Old news but still relevant: James Randi Debunks Peter Popoff

Like James Randi, I want to stay in the real world. I don't want to be influenced by poor reasoning. I think that God has revealed himself historically and supernaturally in Scripture, and I depend on divine guidance. There are thousands of Biblical manuscripts which speak of the same God dealing with his creation, and it is reasonable to accept his inspired word.

As stated with my comments on Hinn and Angley, in the Bible healing and the supernatural did take place. I myself have witnessed the power of the supernatural by seeing an exorcism of a person I know. However, personal experience is not my primary reason for being a Christian, rather I trust in God's guidance, and revelation, and I accept that God is hyper-rational, not illogical, and able to make truth known to me.

Clearly, in the case of Popoff and his wife, deception has taken place. Is his wife going to claim that the Holy Spirit guided her to know the information that she passed on to her husband? I never want to judge the inner motives of anyone, but from both the Randi clip and the wikipedia article in the comments, it can be seen that the Popoff's have made a lot of money from their racket, and this is likely an obvious motivation.

Although these healing ministries appear fraudulent, they still preach some type of gospel message. Philippians mentions in 1:17-19 that some preach Christ out of selfish ambition, and not from pure motives, but Paul rejoices that Christ is still being proclaimed. To many in the Church perhaps these phony healing ministries are fraudulent, but not the threats to Christianity that pseudo-Christian cults are. In posting Hinn, Angley, and Popoff, I hope to share a satirical laugh, but also point out that these type of ministries are not in line with the Biblical New Testament model. Jesus and the Apostles did not attempt to perform phony healings for selected people, but from Scriptural evidence were empowered by God. I believe that God can empower someone to perform a healing, but so often I think certain people want to make supernatural things happen and for this reason I think scepticism is healthy in regard to healing and miracles.