Faith Healing by L. L. C.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 27, 1916

Faith Healing

By L. L. C.

No Christian with an experience of prayer can fail to believe in prayers for the sick. Any one who has learned to have confidence in the power of prayer would hardly fail of employing it when his loved ones lie sick or he is himself ill. The only difference of opinion possible among believers in prayer is as to whether after prayer has been offered to God for relief from sickness, it is then consistent to have recourse to physical means of cure.

The passage which is generally used by those who argue that such a course is inconsistent with faith in God's promise to heal, is this:—

“Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.” James 5:14, 15.

It is a misunderstanding of the text to read into these instructions of James the idea that after prayer by the elders, physical means of cure must be abandoned. We quote a portion of an article in the Continent, Oct. 28, 1915, where this is well illustrated:—

James might very well have thought that anybody who knew the Lord's prayer would be safe from this misunderstanding.

Even in the time of James, Christians were saying every day in their devotions, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ Did they then, when they had so prayed, settle down comfortably in their homes and say to one another, ‘Now, we have told God we would trust him for our daily bread, and it would show we had no faith in his answer if we went out and sought for wages by which to earn our food’?

Well, the queer fact is that some did talk that way. Up in Thessalonica, where Paul brought the gospel, there must have been a considerable element in the church arguing that a Christian must not work for his living—he must just have faith. And how vexed Paul got over this absurdity!

In his first epistle to the Thessalonians he is gentle, though firm: ‘We beseech you, brethren, . . . that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands.’

But the folly didn’t end, and when he wrote again, he thundered: If any will not work, neither let him eat.

That settled that question. Ever since then the church has understood that when a man has prayed for his daily bread, the way he proves he believes God will give it to him is by getting busy.

Perhaps if James also had written a second epistle he would have repudiated the lazy interpretation of prayer in sickness as vehemently as Paul repudiated the lazy interpretation of prayer in health.

At all events, the logic that fits one fits the other also. If there is no inconsistency in praying for food and raiment and then going out to hunt for a job, there is no inconsistency in praying to be restored from illness and then sending for a doctor.

Indeed, the matter needs to be put stronger than this mere negative statement of ‘no inconsistency.’ Paul made it actual, active sin for a man to refuse or even neglect to work after he had asked God to provide him a livelihood.

In just the same way it is really a sin—though, of course, almost always a sin of ignorance—for a person to ask God to make him or his loved ones well, and then refuse to do what is available for cure.

One asks God to cure his illness. Then the next thing is to inquire what God has provided for the cure of that illness.

And if a man will not make use of means already prepared, by what right does he expect God to furnish him other assistance?

What are the natural means which God has provided, and which he expects us to use? In the providence of God early instruction was given to this denomination on the point:—

Those who treat the sick should move forward in their important work with strong reliance upon God for his blessing to attend the means which he has graciously provided, and to which he has in mercy called our attention as a people, such as pure air, cleanliness, healthful diet, proper periods of labor and repose, and the use of water.—“Testimonies for the Church, Vol. I, p. 561.”

Many have never learned by experience the beneficial effects of the proper use of water, and they are afraid of it.

Water treatments are not appreciated as they should be, and to apply them skilfully requires work that many are unwilling to perform. But none should feel excused for ignorance or indifference on this subject. There are many ways in which water can be applied to relieve pain and check disease. All should become intelligent in its use in simple home treatments.—“Ministry of Healing, page 237.”

It seems to us that the form of “faith healing” which refuses the use of the human means which God has provided for the cure of sickness, and then expects God to work a miracle, is really presumption.

L. L. C.