Featherbop
Member
I've been looking into cases of medical miracles, and of testimonies of these miracles occuring because of Gods involvement. I could find some cases of medical miracles, and quite a bit of testimonies of faith healing. These ranged from claims of minor injuries, to addictions, to cancer all being healed by prayer and faith in God and the like.
I also looked in the Bible(most of what I found was testimony from christians), to see what I could find about God healing people by faith and prayer, and indeed found much: Matthew 7:7, Matthew 17:20, Matthew 21:21, John 14:14 and Mark 11:24 to name some. The basic message is ask/pray for something/healing and whatnot, believe you will receive, and you will then receive. Nothing ambiguous at all.
This is where I hit a snag and where medical science comes in.
I searched for particular miracles, but could only locate certain kinds of maladies being cured by faith/prayer. Finding a testimony of someone praying and being healed of cancer is fairly common, along with addictions, terminal diseases and whatnot. Medical science has also devised treatments for diseases and ailments. So treatments from medicine can explain these curings as well as faith healing. That doesn't mean faith healing doesn't work.
I came across some problems that cast a large shadow of dought over the power of prayer: I could not find anything significant that was cured by faith healing that medical science does not have a treatment for(few cancer survivors went without medical treatment, they relied on Medicine, and they survived cancer. Instances of non-treated cancer survivors do exist but are expectedly small).
The other big problem is that faith healing never does anything that is impossible. One of the miracles I searched for was natural regeneration of the limbs of amputees and could not locate any. That surprised me; people claim god healed cancer, yet no amputee was healed? Not one amputee asked and believed that God would restore a lost limb? If anyone can provide a documented case of limbs regenerated or restored by prayer/faith healing, let me know, btw. There may be something out there.
The Bible is very direct and clear that a person can pray and believe, and receive what they ask for. I began to read and study the Bible in my study of christianity first. This issue is one of the first things I've decided to tackle because it is either clearly correct, or it does not work. I'm leaning towards a certain conclusion based on what I have found and read so far, but before I decide on a conclusion, I am seeing what others may know or have found about this.
I also looked in the Bible(most of what I found was testimony from christians), to see what I could find about God healing people by faith and prayer, and indeed found much: Matthew 7:7, Matthew 17:20, Matthew 21:21, John 14:14 and Mark 11:24 to name some. The basic message is ask/pray for something/healing and whatnot, believe you will receive, and you will then receive. Nothing ambiguous at all.
This is where I hit a snag and where medical science comes in.
I searched for particular miracles, but could only locate certain kinds of maladies being cured by faith/prayer. Finding a testimony of someone praying and being healed of cancer is fairly common, along with addictions, terminal diseases and whatnot. Medical science has also devised treatments for diseases and ailments. So treatments from medicine can explain these curings as well as faith healing. That doesn't mean faith healing doesn't work.
I came across some problems that cast a large shadow of dought over the power of prayer: I could not find anything significant that was cured by faith healing that medical science does not have a treatment for(few cancer survivors went without medical treatment, they relied on Medicine, and they survived cancer. Instances of non-treated cancer survivors do exist but are expectedly small).
The other big problem is that faith healing never does anything that is impossible. One of the miracles I searched for was natural regeneration of the limbs of amputees and could not locate any. That surprised me; people claim god healed cancer, yet no amputee was healed? Not one amputee asked and believed that God would restore a lost limb? If anyone can provide a documented case of limbs regenerated or restored by prayer/faith healing, let me know, btw. There may be something out there.
The Bible is very direct and clear that a person can pray and believe, and receive what they ask for. I began to read and study the Bible in my study of christianity first. This issue is one of the first things I've decided to tackle because it is either clearly correct, or it does not work. I'm leaning towards a certain conclusion based on what I have found and read so far, but before I decide on a conclusion, I am seeing what others may know or have found about this.