Tanzania: 'Corpse Raising' Preacher Yet to Perform Miracle

I can raise the dead

Arusha — ALL roads in Arusha seem to be leading to the Railway Station grounds where Pastor Josephat Gwajima is conducting a large meeting where he boasts to be able to 'raise the dead!"

The Dar es Salaam based cleric, set camp here last Friday intending to preach in the City for two weeks. "There is nothing strange or weird in raising the dead, it is very clearly stated in the Bible right from the Old to the New Testament," said Mr Gwajima and revealed a testimony in which he claimed to have so far brought back to life 450 'dead' persons in his resurrection portfolio.

To substantiate the claims, Pastor Gwajima paraded four alleged 'zombies' on stage, people who professed to have died years ago but came back to the land of the living after being prayed for.

He ordered the 'living dead' to speak for themselves and challenged anybody who still does not believe to purchase a DVD on sale.

Pastor Gwajima says; "I do not oppose people dying, it is just that nobody should face premature death through witchcraft or other dubious causes," he stated, adding that people should die at the age of 70 and not younger than that and certainly not through the forces of darkness.

Tens of thousands of Arusha residents have flocked to Pastor Gwajima's crusade rally, many vowing to test the preacher's claims of raising people from the dead by submitting names of newly deceased friends and relatives at the meeting.

"This is my first ever open-air rally to be held in Tanzania and I am starting the trend in Arusha before moving to Kilimanjaro, Tanga, Mwanza, Morogoro, Dodoma, Iringa and other regions," said Pastor Gwajima.

For years, Pastor Gwajima, though based in Dar, has been preaching mostly in overseas countries of Europe, United States and Asia.

"My preaching is not for self-enrichment," maintained Pastor Gwajima, boasting to be the wealthiest church minister in the country, "I am the only pastor who owns helicopter," he said and to attest the fact he drove into the venue in a flashy red Hummer which was escorted by a high-end Toyota Land-cruiser VX, among other trendy vehicles.

Now, based on Steve Hays' arguments, what can we say? I suppose that we have to accept these claims at face value or else we are borrowing methods from skeptics and atheists. But then again, we are talking about someone that seems to be drifting more and more into the bizarre with his openness to paranormal activities, muslim dreams and visions about Jesus bringing the gospel to them, and who knows what else. This man presented four people that claimed to be dead for years, not days. And he supposedly raised them from the dead. Apparently you are not supposed to die before age 70 and if you do, he can raise you from the dead. Not only that, but any Christian should be able to do this, according to Gwajima.

When you compromise on Sola Scriptura, and you permit just about any hermeneutical method to enter the camp, it becomes nearly impossible to stop the flow of rancid, putrid dogmas and ideas that enter the community passing themselves off as biblical, or cutting edge, or fresh ideas. The modern American mind is full of itself and it is so without good cause! Regrettably, this pattern of thinking fills the ranks of the young and the restless who view the sacred teachings of the Church as just one more toy to be revised, updated, revamped and called their own.