Prayer and Healing:
Does Prayer Positively
Affect Physical Healing?
By Dale J. Cox, M.D.
IS – 781
Spring 2004
Professor Tim Geddert
· A Biblical Historical Review of Healing/Healer 4
· The Relationship of Sin and Physical Illness 5
· The Role of the Physician/Healer in Judeo/Christian Tradition 6
· Sirach 38:1-15
· Historical Setting 8
· Exegesis 10
· New Testament Perspectives on Prayer and Healing 14
· James 5:13-16 15
IV. Integration and Application
· Recent Scientific Studies of the Complementary Role of Prayer in Healing
o Treatment Outcomes When Healer Prays 17
o Treatment Outcomes When Patient Prays 19
o Treatment Outcomes When Family/Faith Community Pray 21
o Treatment Outcomes for Distant Prayer 22
· Theological Reflections
o Role of Faith in Prayer for Healing 25
o Twelve prescriptions and remedies in the Divine Physician’s Doctor Bag to help us understand the relationship of sin with illness, and healing with salvation (soteria). 26
· Healing Service as part of Church Liturgy 32
· To Heal the Sick while Spreading the Gospel 33
V. Conclusion 34
VI. Bibliography 37
When I first thought of this topic as something that I would like to present for senior seminar, I thought I would be working in fairly fresh territory. Some five years ago I attended a seminar on the East Coast hosted by the Christian Medical Foundation. One of the main speakers was Dr. Robert Cantrell, who spoke on the effectiveness of prayer for physical healing and planted in me the seed of interest in this topic. At that time, Dr. Cantrell, who is chair of the Department of Otolaryngology at Virginia Medical School, stated that a MEDLINE search for this topic of prayer and healing resulted in fewer than 20 articles written in the medical literature over the prior five years. When I did a similar MEDLINE search this year I came up with almost 400 articles.
It is apparent that in the last five years, as we have entered the new millennium, interest in this topic has grown considerably. An ATLA search of religion-based literature also produced around 200 articles and/or books related to this topic. A cursory review of the available abstracts shows, as one might expect, the articles in the medical literature show a preponderance of scientific studies that are usually single or double blinded, looking at a specific disease entity, such as stroke, acute myocardial infarction and the like. The religion-based literature has fewer scientific studies and more individual case studies with theological discussions.
However, both medical and religious articles seem to agree this topic is one that currently stimulates both interest and controversy. Several investigators on the medical side are beginning to feel that carefully crafted scientific double-blinded studies will not give us a definitive answer about whether or not prayer works predictably to effect physical healing, but a positive correlation exists. Since prayer is a communication with God, the assumption is God will respond to effect healing or somehow aid the healing process. In a blinded scientific study, a secondary assumption is that God will more consistently respond with healing in those who are prayed for than in those who are not prayed for. This raises a theologically uncomfortable control issue concerning who is in charge, the petitioner who is praying or the deity responding to the prayer? In this area, the theologians seem to give us better answers than the scientists.
My own personal bias is that prayer does work as an aid or adjunct to physical healing. I further believe that treatment outcomes are better when the therapist prays, being mindful that his or her healing skills are a gift from God and that God is the ultimate healer, physician, surgeon, and therapist.
I will begin by doing a brief review of what the Bible teaches us regarding health and illness, and God's role in the healing process. I will trace the developing biblical perspective as it occurs in the Old Testament, the Intertestamental Period or Apocrypha, and the New Testament.
My major biblical text for exegesis and theological discussion is Ecclesiaticus or the Wisdom of Ben Sirach 38:1-15, found in the Apocrypha. Selected healing texts from Leviticus, Psalms and the Letter of James will also be utilized.
In the application portion of this paper I plan to look at prayer from the following aspects:
· Treatment outcomes when the physician or healer prays
· Treatment outcomes when the patient prays
· Treatment outcomes when family and friends pray for the patient
· Treatment outcomes when the patient's faith community prays for the patient
· Treatment outcomes when a faith community who does not know the patient prays
· What is the role of faith and its relationship to prayer for healing?
· What is the relationship of sin with illness?
· What is the relationship of healing with soteria?
· A Biblical Historical Review of Healing/Healer
· The Relationship of Sin and Physical Illness
In Old Testament times illness was considered a punishment from God for breaking his covenant or being disobedient to his will. Healing or restoration to health or wholeness (shalom) could only come about by restoring a right relationship with God through repenting of your sins. This is why Job’s three friends assumed Job’s terrible misfortune and boils were the result of Job’s unrighteousness and punishment by God. Healing, if it was to happen, was only by appeasing God through ritual prayer and sacrifices, often mediated by a priest. The priest’s role, as Nigel Allen points out in “The Physician in Ancient Israel: His Status and Function,” was not that of a healer because that is reserved to God alone. The priest’s role was to keep the community ritually pure and free from contagion. He needed to be able to recognize the symptoms of various diseases in order to separate them from the community. Therefore the ill were labeled as ritually “unclean” and separated from the community until they were healed. Then they could once again be deemed to be ritually “clean” and free to rejoin the community and the corporate worship of God (Leviticus 13:3-14:9). Of the 630 biblical commandments, 213 relate to health and social hygiene.[1]
· The Role of Physician/Healer in Judeo/Christian Tradition
A word study of the word “physician” or “healer” is useful, for it reflects a changing attitude toward the physician. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word is rapha, meaning one who mends or binds up or restores someone or something to its original or whole condition. It is used only four times, three of them (Jer. 8:22, 2 Chron. 16:12 and Job 13:4) in a negative connotations – “As for you, you whitewash with lies; all of you are worthless physicians (Job 13:4).” A fourth is neutral and is actually referring to Egyptian priest/morticians – “Joseph commanded the physicians in his service to embalm his father; so the physicians embalmed Israel” (Gen. 50:2).
The Greek word for healer or physician is iatros and it occurs six times in the New Testament and eight times in the apocryphal texts of the Septuagint. In the New Testament it is used twice in texts about the hemorrhaging woman. (Luke 8:43 and Mark 5:26) “She had endured much under many physicians; and she was no better, but rather grew worse,” and three times (Matt. 9:12, Mark 2:17 and Luke 5:31) when Jesus responds to the scribes’ question of why he eats with tax collectors and sinners – “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners.” The last reference is to “Luke, the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14). Of these six references, two are clearly negative (in the story of the hemorrhaging woman), three are neutral (Jesus’ response to the scribes’ question) and only one is clearly positive, an honorific title referring to Luke.
The deuterocanonical texts of Tobit and Sirach mention physician(s) eight times, two in a negative vein but six positively, with all the positive mentions in the pericope of Sirach 38:1-15 that I will soon comment on in greater detail. The negative mentions are earlier in Sirach 10:10 “A long illness baffles the physician; the king of today will die tomorrow,” and from Tobit 2:10 “I did not know there were sparrows on the wall; their fresh droppings fell into my eyes and produced white films. I went to physicians to be healed, but the more they treated me with ointments the more my vision was obscured by white films, until I became completely blind” echoing the complaint of the woman with a hemorrhage in the gospels about ineffective treatment by physicians.
The story of Tobit
In this story Tobit consults physicians without fear of divine retribution, which is a change in attitude from the earlier situation when King Asa, in 2 Chronicles, consults physicians for his diseased feet without seeking the Lord first and died as a result.[2] Moreover, God intervenes by sending an angel (Raphael) to go on a quest with his son Tobias to find the appropriate fish parts (gall) so it can be applied to his father Tobit’s eyes and heal them. Incidentally, the archangel’s name “Raphael,” meaning “the Lord heals!” masquerades as a kinsman named “Azariah,” meaning “God helps!” Raphael also instructs Tobias to use the other parts of the fish, the heart and liver, as a fumigant which, when burned, can drive out demons.
Tobias is next in line, according to Mosaic Law, to marry his cousin Sarah. She has been betrothed seven times but the marriages have never been consummated because on each occasion her intended groom had been killed by the demon Asmodaeus. Tobias, as next of kin, asks for and receives consent to be Sarah’s next groom. On the wedding night he burns the fish heart and liver, creating a fumigant that drives away the demon, never to return. Tobias then returns to Nineveh with his bride, applies the fish gall to his father’s eyes and his sight is restored. God is still the healer in this story, but he is willing to give his blessing to the healing and exorcizing properties of his creation, of plants and animals, substances that empirically have been effective in folk medicine.
The Text of Sirach 38:1-15
NRS Sirach 38:1 Honor physicians for their services, for the Lord created them;
2 for their gift of healing comes from the Most High, and they are rewarded by the king. 3 The skill of physicians makes them distinguished, and in the presence of the great they are admired. 4 The Lord created medicines out of the earth, and the sensible will not despise them. 5 Was not water made sweet with a tree in order that its power might be known? 6 And he gave skill to human beings that he might be glorified in his marvelous works. 7 By them the physician heals and takes away pain; 8 the pharmacist makes a mixture from them. God's works will never be finished; and from him health spreads over all the earth. 9 My child, when you are ill, do not delay, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you. 10 Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly, and cleanse your heart from all sin. 11 Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial portion of choice flour, and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford. 12 Then give the physician his place, for the Lord created him; do not let him leave you, for you need him. 13 There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians, 14 for they too pray to the Lord that he grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life. 15 He who sins against his Maker will be defiant toward the physician.
· Historical Setting
Joshua ben Sira or “Jesus the son of Sirach” was a scribe who probably conducted an academy for young men in Jerusalem. Around 180 BC this sage wrote down the collected wisdom he had taught orally. Around 50 years later his grandson translated the original Hebrew text into Greek for the benefit of the Hellenistic Jewish community in Alexandria. The term “Ecclesiasticus” is Latin for “Church Book,” and is considered by the Roman Church to be one of the most important of the deuterocanonical or apocryphal books.
“Sirach is a significant link in the history of the development of ancient Jewish thought. It is the last great example of the type of wisdom literature represented in the Old Testament book of Proverbs, and the first specimen of that form of Judaism which subsequently developed in the rabbinical schools of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”[3]
A substantial book with fifty-one chapters, this pericope, regarding physicians and healing, occurs following advice concerning “counselors” (be wary of them), true and false wisdom and moderation in food and drink. It is followed by advice for moderation on mourning the dead. He then compares the preferred occupation of becoming a scribe – who has the opportunity for leisure and therefore has the time to reflect and become wise – with the lesser trades of farming, seal-maker, blacksmith and potter, who do not have the leisure or time to become wise through the study of the Torah, wisdom and prophesies. Of the professions discussed in this book, the most desirable and honorable are scribes, priests and physicians, roughly in that order.[4]
· Exegesis
NRS Sirach 38:1 Honor physicians for their services, for the Lord created them; 2 for their gift of healing comes from the Most High, and they are rewarded by the king.
This is the first time in Jewish literature that physicians are mentioned and held in such high regard. John Collins in Jewish Wisdom in the Hellenistic Age points out that “honor and shame were pivotal values in Greek Society,” and “Sirach tries to adapt the categories of Hellenistic culture to the values of Hebrew tradition.” [5] I would posit the “honor and shame” have been pivotal values of Semitic, including Hebrew, societies as well. What is striking in this passage is that physicians are to be accorded honor in the same way as priests and scribes and heads of households
3 The skill of physicians makes them distinguished, and in the presence of the great they are admired.
Not only are Physicians honored but, like scribes, possess a special wisdom given by God, and they are part of the Royal Court, associating with kings and nobles. [6]
4 The Lord created medicines out of the earth, and the sensible will not despise them.
Here I agree with Snaith and others that Ben Sirach is making a conscious effort to change the traditionally negative Hebrew perception of the physician. In
Ben’s view, the medical practitioner, as well as the medicine and treatment he employs, is part of God’s creation and God’s plan for shalom. Therefore the wise person will not shun the physician and his treatments, since they are ordained as God’s mediators to treat illness.[7]
5 Was not water made sweet with a tree in order that its (1) power might be known? {(1) or [his]}
Exodus 15:23-5, referring to the piece of wood that the Lord shows Moses which he (Moses) throws into the bitter water at Mara, making it potable and sweet. Rather than showing God as a miracle worker in this passage, it is now reinterpreted to show the miraculous healing powers of his creation. In other words, it is the healing powers inherent in the wood (part of God’s creation) to make the undrinkable potable, which is being emphasized.
6 And he gave skill to human beings that he (1) might be glorified in his marvelous works. {(1) or [they]}
7 By them the physician (1) heals and takes away pain; {(1) Heb: Gk [he]}
8 the pharmacist makes a mixture from them. God's (1) works will never be finished; and from him health (2) spreads over all the earth. {(1) Gk [His] (2) Or [peace]}.
Many plants and animal parts are revealed to have antiseptic and cleansing properties and physicians have been given the gift of this healing knowledge by God.[8]
9 My child, when you are ill, do not delay, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.
10 Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly, and cleanse your heart from all sin.
11 Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial portion of choice flour, and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford. (1) {(1) Heb: Lat lacks [as much as you can afford]; Meaning of Gk uncertain}
One does not give up the old ways, however. Illness reflects a broken relationship with God. Therefore one should pray, repent, and cleanse oneself, offer propitiation to God and then seek the physician’s help.[9]
12 Then give the physician his place, for the Lord created him; do not let him leave you, for you need him.
13 There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians, (1) {(1) Gk [in their hands]}
14 for they too pray to the Lord that he grant them success in diagnosis (1) and in healing, for the sake of preserving life. {(1) Heb: Gk [rest]}
It is strongly implied that the physician understands his place in the created order: i.e. he is only the mediator; God is the one who heals. Therefore it is assumed the practitioner will seek God’s guidance and wisdom to arrive at the correct diagnosis and apply the appropriate treatment.[10]
15 He who sins against his Maker will be defiant toward the physician. (1) {(1) Heb: Gk [may he fall into the hands of the physician]}
God may or may not heal the unrepentant invalid, and depending upon the variant translation, the unrepentant invalid may a) be defiant toward the physician and refuse his help, or b) be given into the hands of the physician, i.e. with potential further injury or even loss of life.[11]
Sirach goes beyond Tobit, letting us know that:
· It is permissible to seek a physician without fear of retribution from God, and
· It is permissible to utilize the healing powers (the fish gall, heart and liver) found in God’s creation.
Sirach says both the medicines found in nature and medical practitioners are part of God’s plan for shalom, for God has imparted to them his gift of healing. This was an innovative concept. However, Sirach was enough of a traditionalist to say that God can heal with or without any help from nature or physicians. The old religious ritual formularies still apply. When you are ill:
The assumption in Sirach, as Patrick Skehan states in his commentary, is that the physician/healer is one who understands his place in the created order: his or her medical knowledge and healing abilities are a gift from God to be used for God’s purpose – to bring shalom, peace and wholeness [healing] to the individual, to the community and to the world.[13]
· New Testament Perspectives on Prayer and Healing
In the New Testament, it is Jesus Christ who manifests God’s power of divine healing and commissions his disciples with the authority to heal by prayer and to cast out demons. Jesus parabolically twice refers to himself as a physician. In Mark 2:17 when the Pharisees ask his disciples why he eats with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus replies “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners.” In Luke 4:16-30 he responds to the doubters in the Nazareth synagogue, “Doubtless you will quote me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’”
Part of Jesus’ mission and a major part of his work as the messiah was restoring health and wholeness to his people:
When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me." (Matthew 12:2-6)
After Pentecost, the apostles and disciples continue to proclaim the gospel. Healings continue along with casting out demons. One of the most frequently quoted texts regarding prayers for healing is James 5:13-16:
Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective (emphasis mine).
In this pericope, when compared with Sirach 38:9-15, healing is by prayer within the community of the church. It calls for the elders of the church to pray over the ill and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. It is implied that in order to anoint, one must touch and lay hands on them. It is the prayer of faith that will save the sick. It is ambiguous (perhaps intentionally) just whose faith is required. Since it is a group [community] of elders that are offering the prayers and one or more people are being prayed for, I suspect the power and authority of the effective prayer lies within the faith of the collective group.
Also, tightly woven with this topic of prayer for healing is the need for community confession and mutual forgiveness. For Jesus, forgiveness of sins and healing often went hand in hand, for he had the authority to do both. For example, in Mark 2:3-12, when the paralytic is let down through a hole in the roof, Jesus first pronounces to the crowd that his sins are forgiven. Then, in order to show the murmuring scribes that he has authority on earth to forgive sins, he heals the man!
In Ralph Martin’s commentary on James, he states that “James implies that sometimes sin is a cause of illness, as well as a hindrance to healing. Sin and sickness went hand in hand in the ancient mind. The confession of sin was then evidently necessary if healing was to occur... James [may be] requiring that confession becomes a repeated action. The practice of public confession was important to Judaism and the early church”[14]
Tim Geddert offers a theology of healing that responds to the problem posed by the experience of believers who find that prayers offered in faith do not always make the sick person well. He further exegetes James’ example of a three and one half year drought prayed for and ended by Elijah. He asks why did James cite that passage as an example of effective prayer? He concludes that Elijah had special insight into the purposes and timing of God’s actions. The reason the prayer worked was that God told him what He was going to do and when He was going to do it.[15]
Geddert gives us two other biblical models to cover the other times when instant healing doesn’t occur right away. He states:
James promises that “the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects (5:16).” It does indeed. Sometimes its effect is to change our circumstances, and a sick person is dramatically healed (the Elijah model). Sometimes its effect in to change our characters, and we persevere and trust the sovereignty of God (the Job model). Sometimes its effect is to change our priorities, and we rest in the assurance that “my flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Ps. 73:26, the psalmist model).
In conclusion, the biblical teaching seems to be the following:
· God wants us all to be in right relationship with Him.
· Sin and illness impair that relationship, for He would have us worship Him in wholeness and in health
· When we are ill, we are to seek repentance, ask forgiveness for a restoration of health and right relationship with God
· We are to ask others of our faith community to pray with and for us.
· Then, if the illness is serious, we are to seek the help of a physician, who will pray to the Lord that He will grant them success in diagnosis and treatment, for they are part of God’s plan for healing and God has given to them the knowledge and gifts of the healing arts.
IV. Integration and Application
· Recent Scientific Studies of the Complementary Role of Prayer in Healing
“Research is the highest form of adoration.” Teilhard de Chardin
o Treatment outcomes when the physician or healer prays
Dr. Dale Matthews, in his introduction, relates how he gradually came to pray for his patients.[16] He felt, as I did, when attending medical school, then internship and residency program that a critical ingredient was missing. In the 60’s, the academic approach to training in clinical medicine and surgery was very secular and scientific. We were superbly taught to take histories, do physical exams and then to prescribe treatment, either through advice, medications, and various forms of therapy or surgical intervention. We studied diseases and pathological conditions, rather that the person affected by them. Matthews states,
My concern with including spiritual issues as part of caring for patients gradually evolved from my interest and background in the doctor-patient relationship and my own deepening faith. It began to make logical sense to me that, as a proponent of true, whole-person medicine and as a person of faith, seeking to live out my faith in a life of service to others, I should, and could, address all my patient's principal needs -- physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. It did not make sense to exclude religion, which I knew was the most important influence in the lives of many patients, and call myself a whole-person doctor.[17]
Before Dr. Matthews started praying with his patients, he began to take their spiritual histories as part of his normal initial history and physical. Gradually, by word-of-mouth, his patients let their friends know that Dr. Matthews was a doctor who believed in God and was willing to discuss with his patients matters about faith. He did not offer to pray for or with his patients, however, until one forced it out into the open, stating "I came to you because you’re a Christian doctor. I would like you to pray with me."
About ten years ago I had an almost identical experience. I had a young patient who survived a terrible automobile accident with skull fracture and prolonged coma. She required multiple surgeries on her voice box and trachea in order to restore voice and breathing. Before being taken to the operating room for the second of what was to become ten or more surgical procedures, she asked me to pray for her. Subsequently, each time she was to have another procedure, she would request and get another prayer for God's blessing and guidance, not just for the surgeon, but for the anesthesiologist and the entire care-giving OR staff. Soon, preop and operating room nurses, and even, occasionally, the anesthesiologist, would join hands with the patient and ask God's blessing on the operation, praying for a successful outcome.
She is still my patient and I see her about every six months. Each visit ends with the prayer of thanksgiving and blessing. Even if I am rushed and running late, she will gently chide me, not allowing me to leave the room until we have prayed together.
Harold Koenig cites recent studies done in Illinois and in Texas and North Carolina, which polled both inpatients and family practice outpatients. When asked whether they would like their physician to pray with them, positive responses were obtained, ranging from 54% to 78%, stating they would like to have their doctor pray with them.[18] Traditionally trained doctors are not quite as willing yet to embrace this therapeutic modality, for another study conducted by USA Weekend found that while 79% of the respondents polled believed that spiritual faith and prayer can help people recover better and faster from illness or injury, less then 10% of the respondents admitted their doctor has talked to them about their faith as a factor in physical health and healing.[19] The low response rate of physicians taking a spiritual history and integrating this into their treatment programs should change as physicians who are currently training in medical schools and osteopathic colleges enter the marketplace. Koenig claims that “in 2000, at least 65 of the nation’s 126 medical schools are currently offering courses on religion, spirituality and medicine. In 1993, fewer than five medical schools offered such courses.”[20]
· Treatment outcomes when the patient prays
Last Sunday, a parish member came up to me after the service. I had announced during the service that I was writing this paper and requested feedback on any who had come forward for anointing prayer during the healing service the previous Sunday or any of the other healing services given at the end of the month over the last year and a half. Dixie told me that while the prayer team and I were praying for her son, as she had requested, she was worried about the blurred vision in her right eye. She had noted it three weeks previously, treated it with over the counter eye drops and washed it out, but to no avail. She, at the moment of anointing with oil and prayer for her son’s healing at the alter rail, was dreading her own upcoming appointment with her ophthalmologist. As she left the alter rail and went back to her pew and picked up her Prayer Book to resume the communion service, she saw clearly out of her right eye! The vision has stayed clear. I advised her to follow up with her physician, as I have to others previously who have approached me after the healing service to testify about the healings they have experienced.[21]
Many studies have been done showing the salutary and beneficial effects of individual petitionary prayer for healing. Koenig has assembled multiple studies that clearly show a positive effect on many health parameters when those who are “religiously active” i.e. daily prayer life and scripture study, weekly or greater attendance in community worship services are compared with the non-religious. He found that the religiously active
1. Had lower blood pressure,
2. Smoked fewer cigarettes,
3. Were hospitalized less often,
4. Better coped with their illness when they became ill,
5. And overall had healthier immune systems as measured by high levels of Interleukin-6, and lower levels of the immune inflammatory markers alpha-2 globulin, fibrin d-dimers, polymorphonuclear leukocytes, and lymphocytes
than the control group which was non-religious when to two groups were matched for
age, ethnicity, demographics and socioeconomic status.[22]
A very recent study done by the Department of Family Medicine from the University of North Carolina did a cross-sectional analysis of 277 geriatric patients (mostly white).[23] They found that those still actively involved in community religious worship were statistically more likely to self-appraise their health as good. Subjectively, those who were still active members of their church or synagogue, felt they had a better quality of life and better health than the geriatric population which had lower scores on the religiosity and spirituality assessments.
· Treatment outcomes when family and friends or faith community pray for the patient
Most medical practices have examples of “unexplained cures” and “spontaneous remissions.” I can recall a case several years ago of a middle-aged woman with an open sore in the floor of her mouth under her tongue. It was painful and had been present for several months. A biopsy revealed an early form of squamous cell cancer. Preoperative lab workup revealed untreated heart disease, so the planned surgical resection of floor of mouth and partial tongue was cancelled until her cardiologist could stabilize her for surgery. When she returned some six weeks later in preparation for the rescheduled surgery, the floor of mouth lesion was gone! She had a completely normal head and neck examination. When I asked her what she had done, she answered that she went to her church and her pastor, family and friends had held several prayer sessions for healing. Her soreness in her mouth disappeared within two weeks.
Candis McLean reports on a number of physician-documented healings through prayer:[24]
· Complete heart block in an 8 year old with a history of rheumatic fever,
· Distal tibia fracture after 6 months of non-union
· Advanced inoperable breast cancer
· Multiple large kidney stones
· Active pulmonary tuberculosis in a 5 year old child
All of these physician-documented healings happened with prayer and without any other traditional treatment. While one might hypothesize that sudden changes in the serum Calcium/Phosphorus ratio might have led to the disappearance of the kidney stones and a significant increase in appropriate antibody activity in the immune system could have led to an elimination of tuberculosis or advanced breast cancer, the chances of this spontaneously occurring are very small. It is hard, if not impossible, to explain medically how bone, which had developed cortical (non-healing) bone at its edges, would suddenly resume healing. It would have to reverse the healing process, unheal, and then heal again. Likewise, it is hard to explain medically the complete spontaneous reversal of advanced rheumatic heart disease in a young child. It appears that at times God chooses to heal without our help and does not bother to leave enough clues along the way, showing us how He does it.
· Treatment outcomes when a faith community who does not know the patient prays
The most frequently cited study in this category is the one reported by Randolph Byrd, a cardiologist at San Francisco General Hospital on 393 patients admitted between August, 1982 and May, 1983 to the coronary care unit. After signing the appropriate consents, the patients were assigned randomly to an intercessory prayer (IP) group (192 patients) or to a control group (201 patients). While hospitalized, the IP group received intercessory prayer from Christian prayer groups located outside the hospital (this was distant, not hands on bedside prayer). The control group did not.
At entry, there was no statistical difference between the two groups, either by chi-square or stepwise logistic analysis. After discharge, the IP group had a significantly lower severity score based on the hospital course than the control group (P<.01). Multivariate analysis separated the groups on the basis of outcome variables (P<.0001). The control patients needed more and longer use of ventilatory assistance, antibiotics and diuretics than did the IP group. Byrd’s conclusion: “These data suggest that intercessory prayer to the Judeo-Christian God has beneficial therapeutic effect in patients admitted to a Coronary Care Unit.”[25] In response to this statement, Cantrell adds “Indeed! And Amen! Certainly even a scientist committed to the most rigorous of statistical controls would have difficulty faulting this study.”[26]
Another study done at Duke University also confirms the efficacy of prayer on cardiac patients.
In some of the latest research, doctors at Duke University Medical Center analyzed 150 heart patients undergoing various treatments, including angioplasties. They divided the patients into five groups. All received medical treatment, but four groups also got one of the following: touch therapy, relaxation training, lessons in using guided imagery or being prayed for without their knowledge (italics mine).
Results? Patients who received any of the additional therapies were 25 to 30 percent less likely to develop complications from their medical treatment than those who received nothing extra.
"We know from past studies that relaxation exercises, meditation and being gently touched and cared for can have profound effects on the heart. These activities reduce blood pressure, heart rates and stress hormones," says Harold G. Koenig, M.D., internist, psychiatrist and director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Spirituality and Health at Duke. "But in this case, the group with the lowest complication rates was the one being unknowingly prayed for. There's no scientific explanation for that (italics mine)." [27]
Another major difference in this study from previous ones mentioned is that those offering intercessory prayers were contacted over the Internet and not necessarily Christian. Baptists in North Carolina united their prayers with Nuns in India, who were ecumenically joined by Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims in other parts of the world, in many different languages.
· Theological Reflections
o What is the role of faith and its relationship to prayer for healing?
Of the twenty-six gospel accounts of individual healings, fifteen of them do involve faith, either by the individual or by those who brought the individual to Jesus. That leaves fourteen accounts where faith does not appear to be a factor, such as healing on the Sabbath to prove to the scribes and Pharisees that he has the authority to heal, even on the Sabbath.
Today, one’s faith appears to make a difference in one’s overall health. If one compares the major faith groups – Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs and Hindus – World Health Organization has found significant differences in Coronary Artery Disease (CAD). In a review of 13,560 adults in Delhi, India, the prevalence rate of “silent” CAD based on electrocardiographic evidence was highest among Muslims (89.5/1000) and Sikhs (87.3/1000) and lowest among Christians (25.0/1000).[28]
Among the Christian denominations in the United States, Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists, both of which advocate a healthy lifestyle by avoiding excess fat and sugar, smoking or drinking alcoholic beverages, as a group score highest health wise on the quality of life scale.[29]
· Twelve prescriptions and remedies from the Divine Physician’s Doctor Bag to help us understand the relationship of sin with illness, and healing with salvation (soteria).
I would like to address the above two points together, for it is hard talking about the one (sin and illness) without addressing the other (healing/health with salvation). To my knowledge, there are no scientific studies about these issues. Instead we have to look to theology, to scripture and our perception of God’s purposeful actions in the world today. Dr. Matthew refers to the contents of the Divine Physician’s doctor bag – twelve remedies and treatments for the sick and ailing of this world to restore wholeness and health and put us back on the path to salvation:
1. Equanimity -- Overcoming the Wear and Tear of Life
Life is stressful and frequently chaotic. Scripture informs us that Jesus frequently drew away from the crowd and even his disciples to find a quiet location to pray and be with His Father. Dr. Herbert Benson, who runs the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Harvard University Medical School, has promoted what he calls the Relaxation Response, a form of meditation utilized by the religious of many different faiths. It induces a number of beneficial physiologic response, including
· A decreased heart rate
· A lower metabolic rate
· A lower respiratory rate
· Slowing of brain waves
Any physiologic condition made worse by stress, such as tension headache, upset stomach, muscle aches and pains, or just plain fatigue can be relieved by producing the relaxation response and giving your body a “time out”; a period of deep rest and stress relief.[30]
2. Temperance – Honoring the Body as a Temple of the Spirit
Practicing Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists, as a group, enjoy better quality of life because they have a healthier life style as part of their church doctrine – high fiber, low fat low carbohydrate diets, and no smoking or drinking. Science has known for a long time that practicing a healthier life style inevitably leads to a healthier quality of life.
3. Beauty – Appreciating Art and Nature
Taking a hike in the mountains, watching an ocean sunset or listening to a fine piece of classical music, such a Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony are all examples of fine esthetic pleasurable experiences that help exhilarate and rejuvenate us. Experiencing God’s creation and His work help bring us closer to him, giving us a glimpse of the kingdom He has prepared for us.
4. Adoration – Worshipping with Our Whole Being
Singing while we worship allows us to engage our whole being – body, mind and spirit – as we express our feelings about God, His creation and His purpose for us. Singing while we worship is physiologically good for our bodies, bringing about the same benefits as praying, scripture study and meditation. “Movement used in worship also engages us on all levels of our being, even the physical. We move to assume worship postures – kneeling, standing, bowing our heads, folding our hands, genuflecting, lifting our hands in praise. Through worship we turn our whole selves in love toward the Divine, activating, uniting, and reinvigorating body, mind and spirit.”[31]
5. Renewal – Confessing and Starting Over
While all illness today is not viewed as the direct result of sin, certainly sin, and carrying the guilty burden of sin, can and does express itself in physical illness. That is why confession and repentance has been such an integral part of the healing process from Old Testament times until now. We all need to periodically unburden our load of guilt of our past mistakes, to be assured of God’s forgiveness and make a fresh start. That is why many Christian denominations have institutionalized the practice of confession. Accumulated sins can weigh us down and make us physically ill. We need a way to get rid of them.
6. Community – Bearing One Another’s Burdens
Perhaps the reason the psalmist and Jesus repeatedly chose the analogy of the shepherd and his sheep when referring to God and his people is that we are, by nature, herding animals. We, as individuals, survive best and stay healthiest within a supportive community of family and friends. They, who are trapped in isolation and loneliness, have poorer health and carry more stress factors impairing their quality of life. Being part of a loving, caring community is an important ingredient in quality of life and good health maintenance. This is especially true in being part of a religious community, where the whole is always greater than the sum of its individual parts. As a member of Christ’s body, the church, we can always accomplish more corporately in bringing about the Kingdom of God than we can individually.
7. Unity – Gaining Strength Through Shared Beliefs
We tend to gravitate towards others who share the same beliefs. Episcopalians tend to center our doctrinal beliefs around the “three legged stool” of scripture, tradition and reason. In the age of modernism and post-modernism, a somewhat shaky “fourth leg,” that of experience, has been added.
As a worldwide communion of some eighty million Anglicans, we have, for the last 500 years, been held together in unity by that wonderful document created by the English Reformation, the Book of Common Prayer. While there can be great comfort and strength in “shared beliefs,” there is also inevitable tension, for seldom are all beliefs truly shared: witness what has happened in the U.S. Episcopal Church since an openly gay priest was consecrated Bishop of New Hampshire late last year. Our local Diocese of the San Joaquin has broken communion with the Diocese of New Hampshire and seventeen of the thirty-eight Anglican Provinces have declared a state of “impaired communion” with the U.S. Episcopal Church. Yet the pull to unity is still very strong within the global communion and both sides (I pray) are praying very hard that God’s will be done.
8. Ritual – Taking Comfort in Shared Activities
Just as the Book of Common Prayer forms our common bond, the glue that holds us together is the prayers and liturgical rituals and services it contains. Our brains seem to be “hard-wired” for repetitive actions (rituals). As Herbert Benson states in Timeless Healing:
The brain retains a memory of the constellation of activities associated with ritual, both the emotional contest that allows the brain to weigh its importance and nerve cell firings, interactions, and chemical releases that were first activated.[32]
Psychoanalytic theory says we worship repeatedly to allay our deep-seated anxiety about death. Scripture tells us we worship repeatedly because that is part of what we were created to do – to give thanks back to God for his creation, for making us part of his created world, for creating us in the very imago dei. I will embrace the Biblical interpretation, thank you very much, for if I believe that God so loved us that he gave us his only son, Jesus, to die upon the cross as propitiation for the sins of the whole world once and for all time, conquering death and offering us the free gift of glorious salvation in the new heavenly Jerusalem, then I have no reason to have a deep seated death anxiety. I take great comfort in the ritual services of my church, for during those times I am assured the I am where God wants me to be, doing what He would have me do.
9. Meaning – Finding a Purpose in Life
Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done” (Mark 14:36b). Finding purpose and meaning in life is not always easy. Being an active member in a believing community helps a lot. The community can give you feedback about your personal spiritual and physical gifts. Participation in regular worship services, practicing Sabbath to get adequate rest, an active prayer life, scripture study and meditation all help to open your heart and mind to the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Persist in these activities, be patient and certainly God will speak, letting you know His design for you.
10. Trust – “Letting Go and Letting God”
Have you noticed how each one of these “remedies” builds upon, is additive to the previous one? Trying to make it through this life in this broken world is tough, if not impossible, without God’s help. Nevertheless, it is in our human nature to wish to be self-sufficient and independent. It seems to be part of our growing up process – as the toddler frequently cries, “My do it!” It wasn’t until I was about 45 years old that I finally realized that I could not do everything I wanted to do or thought I had to do. That is when, at last, I turned to God in prayer and said more that just “help me!” I asked Him “What do you want me to do for you?”
That was seventeen years ago, and I had to be patient for another nine years before God’s message became clear to me: “I want you to go back to school, go through seminary, get another degree, then come follow me and be a healer of the soul as well as the body and mind.” Once the call was clear in my mind, there was little I could do but follow it.
11. Transcendence – Connecting with Ultimate Hope
How does one connect with the things believed in, but not seen? When I get bogged down with anxieties about the pressures of an over-busy practice, not being able to complete homework assignments on time, delinquent tax payments, I look back and take a dose of remedies one through four – a short Sabbath prayer, honor this body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, take a short break to drink in the beauty of God’s creation, and then give thanks to Him for my very existence. I try to step out of my chronos time, and step into God’s kairos time. I recall the words of Paul:
As it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.
(NKJV, Paul in 1 Cor 2:9, quoting Isaiah 64:4)
12. Love – Caring and Being Cared For
The final prescription for health and wholeness is love; the unconditional agape found in the New Testament and practiced by Jesus throughout his ministry here of earth, especially the last day and final hours as he carried the cross to Golgotha, then was nailed to it and hung on it until he died.
Jesus offered us these summary commandments:
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.
And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.[33]
As Matthews explains, “When we abide in love, we live more deeply, fully, and healthily; we activate our highest potential as human beings. Love gladdens our hearts and soothes our spirits. It is … the highest of human qualities.”[34]
Like the body of Christ, these twelve heavenly prescriptions found in the Divine Healer’s doctor bag are greater than the sum of the individual parts. Most of these parts are found in frequent worship attendance, a critical component of making all these prescriptions work synergistically, expressed in Matthew’s book as “the Faith Factor.” The stronger the faith factor, the healthier to group and the individuals within that group.
· Healing Service as part of Church Liturgy
At St. John’s Episcopal Church in Porterville our first Healing Service was held the last Sunday in November, 2002, the Feast of Christ the King. It immediately followed Morning Prayer, which I led since Fr. Tom was absent. I knew that God had led me to do this, but it still was with some trepidation and anxiety that I issued the invitation to come up to the altar for healing prayers and anointing with holy oil. The invitation was James 5:14-16
Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.
To my great surprise and relief, over 20 people came forward, about half of the people present, for healing prayers. It was a time of awe and humility for me: to witness God’s power at work in this conservative Episcopal congregation to move so many people to come forward. The previous week I had assembled a prayer team of six from our congregation; three worked on one side of the altar and three on the other. The sensation was intense; laying hands on the people, anointing their foreheads with holy oil, and praying for God’s will and healing grace on each individual. For me, it was both exhilarating and exhausting. It was also surprisingly and blessedly free of controversy. In my nineteen years attending this church, the now monthly Healing Service has been the most readily and easily accepted new service addition to our liturgy. It was much easier to introduce than contemporary music, which has been attempted several times over the past few years without much success or acceptance.
One of our parishioners came up after to service telling me of a pain in her shoulder that had bothered her for more than three weeks was now gone. I encouraged her to give thanks frequently to God for the healing, but to keep her doctor’s appointment she had scheduled for the following week.
Now the end of month Healing Service is not only accepted, it is expected. As word gets around, I am beginning to see strangers I have not seen before and the average attendance is growing for that service. If Holy Eucharist is offered, the Healing Service occurs right after the sermon, between the two liturgies of the Word and the Mass. On average it adds about twenty minutes to the entire service, so that the service starts at nine and ends with the recessional hymn and final blessing around ten thirty.
I think the introduction of a regular Healing Service has brought the community of St. John’s closer together and made us more caring of each other. The parish prayer list has grown substantially. It has certainly made me more aware of the community’s health status and needs. As a group they are more open to sharing each other’s burdens.
· To Heal the Sick while Spreading the Gospel
The following is excerpted from my journal of the healing service that was held on the last day of our six-day medical mission to Cuyamelito, Honduras:
On Saturday morning, we arrived about 8:40 AM in Cuyamelito. The church was set up for Mass, which began at around 9 o’clock and it was packed with people standing outside. There were lots of Evangelical songs with hand clapping. The healing service was done right after the Creed and before the peace at the Mass. It went really well. I do not think that they have had healing services on any regular basis but Father Oscar provided us with Holy oil. Francie Levy, Daniel Parker, and I offered the blessings and laid hands on all, about 50 people at least, who came forward for healing prayers, anointing and blessings. Some of the kids came forward because they probably did not know what else to do. Many of the adults and the older people had specific requests such as better eyesight, arthritis, and stomach problems. The Eucharist went fairly quickly. The staff and clergy understood that we had a time schedule and we had to leave by 11:00 or so. They did give us a cake and Pepsi and Coke and there were a lot of tears especially among the younger kids with a lot of hugging. Unfortunately with the hugging, we probably picked up two more cases of conjunctivitis while we were in Antigua. Jennifer picked it up Sunday morning. We put her on some chloromycetin drops and I gave her some levaquin and prednisone. [35]
This represents a short vignette about the very rewarding experience of Medical Mission work. I thought it was highly appropriate to end a week of intense medical mission work with a thanksgiving and healing service, for it helps put us and God back into a proper relationship, for healing, ultimately, is all about God and our restored relationship with Him.
V. Conclusion
The farmer and the
cowman should be friends,
Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends.
One man likes to push a plough, the other likes to chase a cow,
But that's no reason why they cain't be friends.
Territory folks should stick together,
Territory folks should all be pals.
Cowboys dance with farmer's daughters,
Farmers dance with the ranchers' gals.[36]
[www.STLyrics.com]
As we enter this new millennium, we are clearly seeing a rapprochement between two disciplines, religion and scientific secular medicine, both which have been involved in healing and once were one, but separated sometime during the pre-Reformation Scholastic age. They have been apart and frequently antagonistic to each other for the last five to six hundred years. Starting in the latter half of the twentieth century, and then accelerating in the last fifteen years, scientific medicine has taken another look at the potential health benefits of religious commitment and more especially at the health benefits imparted by intercessory prayer. Scientific medicine, through well-controlled studies, has found that the health benefits imparted by active religious community involvement and by prayers for healing are indeed effective medicine and treatments. Over half of the medical schools in the U.S. now offer courses in complementary medicine and the new generation of physicians will be aware of the healthy benefits of religious involvement and intercessory prayer. They will know how to take spiritual histories and be more likely to treat the patient as a whole person (body, mind and soul) rather than a pathological process to be corrected with pills or surgery.
In his final remarks, Koenig tells us
The word “healing” comes from the Greek word iaomai[heilen {sic}] which means to become whole, to set right and/or to restore. “Religion” comes from the Latin word religare, which means to bind back together. When our patients become physically ill or mentally out of balance, they need to be bound back together. Thus, the word “religion” itself involves a description of healing. Health, religion and healing all have the common theme and task of making the person whole, sound, transforming him into a state of optimal well-being – restoring the person, both mind and body, to order and balance.[37]
Matthews adds
I believe we will begin to see a historic transformation, a reversal of centuries-old prejudices, and a re-uniting of spirituality and medicine. We need to expand our vision of science: To re-establish in medicine the importance of religion and spirituality to people’s well-being, we must learn that the scientific method can be applied to studies of patient’s individual experiences and beliefs. By definition, faith ultimately transcends the scientific method; for example no scientist can conclusively prove, using conventional scientific “proofs,” whether or not God exists. However, the health benefits of believing God exists can be and have been measured, demonstrating conclusively that faith and religious involvement aid in maintaining health, boosting recovery, and enhancing well-being.[38]
And to that I say, “Right on! Praise the Lord! And Amen!”
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1 Nigel, Allen “The Physician in Ancient Israel: His Status and Function.” Medical History. London: Jul, 2001, 45/3, p. 378
[2] Ibid, p 380
[3] The Oxford Annotated Apocrypha: Revised Standard Version, Bruce Metzger, ed. Oxford University Press, New York, 1977, p.128
[4] MacKenzie, Roderick “Sirach” Old Testament Message, Vol. 19. Michael Glazier, Inc. 1983, p. 143
[5] Collins John J. Jewish Wisdom in the Hellenistic Age, Westminster John Know Press, Louisville, 1997. p 34..
[6] Sanders, Jack “Ben Sira and Demotic Literature” in Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series, No. 28 Scholars Press, Chico, Ca..1983, p 75. .
[7] Ibid, p 75 and Snaith, John G. Ecclesiasticus or The Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach Cambridge University Press, London 1974. p 184.
[8] Snaith, p.184.
[9] Skehan, Patrick The Wisdom of Ben Sira: A New Translation with Notes Doubleday, New York, 1987, p 442.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid, & Snaith p. 185. This is a description of the ill person’s duty to God in traditional terms: prayer, repentance and atonement through sacrifice, with a meal-offering, which was mixed with oil and burnt on the altar giving up a fragrant odor to God. This was not a legal prescription, but a traditional custom.
[12] Lev. 2:1-3
[13] Skehan, pp 441ff.
[14] Martin, Ralph “James” in Word Biblical Commentary, v.48, Word Books, Waco Texas, 1988, p 210
[15] Geddert, Tim “We Prayed for Healing…But She Died” in Treasures – New and Old, 2000, pp. 159-165
[16] Matthews, Dale The Faith Factor: Proof of the Healing Power of Prayer. Penguin Books, New York, 1998.
[17] Ibid, p.5
[18] Ibid, p.93.
[19] Ibid, p. 94.
[20] Ibid, p. 437.
[21] Dixie Morgan, personal communication, used with permission.
[22] Cantrell, Robert “Evidence of the Effect of Prayer in Medicine,” p. 13.
25 Daaleman, Timothy “Religion, Spirituality, and Health Status in Geriatric Outpatients,” in Annals of Family Medicine, vol. 2, no. 1, Jan/Feb 2004. pp. 49-54.
[24] McLean, Candis “Prescription: prayer.” Report / Newsmagazine (Alberta Edition); 1/21/2002, Vol. 29 Issue 2, p40, 2p
[25] Byrd, Randolph C. “Positive Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer in a Coronary Care Unit Population.” J. Southern Medical Assn., 81(7): 826-829, 1988 July
[26] Cantrell, p. 15
[27] McCarthy, L.F “Prayer's Power Over Your Heart”. Vegetarian Times vol. 294, p6, Feb2002
[28] Koenig, p. 245.
[29] Ibid, pp. 243-249.
[30] Matthews, D. pp. 42-43
[31] Ibid p. 46
[32] Ibid p. 48
[33] NKJV Mark 12:30,31
[34] Matthews p. 52
[35] Personal Journal entry
[36] Oscar Hammerstein’s lyrics to “The Farmer and The Cowman” in Oklahoma