Attendees Experience Gold Dust at Gospel of the Kingdom Conference
In February, Christian Union hosted the Gospel of the Kingdom Winter Conference in Manhattan with guest speaker Ken Fish.
The theme of the conference was “Personal Evangelism: Rediscovering the Fun and Joy of Leading People to Christ through Signs and Wonders.”
Fish, Princeton ’82, is the founder of Kingdom Fire Ministries, which seeks “to train and equip Christian leaders to engage substantively with culture in order to transform it according to the values and practices of the Kingdom of God.”
The Gospel of the Kingdom is a ministry of Christian Union dedicated to assisting those who would like to learn more and explore the supernatural dimension of the Christian life.
According to attendees, signs and wonders were prevalent at the Gospel of the Kingdom Conference. Some reported witnessing healings and numerous instances of deliverance; others said they had gold flakes and gold dust appear on their hands and clothes during prayer times.
“[The gold dust] appeared to happen out of nowhere,” said Dr. Chuck Hetzler, the pastor of Bethesda Grace Church in New York. “The people were in a prayer line and it happened sporadically to some of them.”
Mobile phone images and videos taken at the conference show tiny, triangular-shaped, flakes of various tones on a man’s hand.
Whit Hazelton, marketing director for Christian Union Day and Night, said tiny sparkles and an oil-like substance appeared on his hands and also on the hands of five other people.
“You had to move your hand around to get them to catch the light and shine,” he said. “My skeptical thought at the time was, ‘Could this simply be sweat on my hands that is shining in the light (there was pretty bright overhead lighting), but it seemed too sparkly to be that. Also, why would so many people have such sweaty hands?”
A professor at a New York City college who holds a PhD from an Ivy League university said she was “covered from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet with gold dust.”
The professor appreciated how Fish challenged attendees to share their faith more openly and to combat the fear of judgement and rejection. When she came forward for prayer, the gold dust appeared, she recalled.
“I was on the floor under the power of the Holy Spirit and I was not much aware of what was happening around me. I have had gold dust appear on my hands before and after the conference, but since then it has been much more often,” she said.
The gold dust claim was supported by another professor from a liberal arts college who is a 2007 Yale alumnus.
“Many of us saw it,” he said.
A woman who was being prayed for by Ken Fish had “oil on her fingertips and gold dust on her palm.”
“Then it started to spread to others—and I don’t mean because she was touching people. At one point, another woman’s face was covered.”
“It’s certainly possible that there is some alternative explanation, but I didn’t see any evidence for an alternative. So, yeah, it did seem like it was God.”
He also spoke about a similar anecdote that was unrelated to the conference, but also involved gold dust.
“One of the students from my church here in New England, who was not at the event and who did not know about what had happened there, came up to me at church and (rather distressed) told me that earlier in the week he saw what looked like gold dust on another student’s neck while they were praying,” he recalled. “So...that’s pretty incredible to me.”
Over the last 20-25 years, there have been sporadic reports of gold dust appearances at churches and conferences, but there is extensive debate about whether these events are truly miracles of God. Many believe that there are insufficient theological perspectives available to “test the spirits (1 John 4: 1-3).” Thus, many Christians are skeptical of any gold dust claims.
One of those skeptics is Warren Smith, former Associate Publisher of WORLD Magazine. Smith, who once sent a reporter to cover gold dust sightings at a church conference, said people in attendance at these events may truly believe that “they saw what they are saying they saw,” but, “the gold dust did not appear when there were independent observers present. My reporter concluded that those who saw gold dust were either mistaken or caught up in the emotions of the moment. It is also possible they were the victims of a complete fraud.”
Apologist Justin Peters echoed those comments after doing research on a church in Florida. El rey Jesus Church in Miami claimed to have gold dust falling during a service multiple times. “I don’t deny that people are having some kind of experience,” Peters said in an interview with Todd Friel. “What I question is the source of those experiences… It’s an absolute show.”
A 2009 video posted by The Embassy of the Kingdom of God in Fort Lauderdale, Florida includes still shots of people worshipping and praying that are set to worship music. Scrolling text tells viewers that oil, gold dust, and diamonds have appeared on the hands of worshippers following a message by Guillermo Maldonado, the pastor of El rey Jesus Church.
Another gold dust video on YouTube is from Bethel Church in Redding, California. In the video, the people in attendance react with wonder to a cloud at the top of the sanctuary that church leaders say was gold dust.
In a 2016 blog post, “Raising the Dead, Gold Dust, and Feathers,” Kris Vallotton, a senior associate leader with Bethel Church, defends not only gold dust sightings, but also talks about feathers falling during some meetings.
“I don’t think we have taken more ridicule for anything than gold dust and feathers,” Vallotton wrote. “It all began one day while someone was preaching, and these tiny white feathers started falling from the ceiling in the sanctuary. It wasn’t raining feathers or anything like that (people tell tales), but they were very obviously there and easily seen…”
Vallotton said he has witnessed the appearance of gold dust “hundreds of times,” at Bethel and other places.
“For some reason, the gold dust usually only appears on people’s hands and faces. Sometimes it will just appear on a few people, and other times it will show up on hundreds of people all at once,” he wrote.
