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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | khuck ... thanks for your answers .. | Gal 6:17 | khuck | 103130 | ||
Hi Joel :) I can not dispute or confirm what has happened in your life. Although in all earnest I will admit to you that I am skeptical of stigmata. There are many who trust these incidents and others who are detractors of them. May I ask you please for the sake of my sincere curiosity, 1. What do you equate this phenomena to in your life? 2. Why do you think that God is relating to you in this way? 3. Do you know of any Spiritual benefit of this phenomena to yourself or others? Stigmata: In Imitation of Christ. -Author: Joe Nickell Of reputed miraculous powers, perhaps none is more popularly equated with saintliness than stigmata, the wounds of Christ's crucifixion allegedly duplicated spontaneously upon the body of a Christian. Indeed one historical survey indicated that about a fifth of all stigmatics are eventually beatified or canonized (Biot 1962, 23). The year 1999 brought renewed interest in the alleged phenomenon. Among the offerings were the movie Stigmata (which even contained a brief shot of my book, Looking for a Miracle -Radford 1999); a Fox television pseudodocumentary, Signs from God, which featured a major segment on stigmata (Willesee 1999); and the Vatican's beatification of the Italian stigmatic Padre Pio (CNN / Time 1999). For an in-progress television documentary, I took a new look at the subject. Evolving Phenomenon From the death of Jesus, about A.D. 29 or 30, nearly twelve centuries would pass before stigmata began to appear-unless one counts a cryptic Biblical reference by St. Paul. In Galatians 6:17 he wrote, "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Many scholars believe Paul was speaking figuratively, but in any case the statement may have been sufficient to prompt imitation. St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) is credited with being the first stigmatic-- or at least the first "true" one, his affliction occurring just two years after that of a man from Oxford who had exhibited the five crucifixion wounds in 1222. That man claimed to be the son of God and the redeemer of mankind, but he was arrested for imposture, his wounds presumed to have been self-inflicted. In 1224 St. Francis went with some of his "disciples" up Mount Alverno in the Apennines. After forty days of fasting and prayer he had a vision of Christ on the cross, whereafter he received the four nail wounds and a pierced side. Francis appears to have sparked a copycat phenomenon, since publication of his reputed miracle was followed by occurrences of stigmata "even among people who were much lower than St. Francis in religious stature, and have continued to occur without intermission ever since," according to Catholic scholar Herbert Thurston (1952, 122-123). He continues: What I infer is that the example of St. Francis created what I have called the "crucifixion complex." Once it had been brought home to contemplatives that it was possible to be physically conformed to the sufferings of Christ by bearing His wound-marks in the hands, feet and side, then the idea of this form of union with their Divine Master took shape in the minds of many. It became in fact a pious obsession; so much so that in a few exceptionally sensitive individuals the idea conceived in the mind was realized in the flesh. Thurston believed stigmatization was due to the effects of suggestion, but experimental attempts to duplicate the phenomenon, for example by using hypnosis, have been unsuccessful--except for a related case which appears to have been a hoax. (The psychiatrist reported that bloody tears welled inside the subject's eyelids, but a photograph shows rivulets originating outside the eyes.) |
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2 | khuck ... thanks for your answers .. | Gal 6:17 | joel k | 103517 | ||
also I forgot to add ... I have dealt with this for years but only 2 months ago did I ever even hear the word stigmata. A friend gave me the movie and said I should watch it, but after learning what the word means, I can't watch it. I don't understand about those people who self induce these marks, because I truely wish I didn't have to. I know the purpose is not for me ... so I try not to think about the reasons or the pain, for I know that I am guilty, I am a sinner. And just like Paul I have a constant struggle with sin, a thorn in my side. But there are many sins passed over because of the love of forgivness. Does this make any sense to you? Joel k |
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