SPIRITUAL HEALING
Firstly, spiritual healing is
one of the many methods used in alternative medicine. It is based on people trying
to get in contact with the spirits of the dead, often those who were doctors.
The spiritual healer is only a mediator, making a request to his or her doctor
spirits, whom are believed to be the real source of healing. The healer tries
to achieve a state of harmony with these spirits so that he or she can mediate
the healing powers. The healer can also, if necessary, go into a trance. The
depth of the trance state often depends on the quality and seriousness of the
illness.
For example, well-known Brazilian healer “Arigo” or Jose
Pedro Freitas, who believed he was doing healing work with the help of a German
doctor Adolpho Frizin who died in 1918 went into such a deep trance that
he did not remember anything of it afterwards. Same kind of things are told of
Harry Edwards, a well-known spiritual healer in one of his books:
He tried to go into a trance
which was a precondition for getting into contact with his spirit friends. By
touching the patient the location and source of the illness was found. After
that, power was transferred from the hands of the healer to the patient,
which he felt as heat. (1)
It should also be noted that
spiritual healing very much resembles ordinary spiritualism. Three issues are
common to them:
- In both methods, a medium
is needed, either a speech or healer medium. In one of the methods, the message
is mediated through speech, in spiritual healing, powers are generally mediated
through the hands (distance healing is a bit different from this).
- Trance is used in both
methods.
- Both methods are believed
to make a connection with spirits of deceased people. In spiritualist sessions,
they usually try to get in contact with relatives or famous people, while in
spiritual healing they try to contact a so-called doctor spirit (or saints,
such as in the following example), meaning those people who were doctors while
they were still alive.
An example of both these areas is told by Nicky Cruz
in his book Juokse henkesi edestä (Devil on the Run), p. 18, 19, 178. He
tells that his parents were acting in both areas, mediating messages "from
the dead" and healing. They continued their work almost to the end of
their lives, until they saw the truth and turned to God:
‘Contacting the dead' was my
mother's speciality. Talking about supernatural abilities, it was believed that
she was very 'sensitive' and acted as a gate through which the spirits could
speak to the living. My mother and father and our paying customers sat in our
living room in a circle and waited for the spirit to reveal himself. (…)
Everyone
believed that my mother and father not only spoke with the dead, but also
healed with the help of the deceased – especially the holiest saints of the
Bible.
(...) I believe
that our beautiful jungle home was full of such devilish beings. When my mother
went into a trance, she allowed these bad, lying spirits to come into her and
speak through her – demons, who have the ability to pretend being our loved
ones sending messages from beyond the grave.
(...) When my
mother and father started to practice witchcraft, they couldn't imagine that
the evil spirits would take advantage of them. They sincerely thought that they
were helping people with the assistance of good spirits.
They quickly learned
the terrible truth.
My father was so
deeply under the power of spirits that he spent almost eighty years without
Christ. The truth dawned on him the moment, when he took a step towards the
Savior. (…)
What does the Bible say?
Spiritual healing has a clear
connection with ordinary spiritualism. They both use a medium, there is usually
a trance, and it is believed that the dead are contacted. The similarities
between them are quite apparent.
However, if we
look at what the Bible says about this issue, we can see that it forbids having
contact with the spirits of the dead. The Bible clearly says that these are not
the will and plan of God in anyone’s life.
But where does
this negative attitude come from? Why is contacting the spirits of the dead
such a serious issue in the Bible?
The answer to
this is simple. These warnings are there because we have an eternal soul and
God loves us and does not want anyone to go to hell. They are there to prevent
anyone from being bound and losing his or her eternal soul. God wants what is
best for us and that is why these warnings are necessary. They are useful to
everyone who values them:
- (Lev 19:31) Regard not them that
have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
- (Lev 20:6) And the soul that turns after such as have familiar
spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face
against that soul, and will cut him off
from among his people.
- (Deut 18:10-12) There shall not
be found among you any one that makes his
son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an
observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
11 Or a charmer, or
a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination to the LORD: and
because of these abominations the LORD your God does drive them out from before
you.
- (Isa 8:19) And when they shall say to you, Seek to them that have familiar spirits, and
to wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek to their God?
for the living to the dead?
- (Isa 29:4) And you shall be brought down, and shall speak out of
the ground, and your speech shall be low out of the dust, and your voice shall
be, as of one that has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech
shall whisper out of the dust.
- (Acts 16:16-18) And it came to
pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of
divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
17 The same
followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most
high God, which show to us the way of salvation.
18 And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and
said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of
her. And he came out the same hour.
