Objection: Today Doctors Have Replaced the Ancient Practice of Faith Healing

This can’t be so.  People in the Bible were healed of incurable diseases, but doctors cannot cure you of “incurable” diseases.  To say that doctors replace divine healing today is to say that God does not heal incurable diseases anymore today.  It is to say that God, who Himself declares that He heals all diseases (see Psalm 103:1-5 and elsewhere) now uses only human vessels who cannot and do not heal all diseases.  Unfortunately, plenty of people run around teaching this error.

This is equivalent to saying that we are in a different dispensation now from the one that the Church in Acts was in, when Christians clearly believed in divine healing.  (See the objection on that topic.)  But there has been no event to change our covenant or our dispensation since then.

This is also equivalent to saying that God has replaced a better method (that healed ALL diseases) with an inferior method that does NOT heal all diseases under our “better” covenant.

This also rules out the ordinance of healing in James 5:14-15, which is just as much a command as the ordinances of baptism and communion.  This was not just for the “early church” any more than baptism and communion were just for the “early church.”

Most of the people cited in Scripture (lame, lepers, blind, deaf, the woman with the issue of blood, etc.) were medically incurable.  If Jesus is unwilling to heal the incurable today, He has changed, yet Hebrews 13:8 assures us that He has not changed.

It is lamentable that this objection is true in a certain way.  Men now seek medical help almost exclusively and hardly any pray to receive healing from God.  So this objection is true in a practical sense, but not in a doctrinal sense.  The problem is with us, not with God.  This is even true in most Christian circles today, including some churches that teach faith and healing!  It is amazing how many puffers and pills are present in Christian circles, despite the fact that healing from ALL conditions is available today.