Objection: The Day of the Healing Evangelist Is Over – ALL Christians Should Heal

What makes this “objection” unique is that is comes from “faith” circles as opposed to traditional churches (which don’t believe that ANYONE should heal anymore).  Like most objections, it comes from looking at circumstances and creating doctrine from them.

Anyone who studies church history knows about the great healing crusades done in the 1940’s and 1950’s.   God used certain men to heal large numbers of sick people.  Because we don’t see such meetings today, we assume that God has a different way of doing things now.  This is a half-truth.  There was unmistakably a “wave” of healing that was followed by a “wave” of gifts of the Spirit in traditional churches, which was followed by a “wave” of teaching on faith, which was followed by an emphasis on strong local churches being raised up, which was followed by a “wave” of various unusual manifestations, which was followed by a “wave” of teaching on grace.  However, healing, gifts, faith and grace are not “movements” but rather fixtures in the lives of believers.  The Holy Spirit emphasized different truths at different times but these truths did not BECOME true just because there was a special emphasis on them at a certain time.  They didn’t CEASE being true after a particular “wave” was over.

We should be clear from the start that the term “healing evangelist” never appears in the Bible because it is a redundant term like “wet water.”  God has never called anyone to be a non-healing evangelist.  There have been many non-healing evangelists, some of whom have gotten large numbers of people saved.  Thank God for that, but it was NEVER God’s will to send anyone out to preach the good news without signs and wonders following.  Such men could have been far MORE effective if they had had healings and miracles following their ministries.  Philip is the only person in the Bible explicitly referred to as an evangelist.  Acts 8:6-7 shows that he was a signs-and-wonders guy.

So stating that the day of the healing evangelist is over is the same as saying that the day of the evangelist is over, which means that we have only apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers today but no evangelists. Yet all these offices were given until we come to perfection, and that certainly hasn’t happened yet.  (See Ephesians 4:11-16.)  So the day of the healing evangelist cannot be over!

I agree that ALL members of the Body of Christ should offer healing to the world.  Part of the purpose of this book is to facilitate that.  However, that doesn’t mean that there are no people who flow in gifts of healings, working of miracles and special faith to a greater degree than others or that no one is specifically “set apart” for the work of biblical evangelism with signs following.

Besides, some of the people who were called “evangelists” during the tent revival age were really prophets or even teachers.  People in ALL ministry offices should expect signs to follow them, though the office of evangelist in particular should see a consistent flow of the “power gifts.”

You have to be very careful about making statements that a certain “age” is “over” because it splits the Church Age into different sub-ages.  There is NEVER a valid reason to do that.  It’s making the same mistake that our denominational friends make when they say that the “age of miracles” is “over.”  It’s also the same mistake that “faith people” make when they say that there is coming a great revival when the rules will change and things will be like the early church!  There are no rule changes in the Church Age, earlier, now or later.  Period.  The only difference is people’s knowledge (or lack thereof) of what they are supposed to do and their willingness to act on unchanging truth.

It is good to see an emphasis in this day that all believers have the right to lay hands on the sick and see them recover (Mark 16:18).  However, that doesn’t mean that the Body of Christ has no further use for healing evangelists.  Why would God have certain “gifts” to do miracles if He intended for everyone to just go out in faith without any demonstrations of gifts of the Spirit?

If you mean that “the day when the healing evangelist is the prominent office in the public eye is over,” that’s OK until God brings things back around that way.  I can agree that the “wave” of emphasis on tent healing crusades in the 1940’s and 1950’s is over.  However, here’s the danger.  Pastors could all start believing that the day of the “healing evangelist” is over.  So what will they do?  They will stop inviting evangelists to minister at their churches and just bring in teachers or other speaking gifts.  However, no church will be properly balanced if evangelists never speak there, any more than a church would be properly balanced if it never invited in an apostle, a prophet or a teacher.  Because ALL these ministry gifts were given to build up the body, continued failure to bring in people who stand in a particular office will make the congregation lopsided in the long run.  If the Body of Christ in general shows no interest in evangelists, their gifts will go unused or underutilized and few people will ever WANT to become evangelists even if the Lord is calling them to that office.  They could get “starved out” and turn back to secular work!  The office of teacher is very much in vogue today in faith circles, but the need for real biblical signs-and-wonders evangelists will never go away.  Most teachers do not have the same passion for the lost that evangelists do because reaching the lost is not the primary area where God has gifted them.  (Of course, we should ALL share the gospel regardless of what we are called to do.)  If all we do is “teach, teach, teach,” we will end up with well-taught people who aren’t fervent about reaching the unsaved.

Here is a dangerous idea: “If we just get the right teachers in and get the right teachings, ALL of us will go out and heal and we will not need any healing evangelist to come in.”  What that misses is that fact that evangelists have a special equipping from God to do what they do.  You won’t duplicate that gift just by having great teaching.  Not everyone is a signs-and-wonders evangelist even though ALL can do miracles.

So let’s not kick one of the five ministry offices to the curb just because teaching is more of an “in” thing.  The day may come when there is another wave of evangelists.  The public could get all excited that healing services are the “next big thing” and people could make the opposite mistake they make now by thinking, “Who needs teachers?  We can all read our Bibles for ourselves and have the Holy Spirit teach us all things.  What we really need is some EXCITEMENT that will grab the public’s attention!”  If you’re reading this and such a day has come, please don’t kick teachers to the curb.  We will always need them to teach the body.  We will always need all FIVE ministry offices throughout the Church Age!  The “day” when we don’t need them will come when we’re taken to be with the Lord forever.