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[Announcer] (0:00 - 0:35) Think about the Bible like you never have before. You're listening to Christian Questions. Experience more episodes, videos, and Bible study resources at ChristianQuestions.com.

Our topic is: "Should Christians Expect to be Healed?" We've all heard about dynamic faith leaders who stand on stages before thousands of excited and hopeful believers, and they boldly pray for God's spirit to powerfully touch those who come before them in need of healing. It's dramatic and it's exhilarating. The question is, is it biblical? Here's Rick, Jonathan, and Julie.

[Rick] (0:39 - 0:49) Welcome, everyone. I'm Rick. I'm joined by Jonathan, my co-host for over twenty-five years. Julie, a longtime contributor, is also with us. Jonathan, what is our theme scripture for this episode?

[Jonathan] (0:49 - 1:01) Matthew 12:14-15: "But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, as to how they might destroy him. But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. Many followed him, and he healed them all."

[Rick] (1:02 - 1:55) If you look at any cross-section of our present-day society, you will find that most of humanity suffers from physical or emotional maladies of one kind or another. It doesn't matter what people's belief systems are. Suffering is universal. Who amongst us wouldn't want to have some of that suffering taken away in a miraculous fashion? Who wouldn't want their arthritis healed or their cancer cured or their hearing or eyesight restored? The Christian teaching of faith healing that some groups of Christians adhere to can be a very attractive and exciting proposition. If I have enough faith, and if I go and see this or that preacher who can wield the power, praise God, I can have relief. As attractive as this might be, we need to ask the fundamental questions. Is this what Jesus taught?

If not, what do we do with it?

[Jonathan] (1:55 - 2:11) Many people believe in miraculous healing, commonly through prayer, laying on of hands, pilgrimages to holy places, anointing with oil, and even exorcism. It's sometimes called "faith healing," "supernatural healing," "divine healing," or "miracle healing."

[Julie] (2:12 - 2:33) This is common in Pentecostal and Charismatic evangelical groups and with the Church of Latter-day Saints. There are many Catholic charismatic groups that hold a Catholic mass, followed by individual prayers for healing and sacraments called "healing services." Many Christians participate in this in one form or the other. What, Rick, is our position on this practice?

[Rick] (2:34 - 3:08) Our position, our belief; we firmly believe that the Bible in no way teaches the concept of faith healing. We believe that what is happening with many Christians today regarding the healing they proclaim is not in any way built upon biblical precedent. The clearly-defined example of Jesus and the Apostles was not "faith healing;" rather, it was freely healing by the grace and power of God. That's where we stand.

[Julie] (3:08 - 3:40) I would add God CAN heal, but He does so on His terms and according to His sovereign will and timing, not ours. We have some great quotes on faith healing from the Skeptic's Dictionary at skeptic.com. The first one is: "The wonderful influence of imagination in the cure of diseases is well known. A motion of the hand, or a glance of the eye, will throw a weak and credulous patient into a fit; and a pill made of bread, if taken with sufficient faith, will operate a cure better than all the drugs in the pharmacopeia."

[Jonathan] (3:40 - 3:53) Our next quote: "The placebo effect and the temporal variability of pain in any painful disease work together to produce a powerful illusion that a faith healer or a quack has affected a 'cure.'"

[Julie] (3:53 - 4:11) Speaking about his HBO documentary called "A Question of Miracles," Antony Thomas said: "One woman who we were very close to, suffering from lung cancer, so wanted to believe that she was cured [by televangelist Benny Hinn], that she never saw her oncologist again. He heard about her death through us."

[Jonathan] (4:11 - 4:22) One last quote: "Stories of miraculous cures by healers are found in most, if not all, cultures. Most religions have a tradition of miraculous cures."

[Julie] (4:22 - 4:41) The mind-body connection is scientifically provable. Stress and anxiety can contribute to sickness and positive emotions can promote healing. There's also that well-documented placebo effect when a person receives a perceived improvement in their condition, but the treatment they received has really no therapeutic value.

[Rick] (4:41 - 5:09) You've given us a lot of basis to look at and say, "Alright, what's going on? What is happening in the world around us?" Now let's take a look at what happened in the world of Jesus when he walked the earth. Let's look at examples and see how Christian healing actually worked. Our first example of New Testament healing is by Jesus, and he heals a man with a withered hand. Let's look at Matthew 12. Let's look at verses 9-10:

[Jonathan] (5:09 - 5:21) "Departing from there, he went into their synagogue. And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?--so that they might accuse him."

[Julie] (5:21 - 5:32) Look at that context; Jesus is in the company of those who are threatened by him and they're looking for something, anything, to criticize. It's the Sabbath, and they question him for the sole purpose of trapping him.

[Jonathan] (5:33 - 6:06) Continuing with verse 11: "And he said to them, What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." This was an unexpected but great way to answer. They knew there was nothing in the law that would forbid them from saving an animal on the Sabbath, even if it took physical labor. Jesus wasn't even using physical labor. He used only words to heal.

[Rick] (6:06 - 6:20) Jesus is going to answer this question. He goes back to the Law and gives a basis for the answer, gives that example of the Law. He declares that doing good on the Sabbath is an appropriate and godly act.

Now let's see what he does. Matthew 12:13:

[Jonathan] (6:20 - 6:26) "Then he said to the man, Stretch out your hand! He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other."

[Julie] (6:27 - 6:29) What a dramatic display of miraculous healing!

[Rick] (6:30 - 7:12) You've got to look at that and say he didn't even touch him. He just said the words. The man responded, and right in front of everybody. He doesn't touch the man. He simply commands him "Stretch out your hand." Doesn't say a word about healing. Just says "Stretch out your hand." The man's healed. Now who's he healed in front of? He's--and this is important-- he's healed before an audience of many who dislike Jesus. Many are simply there at the synagogue for their Sabbath rituals and so forth, and he's also in front of his followers. You've got this mixed group in this healing event on the Sabbath. Now let's go to the Mark account of this healing event, because it adds some very important details. Let's look at Mark 3:6-10:

[Jonathan] (7:13 - 7:20) "The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against him, as to how they might destroy him."

[Julie] (7:20 - 7:30) He just healed a man, and what was their attitude?! Envy, malice, hatred, murder; they needed to stop Jesus before he became more influential than they were!

[Jonathan] (7:31 - 7:55) Continuing with verse 7: "Jesus withdrew to the sea with his disciples; and a great multitude from Galilee followed; and also from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard of all that he was doing and came to him. And he told his disciples that a boat should stand ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd him..."

[Rick] (7:55 - 8:23) Let's pause here for a moment because this is important. This is setting up something else that's really big. You've got all of these people come from all these places.

They are not followers. They're curiosity seekers and they're interested and they're onlookers and they're gathering around. They're not his disciples because he talks to his disciples and said, hey, I might need a boat. There's too many people here. Now let's look at Mark 3:10 and see what happens:

[Jonathan] (8:24 - 8:30) "...for he had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around him in order to touch him."

[Rick] (8:30 - 8:37) Matthew adds a very important detail for what Mark is setting up here. Go ahead with Matthew 12:15:

[Jonathan] (8:37 - 8:42) "But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. Many followed him, and he healed them all."

[Rick] (8:43 - 9:23) "He healed them all." He healed all of these onlookers who were afflicted. It didn't matter where they came from, didn't matter who they were, didn't matter if they knew his name. They came, and if they came to him and they had a malady, the scripture says he healed them all. The crowd pressed in to touch him for healing, yet the example from the previous Sabbath was that he healed without even touching anybody. But they understood the closeness.

You have this massive group of people who are not believers. Mark makes that very, very, very plain. We need to understand what's happening here.

[Julie] (9:24 - 9:51) I just wanted to interject to show a contrast between Jesus healing all. With modern day churches and at healing crusades, candidates are often pre-screened. They're hand-picked by the staff.

They're looking for those who might be open to suggestion. They have ailments that aren't verifiable and whose symptoms could be masked with adrenaline, like back pain. Jesus didn't separate anyone into two lines. Now continuing with Matthew 12:16-17.

[Jonathan] (9:51 - 10:00) Remember it left off in verse 15 with: "... he healed them all and warned them not to tell who he was. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet."

[Rick] (10:01 - 10:26) Not only does he heal them all, but he says now don't talk about me and who I am. This is completely contrary to what we would normally expect. His quiet approach showed his humility as Messiah.

He came across as one who would heal and unite and not as one who would shout battle cries in the streets. That's what this prophecy is about in Matthew 12:18-21.

[Jonathan] (10:26 - 10:56) This quote comes from Isaiah 42:1-3: "BEHOLD, MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN; MY BELOVED IN WHOM MY SOUL is WELL‐PLEASED; I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM, AND HE SHALL PROCLAIM JUSTICE TO THE GENTILES. HE WILL NOT QUARREL, NOR CRY OUT; NOR WILL ANYONE HEAR HIS VOICE IN THE STREETS. A BATTERED REED HE WILL NOT BREAK OFF, AND A SMOLDERING WICK HE WILL NOT PUT OUT, UNTIL HE LEADS JUSTICE TO VICTORY. AND IN HIS NAME THE GENTILES WILL HOPE."

[Rick] (10:56 - 11:19) There's so much in this prophecy. You see the tenderness of Jesus being prophesied. You see the strength of Jesus being prophesied.

You see the humility of Jesus being prophesied. The key in this example is he healed them all no matter where they came from.

[Jonathan] (11:19 - 11:39) Here's some questions to consider about faith healing: Why are healing services only performed in church and not in public like Jesus and the Apostles did? Why are the prayers for healing in churches so long and grandiose when Jesus and the Apostles usually said nothing more than "Be healed," or something short and to the point?

[Julie] (11:40 - 12:16) These are great questions because there's a big difference between Jesus simply saying "stretch out your hand" and today, because today if a sick person isn't healed immediately the preacher will keep praying, often with increased volume and animation. If the person still isn't healed, the person receiving this prayer is encouraged to go home and hope that their healing will follow in the next days or weeks. This delay between the prayer and the eventual healing, if there's any healing at all, raises doubt as to whether the healing came because of this prayer service or did the person's malady just get better over time? The body can heal itself of certain things.

[Rick] (12:17 - 12:40) When you look at this whole circumstance, we see the healing done on the Sabbath with that one man. He commanded him to "stretch out" his hand, and then you have this massive crowd of non-believers around him and it says, "and he healed them all." Very different than what you just described, Julie, in terms of what happens today. Jonathan, let's look at this-- The History of Christian Healing versus the Practice of Faith Healing:

[Jonathan] (12:41 - 13:05) Jesus healed in the presence of his detractors, the public and his followers. He healed one who did not even ask. In the case of the withered hand, the man was just going to the synagogue.

Faith healers heal only believers as a result of an energetic and highly emotional buildup. Will we follow Jesus' example or be led down a path of creativity and emotion?

[Rick] (13:05 - 13:31) We have a choice to make when we look at the concept of "faith healing" and the concept of biblical healing. We need to take a look at this, open our eyes and say, "What is it that I am choosing to follow?" We need to be very careful here.

It's pretty dramatic to consider how simple and sincere Jesus was when he healed. Does that attitude come across in today's faith healers?

[Jonathan] (13:31 - 13:42) Just this one example of Jesus' healing work shows us the depth of its power. The question is, was faith ever a requirement for healing?

[Rick] (13:42 - 14:08) There were several occasions that Jesus told those whom he healed that their faith had made them whole. At first glance, this seems to present a contradiction as the healings we just reviewed were all-inclusive. If you had an infirmity and you showed up, you were healed.

In a sense, these people had enough faith in the opportunity to try, in the ability to just simply show up.

[Jonathan] (14:08 - 14:36) Let's talk about a famous place of healing. The town of Lourdes is in southwestern France. In 1858, a 14-year-old peasant girl claimed to see apparitions of Jesus' mother Mary appearing eighteen times. According to Wikipedia: "Shortly thereafter, the city and its Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes became one of the world's most important sites of pilgrimage and religious tourism... By 1859, thousands of pilgrims were visiting Lourdes."

[Julie] (14:37 - 15:24) It's estimated 200 million people have visited the shrine since 1860. According to slife.org on "Faith Healing:" "According to Catholic Encyclopedia, it is often said that cures at shrines and during Christian pilgrimages are mainly due to psychotherapy--partly to confident trust in Divine providence, and partly to the strong expectancy of cure that comes over suggestible persons at these times and places. Among the best-known accounts by Catholics of faith healings are those attributed to the miraculous intercession of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary known as Our Lady of Lourdes, at the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France and the remissions of life-threatening diseases claimed by those who have applied for aid to Saint Jude, who is known as the 'patron saint of lost causes.'"

[Rick] (15:25 - 17:40) We have this location in Lourdes, France, and we have these apparitions that happened in 1858, and you've got all of this activity since. Two hundred million people have gone there. Well, let's look at this, understand things from a very logical perspective.

Since those apparitions in 1858, Lourdes has claims of over seven thousand unexplained cures, of which seventy have been officially recognized as miraculous by the Catholic Church. Now, I'm a numbers guy. I like numbers, so I looked this stuff up on the Catholic websites. I downloaded who was healed when and so forth, because I wanted to see and understand it. Let me give it to you from a statistical perspective here. The most recent fifty-four years, from 1970 until now, in that fifty-four year period of time, there have been six documented cures out of about 189 million visitors. Now, this assumes between three to four million visitors per year. Some estimates are as many as six million per year. I've seen estimates as low as three million, so I picked three and a half. Err on the side of caution, if you will. You've got those individuals, six healings over this fifty-four year period of time. This equates to about one in 31 million healings over the last fifty-four years. One in 31 million! We have 70 million from 1858 until now. Interesting note, in 1858, ten percent of those healings were documented. You go through time and history and you see things changing as they go. In the last seventy-four years, we have just a drop in the bucket. To compare this in terms of chance, am I saying there's a lot of chance here? Absolutely! The odds of matching the top five balls for a "Mega Millions" jackpot--you know, there's five balls and there's the "Mega Ball"-- to match the top five balls, the odds are one in 12 million. To match that sixth "Mega Ball" is one in about 102 million. You're looking at healing in terms of the odds of the lottery. Folks, that's what we need to understand when we look at this with critical eyes trying to understand truth.

[Julie] (17:41 - 17:49) Yeah, but Rick, people still play the lottery EVERY DAY and the odds might be minuscule, but--I could be the winner! Maybe I'll be the one that's cured!

[Rick] (17:49 - 17:51) How many people have you known who won the jackpot?

[Julie] (17:51 - 17:53) I personally have known none.

[Rick] (17:53 - 17:54) Jonathan?

[Julie] (17:54 - 17:55) That exist! They do exist.

[Rick] (17:56 - 18:31) They are few and far between. Playing the lottery is not the place to get rich. You know what?

Hard work! That's probably the best idea in that area; and going to Lourdes is not the place to be healed. Just by statistics! That's what we need to understand. When we look at something like this and we get excited--and you're right, Julie, people get excited about this opportunity-- maybe it could be me!-- just understand what you're looking at! Look at it with realistic eyes and remember what Jesus did and how he did it.

How many people did he heal? Everybody who was in front of him. Just sayin'!

[Julie] (18:31 - 18:32) The odds were one in one.

[Rick] (18:33 - 18:42) Yes, they were one hundred percent! Now, let's go on to Jesus and his healing and the role that faith did or did not play in Jesus's healing.

[Jonathan] (18:42 - 19:17) Well, let's first ask a logical question. Why aren't Christians able to heal every time with a hundred percent success rate like Jesus and the Apostles did? Here's a quote from Christian.net: "The process of faith healing through prayer is not done as a result of prayer. Instead, it's the declaration of how God heals the body of any sickness in full understanding and absolute confidence. As clarified by faith healers, this process announces the successful healing of God even before He starts. Therefore, we can say that this method takes a big leap in faith for it to work."

[Julie] (19:18 - 20:09) The answer to why Christians can't heal every time is often said to be "because of a lack of their faith." A modern teaching that reinforces this requirement of "faith before healing" is called Positive Confession. You might have also heard this as the "Name it and Claim it" doctrine. It says that we have to have absolute faith that we will be healed. If we're not healed, that's our fault for being weak. Sadly, this has caused sick people to abandon their medications, refuse life-saving treatments, and increase their tithes in order to prove their faith, and yet they remain unhealed. I just wanted to make a quick note that some of our comments today are based on a book on the topic written by our friend, Howard Clare, called "The Corrupted Gospel." He's been a guest on this show several times, and we hope to have that available as a free PDF download for our listeners soon.

[Rick] (20:09 - 20:58) You've got a lot of pieces that we're looking at here. Let's look at Jesus and faith and so forth. We'll find that the only faith necessary for healing in Jesus' time and the Apostles was faith in the gift of healing and not -- and I want to stress this -- NOT faith in Jesus as the Savior. That wasn't the faith that made anything work. Faith in Jesus could be present or could be developed in the one being healed, but it was not necessary. We need to understand and grasp that.

Let's look at another example. Let's look at the ten lepers who were healed. We all know that account.

Only one of those ten had his healing attributed to his faith. Now, does that mean this healing was a ninety percent failure? They were all healed equally, and yet one of them has something attributed to his faith.

Let's look at this account in Luke 17:12-19:

[Jonathan] (20:59 - 21:14) "As he (Jesus) entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met him; and they raised their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! When he saw them, he said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priests. And as they were going, they were cleansed."

[Rick] (21:14 - 21:40) Think about this. Here, there is no fanfare. There is no laying on of hands.

There's not even a command to be healed. "Go and show yourself to the priests." That's all he did.

That's all he said. What is there? There's only a gracious and undeserved gift, which these lepers had hoped for.

"Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" He did on ALL of them. Let's go on to verses 15-19:

[Jonathan] (21:41 - 22:05) "Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at his feet, giving thanks to him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine--where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner? And he said to him, Stand up and go; your faith has made you well."

[Julie] (22:05 - 22:17) "Your faith has made you well." This sounds like faith was the reason he was healed, hence "faith healing." Was it faith in the healing or faith in Jesus as the healer?

[Rick] (22:17 - 23:55) Let's look at this and let's understand that Jesus healed all of them exactly the same way. As a group of ten, he said, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." One of them sees that he's healed and comes back and says thank you! There's something different in the fact that he came back, but there's nothing different in the process of the healing. The word for "made you well' is the same word as "saved" throughout the New Testament. It means "to be made whole." Here's what we want to take from this; all received the gift of being made well, of being made whole of their disease. Nine were cleansed, but one, one had faith enough to pursue humble gratitude and praise.

Jesus points that difference out. He comes back. Jesus remarks to him, where are your other nine counterparts?

He looks at him differently and he says "your faith has made you well." He is not talking about the physical skin being restored. He's talking about the heart of this man being raised up to a higher level.

You have been made whole by your experience. They took the gift and ran! You take the gift and you say thank you. In such a heart lies the potential for the healing of discipleship. The only faith the ten began with was a guarded expectation of a miracle. This one had something different.

Let's move forward to the next one-- healing and faith. The example of the woman. We're all very familiar with this account. The woman with the twelve years of blood issue. She shows strong faith as well.

Let's look at Mark 5:27-28, 30-34:

[Jonathan] (23:55 - 24:04) "After hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind him and touched his cloak. For she thought, If I just touch his garments, I will get well."

[Julie] (24:04 - 24:07) She did touch him and immediately she was healed!

[Jonathan] (24:07 - 24:44) "Immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing in on you, and you say, Who touched me? And he looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well..." The King James Version says, "Thy faith hath made thee whole." Continuing with the verse: "...go in peace and be healed of your affliction."

[Rick] (24:44 - 25:56) See now, understand, Jesus proclaimed two things to her right there in that verse. First, he said her faith has made her whole. Just like you said, Jonathan, King James reads "whole," New American Standard says "well." It's that word for "saved." Her faith had saved her, just like the Samaritan leper. Her faith had lifted her to a higher place of living, not just the physical healing. It lifted her towards receiving Jesus.

The second thing he said to her is that he healed her of her affliction. He tells her both things. In a lot of these instances, he says "your faith has made you whole" and a lot of us are left to believe that, well, so did my faith do it? The answer is no! The healing gift works the same way all the time.

When the healing is proclaimed or answered, it's done, REGARDLESS OF THE FAITH OF THE INDIVIDUAL. This is showing a raising up of their standard of life toward godliness. Faith in Jesus was not necessary for healing, but the faith that she had was in the healing of her very life.

It was a different thing! It was a higher thing. When it says "your faith has made you whole," it's talking about your quality of your being is now on a different level. Go ahead, Julie.

[Julie] (25:56 - 25:58) It's beyond the physical healing!

[Rick] (25:58 - 25:59) Exactly!

[Julie] (25:59 - 26:03) Now you can move on to something higher. You've seen something higher. You can be a disciple.

[Rick] (26:03 - 26:12) Exactly! Whenever we see Jesus say that, that's what he's showing them. He's showing them the healing.

That was one thing. But your life now, that's another.

[Jonathan] (26:13 - 26:22) Here's another important question: Why do faith healers only focus on healing for believers when Jesus focused on healing those who did not believe?

[Julie] (26:22 - 26:52) That's a really good question because in fact--and this might surprise people--there's no record of any Christian being healed in the Bible. Jesus and the Apostles only healed non-believers. They didn't heal themselves.

They didn't heal each other. Ironically, Jesus even healed the severed ear of who was essentially his enemy; Malchus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, who came to take him away for trial. He also healed the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda, despite the man not even knowing who Jesus was.

He clearly wasn't a believer. That's not what's going on in churches today.

[Rick] (26:53 - 27:14) That's an important point. Folks, take a look at how Jesus did it and say, is this what I'm seeing wherever I might be going? Let's look at our next example.

The Jewish official who met Jesus on behalf of his dying son also shows two levels of faith. This is another wonderful, wonderful example. John 4:46-50:

[Jonathan] (27:14 - 27:43) "Therefore he came again to Cana of Galilee where he had made the water wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. ... he went to him and was imploring him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe. The royal official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, Go; your son lives. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off."

[Rick] (27:43 - 28:00) He had faith in the gift. Jesus just had to say, "Go, your son lives." He turns around and he walks away. He had faith in that gift! He soon found out that his son was healed at the time that Jesus had spoken those words. That's in John 4:53:

[Jonathan] (28:01 - 28:14) "So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, Your son lives; and he himself believed and his whole household." After returning home, all of his family and servants became believers in Christ.

[Rick] (28:14 - 28:42) Isn't that amazing?! See, you see the two levels. You see the belief in the miracle, and he turns and walks away.

Then after he gets home and he sees it, then he and his whole household become believers. That's the two levels. Your life is different now, not just because of the healing but because of the direction you are now going. He had become whole within him, regardless of the healing of his son.

[Jonathan] (28:43 - 29:04) Here's another important question. Why are healing services always accompanied by repetitive music when there is no record in the Bible of people needing a special mood or atmosphere to be created before being healed? When Jesus and the Apostles healed people, they did it simply, often on the streets and with no big fanfare. There was no music, lighting or a special mood required.

[Julie] (29:05 - 29:42) Today's healing services typically feature worship music before, during and after the service. This might start with loud thumping music to whip everyone into a frenzy. During the prayers for healing, it's replaced with solemn and repetitive background music, often mimicking the rate of a heartbeat. An ambiance is created through soft lighting and music and singing and praying and people closing their eyes and raising their hands in the air and people laying on the floor after being prayed for and so on. These methods create a special mood of expectancy and they make people more pliable and receptive to suggestions.

[Rick] (29:42 - 30:08) Let me think; Jesus just had his words. No mood, no closed environment, he just spoke. Think about that because it's the same gift of healing that we today are saying we're using. The same gift would mean it works the same way. Let's think about this.

Jonathan, The History of Christian Healing versus the Practice of Faith Healing:

[Jonathan] (30:08 - 30:22) Jesus healed as he went. He healed those who were not his followers. He did not set up elaborate healing meetings and he certainly did not require great faith from those he would heal.

How closely do today's faith healers follow Jesus' example?

[Rick] (30:23 - 30:48) How closely do we follow the faith healers of today now that we know Jesus' example? We need to be careful and look at this very seriously from a scriptural perspective. The power of Jesus' humble and freely giving example is breathtaking.

Even more profound is how God's spirit worked so mightily in him!

[Jonathan] (30:49 - 30:59) Why did Jesus heal unbelievers but not require them to follow him? What was his ultimate purpose? Did the apostles precisely follow his example?

[Rick] (31:00 - 31:49) As we will see, Jesus' ultimate purpose was to bring hope to the people, for he was the Messiah who would bring them God's kingdom. The healing and the miracles he displayed were given to the people, giving them an unmistakable message about what that kingdom would ultimately bring to them. It was a message.

When you have a brand new movie come out, you see the short and you see the highlights and you say, "Oh, that looks like a good movie." These are the highlights of a really good reality called the kingdom of God. That's what Jesus was doing.

That's why the gifts were there. How do we know? Why did Jesus heal?

Just like we said; to proclaim the kingdom! Let's just look at it scripturally. Matthew 6:9-10, the Lord's prayer:

[Jonathan] (31:49 - 31:59) "Pray, then, in this way: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

[Rick] (31:59 - 32:28) He's praying for God's kingdom to come to earth. God's will to be "done on earth as it is in heaven." Do we see that yet?

No. Did Jesus tell us to pray for something that wasn't going to come true? No.

What that means is it's something to look forward to, and this is where the healing came from. Jesus and his followers proclaimed that times were changing because the Messiah had arrived.

We know that from Luke 10:8-9. This is when he's sending the seventy out to preach. Here's one of the things that he tells them:

[Jonathan] (32:29 - 32:42) "Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you." This healing is a preview of the kingdom blessing.

[Rick] (32:42 - 33:01) It is. It's the introduction. It's saying, coming to the earth in the future, this is what's going to happen. These are the previews of some great, great, great event. Jesus's ministry was a dramatic first stage fulfillment of all that had been prophesied long before.

Let's look at Isaiah 53:4-5:

[Jonathan] (33:02 - 33:22) "Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried; yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging, we are healed.

[Julie] (33:23 - 33:48) "By his scourging, we are healed." You might have heard this in a different translation as "by his stripes, we are healed." This is one of the key texts people use to support faith healing. Often preachers will pray for healing and then they tack that "by his stripes, we are healed" verse on the end. But if we look at the context, this isn't talking about physical healing at all. It's referring to our spiritual healing, which is provided through Jesus's sacrificial death.

[Jonathan] (33:48 - 34:10) Isaiah is prophesying about the Messiah and the reason for his coming. The verse is telling us that Jesus will die because of our sins. Because he sacrificed his perfect life, our sins will be wiped away. Hence we will be spiritually healed. This verse shouldn't be used to support the idea that Jesus died so that we can be free of our physical ailments.

[Rick] (34:11 - 35:18) Yeah, and further, you think about it. Jesus did all of the healing that he did before he was persecuted. He did it when people didn't even know who he was.

How could it have been that the scourging healed us? It was the gift of God through Jesus that did the healing, and it always worked the same way. You know what? The gifts of God, when they work, here's an idea--they never fail, never. When the gifts of God are applied, they always succeed.

We look at this verse in Isaiah and it just helps us to put it in perspective. The healing prophesied of Jesus was a comprehensive healing, just like both of you had said, that all will yet experience as a result of his sacrifice. Jesus previewed this healing with the physical healing at his first advent.

All of this was a picture of and a precursor for the ultimate healing, not of this wound and that wound and this malady and that, but the ultimate healing of all humanity. Let's look at Revelation 21:3-4. It gives you a kind of a 30,000 foot look at what it looks like afterwards.

[Jonathan] (35:19 - 35:40) "And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

[Rick] (35:40 - 36:10) We look at that and we look at the sweeping success of the healing of God's kingdom, the sweeping, unadulterated, pure one hundred percent success of that. What we see when we look at Jesus' first advent and then the results of the kingdom is Jesus did grace healing, not faith healing. Understand that's what the scriptures are teaching us.

It was meant for anyone who he encountered as a sign of the kingdom to come.

[Julie] (36:10 - 37:37) So far we've been talking about formal faith healing in churches, but what about individual prayers for healing? Just a quick personal story; two years ago, almost to the day, Susie, a friend of mine for over forty years and a CQ listener, she asked me, "Do you believe in the power of prayer for healing?" She had a cancer scare.

I answered, "I believe the scriptures show how miraculous healing was a gift of the holy spirit. It was a specific purpose to set Christianity up and running. The Christian is to accept God's will be done regardless of your circumstances.

Going in prayer to say heal me or heal that person is less appropriate than saying, You give me or this person strength to go through, be a good witness, learn the lessons." Her reply to me two years ago was that she believes strongly in the power of prayer and that prayers for healing are available. She retested, was told that there was no cancer and we never talked about it again.

I literally received a call yesterday that she died after a misdiagnosis. The cancer was aggressive. It was excruciating.

It did horrific things to her that she never told me. I'm really struggling with this because did my answer show her that perhaps I wasn't compassionate enough to present this to God on her behalf? This repeats every day all over the world. Would it have been so wrong if I would have prayed for the cancer not to have spread as quickly or to even go away?

[Rick] (37:37 - 39:54) Okay, that's a big question for a big event and for a tragic event. There's several ways of looking at that. When we want to have faith in God taking care of us--and many of us do, we want to have faith-- sometimes we dictate to God the way we think He should take care of us. Sometimes as we do that, it may not be His way. The thing to be able to look at is, no, Julie, first of all, the answer is, were you not compassionate enough?

No, because I actually agree with the approach that you took. But what we want to be able to look at and do in a circumstance like that is say, "Nevertheless, not my will, but Your will be done." That's how Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We need to look at that as the model prayer for when we are going through our most difficult trial. How did Jesus handle it? Did he say, God, remove it?

I can do without it? Or did he say, I'd like X, Y, Z to be removed, but "nevertheless, not my will, but Your will be done." Can God heal?

Sure He can. Will He? I don't know.

I have no right to say yes or no. But I know that if we pray "nevertheless," we will look at the unfolding of our experience with a more open mind than if we say, well, God's going to answer me in the way that I want to be answered. We need to be really careful. Your friend had a tragic, tragic experience, and we don't want to make light of that. She, perhaps, I don't know, perhaps she put her faith in the idea that, well, they didn't diagnose the cancer, so I'm good. I don't have to think about it again. Looking back, you say, well, maybe, could have, should have--you can do all of that. The bottom line is, everyone who dies is raised in the kingdom. Everyone who dies is going to be--going back to the Isaiah scripture--"by his scourging," we are all healed. Much more than cancer, we're healed as humanity.

Very difficult story. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that experience. Did the apostles work their healing miracles along the same guidelines that Jesus used?

Let's take a look at a very early, perhaps the first healing performed after Pentecost. Jonathan, we're going to Acts 3, right?

[Jonathan] (39:54 - 40:27) Yes, 1-13. This tells us the story of the Apostles Peter and John going to the temple. A man who was crippled from birth would be carried every day to the gate of the temple to beg. He was simply asking for a little charity. Starting with verse 4: "But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, Look at us! And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene--walk!"

[Julie] (40:27 - 40:32) It's important to note this beggar didn't even ask for healing. He was just doing what he did every day.

[Rick] (40:32 - 41:00) We want to understand that Peter and John were surrounded. What's the context here? They're surrounded by Jews who were simply going about their daily rituals.

They were surrounded by people that weren't believers. There was no planning for dramatics, no music, no rhythm, no anything. There was no faith in Christianity here.

They're at the temple. But what there was, was a public opportunity. They took that public opportunity to show who Jesus was. Acts 3:7-10:

[Jonathan] (41:01 - 41:35) "And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately, his feet and his ankles were strengthened. With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened to him." Can you imagine? He never learned to walk or even have balance on his feet, and suddenly he now leaped up and walked.

[Julie] (41:35 - 41:39) Yeah, it took me twelve weeks to relearn how to walk properly after a hip operation.

[Rick] (41:40 - 42:19) This is truly a miracle. You know, that's the thing about the miracles from the apostles and from Jesus. They were undeniable.

They were dramatic. You didn't need all of the other stuff. The miracle was the drama.

It showed the great power of God through Jesus, through the apostles. Immediate, full, and miraculous response. That's what was there.

Very public, very out in the open, very obvious, and very, very, very unexpected. The man wasn't looking for it. He received an unlooked-for gift.

Let's go to Acts a little bit further. Acts 3:11-13:

[Jonathan] (42:20 - 42:50) "While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him."

[Rick] (42:50 - 43:21) The purpose of the healing was a witness to God's power and mercy, and provided a captivated audience for the public sermon to follow. It brought them to Christ. They weren't already with Christ.

It brought them to Christ. It introduces Jesus as the Redeemer of mankind. The healing was not for the purpose of the followers.

It was to introduce the beauty of the kingdom that was going to come because of Jesus.

[Jonathan] (43:21 - 43:35) Let's consider some questions. Why do those who pray for healing encourage people to fall down when this never happened to the Bible? Why do they push these people on their foreheads, suggesting that the holy spirit can't do it without their help?

[Julie] (43:35 - 44:20) Yeah, today's healing services resemble more of a performance or a show. The preacher typically recites long and protracted prayers, sometimes repeating his command of healing several times. They might wave their arms around, raise their voices to cast out the spirit of illness or disability.

They lay hands on the sick person, urging them to fall backwards as if they were "slain" by the holy spirit. Other church members called catchers stand behind the sick person, expecting them to fall backwards into their waiting arms. This puts great pressure on the sick person to do their part and fall down.

To add to the drama, the faith healer might even throw his hands towards other people, "anointing" them with the fire of the holy spirit. It's so much happening.

[Rick] (44:20 - 44:49) Yeah, yeah. It makes for a very dramatic looking scenario, but it doesn't get the job done that they claim it gets done. It looks good, first of all, to be "slain" (quote, unquote) in the spirit. There is no scripture anywhere under any circumstance that can any way be interpreted to mean that. Let's get it straight. We're looking at something that is somewhat fabricated, not at all scriptural.

We need to be careful with these kinds of things.

[Jonathan] (44:49 - 44:53) It's really a mockery of what true healing was in scripture.

[Rick] (44:54 - 45:08) It is, because true healing was humble and straightforward and one hundred percent successful for unbelievers. Jonathan, The History of Christian Healing versus the Practice of Faith Healing:

[Jonathan] (45:08 - 45:31) The apostles followed Jesus' example. They healed unbelievers. They healed in public and they healed in the name of Jesus.

They did not engage in any fanfare and displayed the great humility that was necessary to wield the great power of God's spirit working within them. They didn't take up collections. How closely do today's faith healers follow their example?

[Rick] (45:32 - 45:51) How closely do they follow that example? Again, how closely do we follow what we're seeing today in relation to what the scriptures say? The drama of these examples shows us a stark contrast between true healing done in a godly and righteous way and the healing attempts of our day.

[Jonathan] (45:53 - 46:01) What are we supposed to do with all of this evidence regarding the right way to heal? Is healing an appropriate Christian practice today?

[Rick] (46:02 - 46:48) Well, it's been about two thousand years since Jesus walked this earth. Even a casual observer can see the stark differences in Christianity now versus back in the times of Jesus and the apostles. Back then, there was a small group of followers with direct connections to Jesus.

It was all new and the gifts of the spirit were tools to give them direction; specific direction to announce Jesus, to announce the kingdom that would come as a result of Jesus. Those gifts, including healing, were being misused and were being unduly elevated because humanity makes a mess of pretty much everything we touch. Let's face the fact that's just what happens.

Let's look at 1 Corinthians 12:27-31:

[Jonathan] (46:49 - 47:24) "Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. All are not apostles, are they?

All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they?

All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?

But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way."

[Rick] (47:24 - 48:02) The Apostle is saying you've got all of these things going on within the church and he lists them in an order of importance. You have apostles and prophets and teachers and miracles, then the gifts of healing. It says "then." You have a sense that this is not at the top of the pecking order.

This is not the most important thing. It's interesting to me how we grab hold of the things that are most dramatic and we try to make them most important. The apostle is saying exactly the opposite.

This "more excellent way" would be the label that future generations of followers would carry. What is this "more excellent way?" The very next verse is 1 Corinthians 13:1-3:

[Jonathan] (48:02 - 48:28) "If I speak with tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing."

[Julie] (48:29 - 48:42) If these scriptures are familiar, you've likely heard them read at a wedding because 1 Corinthians 13 is often called the "love chapter." It's a contrast. You can have all these wonderful things, but they are meaningless in God's eyes without love.

[Rick] (48:42 - 49:07) This kind of love is that selfless kind of love, the kind of love that gives yourself for someone else without expecting anything in return. The selfless love is the marker that identifies our standing with Christ. This is an important baseline as we're going to build how we should understand healing or the lack thereof within true Christianity today. Jonathan, 1 John 3:14:

[Jonathan] (49:07 - 49:31) "We know that we have passed out of death into life because we healed the brethren." No, it doesn't say that! Because we speak in tongues to the brethren?

No. Because we perform miracles for the brethren? No.

Because we can prophesy to the brethren? No. "We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death."

[Rick] (49:31 - 50:04) It's breaking things down to here are the most important things. Look, in our world, when you have the meetings, the faith healing meetings, that becomes the most important thing. What the Apostle is saying is all of that stuff is meaningless unless we are actually daily living this higher standard.

This standard of love is eternal. The Apostle Paul told us that the gifts of the spirit were not. The gifts of the spirit were not eternal. That's really important. We know that in 1 Corinthians 13:8-10:

[Jonathan] (50:05 - 50:33) "Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues (meaning speaking in tongues), they will cease; if there is knowledge (meaning miraculous knowledge without having to study), it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes (meaning that which is complete), the partial will be done away." In other words, once the gospel can be shared through the written word, all of these other evidences aren't necessary as proof.

[Julie] (50:34 - 50:45) OK, but prophecy, tongues, knowledge, there's nothing specific about the gift of healing going away. In fact, there's no scripture that plainly says healing will go away. Shouldn't there be?

[Rick] (50:45 - 50:49) Well, I don't think there needs to be because healing can't be faked.

[Julie] (50:50 - 50:52) Well, there's a whole industry that says it can!

[Rick] (50:52 - 51:36) Right. But then when you look into it and you look at the proof, the proof is, nope, not this time. Nope, not this time.

Nope, not this time. Over and over and over again. Here's the thing; healing in the scriptures always worked the same way. Who do we think we are to say that we're going to take this gift and we're going to put it in the context of a meeting and music and swaying and prayer and chanting and dramatics? Who do we think we are?

Well, we're going to "slay people in the spirit" when that never happened ever, ever, ever in the scriptures. Folks, please understand the scriptures tell us how. We have no right to make up something beyond. That's my response, Julie, just a little bit of a response right there.

[Julie] (51:37 - 51:40) Yeah. Who got to do the healing? It was just the apostles, right?

[Rick] (51:40 - 51:40) Right.

[Julie] (51:41 - 51:41) And Philip?

[Rick] (51:42 - 51:53) Yeah. Anyone that they would have passed that gift on to. There is no evidence that those gifts were able to be passed on by anybody but the apostles. That's another very, very important point.

[Jonathan] (51:53 - 52:01) I have another question to consider. If faith healers can truly heal the sick, why aren't they emptying the hospital wards?

[Julie] (52:01 - 52:26) Great question, and an obvious one. Why is it the whole world going crazy with excitement to put the drug companies out of business?

Shouldn't these faith healers be visiting hospitals and nursing homes around the world? Why aren't they blowing up social media with videos of healing people blind from birth and with cerebral palsy? Even atheists would rethink their beliefs and seek these healings for themselves and their loved ones.

They could do amazing things for Christianity.

[Rick] (52:26 - 52:27) That's what Jesus did.

[Julie] (52:27 - 52:28) That's what Jesus did.

[Rick] (52:28 - 53:40) He would be outside somewhere and the people would come to him and what did the scripture say several times? "And he healed them all." He literally emptied the hospital wards.

He did that. We can't. Why?

Because it's not appropriate, that's why. It's a real simple thing.

"Faith healing" (quote unquote), faith healing venues draw on the human desire to be rid of pain and suffering. In some ways, being healed can be seen as receiving a reward for showing up in faith. If I have great, great faith, then I can be healed.

The faith healers build up hope and adrenaline and ultimately deliver an empty package. Folks, that's the truth. It's ultimately an empty package.

Here's the thing. The sufferings of true disciples is treated in an entirely different way in the New Testament. We mentioned before there's no record of Jesus disciples being healed, period.

Why would we expect that now? But there is a record of Jesus' disciples having troubles and trials and difficulties and sicknesses. Let's look at James 5:13-15 and understand how the suffering of true disciples is treated in the New Testament.

[Jonathan] (53:40 - 54:03) "Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful?

He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of our Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him."

[Rick] (54:04 - 55:39) You notice that you've got this "suffering" and "sick" and "sick," those three words. We're going to define those in a moment, but here's the thing; you have the model for faith healing. If healing were meant for believers, then simply lay hands on them and say, "Be healed," because that's how it always worked. That's how Jesus showed.

That's how the apostles showed. That's how Philip showed. The second point; let's define "suffering" and "sick" because this goes beyond physical illness. It is much more along the lines of spiritual illness. Is there any "suffering?" The word literally means "to undergo hardship." It isn't limited to having a malady. Undergo hardship; it's a big thing. Is anyone "sick?" The word literally means "to be feeble in any sense." Again, we're not looking at, I am physically ill. Anyone who is "sick," it says later on in the scripture; that means "to toil, to tire." Okay, so we're not looking at the physicality of a disease. We're looking at the breaking down of our being in discouragement and in trial and in difficulty. When you have a big trial, a trauma happened in your life, you end up spiritually sick sometimes. You notice it doesn't say that let the elders come and anoint you with oil and you will be healed. It says you can be restored. You can be brought back to spiritual health by being vulnerable, by praying, by having those around you be encouraging and by applying scriptural principles.

That's what's spoken about here. The trials and difficulties of those following Christ are not supposed to be taken away. Let's look at 1 Peter 4:12-13:

[Jonathan] (55:40 - 56:03) "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exultation." True believers are supposed to bear their burdens and trust in God to see them through.

[Julie] (56:03 - 56:26) When we look at this in a comprehensive way, our thought is a true follower of Jesus would never want to be a part of something that gives people false hope, makes them feel unworthy, fosters a self-centered attitude, turns people away from God in despair, portrays a false image of God in His nature, focuses Christians on the wrong things, and ultimately makes money for false teachers.

[Rick] (56:26 - 58:28) We want to be very, very, very careful when we look at the Christian life. We want to be accepting of the challenges that we're given. Why?

Because there is no temptation taking you, no testing (the word for "temptation" means "to test") that is not common to man. In other words, things that happen to everybody else happen to us. But God is faithful, who will provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. They may be able to go through it.

It's not have it removed and thrown away. It's going through it. That's what the Christian life is supposed to be.

Take up your cross daily, deny yourself and follow him. That means we bear our sufferings and we rejoice in them because the moment of suffering we have is nothing compared to the eternal weight of glory in Christ Jesus. We are supposed to bear those sufferings.

As for the world, though, the world's healing will come and it will come in a very big, dramatic way. Isaiah 35:5-6,10:

Jonathan "Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the Arabah. And the ransomed of the LORD will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion, with everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away."

Rick

Then, when, when? You say when? "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That's when! We see this massive healing of the world, the resurrection of mankind, Jesus calling each from their graves and being given an opportunity for life. That's why Jesus healed two thousand years ago, to say this is a tiny taste of what's coming. Let's go back to Revelation 21:3-4 as we wrap this up:

[Jonathan] (58:29 - 58:51) "And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

[Rick] (58:51 - 59:25) No more of this. It's all gone. You notice how the sense you get from this is exactly the sense you got when Jesus healed. When he healed, it was done. It was instant, and it was over. He never, ever, ever missed a beat on that. Revelation 21 is showing you the same thing. There will be no more of these things. They will be wrapped up and thrown away.

It's over! That's why Jesus healed in the first advent, to show us a taste of that. Jonathan, let's wrap this up. The History of Christian Healing versus the Practice of Faith Healing:

[Jonathan] (59:26 - 59:47) The grace healing of the New Testament is but a glimpse of the might and power of God's eternal plan for all humankind. Jesus and the apostles were living examples of giving that grace to unbelievers in the form of healing and hope. Let us appreciate the lesson of New Testament healing and look forward to the ultimate healing of the world!

[Rick] (59:48 - 1:00:36) We have spent some time today talking about how Jesus executed the gift of healing, how the apostles executed the gift of healing. What we want to understand is there's a method and a time, and we need to respect where it belonged because it's in the past and understand that it was a picture of the greatness of what's to come. Let's make sure we see healing for what it is and appreciate the grace healing of the past and look forward to the great healing of the future.

Think about it. Folks, we love hearing from our listeners. We welcome your feedback and questions in this episode and other episodes at christianquestions.com.

Coming up in our next episode: "Should Christians Be Politically Driven?"

Final Notes: copyright @2024 Christian Questions. In addition to this transcript, we provide comprehensive CQ Rewind Show Notes for every episode. They include every scripture quoted during the podcast, as well as graphics, illustrations and bonus material. Click the "CQ Rewind Show Notes" button near the audio player or sign up to receive these weekly at ChristianQuestions.com. This transcript was created using artificial intelligence. While we believe it to be accurate, we apologize for any errors that may exist.