Gold Teeth: Transmutation Miracles in the Bible and Modern Charismatic Movement

“God gave us gold teeth.”

This line can be heard in Darren Wilson’s 2007 documentary Finger of God, which opens with a scene of the filmmaker’s own aunt and uncle showcasing their shiny new chompers.[1] In 1999, more than 300 Christians at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (TACF; now known as Catch the Fire) claimed to supernaturally receive gold teeth. This garnered media attention and TACF produced a video called “Go for the Gold,”[2] where many attendees were on camera with mouths wide open.[3]

The 1990s and early 2000s saw a swath of gold teeth miracles, though others have suggested that this was happening as early as the 1970s in Argentina.[4] Testimonies of gold teeth miracles still emerge in present times.[5] One attendant of Seattle Revival Center in 2016 recieved a gold tooth pictured here.

Naturally, there has been no shortage of critics. John G. Stackhouse, for instance, stated that this is an example of “anti-intellectualism and sectarianism that has plagued the Pentecostal and charismatic movements from their beginnings.”[6] Likewise, Wheaton College president Phil Ryken concluded: “The whole thing is a fraud, of course. I say this, not because God is unable to turn silver into gold, but because he has no reason to. Surely God has better things to do than improve our dental work.”[7] Others have considered this miracle offensive based on the seemingly trivial nature of the work in light of other catastrophes where God seems to remain silent.[8] In some circumstances, however, skeptics themselves received gold teeth![9]

Dental records demonstrating that some of these claims are fraudulent have been produced. In one case, Pastor Rich Oliver of Family Christian Center claimed to have received gold teeth in the year 2000. In fact, the tooth had been put in by his dentist nearly a decade earlier on April 29, 1991![10] Still, the sheer quantity of claims, pictures, and videos is staggering. While some contend that this is nothing more than a global fraud or conspiracy, factors such as economics, access to dentistry, and other issues complicate whether one should outright dismiss all miraculous claims under this category.

While critics are quick to mock these claims, the inconsistency of the discernment is obvious. In the same way that people fake claims of healing of all kinds, Christians do not dismiss all claims of healing as fraudulent. The most striking characteristic of the critics, however, is the general disregard for the biblical evidence to support such a miracle. Indeed, while many have scoffed at the nature of this miracle, there are compelling reasons to think that God would perform such feats.

One of the most recent criticisms of “gold” miracles comes from Lora Angelina Embudo Timenia: “Because of lack of biblical precedent, weak exegetical support, and non-conformity to God’s nature and message, the manifestation of gold dust [and we may add gold teeth] can be considered as non-conforming to scriptural teaching.”[11] Thus, in this post I would like to address two exegetical and theological issues.

First, I wish to address the topic of transmutation. Transmutation is the transformation of one form of matter into another. While this is typically though to be a characteristic of certain occult practices like alchemy, a plethora of biblical miracles involve transmutation.

Second, I discuss what the “point” of these kinds of miracles are. Instead of dismissing gold teeth miracles outright based on their outward appearance, we ought to think critically through the biblical data that we have before us.

I am certain that some readers may find such a study, on the surface, useless or silly. Yet, discernment is not a mere matter of intellectualism or “common sense.” Such presuppositions that “this cannot be real” before careful analysis is what often causes division among Christians in the first place. Proverbs 18:17 says “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” Thus, discernment involves taking the full measure of Scripture, even when the topic and results may seem bizarre.

Transmutations in the Hebrew Bible

One biblical text that was used by leaders at TACF as an impetus for gold teeth miracles was Psalm 81:10: "Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.”[12] Obviously, this is not what Asaph meant when composing this Psalm. I think Pentecostals and Charismatics can do much better when it comes to biblical exegesis. While no exact parallels to gold teeth exist in the biblical text, transmutations do appear.[13]

Transmutation occurs several times in the Hebrew Bible, mainly in Exodus and 2 Kings through the ministries of Moses and Elisha. In Exodus, the signs that Moses is called to perform often involve transmuting one substance into another. Moses’ Rod, for example, “became” (Hebrew: hāyâ / היה) a serpent when thrown on the ground (Exod 4:3, 7:10, 15).  Soon after this incident, Moses strikes the Nile and it is “changed” or “altered” (Hebrew: hâphak / הפך) into blood (Exod 7:14-24; Ps 78:44, 105:29).[14] In another instance, Aaron is instructed to use his staff and “strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become (Hebrew: hāyâ / היה) gnats in all the land of Egypt” (Exod 8:16). Two further transmutations occur in Exodus 9. First, Moses and Aaron are to take soot and throw it into the air. The soot then “becomes” (Hebrew: hāyâ / היה) dust and then subsequently “becomes” (Hebrew: hāyâ / היה) boils (Exod 9:8-12).[15] The natural reading of these miracles (barring an anti-supernaturalist interpretation) is that these various substances (rods, water, dust, and soot) were transmuted into other substances.

At least two transmutation miracles also occur in 2 Kings. The first concerns a story in which a stew prepared for some prophets has been unintentionally poisoned by the cook (2 Kgs 4:38-44). While the men eat the stew, they come to the realization that “there is death in the pot” (2 Kgs 4:40). Elisha asks for flour to be brought to him and throws it into the pot, somehow nullifying the poisonous herbs. Not only is the stew saved, but the food is multiplied in order to feed over a hundred men (2 Kgs 4:43-44)! The use of flour as a ritual object seems to transmute the original stew into a different kind.[16] In another instance, after a borrowed axe head flew off into the water, Elisha threw sticks into the water, causing it to float to the surface (2 Kgs 6:1-7).[17] Evidently, the material properties of the axe head were changed to facilitate its newfound buoyancy (unless we are to consider this a miracle of levitation).

Another example of transmutation is that of Lot’s wife in Genesis: “But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became (Hebrew: hāyâ / היה) a pillar of salt” (Gen 19:26).[18] Both the Jewish historian Josephus[19] and the author of the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon[20] understood this as a literal transmutation into salt that was still visible in their days.[21] On the opposite end of the spectrum, according to Gen 2:7: “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became (Hebrew: hāyâ / היה) a living creature.” Here, humankind is transmuted from dust into a corporeal body filled with God’s breath.[22]

Transmutations in the New Testament

Probably the most obvious example of transmutation in the Bible is Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine (John 2:1-12). It is not that the water was “substituted” (Greek: anti / ἀντί) with wine or simply had the appearance of wine. Rather, we are explicitly told that the water had “become” (Greek: ginomai / γίνομαι) wine (John 2:9).[23] Likewise, Jesus’ transfiguration before some of his disciples is an important example of transmutation. Jesus’ face is “altered” (Greek: heteron / ἕτερον) and his clothes “became dazzling” (Greek: exastraptōn / ἐξαστράπτων) according to Luke 9:29. The Greek word exastraptōn / ἐξαστράπτων is often used of the shining figure of angels[24] and of metals in alchemical texts[25] from antiquity. Mark 9:1 and Matthew 17:2 explicitly use the word “metamorphized” (Greek: metamorphoó  / μεταμορφόω) of Jesus’ appearance, a term used in another early Christian text to speak of Christ’s incarnation.[26]  Additionally, Jesus’ clothes “become” (Greek: ginomai / γίνομαι) white (Mark 9:3; Matt 17:2).

Paul uses transmutational language when speaking about the return of Christ and the resurrection. In Philippians, he states that at the eschaton “He will transform (Greek: metaschēmatizō / μετασχηματίζω) the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory” (Phil 3:21). Likewise, in 1 Cor 15:44, Paul argues that the human body “is sown a natural body,” but “it is raised a spiritual body.” Paul’s prooftext for this explanation of the resurrection is Genesis 2:7: “The first man Adam became (Greek: ginomai / γίνομαι) a living being; the last Adam became (Greek: ginomai / γίνομαι) a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:45). Paul continues by stating that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom” (1 Cor 15:50). He then reveals what he calls a mystery: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed (Greek: allassō / ἀλλάσσω)” (1 Cor 15:51).[27]

Demonic Transmutations

Not all transmutations in the Bible are the product of a divine source. Paul states that “Even Satan disguises (Greek: metaschēmatizō / μετασχηματίζω), himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14).[28] The Egyptian magicians were able to duplicate some of the transmutations done by Moses and Aaron (Exod 7:11, 22), though some they could not (Exod 8:18). In Matt 4:3-4 Satan tempts Jesus to command stones “to become (Greek: ginomai / γίνομαι) loaves of bread.” In this case, Jesus denies the temptation and quotes from Deuteronomy 8:3: “He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

The quantitative difference in representations of divine vs. demonic transmutations is worth noting. Besides the Egyptian magicians (who failed at replicating some of the transmutations) and the interpretation that Satan transmutes or disguises himself into a different appearance to deceive, we have few examples of transmutations being of demonic origin. This does not necessarily mean that other counterfeit transmutations don’t exist, only that the biblical evidence seems to suggest that transmutations are more likely to be within the realm of the divine.

What’s the Point?

Probably the biggest criticism of many (outwardly) strange Charismatic phenomena is: What’s the point?

Why would God do something so seemingly senseless? The sample of transmutations in the Bible above hopefully demonstrates that these things are not only within the realm of God’s abilities (one typically would not expect orthodox Christians of denying omnipotence), but are sometimes things that happen for relatively “frivolous” purposes from an outsider’s perspective. Does anyone need their axe head to float? Can’t the wedding just run out of wine? Why does God have to turn dust into gnats? Can’t he just bring them in from somewhere else or create them ex nihilo? Why do you need to throw flour into a pot to cure poisonous stew or a tree into water to remove its bitterness?

Exactly.

God doesn’t “need” to do things this way. He “chooses” to do things this way.

But why?

In the case of the wine at the wedding of Cana, we are explicitly told this sign “manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him” (John 2:11). Thus, Jesus’ glory and stirring up faith in his followers were some of the results of the transmutation. In the case of Jesus’ transfiguration, the point of it seems to be to dispense revelation. The disciples hear God’s voice validating Christ’s identity as well as the role of John the Baptist (Matt 17:5, 12-13).

The transmutation of physical objects into the various plagues against Egypt certainly served to prove God’s power for his people and act as an antithesis to Egypt’s own deities. But again, why does God require such transmutations? Why does Elisha need to throw sticks into water to cause the axe head to float? Or why, to use Jesus as an example, does mud need to be applied to someone’s eyes to heal them (John 9:6)? The seeming obscurity of such actions seems to be answered by Paul in 1 Corinthians:

“Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Cor 1:20).

“God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise” (1 Cor 1:27).

Conclusion

James tells us that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation (Greek: parallagē / παραλλαγὴ) or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).[29] The God who could transmute staves into snakes and water into wine or blood is the same God who can turn a tooth into gold. We don’t “need” gold teeth, of course. It’s a gift. And if it’s from God, it should be enjoyed (indeed, some people who have gotten gold teeth were seniors who were unable to afford dentistry).

But it is easy to disdain a gift.

People looked at Jesus’ miracles and accused him of having a demon (Luke 11:14-23).

Others missed the point of the miracles altogether, like those who followed him for more food (John 6:26).

But the miracles were still real, even though some didn’t understand them.

The point of a miracle is love, obedience, and glory. We can choose to get offended by the apparent strangeness of a miracle and we can even receive miracles and not appreciate them how we ought to, like the nine lepers who didn’t praise God after Jesus healed them (Luke 17:11-19).

We can even get mad at God for being kind: “Or do you begrudge my generosity?” (Matt 20:15).

Each of us needs to check our own hearts when discerning the miraculous.

Blessings,
Merrill G. Greene

Notes

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAgeK5UWcso&ab_channel=WPFilms

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UItU6qlKvvA&ab_channel=olig532

[3] This was the official statement put out by TACF on March 17, 1999: “Why would God fill people's teeth with gold? Perhaps because He loves them and delights in blessing His children. Perhaps it is a sign and a wonder to expose the skepticism still in so many of us. Perhaps His glory and presence are drawing very near.
On Wednesday evening March 3rd, 1999 miracles began happening in people’s teeth. By Thursday evening, over 50 people were on the platform at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship testifying to having received what appeared to be gold or bright silver fillings or crowns, which they believed had supernaturally appeared in their mouths after receiving prayer during the Intercession Conference. Many received one, two, three or more, and in some cases up to ten changed fillings! On the Saturday night of the conference, there were 198 on the platform saying that God had given them a dental miracle. By Sunday night, well over 300 people were testifying to this unusual sign. Testimonies, even now, are continuing to pour in. Our leadership have encouraged people to verify these miracles with their dentists, who in some cases, have been understandably hesitant to explain why their patients’ fillings have become so shiny and have changed in colour from dark amalgam to bright silver or gold. In a few cases, dentists were able to show from their records that the gold was put in their mouths previously by the dentist and not by God. These people had apparently forgotten that this work had been done. The majority of these incidents however, seem to be beyond explaining, other than that God has given these wonderful gifts. After the conference, delegates returned home and dental miracles surprisingly began to happen to some of their friends and family members. Some are testifying that these miracles happened while watching conference sessions on video tape. Reports of people’s fillings turning a bright silver or gold color are coming in from South Africa, Australia, England, Mexico and across Canada and the USA. The excitement here at TACF is electric with the news of how these dental miracles are so rapidly spreading. TACF is encouraging people to obtain dental confirmations. We will do a follow-up report in the near future and publish our findings. Meanwhile dental miracles, along with many other healings, continue to take place at the nightly meetings. Things that we have seen happening in Argentina and Brazil for fifteen years are starting to happen here now. Conversions to Christ have also increased! While we are thankful for the miracles and healings that are taking place, our eyes are on Jesus and it is Him alone we look to and worship.”

[4] Carlos Annacondia, Listen to Me, Satan!: Exercising Authority Over the Devil in Jesus’ Name (Orlando, FL: Creation House, 1998), 57, 199. Alyssa Picard, Making the American Mouth: Dentists and Public Health in the Twentieth Century (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2009), 214 n. 36 states that there is evidence for gold teeth in the reformation era, though she does not cite any sources. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is notoriously difficult to research. Many primary sources, such as news articles and official statements by Churches on the matter have been lost over time or removed from websites as they have been updated over the decades.

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j09HsDbjLPg&t=28s&ab_channel=JenniferEivaz

[6] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1999/may24/9t617a.html. Miracles of gold teeth also appear in some Charismatic Catholic contexts. See Richard Cimino, Trusting the Spirit: Renewal and Reform in American Religion (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001), 31-32.

[7] https://www.tenth.org/resource-library/articles/god-and-the-golden-teeth/

[8] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/324274.stm

[9] Charisma and Christian Life 24.5 (August, 1999).

[10] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jan-25-mn-57606-story.html. According to another source: “Toronto dentist Robert Clark says he has heard similar stories of fillings turning gold in the past, but they were from a New Age rather than a Christian context. One woman told him a few years ago about silver fillings turning to gold, but "what she was describing didn't sound like anything tied to a movement of the Holy Spirit” (Originally published in “Dental miracles" the latest to hit Toronto,” Christian Week (March 30), 1999, but no longer accessible except through quotation from https://www.apologeticsindex.org/d04.html).

[11] Lora Angelina Embudo Timenia, Third Wave Pentecostalism in the Philippines: Understanding Toronto Blessing Revivalism’s Signs and Wonders Theology in the Philippines (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2021), 151.

[12] “God ‘gives’ gold teeth to believers,” The Times of London (April 17, 1999).

[13] The earliest reference to a “gold tooth” in Jewish literature is from the Mishnah and does not concern a supernaturally created/transmuted tooth (m. Sabbath 6:5).

[14] Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006), 199-200 suggests that the Hebrew word for “blood” here may simply refer to a color. It is difficult to accept this interpretation given that the results of this transformation include the death of fish and a stench, which makes much more sense if this is understood as literal blood.

[15] Stuart, Exodus, 228: “This plague is brought about by a transformation of one substance into another.”

[16] A similar event occurs in Exod 15:22-25 where Moses throws a tree into bitter water so that it “became sweet (Hebrew: māṯaq /  מתק).”

[17] “Axe head” is assumed based on the context. The Hebrew just says “Iron”.

[18] K. A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27–50:26 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005), 242: “Her physical translation into an edifice of salt, probably to be understood as a coating of salt, testified to the consequence of disobedience and was an appalling reminder of the events at Sodom (Luke 17:28–29, 32).”

[19] “But Lot’s wife continually turning back to view the city as she went from it, and being too nicely inquisitive what would become of it, although God had forbidden her so to do, was changed (Greek: metébalen / μετέβαλεν) into a pillar of salt; for I have seen it, and it remains at this day” (Josephus, Antiquities 1.203).

[20] “a pillar of salt standing as a monument to an unbelieving soul” (Wisdom 10:7).

[21] Wisdom of Solomon 19:18-21 contains a long section about transmutation: “For the elements changed places with one another, as on a harp the notes vary the nature of the rhythm,

while each note remains the same. This may be clearly inferred from the sight of what took place. For land animals were transformed into water creatures, and creatures that swim moved over to the land. Fire even in water retained its normal power, and water forgot its fire-quenching nature. Flames, on the contrary, failed to consume the flesh of perishable creatures that walked among them.”

nor did they melt the crystalline, quick-melting kind of heavenly food.”

[22] The book of Judges records an instance of what might be transmutation as well: “the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became (Hebrew: hāyâ / היה) as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands” (Judges 15:14). While the verb for “melt” (Hebrew: mâsas/ מסס) is often used in metaphorical contexts, some have viewed this as literal disintegration. If this is the intended meaning, the fire from God was such that it changed the physical integrity of the ropes while not burning Samson, which suggests transmutation.

[23] D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 174: “The suggestion of some popular interpreters that Jesus simply provided water, and that the steward accepted the substitute with good humour and a witty remark about how Adam’s ale is the best kind, is indefensible. The text says that the water had been turned into wine (v. 9). Besides, social expectation would have been outraged if the groom had proved so improvident as to run out of supplies before the end of the feast. See BDAG, γίνομαι “to experience a change in nature and so indicate entry into a new condition, become someth[ing]” and the examples provided. That this is the most natural reading is strengthened by the presence of the epithet oinotrópoi / οἰνοτρόποι, that is, “one who turns water into wine,” a title given to the daughters of Anios, king of Delos in Lycophron’s Alexandra 580.

[24] E.g., Testament of Solomon 21:2; Testament of Job 46:8.

[25] E.g., Zosimus the alchemist 111 (translated by M. Berthelot).

[26] Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah 3:11.

[27] This word is used of stones changing their colors supernaturally in the early Christian work Shepherd of Hermas (Similitudes 9.4.5).

[28] In the work Testament of Reuben, the Watchers (a group of rebellious divine beings) “were transformed (Greek: metaschēmatizō / μετασχηματίζω) into human males” to cohabitate with women (5:6). Other examples of spiritual beings being transformed include Testament of Solomon 20:13 where Solomon orders the demon  Ornias to explain his precognitive abilities. The answer he receives is that God makes decisions concerning the fates of man and the spirits “being transformed (Greek: metaschēmatizō / μετασχηματίζω), cause destruction, whether by domination, or by fire, or by sword, or by chance.”

[29] Compare Testament of Job 33:5: “But my throne is in the holy land, and its splendor is in the world of the changeless one (Greek: tou parallktou / τοῦ ἀπαραλλάκτου)”