This is the second in a two-part series investigating the curious phenomenon of ‘Gold Dust’ falling at charismatic church meetings. Read Part One here.

Sri Lankan magic man

Gold dust and similar phenomena have been exploited in recent years by practitioners like Kirby de Lanerolle, pastor of a large charismatic church in the Sri Lankan city of Colombo. De Lanerolle dangerously mixes elements of the Christian faith with New Age teachings. He once caused a sensation in western media by claiming to have lived without eating food for five years, insisting he only needed light and the “vibrations of God”, which “breatharian” lifestyle, he claims, can reverse ageing and make one immortal.

His ministry is accompanied by unusual ‘signs and wonders’, including instant weight loss, grey hair turning black, and an unhealthy focus on money miracles, such as cash supposedly appearing supernaturally in wallets; and, in like manner, ‘digital miracles’, whereby bank balances spontaneously augment. “It happens all the time for us”, de Lanerolle says. Other unlikely ‘miracles’ wrought by de Lanerolle are manifestations of gold dust and gemstones.

Canaan Land

Many have regarded the gold dust craze as so ridiculous that in 2020 a spoof movie, ‘Canaan Land’ was made, parodying the phenomenon. The video led the pastor of a well-known charismatic church to admit that gold dust and angel feathers are a hoax. “I've been on staff as an Executive Pastor at a big church,” the church leader said. “I want to confess that I faked gold dust stunts. We fooled many with special effects, and charged students thousands of dollars to go to our school where we claim to teach how to do miracles. … It was simple, we put gold glitter and feathers in the HVAC system and used fans to swirl it around. We planted glitter in Bibles. Once we did it a few times, imaginative types at church started thinking they saw it everywhere.”

Gemstones, manna and oil

It is a curious phenomenon that most of those who minister in ‘gold dust’ also observe other displays of the supernatural. The oozing of oil from their hands (and sometimes feet) is one common attendant manifestation – in Joshua Mill’s case, this occurs by the glassful! The supernatural flowing of oil is even more attested than ‘gold dust’, and Mills has written a book on the subject (another book could be written in response!).

The jeweller confirmed they were nothing more than plastic gems, the type used for wedding favours or table decorations.

The miraculous apparition of priceless gemstones is another intriguing display. I well remember, around a decade ago, an acquaintance of mine going to hear Joshua Mills when he was holding some meetings in the UK. He was booked to speak in a large school building often used for public events. But in the week prior to his arrival, Mills curiously insisted the location be moved to a hotel, the nearest one being five miles away.

At the meeting, Joshua characteristically got covered in gold dust, and gemstones apparently dropped from the heavens all over the assembly. My friend found one on the floor and brought it to church a couple of days later, greatly excited by his heavenly find. It looked like a tiny piece of plastic, and when I held it, I could tell that’s just what it was. I told my friend he should get a jeweller to inspect it, but he whisked it back into his pocket and we never heard another word about it.

Thankfully, the event organiser had his suspicions too, and he took a sample of the fallen objects to a local jeweller for inspection. The jeweller confirmed they were nothing more than plastic gems, the type used for wedding favours or table decorations – easily available on sites like Ebay and Etsy for as little as 99p a bag.

It transpired that nobody had actually seen the gemstones fall – people had simply found them lying on the floor. It seems that a strong motive for Mills insisting his event be held in a hotel was his hope that sceptics going to the bother of testing the gems would accept that the plastic counterfeits were wedding favours left on the carpet following a recent wedding in the hotel.

Seek and ye shall find

One might well ask why gold dust appears to a favoured few, while most believers go through their lives being completely untouched by any ‘golden glory’. Naturally, practitioners have various answers to this. Heflin, for example, claimed that ‘gold dust’ is mainly “manifested to those who seek it” (p.10). But are we called to seek after such material objects, even when they sparkle?

One might well ask why gold dust appears to a favoured few, while most believers go through their lives being completely untouched by any ‘golden glory’.

One also wonders if those ‘who seek it’ are indeed so desperate to ‘find it’ that they perceive ‘gold dust’ where there is none, mistaking the glisten of perspiration, for example, for ‘golden glory’. I remember being at one meeting where it was claimed that gold dust had spontaneously appeared on the faces of a married couple standing near the front of the church. I took a closer look, but could see nothing sparkling on their countenances at all.

Golden Critique

Paul’s audience in Berea demonstrated the wisest approach when confronted with phenomenal reports that claim to be from God. Acts 17:11 says that they “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

A couple of questions surface: if God were to reveal Himself to believers in a ‘golden dust cloud’, would He use plastic? Would the Holy God who created real gold manifest Himself with a cheap cellophane substitute (Job 41:11; Ps 50:12)?

Today, “we are too nice to judge. We give the false prophets a microphone and pay them an honorarium.”

Lee Grady notes how the apostle Paul was willing to mark “deceitful workers” who “disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” as dangerous instruments of Satan (see 2 Cor 11:13,15). Today, he believes, “we are too nice to judge. We give the false prophets a microphone and pay them an honorarium.”

Gold dust proponents reference a number of out-of-context Scripture verses to authenticate their ‘golden glory’ theatrics. These include Isaiah 60:1: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you”; and Exodus 34:29: “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai … his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD”. Other verses offered include Psalm 105:37 and Acts 17:24-28.

But these Scriptures, and others like them, are invariably taken completely out of context. There are no manifestations of glitter recorded anywhere in the Bible.¹ Even during the powerful apostolic days of the book of Acts, God’s glory was revealed in the transformed lives of those who called upon Jesus’ name. The purpose of the apostles’ miracles was to promote the resurrected Christ and were not an end in themselves (1 Cor 2:2; Acts 3:12). At no time did anyone report the appearance of a plastic glitter cloud as evidence of the Holy Spirit among them.

What’s the point?

One has to ask, further, what would be the point of God covering people with gold dust? Heflin and Mills share repeated stories of people rushing to surrender their lives to Christ as a result of seeing the dust. But I’m unable to find a single verifiable testimony of such taking place. Indeed, it would seem a most unlikely scenario; seeing someone covered from head to toe in glitter – as with the ‘elevator story’ – is far more likely to send them running in the opposite direction!

It's true that Jesus turned water into wine – which was as much as symbolic act as it was practical or compassionate. But at least people could drink it! And it spoke of the joy of the kingdom of God. But there seems to be no real point to ‘gold dust’ manifestations (and none at all when they turn out to be plastic!). As for turning silver fillings gold, Michael Shermer, president of the Sceptics Society, dismissed such a “classic urban legend”, raising the pugnacious question: “Of all the things going on – cancer, war, disease – God is busy changing fillings? That’s the best He can do?”

There seems to be no real point to ‘gold dust’ manifestations (and none at all when they turn out to be plastic!)

There are indeed many references to gold in the Bible. Gold was used, for example, in constructing the Temple. Here, it was all about worship – in the form of people sacrificially giving what they had to build the Temple, and in artisans and artists creating beautiful walls and objects as an expression of adoration. A far cry from God showering people with a washable covering.

Likewise, the radiance of those biblical characters who shone with God’s glory – be that Moses, Jesus at the transfiguration, or Stephen at his martyrdom – clearly bears no relation whatsoever to someone bespeckled with glitter.

The golden calf

It is not the purpose of this article to malign or question the integrity of anyone who has experienced a ‘gold dusting’. It is indeed possible that, in exceptionally rare occasions, God has done this for a very specific purpose, as a sign perhaps (such as the unusual manifestation of Gideon’s fleece). However, to many, gold dust seems to have become a ‘golden calf’.

There is nothing wrong with gold as a blessing; what is wrong is when it, or the appearance of it, becomes a ‘god’ – an ‘object of worship’. Judged or ‘valued’ by the presence or absence of gold dust, it only shows that idolatry has set in.

There is nothing wrong with gold as a blessing; what is wrong is when it, or the appearance of it, becomes a ‘god’.

And so we’re back to where we started with the Toronto Blessing – taking our eyes off our awesome, mighty God, and fixing them instead on (in this case) tiny little (plastic) particles that sparkle in the light. How myopic; how foolish – how idolatrous.

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Lord, forgive us. May Your people cease their silly, meaningless and potentially harmful antics, and return forthwith to worshipping the God of Glory, rather than the so-called ‘golden glory’; the true Creator rather than the merely created.

Endnote
1 There is the account of manna being supplied to the Israelites in the desert (Ex 16), and of jars of oil being produced by Elisha (2 Kings 4). Both of these miracles, of course, were for the purpose of serving practical needs (Phil 4:19).