spoke passionately about the need for doctors to pray for their patients, citing the example of many Cubans he had been ministering to being set free from witchcraft.
A local revivalist also got involved:
…Dr. Jenis av Rana, Director of WCDN Scandinavia said, in hosting this year’s conference; “We don’t just want this conference to have an impact on the doctors attending but also on the people of Trondheim, which is why we have invited a healing evangelist Pastor Svein Magne Pedersen to hold an evangelistic healing meeting during the conference.”
…Veteran journalist and broadcaster, Dan Wooding, is hosting a TV special for the Global Christian Network (GCN) based in Atlanta, Georgia, about an extraordinary conference at which medical doctors from around the globe presented case studies and answered questions from their colleagues on miracles.
…Among others that Wooding interviewed was Dr. Chauncey W. Crandall IV, who serves at the Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, who recounted that after he had prayed for a patient who had died and was being prepared for the morgue, was brought back to life after prayer.
For some reason, however, Wooding neglects to mention the man behind both the World Christian Doctors Network and the Global Christian Network: a controversial South Korean faith healer named Jaerock Lee, whose teachings and activities have alienated him from other Christian groups in Korea and brought him critical media scrutiny, which he tried to suppress in 1999 by sending his followers to storm a Korean TV studio. Lee’s theology includes a belief in UFOs, and he claims to be able to perform a range of miracles, of which dramatic healings of the sick is just one kind. Wooding previously reported that when the Global Christian Network was launched in New York, God advertised the event with a “glowing cross” which “suddenly appeared in the darkened sky above the towering Empire State Building”. Lee and his Manmin Church have held events in a number of countries, including (as I blogged at the time) the Philippines, India, and the USA (where he faced protests from Christian groups). The event in the Philippines – as with Norway – was a medical conference, and David Prentice of the American Family Research Council was among the attendees.
As for those mentioned in relation to the latest conference, Chauncey Crandall’s account of raising someone from the dead was reported on a US news programme a few months ago (a sceptical analysis is available here). Pastor Svein Magne Pedersen, meanwhile, has a website in English here; however, at least one Norwegian website is unimpressed, claiming he has only a “5% suksessrate”. Dr. Jenis av Rana runs a Christian political party on the Faroe Islands called the Centre Party, or Miðflokkurin; he has been associated with Lee’s WCDN for several years.
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