David Herzog – Miracleman?

[BPSDB]As far as I can tell, David Herzog is an independeant evangelist but his methods seem to be taken from the same book as those of the UCKG.

Take the article which appeared in the Friday 16 October issue of the Evening Standard for instance. They quote an attendee at one of his events as saying “He put two big baskets at the altar to put money into, so you would have to walk to the front where everyone would see who gave and who didn’t.” Similarly, the UCKG require their faithful to place their “sacrifice” (preferably of a monetary nature) on the altar.

The attendee also quotes Herzog as saying that the more they gave the more God would deliver. Reminds me of the UCKG’s magazine “Faith in Action” which, as I have noted previously, pretty much says that if you hold out on God not only will miracles not be forthcoming but he will arrange for bad things to happen to you as well.

Lest either the UCKG or Herzog be deciding at this point to resort to Britain’s notoriously oppressive libel laws, let me repeat that I do not believe that there is any connection between them. I merely observe that the similarity in their methods offers an interesting insight ino the evangelist mindset.

Where the UCKG have their ‘demon summonings’, Herzog has instant miracles. At an event in Singapore, for example, one man claimed that he had just found a gold tooth in his mouth. We have only his word that it was not there before. Forgive me if I have my doubts. A woman claimed that she had just lost weight and held out her loose waistband as ‘proof’. We have no independant evidence that a large woman entered wearing her clothes as opposed to, say, a slim woman wearing oversized clothes.

A testimony on Herzog’s own website appears to condone dishonesty:-

Dear David and Stephanie Herzog,
Last year in 2008, you came to minister at a church in Wisconsin. A few of us rented a car to drive from Chicago to see you. Well, I had calculated how much money I had to save for the car rental and for gas. Just before going inside of the church, I had decided to give no more than $20.00. My first thought was to give $5.00 but all of that changed after the offering was being lifted. During this time a voice told me to give $50.00 out of all the money I had in my pocket, just $50.00. So when I took it out you said,” when you give, throw it up in the air and say I expect it to return double”. I did just that. About 2 weeks had gone by maybe a little longer, by then I had forgotten all about giving the $50.00. Well, I happened to be in a Walgreen’s store waiting in a somewhat long line. During this time waiting I was looking on the floor (something I always do). Nothing was on the floor at the time. I looked up because it was my turn to check out. Just as the person before me left I noticed under the counter on the floor what looked like a dollar. I was hopping nobody else saw it. As soon as I got closer I picked it up and saw it was $50.00 folded so I put it in my pocket. I said thank you JESUS. When I went to my car I took the money out of my pocket in folded the $50.00 bill and saw there was another $50.00 bill. (they were new bills) I sat there in shock and thanking GOD because I had newer found that much money before. Then I remembered the offering I was told to give and what you said to say while giving it. I thanked JESUS even more.

Be Blessed
Melita Warren

I am not sure what the legal position is in the States but in Britain Melita Warren would be guilty of “theft by finding”. Whatever the legal postion, it does not seem to occur to her that somebody in front of her in the queue dropped the money and now the poor sod is short of $100.

These dubious ‘miracles’ have the same purpose as the UCKG’s faux summonnings and exorcisms – to convince the faithful that the evangelist has God’s favour. One thing nobody seems to ask these people is where in the Bible does it say that God performs miracles in exchange for cash? Mine fails to mention it.