Does God Heal Today

Does God Heal Today?

By Roderick C. Meredith

Fake "Healers"

Many people have been "turned off" to the concept of God’s healing because they have seen or heard about so many "fake healers." Sadly, there are quite a number of conniving individuals who use Christ’s name as a "cover" for all kinds of totally unbiblical ideas and concepts—including a totally wrong and sometimes almost blasphemous approach to divine healing.
Some of these false ministers hold big tent meetings or "healing services" where they yell and scream at the sick individual as though the power of their yelling was going to bring about the healing! Unlike Christ, who usually took the sick or infirm people aside from the crowd (see Matthew 9:25; Mark 7:33), these fake "healers" deliberately put on a big show—with lots of noise and singing, with people shouting "glory, glory" again and again, and other strange behavior completely contrary to that of Christ and the original Apostles.
As a young man, I personally attended several of these "healing" campaigns put on by well-known ministers. I was sincerely seeking the Truth and wanting to understand. On more than one occasion, some of my college classmates and I watched closely to see where the person sat down after he was supposedly "healed." In every single case, it was obvious that the individual had not been supernaturally healed at all!
"How could this be?" you might ask.
In one case, for instance, a man was brought on stage as the "healer" loudly told the audience that the man was "deaf"—giving the distinct impression that this man was "stone deaf"—totally unable to hear anything. Then the professed "healer" clapped his hands forcefully on the poor man’s forehead—almost knocking him over—and yelled at God to "drive out the deaf spirit"!
Then this evangelist loudly asked the man if he could now hear. When the man nodded in the affirmative, the evangelist yelled at the crowd that God had "healed" the man right in front of their eyes! The rinky-dink piano began playing and the crowd began yelling and singing: "When we all get to heaven…" The supposedly "deaf" man was then ushered off the stage to take his place in the crowd. I noticed carefully where he sat. Immediately after the meeting, I headed over there to talk with him.
I asked this man: "Were you stone deaf before you were prayed for?"
The man replied: "Oh no! I have just been hard of hearing for a number of years."
Then, speaking softly, I asked: "So you have now been healed?"
"What did you say?" he answered. "I can’t hear you."
I repeated my question loudly, and then he was able to hear. After talking with him in this way more extensively, it became obvious that he was still very hard of hearing. He was definitely not healed! However, I did not want to hurt his "hope"—as he put it—that he was a little better. So I went elsewhere.
Meanwhile my two college friends had the same experience with the "healed" people they met after the meeting. One of them, a middle-aged lady, was brought on the stage in a wheelchair. The iron-lunged evangelist told the audience that she was crippled and "unable to walk." Then he clapped his hands on her head and bellowed out to God: "Heal her now!"
Then, she was almost lifted out of the wheelchair by two strong men and pronounced totally "healed" by the "mighty power of God." But my friends and I noticed that she was practically carried off the stage by these two strong-looking men, and did not walk on her own power!
When we questioned her later, she said she had always been able to walk "a little," but that the flamboyant evangelist had said that she would be "more comfortable" if they brought her out on the stage in a wheelchair. Of course, with his powerful proclamation, the impression was given that she was totally crippled.
There are many other similar accounts I could cite from my own experience and that of others. It is truly abominable that wicked men will sometimes use the holy name of God to feather their own nest—and to deceive innocent people. This type of thing brings disgrace on the name of religion and is not genuine divine healing at all!