"Finally, Mr.Cooke mentioned that Jesus said that many of us will be able to do what He did and even greater things. That is true as witnessed by Peter and Paul being able to raise the dead, but those were His disciples who followed Him and were filled with His Holy Spirit. To infer that this applies to everyone no matter their relationship with Christ is disingenuous."

My response:

Implying that the text presented about this concept is disingenuous, or lacking in honesty, is pure presumption, as is the claim that this only applies to his disciples or apostles. By extension, that would also mean that anything said, or taught, to his disciples apply only to them and can, therefore, be ignored. And, in fact, that would also mean that no one need worry about having any faith, except the disciples, and thus "negates" all Christian doctrines about faith. All the teachings and statements of Jesus were meant for all the world, and specific ones cannot be arbitrarily singled out as exclusive to this person or that person, to prove one's point. Stephen Yulish's claim, if true, would mean, therefore, that he is putting forth his own personal doctrine on this particular issue and should be stated as such.

Stephen Yulish states:

"Thus in summary, I believe that while the Bible does speak of paranormal activities it also warns us not to participate in them because they are detestable to the Lord and can even lead to death. Be warned!"

My response:

This is a classic example of using a vague generality to make a blanket condemnation. This is the most effective tactic used by the pulpit to condemn anything it does not understand, or, is willing to accept. In my series of articles, I use meaningful specifics to cover these issues. It should be noted that Stephen Yulish focuses on only one very minor example of the paranormal in the Bible to imply that everything stated in my series of articles is evil and warns that it can lead to death.

Therefore, using Stephen Yulish's reasoning, it could be declared that everything Moses, the other prophets and patriarchs, Jesus, the apostles, the disciples, and other biblical characters performed, such as levitation, psychokinesis, astral projection, telepathy, glossalia, healing the sick, raising the dead, or anything else anomalous, was the direct cause of their deaths. This is not a very sound conclusion, but, is no less logical than Stephen Yulish's blanket condemnation of my entire article series based on one anomalous event in the Bible, which is a shaky example, as he presents it, at best.