A South African preacher claimed he could raise people from the dead… and then he did it on video.

So either he has supernatural powers… or the guy who looks like he’s breathing while lying in an open coffin in front of a giant crowd, only to “wake up” on cue when the preacher says the magic words, wasn’t really dead.

Who knows.

You can see it for yourself beginning around the 1:58:45 mark of the video below:

Pastor Alph Lukau of Alleluia Ministries International is the man claiming to heal the dead, and he’s in legit big trouble now, because various funeral homes near Johannesburg say they were duped into providing equipment for this ruse.

The awkwardly named “Kings and Queens Real Funeral Services” (as opposed to?) is already distancing itself from the preacher:

We were approached by alleged family members of the deceased who informed us they had encountered a dispute with a different funeral service provider and would like to use our transport services which we offered them. We did not supply the coffin neither did we store the deceased at our mortuary and no paper work was processed by Kings and Queens Funerals. As a Funeral Services Provider we do not offer services without documentation neither do we repatriate bodies without any paper work. We are in the process of taking legal action for this malicious damage to our image.

They’re not alone:

Three funeral companies who say they were manipulated by the “scheme” are now taking legal action for damage to their reputation. Kingdom Blue, Kings & Queens Funeral Services and Black Phoenix told local media that church representatives tricked them in different ways.

Even Lukau is now backtracking, saying that the man in the coffin wasn’t really dead. (No kidding.) But instead of just admitting the lie, he says the man was dead… he just started to wake up before the video captured it. Obviously.

The Sowetan news site reports that the church has since backtracked on its resurrection claim, saying the “dead” man was in fact “already alive” when he was brought to the premises in Kramerville. Pastor Lukau had only “completed a miracle that God had already started”, Alleluia International Ministries is quoted by The Sowetan as saying.

If that’s true, then Lukau didn’t need to pretend the man was dead while talking to the audience.

This whole event is a trick that backfired. The only thing dead is Lukau’s career… hopefully. If there’s a silver lining in all this, it’s that people are now using the hashtag #ResurrectionChallenge to mock Lukau — and all of religion while they’re at it.

Because no one comes back from the dead. Not even Jesus.

(Thanks to Kealoha for the link)

