Faith healing Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Christian theological criticism of faith healing=== Christian theological criticism of faith healing broadly falls into two distinct levels of disagreement. The first is widely termed the "open-but-cautious" view of the miraculous in the church today. This term is deliberately used by [[Robert L. Saucy]] in the book ''Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?''.<ref name="grudem et al.">{{cite book |last= Saucy |first= Robert L. |author-link= Robert L. Saucy |title= Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? |editor-last= Grudem |editor-first= Wayne |editor-link= Wayne Grudem |year= 1996 |publisher= Harper Collins |isbn= 978-0310201557 }}{{Full citation needed|date=January 2014}}</ref> [[Don Carson]] is another example of a Christian teacher who has put forward what has been described as an "open-but-cautious" view.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/bio/dacarson.html |title= D.A. Carson: Biographical Sketch |work= Monergism.com |publisher= Christian Publication Resource Foundation |location= Portland, OR |access-date= 2014-01-23}}</ref> In dealing with the claims of [[Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield|Warfield]], particularly "Warfield's insistence that miracles ceased",{{sfn|Carson|1987|page=156}} Carson asserts, "But this argument stands up only if such miraculous gifts are theologically tied exclusively to a role of attestation; and that is demonstrably not so."{{sfn|Carson|1987|page=156}} However, while affirming that he does not expect healing to happen today, Carson is critical of aspects of the faith healing movement, "Another issue is that of immense abuses in healing practises.... The most common form of abuse is the view that since all illness is directly or indirectly attributable to the devil and his works, and since Christ by his cross has defeated the devil, and by his Spirit has given us the power to overcome him, healing is the inheritance right of all true Christians who call upon the Lord with genuine faith."{{sfn|Carson|1987|pages=174β175}} The second level of theological disagreement with Christian faith healing goes further. Commonly referred to as [[cessationism]], its adherents either claim that faith healing will not happen today at all, or may happen today, but it would be unusual. [[Richard Gaffin]] argues for a form of cessationism in an essay alongside Saucy's in the book ''Are Miraculous Gifts for Today''? In his book ''Perspectives on Pentecost''{{sfn|Gaffin|1979|loc={{Page needed|date=January 2014}}}} Gaffin states of healing and related gifts that "the conclusion to be drawn is that as listed in 1 Corinthians 12(vv. 9f., 29f.) and encountered throughout the narrative in Acts, these gifts, particularly when exercised regularly by a given individual, are part of the foundational structure of the church... and so have passed out of the life of the church."{{sfn|Gaffin|1979|pages=113β114}} Gaffin qualifies this, however, by saying "At the same time, however, the sovereign will and power of God today to heal the sick, particularly in response to prayer (see e.g. James 5:14, 15), ought to be acknowledged and insisted on."{{sfn|Gaffin|1979|page=114}} According to the Catholic apologist Trent Horn, while the Bible teaches believers to pray when they are sick, this is not to be viewed as an exclusion of medical care, citing [[Sirach]] 38:9,12-14: {{blockquote|text="when you are sick do not be negligent, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you...And give the physician his place, for the Lord created him; let him not leave you, for there is need of him. There is a time when success lies in the hands of physicians, for they too will pray to the Lord, that he should grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life."<ref>Catholic Answers (4/2/2015) [https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/does-the-bible-promote-faith-healing ''Does the Bible Promote Faith-Healing?'']</ref> }} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page