One netfriend:

Do miracles of healing happen today? This is more than an academic question. It is a question which is vital for the religious practitioner because it affects the horizon of hope in which people live.

Let me give a typical scenario. Someone is diagnosed with a cancerous tumour. The tumour is treated with chemotherapy and shrinks amazingly. Hopes rise and people talk about their prayers being answered. However, when all the chemotherapy that can be given is given, the tumour continues to grow and eventually takes the person’s life. If the remission stage had raised people’s faith in God, the final stage may leave them feeling God-forsaken.

Through all of this the religious practitioner must decide how to respond. How does one interpret remission? The matter is more complicated because some report cases of total and permanent cure. There was a case reported on “Hymns of Praise” last Sunday in which a child with a terminal tumour nevertheless went into permanent remission.

The religious practitioner may turn to theology. The question is, does such theology really provide an informed framework in which to understand God in this setting, or does it tell us more about the originator of the theology than the matter at hand?

The liberal theologian is quite clear: “There are no miracles. Miracles do not happen! Stories of miraculous healing by Jesus are myths that surrounded a legendary figure. Demythologise the New Testament and forget about hopes for the miraculous.” All this comes with an air of biblical scholarship. However, such convictions are not quite so easy to hold. There is a statement in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a; 107b) that “Jesus practised magic and led Israel astray”. All indications are that this comes from the records of the Great Sanhedrin in the year AD 32. It would appear to be testimony from a very early time that Jesus did something “miraculous” – and testimony from his enemies no less! Perhaps the real driving force behind liberal theology is not any compelling evidence from history, but the need to deal with an underlying anxiety. That anxiety is that some day, someone will demolish your religious beliefs. Therefore you must construct a set of beliefs that can never be demolished. Articles of faith that are simply not falsifiable. To do that you must retreat into the completely subjective. Ever tried arguing with the statement, “my favourite colour is blue”? Such a view of “God” can be created entirely in isolation, without any encounter with God at all. In fact, encounter with God for the liberal can be very disruptive of “theology”, not to speak of anxiety-provoking!

The fundamentalist comes at the topic from another tack. As most people who have hung around fundamentalists for a while soon discover, fundamentalism is basically about power. Not God’s power, heavens above! Human power! Fundamentalism is all about how I use religious belief to control you by interpreting the Bible in a way that suits me. Do miracles happen today? Well, that all depends upon where they are happening. If they are happening in the church down the road where they interpret the Bible differently, then miracles do *not* happen today. They were confined to the apostolic period in order to inaugurate the church. The problem, as most social anthropologists who have studied shamanism can tell you, is that manipulation of mystic powers can provide an alternative power-base for those who are disenfranchised from the exercise of power in the status quo. Or, to put it in terms your average fundamentalist can understand, if the church down the road is pumping out miracles, its lending credibility to their claims to interpret the Bible in an alternative way. So this fundamentalist decides, miracles do not happen today. In fact, this fundamentalist would like to insinuate the demonic. If on the other hand, miracles are lending credibility to my church, then of course miracles happen today. They are God’s stamp of authenticity on the real church! With that kind of pressure we are going to *make* miracles happen. Only problem is, when they pulled that wheel-chair out from underneath the stroke victim in the nursing home, and commanded the evil spirits to come out of him in the name of Jesus, the nursing home banned them from ever setting foot in the place again.

It’s getting so hard to find an authentic theology today. Which is a real pity. Because on any day, somewhere, a religious practitioner is heading out the door to go visit someone who is now in remission. And they want to talk about answered prayers and miracles. For now.

And that’s about where I will leave it because I have to go and do some visiting.

~~~

Another responded:

I don’t want to be a downer on this, but I’ll let my sceptical side come out (if not my analytical side ;-]) I would suggest that saying a child’s terminal tumor has gone in to permanent remission might be a little bit premature. This fact, from the way I look at it, might be established some time in the next 50 years, in which case I hope it’s true.

Until then, I’m not sure the use of the word ‘permanent’ is appropriate.

~~~

And another:

Do miracles of healing happen today?

and he makes some fascinating and provocative comments that need longer to think about before answering.

However, I will take on the immediate question. The short answer is “yes”, when the healing is in accordance with God’s purpose.

However, I always have had, and still do, a major problem with the practise of asking God to do things for us: God make granny better, God bring rain, God stop the floods, etc.

We can ask from the depths of our soul that a sick child will be made better. But we must always allow the words, “if it be thy will”. And we must ourselves do those things that it is needful for us to do as part of the process.