THE RELIGIOUS CONNECTION

Faith healing has strong religious connections. Evangelists and charismatics feel that their activities ‘bring people back to Christ.’ Do they?

It is noteworthy that during their services people may “speak in tongues” or be “slain in the spirit,” as they say​—that is, they fall into a kind of trance in which they cannot move but seem to be aware of what is happening around them. Interestingly, such things are not unlike the fits and trances that involve those other religious healers, the voodoo priests and witch doctors.

True, some “psychic healers” feel their healing is separate from religion. Yet their procedures and experiences are often similar to those of religious healers. And at least some have a background of spiritism or perhaps Oriental religious philosophy.

Since there is wide agreement​—by most faith healers too—​that Jesus’ healings were from God, could it be that today’s healers are in contact with a different source of power? This is very likely, especially when we consider the connections of some faith healers with spiritism and occultism. And it is very significant that, concerning these practices, the Bible warns us: “There should not be found in you anyone . . . who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer, or one who binds others with a spell or anyone who consults a spirit medium or a professional foreteller of events or anyone who inquires of the dead.”​—Deut. 18:10, 11.

This is not religious bigotry. Rather, it protects us from contamination by sinister spirit forces​—demons—​that have always been against mankind’s better interests. Modern faith healing, with its occult connections, is inevitably different from the healings performed by Jesus Christ, since he always shunned such influences. Anything performed under the influence of these forces will inevitably lead to many cases of “disappointment” and “deception.”

This point about a different source of power becomes clearer when we realize that there is no reason to expect that the same kind of healing Jesus did would be practiced today.

But what about claimed miracles performed today in Jesus’ name? Jesus himself said that many would say to him: “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?” And Jesus’ reply? “Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Jesus did not deny that powerful works would be performed. But these would not be done by his authority, ‘in his name.’ They would be done by some other power; hence, they were lawless.​—Matt. 7:21-23.

Hence, while the possible benefits of going to a faith healer are dubious, the dangers are real. There is the danger of getting involved with the demons, and your being viewed by Jesus as being among the “workers of lawlessness.”