[This book was found on our library
shelves and is as applicable today as it was in 1925. It provides a solid refutation of
the false claims of the so-called "faith-healers." The book is copyrighted;
however, the book is out of print and the copyright is over 50 years old. "We feel
assured the truth as set forth in this volume is greatly needed, and we believe the Lord
will graciously use this testimony for His Word, and the witness against this present-day
healing delusion." - A.C. Gaebelein, 1925]
The Healing Question
An examination of the claims of
Faith-Healing
and Divine Healing systems in the
light of the Scriptures
and History
By
ARNO CLEMENS GAEBELEIN
Editor of "Our Hope"
CHAPTER VII
An Examination of the Works and Results of Divine Healers
As stated before, the advertising propaganda of divine healers in their campaigns is
done on an enormous scale. Whenever a circus comes to town, the town and the surrounding
country is placarded by advance agents advertising the show. Press notices of "the
greatest on earth" are freely used. We believe one Barnum found out that it pays to
advertise. Divine healing campaigns are carried on in the same way and truthfulness is a
secondary matter. To give an illustration of this sensational advertising. which must
grieve the Holy Spirit, as it offends the truly spiritual of God's people, we call
attention to a sheet called "The National Labor Tribune," used for some
time by the Bosworth brothers as their advertising medium. In one issue are six big
photographs of the healers and their audiences. In reading the contents of this issue one
would think that the days of the Apostles are not only brought back, but that these
healers are far ahead in their works of what happened in the beginning of the age. We
quote different headings:
Wholly Deaf, healed.—Nervous twitching cured.—Specialist said
incurable-heated.—Sick 20 years; operated on 14 times; prayed for and
healed.—Was deaf but now hears.—Had nervous prostration; had 28 doctors in 21
months; instantly healed.—Ear drum gone; 17 doctors failed; now instantly
healed.—Had paralysis: healed by reading the "Labor Tribune".—Miracles
and Wonders at the Bosworth meetings.—Ear drum restored after being
removed(!!)—Had many diseases; prayed for; cured.—Had eczema 14 years;
cured—Indian fighter and [page 86] rough rider known as ossified man wins in
terrific fight against death.—Foul, revolting cancer healed through
prayer.—Tried 20 doctors; instantly heated.—Born paralyzed, now well
(!)—Right leg one and a half inch shorter than left leg; anointed and leg made as
long air the other(!!). Living without kidneys; world's most miraculous case
healed (!!).—Lost voice restored.—Tumor and asthma; completely healed.—Toes
turned up 15 years; pain ended by reading "Labor Tribune" (!!)—Serious case
of neuritis healed.—Double hernia healed.—Instantly healed of
stigmatism(!)—Healed from spinal meningitis.—Curvature of spine disappears
instantly (!!)—Abscess of hip 13 years; now like a newborn babe.—Etc.
We single out one very much advertised case of a woman in Pittsburgh, Pa.: "Living
without kidneys; world's most miraculous case healed." This miraculous
case is being used far and wide for advertising purposes. Living without kidneys! This
woman had both of her kidneys removed by surgeons, and in spite of having no kidneys left
she lives! One does not need to be a medical man to know that such a report is not true.
It is the same as if some one would advertise "Man living without a heart."
Other healers, Mrs. McPherson, Mr. Charles Price and their imitators, send forth
similar advertising matter and reports of miracles of healing. They tell the Christian
public that hundreds are being healed in the Name of Christ, and that the very same
miracles are being wrought today, which Christ and His Apostles wrought. Now this is a
very serious matter. If these claims are true, if these divine healers do the
same miracles which Christ and His Apostles did in the beginning of this age, then God has
surely visited His people and every Christian who rejects this "New Pentecost,"
who does not accept the ministries of these miracle-workers sins dreadfully; he is guilty
of opposing God and the gracious [page 88] work of the Holy Spirit. But if these claims
are spurious, if no such miracles as Christ and His Apostles did take place in these
healing campaigns, then the whole system cannot be too strongly condemned, for it is a deception.
Now it is evident, claims like those advanced by these leaders of healing campaigns,
must have first of all a Scriptural basis. If that is lacking no Christian can
conscientiously endorse it. We have shown in our previous examination that every Scripture
divine healers use for their system of divine healing falls to the ground under a sane and
spiritual exegetical investigation.
In the first place we want to show divine healing cults are not performing
the same miracles which Christ did, nor the miracles which are recorded in the Book of
Acts. In this respect the claim is altogether false. Our Lord healed all
manner of disease and all manner of sickness. They brought to Him all that were sick and
He healed them all. "He healed all that needed healing"(Luke 9:11). Is this
being done by modern healers? Several of them scrutinize the hundreds of applicants Very
closely and only permit certain ones to present themselves for anointing and prayer. To
illustrate this we quote from the communication of a citizen of Fresno, Calif.:
"Physicians have renounced my wife to be heavily afflicted with
hysterical epileptics, her spine. being involved. I began about the middle of the
McPherson meetings trying to get a card for my wife so that she might be healed. The card
was denied her repeatedly. While I was waiting in the back prayer room, Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs.
McPherson's mother (who has the say about who is to get a card for healing) attracted my
special attention. She said to a man on a couch, 'Bend your knee. Now try again. Now can't
you raise your, arm above your head? You cannot. Poor thing! Then to another, and it was
the same, only this one could raise the hand or bend the knee. I was forced to the
conclusion that they were practiced out in this room before they were permitted to go out
before the audience. The helpless ones were kept off the stage."
A reliable physician who watched closely another campaign [page 89] states: "The
sick applying for healing are carefully sorted over by the evangelist's mother, and if
they appear to be good risks, they are given cards which entitle them to the evangelist's
healing prayer." Mr. Price imitates this method and has a woman along, who does the
sorting. Think of the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Apostles doing such a thing! He never
asked if a disease was considered incurable or not, nor what the symptoms were, but He
healed them all of all manner of diseases. The most careful investigations
by unprejudiced persons have shown that in these healing meetings no cure of an organic
disease has ever taken place. Nor do they bring to these healing meetings persons
suffering from acute sicknesses. We mean typhoid, pneumonia, diphtheria, or similar
diseases. Divine healers attempted frequently to heal some of these diseases with
disastrous results. We know of several children who had diphtheria. Medical attention was
refused. Prayer and anointing with oil was the only thing done for them. The children
died. We have heard people testify that the Lord healed them of pneumonia and typhoid
fever. But in each case a gradual and normal recovery was put down as
healing. Each disease ran its appointed course. But that is not how the Lord Jesus healed.
These modern healers do not heal the maimed. The Lord Jesus Christ did. In Matthew
15:30 we read a great multitude came and brought with them the maimed; the maimed were
made whole. Some had no hands, others had lost feet and there was the miracle of
making these maimed persons whole. Then we remind the reader of the last healing our Lord
did when He picked up the ear of the high priest's servant, which had been completely
severed by Peter's hasty sword, and at once the servant had his ear back, and was
perfectly whole. Come on, ye Divine Healers, with [page 90] your claim to do what Christ
did in healing the sick and give us such a demonstration! And what about raising the
dead? There have been claims made that some great miracle took place. A man testified
that he had a diseased eye. It was removed by a surgeon. Then the man said that in answer
to prayer the Lord gave him a brand new eye. That man lied. A few years ago in California,
after preaching in a certain church, a man came to the front and said to the writer that
he is wrong in not believing in the present day miracles wrought by Mrs. McPherson and
others. He had seen one. A boy had fallen out of a tree and sustained a bad fracture of
the forearm. He said, we prayed for him and anointed him and while we were praying the arm
was made perfectly whole. We asked him if he was sure that the arm was fractured. He
replied in the affirmative, assuring us that the splintered bones were sticking through
the skin and the bones came together while they prayed. We asked him, "And you tell
me that you saw this with your own eyes?" He assured us that he saw it. We told him
that he is one of the biggest frauds in California. God can do this, no one doubts that.
But this is not how God works now.
The late Dr. A. J. Gordon in his book "The Ministry of Healing" cites a
similar case of a boy who was miraculously healed of a very bad double fracture of the
arm. A healer who flourished over fifty years ago, W. E. Boardman declared that the
child's arm was miraculously healed the next day and was perfectly whole. This case was
thoroughly investigated by Dr. James Henry Lloyd, of the University of Pennsylvania, and
in the "Medical Record" for March 27, 1886, Dr. Lloyd published a letter from
the very child, who had become a physician: [page 91]
Dear Sir: The case you cite, when robbed of all its sensational
surroundings is as follows: The child was a spoiled youngster who would have his own way;
and when he had a green stick fracture of the forearm, and after having had it bandaged,
for several days, concluded he would much prefer going without a splint, to please the
spoiled child the splint was removed, and the arm carefully adjusted in a sling. As a
matter of course, the bone soon united, as is customary in children, and being only
partially broken, of course all the sooner. This is the miracle! Some nurse or crank or
religious enthusiast, ignorant of matters physiological and histological, evidently
started the story, and unfortunately my name–for I am the party–is being
circulated in circles of faith-curites, and is given the sort of notoriety I do not crave.
Very respectfully yours,
Carl H. Reed.
We feel sorry that this untrue account is still being circulated in Dr. A. J. Gordon's
book. Edition after edition has been printed in which this fake miracle is made
prominent (see page 184 of the 13th Edition). And there are other incorrect statements in
the same volume.
In the second place instantaneous healings as constantly performed by our
Lord and also by the Apostles are not done by Divine Healers. The Lord said
"Receive thy sight" and immediately the eyes of the blind were opened.
"Stretch forth thy hand," and it did not take several months to restore the
withered arm. "Arise and take up thy couch and walk," and the lame man walked.
"Ephphatha" and the deaf heard not a little better, but his deafness was
entirely gone. He touched the fever stricken brow and the fever did not drop a little, and
get a little less the next day, but the fever left and the temperature was normal. He
touched the leper and there was not a gradual improvement, but the moment His hand touched
the leper he was clean.
Divine healers also claim to heal the blind, the dumb, the deaf and the paralyzed, as
well as others. But instantaneous hearings from blindness, fever and other afflictions do
not take place in their services. There is a great deal of excitement [page 92]. There is
fervent singing. Faith, faith, and still more faith is demanded and the poor sufferers
make every possible effort to have faith and expect "the miraculous touch" which
will make them well. Everything is keyed up to the highest pitch. Then the supreme moment
comes. The anointing takes place. Under some hypnotic influences the sick fall to the
ground, and while they go under the spell they hear the suggestion of the hypnotist,
"Jesus heals thee," "Thou art healed." The patient comes out of the
spell and professes to be healed, simply repeating what was suggested. We could fill
scores of pages with cases of supposed healing, which are at best make-believe and
self-deceptions. We give a few illustrations.
Finding testimonials in the reports of different healers, as to healing, and the name
and address of the person given, we wrote these persons several weeks after the heralded
miraculous cure had taken place. One lady in Pennsylvania professed to have been healed of
tuberculosis in the second stage. We asked her a few questions as to symptoms; if she
still had an afternoon fever and general debility, etc. She answered and said, "Yes,
I have been healed, though my healing is not yet accomplished. I have taken it in faith
and claim it in faith. I still have a regular fever and a frightful cough. But
'Hallelujah' in spite of the symptoms I am healed. I will soon be getting better and will
be entirely well. I was anointed and the power is upon me."
A colored woman presented herself in the Angelus Temple to be anointed for blindness.
After having been anointed with oil, Mrs. McPherson asked her if she could see, turning a
very strong electric light in her face. The colored woman said "Yes, I see," and
the whole audience became enthusiastic. The service over, a friend who attended the
meeting out of curiosity and who gave us this information, [page 93] was near where the
colored woman sat, and kept her eye on the woman. People were leaving and the healed woman
also got up and walked cautiously towards the entrance to leave the building. There she
halted. Finally our friend stepped up and asked her if she could do something for her. She
requested to be helped to the street car. She was as blind as ever. Yet the next morning a
glowing report appeared in a newspaper speaking of the miracle of a blind negress being
made to see.
One of the saddest accounts we have read is the following. It happened in Fresno,
Calif., in 1922, when Mrs. McPherson held a campaign in that city. The report is given by
a minister of the Gospel, who is reliable and whose word cannot be doubted.
"An eye witness will make affidavit to the following: 'A little
girl, who wore a pair of glasses one-half of which was entirely black.' I gathered that
she was totally blind in one eye and almost blind in the other. I sat upon the stage very
close to the whole procedure. While prayer was being made for her, the little girl, who
appeared to be about 11 years of age, wept and sobbed and writhed in her eagerness to
secure the help that she had been led to expect. She left the platform and public claim
was made by one of the workers that she had been healed, and the little girl verified the
claim by nod of head given in reply to the question of the workers. An hour later, when
the meeting was out, I noticed a small cluster of women near the platform. I thought I saw
the blind little girl in their midst, so I asked my wife to go over and investigate and
talk to her if necessary. She found the erstwhile 'cured' girl flat on her face on the
floor, sobbing, with shattered hopes and a breaking heart. Her disappointment was
complete, and so was her disillusionment. The improved sight that she seemed to have had
in the midst of the excitement on the platform had disappeared, and with it the hope of
the little girl."
This is one of the awful results of these campaigns and the claims of these men and
women. They raise the hopes of the unfortunates by their false reports of what happened to
others. The sick do anything, give anything and profess anything as long as they also
might be healed. They talk themselves into the assurance that they can be healed and [page
94] will be healed. When "the power" comes upon them they think there has been a
decided improvement. The assurance "you are healed," a mere mental dictum of
the healer, gives them a joyous hope. Then all at once the heartbreaking discovery, in
spite of faith, in spite of the prayer, the oil and the laying on of hands, in spite of
"the power" and the healer's suggestion, there has been no healing. The
momentary improvement lasted as long as the spell lasted. The assurance that the healing
would be gradual did not materialize. Then followed despair. Victims, as we shall state
later, died on account of the nervous strain, many more are today in insane
asylums. Each and all of them constitute a pathetic human document in which tragedy has
been wrought out in human tears and pain. The spiritual and mental tragedy overshadows the
physical, for no disappointment touches a more anguishing note than the disappointment of
faith, a broken belief in the Divine promises. Those who 'have died, are only a few out of
the great throng of suffering men and women, whose desire to become well and strong, and
to know the joy of health, is taken advantage of by these men and women who claim Divine
healing cures. To think that hundreds of the lame, the deaf, the blind and the dumb have
been attracted by the false claims into hoping, when really there is no hope, is to draw a
pitiful picture. Wickedness, in our estimation, is too mild a word for such tactics.
One more case we cite. One of these healers labored in Oregon two years ago. Two
pastors of Eugene listened to Mr. Price relating the case of an Oregonian who suffered
from cancer of the face. He declared that his face had been eaten away so that the teeth
were exposed. The healer said be had prayed over this case and the man was healed.
"There is now a little red spot left where the cancer was [page 95] and that is fast
disappearing. If you want to see for yourself, go and see." The two preachers drove
out to the man's home. When the wife heard of their mission she said, "Yes,
Hallelujah, my husband is healed." He appeared on the scene with a horrible, vile
smelling cancer which covered part of his face, against which he held a towel. He also
said "Yes, Hallelujah, I am healed! Price prayed for me."[* See
W.P. White on "McPhersonism."]
To compare these works and results with the healing miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ
is next to blasphemy.
In the third place misleading reports, fraudulent cases of healing
and sinful exaggerations characterize these modern healing campaigns.
More information as to the tragedies which follow. Before us is a copy of a
committee which investigated the supposed cures in the C. S. Price campaign in Vancouver,
B. C. The committee consisted of eleven ministers of various denominations, eight well
known physicians, all Christians, and nearly all of them specialists, three university
professors and a widely known member of the legal profession. They took months for the
most painstaking investigation. The committee found that this healer uses hypnotic
suggestions. Briefly stated the committee investigated 350 cases of those who had been
anointed and who professed healing as a result. Five cases of healing of certain nervous
diseases were found; none of which had any kind of an organic disease. It must be
emphasized that they were all functional cases, that is, in the absence of the structural
changes, which always accompany organic disease, they were amenable to mental treatment.
Many similar cures are also reported in the records of "shell shock" and other
similar cases [page 96] treated in recent years in various hospitals of Great Britain and
Canada.
Thirty-nine of those anointed and pronounced cured have since died. It is
obvious, the committee says, that if these persons had been cured of their diseases,
one-tenth of them would not, in the natural course of events, have died in the ensuing six
months. Five persons out of the 350 have become insane during the past six months. That
is, of the 350 persons, who claimed healing, only five were cured of functional disorders,
thirty-nine died, five became insane, and the remaining 301 remained sick, though they had
been hypnotized into the belief that they were cured. We quote a few cases from the
report:
Case B. Blind soldier was a faithful attendant at the Arena meetings. He
was anointed and assured that he would receive his sight. So strong was his belief that,
although at the time of the meetings all arrangements had been made for giving him
vocational training course under the department of the S. C. R., he withdrew from this on
the ground that it would be unnecessary, because he was about to regain his sight.
It is hardly necessary to say that his blindness remains unchanged.
In addition, he is suffering from severe depression as a result of
failure to receive any benefit. His obsession seems to be that his failure is due to his
lack of faith. His condition has given rise to very grave anxiety among his friends.
At one of the institutions of the city, a large number of cases
investigated revealed a large proportion of patients whose hopes of healing proving vain,
passed into very marked depression.
A considerable number of cases of blind children also came to the
committee's notice, whose hopes were built up to a very high pitch, only to prove vain. In
some cases this led them to question their belief in the love of God and undid what
religious faith had been previously built up in their lives.
Case U. This patient, suspecting tubercular condition of the lungs, a
condition never really confirmed by a physician, attended the Arena meetings in search of
healing. He seems to have had a mental obsession rather than a real physical ailment,
though there were some grounds for his fears. He attended the meetings in the first week,
was anointed, pronounced healed and testified publicly to this effect the next day. An
unrestrainable state of mental excitement followed and he died a week later from the
exhaustion of acute mania. [page 97]
Case V. Girl, aged 13, crippled by automobile accident. Had not walked
for five years. Taken to the Arena in steel braces from chin to toes, anointed, but not
healed, it was said, on account of father's lack of faith. Father attended many meetings
and professed conversion. Finally the child received a white card and was anointed again
on the last day for children. No results. The father attended other services after at the
Arena meetings, where the faith healing campaign was continued, frequently going under the
power. The condition of the child remained unchanged. The father, the bread-winner of the
family, became violently insane, and is now one of the hopeless inmates of an asylum.
Surely here we must say "By their fruits ye shall know them." Such
spurious claims and false reports are not of God, nor are these pretended cures. One of
the saddest cases, illustrating the vicious powers at work in there campaigns of
hypnotism, is the case of a minister, the late Rev. Reginald Edwards of Kelowna, who was
one of those pronounced cured by Price during his healing meetings in Vancouver. The widow
and the superintendent of a sanitarium, Dr. J. K. McKay issued a statement of the case,
which should serve as a warning to others. We print it. He was a sufferer from incipient
tuberculosis and thought he might be benefited by the meetings.
"He came to Vancouver as a minister deeply interested in this evangelistic
campaign, to witness and study the conversions and hearings reported to be brought about
under Mr. Price's ministry. He was profoundly impressed, and went before Mr. Price on the
arena platform to be healed of the conditions which impaired his general good health.
"He was anointed by Mr. Price and he collapsed on the platform. He told me
afterwards that he did not lose complete consciousness, but he did not know that he had
fallen down. It was apparent to his friends who saw him that he came under some powerful
psychic influence.
"In a few moments he came around and he stated that he was healed. He was
absolutely sincere and was moved to [page 98] a high pitch of religious fervor by his
experience. Under the impulse of this suggestion he attended all of the Price meetings and
took an active part. He was most enthusiastic and was quite carried away.
"As a result he overtaxed his strength and a week ago last Tuesday suffered a
complete nervous breakdown. He became daily worse and was taken to Dr. McKay's sanatorium,
where he died on Wednesday morning.
"Dr. McKay stated that he had no personal experience with Mr. Edwards' previous
medical history, but that the statement by Mr. Welsh was entirely consistent with his
observation of the case.
"'Violent over-excitement and over-strain of the nerves was the cause of his
death,' said Dr. McKay.
"Reginald Edwards was 41 years old at his death and left a widow and four young
children, the eldest ten years and the youngest less than a year old."
The campaigns held by Mrs. McPherson in Fresno, Calif. produced a rich harvest of evil
results. The deputy in charge of the insane patients at the Fresno county jail is
authority for the following:
"I have never noticed so many insane patients coming from one source." This
is a matter of public record. The public can investigate for themselves. "Eight or
ten persons afflicted with mental derangement on the subject of religion and the subject
of the McPherson meetings, have been cared for at the county jail. Many of these have been
taken to Stockton, where I learn from the superintendent of the hospital for the insane
that 'I had no idea how many had been taken to private sanitariums resultant from this
same cause, or source.' Among those afflicted thus are Mrs. R. of Selma, committed to
Stockton insane asylum. Mrs. A. R., of near Fresno, committed to the same institution, and
died there February 9. Leaves a husband and three sons,. E F P., now in the Stockton
institution. Wife runs a grocery store her- now. Mr. E. E., of Parlier, California, became
a raving maniac. Now in a local sanitarium. In the case of Mrs. A. R., of near Fresno, who
died February 9 in a Stockton institution, who was 43 years old, her physician makes the
following statement: There had been no history of mental disorder with her before, and
that prior to her affliction she had been in the best of health."
[page 99] "By their fruits ye shall know them."
Mrs. McPherson held a monster campaign in Denver. A marvelous report was issued
according to which hundreds were anointed and healed. We visited Denver a few months after
the city was literally swept by an unbalanced religious enthusiasm. Some of the leading
Christian workers assured us that not a single genuine healing bad come to light and the
thousands of converts claimed by the woman could not be located. A Denver physician issued
a lengthy statement as to his observations from which we quote:
"I am fortunate in having personal knowledge of a number of 'cures'
wrought by the evangelist. One young man suffering from tuberculosis left his bed at the
county hospital on the evening of June 22nd and attended the revival service. From the
platform he publicly proclaimed himself cured of his disease. After the service he
returned to the hospital and a few days later developed tubercular meningitis. He died
July 5th, thirteen days after the miracle of healing.
"A young woman with tuberculosis of the hip joint got up from her
bed, removed a loose-fitting body cast and proclaimed that she was cured. Ten minutes
later I saw her in an ante-room, lying on a couch in complete collapse.
"A patient of mine with early locomotor ataxia went to the meeting
to be cured. He surrendered his cane amid wild cheers from the audience. The next day he
returned to my office with a new cane.
"A retired pastor proclaimed that he was cured of lameness. He is
still drawing compensation for this disability. Thus it would seem that he must be lame,
either physically or morally.
"An old gentleman with left-sided paralysis went on the platform to
be healed. In his zeal he waved his right hand to the audience, which hailed the miracle
with prolonged applause.
"Such are a few of the 'cures' which have come to my
attention."
The same is true of the Bosworth Campaigns. A pastor in Toronto where they held a big
healing campaign writes: "Over 7,000, it is said, went up to be healed. Some that
were advertised in the bulletins as having been healed are dead, and at least three of
those who were miraculously cured died before the campaign closed." A well
known Christian worker in St. Paul, Minn., told us that one of the star cases of the
Bosworths was a man healed of [page 100] tuberculosis. A tract was written about his
wonderful case, like the woman who lives without kidneys. He died a short time afterwards
from the disease which had been miraculously healed. Yet the tract, telling of his
supposed cure, we were told, was kept in circulation for over two years.
The San Francisco Chronicle contained a lengthy report of the miraculous healing
of a child, a victim of infantile paralysis. The anointing, the prayer, the smiling child,
the sweet words spoken by Mrs. McPherson were all given in detail. Says the report:
"Now, set her down on the floor, I think she can stand. Hold her little hand for the
child must begin to walk. See if she can't. All of the cloud of anxiety had passed from
the father's face. He smiled confidently as he placed the child on the floor. The audience
was silent and expectant. The child smiled as she stood up. The audience applauded. She
stood. She walked. Tears coursed down the father's face. He led the child down the
length of the platform, then down the incline, at the bottom of which the young mother
waited, her face effused in indescribable gladness, her eyes shining through her tears.
Taking hold of her child's other hand the parents walked down the long aisle. They kept
right on as if they had been alone in their own peaceful home." Very touching! But
they made a bad mistake in giving the name and address of , the father in Oakland. We
wrote him a letter and give his answer, "Our son (not daughter) was injured at birth
and is not a victim of infantile paralysis. He is now two and one-half years old and
cannot walk, but has made wonderful development and will be quite normal in all respects
in a year or so. He was treated twice by Mrs. McPherson, but we can notice no change or
improvement as a result thereof." Further comment is not needed.
We could fill many more pages with other cases. In a city where such a campaign had
been held, brethren told us the reaction was well nigh a disaster for the spiritual
conditions. We challenged the people to bring to our notice one authenticated case of
healing of the many hundreds, which it was said, had taken place. No case was ever
produced.
The purely hypnotic process in some of these healing campaigns is so self-evident that
it is strange that so few recognize it. We give the words of a keen observer of the
procedure by Mr. C. S. Price.
"As the anointed sufferer fell back into the waiting hands of the attendant
minister into a cataleptic or hypnotic trance he or she went down with the name of
Jesus and the authoritative pronouncement, 'You are healed'! 'She's -got it'! in their
ears–a tremendous climax to the whole train of suggestion, exalted fervor and
ecstatic hope, powerfully calculated to bring about the well known results of hypnotic
suggestion and psychotherapy. No wonder some of them afterwards spoke of the marvelous
visions or great religious experience they had while they lay entranced on the floor.
Moving about amongst their prostrate forms, studying the situation, one could see in the
violent tremors, the rigidity of limbs, the fixed, glassy stare and monotonous repetition
of sentence prayer, the well defined results of hypnotic suggestion.
And the same brother describes the tragedy of the whole unscriptural farce in a way
which we fully endorse.
"Those who collapsed here and there in the audience during the singing or sermon
he declared ‘under the power,' and advised against any attempts to revive them,
though some lay for hours in the dark after all were gone."
"I think of that father who came a long distance to receive his sight so confident
that he would see his little boy next day, for the first time in his life, that he could
scarcely go to bed for talking of the joy that would be his. And I see him going home in
the depths of despair as blind as ever, and darker than ever in soul. I think of that
sweet young woman with the shortened, distorted limb, whose faith was so great, that she
brought a new pair of slippers to wear back home when her foot was restored as whole as
the other, who lay on that platform half an hour, and still has the deformity she had
before. I think of that other girl who was positively told she was cured of her goiter,
whose mother is now desperately trying to save her faith in God who did not remove it.
I think of the long line of children I saw paraded across that platform for the healing of
lame legs, and paralyzed arms and deaf ears and injured brains and other pitiful diseases,
[page 102] and not one of them gaining the slightest benefit any one could see -and then,
as I think of the shattered hopes and blighted faith of hundreds like them in the days to
come, I say, 'God help us! for this is the greatest tragedy that has struck this
city in all its history.'"
They are also responsible for other tragedies. There have been cases of cancer which
were curable in their incipient state, for cancer at a certain time is curable. Instead of
going to a surgeon the sufferers went to a healing meeting, were anointed and pronounced
cured of cancer, for let us remember again that Bosworth says that it is just as easy to
be cured of cancer as to have your sins forgiven. The growth increased and finally friends
and relatives prevailed to have the afflicted one submit to an examination by a surgeon,
who declared that the case was now hopeless, whereas six months before, the life might
have been saved.
In the fourth place we mention briefly their fanatical rejection of physical
means.
The rejection of God-given means in case of sickness is fanatical and irrational. No
one believes more in the omnipotence of God, and in the almighty power of the Man of the
Cross, enthroned at the right hand of God, than the writer of this volume. There is
nothing too hard for the Lord. To restore eyes over which a cataract has formed is just as
easy to Him as to raise one from among the dead. But does God display the power He has in
either case? The Lord can raise the dead as He raised them when on earth, for His power
remains unchanged. Let all the faith healers pray over a corpse and believing demand the
restoration of life. There will be no answer. Bring the man who is becoming blind through
cataracts on both eyes, and let faith healers anoint him and pray over him; there will be
no answer. Why not? Because God has given some of His creatures the skill to take a thin
knife and then remove, by a [page 103] delicate operation, the film which covers the
eyeball, and under the gracious blessing of God the diminishing sight is restored. Extreme
faith healers will say that this is not of God, and all doctors, surgeons and medicines
are of the devil. But the same men and women visit dentists, have teeth filled and wear
false teeth. God certainly has the power to mend decaying teeth; He can replace decayed
teeth by a set of new teeth. Like others, faith healers go to oculists, and wear glasses.
When divine healers break limbs they use a surgeon to set and bandage the broken arm or
leg. So they are forced to use means and yet they teach that the use of means is of
the devil, that it is unbelief to consult a physician. A practitioner confided to us that
a certain faith-healer had visited him when in pain and sought relief through his
prescriptions at the same time requesting secrecy, and offering a double fee. What
hypocrisy! Then before large audiences these men and women will stand up and denounce
doctors and medicine, branding them as satanic inventions!
Let us go a little deeper. In nature, God has manifested not only His omnipotence, but
also His wisdom. God is omniscient. He knew before the foundation of the world that His
creature, man, would become a sinner. Before the foundation of the world God also provided
the remedy for sin in the gift of His only Begotten Son. He knew what the physical results
of sin would be. In His beneficence He made provision for these needs, and these
provisions He deposited, in His infinite wisdom and kindness, in minerals, herbs, shrubs
and various plants from the tiny moss to some stately tree. A wonderful lesson is written
in nature of God's wisdom and kindness. But a faith-healer will say, if such is the case,
why does not the Bible teach us the use of these herbs, minerals and plants? Why is there
nothing [page 104] said about the use of these supposed God-given means? We bring a
counter question. Why does not the Bible teach astronomy, geology, chemistry or other
sciences? There is a very simple answer to this question. The Creator has given to man the
capacity to search out His creation to discover its hidden secrets by using his marvelous
mental powers. What a disaster it would have been if the Creator bad put into the hands of
man complete and perfect textbooks dealing infallibly with astronomy, biology, botany,
geology and chemistry! God expects man to search for himself. Science is to be truly the
handmaid of faith and lead through its discoveries and inventions to the praise and glory
of His holy Name. As God has given us in the Bible no text book on astronomy or chemistry,
so He has not given us a Materia Medica, but has left it to man to discover His
kind provisions for the physical needs in sickness. The use of these means is fully
indicated in the Word of God (Is. 38:21; 1 Tim. 5:23; the use of oil, etc.)
One of the greatest medical scientists was Dr. Hahneman, the discoverer of the law "similis
similibur curantur," like cures like. This great principle has brought
God's miracles to light. Minerals, plants, herbs and shrubs which contain deadly poisons
which, when taken in their natural state, attack certain parts of the human body with
disastrous results, are reduced by dilution or trituration to almost atomic quantities.
These infinitesimal particles are taken up by the human system and carried to the seat of
disease and often cure what the drug, in the natural state, produces. The homeopathic Materia
Medica and its scientific demonstration is a wonderful evidence of God's wisdom and
God's kindness in nature. To give but one simple illustration of a hundred others. It has
been demonstrated that Belladonna produces, if taken internally, symptoms very much
like [page 105] Scarlet Fever. Hence it has been proven that Belladonna taken in minute
doses not only cures this dread children's disease, but is a prophylactic, by which
hundreds of children have been spared in epidemics. It seems to us the principle
"like cures like" is indicated in the healing of the Israelites by looking at
the brazen serpent. Fiery, poisonous serpents were destroying the Israelites; a brazen
serpent, which had no poison, looked at, led to the cure.
We cannot speak of other wonder-things in nature which ameliorate man's physical
suffering in sickness. We cannot speak of the blessings of antitoxin, which has saved
thousands of children from Diphtheria; nor can we enlarge upon the blessings of
anesthetics, or the achievements of the surgeon's knife, by which many thousands of lives
have been saved.
Extreme faith-healers charge that doctors, surgeons, any kind of remedies or means, are
all of the devil. If the healing properties of minerals and plants are the work of the
devil, then that being has introduced disease, and at the same time created remedies to
relieve sickness and pain. The rejection of means is fanatically sinful. God's
kindness in providing these means is ignored and maligned. The results are often
disastrous. The courts of our land record numerous cases of "Christian
Scientists" who, in practicing their mad-house theory, permitted sick children to go
without any medical attention whatever. They died. Divine healers say that "Christian
Scientists" do not believe right, that divine healing is on a higher plane.
Practically the same principle which underlies "Christian Science" is the
principle of faith-healing, and faith-healers pay the same price for not using
God-appointed means.
A certain Missionary Society, which believes in "divine healing," sent out
missionaries to fever stricken districts of Africa. They went, trusting the Lord, and
refused to take [page 106] the chemical extraction of the Peruvian bark, known as quinine,
the remedy which counteracts malaria infection. A number of them died sacrificing their
lives for an unscriptural and insane principle. Other missionaries of regular
church-societies, took quinine and lived. We understand that the Board of the
divine-healing society has given permission to use quinine, not as a medicine, but as
daily food. What a farce! That great missionary-evangelist, whom the writer knew
intimately, Bishop William Taylor, had in his company of missionaries penetrating the
interior of Africa, a young man who was an obstinate believer in faith-healing. He refused
fanatically to take any medicine. We give the last entry in his diary. "I haven't the
fever, but a weak feeling. But I take the promise, 'He giveth power to the faint,' and I
do receive the fact." The testimony of the physician in the party as to the last
conversation with this divine healing fanatic, is as follows: "Charlie, your
temperature is 105, and pulse 130; normal is 98; the dividing line between life and death
is 103. You are now dying. If you do not take something to break this fever, it will
surely kill you." He answered, "Well then I die; for I won't take any
medicine." [* Dr. Buckley on "Faith Healing," page 17].
And he died. We could add other cases, some of which came under our own personal
observation, when persons died, refusing medical help, because they trusted the Lord. That
is not faith but presumption. Divine healing suicides is the proper name for such.
In concluding this examination we call attention to the demand of divine
healers that faith is imperative for healing and give an explanation of certain cures
which are effected.
All divine healers make healing dependent on faith, declaring this as a Scriptural
principle and demand. When [page 107] there is failure, it is on account of a lack of
faith. They teach that those sick, when our Lord was on earth, were healed only through
faith in Him. The wife of a well-known American politician and religious lecturer, who is
an invalid, said, "If I only had the right faith, I also would be healed." Faith
in the possibility of healing, faith in the healer as medium through whom the cure is
effected, and faith in a supernatural power to accomplish the healing, is declared to be
eminently necessary to effect a cure. But no such faith is connected with many of the
miracles of healing in the New Testament. Did the servant of the centurion have faith? His
master believed, but we do not know that his servant had faith also. The father of the
child which was possessed had faith; the son in the condition he was in had probably no
faith. The man with the withered hand in the synagogue belonged to His enemies. The
impotent man healed in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John did not even know who
Christ was; the blind man healed in the ninth chapter of john's Gospel did not know Christ
at all, when he was healed, for he called Him "a man" and later "a
prophet." Nothing is said of the faith of the vast multitudes who were repeatedly
healed by Him. The case of His home-town is cited, that on account of their unbelief He
did not many mighty works there, but He did some mighty works there in spite of
their unbelief. And what about the servant of the high priest? When his ear had been
severed, he certainly did not appeal to Christ to heat him; he had no faith whatever. Nor
were the Apostles limited to the faith of those who were healed. The lame man healed by
Peter (Acts iii) expected alms and not healing. He had no faith. ' Nothing is said about
the faith of the multitudes which brought their sick out of the surrounding towns to be
healed by the Apostles. No faith was manifested by the relatives of those who died and
whom [page 108] Christ raised from the dead; yet divine healers have said, if we had the
faith, the dead would still be raised.
Now this self-confessed limitation of the faith-healers is an evidence that their
power is not the power of God, for the power of God knows no such limitation. On the
other hand, this demand of faith, this strong, positive mental attitude of trust, that
their healing is the will of God, that the anointing and the prayer of the man or woman,
who has the reputation of being used in the accomplishment of the will of God in healing,
explains some of the cures of functional disorders.
Do we believe that certain cures are taking place in these healing meetings? We
certainly do. In our next chapter we show what resources the believer has in sickness and
that God does heal if it pleases Him. Let us then look now at the cures which take place.
In the first place there are hundreds of people in the world who imagine all kinds of
sickness, and many actually worry themselves into a disease, producing different symptoms
by their nervous agitation and fears. A little cough, which comes from a mere throat
irritation, is put down as incipient tuberculosis; a stitch in the back or pain under the
shoulder, is the beginning of pneumonia; palpitation of the heart, irregular or
intermittent pulse, brought on by injudicious eating, is put down as a serious heart
affection; a swelling, a common boil must be a cancer. Furthermore, there are many forms
of disease which are purely hysterical. We quote a medical authority: "There are many
cases of hysterical lameness, deafness, blindness, aphonia, supposed cancer of the
stomach, tumors, goiters, etc., which yield to the stimulus of intense emotion. These
various hysterical manifestations are often brought on by shock or emotional stress, and
they disappear under like conditions." Women are especially subject to diseases, or
supposed diseases, which" originated in hysteria. That is [page 109] why seventy-five
per cent. of the supposed cures are per formed on women. Having read extensively on this
subject, we are prepared to say .that underneath all faith-healing, as carried on in
divine healing systems, the hearings of other cults, such as Christian Science, Spiritism,
certain metaphysical cults, as well as underneath the hearings reported by "the
King's touch," the cures which take place at the shrines of Roman and Greek
Catholicism, there are certain laws of nature, the most prominent of which is the power of
mind over matter. The concentration of the mind with faith into "something"
produces powerful effects. It has been proven that the law of concentration operates often
efficiently in acute diseases. It operates frequently with instantaneous rapidity upon
nervous diseases, or upon any condition capable of being modified by direct action,
through the nervous or circulatory system. Physicians, who make use of this law of the
mind, have wrought cures in diseases of accumulation, such as dropsy and tumors.
Rheumatism, sciatica, gout, neuralgia, contractions of the joints, and other inflammatory
conditions, have disappeared through the assertion of the mind over matter. Latent energy
is developed through mental stimulus, which opens the way to a cure.
The late Dr. James M. Buckley, for many years editor of the New York Christian
Advocate, wrote an excellent volume of research covering faith-healing, Christian
Science and kindred phenomena. After citing different authorities and the cures of
different systems, including faith-healing, he reaches the following conclusion: "We
find that in comparison with the Mormons, Spiritualists, Mind Curers, Roman Catholics,
Mesmerizers, the Protestant Faith Healers can accomplish as much, but no more; that they
have the same limitations as to diseases they cannot heal, and injuries they [page
110] cannot repair." Then he adds, what we have already expressed, that
"the claims of Faith Healers, technically so called, are effectually
discredited." We quote him.
"In examining the healing works both of Christ and the Apostles, it appears there
is not a uniform law that the sick should exercise faith, and that it was not necessary
that their friends should exercise it, nor that either they or their friends should do so.
Sometimes the sick alone believed; at others, their friends believed and they knew nothing
about it; again both the sick and their friends believed, and on some occasions neither
the sick nor their friends believed. No account of failure on the part of Christ or of the
Apostles after His ascension to cure any disease can be found. Neither is there a syllable
concerning any relapse or the danger of such a thing, nor any cautions to the cured, 'not
to mind sensations,' or that 'sensations are a test of faith,' nor any other
such quackery, in the New Testament. Claims of Christian faith healers to supernatural
powers are discredited by three facts:
"(1) They exhibit no supremacy over pagans, spiritualists, mind curers,
hypnotists, etc.
"(2) They cannot parallel the mighty works that Christ produced, nor the works of
the Apostles.
"(3) All that they really accomplish can be paralleled without assuming any
supernatural cause, and a formula can be constructed out of the elements of the human mind
which will give as high average results as their prayers and anointings.
"That formula in its lowest form is 'concentrated action.’ If to this
be added reverence, whether for the true and ever-living God, false gods, spirits, the
operator, witches, magnetism, electricity, or simple unnamed mystery, the effect is
increased greatly. Passes, anointings with oil, are useful [page 111] only as they produce
concentration of attention, reverence and confident expectancy. Those whose reputation or
personal force of thought, manner, or speech can produce these mental states, may dispense
with them all."
We are persuaded that most divine healing campaigns are a form of mass-hypnotism, and
the power which is present is not the power of God. The simple fact that men and women who
were touched became insane, is sufficient evidence that our heavenly Father, who is
kindness towards the suffering, does not supply this power. The power of hypnotism was too
strong for certain weak minds, and as a result they became unbalanced. We have information
from an insane asylum in Oregon, where a number of victims of one of these campaigns are
housed. The informant tells us that they sing and pray, and with the next breath they
curse, and use the vilest language. Other matters we pass by, but call attention to the
fact, that these "divine healers" obtain large sums of money through their pretensions.
One, who but a few years ago was practically penniless, has accumulated wealth in real
estate amounting to over a half of a million dollars. For a few weeks "healing"
another received over twenty thousand dollars. "By their fruits ye shall know
them."
Chapter 8: The Believer
and Sickness
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