Healed by prayer: Should Christian doctors believe in faith healing?

The Bible seems clear we should ask for healing, and yet so many have unanswered prayers

A doctor listener has written in with a fascinating question about miraculous healing. It was clearly a major part of Jesus’s ministry in the gospels, and yet she has doubts despite prayer for healing becoming a larger and larger part of her church’s life. Why is it that Jesus healed profound lifelong disabilities immediately and unambiguously, whereas so many healings today seem to be partial, gradual, and mostly concerned with invisible internal maladies which often get better by themselves? The New Testament seems clear we should ask God to heal, and yet many people’s experiences are of unanswered prayers, sometimes stretching over a lifetime. But can it be healthy for Christians to turn their medical brains off at church on a Sunday, only to then switch their faith off when back at work on Monday morning?

Listen to other episodes of Matters of Life and Death or find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts, Podcast Addict, Castbox or whatever app you use to subscribe and receive new episodes sent straight to your device.

Tags
Most read posts
What can we learn from how the early church lived out their faith during their own pandemics?
How are young people different to those who came before, and what can we learn from them?
Navigating the transitions of later life
This Bill is the wrong approach - there is a better way to give individuals and their families dignity at the end of life
Living faithfully as we approach retirement, dependence, dementia and death
Recent posts
Expressive individualism meets simulated personhood
These verses act for many pro-life Christians as the cornerstone of their theology
There's been a rash of reports that people who spend too long with ChatGPT are ending up mentally ill, or even suicidal
The ethics of why some religious groups (let alone swathes of Americans) cut their sons' foreskins off are surprisingly complicated
Theological and medical responses to assisted dying