Physical Healing: Faith or Medical Science?
The biblical view is that when God created the earth it contained all that mankind would ever need. Discovery would take place over time, along with the development of civilization. Each human body contains within its chemicals and its physiology the ability to repel every external and potentially invasive force.
I am not qualified to comment on medical elements such as antibodies, but my fifty years as a minister has included five decades of ministering to the sick, diseased, and injured through prayer and the laying on them of my hands (as a point of contact for the release of both their faith and mine),
I have seen hundreds of healings begin and many instant healings, i.e. miracle-healings. These all took place as God’s power flowed through me into the sick, or through both parties as a result of our combined faith. These have taken place not only in Developing Nations in Asia but also in the UK, the USA, and here at home in Australia.
I have no doubt that desperation played a great part in those who were healed on the spot in those nations in which medical aid was less available: cripples leaping to their feet and in one case a 78-year-old man coming back to life after the power of the Spirit of God passed into him through my hands.)
Medical science and Divine Healing are not contradictory; after all, Jesus said “the sick have need of a physician”, and the physicians in his day were not responsible for their inability to bring healing for a woman’s twelve-year hemorrhage. The fact that she had spent all her money, had no bearing on the matter: the same could be said of the USA (where the cost of treatments and operations is beyond many if its citizens).
Christians believe that God heals ideally through the Atonement, i.e. through the sufferings of Jesus Christ and his whipping by Roman soldiers in Pilate’s judgement hall and on the Cross. Isaiah 53:5 views healing as a future promise, and Peter views it as an established fact (I Peter 2:24). Some think that Psalm 103:3 speaks of the soul’s diseases, i.e. spiritual diseases such as sin, not physical diseases. However, every healing or miracle in Matthew chapter 8 is a physical one and Matthew refers to them all as being the fulfillment of Isaiah 53.
Divine Healing and Medical Science are not strangers but are related and have been from the time of Moses (Exodus 15:26). The Temple priests monitored diseases such as leprosy, though they did not treat those who suffered. (Jesus instructed the ten lepers to “go and show yourselves to the priests”. The one who came back to thank him was a Samaritan and as so could not present himself to a priest. As a soon-to-be-priest of a higher order, Jesus pronounced him clean.) Healing is one of God’s many attributes, and one of His names is JWVH Rapha: The LORD Who Heals You (Exodus 15:26).
Jesus said many times to those who on believing in him had been healed: “Your faith has made you whole [has healed you].” Their faith in his power resulted in their healing! So, whether your first resort is to Jesus Christ or to your local G.P. depends on your faith. Why exclude medical help? Satan did not inspire it! He comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. Nursing and hospitals came into being through Christians. Bible promises or Common Sense? Both working together often result in physical healings.
My question to those who are dismissive of medicine is whether they would be so in the event of an automobile accident. Would the sufferer’s first response be a prayer to God for supernatural help, or a mobile phone call for natural help from an ambulance and paramedics? The two options are not mutually exclusive but inclusive, in that God’s answer can come from a combination of both.
The miracle may be that God hears and heals from Heaven, or instead that an ambulance and paramedics happened to be nearby and swiftly attend the accident scene. Whichever way, does the one in great pain care? A mature Christian would view the proximity of medical help as God’s answer to the prayer of the suffering person.
I get that reactive mid-20th century Pentecostal evangelist rejected medical help as the result of scorn heaped on them by the medical establishment of the day, but such is no longer the case. Holistic medicine, an understanding of psychosomatic disorders, and other developments have resulted in the mutual respect — if not total acceptance — of divine healing and medical healing as two sides of the one coin.
The word “pragmatic” — “Occupy” in Luke 19:13 — is derived from the NT Greek word “pragmateuomai”, which means “do business”. Think of a rug seller and his customer. The seller asks a high price, and the buyer wants a low price. After some haggling, they agree in the middle. Physicians and ministers can do likewise!