Lesson 1.34: Miraculous Healing

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LESSON 1.34: MIRACULOUS HEALING

Loved one, in the book of Acts, Luke records thirty years of church history and describes numerous cases of divine healing. The apostles and other Spirit-gifted men healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, cast out demons, raised the dead, and enabled the lame to walk.

In this lesson, we will examine a few of these cases of healing recorded by Luke. As we do so, let us ask ourselves the question: "Is modern divine healing the same as the healings we read about in Acts?"

Peter And John Heal A Lame Man (Acts 3)

The first case of healing in Acts is recorded in the third chapter. Peter and John were going to the temple to pray one afternoon when they saw a lame beggar sitting at his regular station near the Gate called Beautiful. Peter looked straight at him and said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk" (Acts 3:6). Instantly, the man jumped up and followed the apostles into the temple leaping and praising God (Acts 3:7-8).

This man was forty years old (Acts 4:22), and he had never walked... He had been born lame. Yet, when Peter healed him in the name of Jesus, he was able to walk, leap, and run like a teenage athlete. His healing was complete and immediate, and the reality of the miracle was undeniable. The priests and the captain of the temple guard arrested Peter and John for causing a disturbance, but they could not deny that a great miracle had been performed (Acts 4:16).

Are people with lifelong physical deformities being healed today?

The Apostles Heal All Who Come To Them (Acts 5)

In Acts 5, the healing ministry of the apostles gained momentum. "The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people" (Acts 5:12). "Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed" (Acts 5:16). ALL of them were healed.

In today's world, tens of thousands of sick, deaf, blind, and crippled people have gone to faith-healing campaigns hoping to be healed. Have all of them been healed? It is an established fact that only a small percentage of the sick who attend such meetings are allowed into the healing lines. Those who are crippled and diseased, are screened out. The sick and dying are shuffled off to the side, out of sight, and are clustered together in wheelchairs and on stretchers – waiting in vain for an opportunity to be healed. The apostles, on the other hand, healed everyone who came to them for healing.

Aneas Is Healed, And Tabitha Is Raised From Death (Acts 9)

During one of those rare periods of peace in the early church, Peter traveled through Judea visiting followers of Christ. In the town of Lydda, he found a man named Aneas who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat" (Acts 9: 34). Immediately, Aeneas got up.

In Joppa, a Christian woman named Tabitha died, and her body was placed in an upstairs room. When Peter arrived, he went upstairs, sent the mourners outside, got down on his knees, and prayed. Then, turning to the dead woman, he said, "Tabitha, get up" (Acts 9:40). And immediately, the dead woman opened her eyes and sat up. Peter took her by the hand, helped her to her feet, and presented her to her friends alive.

Notice that the room was quiet. No organs played pulsating music. No choir sang, clapped, and danced in rhythm. Peter simply knelt in prayer, turned to the dead woman, and said, "Tabitha, get up." Is there anyone in the world today who can do what Peter did?

Paul Heals A Crippled Man In Lystra (Acts 14)

When Paul and Barnabas came to the city of Lystra, they found a crippled man who had been lame from birth. He had never walked. "He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed, and called out, 'Stand up on your feet'! At that, the man jumped up and began to walk" (Acts 14:9-10). The healing was immediate and complete.

By contrast, many modern faith healers tell their patients to believe that God has started healing them. They instruct them to testify publicly that they have been healed even if they cannot detect any improvement in their physical condition. "God will heal you gradually," they say, "if you truly believe." In New Testament times, healings were instantaneous and complete.

Theology Of The Modern Faith-Healing Movement

There are people today who believe that physical healing is an intrinsic part of the gospel and is available to all Christians. They believe that the atonement of Christ includes physical healing.

For example, the late Oral Roberts developed a theological system based on Isaiah 53:5: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." Roberts concluded that the crucifixion of Jesus provides both physical and spiritual healing.

Second, he went to 1 Peter 2:24: "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." Roberts interpreted this healing literally, asserting that we receive physical, as well as spiritual, healing by the wounds of Jesus. This interpretation of 1 Peter 2:24 runs counter to the conclusions of nearly all Greek lexicographers.

Third, Roberts went to Matthew 8:16-17: "When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him [Jesus], and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 'He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.'" (Here, Matthew quoted Isaiah 53:4). Roberts correctly claimed that Jesus fulfilled Isaiah 53:4 when he healed the sick, but he incorrectly concluded that the healing mentioned in Isaiah 53:5 refers to physical healing as well.

Does the healing in Isaiah 53:4 refer to the atonement of Christ? No, it refers to the healing ministry of Christ. This prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus performed miracles of healing (Matthew 8:16-17).

Does the healing in Isaiah 53:5 refer to physical healing? No, it refers to the atonement. It pertains to spiritual healing. This prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross. The healing in verse four was physical, and the healing in verse five was spiritual. To read physical healing into Isaiah 53:5 is not good exegesis. "Exegesis" means "drawing out" and explaining truth contained in the text, not reading something into it.

Sound Biblical exegesis does not support the view that all faithful Christians are healed of all their diseases. The apostle Paul got sick. He said to the Galatians, "As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you" (Galatians 4:13). Timothy, Paul's "son in the faith," had an extended illness. Paul said to him, "Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses" (1 Timothy 5:23). Epaphroditus, a faithful servant sent by the church in Philippi to minister to Paul while he was a prisoner in Rome, became ill and almost died (Philippians 2:27). Trophimus, one of Paul's traveling companions, got sick and had to be left in Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20). It is obvious that the theological foundation upon which the modern faith-healing movement is built is flawed.

Oral Roberts, himself, was not immune to sickness. On December 15, 2009, Oral Roberts died of pneumonia.

Proponents of modern faith healing claim to have the "full gospel." They say that any gospel that focuses on the spiritual atonement in Christ is only half a gospel. The "full gospel" includes physical healing.

Is that true? Are the sick and dying really being healed in modern faith-healing campaigns? Let us examine the evidence.

An Exposé

In the 20th century, a Presbyterian preacher by the name of Carroll Stegall, Jr. wrote a book titled The Modern Tongues and Healing Movement. While the author was a student at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, he attended a faith healing meeting conducted by William Freeman. Stegall was so convinced that what he saw was authentic that he went home deeply disturbed. "If the Pentecostals are right," he thought to himself, "then all other groups are wrong." And he made a promise to God that he would make a thorough investigation of the faith healing movement, and if he found its claims to be true, he would follow the truth regardless of the cost to him personally – even if it meant turning his back on his father and mother who were African missionaries, and leaving his church. His book is a record of his investigation.

For several years, Stegall went from one meeting to another investigating the claims of prominent faith healers such as William Freeman, O. L. Jaggers, and Oral Roberts. He sat on the front row near the healing line night after night, observing and taking notes. He watched the healers at work, studied their methods, talked to them personally, and brought cripples to them for healing. He talked with the blind, the lame, and the diseased who had come for healing but who had been screened out. He visited in the homes of those who had gone through the healing lines–those who were supposed to have been healed. He left no stone unturned in his investigation.

What did Stegall conclude at the end of his study? He reported that, in all his years of research, he did not find a single person who had been healed of an organic ailment or disease. His candid conclusion was that, in most cases, the "cures" were "hoaxes, pure and simple."

Dr. William S. Sadler's Investigation

Add to Stegall's evidence the testimony of Dr. William S. Sadler, a well-known Chicago psychiatrist and professor at McCormick Theological Seminary.

Dr. Sadler wrote, "In twenty-five years of sympathetic inquiry and study of divine healing, during which time I have seen apparent miracles wrought and many diverse diseases cured, I have not seen a single bona fide organic disease that has been cured."

The Healing Ministry Of Jesus

The gospel narratives include thirty-one specific cases of healing during the ministry of Jesus, and more than half of them involved organic diseases. More than half.

If modern faith-healers would show us indisputable evidence that they have healed organic illnesses, as Jesus and the apostles did, then we would gladly recognize their claims as legitimate. However, in the absence of such evidence, and in view of the evidence to the contrary, we are obligated before God to reject their claims as false.

There is historical evidence that legitimate, miraculous healings ceased about the middle of the second century – with the death of those upon whom the apostles laid their hands. Four of the early church leaders who mention miraculous healing lived within sixty years of the close of the apostolic age: (1) Clement, AD 30-100; (2) Ireneaus, AD 139-202; (3) Justin Martyr, AD 89-162); and (4) Tertullian, AD 160-240. Origen (AD 185-254) was the only church leader who claimed to have seen such a healing with his own eyes. The others reported "hearsay" that they assumed to be true. From the time of Justin Martyr onward, no miracles of healing were performed that compared with those performed by Jesus Christ and his apostles.

Chrysostom (AD 347-407) said that all the men of his time together could not do as much as one of Paul's handkerchiefs.

God Is Able

God is sovereign. He can do anything he wants to do. He could give healing powers to people today if he wanted to. However, the evidence indicates that he has not given modern faith healers the same power to heal on command that he gave the apostles and other Spirit-gifted Christians in New Testament times.

It is important to emphasize, however, that God still heals people in response to prayer. When we ask God to bless our loved ones who are sick, he can (and often does) intervene in nature and touch them with healing power. Too many prayers have been answered for us to doubt it. Time after time, our Spirit-assisted prayers have stirred God to action and altered the course of nature. Doctors are often baffled by developments. Malignant tumors have suddenly shrunk for no apparent reason. Lives have been extended far beyond expectation.

Human beings are no longer able to perform miracles of healing; but God can. And God does. The Spirit helps us pray, and God answers our prayers according to his infinite wisdom, grace, and mercy.

Let us not despair when God does not give us miraculous healing powers. Rather, let us rejoice that God is alive, that he is all-powerful, that we are his children, that he loves us supremely, and that he blesses us in response to our prayers. Let us also be thankful that God has given us his Spirit to shape us into the likeness of Christ.