Objection: People Only HOPED Peter’s Shadow Would Heal Them, But There Is No Record That His Shadow Healed Anyone

While the writer is correct that it is not stated explicitly, it is certainly implied in the passage.  The fact that everyone who came was healed is the important part.  It is hard to criticize divine healing using a passage where everyone who came got healed!

Acts 5:15-16:
Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.
There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.

If they were laying the sick in the streets so that Peter’s shadow could pass over them and EVERYONE was healed, it is implicit that all those who were laid in the street and had Peter’s shadow pass over them were healed.

If Peter’s shadow WASN’T healing anyone, the multitudes would not have sought healing just by getting close to Peter.  I agree that we have no proof that everyone was seeking healing directly through a shadow because it says that multitudes wanted at the least to have Peter’s shadow pass over them.  That makes it seem like they might have wanted to touch Peter or have Peter lay hands on them, since those were ways that Jesus healed, but they would settle for just having Peter’s shadow pass over them.

Given that the multitudes wanted at least Peter’s shadow to fall on some of them, it appears that there were others who expected healing through some other means.  We don’t know what those means were because the Bible does not specify them, but those means worked.

If you want to take a hard line on this and refuse to believe anything not stated explicitly, I won’t take umbrage over an umbra because it shouldn’t make any difference in your healing theology.  I have yet to hear of anyone with a modern “shadow healing” ministry, though I would not rule it out since there is precedent for it in the quoted passage.  But in Peter’s ministry, however it happened, everyone was healed.  I wouldn’t mind that kind of track record for my ministry, would you?  I wouldn’t be concerned about splitting hairs when the technical mechanics of how everyone got healed are overshadowed by the consistent results.  You should use this passage to support divine healing when you read on from the “shadow” verse to the very next verse.  If God could manifest His will for healing to everyone in this passage, there is not a shadow of a doubt that He is wants EVERYONE to be healed today, given that He does not play favorites.