Is There Such Thing as a Faith Healer Who is Not a Fake?

What is being analyzed here is not whether God might supernaturally heal someone today. What is being analyzed here is whether the faith healers who tell others that it is God’s will to heal them through the faith healer’s counsel and prayers should ever be trusted?

Jesus’ own Apostles experienced prolonged sickness and saw prolonged sickness in their co-laborers. They didn’t miraculously heal all these illnesses, nor claim healing for them, as if that were a guarantee for anyone with faith. Though Jesus healed on earth to demonstrate His true identity as the Son of God, He also never promised that everyone who truly believes in Him will be in good health.

The Apostle Paul wrote about his own infirmities in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. He also wrote the following to his co-worker Timothy.

1 Timothy 5:23: “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.”

Paul never rebuked Timothy for lack of faith or wrongdoing in his epistles to him. This would not add up if the faith healers’ doctrine of promised healing in Christ were actually true. Neither would what Paul told Timothy about Trophimus.

2 Timothy 4:20: “Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.”

Healings and other supernatural signs would have been a lot more common among the 1st century Christians. The authority of the real Apostles was being established in the 1st century. The 1st century Apostles had much greater authority than anyone would ever have now. No one writes Scripture anymore. We need to heed the 1st century Apostles still today through what they wrote which is recorded in the Bible. Apostles are unnecessary after their time and do not exist today. Anyone who claims to be an Apostle of Christ now is not telling the truth and should not be trusted. They are only unduly exalting themselves and slighting the great authority of the 1st century Apostles. A lot of faith healing today is connected to the New Apostolic Reformation (the NAR). That entire movement is based upon falsehood.

It’s also important to understand that even in the Biblical record of 1st century events we are not given reason to believe that most Christians healed people. Even in the 1st century, supernatural signs were done by the Apostles or their co-workers. Though the other disciples then would have had greater reason to pray for such things, they were not things which they would have done themselves. To speak as if Christians in general ought to be going around healing people is downright misleading.

If you meet someone who thinks that they are more godly than the Apostles of Christ within the Bible or someone who thinks they have a secret to tapping into God’s power that they didn’t have, then run from them. Not only are they a deceiver, they are into Gnosticism and are very possibly also deep into the occult. It’s also not hard to find several examples of faith healers who eventually died painful, prolonged deaths from bodily illness who had previously said that Christians should never ever be sick.

False promises of healing in Christ in this life are used to pave the way for healing shows. Regarding the shows which faith healers put on, merely getting a sick or injured person excited about the possibility of being healed gets their adrenaline pumping. Adrenaline temporarily strengthens the body and relieves pain. People in poor health can come to really believe in the moment that they have been healed when someone lays hands on them and prays for their healing when their adrenaline is already high. It is no wonder that shouting and other techniques to increase the adrenaline of those in their presence are staples of faith healers. Many faith healers also screen out people with severe health problems to make sure that such people are never among the people whom they lay hands on and display on stage.

It is clear then that the show and the excitement leading up to the faith healer’s alleged healings are not just done for entertainment’s sake. The adrenaline and the suggestibility which these things induce among the crowd are necessary elements of getting the people whom the faith healer lays hands on to really believe in the moment that they are healed. These things also make it easier to persuade people to put money in the offering box or collection plate. It is also notable that the actions which the faith healers have people do to demonstrate their alleged healings are things that they could have done before anyways- at least with their adrenaline pumping.

As faith healers have their own variations of claims concerning why people are promised healing, they also have their own variations of why healing doesn’t happen for those who comply with their instructions. The one most likely to get blamed when it is seen in the long-term that no real healing happened is the person who is still sick or injured. They get blamed even though they totally gave heed to the faith healer. The faith healers are then more likely to blame Jesus for the failure than they are to blame themselves. That is blasphemous. It is wicked to blame Jesus for not doing what He never promised to do. The arrogance of the faith healers is great. The lack of accountability among them is astounding.

The people who are doing such activity in Jesus’ name are typically Pentecostals or follow some offshoot of Pentecostalism. It should be no surprise then that they often (maybe always) also believe in other false teachings and practices related to Pentecostalism and the various movements begotten thereby. Faith healers therefore often act like showmen, practice Emotionalism in other ways, believe that nonsense tongues are the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and endorse women pastors. All of these things are contrary to the Bible’s instructions. They are only further proven to be unreliable by such things.

It is no wonder that faith healers are prominent on compromised, corrupted Christian television. Current and past faith healers on TBN such as Kenneth Copeland, Bill Johnson, Todd White, Benny Hinn, and others are frauds. They deceive many people and get rich doing so. They are not just bad apples among the bunch. They represent faith healers in general. They are all fakes. If they were genuine they could, and they would, go to hospitals and heal people without bringing their emotional, adrenaline pumping shows and their collection plates. But they don’t really heal. They just deceive by the illusion that they heal. They love attention, cameras, and money. The answer to the question in the title is not complicated.

With that said, are there naive people who foolishly copy the big name faith healers without their sinister intentions? Yes, but if they are honest they will quickly see that promising health to people and following faith healer techniques are deceitful. They could not do so for long without knowingly being involved in the deceit.

And if there is anyone out there who has a genuine gift of healing people from the true God now, they’re not going to put forth promises of healing to everyone like the faith healers do. They will also not have someone following them around with a camera or be making smooth appeals for money.