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Healing the People?
| Date: |
21 August 2005 12:00 |
| Producer: |
Ingwe Productions
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| Show: | Carte Blanche |
Clip of Elvis Presley singing: 'Glory, glory, Hallelujah!'
The soulful tones of 'The King of Rock and Roll' boom out over what was once a drive-in theatre in the small North-West mining town of Stilfontein. But Elvis isn't the main attraction tonight.
Elvis singing: 'Glory, glory, Hallelujah!'
Every month thousands throng to see this man in the hope of a miracle. His name is Kobus van Rensburg and he and his wife, Annalise, are the founders of Spirit Word Ministries.
Congregation singing: 'Glory, glory, Hallelujah!'
To his followers, who journey here from all over Africa and the world, he's known as Prophet Kobus. Likened to the renowned Nigerian faith healer, Prophet TB Joshua, this Pentecostal minister is said to have been instrumental in healing 1 700 people in the last five years, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Kobus van Rensburg (senior pastor): 'Start walking! Start walking!'
Zimbabwean girl: 'I see him as a man of God, who God really uses to touch other people's lives.'
Kobus: 'He was sitting there. I went over and took his crutches away from him. He has got steel pegs [in his legs] and stuff. They were going to amputate his leg that week. He came back the next week without the crutches, and here he is tonight without the braces. Here are the x-rays. Glory to God!'
Ruda Landman (Carte Blanche presenter): 'How does it feel when you're standing there and this power, this spirit, is running through you?'
Kobus: 'It's not me. I think it is I have found a secret how to allow God to flow through me. Like a big pipe that is connected to the water tower; if you open it, the water will come out.'
Kobus: 'Father, give the man back his life.'
Ruda: 'Don't you think it could be dangerous, sometimes physically dangerous, that there are things that might be happening that you don't... you are not a doctor... you don't understand what is going on?'
Kobus: 'No I don't think so. I think I am busy with God's business and God will vindicate for us. I am not trying to exalt Kobus van Rensburg, I am not trying to exalt myself.'
But with live internet streaming and a twenty-four hour satellite channel beaming the services to millions, camera hype sometimes makes for scenes from a soap opera. This young woman said she hadn't walked for a month or spoken for four days.
Young girl: 'Mama, I can talk I can talk!'
While Kobus denies any hamming by his subjects, he has himself been accused of being a false prophet and a charlatan. But it hasn't dampened his somewhat off-the-wall style of ministry, with the backing of two of his sons in the church band.
Ruda: 'The atmosphere is often more like a rock concert than what you and I grew up with in church, but they're pulling in the crowds. While traditional churches around the world are seeing their numbers dwindle, the Pentecostals are bursting at the seams.'
This trend may not be evident in every country but, with an estimated half-a-billion Pentecostals in the world, it is now the second largest Christian movement after Catholicism. And Africa is the continent with the most followers.
Specialising in the interaction between religion and society, Anglican priest and sociologist, Paul Germond, explains the attraction of the Pentecostal movement.
Paul Germond (sociologist): 'There's globalisation, there's the forces in society that are so powerful that they make our ability to control our own lives very limited. We feel as if we are at the mercy of other things. And Pentecostalism taps you right into God's power.'
Kobus says he first felt that mainlining of power in his mid-twenties with a divine calling to heal. And in 1985 he was led through a dream to start this church in a tent in Stilfontein.
Kobus: 'We were in the tent two years before the drive-in closed down, but I prayed there every day. I say, 'Oh, Father, let this drive-in close; give us the drive-in for God's kingdom'.'
Annalise van Rensburg (Senior Pastor): 'And the cars were just standing from the top to the bottom. He says, 'Lord I closed down that drive-in and there will be a church, and on the screen will be written 'Jesus is alive!' '
Eventually they managed to buy the defunct drive-in. And in 2000, Kobus says, he was truly given the gift of healing, and claims to have healed up to three hundred people [from] HIV in a single service.
Ruda: 'My reaction, when you say you heal HIV, is that it is a very dangerous thing to say in South Africa at this point.'
Kobus: 'Ja, I can boldly say it. I think we've got more than enough proof that they are getting healed. And not just HIV positive, I mean full blown AIDS. They carry them in, in blankets.'
Kobus: 'You can smell it here, it's terrible. Oh, this man is in a shirt ... slow, slow, slow.'
Kobus: 'The body fluids are already running out their ears and their noses, they can't talk anymore.'
Kobus: 'This man is at the point of death. So Jesus loves you. People are blocking this man's nose he is busy dying. He is busy dying. May the spirit of death leave you now. Walk - in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.'
Kobus: 'And two, three months, they come in healthy, testifying.'
HIV case study: 'I feel much better every day. Here I am today, I'm healed.'
Ruda: 'How do you respond to someone who says, as a matter of fact, he has been instrumental in healing HIV regularly, not just once or twice?'
Paul: 'I think I would need to hold open the possibility that there is some sense of truth in what people claim. But I would be very cautious. The evidence would have to be overwhelming, rather than under-whelming.'
So we decided to get an outsider's perspective of Kobus' claimed healing. Two volunteers joined us at a Saturday evening service.
Jack van Wyk was involved in a car accident two years ago. It left him paralysed from the waist down.
Issa van Wyk (mother): 'There are many people praying for us, and if it's His will then my child will walk tonight. Perhaps it's not the Lord's will; perhaps we will have to follow another path.'
Beautician, Ankia van der Merwe broke her coccyx while giving birth to her daughter. Now persistent back pain may mean she will need to be on medication for the rest of her life.
Ankia van der Merwe: 'I am a person who believes in miracles so we can only but try.'
After his sermon Kobus got down to business. 'Sow and ye shall reap', says the Bible. At R500 000 a month to run the satellite TV channel and with a new 7 000-seater auditorium to pay for, the congregation were spiritually pummelled to dig deep.
Kobus: 'We cannot print without money. We cannot be on the air without money. We cannot broadcast without money, and thank God for the sprit we channel so well. I want the world outside there to see how people give. Are you ready?'
And to the beat of a catchy tune, the people sowed and the deacons literally raked in the money.
Ruda: 'Why so much emphasis on money? Because, listening to you on Saturday night, I mean you spent quite a lot of time... you keep exhorting people to give money. Why?'
Kobus: 'Why do they always ask Christians about money and nobody else?'
Kobus: 'They don't care if a Muslim drives down the road with a Ferrari, but a pastor just gets a 3-series or something. This church is not ashamed to talk about money.'
Kobus: 'Why can the world prosper, but the church are not supposed to prosper. I produce the Kingdom of God, I present Jesus Christ, I give people life, I give them the Word, I give them healing, see. So they give me money. That's how the word of God always operated.'
And so, with that out [of] the way, the people came down for healing. Reaching Ankia, Kobus demonstrated that her one leg was shorter than the other and then showed it 'growing' in his hands.
Kobus: 'Is it better? Is the pain gone?'
Ankia: 'It is gone.'
Kobus: 'Bless you.'
Towards the end of the evening Kobus also laid hands on Jack and prayed for him.
The following Monday we visited Jack and Ankia to find out what they had experienced in the service.
Jack: 'Look, he didn't do anything for me. I can't feel that anything has changed. I'd say that many of these people's sickness is in their heads. And if you believe that that man can heal you, then the chances of you getting better are good. But...my sickness is not in my mind.'
Although Jack admitted that he was sceptical, he's prepared to go back and believes that he will walk one day.
Ankia: 'When he was finished with me I really did feel better, yes... till I climbed into bed that night. I had excruciating pain, and so, according to me, it really didn't work. Up until today I've still got pain.'
Ruda: 'You say that for a few hours... what do you think?'
Ankia: 'I believe that the Lord uses instruments to heal people, but no, I don't believe it happens there.'
Ruda; 'Healing goes hand in hand with Kobus' belief that immortality is possible, that the faithful can one day live forever, that this body need not die.'
Kobus: 'And if we are not the generation that is not going to break through, there is a generation that shall not die'.
Paul: 'Mmm. Ha, ha, ha. Now that's interesting. But I think Christianity really embraces death. And Paul says for me to live is for Christ to die again. I would much rather, in fact, die and go to heaven.'
Kobus: 'Or as Romans 2:7 says, we must seek immortality. Now we are not made to die, that's right. Everybody fights death. We are not made to die.'
Paul: 'But I don't think that is what is at the heart of Christianity. I don't think Christianity can be reduced to the healing of physical ailment.'
But Kobus has found a way to spread his healing touch far afield. Spirit Word prints thousands of so-called 'Kobus cloths' a month - blessed and signed by him. On the flipside they advertise the TV channel and Spirit Word contacts.
Ruda: 'Isn't that a bit of a gimmick, if not a flyer, that you are handing out?'
Kobus: 'I think we see more miracles with the cloths than with people coming to the meetings.'
And for an electronic blessing, you can place your hand on his handprint on the website or, just get anointed through your TV...
Kobus: 'So in the name of the Lord Jesus I anoint you.'
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
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