“Dental miracles” the latest to hit Toronto
TORONTO–First there was the Toronto Blessing. Now there's the Toronto Filling. Gold filling.
More than 300 people attending services at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (TACF), home of the five-year-old "Toronto Blessing," claim to have received gold or silver fillings or gold caps on their teeth.
The latest phenomenon has spread to nearby Eastgate Christian Fellowship, a Hamilton daughter church to TACF, whose pastor, Jim Paul, says his amalgam fillings have turned to bright silver.
"I've been to a dentist," Paul reports. "He said 'something has polished your teeth.' He didn't know what kind of metal it was."
The bizarre events have their origins in Argentina, where many people apparently began receiving gold fillings in the 1980s. Paul says he witnessed the phenomenon in meetings there. Then, two years ago, John Arnott, senior pastor at TACF, witnessed similar incidents in Mexico.
Arnott and his wife, Carol, recently visited South Africa, where "they prayed for gold teeth," according to Arnott's assistant, Petra Drnovscek, and "it started happening everywhere."
When TACF held a prayer conference in early March, attended by some 3,000 people, Arnott showed pictures from South Africa of people with new gold fillings. Arnott prayed that the same thing would happen in Toronto.
Video records
"Instantaneously many people said 'my teeth are turning gold,'" says Paul. "We have it on video." On film, he says, "you could see the color change from dark metallic to gold or silver."
Arnott could not be reached for comment, as he was leaving at press time for Argentina. He did release a statement, however, suggesting the gold teeth movement "is a sign and a wonder to expose the skepticism still in so many of us."
Arnott says TACF leaders have encouraged people "to verify these miracles with their dentists." While some turned out to be false reports, the majority, says Arnott, "seem to be beyond explaining, other than that God has given these wonderful gifts."
The reports have some theologians and Christian dentists shaking their heads. Ron Kydd, whose book Healing through the Centuries was published last year, says there have been previous reports of similar events taking place, along with reports of leg-lengthening. "Both claims made me quite skeptical," he says.
Kydd, a former professor at Eastern Pentecostal Bible College and now an Anglican minister, says such claims are more understandable in underdeveloped countries where most people don't have easy access to dental care.
The current phenomenon "sounds a little capricious on God's part, because many of these people have dental plans."
Kydd says he doesn't know whether the phenomenon is real, "but it seems to trivialize the work of God."
Toronto dentist Robert Clark says he has heard similar stories of fillings turning gold in the past, but they were from a New Age rather than a Christian context. One woman told him a few years ago about silver fillings turning to gold, but "what she was describing didn't sound like anything tied to a movement of the Holy Spirit."
Clark, a member of the Christian Medical Dental Society, is skeptical. "To have a material switch completely into another one…what would be the purpose? I don't see how that's going to fit into my faith."
Clark wonders why God wouldn't just give the persons brand new teeth. "I just don't know what he'd be trying to prove turning silver into gold if he could change [them] into newly built teeth."
Dentist Red Warren says he examined an individual a few months ago who claimed to have a gold filling. "I found no evidence to substantiate his claim."
Warren, also a member of CMDS, doesn't think God would use gold when he could replace the faulty tooth. "In what way does my filling turning to gold bring honor to the Lord Jesus Christ?"
"We don't know why" the phenomenon is happening, says Jim Paul. But he insists something is happening. "The one who turned water into wine has been doing something in my body."
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