A new documentary hosted by one of the nation’s leading journalists seeks to answer one of the most contentious questions among Christians: Are claims of modern-day miracles genuine works of God — or simply clever hoaxes?
Investigating the Supernatural: Miracles, hosted by CBN investigative journalist Billy Hallowell, examines miracle claims through the lens of science and the testimony of those who experienced them.
“Even though I’m a Christian, I’m always a little skeptical,” Hallowell told Crosswalk Headlines.
But when it came to the claims he examines in the documentary, he said he was left with “no other explanation” than this: God was at work.
One such miracle involved a claim by cardiologist Chauncey Crandall that prayer had helped bring life to a patient who was declared dead. That patient, Jeff Markin, suffered a massive heart attack in 2006.
Crandall, the emergency room doctor that day, said Markin was dead for 40 minutes.
“They pronounce Jeff Markin dead, and Dr. Crandall leaves the room and starts going on his way. But as this doctor is leaving the room to walk away, he suddenly feels a prompting from God — that’s how he described it — to go back and pray for Jeff Markin,” Hallowell said. “He ignores that prompting. And then again, he feels God say to him, ‘Go back and pray for that man.'”
Crandall returned to the room, prayed for Markin, and told the medical personnel to shock Markin’s heart.
“They shock him. He immediately gets a perfect heart rate back. And not only that, [but] two days later, Jeff Markin wakes up. He [also] has a near-death experience,” Hallowell said.
Miraculously, Markin’s brain was unharmed.
Other miracle claims examined in the documentary include a paralyzed police officer who says he walked again after prayer and a neuroscientist who says his fatal brain tumor mysteriously disappeared.
Hallowell acknowledged that Christians are divided on modern-day miracles. The documentary, he said, was created for both camps within the church — and for skeptics outside it.
“We wanted this to not be something that created more debate,” he said. “We wanted it to open up a conversation about what might actually be happening in these cases.”