Man Raised From the Dead!"Why should any
of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?" (Acts 26:8)
The
following banner headline appeared in the Nigerian newspaper, The Post Express: "BONNKE RAISES MAN FROM DEATH IN ONITSHA".
Was it true, a divine
miracle, or sensationalist press exaggeration? Jesus did say, "Though one
rose from the dead they would not believe." Judge for yourself. The evidence
and facts are here without embroidery but on the very spot they stunned critical
journalists and left them speechless.
From
Rigor Mortis Corpse to Resurrection Man: The Story of Daniel Ekechukwu Reported
by CFAN field correspondents Robert Murphree and George Canty
Crossing Death's Path In the morning
of November 30th 2001, Daniel Ekechukwu, the pastor of the Power Chapel Evangelical
Church in Onitsha, with his friend Kingsley Iruka took a Christmas present of
a goat to his father in a village near the town of Owerri. Daniel drove his 20-year-old
Mercedes 230. On the way back home, traveling down a steep road, the Mercedes
brakes failed. Daniel could do nothing. Gathering speed the vehicle hurtled downhill
unstoppable. Its career, and Daniel's, ended as it smashed into a stone pillar.
Without a seat belt Daniel was catapulted violently forward. His head hit
the windscreen and the steering wheel and knob punched into his body. Daniel's
friend Kingsley Iruka, shocked though not badly hurt, turned to Daniel, hoping
all was well. But the sight appalled him. Blood was pouring from Daniel's nose
from a head injury, and then he began vomiting blood from heavy internal hemorrhage.
Rescue presently came. Marvelously Daniel held up until he was placed in
the local hospital's intensive care, or the Nigerian best equivalent of it. His
wife, Nneka was sent for. She found Daniel still alive but only just. He hung
on to life to ask her to have him taken to his family doctor's hospital in Owerri
- a very serious mistake. It meant anything but a smooth ride of one and a half
hours. Within minutes of being lifted into the ambulance Daniel felt himself
dying. He tried to whisper his last words and instructions to Nneka. Especially
he begged her to see the work of their church continued. He also tried to inform
her about one or two church situations she ought to be aware of, but his speech
slurred, became incoherent and stopped as he drifted into unconsciousness. The
ambulance driver pushed on however, at full speed, warning sirens blaring. Reaching
the Owerri Regional Hospital they ran in shouting "Emergency! Emergency."
Daniel's doctor, however, was not on duty. Instead a member of the medical staff
took charge and checked Daniel's now limp form. He turned to them with a sad face.
He could only certify that Daniel was already dead. His wife Nneka naturally
was shocked. But a Bible verse had been ringing in her mind from Hebrews 11 "Women
received their dead raised to life again." An irrational conviction seized
her. This meant her. She would see Daniel alive and well again. In what follows
Nneka was the key figure. Evidence of things Hoped
For The text in Nneka's head made it impossible for her to accept
the plain evidence that Daniel had gone or allow him to be buried. Her agitation
dictated that something must be done. They hurried to see Daniel's uncle, Okoronkwo
Emmanuel living near the hospital and asked if he knew where their own family
doctor was. He did not know, but led them to see his own doctor, Dr. Jossy Anuebunisa
at the St. Eunice Clinic. Daniel was taken there and seeing Nneka's determination
again the doctor checked. He could only confirm death had taken place. The time
registered was 11.30 p.m. of the day of the car accident.
The doctor then wrote out his report on the decease of his patient and
asked if they wished to have Daniel laid in the clinic's mortuary. They declined.
Instead they again moved the body to Daniel's father in the village near Owerri
and from there to the Ikeduru General Hospital Mortuary, not far away. The resident
mortician, Mr. Barlington R. Manu, also carried out the normal checks and by then
it was after midnight, one o'clock Saturday morning. The mortuary having
no cold storage facilities, the mortician administered the usual chemical injection
and prepared the body for embalming on the following morning. With a staff member
he laid the body out on a mortuary slab between two other dead people. Everyone
then retired for the night. Faith: The Turning
Point Meanwhile Daniel's wife convinced her husband would live
again, wanted his body taken to the church in Onitsha where Reinhard Bonnke was
to speak at a dedication ceremony of the Grace of God Ministries. Daniel's father,
however, was a Mormon and declared he would decide. He said he would go and "hit
him with the Bible seven times", and if Daniel did not rise, then Nneka must
accept the fact that he was not going to rise from the dead, and that must close
the matter. He did go and struck the corpse as he said seven times, with no result
whatever.
Nneka, being a Christian, considered a Mormon would not understand. His
performance meant nothing except to put her off. She would not give up. She pestered
her father-in-law. Daniel must be taken to the Bonnke meeting. Realizing that
if he refused this favor, she would remember all her life he had denied her request
on behalf of her husband. Eventually he relented. On the next day, Sunday,
December 2, they went to take the body from the mortuary. But the mortician was
worried about their intentions. To hide the fact that a body was being taken away
as it was, with a one and half hours drive to Onitsha, as a pretext he dressed
the body as for the funeral, placed it in a coffin and shut the lid. They took
Daniel in his coffin and set off. Arriving at the Onitsha church compound,
the State security officer and the ushers saw them entering with a coffin and
ordered them to turn round and leave immediately. Nneka however was determined.
She pleaded and persisted not only for the coffin to be allowed in the church
compound but brought into the church itself. Seeing her agitation, the State security
office checked that the coffin did contain a body and was not a terrorist trick
to plant a bomb. Finding only a pallid corpse he allowed them to proceed. However
the idea of bringing a coffin or a dead body into a crowded church brought consternation
and upheaval. Finally the Head Bishop's son Pastor Paul Jr. sought his father's
permission to get the body into the building, but it would have to be only into
the children's department. The children were ushered into the lower hall, and
the corpse brought in the upper room and laid out on a table. The Bishop's son,
Paul, and another pastor on the church staff, Bathcomery Nkwando, attended to
this and found rigor mortis had stiffened the limbs. Life
Returns! Two other staff pastors, Lawrence Onyeka and Luke Ibekwe
joined them to guard the body. Meanwhile Reinhard Bonnke knew nothing of this
and was preaching and praying upstairs in the main auditorium. After a while the
pastors noticed a slight twitching of the stomach of the corpse. Then the
corpse drew a breath, and presently irregular breathing took place in "short
bursts" as they reported. Encouraged, the pastors threw themselves into powerful
petitionary prayer, stripped the body of the mortuary gloves, socks and shirt
and began massage from head to foot, Daniel being as said "as stiff as an
iron rod". They asked for fans to be brought in to give Daniel more air to
breathe. As this news broke out in the sanctuary above it created hysterical pandemonium.
Then, said Pastor Lawrence, at 5:15 on the Sunday afternoon, nearly two days after
death had taken place, Daniel opened his eyes, sat up and leaned on Pastor Lawrence.
People began crowding into the hall to see this resurrection man. Pastor
Lawrence was worried Daniel would not have enough oxygen, so he lifted and carried
him into the church sanctuary. Daniel spoke for the first time "Water. Water."
They gave him sips and then warm tea. To give him a clear space they seated him
on a chair on the platform, where hundreds of people saw him slowly recovering.
He had not yet collected his thoughts and for a while could not recognize anyone,
not even his own son who came up to see his dad. However, he progressed, and within
only hours, during the evening, he had full consciousness and coherence. He
became a wonder, and crowds besieged his home, so he was taken away to a secret
location for two days of physical re-strengthening. The once-dead man not only
rose from his coffin but the serious injuries, which had brought about his death,
were also healed without the slightest trace. Reinhard Bonnke meanwhile
had left the immediate scene to board a planned plane flight. Any doubts? Here
are some hard facts that won't go away. For two days Daniel did not breathe, his
heart had stopped beating. It was in a hot climate, not suspended animation in
an ice chamber. He had been injected with a harsh chemical to keep back mortification.
As a corpse he was carted around for hours, pulled about, and lay in an airless
narrow coffin for hours. He should have had severe brain damage, but he is alive
now without any ill effects. This is no unsupported claim of bringing someone
to life privately, as in a house. Here was a public event, an open demonstration
of revival from death. If anyone has to be named, it is Nneka. Her incurable faith
alone prevented Daniel's burial simply to bring him where she was convinced God
could bring him back to life. She regarded Reinhard Bonnke as a man of God and
that in the atmosphere of faith where he ministered this miracle was possible.
The faith of Nneka dictated the whole event and her faith was honored.
By whom? Who honored her faith? If not God, who else?
Report by
Robert Murphree and George Canty
This story is reprinted here with permission
from Christ For All Nations.
Reinhard Bonnke's Christ for All Nations (CfAN) ministry has released a 45-minute
video
of Ekechukwu's testimony.
Ekechukwu's wife was so sure that God would bring her husband back to life after
he was fatally injured in an auto accident that she persuaded the local mortuary
to allow her to take his body to the church where Bonnke was preaching. There
pastors lifted Ekechukwu from the coffin in which he had been laid, and were amazed
when the man started to breathe again as they prayed for him. The CfAN video includes
footage of Ekechukwu beginning to stir, and later returning to the mortuary where
his body had been laid out. The "Raised from the Dead" report,
subtitled "A 21st Century Resurrection Story," features interviews with
one of the doctors who certified Ekechukwu dead, and the mortician. "It's
shocking," one of them tells the video team. "Seeing a dead man, someone
that was once dead and is now alive...it is very shocking. To God all glory should
go." Senior pastor Pat Nwachkuw Sr. tells the CfAN documentary makers
that when members of the church learned about Ekechwuku's resurrection, a woman
who had been on crutches threw them away and started running, and her husband
ran to the church altar to ask God to forgive him his sins. Interviewed
by CfAN, Ekechukwu says when he was being taken to the hospital in the ambulance,
he was visited by two angels and taken to heaven. There he saw a "multitude"
of people dressed in white who were singing and praising God. Then he was taken
to hell, he says. The angel told him that he had "another chance"
to go back, and that the rich man's request to Lazarus -- to warn those still
alive about hell -- had been "granted to this generation." Ekechukwu
said that he had been told he could return to the living to give "a last
warning to this generation." In commentary on the video, Bonnke says
that the testimony -- which has been reported in Nigerian newspapers -- spoke
of "stubborn faith and the miracle power of Jesus." Ekechukwu's story
is a "sign from heaven," he says.
You can obtain your own copy of the full-length video documentary
of Daniel Ekechukwu. This video contains medical support documentation,
eye-witness reports, along with Daniel's own personal testimony.
He will tell you what he experienced during the time between his
death and resurrection. It is a touching description that will be
100% verified and validated. This video does not sensationalize.
It celebrates what the Lord has done before our own eyes. This video
is available from Living
Faith Online Bookstore or call (toll-free) 1-888-258-7447 or
(574) 295-4357.
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