Expert: Andrew Foley - 9/9/2008

Question
Are all Pentecostals necessarily believers in faith healing?


Answer
Hello and thanks for writing! While there is no way to poll every single Pentecostal or charismatic church, it's a pretty safe bet to say that basically all Pentecostals believe in miracle healing. That's pretty much the basis of Pentecostalism: that we are in the last days, as spoken of in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all Christians, who will perform greater miracles than even Jesus.

Now, since Pentecostalism is a decentralized movement/theology, which means the individual pastors are free to make up their own doctrine (which is a problem in itself), there is really no one Pentecostal position on miracle healing, except to believe that it happens today. That's fine. I believe in miracle healing as well. Where I differ from most Pentecostals is that I think it happens relatively rarely, that sickness is a natural phenomenon that happens to Christians and non-Christians, and that I think public claims of miracle healings should be backed up by proof. I'm sure there are Pentecostal churches out there which take a responsible view of the subject, but most of them that I've seen - in person and on TV- seem completely unbalanced.

Many Pentecostals believe that miracle healing is something that we can_force_God to give us if we have enough faith. This is sometimes called the "Name It/Claim It" or "Word Faith" teaching. This is an extremely popular teaching, due to its exposure on the Pentecostal cable networks. They feel that real Christians, who are right with God, shouldn't get sick. If you don't get your miracle healing, the preacher can conveniently say that you obviously don't have enough faith, or you have some secret sin that you haven't repented of. This ignores the Bible and basic Christianity. One corrolary to this is that it is often preached that you can prove your faith to God by contributing lots of money to the pastor. The bigger the "seed faith" donation, the bigger the miracle, they say. Obviously, I believe this is all bunk, to say the least.

Other Pentecostals believe that you show your faith by refusing medical care. Many Pentecostals have died because of this. This teaching is less popular these days, since so many corpses over the decades have shown it to be so demonstrably false, but it's still rather widespread.

Another popular Pentecostal misconception is that you can get healed by being in the presence of miracle men like Benny Hinn or Oral Roberts. Their miracle crusades always fill stadiums with people who afterwards claim that they were healed of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. The fact is that there has never been one proven miracle healing through a Pentecostal preacher or in a Pentecostal church. Not one. On the contrary, there have been plenty of disproven ones, where people who claimed to be healed were shown not to have been. As a Catholic I don't believe that God would authenticate the ministries of these men whom I regard as false teachers and con men. But as a rational man as well, I can plainly see the fact that there has never been one proven miracle performed through their persons.

Catholics believe in miracle healings. However, we don't believe they happen 9 billion times a day, like Pentecostals and we believe that they happen because God wills it, not because we demand it. And when the Church does publicize them, it also provides proof, such as full information about the person, doctor's records, and a doctor's testimony that the person's organic illness (heart disease, cancer, et al) has fully disappeared, contrary to the laws of biology and the knowledge of medical science. On the flip side, Pentecostals claim miraculous healings of headaches, back aches, flus and other things that naturally heal themselves with time, as well as for all sorts of serious organic disorders, including death! If miracles were as common as they claim they are, then where is the room for faith? And where is the proof?

So, to sum up, I think Pentecostal teachings on miracle healing are false, ignorant and destructive. We can pray for miracle healings, but God's will be done, not ours.