Faith Healing and the Church

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'And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus's feet; and he healed them; Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see; and they glorified the God of Israel.'
(Matthew 15:30)
Healing was one of the most important ministries of a youthful church, which was fervent to evangelize and extend the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The notion of healing, for instance, is deeply embedded in the Catholic liturgy. The sacraments of penance and the anointing of the sick place healing firmly in the middle of the liturgical life of the church.

In the Maundy Thursday service, for instance, when the priest blesses the oil of the sick he says: 'May your blessing come upon all who are anointed with this oil that they may be freed from pain, illness and disease and made well again in body, mind and soul.' It is clear from this that originally the anointing was intended as a curative ritual, but this metamorphosed in the Dark Ages into 'extreme unction', with the accent on spiritual readiness for death because it had proved so ineffective.

Yet in the modern age the logical implications of what really lies behind these words is tactfully ignored. In Old English texts, the word 'healand' could be used in place of the word 'Jesus'.

For reasons we shall explore, however, the place of healing has been torn from the heart of its teaching and bulldozed to the sidelines. Eventually healing became a perfunctory practice within the church, and this has remained the case up to the present day.

The Christian religion has been systematically denatured. There are millions of people in the world at this very moment who are needlessly suffering because the church has not adequately brought the healing message of Christ's ministry into the lives of its believers, and, indeed, its nonbelievers. How did this happen?

During the apostolic era of the church, healing was a common activity of the church, and this goes some way to explain the remarkable growth in popularity of what was, after all, a sect among sects. Some commentators have pointed out that the immense success of Christianity over other religious sects that were competing with it at the time of its inception was due to the fact that it was commonly believed that the early Christian church was the most capable and successful sect at the practice of healing.

This means that the practice of faith healing is one of the cornerstones of our civilization, as Western culture is a mixture of Christian and Hellenistic influences. The successful practice by the early Christians ensured that Christianity waxed while other religious sects waned.

Healing was looked upon as one of the most significant vocations of a nascent church that was ardent to convert with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus it truly could be said that it was under the aegis of faith healing that Christianity rose to prominence.