James Visscher of Hamilton, Ontario received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science from Carleton University in Ottawa. He was awarded the Bachelor of Divinity degree from the Theological College of the Canadian Reformed Churches.
The history of the Christian Church has frequently tended to extremes. When the Church was not following faithfully in the path of the Scriptures, it became self-centered, authoritarian and even anti-Christian. In the wake of this, movements of protest have arisen.
The Reformation tried to restore the Church to its proper place and role in the world and to bring it back to the pure preaching of the Gospel. But the so-called “Radical” Reformation, which included the activities of Anabaptists and Spiritualists, was not satisfied with this renewed emphasis on sola Scriptura. It began to look for more. It became entangled in subjectivism. It wanted experiential religion. You had to feel something or else you were not quite there.
This emphasis did not die out with the gradual historical unfolding of the Reformation. It grew and is still with us today. Indeed, in the Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal phenomena, we note a revival of this subjectivistic, spiritualistic emphasis. This movement is now telling us that we urgently need to review our stand on the Gospel proclamation, on how the Holy Spirit works, and on the matter of gifts in the Church.
Confusion sets in – Our topic deals with only one of the characteristics of Ihis revived movement, albeit an important one, the matter of faith healing. The Pentecostal movement is of the opinion that the true Church of Jesus Christ must stress the need for a healing ministry. Is it not so, they ask, that also today the miraculous gifts or charismata of the Spirit should be in evidence when God’s people meet for worship, even as they were in and before the apostolic age?
Closely linked with these questions is the question about faith healers themselves. One reads much today about Kathryn Kuhlman, Oral Roberts, Roxanne Brant and others. All these claim to belong to the mainstream of evangelical Christianity; their only distinguishing characteristic it is said is their emphasis on faith healing.
No doubt, we have all heard these names before; and when we hear of their so-called successes, their piety and their efforts, a certain confusion sets in. What are we to think of all these goings-on? Anyone who reads Calvinist-Contact, for example, will have discovered that this weekly paper is at a loss to know how to evaluate this phenomenon. Well, if a Reformed weekly is in difficulty, we can be sure that the readers are in the same straits.
Mark 2:1–12 – The purpose of this article, then, is to give some guidelines in evaluating this movement, especially with respect to the miraculous faith-healing aspect. In order to do this we must first ask a number of fundamental questions: what is the purpose of miracles in Scripture? when and under what circumstances do they appear? what is their intended effect? and arc they still occurring and needed today?
To answer these questions we tum to the Scriptures, in particular to Mark 2:1–12, where we read of a clear case of healing performed by our Lord. 1t was during His first preaching tour in Galilee that our Lord returned to Capernaum. As soon as He arrived there many people flocked to Him. In fact, so many came that the place where He was staying was packed to the rafters. There was no room left, not even at the doorway. And what did our Lord do amid all this excitement? He preached the Word. He did not put on any great display of His powers, He simply preached the Word.
While this was happening inside, our attention is suddenly directed to what was going on outside the building. There four men carrying a paralytic were trying to gain access to our Lord. The crowd, however, made the whole venture impossible; undeterred, the men put their heads together and figured out another way. They climbed up on the roof, hoisted up the paralytic man in his stretcher, and, after making a hole in the roof, lowered him down in front of the Lord. We can well imagine that this act took the audience by surprise. What now? The paralytic man and those with him no doubt expected to see an act of healing. The crowd too must have wondered, what is He going to do? Will He show His powers or will He fail?
Our Lord’s reaction caught them all off guard. He looked at these men and saw their faith, but instead of healing the man, He said, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” What a letdown this must have been, all that ingenious effort just for such a response. The scribes who were seated among the people immediately raised a theological objection. “This man is infringing on a monopoly that belongs to God alone, only He can forgive sins.” It is quite likely that, in addition to this objection, not a few had malicious smirks on their faces. They thought: “Anyone can speak words like these; so what, who is going to be able to check this out?” Our Lord however perceived all this, and He responded with a gem of a sentence: “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or ‘Rise, take up your pallet, and walk?’” Obviously, they thought, it’s much easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” for who can verify such a statement? But to make a paralytic walk; well, that’s an entirely different matter. Then our Lord said, “But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.” And then it happened, it really happened: there before their eyes they saw a miracle. The man arose, he took up his pallet, and he headed for home.
What is now the point of all this? What does it have to do with the matter of faith healing? If you examine this passage again, you will see that the mainpoint here is not the healing as such but the matter of forgiveness of sins. That is the central point. Sure the man was crippled, and that in itself was cause for pity; hilt there was a greater problem and that had to do with the man’s sins, his alienation from the Father. It was precisely this problem of sin that Jesus Christ came to conquer; and, as for all physical healings, they were merely secondary. As H. N. Ridderbos says in his book The Coming of the Kingdom: “The real and deepest distress of man is not that particular lot in life which happens to be his, but the fact that he is a sinner and that Jesus Christ has been authorized by God to deliver men from their sins” (p. 213).
Purpose of miracles – In this respect we note that in Jesus’ ministry it is never the miracles that stand out as the main thing.
1. To confirm the preaching – It is always the preaching that is central. As for miracles, they serve to confirm that He is indeed the Son of man, the Messiah. Miracles are signs which testify to Christ’s Person and to His mission. They therefore play a subservient role. Our Lord is fully aware of their limited function and hence refuses to be a miracle worker.
In Matthew 12, where the scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign, Jesus says: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And who received this sign? It was none other than those who accepted the preaching of repentance that Jonah brought to Nineveh.
In all this our Lord is stressing that signs and miracles cannot produce faith. First a man has to make a personal decision for or against Christ; does he believe that Christ is the Messiah come in the flesh? If that commitment has been made. then a miracle helps to build tip this faith. But no faith ever developed out of a sheer appreciation for miracles. How many miracles did the Pharisees not see, and yet they stuck to their skeptical positions? And in the Old Testament, how many miracles did Jehovah not do for Israel in bringing about their deliverance, and yet they still were condemned to walk in the desert because of all things—unbelief? Miracles produce nothing, they complement, they help the preaching, they show its authenticity, they strengthen the faith of believers.
2. Signs of divine authentication – Today it is quite often so that Christianity is looked at as a religion dominated by miracles. But this is, to say the least, doubtful; for miracles have occurred only in· frequently in the history of redemption. In the main, it was just the great turning points in this history that were accentuated by miracles: the deliverance out of Egypt, the entrance into and the conquest of the promised land, the time of Elijah and Elisha, and the ministry of Christ and of His apostles.
In each of these turning points we can say that miracles served as signs in order to convey a divine authentication of the role played by God’s special messengers at those particular times. When Moses stood before Pharaoh, his words were authenticated as coming from God because they did indeed bring the predicted plagues and punishments. Elijah, too, was authenticated before the people as being from God, for when he called fire down from heaven, it came and so discredited the false, powerless Baal deity.
Also our Lord authenticated Himself in the eyes of John the Baptist by showing the signs and wonders that He performed. Thus, when John’s disciples came, asking, “Are you He who is to come or shall we look for another?” He replied, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and [note here the climax] the poor have good news preached to them” (Matt. 11:2–6).
3. Reveal coming of the Kingdom – In addition to the fact that miracles confirm the preaching of Christ and authenticate His Person and work, they also, as the just mentioned Scripture passage indicates, reveal the coming of the Kingdom. Through the giving of hearing, Sight, and life itself, we note in Christ’s coming a visible restoration of creation. Through the working of miracles, Satan’s power and his dominion are broken and the era of the Kingdom has indeed dawned. When all these aspects are thus combined, It once more becomes evident that miracles point to the truthfulness and to the reliability of the proclamation that the Kingdom has been ushered in.
If one then does not believe that the Kingdom has come, one will also not receive these signs of the Kingdom. As Ridderbos paints out to us, there is always a close connection between the miracles wrought by Jesus and the faith of the people. If there is faith, a miracle will strengthen it; but, if there is not faith, then there is no room for miracles. It is this factor that explains why Christ could do no mighty works in Nazareth (Mark 6:5). Without faith in Christ, no miracle is possible.
Still with us today?– We have now seen a little of the place and role of miracles in Scripture. But the question will be asked: “Is the gift of healing still with us today?” The answer of the Pentecostal is—yes. He bases his opinion on various arguments.
First he cites I Corinthians 12:8–10: “To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” It is true enough that we have here a reference to gifts of healing, but it is our contention that this gift is not meant to be permanent.
Note that in verse 28 of this chapter, these gifts are repeated for Paul begins: “God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers . . . .” Now it is agreed by all that apostles are no longer with us; if this is true, then how can we be certain that all the other offices and gifts were meant to be permanent? (Hoekema, p. 60).
Another Scripture passage frequently quoted is James 5:13–20. We are especially interested in the verses 14 and 15: “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up . . .” It is noteworthy here that no special miraculous powers are attributed either to the church as a whole or to the elders, the main emphasis here is on, let them pray (Some Thoughts on Faith-Healing, p. 28). If this is so, then we discount this reference as a proof that the healing ministry continues in the Church. James is here alluding clearly to the matter of intercessory prayer and its effects. This practice we support as completely Scriptural.
We have touched on only two of the arguments used by the Pentecostals. There are more and especially I Corinthians 12. We would add in this regard that it is always essential that we compare Scripture with Scripture when confronted by these matters. In this regard we call attention to what the apostle Paul says in Romans 12:6-8 on the matter of gifts: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us, Jet us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in his liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” What is significant about this list is that Paul wrote the epistle to the Corinthians before his epistle to the Romans. In the former the matter of special gifts was very much in the foreground; here in Romans where Paul gives a kind of summary of the gifts that should be found in the Church, they are not mentioned.
In summary, serious question marks must be placed behind the proofs used to support the Pentecostal line of arguing that these miraculous gifts or charismata were meant to be permanent. A. A. Hoekema states the case well when he says: “In the New Testament taken as a whole, it is not the miraculous charismata that are recommended for the continuing life of the church but the non-miraculous ones. There is no apostolic command to the church to continue to speak with tongues or to continue to exercise gifts of healing, but there are many apostolic injunctions to cultivate such Don-miraculous gifts as ruling, teaching, ministering, giving, and showing mercy” (Holy Spirit Baptism, p. 70).
Traditional Reformed position – The traditional Reformed position with respect to these gifts or charismata is that they ceased with the demise of the apostolic age. This position is based partly on the aforementioned considerations. But several more factors could be mentioned: the case from Church history, when evaluated carefully, leads us to the conclusion that none of the ancient Church Fathers, with the possible exception of Origen, ever claimed to have seen any miraculous healings. For a thorough study on this matter, consult B. B. Warfield, Miracles: Yesterday and Today. Another factor is the previously mentioned consideration that miracles have in the history of redemption always served to authenticate God’s special messengers. With this in mind we sec that it is never a matter of miracles per se, but always a matter of miracles standing in relation and in subjection to the preached Word and to the special preacher as such.
In all this we do not mean to support the deistic position that God no longer intervenes and works in our history. If this were true then prayer would no longer have any meaning. It would degenerate into a mere useless babbling with ourselves. But such is not the case. Still today it is God who reigns and rules in the world. He hears the prayers of His children and the power of His answers to their prayers can still produce miracles in the world.
Wrong method – But we must immediately distinguish between the prayers of the saints and the goings-on of a faith-healing session. We are not first of all examining whether faith-healing successes (if they can be called such) are true or false, but we look rather at the whole method of operation and how faith-healing advocates view God’s role in the life of man. To that end various observations can be made:
(1) Faith healing infringes on God’s sovereignty. The view that faith and prayer can determine the activity of God is to allege that man with his special pleadings can control the works of God. It means that, if a man cries loud enough and even sincerely enough, God will hear him and must help him. It is revealing that K. Kuhlman in her book I Believe in Miracles, says: “The only limit to the power of God lies within the individual” (p. 16). But this is not so. Man can in no way limit the power of God. If that were possible, then God would no longer be the sovereign Creator. A man can ask in faith, but he should not be so presumptuous as to demand an immediate and satisfying response. God is no errand boy who does our bidding.
(2) Faith healing fails to see the place of miracles in Scripture. We reiterate here once more that miracles are never placed in the foreground in the Scriptures. They are always presented as authenticating signs; and in so doing they support the preaching and the person of God’s special messengers.
(3) Faith healing leads to subjectivism. What we mean to say is that faith healing places man and his feelings in the center. Many faith healers will deny this; however, from reading their literature the impression is repeatedly gained that when one is not healed it is due to lack of faith. Hence the questions frequently arise: Do I have faith enough? Do I believe that God can heal me instantly? Do I believe that God is working through this particular faith healer?
(4) Faith healing leads to irrationalism. Over against the influence that science wields in this world, the attractions of evolutionism, materialism, and determinism, plus the Bultmannian view of a closed continuum, the Pentecostals have tended to stress the irrationalistic. They negate the advances of science, the offshoots of technology, and view God as working without the use of these means. Their trust therefore is not in the gifts that God has bestowed (e.g. the medical profession) but in the supernatural, in the actual interventions of God.
Real essence of Gospel lost – What we can conclude from all this is that the Church of Jesus Christ does not need such a subjective, spiritualistic emphasis. Those who boast that they possess these miraculous gifts are often so infatuated with them that they lose the real essence of the Gospel.
It is not what we feel or what we can do that matters, but what Christ did and does for us. It is to Him that we belong, it is He who through His blood has secured for us the greatest of all gifts—the forgiveness of sins. In comparison to this, all physical healing gifts are merely second-rate.
But there is more. For not only does He work forgiveness, He also “preserves me, that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation” (Heidelberg Catechism, L.D. 1).
Well, if this is indeed the case, what need have we to seek for more? When the Father says that He preserves us, do we doubt His Word by asking for all kinds of reassuring signs? And if all this is geared to my salvation, what more could I desire?
But again there is more, for not only does He preserve us, He also assures us today of these great gifts by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is this Spirit who equips us to serve and to stand fast in the world. It is this Spirit who ties it all together, who gives the finishing touch. It is this Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and through the Son, who keeps us in that living relationship of true sonship.
No, our God is not a God afar off, He is a God at hand who works for the benefit of His children and so manifests His glory. As Hebrews 1:1, 2 says: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by the Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he created the world.”
The history of the Christian Church has frequently tended to extremes. When the Church was not following faithfully in the path of the Scriptures, it became self-centered, authoritarian and even anti-Christian. In the wake of this, movements of protest have arisen.
The Reformation tried to restore the Church to its proper place and role in the world and to bring it back to the pure preaching of the Gospel. But the so-called “Radical” Reformation, which included the activities of Anabaptists and Spiritualists, was not satisfied with this renewed emphasis on sola Scriptura. It began to look for more. It became entangled in subjectivism. It wanted experiential religion. You had to feel something or else you were not quite there.
This emphasis did not die out with the gradual historical unfolding of the Reformation. It grew and is still with us today. Indeed, in the Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal phenomena, we note a revival of this subjectivistic, spiritualistic emphasis. This movement is now telling us that we urgently need to review our stand on the Gospel proclamation, on how the Holy Spirit works, and on the matter of gifts in the Church.
Confusion sets in – Our topic deals with only one of the characteristics of Ihis revived movement, albeit an important one, the matter of faith healing. The Pentecostal movement is of the opinion that the true Church of Jesus Christ must stress the need for a healing ministry. Is it not so, they ask, that also today the miraculous gifts or charismata of the Spirit should be in evidence when God’s people meet for worship, even as they were in and before the apostolic age?
Closely linked with these questions is the question about faith healers themselves. One reads much today about Kathryn Kuhlman, Oral Roberts, Roxanne Brant and others. All these claim to belong to the mainstream of evangelical Christianity; their only distinguishing characteristic it is said is their emphasis on faith healing.
No doubt, we have all heard these names before; and when we hear of their so-called successes, their piety and their efforts, a certain confusion sets in. What are we to think of all these goings-on? Anyone who reads Calvinist-Contact, for example, will have discovered that this weekly paper is at a loss to know how to evaluate this phenomenon. Well, if a Reformed weekly is in difficulty, we can be sure that the readers are in the same straits.
Mark 2:1–12 – The purpose of this article, then, is to give some guidelines in evaluating this movement, especially with respect to the miraculous faith-healing aspect. In order to do this we must first ask a number of fundamental questions: what is the purpose of miracles in Scripture? when and under what circumstances do they appear? what is their intended effect? and arc they still occurring and needed today?
To answer these questions we tum to the Scriptures, in particular to Mark 2:1–12, where we read of a clear case of healing performed by our Lord. 1t was during His first preaching tour in Galilee that our Lord returned to Capernaum. As soon as He arrived there many people flocked to Him. In fact, so many came that the place where He was staying was packed to the rafters. There was no room left, not even at the doorway. And what did our Lord do amid all this excitement? He preached the Word. He did not put on any great display of His powers, He simply preached the Word.
While this was happening inside, our attention is suddenly directed to what was going on outside the building. There four men carrying a paralytic were trying to gain access to our Lord. The crowd, however, made the whole venture impossible; undeterred, the men put their heads together and figured out another way. They climbed up on the roof, hoisted up the paralytic man in his stretcher, and, after making a hole in the roof, lowered him down in front of the Lord. We can well imagine that this act took the audience by surprise. What now? The paralytic man and those with him no doubt expected to see an act of healing. The crowd too must have wondered, what is He going to do? Will He show His powers or will He fail?
Our Lord’s reaction caught them all off guard. He looked at these men and saw their faith, but instead of healing the man, He said, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” What a letdown this must have been, all that ingenious effort just for such a response. The scribes who were seated among the people immediately raised a theological objection. “This man is infringing on a monopoly that belongs to God alone, only He can forgive sins.” It is quite likely that, in addition to this objection, not a few had malicious smirks on their faces. They thought: “Anyone can speak words like these; so what, who is going to be able to check this out?” Our Lord however perceived all this, and He responded with a gem of a sentence: “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or ‘Rise, take up your pallet, and walk?’” Obviously, they thought, it’s much easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” for who can verify such a statement? But to make a paralytic walk; well, that’s an entirely different matter. Then our Lord said, “But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.” And then it happened, it really happened: there before their eyes they saw a miracle. The man arose, he took up his pallet, and he headed for home.
What is now the point of all this? What does it have to do with the matter of faith healing? If you examine this passage again, you will see that the mainpoint here is not the healing as such but the matter of forgiveness of sins. That is the central point. Sure the man was crippled, and that in itself was cause for pity; hilt there was a greater problem and that had to do with the man’s sins, his alienation from the Father. It was precisely this problem of sin that Jesus Christ came to conquer; and, as for all physical healings, they were merely secondary. As H. N. Ridderbos says in his book The Coming of the Kingdom: “The real and deepest distress of man is not that particular lot in life which happens to be his, but the fact that he is a sinner and that Jesus Christ has been authorized by God to deliver men from their sins” (p. 213).
Purpose of miracles – In this respect we note that in Jesus’ ministry it is never the miracles that stand out as the main thing.
1. To confirm the preaching – It is always the preaching that is central. As for miracles, they serve to confirm that He is indeed the Son of man, the Messiah. Miracles are signs which testify to Christ’s Person and to His mission. They therefore play a subservient role. Our Lord is fully aware of their limited function and hence refuses to be a miracle worker.
In Matthew 12, where the scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign, Jesus says: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And who received this sign? It was none other than those who accepted the preaching of repentance that Jonah brought to Nineveh.
In all this our Lord is stressing that signs and miracles cannot produce faith. First a man has to make a personal decision for or against Christ; does he believe that Christ is the Messiah come in the flesh? If that commitment has been made. then a miracle helps to build tip this faith. But no faith ever developed out of a sheer appreciation for miracles. How many miracles did the Pharisees not see, and yet they stuck to their skeptical positions? And in the Old Testament, how many miracles did Jehovah not do for Israel in bringing about their deliverance, and yet they still were condemned to walk in the desert because of all things—unbelief? Miracles produce nothing, they complement, they help the preaching, they show its authenticity, they strengthen the faith of believers.
2. Signs of divine authentication – Today it is quite often so that Christianity is looked at as a religion dominated by miracles. But this is, to say the least, doubtful; for miracles have occurred only in· frequently in the history of redemption. In the main, it was just the great turning points in this history that were accentuated by miracles: the deliverance out of Egypt, the entrance into and the conquest of the promised land, the time of Elijah and Elisha, and the ministry of Christ and of His apostles.
In each of these turning points we can say that miracles served as signs in order to convey a divine authentication of the role played by God’s special messengers at those particular times. When Moses stood before Pharaoh, his words were authenticated as coming from God because they did indeed bring the predicted plagues and punishments. Elijah, too, was authenticated before the people as being from God, for when he called fire down from heaven, it came and so discredited the false, powerless Baal deity.
Also our Lord authenticated Himself in the eyes of John the Baptist by showing the signs and wonders that He performed. Thus, when John’s disciples came, asking, “Are you He who is to come or shall we look for another?” He replied, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and [note here the climax] the poor have good news preached to them” (Matt. 11:2–6).
3. Reveal coming of the Kingdom – In addition to the fact that miracles confirm the preaching of Christ and authenticate His Person and work, they also, as the just mentioned Scripture passage indicates, reveal the coming of the Kingdom. Through the giving of hearing, Sight, and life itself, we note in Christ’s coming a visible restoration of creation. Through the working of miracles, Satan’s power and his dominion are broken and the era of the Kingdom has indeed dawned. When all these aspects are thus combined, It once more becomes evident that miracles point to the truthfulness and to the reliability of the proclamation that the Kingdom has been ushered in.
If one then does not believe that the Kingdom has come, one will also not receive these signs of the Kingdom. As Ridderbos paints out to us, there is always a close connection between the miracles wrought by Jesus and the faith of the people. If there is faith, a miracle will strengthen it; but, if there is not faith, then there is no room for miracles. It is this factor that explains why Christ could do no mighty works in Nazareth (Mark 6:5). Without faith in Christ, no miracle is possible.
Still with us today?– We have now seen a little of the place and role of miracles in Scripture. But the question will be asked: “Is the gift of healing still with us today?” The answer of the Pentecostal is—yes. He bases his opinion on various arguments.
First he cites I Corinthians 12:8–10: “To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” It is true enough that we have here a reference to gifts of healing, but it is our contention that this gift is not meant to be permanent.
Note that in verse 28 of this chapter, these gifts are repeated for Paul begins: “God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers . . . .” Now it is agreed by all that apostles are no longer with us; if this is true, then how can we be certain that all the other offices and gifts were meant to be permanent? (Hoekema, p. 60).
Another Scripture passage frequently quoted is James 5:13–20. We are especially interested in the verses 14 and 15: “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up . . .” It is noteworthy here that no special miraculous powers are attributed either to the church as a whole or to the elders, the main emphasis here is on, let them pray (Some Thoughts on Faith-Healing, p. 28). If this is so, then we discount this reference as a proof that the healing ministry continues in the Church. James is here alluding clearly to the matter of intercessory prayer and its effects. This practice we support as completely Scriptural.
We have touched on only two of the arguments used by the Pentecostals. There are more and especially I Corinthians 12. We would add in this regard that it is always essential that we compare Scripture with Scripture when confronted by these matters. In this regard we call attention to what the apostle Paul says in Romans 12:6-8 on the matter of gifts: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us, Jet us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in his liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” What is significant about this list is that Paul wrote the epistle to the Corinthians before his epistle to the Romans. In the former the matter of special gifts was very much in the foreground; here in Romans where Paul gives a kind of summary of the gifts that should be found in the Church, they are not mentioned.
In summary, serious question marks must be placed behind the proofs used to support the Pentecostal line of arguing that these miraculous gifts or charismata were meant to be permanent. A. A. Hoekema states the case well when he says: “In the New Testament taken as a whole, it is not the miraculous charismata that are recommended for the continuing life of the church but the non-miraculous ones. There is no apostolic command to the church to continue to speak with tongues or to continue to exercise gifts of healing, but there are many apostolic injunctions to cultivate such Don-miraculous gifts as ruling, teaching, ministering, giving, and showing mercy” (Holy Spirit Baptism, p. 70).
Traditional Reformed position – The traditional Reformed position with respect to these gifts or charismata is that they ceased with the demise of the apostolic age. This position is based partly on the aforementioned considerations. But several more factors could be mentioned: the case from Church history, when evaluated carefully, leads us to the conclusion that none of the ancient Church Fathers, with the possible exception of Origen, ever claimed to have seen any miraculous healings. For a thorough study on this matter, consult B. B. Warfield, Miracles: Yesterday and Today. Another factor is the previously mentioned consideration that miracles have in the history of redemption always served to authenticate God’s special messengers. With this in mind we sec that it is never a matter of miracles per se, but always a matter of miracles standing in relation and in subjection to the preached Word and to the special preacher as such.
In all this we do not mean to support the deistic position that God no longer intervenes and works in our history. If this were true then prayer would no longer have any meaning. It would degenerate into a mere useless babbling with ourselves. But such is not the case. Still today it is God who reigns and rules in the world. He hears the prayers of His children and the power of His answers to their prayers can still produce miracles in the world.
Wrong method – But we must immediately distinguish between the prayers of the saints and the goings-on of a faith-healing session. We are not first of all examining whether faith-healing successes (if they can be called such) are true or false, but we look rather at the whole method of operation and how faith-healing advocates view God’s role in the life of man. To that end various observations can be made:
(1) Faith healing infringes on God’s sovereignty. The view that faith and prayer can determine the activity of God is to allege that man with his special pleadings can control the works of God. It means that, if a man cries loud enough and even sincerely enough, God will hear him and must help him. It is revealing that K. Kuhlman in her book I Believe in Miracles, says: “The only limit to the power of God lies within the individual” (p. 16). But this is not so. Man can in no way limit the power of God. If that were possible, then God would no longer be the sovereign Creator. A man can ask in faith, but he should not be so presumptuous as to demand an immediate and satisfying response. God is no errand boy who does our bidding.
(2) Faith healing fails to see the place of miracles in Scripture. We reiterate here once more that miracles are never placed in the foreground in the Scriptures. They are always presented as authenticating signs; and in so doing they support the preaching and the person of God’s special messengers.
(3) Faith healing leads to subjectivism. What we mean to say is that faith healing places man and his feelings in the center. Many faith healers will deny this; however, from reading their literature the impression is repeatedly gained that when one is not healed it is due to lack of faith. Hence the questions frequently arise: Do I have faith enough? Do I believe that God can heal me instantly? Do I believe that God is working through this particular faith healer?
(4) Faith healing leads to irrationalism. Over against the influence that science wields in this world, the attractions of evolutionism, materialism, and determinism, plus the Bultmannian view of a closed continuum, the Pentecostals have tended to stress the irrationalistic. They negate the advances of science, the offshoots of technology, and view God as working without the use of these means. Their trust therefore is not in the gifts that God has bestowed (e.g. the medical profession) but in the supernatural, in the actual interventions of God.
Real essence of Gospel lost – What we can conclude from all this is that the Church of Jesus Christ does not need such a subjective, spiritualistic emphasis. Those who boast that they possess these miraculous gifts are often so infatuated with them that they lose the real essence of the Gospel.
It is not what we feel or what we can do that matters, but what Christ did and does for us. It is to Him that we belong, it is He who through His blood has secured for us the greatest of all gifts—the forgiveness of sins. In comparison to this, all physical healing gifts are merely second-rate.
But there is more. For not only does He work forgiveness, He also “preserves me, that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation” (Heidelberg Catechism, L.D. 1).
Well, if this is indeed the case, what need have we to seek for more? When the Father says that He preserves us, do we doubt His Word by asking for all kinds of reassuring signs? And if all this is geared to my salvation, what more could I desire?
But again there is more, for not only does He preserve us, He also assures us today of these great gifts by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is this Spirit who equips us to serve and to stand fast in the world. It is this Spirit who ties it all together, who gives the finishing touch. It is this Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and through the Son, who keeps us in that living relationship of true sonship.
No, our God is not a God afar off, He is a God at hand who works for the benefit of His children and so manifests His glory. As Hebrews 1:1, 2 says: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by the Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he created the world.”