The central part of the message of Jesus and the Apostles is not certain methods by which to obtain healing. Jesus does not preach “seven steps towards divine healing;” and Peter does not teach on “how to live in divine health.” But, if you go into a New Age bookstore, you will find that it is packed with books with titles like these about healing, and methods by which to obtain it.
If healing becomes a goal in itself, we have definitely departed from the centre of the Gospel. But, if in addition to this, various spiritual methods are taught regarding how to heal people, then it is very easy to be deceived, not only for those who listen but also for the preacher himself.
It is important to realise that it is one thing merely to give some teaching to help people to understand the workings of God — it is possible to do this in the name of Christianity, but it is something entirely different to teach techniques in order to obtain healing. To do the latter is to have strayed already into the territory of magic and the occult.
There are occultists who have described how healings and mighty deeds can be done by spiritistic forces. Raphael Gasson writes in his book “The Challenging Counterfeit” about how he came from spiritualism to Christianity. He tells about how the blind received their sight, the lame walked, and the deaf heard at spiritualistic meetings in England. This is something that has lured many into spiritualism. Spiritualists are also using various techniques to create healings. Some of them even quote examples of healing from the Bible and practice laying on of hands as in Mark 16:18.
The Bible confirms that it is possible for healing to take place outside the framework of Christianity. Paul writes about “the lawless one”, the adversary whose coming is “according to the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie.” (II Thessalonians 2:9-11.)
Raphael Gasson also tells how so-called Christian spiritualists arrange large healing meetings at great conference centres. The healer will lay his hands on the sick, and they will feel how the power is transferred to their bodies. Later on, those who have been healed will testify to this, and crutches and other things will be left behind on the premises as signs that healings have really taken place.
Gasson describes further, how people are convinced by these things that it is God who is at work. People who have been healed at spiritualistic meetings find it very difficult to believe that it could be demons that did it. Gasson tells about a young woman who was blind and who got her sight again during a so-called Christian spiritualistic meeting. She was unable to believe that it could be any other than God who had done this, regardless of how hard he tried to get her to realise that it was actually the work of demons. He concluded that the woman had received her physical sight, but, tragically, she became spiritually blind in exchange. This is the very high price that has to be paid in order to get healing from occultists.
The New Testament clearly says that Satan will use power and lying signs and wonders in order to deceive people (II Thessalonians 2:9-11). It is, therefore, particularly worrying to see that a man who has had a strong foundational influence on the faith teachings, E. W. Kenyon, got a basic part of his inspiration by the testimonies of healing that occurred in the occult groups of his day. Kenyon makes this interesting comment: “We cannot ignore the amazing growth of Christian Science, Unity, New Though and Spiritism. The people who are flocking to them are not the ignorant masses, but the most cultured and wealthy of the land, and their strongest appeal is the supernatural element of their so-called religions — the testimonies of healing are their strongest asset. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that in many of our cities in the Pacific Coast, Mrs. Eddy has a stronger following today and a larger attendance at her churches than have the old line denominations; and the larger percentage of her followers have at one time been worshippers in the denominations — they have left them because they believe that they are receiving more help from Mrs. Eddy’s teaching than from the preachers. They will tell you how they are healed and how they were helped in their spiritual life by this strange cult. This is libel upon the modern church — it is not only libel but a challenge.” 32 Unfortunately, in the process of trying to take on the challenge, Kenyon brought some of the occult teachings of these cults into Christian circles.
There is a clear difference between healing through prayer to God and healing through magic. The American theologian, Merril Unger, writes about this difference, saying that divine healing implies having a simple faith in God, whereas magic demands a faith in the means of healing. In divine healing, you pray a genuine prayer, whereas in magic you make use of a formula. Healing in the Name of Jesus means that the healing is done through the power of Jesus, whereas the person who employs magic will emphasise that the words that are used have power in themselves.
According to Unger, there are times when it may be difficult to distinguish between healings that are worked by the power of God and healings that are worked by demonic power, and the difference can only be discovered by Christians who know their Bibles or by the gift of discerning of spirits. White magic can sometimes give the appearance of being done in the name of God and by His power because it is performed under the cover of using Bible verses, prayer, and the laying on of hands.
The danger of Christians being led into white magic often springs from the attitude that God is at our disposal and we can command Him to heal. It is this type of arrogant attitude that lies at the root of magic. In spite of the fact that you may believe that sickness is ultimately caused by the devil, it is possible that in your eagerness to heal the sick, you can get into the area of white magic and demonic powers or, at best, the power of human suggestion, which is also sometimes able to cause healings. According to Unger, we need to abandon the naive thinking that all healing is necessarily of God, and we ought to keep our eyes open to possible occult influence among some healing-preachers in Christian circles. 33
Footnotes
32. E.W. Kenyon, The Wonderful Name of Jesus, p 69, 70. Quotation from McConnell, A Different Gospel, Hendrickson Publishers 1988.
33. Merril Unger, Demons in the World Today, pp. 126, 134-137, Tyndale House 1971, Wheaton, Illinois, USA.
