Objection: If Faith Healing Really Worked, Doctors and Hospitals Would No Longer Be Needed

I thank God for doctors and hospitals.  I would be in hell right now if it weren’t for them.  I would almost certainly have died in the third grade from a strange illness, and I did not know Jesus back then.

The vast majority of Christians have no revelation of divine healing.  Their only way to healing is through doctors and hospitals, at least until they find out the truth about what Jesus purchased for them.  I would rather that they stay alive until they can come to a knowledge of the truth in this area.

I wonder how many others are like me, whose lives were saved by surgical procedures, who were able to stay around and come to know Jesus later on – and would be in hell if it weren’t for modern medicine.

However, healing through doctors and medicine is NOT divine healing, which is better.  Even God “guiding the surgeon’s hands” is not divine healing.  Divine healing comes directly from God and it’s free.

The believer can receive healing directly from God because Jesus paid for it, without having to use a doctor, medicine or a hospital.  However, if you are struggling in this area, I would be the first to tell you to get medical help.  There is no shame in that.  If you really believe and receive healing, a doctor can confirm it.  (However, if you think that you have to go to the doctor to find out whether or not you are healed, you were never in faith to begin with.  A person in faith can go to the doctor to confirm his healing, not to find out “if” he is healed.)

I used to preach somewhere where the hospitals were so bad, the people would go to Christian healing services to get healed as a matter of course.  Even a secular bus tour guide told everyone that!  Once a beautiful modern hospital was built, interest in such services waned, which was a crying shame.  But at least there was a time that the people knew that they could get healed without doctors and hospitals. This is one drawback of modern medicine – it gives your flesh an easy way out that doesn’t involve faith.  People tend to be much more serious about the things of God in places where there is no alternative.  Even in developed countries, some conditions are medically incurable.  When things get to that point, people develop a much greater interest in receiving healing directly from God.  Of course, it would be nice if they pursued the things of God with the same intensity before things got to that point.

We can see an example in Jesus’ ministry.  The Pool of Bethesda was a hospital of sorts.  People were getting healed there.  Jesus made no effort to shut it down.  So we would not assume that Jesus would want to shut down modern hospitals just because healing is available through faith.