In the late 1990s’, a particular biscuit brand came into the market and became quite popular among kids. Speedy Mini Cookies, as it was called, came in tiny chocolaty round shapes. Young people liked it and my elder sister became an instant consistent customer- it was speedy cookies in the morning, speedy at noon and speedy when the sun goes down! That came to an abrupt end when she had a most remarkable dream. In her dream, she had packets of this biscuit chase her all night with their forks and knives-they were obviously bent on having her for dinner! Need I say that she lost her craving for the delicacy thenceforth!
Sometime in the year 1205 AD, a young man, Giovanni di Bernardone, son of a wealthy Italian silk merchant, suddenly decides to forsake all the wealth, pleasures and privileges available to him to pursue a mundane life of self imposed poverty and itinerant preaching. He had seen a vision. He went on to found several religious orders, some of which are still in existence today.
Nineteen years later, in 1224, he had another vision which left him with grave and mysterious wounds in five places: both palms, each foot and by his rib side. This man, known more as Saint Francis of Assisi, became the first recorded case of the Stigmata- a mysterious phenomenon in which a person suddenly manifests bodily pains and bleeding scars believed to correspond to the crucifixion piercings (wounds) of Jesus Christ.
The supernatural and mysterious fascinates and interests us all. Be it alleged alien encounters and abductions, UFO sightings, apparitions, sculpted statues crying blood, visions, infants born with written warnings in their palms, humans with beyond normal abilities to tales of experiences of heaven and hell, real or imagined- just name it; if it's mysterious, it's bound to command a hearing. Some of these experiences are religious and mysterious while others, having no religious undertone, are just plain mysterious. Generally, those that have these encounters and experiences, especially the ones with religious implications, are given some message to pass to the rest of us.
These messages, even when purportedly coming from the same source (e.g. God) have been different and sometimes very conflicting. What message is a Christian to believe and what message is to be discarded? Most of these people who speak up seem to have actually had the supernatural experiences they claim. That is not to say their message is to be accepted because the supernatural simply means beyond natural and there is the negative supernatural as well as the positive supernatural. Everyone claims to have heard God; I’m wondering who then got the devil’s MMS because he’s sent quite a number of messages.
Saint Francis of Assisi mentioned earlier, was just the first of several people who were to experience the stigmata. Notable stigmatics amongst many others are Padre Pio; Italian Priest, whose stigmata and pains continued all through his life, from the day he got them, disappearing totally only hours after his death in 1968. Enza Milano who, in 1970, had a vision of Padre Pio (who was already dead by this time) appearing with a glowing dagger and piercing her in her palms, feet and chest, thus she began to suffer same- neither the doctors nor her could explain it. Therese Neuman, around the second quarter of the year 1926, after experiencing a vision, began bleeding from a wound on her side. Further stigmata appeared in her palms, and feet, forehead and back. Her experience was described as excruciating as she bled copiously, including blood flowing from her eyes on many occasion until her death. Dorothy Kerin who was scheduled to die from tuberculosis, inexplicably recovered after a vision. Then in 1915, stigmata appeared on her hands and feet. Hers, unlike some other stigmatics, appeared spontaneously on occasions, few people chosen by her witnessed the stigmata as she wanted them kept from public until after her death in 1963. The list goes on but let me spare you the history lesson.
Just for the records, I believe most of these folks spoke truthfully about their experiences. Most of them were in no position to gain much from carrying out any hoax- some were quite young when they claimed the experiences occurred, some were illiterate and all of them were deeply religious, simple people. However, this does not mean I accept all these as being from God. As a safety practice, any vision or spiritual experience that teaches or suggests doctrines varying, in part or wholly, from the true teaching of the Word of God is to be dumped ASAP!
If someone claims to have seen angels-I could believe that; if they claim to have been taken to or shown heaven or hell- I could believe that too; but if what Father Abraham or Nebuchadnezzar told you in the vision, to tell us about where they are now, is inconsistent with scriptures…no thank you! I can’t accept that-it doesn’t matter how much ‘Armageddon’ or piety you project in your voice during your message. Without this scriptural check, there will be much confusion stemming from a proliferation of dreams, visions and spiritual experiences seeking to control our view of God, heaven, hell and ultimately our lives. Imagine 50 different people seeing 57 different visions and coming up with 122 doctrinal interpretation (don’t bother doing the Mathematics; there’s no correlation between the coefficients!)
This has been the case over the years: Joseph Smith, founder of Mormon Church, said he saw Angel Moroni; Prophet Mohammed of the Islamic faith encountered Angel Jibril, Rev. Kenneth Hagin is said to have had several visitations from Jesus Christ and I, too have encountered Angel Nkechi! Now, don’t tell me you believe every single one of these assertions. If you believe any of these, on what do you base the choice of belief-that is the pertinent question that begs unbiased consideration. That doesn’t necessarily translate to the conclusion that the professors of these experiences were or are tricksters- they may have spoken of things perceived, whereas those things emanate from lying spirits. I’m just echoing scripture: test all spirits. Prophecies, visions and spiritual experiences are to be evaluated by Holy Scriptures.
To speak truthfully and to speak the truth are not always one and the same thing. At one time, one may speak truthfully (i.e. to sincerely, without intent to deceive or dupe-believing his words to be the truth) yet be wrong in his assertions. It has often been said that one can be sincere and yet sincerely wrong!
About the stigmatics, I’m particularly touched by the suddenness of the pains and wounds they suffered; they sought to relieve themselves through medical help to no avail and eventually died from complications related to their supposed ‘miraculous wounds.’ One in particular, Marie-Julie Jahenny (1850-1941), we are told, often thought that it was the devil attacking her. (I wonder why others didn’t come to the same scripturally logical conclusion.) Two scriptures to hold in mind as I wrap this up:
“…and no wonder! Satan does it all the time, dressing up as an angel of light” 2 Corinthians 10:14 [MSG]
“I pray that God will punish anyone who preaches anything to you! It doesn’t matter if that person is one of us or an angel from heaven!” Galatians 1:8 [CEV]
I would advise you read those two scriptures over and again to help inoculate yourself against the prevalent scourge of gullibility to these so-called visions from God. Stigmatas cannot be ‘gifts’ from God for several reasons. Firstly, they can neither be described as ‘good and perfect.’ (Perfect from Greek transliteration meaning complete and by contextual connotation appropriate). Every good and perfect gift is what we are told comes from the father of lights. These folks suffered; just read up accounts of their experiences- they seemed tormented! That’s not the modus operandi of God.
Then, these experiences profit nothing to the sufferers or the body of Christ. One attribute of true spiritual gifts from God is that they are given “to profit withal” (1 Cor. 12:7). If anything, they minister questions and doubts; creating an atmosphere of unhealthy mystery.
Besides, the crucifixion, to which the stigmata is tied to, by it very purpose, cannot support stigmata. This is because the crucifixion is the essence of what we call ‘the substitution of Christ in sufferings’; an encapsulation of experiences that the believer is NOT to have because the Christ took our place and bore them. This is different from ‘the example of Christ in sufferings’; these are the ‘light and momentary afflictions’, that the master passed through leaving us an example to prepare us for persecutions and the like.
I don’t know about you, but to me, it makes absolutely no sense that He was wounded, bruised, crushed and scarred for me and then I have to suffer the very same scars and pains. Wait, was He wounded for himself or for us? If I suddenly begin to bleed to death, what good does that do for me or the work of God on planet earth?
So, whether somebody goes to heaven and comes back with revelations of how, despite all the effort of the poor old Lord of the harvest, the Holy Ghost, only 3 people are qualified to enter heaven from the whole of Africa or that God is throwing folks into hell fire for using hair cream or that any supposed angel or dead saint appears with instruction for new prayers or recitation, believe me; you’re better off listening to ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’ than to such!
Our hope is built on NOTHING ELSE than Jesus blood and righteousness-the finished works of Christ! I believe in visions, I believe in supernatural encounters, I do not despise prophecies but they must be word based to be accepted of us. Tell me visions like those of Rick Joyner, Rev. Hagin and the like; visions that inspire faith, zeal for God and even when the visions bring correction or rebuke, they are infused with supernatural hope void of despair, that is characteristic of these dreadful false visions.
There’s a heaven to gain and a hell to shun, that does not mean I must rub only groundnut oil on my face and that I cannot wear gold wrist watch! If you must pay attention to a vision, let it be visions that tell us howbeit in different words, the same truths we find in the holy bible. That, my friends, is what to believe. Rest your faith on the grace of God.
Dave Nwajiuba
7th August, 2013.
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