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."

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.

"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."

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.

"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."

"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."

"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.

"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.'">

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