Devon Dick

Recently, while watching a programme on a religious cable station, I heard a local preacher with the exalted titled of 'apostle' telling his congregants that "anyone I touch must be healed". He further added in a loud voice "we command healing now". He then commanded that "lumps must go" and a variety of other ailments must go as well. I wondered about the scriptural justification for such claims. Where in the Bible does it tell Christians that we can command healing? These promises are surely misleading because if anyone he touches will be healed, then we should close down all hospitals and medical centres and allow him to heal everybody.

These outrageous statements in the name of God are very popular on local religious television. This trend is mimicking what we see on some American religious channels. However, in the USA, investigative journalism found that the claims of healing by a certain well-known televangelist were not true or were not long lasting. Fortunately, in Jamaica, no journalist is going to investigate an evangelist who makes claim to healing everyone he touches. But it would be interesting to see how many who initially testify to healing have actually been healed.

Common theme

This emphasis on healing is not unique to this local apostle but is a common theme among other local preachers. Most sermons on television are not evangelistic, with the aim of getting persons to make decisions for Christ. Instead, their messages, with their elevated claims about their ability to heal all sicknesses and diseases, are targeting Christians. Illnesses can be very stressful and persons who are normally well-thinking Christians will try anything and anyone in an attempt to stay healthy. And when persons do not experience the expected healing, the 'healer' blames it on those persons, adding more stress through guilt, claiming that it is the lack of faith that prevented healing from occurring.

However, healing can take place in spite of no faith on the part of the person needing healing. In fact, according to Luke 7, Jesus healed the centurion's servant on the request of the centurion. Jesus was amazed by the faith of the centurion who believed that Jesus could heal his servant without visiting the sick servant. And in fact, the servant was healed without a physical touch from Jesus. Jesus also raised a widow's son. Jesus also healed Jairus' daughter and the daughter did not express any faith in Jesus. In other words, it is not accurate to claim that healing can only take place based on the faith of the person needing the healing.

Varied stories

The Bible has varied stories about healing. There is no one formula for healing. The common factor is that healing is all about God. God is the healer and it is His prerogative to decide who gets healed, how and when the person will be healed and whether the person will be healed.

There is too much misunderstanding about healing even in Christian circles. It is, therefore, appropriate that the Boulevard Baptist Church will be hosting a series of meetings every evening from June 1-5 on the issue of healing. The presenter will be the Rev Karl Henlin, immediate past president of the JBU, who recently graduated with an MPhil, and whose specialisation was the healing stories of Jesus.

It will be interesting to hear what his views on healing are as practised on television and what the biblical models concerning healing are and how persons can be healed. Hopefully, as persons follow Christ, they will understand and experience healing and shun those charlatans who are claiming to be healers.