by Desmond Ford

According to a well-known TVadvertisement, one in seven

Americans goes to the hospital eachyear for treatment. Health careindustries now match or surpass thenation's other leading industries. Butthe real solar-plexus jabbing factsare these: though approximately 70%of diseases are diseases of choice,none of us likes suffering for oursins be they social, gastronomical, orotherwise, and therefore all of usare tempted by the offer ofmiraculous "cure." The verdict of C.S. Lewis that most diseases areeither cured by time or cannot becured at all is one we are reluctantto accept.

Faith-Healing On The RisePerhaps this natural reluctance of

ours explains the pervasiveemphasis on miraculous healingfound in religious programs over theU.S. radio and television. Millionsare daily invited to lay hold of God'swillingness to remove their ills. AsDr. Paul Brand has pointed out in arecent article, one television showclaims to have in its files the recordsof-over 60,000 miraculous cures.l Insome cases we are even shown faithhealers at work, inviting the sick

6

FAITHHEALINGONDEMAND?

and suffering to leave the audienceand seek a miracle through God'sministerial representative. Thepartially blind see, the deaf hear,legs are lengthened, invisiblegrowths are eradicated and thevisible evidence of forsaken crutchesand wheelchairs call forth shouts ofpraise from sympathetic viewers.

But what of the millions of homewitnesses or listeners who do asthey are told, in faith demanding themiraculous blessing, but findthemselves still as burdened asbefore? These are even more bereftbecause hope disappointed increasesdespair. And what if they find insultadded to injury by the well-intendedobservation of a believer that it istheir lack of faith which lies at theroot of the withheld cure? Now guiltis added to sickness.

Furthermore, it must be asked:What view of the world and lifedoes belief in easy and lavishmiracles produce? What type ofconduct is thereby encouraged?Does a "believer" see the universeas controlled by inviolable lawwhich must be studied, learned andobeyed, or does he or she come tosee their world as something verytractable indeed, ever prepared to

yield to the demand of faith,rendering obedience and effortunnecessary pedestrianexpenditures? What sort of lifesprings from such convictions? Canit cope with the hard reality of dailyexistence, or is failure, frustrationand anger ultimately inevitable?

To see this matter in perspective itis necessary first to acknowledgethat the American scene is nottypical of other parts of the globe.As an Australian who has visitedabout forty countries and who cameto the U.S. as a guest-lecturer sevenyears ago, the distinction betweenthis country and all others isobvious and striking. Here is theMecca not only for those seekingnew horizons or new employment,but also a religious and healingMecca which has no real parallelanywhere else in the world.

A Valid ProtestAt this point a protest is

needed - the protest that ourinquiry does not either deny thepossibility of miraculous healing orsuggest that all in the healingbusiness are unscrupulousimposters. What is being questionedis whether every American Jack andJill should be encouraged to believethat the simple way of faithguarantees escape from pain, andwhether what well-intentioned menand women hail as miracles mightnot be something less spectacular.

Having innumerable medicaldoctors among my friends it has notbeen hard to discover theirconvictions on this matter. For themost part they are skeptical ofclaims to organic miraculous healingthough simultaneously confident inthe overruling providence of Deitywhich can and should be invoked.They would agree with a recentpronouncement:

...from my own experience as aphysician I must truthfully admitthat, among the thousands ofpatients I have treated, I havenever observed an unequivocalinstance of intervention in thephysical realm. 2

I well remember a ministerialstudent in my college classes whoclaimed miraculous healing. He gavehis testimony from the chapel deskand in many other places aroundthe country. Those most skeptical ofhis claims were friendly Christianphysicians. Ultimately, the truthemerged - there had been neitherorganic disease nor miracle, only the

phenomenon of an insecure studentseeking recognition and notoriety.The fact that my own wife wasdying with breast cancer after yearsof struggle and soon to leave threeyoung children, increased myinterest in this case.

One of the dangers of a magicalview of the universe has been well-expressed by Walter R. Thorson:

The attitude of the magic andoccult movement in our culture,therefore, is not to deny theresults of science, but rather todownplay and devalue theirintellectual and philosophicalsignificance in relation to reality.The style of its expression is topour scorn on the tradition ofscience as mere child's play incomparison with the real secretsof power known only to theinitiated. . . .3

Healing in the BibleOf course it is the Christian Bible

which is claimed to be the guarantorof the authenticity of modern heal-ing emphases. Is the claim valid?The vast majority of scholarlyexegetes of all churches deny thatScripture invites believers to de-mand miraculous exits from all thedead ends of painful existence. Oneonly needs to read Dr. BenjaminWarfield's Counterfeit Miracles4 tosee how orthodoxy (in this case aformer Princeton professor) hasalways viewed the matter.

Miracles in the New Testamentare rare events after the initialsupernatural establishment of theChristian church. Paul himselfpreached at Galatia while sufferingfrom a protracted illness and at alater time he confessed that hisprayers for healing received anegative reply. He advised Timothyto deal with his own frequentindigestion by using medicinal wineand also informed the youngministerial sufferer that he was notalone for poor Trophimus also wassick at Ephesus - left there by theApostle, unhealed. Similarly, in theepistle to the Philippians we read ofEpaphroditus who, because ofarduous service, had suffered asickness "nigh unto death:' We donot read that he recovered throughmiraculous intervention resultingfrom strenuous personal faith.

The passage most ofted cited byfaith healers is Mark 16:9-20 - apassage omitted by many modernBibles because the evidence for itstextual authenticity is inadequate. Asfor the claim that, according toScripture, healing is dependent upon

the reality of the sufferer's faith -the fact is that the New Testamentlists twenty-nine healings withoutany reference to faith. Some of thosemade whole were originally in afever, a coma or insane. In certaininstances some were dead. Who willclaim that a dead person can exer-cise faith? In one case Christ re-buked the "healers" (the disciples)for their lack of faith rather than thesufferer (see Mt 17:16-17).

The most significantrecovery of truth in therealm of medical sciencehas been the revivedawareness of the unityof man's nature, the so-called psychosomaticlinkage between mindand body.

How effective are faith-healingministries? One thing is quite clear- Christians age and die. Even faithhealers develop grey hair, wearglasses - for reading at least - andinevitably fall before the GrimReaper. The other impressive fact isthat even in Christian-healing circlesthere are strict limits to the cure-range. No amputated limb is everrestored, not even an extractedtooth, nor a loss of sight. Even baldheads defy miraculous reforestation.No hospital on earth has ever beenemptied by a healer, which standsin strong contrast to the Christ whohealed "all manner of disease:'

On the other hand, what shall besaid of the large number of caseswho are improved by prayers offaith? None can say with truth thatall claiming miraculous healing aredeceivers or deceived. Similarly, itmust never be said that all thosereligious leaders encouraging thesick to seek healing are cheats orcheated. What then is the truth ofthe matter?

Mind and BodyApart from confidence in the

sovereign God who obviously canwork a miracle whenever and ifever He chooses, the chief key tothe mysterious lock is the inter-relationship between mind andbody. Not only Christians, butpagans before and since Christ haveworked by suggestion to removehuman afflictions. The priest-physicians of the Greek temples ofAesculapius, the African witch

doctors, and Emily Coue have allhad success.

The most significant recovery oftruth in the realm of medicalscience has been the revived aware-ness of the unity of man's nature,the so-called psychosomatic linkagebetween mind and body. The best ofmodern medical thought nowrecognizes that the mind is the bodyand vice versa. As a recent workaffirms: "The mind is a function ofthe brain which is part of the body- hence they are one:' Dr. FlandersDunbar wrote in her now-famousbook of a generation ago:

A physician with a scientificunderstanding of the psychoso-matic approach can effect curesby medical methods which wouldhave been considered miracles ageneration ago.5

Wade H. Boggs agrees:Perhaps the most reasonableexplanation of the successes offaith healers is to suppose thatthey have stumbled upon thepsychosomatic principle, and thatwhile they operate in accordancewith it, they more or less imper-fectly understand it, and use it ina hit-or-miss fashion. This view ofthe matter contradicts the conten-tion that God's power is beingreleased in a miraculous waythrough them. Rather, it wouldseem that in using their acci-dental discovery of the psychoso-matic principle, they are no moreand no less effective than non-religious practitioners or evencharlatans.6

We do but generalize as we citethese authors. Most men of faithwho understand these things none-theless believe that God can anddoes work miraculously thoughnever on the lavish and uncondi-tional scale others might suggest. Dr.Billy Graham has never operated asa healer of the body but he certainlybelieves in miracles, and thereby heexemplifies the vast majority ofChristian preachers through theages.

Dwight 1. Moody's successor,Dr. R. A. Torrey, had the followingto say:

There is an especial need of adependable book on divine heal-ing at this particular time. Every-where there is a most extra-ordinary interest in the subject.People have flocked by thethousands and tens of thousandsin different cities to adventurersand adventuresses who

oftentimes not only rob them oftheir gold but of that which is farmore precious than gold. And nota few evangelists who have lostout in legitimate soul-winningwork are putting to the front thematter of the healing of the body,and are certainly drawing muchlarger crowds and receiving farlarger pay than they ever didbefore. There have been, to mypersonal knowledge, some verysad tragedies, insanity, death, andshipwreck of faith arising fromthis pitiable business. . . .manysay, "every believer has a right toclaim physical healing for alltheir physical sicknesses and in-firmities right now, just as muchas a right to claim immediate par-don for all their sins, on the groundof the atoning death of jesusChrist!' But that does not follow.It is very poor logic. For thequestion arises, When do we getwhat Jesus Christ secured for usby His atoning sacrifice. TheBible answer to that question isvery plain, and the Bible answeris, when jesus Christ comes again.We get the first-fruits of the aton-ing work of Christ, the first fruitsof salvation in the life that now is,but we get the full fruits only whenjesus Christ comes again.7

Torrey's words are appropriate formany reasons and particularly sobecause large-scale faith healing hadits modern origin in this country inhis day. It was in the late nineteenthcentury when certain preachers ofundeniable probity such as A. J.Gordon and A. B. Simpson began toproclaim to American audiences thatthe atonement was intended to givehealth to the body as well as thesoul. (Their more orthodox brethrenagreed except for the time of thatblessingl. Sadly Gordon died ofpneumonia and bronchitis whileSimpson after years of overwork

died of arteriosclerosis.In the twentieth century modern

Pentecostalism claimed the gifts oftongues and healing with the resultthat faith healers around the countrymarked by emotional hysteria madeextravagant claims of miraclesunlimited. Aimee SempleMcPherson arrived in Los Angeleswith less than one hundred dollarsand began her healing campaigns in1922. In four years, her holdingswere worth a million dollars withoutcounting the Angelus Temple whichwas valued at even a higher figure.

The fact that public healings arelimited in scope, never restoringsuch obvious defects as a lost limb,makes it clear that whatever good isaccomplished belongs chiefly to thepsychosomatic field. One needs toremember that it is commonplace inmedical literature today that up toeighty percent of human maladiesarise from the faulty functioning ofthe imagination. In other words, atremendous proportion of human illshave their source in mental andspiritual problems and therefore canbe cured through those sameavenues.

According to William James,America's most influential psycho-logist, mind-cure movements consti-tute the "only decidedly originalcontribution to the systematicphilosophy of life offered by theAmerican people!'8 He is notentirely right but it is certainly trueto say that here in the USA thiscontribution has been popularized asnever before. And the evidence is tobe found not only in our medicalliterature but on ourdaily television and radio religiousprograms.

A Warning and a PromiseIn conclusion we offer a warning

and a promise to all who areseeking relief from physical

J

affliction. First, the words of LeslieWeatherhead:

At our present stage of develop-ment any attitude of mind whichregards as unnecessary thedoctor, surgeon, dentist, nurse,masseur or other qualified workeron the physical level stands self--condemned ...No amount of love,or positive-thinking, or denial ofthe existence of evil will take asplinter out of an eye. A thousandsituations which we call diseaseare in that category .. At the sametime, man is not mere body. Hisbody is the instrument of themind and the souP

The promise is one I pluck frommemory - a somewhat mangledreproduction of a statement found inan unknown Reader's Digest decadesago. It ran like this:

If ever there was a goldenpanacea for health, it is this: onlyremove the cruel pressures weplace upon our bodies and mindsby wrong habits and the naturalresilience of health will assertitself. Live simply in obedience tothe laws of nature concerningthought, diet, exercise, and restand the reward will be inevitablyyours.

1. "A Surgeon's View of Divine Healing;'Christianity Thday, Nov. 25, 1983, p. 15.

2. Ibid., p. 18.3. Cited by James F. Jekel, Journal of the

American Scientific Affiliation, Sept., 19,p. 123.

4. Reprinted by The Banner of Truth Trust,G.B. 1976.

5. Mind and Body: Psychosomatic Medicine,New York, 1947, cited by GeorgeBishop, Faith Healing: God or Fraud, LosAngeles, 1967, p. 205.

6. Ibid., p. 2107. Divine Healing, Does God Perform

Miracles Thday? Moody Press, Chicago,n.d. pp. 6,13,25,36-37.

8. Psychology, Religion, and Healing,London, 1951, p. 495.

9. Ibid.