Faith Healing

So there I was, peacefully shopping for bow-ties last night when I heard an amplified voice coming from the street corner ahead of me, picking up my pace out of curiosity, I was confronted by a group of people, one man with a microphone preaching about Jesus, I went on my way, bought the bow-tie, and on my way back I noticed them with a lady kneeling between two of them, who had their hands upon her head. Whilst I was observing this, one of the other members of this group sidled up to me and offered me a pamphlet, refusing the pamphlet, I asked him what he was doing, and he explained to me it was a faith healing, and that the leader of this group was a prohet.

Now, being the tolerant atheist I am, and my thoughts that faith healing is a load of tripe, I initiated an argument with this fellow, but my argument was based on theological grounds. I argued that it is blasphemous for a man to claim to posses the powers of Jesus, and that the leader was faithless, for he believed in the voices he heard, and not in faith of the unknowable power of the Lord.

Anyway, to the point, what are your thoughts of faith healing, do you agree with me that is is blasphemous, and that styling yourself as having direct communication with God demonstrates a lack of faith?

Well, I can agree that false prophets commit blasphemy.

But I can also say that there are occasional miraculous healings and that a reading of the Gospel of John and etc. might prove illuminating for you.

And you might also want to ask yourself why it was so important to you to engage a man on the street (who might well have been a crazy). Did you feel better about yourself after doing so? Did you somehow "prove" something to yourself? In some circumstances, might it not be just as good to sigh to yourself, wish your fellow traveler well, and be on your way?

I don't have a problem with the idea of faith healing. Seems to me that if a god can empower people to perform miracles in his name, there's no reason he would have stopped doing so abruptly 2,000 years ago.

On the other hand, I think people who are irrational about faith healing, sacrificing modern medicine in the name of their religion, are behaving impiously by begging their god for favors to take care of something they have the means to address themselves.

why the hell would anyone choose to wear a bow tie?

In south Georgia there was an old Southern preacher like you see preaching on TV. One Sunday he announced that God had told him to call the people with special needs to the front of the church and to have the congregation pray for them.

Preacher: Brothers and sisters, God has asked me to make this a special day. We know that in prayer all things are possible. I'm going to ask everyone with special needs to come to the front. Then I'm going to ask all of you to join me in prayer for each and every person with special needs. Who will be first among you to come forward? All things are possible in prayer.

A man got up and walked to the front of the church.

Preacher: Brother, what is your name?

Man: My name is Larry.

Preacher: What is your special need?

Larry: My hearing.

The preacher put his hands on Larry's ears.

Preacher: Will everyone pray with me for brother Larry. We know that all things are possible through prayer. We ask you God to recognize the suffering of brother Larry. He has come before all of us to ask for you help with his hearing. Lord we ask that you help Larry. We pray that you will help brother Larry with his hearing. Can I get an A-men?

Congregation: A-men.

The preacher opened his eyes and removed his hands from Larry's ears.

Preacher: Larry, we have prayed for you and we know that all things are possible when we ask the Lord in prayer for his help. Larry, how is your hearing now?

Larry: Ah, um, I don't know. It's not until next Tuesday.

spud_meister said:

So there I was, peacefully shopping for bow-ties last night when I heard an amplified voice coming from the street corner ahead of me, picking up my pace out of curiosity, I was confronted by a group of people, one man with a microphone preaching about Jesus, I went on my way, bought the bow-tie, and on my way back I noticed them with a lady kneeling between two of them, who had their hands upon her head. Whilst I was observing this, one of the other members of this group sidled up to me and offered me a pamphlet, refusing the pamphlet, I asked him what he was doing, and he explained to me it was a faith healing, and that the leader of this group was a prohet.

Now, being the tolerant atheist I am, and my thoughts that faith healing is a load of tripe, I initiated an argument with this fellow, but my argument was based on theological grounds. I argued that it is blasphemous for a man to claim to posses the powers of Jesus, and that the leader was faithless, for he believed in the voices he heard, and not in faith of the unknowable power of the Lord.

Anyway, to the point, what are your thoughts of faith healing, do you agree with me that is is blasphemous, and that styling yourself as having direct communication with God demonstrates a lack of faith?

Click to expand...

Nope. Lots of people had the gift of healing in the Bible. And having direct communication with God is just one of the best parts of Christianity .

Viktyr Korimir said:

I don't have a problem with the idea of faith healing. Seems to me that if a god can empower people to perform miracles in his name, there's no reason he would have stopped doing so abruptly 2,000 years ago.

On the other hand, I think people who are irrational about faith healing, sacrificing modern medicine in the name of their religion, are behaving impiously by begging their god for favors to take care of something they have the means to address themselves.

Click to expand...

I have prayed for healing of others, and will continue to do so. I also pray for the safety of my children. But God gave us brains as well as hearts, and so I keep the knives in a drawer, and the medicine available.

spud_meister said:

Anyway, to the point, what are your thoughts of faith healing, do you agree with me that is is blasphemous, and that styling yourself as having direct communication with God demonstrates a lack of faith?

Click to expand...

I'm not a "believer" in faith healing, as I tend to think it's actually a placebo effect. That being said, I don't care if others participate, and I don't find it blasphemous, as Jesus himself said (assuming the accounts are accurate), that others would do greater things than he.

spud_meister said:

So there I was, peacefully shopping for bow-ties last night when I heard an amplified voice coming from the street corner ahead of me, picking up my pace out of curiosity, I was confronted by a group of people, one man with a microphone preaching about Jesus, I went on my way, bought the bow-tie, and on my way back I noticed them with a lady kneeling between two of them, who had their hands upon her head. Whilst I was observing this, one of the other members of this group sidled up to me and offered me a pamphlet, refusing the pamphlet, I asked him what he was doing, and he explained to me it was a faith healing, and that the leader of this group was a prohet.

Now, being the tolerant atheist I am, and my thoughts that faith healing is a load of tripe, I initiated an argument with this fellow, but my argument was based on theological grounds. I argued that it is blasphemous for a man to claim to posses the powers of Jesus, and that the leader was faithless, for he believed in the voices he heard, and not in faith of the unknowable power of the Lord.

Anyway, to the point, what are your thoughts of faith healing, do you agree with me that is is blasphemous, and that styling yourself as having direct communication with God demonstrates a lack of faith?

Click to expand...

There are occasional miraculous healings, however those who claim to be prophets as the prophets of old or who assert that faith-healing is normative for Christians, are wrong.