Objection: Paul Did Not Believe in Faith Healing Because He Had a Doctor (Luke) Accompany Him

This is no better Bible scholarship than saying that Dr. Luke hated sleeping indoors, so he had a tentmaker (Paul) accompany him.

This argument falls apart for several reasons.

First, it is NEVER stated in Scripture that Paul took Dr. Luke along with him so that he could attend to his physical conditions – despite the fact that Paul was very often physically tortured.  When Paul was stoned and left for dead at Lystra, he was raised up not because Dr. Luke or any other doctor gave him CPR; he was raised up when the disciples gathered around him.  His cure was spiritual, not medical.

Second, Luke actually did NOT accompany Paul on most of his journeys.  Paul traveled extensively with Barnabas and later Silas, but the sections where Luke wrote “we” to indicate that he was with Paul are fewer than the ones where an account is given of Paul where “he” did things (indicating that Dr. Luke was not with him).  If Dr. Luke were his personal physician attending to his bodily needs, Paul would have brought him everywhere.

Third, Paul had a chance to identify Dr. Luke as his personal physician, and he didn’t.  He refers to “Luke, the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14), not to “Luke, my beloved physician.”  If your family doctor was named Luke and he came to a party and you introduced him, you wouldn’t say, “This is Luke, he’s a doctor.”  You would say “This is MY doctor, Luke” or something like that.  Paul did not refer to him in a way that indicated that he was Dr. Luke’s patient.

Fourth, Paul acknowledged Epaphroditus for personally ministering to him, and if Dr. Luke had personally ministered to him as well, Paul probably would have mentioned that.  (Philippians 2:25: “Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.”)

Fifth, the premise that Paul did not believe in faith healing is way off to begin with.  Paul ministered healing to the sick on the island of Melita and they were all healed (Acts 28:8-9).  When people took items from Paul’s body and gave them to others, the sick were healed and demons came out (Acts 19:11-12).  Paul told the Corinthians that their bodies as well as their spirits had been purchased by the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).  Paul cast out a demon in Macedonia (Acts 16:16-18).  He preached “the gospel” at Lystra and a man who had been lame from birth listened to Paul and got faith to be healed.  How would that man have gotten faith to be healed (which comes by hearing God’s Word) if Paul didn’t believe in and preach divine healing?  If Paul didn’t believe in “faith healing” he would never have ordered a man who had been lame from birth to stand to his feet after perceiving that the man had faith to be healed (Acts 14:7-10)!  Paul repeatedly referred to signs, wonders and miracles that the Holy Spirit wrought through him.  I don’t know of anybody who preaches “I don’t believe in faith healing!” and sees signs, wonders and miracles following his preaching.  Do you?  So it is totally unreasonable to state that Paul did not believe in divine healing.

Sixth, it’s just as presumptuous to think that Luke went with Paul to be his doctor as it is to presume that Paul had Aquila and Priscilla, who were “tentmakers” (Acts 18:1-3) with him to make tents so that he could have tent meetings!