Faith Healing
Faith healing is healing through spiritual means. It is also called supernatural healing, divine healing, and miracle healing, among other things. Healing in the Bible is often associated with the ministry of specific individuals including Elijah, Jesus and Paul.
Believers assert that the healing of a person can be brought about by religious faith through prayer and/or rituals that, according to adherents, stimulate a divine presence and power toward correcting disease and disability. In common usage, faith healing refers to notably overt and ritualistic practices of communal prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are claimed to solicit divine intervention in initiating spiritual and literal healing. A classic definition of faith appears in the New Testament: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…." (Hebrews 11:1)
Faith healing is most closely linked to televangelists, who often use it to fleece millions of dollars from vulnerable people. Almost all of the major televangelists make faith healing a major component of their "services." Pat Robertson supposedly talks to God on his show the 700 Club and then announces miraculous and spontaneous healings right before asking for donations. Benny Hinn's whole ministry is based around his "miraculous" healings with full-blown stage shows where he brings up sick people and pushes them to the ground, screaming "be healed." Hinn also offers the chance to be healed to the television audience by placing his hands up in front of the camera and asking people to touch their hands to the screen also.
Miraculous recoveries have been attributed to many techniques commonly lumped together as "faith healing". It can involve prayer, a visit to a religious shrine, or simply a strong belief in a supreme being. There have been claims that faith can cure blindness, deafness, cancer, AIDS, developmental disorders, anemia, arthritis, corns, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, skin rashes, total body paralysis, snake bites, and various injuries.
The American Cancer Society states "Death, disability, and other unwanted outcomes have occurred when faith healing was elected instead of medical care for serious injuries or illnesses." (Faith Healing." Making Treatment Decisions. American Cancer Society. June 15, 2009. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Faith_Healing.asp) A 2001 double-blind study at the Mayo Clinic randomized 799 discharged coronary surgery patients who were split into a control group and an intercessory prayer group (which received prayers at least once a week from 5 intercessors per patient). Analyzing "primary end points" (death, cardiac arrest, re-hospitalization, etc.) after 26 weeks, the researchers concluded "intercessory prayer had no significant effect on medical outcomes after hospitalization in a coronary care unit." (Aviles JM, Whelan SE, Hernke DA, December 2001, "Intercessory prayer and cardiovascular disease progression in a coronary care unit population: a randomized controlled trial". Mayo Clinic Proceedings 76 (12): 1192–8. doi:10.4065/76.12.1192. PMID 11761499)
Keefauver cautions against allowing enthusiasm for faith healing to stir up false hopes "so that a sufferer stakes all his or her faith on belief in miraculous healing at this level...Even the most 'miracle-ridden' Christian will die in the end, yielding to the natural processes of senescence." ("The Myths of Faith Healing." June 17, 2009. http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/charisma-channels/spiritled-living/20588-the-myths-of-faith-healing)
In the four gospels in the New Testament, Jesus cures physical ailments well outside the capacity of first-century medicine. At least three times Jesus credited the sufferer's faith as the means of being healed. (Mark 5:34, Mark 10:52 ans Luke 19:10) But Jesus also endorsed the use of the medical assistance of the time (medicines of oil and wine) when he praises the Good Samaritan for acting as a physician, telling his disciples to go and do the same thing that the Samaritan did in the story. (Luke 10:25-37) And Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke, was a doctor. (Colossians 4:14)
Jesus commanded his followers to heal the sick and states that signs such as healing are evidence of faith. Jesus also commands his followers to "cure sick people, raise up dead persons, make lepers clean, expel demons. (Matthew 10:8, Mark 16:17-18) The apostle Paul believes healing is one of the special gifts of the Holy Spirit [1 Cor. 12:9], and that the possibility exists that certain persons may also possess this gift. In the Epistle of James [5:14] the faithful are told that to be healed, those who are sick should call upon the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. During Jesus' ministry and after his Resurrection, the apostles healed the sick and cast out demons, made lame men walk, raised the dead and did many other miraculous things.
Ken Copeland said that your healing may manifest in eternity, not in time. If your trust is in God who heals, then when He heals you is secondary to belonging to the Healer. Certainly you will thank Him if He heals you today. But if your healing comes beyond death in eternity, will you praise Him now for that? “Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all”. (2Corinthians 4:16-17)
Paul did just that: "'O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?' The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Cor. 15:55-58).
Does faith healing work? It may be possible that faith healing works as a placebo (much like other non-active forms of alternative medicine such as homeopathy or Reiki), causing the patient to truly believe that they are being healed. Placebo treatments work in a complex manner - someone receiving a treatment may consciously or subconsciously alter their habits and improve their health or the treatment will just cause them to think positively and at least feel much better until the illness disappears on its own. Beyond this effect, which can be extremely powerful, there is no evidence to suggest that faith healing works. And with regards to serious illnesses or injuries, the placebo effect may not be as much use.
Are there any possible problems with faith healing? People who seek help through faith healing and are not cured may have feelings of hopelessness, failure, guilt, worthlessness, and depression. In some groups, the person may be told that his or her faith was not strong enough. The healer and others may hold the person responsible for the failure of their healing. This can alienate and discourage the person who is still sick. In addition, the primary danger is that people will outright reject conventional and proven treatments, and will instead stick only to faith healing. This can prove deadly in some circumstances where the illness is serious and medical attention is ignored completely.
The organization Children's Health Care Is a Legal Duty has estimated that around 300 children have died in the US since 1975 due to people putting too much faith in faith healing. This doesn't seem to bother most faith healers and those who trust them, however. Charges and sentences given to people "acting in faith are often far more lenient compared to comparable neglect, manslaughter and even murder charges. So, after a series of incidents with a local religious group resulting in death, the state government of Oregon decided in March 2011 that faith healing is not an acceptable defense against neglect charges. (http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/03/bill_ending_faith_healing_exce.html)