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Healing
Does the New Testament Gift of Healing Function Today?
The three spiritual gifts that seem to cause the most controversy are
miracles, tongues, and healing. Of these, it could be argued
that the one we need most desperately to understand is the gift of
healing. After all, if there are ways to cause instantaneous
physical healings, we could be relieved of much of the pain and disease
that none of us enjoy. By comparison, the gift of tongues
would not seem to affect our daily lives so extensively, and the gift
of miracles somehow doesn't seem to be as feasible or as close to our
realm of possibility. Let's begin then with the gift of
healing by first examining the biblical accounts of healing.
New Testament Healing
Certainly Jesus was the greatest healer of all time. His
healing of a woman who had been crippled for eighteen years in Luke
13:11-16 is just one of many examples of His healing miracles. In
Matthew 8:17, Jesus healed all the sick, in fulfillment of Isaiah
53:4-5, where we are told that He would carry away our diseases and we
would be healed by His wounds. In Acts 3:2-8, Peter healed
the crippled beggar so completely that he was immediately able to walk
and jump! In Acts 19:11-12, Paul's gift of healing was so miraculous, that people were healed even when
they simply received handkerchiefs that Paul had touched! Paul's gift
was so extensive that he performed the ultimate healing in
Acts 20:9-12, where he brought Eutychus back from the dead!
God clearly bestowed the gift of healing upon some New Testament
believers (1 Corinthians 12:9, 28, 30). What about those that
claim the gift of healing in our day? Do they have this same
miraculous healing ability that Jesus, Peter, and Paul used so
powerfully? Before we answer these stirring questions, let's
take a look at some of the different means by which healing occurs.
Natural Healing
The most obvious type of healing occurs when the natural defenses of a
healthy body are allowed to work, and the body heals itself. This is
what normally occurs when we make a visit to a doctor's
office. If we break a bone, the doctor simply secures the
affected part of our body with a splint or a cast so that we won't be
continually re-breaking the bone in the same place. He
certainly doesn't perform any miraculous healing. Instead, he
sends you on your way, and when you return in a few weeks, your body
has healed that fractured bone by itself. Likewise, when a
doctor prescribes an antibiotic to rid your body of infectious
bacteria, he is just attempting to destroy the bacteria so that your
body can commence its self-healing. In these and most other
cases,
the only thing a doctor can do is to help your body secure the
environment which it needs for regaining its health and strength.
Similarly, when we're stricken with common viruses, the doctor can only
suggest rest and fluids, and hope that we're better in three days or so.
Spontaneous
Remission
Due to the limited knowledge of the medical community, doctors can't
always prompt the right conditions for healing. We still
don't know how to deal with incurable diseases such as
cancer. Yet, occasionally another means of healing occurs,
that of spontaneous emission. We don't know why, but
sometimes cancer just goes away, seemingly by itself. Consequently, we
must simply label this means of healing as an unknown.
One possibility for spontaneous remission is a literal act of God. God
may simply choose to heal whomever He wishes. In other cases,
perhaps He chooses to heal through the fervent prayers of righteous
Christians (James 5:16). Yet, the Bible makes no mention of
any special spiritual gift of prayer, whereby healings occur through a
particular agent on earth whom God has commissioned for that
purpose. However, God may sometimes choose to perform a
miracle of healing even in
spite of a self-proclaimed healer
Psychosomatic Cures
Another means of healing is through psychosomatic cures where physical
disorders were induced by the emotional state of the patient. These
kinds of disorders are actually created by the mind, and they can
be corrected by the appropriate modification of the emotional state of
the mind. The medical community tells us that it is not
uncommon for people to be cured when they never were sick at
all! The
power of suggestion is often cited to be very effective in these
situations. Doctors have cured these types of conditions by simply
telling the patient that they are well, or by prescribing placebos such
as sugar pills.
Organic versus Functional Disorders
In order to understand psychosomatic cures, we must learn more about
the various kinds of physical disorders. Organic disorders
occur when a body part or organ is physically incapable of performing
its bodily function adequately. These involve an actual
structural alteration of the body. A broken bone would be an
organic disorder, as would be cancer. On the other hand,
functional disorders can be caused by something other than the
incapacity of a body part or organ. Headaches, stomachaches,
and backaches can be functional disorders when they are caused by
nervous conditions such as stress. These kinds of problems can
sometimes be organic and they can sometimes be functional. For example,
a backache could result from an injury to the spine
(organic), or it could be caused by a stimulus from the nervous system
(functional) such as stress.
The Nervous System
To understand functional disorders, we must examine the nervous system
of the human body. We actually have two nervous systems, the
voluntary and involuntary nervous systems. We deliberately
exercise our voluntary nervous system when we decide to pick up a book
or take a step. We automatically exercise our involuntary
nervous system (or autonomic nervous system) when we breathe, when our
hearts beat, or when our eye pupils dilate. These are
functions that occur automatically so that we don't have to constantly
remind our heart to keep beating, our lungs to keep breathing,
etc. Sweat glands, body temperature, the blushing of our
skin, and the digestion of our intestines are all under control of the
autonomic nervous system. How does this relate to
healing? Well, many functional disorders can be a result of
the influence of the autonomic nervous system through conditions such
as tension, anxiety, and stress. These can include such
functional disorders as asthma, ulcers, headaches, colitis,
constipation, skin rashes, hair loss, acne or other skin disorders,
impotency, and diarrhea. Doctors tell us that when these
disorders are brought about by the autonomic nervous system through
nervous tension, then they are sometimes able to cure the symptoms,
such as rashes, by treating the cause, such as stress or tension.
The Power of Suggestion
Perhaps the most intriguing point about the autonomic nervous system is
how it can be influenced by the power of suggestion. This is similar to
how a yoga master can change the rate of his heartbeat. It is
not only possible to influence the autonomic nervous system through
suggestion, but doctors use this technique in treating functional
disorders, perhaps by prescribing sugar pills, or perhaps by simply
suggesting that the patient seems to be getting better. Often
a patient can get better if they just believe that they are getting
better. This power of suggestion is sometimes engaged through
positive thinking, or it can actually be a form of hypnosis or
self-hypnosis. This is not unlike the person who witnesses a
magic trick and claims that he saw a miracle. He actually
believes that a miracle happened, because he had psyched himself into
seeing what he wanted
to see! Doctors (or healers) can sometimes cure symptoms or functional
diseases in this way.
Neurotic Disorders
Closely related to functional disorders are neurotic (or hysterical)
disorders. These can sometimes be cured simply by stabilizing
the neurotic condition of the patient. Examples of possible
neurotic disorders would include hearing loss, vision loss, or
paralysis. When neurotic patients are suffering great
emotional stress, they can actually convert their emotional problems
into physical ones. In these situations, there is actually
nothing wrong with them physically. Their illnesses are all
in their mind, but they are manifested through physical
deficiencies. This is known as conversion hysteria, and you
might guess that self-proclaimed healers could show great success in
treating such cases, if they can simply stabilize the patient's
neurotic condition.
Mind Control
The extent to which the mind can control these neurotic disorders can
be seen by examining some documented cases Healing, A Doctor in
Search of a Miracle, by William A. Nolan). One such case involved a
woman whose husband had died unexpectedly, leaving her with a deep
feeling of guilt because their last conversation was a heated
argument. This guilt caused her to lose her voice so that she
could only talk in a whisper. This condition
continued for four years, until she underwent gall bladder
surgery. Her physician suspected that her loss of speech was
due to her feeling of guilt, so he attempted to help. He told
her that while he was operating, he noticed that her vocal cords were stuck together. He
said that he separated them, and that he believed this would cure her
speech problem. Sure enough, the next day her speech was
normal. After four years of mourning, she was finally
ready to forgive herself! The doctor "cured" her by simply suggesting that she was better.
Another case concerned a woman who desperately wanted to become
pregnant. When she missed her period, her doctor told her
that, although it was too early to tell, she "might" be
pregnant. This was good enough for her psyche, which concluded from the
doctor's comment that she WAS pregnant. She began experiencing morning
sickness, her breasts became full, and she didn't have a period for
seven months! During all this time, her doctor expressed
concern because he couldn't verify that she was pregnant. Finally,
after seven months, he convinced her that it had been a false
pregnancy. By the next week, her morning sickness was gone,
her breasts were back to normal size, and she had her period. This is
an amazing case of the emotions causing physical changes through the
power of suggestion or self-hypnosis.
Emotions
The medical community verifies for us that physical cures can result
from emotional expectation, anticipation or excitement. This is not
unlike the occasional story we read in the newspaper where somebody
performs an amazing feat while under intense stress, which they would
not normally have had the physical capacity to do. One such case was a
lineman who jumped sixteen feet in the air to free his fellow-worker
who was in danger of electrocution. He simply got so pumped-up
emotionally, that he defied his physical limitations!
Satan
Another means of healing is through the deceptions of Satan. Satan can
inflict a person with a demon, then he can remove the demon
which appears to be a "cure" of his demonic disease! That
demons can cause diseases is evidenced throughout the New
Testament. In Matthew 9:32-33, when Jesus cast out a demon from a dumb
man, he was able to speak. In Matthew 12:22, a demon caused a man to
be both blind and mute, and when Jesus cast the demon out, the man
could both talk and see. In Mark 5:2-15, when Jesus cast a
demon out of a maniac and into a herd of swine, the man's right mind
returned, and the swine perished. Acts 10:38 tells us that
Jesus healed those who were under the power of the devil. Even Paul was
tormented by a demon in 2 Corinthians 12:7. It was Satan
himself who brought terrible affliction upon Job (Job
2:6-8). Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us that Satan even has the power of death. Even
the Pharisees realized that Satan was able to inflict people with demons,
and then remove them in order to simulate real healing. This
is evident in Matthew 9:32-33 when they accused Jesus of casting out
demons by the power of Satan. Although they were wrong
about Jesus, they were correct in recognizing that Satan does such things.
It is somehow hard for us to accept that Satan can not only be the
source of disease, but that he can also remove disease. However,
Matthew 7:21-23 makes it clear that some people were even
casting out demons in Christ's name, but it was not Christ who was
removing the demons! Instead, it was Satan! We must
come to
realize that not all supernatural phenomena are of God! Satan
can often best promote his own cause through such acts that seem like miracles, by which many are deceived.
Deception
Though some self-claimed healers today are sincere in believing that
they have a gift of healing, there are also some who are deliberately
deceptive. We have all heard of the medicine-man road-show
where the healer hired an accomplice that pretended to be
healed. This means of apparent healing falls more closely into the category of magic tricks rather than
healing. This can sometimes fall into the same category as self-delusion, which we have already discussed.
God's Will
To conclude our discussion of the various means of healing, we should
remember that it is not always God's will that all sick people be
healed. God allowed Satan to inflict Job with disease (Job 2:6-8) in order to promote more glory to God. God also
allowed Paul to suffer "a thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians
12:7), in order to keep Paul humble. Sometimes God might
decide that it is in our best interest to suffer physical
affliction. In an October 1987 Reader's Digest article (page 89) entitled, "The Bugs
That Bug Us: What You Should Know about Colds," we learn an interesting
fact relating colds to cancer. One doctor discovered that tumorous cancer patients suffered remarkably few common
colds and fevers--not only while cancerous, but for ten years before
developing cancer. People who suffer less than one cold per
year are six times more likely to develop cancer than those who catch
one or more colds every year! One hypothesis
involves the way our immune systems respond to cold viruses by
producing interferon, which activates warrior cells of the immune
system. These cells destroy any cell showing signs of having been
penetrated by viruses or any hint of malignant transformation. So, every
time you catch cold, your immune system unleashes a squad of
search-and-destroy commando cells that might also attack cancer
cells! Maybe God actually keeps us healthy by inflicting us with minor problems!
Biblical Support
Now let's examine once again what the scriptures say about healing.
Self-proclaimed healers frequently point out that their healing abilities
are a fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 53:5 which speaks of the
Messiah healing us by His wounds and carrying off our
diseases. In fact, Matthew 8:17 tells us directly that
this prophecy was fulfilled with the earthly ministry of Christ when He
healed all the sick. The way that this applies to us today
is in a spiritual sense rather than physically. Today's
healers argue that physical healing is in the atonement, i.e. that through
salvation we have the assurance of perfect physical health. Matthew
8:17 disputes this theory since the healing there which
fulfilled Isaiah 3:5 occurred before the atonement of Christ on the
cross. Through His death on the cross, we are healed spiritually, but
one can easily see that not all Christians today can have perfect health.
Research
Now let's take a closer look at some documented cases of people claiming
to have been cured by miracle-working healers in our day. Dr. Nolan was
a medical doctor who wanted to learn more about the possibilities of
faith-healing by both witnessing the "healing", and performing medical
examinations. In his book Healing,
A Doctor in Search of a Miracle, he explains how today's faith healers
prey upon those with functional and neurotic disorders in order to "prove" their gift of healing.
Many of the cases examined involved those afflicted with multiple
sclerosis. This is a disease which often exhibits cyclic
symptoms. A patient might suffer from loss of sight or loss of the use
of an arm or leg one day, then the next day he has gained control
again. Doctors cannot fully explain this phenomenon, except to note
that the psyche plays a major role in regulating the symptoms of this
disease. Sometimes the patient wants to be healed so badly
that they can temporarily shrug off their symptoms.
Dr. Nolan noted that one such case of healing of a patient with
multiple sclerosis occurred at a healing meeting. The girl
claimed a cure and didn't need her wheelchair anymore. However, she
still walked with a peculiar limp like she always had. Though
the healer claimed that this was due to the muscles not having been used
for such a long time, we are reminded of the lame man healed by Peter
in the book of Acts, who went away jumping as soon as he was healed.
Another healing was claimed by a woman with severe acne and other skin
blemishes. She claimed to be "better" but she was not
cured. Upon Dr. Nolan s examination, he deduced that she wanted a
nice complexion so badly, that she was able to respond positively to
her own power of suggestion, while looking for evidence of her
cure. For visibly obvious cases such as these, healers often
state that the cure will occur after two or three days, whereas they
claim that cancers are cured immediately.
One lady who claimed a healing of her varicose veins was conveniently
wearing pants during the healing service, so her cure could not be
verified. Upon a subsequent medical examination, it was
discovered that she had developed some varicose veins during pregnancy
and some of them did go away after her pregnancy, which is perfectly
normal. This could hardly be classified as miraculous healing
since she still had plenty of varicose veins, as well as scars from
surgical attempts to correct her problem.
One man was supposedly cured of lung cancer, and proved his cure while
on stage during the meeting by taking several deep breaths. The truth
revealed that he actually suffered from Hodgkin's disease instead of
lung cancer. He had never had trouble breathing
anyway, and subsequent x-rays showed no change in his ailment.
A man who had stomach cancer which had spread to his vertebrae claimed
his cure by taking off his back brace and running and jumping across
the stage. At 4:00 AM the next morning he awoke with severe
back pain, took some medication, and then finally went to the hospital
where he was put into traction. X-rays revealed that a
vertebrae had collapsed, probably from the running and jumping he had
done! This is a classic case of the healers actually causing
misery in the lives of their followers! Two months later, the
man had withered down to skin and bones, and four months after the
healing service, he died.
A man who had attended the healing service in order to be cured of
liver cancer, died seventeen days later from his cancer. Another man
with non-terminal prostate cancer simply continued to treat
his cancer with drugs, as he had done before the service. One
man had claimed a cure of kidney cancer which had spread to his bones.
While on stage during the meeting, he supposedly verified his cure by
doing deep knee bends (which he was always able to do anyway), but
after the meeting, x-rays showed that his malignant tumor had grown.
Of sixteen cancer patients contacted by Dr. Nolan after the meeting,
only one was willing to respond to his inquiries about their cures.
This was a devoted believer of faith-healing, who had prostate
cancer. He claimed to be better, though it was difficult to
tell whether this was due to the healing service, recent hormone
therapy, radiation therapy, or surgery.
There are countless other documented accounts of purported healings
that actually never occurred. A man claiming healing from hip
cancer still walked with the same limp. A polio victim who
proved her healing by taking off her leg brace still had a withered
leg. Many people with bad backs proved their cures by touching their
toes, which of course many were always able to do in spite of their bad
backs. Dumb people proved their cures by making the same
kind of babbling sounds they had always made. Even Dr. Nolan
considered the possibility of the effect of the healing service on his
own bursitis and high blood pressure, but his bursitis was unaffected
and his blood pressure actually went up. Another man who had
hoped to be cured of heart problems found that his EKG was unchanged.
To add to the evidence of these documented cases, it is curious that
most healers resent any questioning of their abilities. They take
offense if asked to verify the curing of an organic disease, a cancer,
or other malignancy. How different this seems from the New
Testament where Jesus proved his authority to forgive sins by granting
complete physical healing to the afflicted.
As stated earlier, healers have most of their success with those who
are suffering from ailments in which the psyche plays a major
role. Those with multiple sclerosis, rheumatic arthritis,
loss of sight, paralysis, or allergies, often believe that they are
better because the emotional high of the service has temporarily
alleviated some of their functional disorders. In some cases,
they do get better in the same way as they would have if a doctor had
treated them for stress by the power of suggestion. In other
cases, their symptoms return as soon as they descend from their emotional
high. No doubt, the excitement of the healing service can make one feel
better, in much the same way that a Las Vegas magic show can.
The Healer
Most healers probably don't know much about the power of suggestion,
hypnosis, or the autonomic nervous system. Most probably
cannot distinguish between psychogenic and organic diseases. Those
who cannot are simply ignorant about what they are calling healing.
Those who understand these things are being openly deceptive to refer
to such functional changes as miraculous healing (Romans 16:17-18).
The healers usually claim that it is God who heals instead of
themselves. This is a clever device to avoid the
responsibility when their healing powers don't work. This is
very different from the healing we read about in the New Testament. Jesus
and the apostles were able to heal completely, and at their own will!
There is no documented evidence to verify that healings really occur at
the hands of faith healers. They are not receptive to the
idea of having medical experts verify the disease before the healings,
and then verify the cures. In fact, most healers intentionally avoid any obviously serious or terminal cases. Let's face
it! If they really had New Testament healing ability, wouldn't they spend their time clearing out our hospitals
instead of pumping up people's emotions at healing meetings? We are
reminded of the time that the wind storm destroy the tent in
Amarillo where a famous evangelist was conducting a healing service.
Rather than healing those who were injured, he had to call ambulances
to take sixteen of them to the hospital! If this is Spirit-controlled healing, then God the Holy Spirit cannot do a very good job!
Yet it is difficult to state that no healing takes place at healing
meetings. People can get so psyched up in their emotional
frenzies that they can come away actually feeling better than they did
before the meeting, especially when the power of suggestion is
unleashed to influence some functional disorder. However, to
refer to this as miraculous healing is a far stretch of the
imagination. Such healings can and do occur in doctors' and
psychologists' offices, and they are certainly not due to miracles
performed by the doctors, or by the laying on of hands by the
healers. Healers have many such tactics which involve a point of focus, similar to the same technique of using
a crystal ball to foretell the future, or holding hands to form a chain
at a séance. More often than not, the results are simply due
to the power of verbal suggestion. The dynamic and
charismatic stage presence of the healer, the magnetic atmosphere
created by the emotions, and the gullible mind-set of those desperately
seeking physical cures, can all contribute to unusual changes and to how we perceive those changes.
Yes, the healers can sometimes provoke temporary subsidence of some
symptoms. Yes, they can sometimes correct some functional
disorders of hysterical patients. However, so can a hypnotist
or a witch doctor. Whatever the means, such temporary or
hypnotic cures of emotionally excited victims are often due to the
emotional release which makes them feel good. However, to
compare such events to the miraculous healings of the New Testament is
impossible, both biblically and practically.
Perhaps the epitome of the healers' deceptions is when they use their
abilities inversely. It is possible to tell a person that if
he does not contribute to the healer's ministry, he will suffer severe
headaches. When the psyche succumbs to the hypnotic power of
suggestion, and the headaches come, the poor victim gives in so that
the headaches will leave, and they do! This phenomenon has
been verified medically by exposing allergy patients to their allergic
stimuli. When exposed to their non-allergic stimuli, but told
that it was their allergic stimuli, most of the patients suffered the
allergic reactions that their psyche expected. When exposed
to allergic stimuli while being told it was harmless to the allergies,
most patients suffered no allergic reactions. Let us not
underestimate the power of the mind's influence upon the body.
People who have supposedly been healed often report that when the
healer says, "Someone in this section is being cured," and they point
to their section, they sometimes feel a burning sensation in the
afflicted part of their body, and they take this to mean that they are
being healed. Let us not forget that Satan can still work
supernatural acts of deceptions as he did during Jesus's ministry
(Matthew 7:21-23). He may cause a burning sensation in order
to promote the healer's deceptions, or he may even remove the demon
that he placed in the victim, in order to demonstrate a fake healing.
Back to the Bible
What should we believe about healings then? If today's healers are fake, were the healings in the New Testament
real. Of course they were. However, what happened towards the end of Paul's ministry? In
Philippians 2:27, we see that, though Epaphroditus was deathly ill,
Paul was unable to heal him, despite his previously verified gift of
healing. In 2 Timothy 4:20, he had to leave Trophimus sick in Miletus,
because he no longer had the power of healing! What had happened to his miraculous gift?
Confirmation
The answer is found in Hebrews 2:1-4, where God explains that the
signs, wonders, and miracles by the apostles were God's CONFIRMATION of
his revelation being preached by the apostles. After the ascension of
Jesus, God needed to announce the authenticity of apostolic authority,
and He did so by giving them the power to perform miraculous
healings. This was to be a sign to the people that the
messages they preached were indeed from God! Healings were
God's signs to the people that they could believe the
apostles. It was through the apostles that God's revelation
would be completed. People in the first century did not have
Bibles! They had to listen to the apostles because the apostles were actually completing the writing of
scriptures. This gift of healing was a temporary gift, and
God never intended that it be permanent. It was given to
confirm the apostles and their message, and once the Bible had been
completed, this confirmation was no longer necessary. This is why Paul
could not heal towards the end of his ministry, and why we don't have
legitimate healers today. The gift of healing was never intended to eliminate all disease.Conclusion
When we face the facts, both biblically and practically, we conclude
that the spiritual gift of healing was for the specific purpose of
authenticating the apostles and the closed canon of scriptures in the
first century. This healing included complete and permanent
physical healing which could even raise people from the dead. The Bible
suggests that this healing has been phased out, and does not
exist today. Faith healers today are either ignorant or
deceptive in their healing shows. We must simply learn to
trust God's word instead of our own emotions and experiences. The
Christian life is objective and relaxed, not an emotional frenzy.
Yes, some faith healers are sincere, and some healings occur at their
meetings, but this cannot be compared to the New Testament gift of healing.
Owen Weber 2009 |
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