Christian cannibalism

Reverend Dr David Millikan recently pulled a stunt with his mate to see if the Reverend Benny Hinn could be made to answer an interview question put by someone who had just been 'healed' and had been able to rise from their wheelchair and walk around. Unsurprisingly they didn't get an answer to their question, surprisingly this was because they never asked it! Reverend Millikan wrote about the experience for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Reverend Millikan is a Uniting Church minister (of Balmain Uniting Church) has written about cults, helped produce TV shows on them and has generally become a media expert on them.

The Balmain church website has an interesting discussion paper written by Reverend Millikan entitled Is Jesus God?, wherein he makes a bold defence of the traditional view and scathingly attacks the views of John Spong and the Jesus Seminar. I applaud his willingness to get this debate out into the Uniting Church community, as it is certainly happening within the pews, and can only be helped by some more educated input.

However, I wonder if he is guilty of the same pre-judgement he accuses Spong of in his approach to Benny Hinn. Here is a relevant excerpt from that discussion paper:

“It is interesting to consider why there is such squeamishness about the miraculous. After all religion is the birthplace of the miraculous. It is the meeting point between human beings and the transcendent. But these radical theologians argue that the stories of Jesus healing the sick and commanding the winds and the sea are inventions by the early Christians. They wanted Jesus to look like the person they came to believe he was. Godlike and capable of miraculous things. After all they lived in a pre-scientific age where miraculous things were commonplace.

But I find this enormously patronising. There is no evidence that the early Christians were doing this. In fact the evidence points to them being careful to make sure their accounts of Jesus were accurate. There was no advantage in them inventing these stories. They experienced the same difficulty that we do in explaining the role of miracles in the life of Jesus. Look at the ambiguity in John’s writings concerning what he calls “signs”. He cannot bring himself to use the word miracle. Throughout his gospel he returns to this several times. One on hand he sees miracles as a emerging naturally from the divine powers of Jesus, but at another level he is conscious of how they confuse the picture of Jesus. He knows how easy it is for people to become dazzled by the miracles and see this as the most important thing. This was a major difficult for Jesus, often he told people not to tell others about him healing them. His own disciples thought that Jesus was doing to sweep all before him with fabulous feets of power. But he didn’t. This I believe is what is happening at Hillsong and other charismatic churches. They have turned the Gospel into a miracle sideshow.”

My own bias is apparent, I go to one of these churches, and so fall under the 'miracle sideshow' banner. I wonder how Reverend Millikan reconciles that attitude with Jesus' empowering his disciples to heal? Here's some quotes from the NIV translation.

Matthew 10:1
He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

1 Corinthians 12:7-11
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

1 Corinthians 12:27-31
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.

Here's a photo of some members of the Balmain Uniting Church from their website. I think they look like very nice people, but I wonder how narrow their definition of a 'Godly' church is? And given the rather desperate spiritual state* of many people living in Balmain, I wonder how effective they are in reaching their neighbours?

*based on my personal observations, not the Bureau of Spiritology's predictions - i.e. I'm generalising, don't panic of you live in Balmain (unless you;re neighbours are smoking weird incense-stuff).


For Reverend Millikan to attempt to 'trick' Reverend Hinn into some sort of reaction to his allegations is underhanded and probably reveals an ethical sophistry on Reverend Millikan's part that is unnecessary should he ever attempt to have a sincere private conversation about the gift of healing with Reverend Hinn or any other Charismatic minister. It is his decision to make this a public quest to 'prove' something about Reverend Hinn that makes this most disturbing, and one wonders whether he might not be better spending his time building his own flock, rather than attacking the ministry of another.

Having said that, I recognise that the area of healing and miracles is a problematic one for many people. I myself have my doubts about many of the healing ministries seen on television, and I would be reticent to go to a 'healing crusade' - but then again I am healthy and well. Give me 6 months to live, or confine me to a wheelchair and I would probably seek out any Christian ministry that could help, as well as doing a lot of bible study on healing myself (and some fairly desperate prayer). There is also a school of thought that the gifts of healing are intended to precede salvation, that is, that they are a part and parcel of the saving work of the Holy Spirit and intended to convince unbelievers of God's reality and power. Certainly that is part and parcel of Reverend Hinn's ministry, and in that context he probably simply sees himself as doing the work of an evangelist using the gifts that God has given him.

Do people still get healed?

One of the key tenets of the pentecostal branch of the Christian faith, is a sure belief that God's miracles are just as relevant and available for us now as they were during the lives of the first apostles. Here is a short testimony from a member of our church who was healed recently through the ministry of Pastor Theo Wolmarans:

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a Merry Christmas for 2006. May your families be kept safe, and your bellies be protected from too much good food. May the weather be perfect, and the company pleasant.

Also, Happy Birthday to Jesus, the Christ, our saviour and king.

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Healing by Faith

I have reason to go and pray for a dear friend, who recently survived one cancer scare, only to have another rear up its ugly head. Like many Christians I know, I believe that people can be healed through prayer - but I also find it a challenge to develop the faith to wholeheartedly trust in prayer. It is always useful in these situations to consider what Jesus did in these situations - because even he did not always find it possible to heal everyone.

When it comes to the miracles of Jesus, I find Mark 6:1-13 to be one of the most amazing pieces of scripture. It is the only place where Jesus says he could not do any miracles - the reason being the lack of faith of his family, neighbours and hometown. Cynics point to this as evidence that his miracles relied upon slight of hand, and willing self-delusion by those 'healed'. But read this entire section:

Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.

“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith.

Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.

These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.”

They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Straight after being rejected himself, Jesus sends out the disciples to do what he could not do in his hometown. Talk about asking them to take a leap of faith!

Until we get to heaven, we can only speculate on Jesus' reasons for doing this. Perhaps he wanted to give people the chance to be healed by an unfamiliar person, like his disciples. Or perhaps this unique failure made it easier for the disciples to trust in God, knowing that it was the faith of those they preached to that would make the difference?

Later in Acts 14:8-10 we see Paul healing a man because of his faith:

In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.

So it is quite clear that faith is a key difference between receiving healing or not. Unfortunately, some people blame others of a lack of faith when they are not healed by prayer. At its most militant this can lead to people being accused of being 'backsliders' or 'unsaved'. Whilst this is possible, I think we should examine our reaction to others' lack of faith. Rather than condemn, we should encourage, rather than chastise, we should console.

For a good encouraging verse about this issue, we need look no further than James 5:13-18:

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

Clearly if Elijah could pray and have God create or break a drought, we can also pray and expect great things. In other words, it is the God we serve who does the miracles, not us, and we can have faith knowing that normal people before us have prayed and received miracles like the ones we need.