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ARE
"MIRACULOUS"
HEALINGS
MIRACULOUS? B S (Investigator 51, 1996 November)
Faith and
positive
emotions rather than
divine
intervention may explain healing at Pentecostal meetings. Convincing
"miracles"
are rare.
The Portside Christian Revival Crusade offers regular prayer for healing besides holding occasional special healing services.
Brett Jenkins
of
Gawler
said he
suffered
from sugar intolerance but prayer healed him. Les Barnes, 37, had
his
left eye
removed
and had only 10% vision in his right eye. He was legally blind and
trained
at Melbourne's Guide Dog Association Centre to walk with a cane.
Following
prayer in Church and on the Christian radio station normal sight came
to
his right eye.
Psychologist
Laurie
Eddie said, "I'm
not
impressed; the eyes are only one component of vision."
Using video enhancement as an analogy Mr Eddie said that the brain may enhance, or suppress, what the eyes see: "An alleged cure for diabetes is more objective if we have before and after blood tests." A Portside CRC
pastor
who asked not to
be
named said he knows of numerous healings following prayer including
healing
of cancer, skin diseases, arthritis and backaches.
Mr Eddie
responded,
"Cancerous cells
are
present in everyone but the immune system stops them from multiplying.
Stresses on the body cause release of hormones which suppress the
immune
system and then the cancer may grow. "If the stresses are
removed by events
which
change emotional life the immune system may recuperate enough to
suppress
the cancer so that remission occurs." Mr Eddie described an
American case in
which
a man given six months to live hired and watched comedy videos. After
three
months he went into remission.
A healing service conducted by Ray Hullah took place at Portside CRC on September 29. Mr Hullah told
of
other
churches where
knees
fused from bone cancer were repaired, deaf ears unstopped, spinal
bifida
cured and the leg of an 84-year-old lengthened with new bone, muscle
and
sinew. "Whatever your need
God
can meet it,"
said
Mr Hullah.
He spoke of neck to knee arthritis cured: "There is nothing like waking up with new vertebrae in your neck. "We've had ovaries put back in women; I'm known as the pastor who got all these women pregnant." Following this discourse about 1/4 of the audience went to the front for prayer. The rest repeatedly sang for an hour: Jesus Jesus John Foley,
secretary of the Skeptics
Association SA said, "One bloke I saw at an Assembly of God church
cured one
hundred
people. The same man said he cured 16,000 in a football stadium in the
Caribbean.
"If they can do stuff like that why are people still going to doctors? Why aren't doctors out of business?" Harry
Vanderhoek, a
member at Portside,
is
blind in one eye. He has not been cured despite repeated prayer.
He said that he has not seen cures of really obvious physical damage
such
as getting a missing leg replaced.
Richard
Cadden, a
Melbourne Jehovah's
Witness
with achondroplasia (dwarfism), said he debated with Pentecostals on
whether
Bible verses about healing apply today: "I said to them, 'Heal me.'
They
said they can't because I lack faith. I told them Jesus taught that
faith
the size of a mustard grain is more than enough."
The Portside Pastor said, "Not all we pray for are healed. Sometimes unbelievers are healed. "Some of the healed have faith, some don't. Some expect results, some don't. If they expect healing more are healed. "We've not done surveys but I think more than half are healed. We're not sure why God doesn't heal everyone. "Sometimes God tests our faith. Jesus said, 'According to your faith.' Sometimes Jesus didn't heal because of lack of faith. "One former missionary is so sick she can't come to Church. Her faith is shaken but still solid. "Sometimes Christians who are not healed become discouraged and lose their faith. "If someone is on medication we tell them to stay on it until there is physical proof of being healed." Mr Eddie said, "People may claim to feel better after services. We would need to look at the person's medical history and do follow up studies. If a broken leg were healed we'd need before and after X-rays." The word
"Healing" in
a
computer file
of
journal articles revealed titles such as "The Healing Power of Love,"
"The
Healing Power of Forgiveness," "Religion as a Community Resource for
Healing," "Incredible Healing Power of Family Rituals," "The Healing
Power of Friends," "The Healing Power of Touch," "The Healing
Power of Music."
Such headings suggest that whatever healing might occur in church may be related to factors other than divine miracle. In Psychiatry and the Bible C A Wise wrote: "Since many physical illnesses are either caused or complicated by such feelings as anxiety, guilt, and hostility, the symptoms of such illnesses may be removed, and the affected organ may return to normal functioning through resolution of the conflict." Dr. W----- who
has a
clinic in the
Portside
area said, "Many are healed at the clinic who had stress and depression
which caused physical symptoms.
"All they may need is counselling. All they may need is support. All they may need is sympathy. All they may need is belief in something. "I listen and they make a miraculous recovery. "The mind is
the major
healing organ.
Prayer
may promote peace of mind and that can effect a cure."
The Portside CRC's special healing service produced nothing unusual except for those who fell to the floor and giggled until they seemed too weak to stand up alone. An independent Bible researcher of Adelaide summed it up: "To use healing in church as proof of miracles or of God won't work. There will always be other explanations. I think people who hope to be helped in church with help they can't get elsewhere should go for it." Find out on this website whether the Bible is true. Hundreds of investigations:
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