Evangelical Necromancers

They are rather odd beings believing beyond belief, they are known as the Dead Raising Team (DRT). These evangelical Christians praise that they can raise people from the dead with their prayers. Their leader Tyler Johnson claims to have brought back to life 13 people. A 2013 documentary titled “Deadraiser” demonstrates different miracle type stories. The DRT crew prays for the deceased to rise once again miraculously.

Allegedly, these people came back from death and witnessed grotesque demonic forces which were torturing them. They were later saved and brought back to the land of the living—away from the torment which they supposedly suffered. Take for example the astonishing story of a former drug user named Mark DeDio—who died back in 2006 from a drug overdose, he later was returned to life. What he said was rather remarkable as he mentioned the next thing he knew were foul smells of vomit and sulfur among a darkness.

One of the team members named TJ Aderholdt happened to be nearby the ambulance where Mark’s dead body was. Although Mark had no pulse, TJ began his ritual (speaking in tongues) after he glanced at Mark’s corpse. Similar to a biblical miracle, Mark’s eyes popped open, he stood up and started telling everybody how he went to hell and was pulled back. “It was like a grab on my collar,” he recalled. “Jesus pulled me out.”

Even though Tyler Johnson claims to have brought back to life 13 people, he is an author and spends time traveling around the world. He believes he can heal the sick and raise the dead. Tyler also gives free lessons to those interested in resurrection from faith and spiritual healing. As time has passed, Tyler has a small army of followers who have been trained in different locations throughout the world, including the US, Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Canada.

“I abhorred Christianity growing up,” Tyler revealed. “It was plastic to me. It was all about the money.” When Tyler was 17 years old, he went to a youth mission in Canada. Afterward he witnessed what would change his life forever after seeing a prostitute turn into Jesus right before his eyes. This was the turning point for him, which led him to faith healing. Johnson’s own dead-raising journeys began when he was only 19 years old and his father died right in front of him.

“He was redoing the roof,” he recalled. “I’d woken from a nap and joined him. I’d been up there for a couple of minutes when he just keeled over. We brought him down and tried resuscitation.” When that didn’t work, Johnson said that he heard God speaking to him and giving him a choice: “Son, I want to talk to you alone. Right now your dad is dead. You can believe I’m good and I didn’t do this. Or you can believe I’m responsible for it.” Johnson said that he decided to believe the former, that God is good.

Tyler decided to pin his belief on a particular verse from the Bible, Matthew 10:8, in which Jesus says: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons.” This is a mission for both Tyler and his followers to help cleanse the world of darkness so that the light will shine upon us all.