Elijah Stephens On The Evidence for Miracles In His Documentary Send Proof

The Don't Stop Podcast

Elijah Stephens always wrestled with the topic of miracles. He grew up in a Christian home, and was taught to believe in God at a young age. However, he was abused by his mom, who was also his Bible school teacher. The abuse would result in C-PTSD, and lingering questions about the nature of God. When Elijah was a teenager, he saw his mom conned by faith healers, and rejected modern miracles as ruses to make money. In 1999, he went to a Christian college, and began experiencing doubts while studying philosophy. He reasoned that seeing miracles with his own eyes would erase his doubts, and having seen what he thought were miracles, he became an associate pastor in the Vineyard Movement from 2005-2011.

After having served in that movement, he went to school at Bethel. Upon leaving the church, his former senior pastor, leaves the faith. He said there was no God, and that the miracles Elijah saw were illusions. This sent Elijah on a journey to look for miracle evidence. If miracles occur, they should leave behind evidence.

During his time at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, he was inspired to make a film about miracles with medical evidence. His hope was to encourage people to start sending miracles for research purposes. He put up a website, and it went nowhere. He received a few testimonies that were unverifiable. So he decided to look into going back into ministry instead, and was receiving job offers.

In February of 2015, Elijah was at his house, when his friends started texting him that a traveling preacher named Shawn Bolz had called his name out at church. Therefore, he drove to the church, and was told by the pastor a “prophet word.” In the word, Elijah is told his name, birthday, that he lived in Chattanooga, and grew up in Georgia, as well as his wife’s name. The speaker then tells Elijah, “God is commissioning you. Go make the film”. In The winter of 2015, Elijah was able to raise $130,000 on Kickstarter for Send Proof. Send Proof was his first documentary. While working on the film Elijah began pursuing two masters degrees: Apologetics; and Science and Religion, which he finished both in Dec. 2019. The goal was to research the most difficult questions about healing miracles.
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Why is the film called Send Proof?

One of the biggest hindrances to researching miracle claims in the evangelical movement is that Christians often don’t value the need for evidence. The purpose of Send Proof is to change their perspective by calling on those who claim to be healed and ministries that report those healings to allow the Global Medical Research Institute (GMRI) to investigate their claims. We believe the burden of proof falls on those making the claim. Thus, we want people to Send Proof of healing miracles.

Why is Send Proof such a controversial movie?

It is the first documentary of its kind that shows miracle claims that have been researched and published in peer-reviewed journals. If miracles do occur, it challenges the prevailing naturalistic understanding of reality throughout the West. Modern miracles can point to the possibility of the existence of God, the resurrection of Jesus, and divine intervention in creation.

How can we see it?

It will have a limited theatrical release, be shown in churches, and video on demand starting Sept 14th. Visit Sendproof.com for more details.

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