9/24/2018: The present day practice of faith healing is a concern of mine. There are several powers that can appear as faith healing.
- Placebo Effect: Every form of treatment, even surgery has the benefit the placebo effect. This is because the patient believes it will help them or they would not have agreed to it in the first place. One does not have to be a Christian to have the placebo benefit.
- Power of Persuasion. This is a mental force by which a person can convince themselves or be convinced by others.
- Deceptive Power: There is deceptive power that will convince some there is a healing, yet without any valid evidence. There must be convincing proof. The Bible standard is many convincing proofs. Jesus told those that were healed to go show themselves to the priests of the day for confirmation. (Luke 17:14) In this age, we must get proof from qualified medical professionals to confirm validity.
- Holy Spirit Power: This is possible in this day and age. However, if it is the miracle of healing then by definition it is infrequent. This type of healing will have many convincing proofs from the medical profession (the priest of our day). It problem will have been well documented, even by a pathology report in the case of cancer. The result will have been confirmed by medical evidence not by hearsay.
This BLOG entry was prompted by a news release recently where parents withheld their newborn from medical treatment and submitted the effort to prayer alone and the child died. The child could have lived with a well-known common treatment of the new born. The parents were so foolish and naïve that when the authorities came they and others of like mind were praying for the dead child’s resurrection. A burial followed, not a resurrection. The parent’s statement was that “God does not make any mistakes.” That is likely true. The problem was that the parents made a big mistake. They have been arrested and are facing jail time.
Naïve and Stupid: How does something foolish like this happen? In this case the parents had been subject to cult like teachings on faith healing by a so-called minister of the gospel. These cult teachers are not uncommon in what appears otherwise to be mainline conventional Bible teaching. However, the teachers are working by the power of persuasion and result is death and destruction. The later two events are the work of the devil. The parents were naïve. The Bible says let the naïve go on to their own destruction. Unfortunately, in this case the destruction included their own child.
- Proverbs 14:15 The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.
- Proverbs 14:18 The naive inherit foolishness, But the sensible are crowned with knowledge.
- 2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
- Proverbs 1:22 “How long will you gullible people love being so gullible? How long will you mockers find joy in your mocking? How long will you fools hate knowledge?”
- Proverbs 27:12 A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.
- Proverbs 22:3 The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.
- Proverbs 1:32 For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them.
The opposite of naïve is prudent. One must be able to discern between Fake healing and Faith healing. We must know the faith healer has credible history. There are not many with these credentials. There must be many convincing proofs and that evidence is rare.
The Remedy: There is safety in many counselors. (Proverbs 11:14) Always get a second opinion from qualified pastor and or medical professional. The secret to healing is to do everything naturally (qualified medical doctor) and everything supernaturally (prayer, laying of hands, confession of sins) that one can be restored to health.