GOD’S GRACE, HEALING AND SUFFERING
A Paper Presented to International and Ecumenical Study Consultation organized
by the WCC mission study health desks with the Northernbian Centre for World
Mission and World Service, Christian-Jensen Kolleg, Breklum, Germany, 25-30
September 2005
Opoku Onyinah
oonyinah@hotmail.com
People have continued to battle with diseases and other sufferings on earth, since the fall
of humankind. The earliest records of civilisation have shown that there have been
various responses to fighting these afflictions; some spiritual and others natural. The
spiritual responses included prayer and appeasement to spirit forces or deities. The
natural responses took the form of basic medical care, such as treating wounds and
diagnosing of illness and application of various herbs. Often, both spiritual and natural
approaches were more than interrelated, and the desired success of the natural treatments
was tied into the imagined efficacy of the spiritual method employed.
Affliction was therefore perceived to be more than a merely biological process; it was
viewed as an attack by a higher power on human beings. Therefore faith was put in
deities who could heal and provide protection from other powerful ones. The deity who
could heal and protect was the powerful one and at the same time viewed as healer,
saviour and deliverer.1
In the Old Testament, therefore, the mission of God was not separated from his
miraculous powers. Yahweh was seen as Israel’s divine healer.
The ministry of Jesus also was characterised with healing and miracles to authenticate
him as the Saviour of the World. Healing ministry was one of the traits or activities of
1
Michael L. Brown, Israel’s Divine Healer, (Carlisie: Paternoster Press, 1995), 53.
1
the early Church.
However, scepticism towards divine healing2 began during the
Enlightenment. Scientific medicine strictly considered all illness as a result of
physiological malfunctioning and other scientific explanations to various sufferings.
Thus, there was no room for divine healing or intervention.
Although throughout the centuries, within the Church, there have always been some
healing ministers, apparently, Christians mainly resorted to scientific healing, neglecting
almost completely prayer for physical healing. The mission of the Church was in a way
separated from prayer and miraculous interventions.
The emergence of the Pentecostal movement in the 20th century has changed the trend.
The Pentecostals teach that the gifts of the Spirit should accompany the baptism in the
Spirit; often the gifts singled out are speaking in tongues and healing. The ministry of the
Pentecostals impacted the then existing churches, giving rise to the charismatic
movements, which emphasised faith and healing. This trend brings to existence once
again the relation between prayer and divine healing/miracles. But there is a tendency
among some practitioners of healing, which makes it appear that healing is a sign of
living right with God, while lack of it or suffering of any kind is a curse or a result of
disobedience of a person or their progenitors.
Nevertheless, neither Jesus nor the disciples healed all diseases which came their way.
Jesus was even selective when he went to the pool of Bethesda. “Here a great number of
disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralysed” (Jn 5:3), but Jesus healed
only one. The apostle Paul had an affliction, which could not be taken away. According
to him, the Lord assured him, “My grace is sufficient for you…” (2 Cor. 2:8). Thus,
while the Lord heals and delivers some people from affliction, sometimes he heals
through the granting of sufficiency of his grace to others. How do we reconcile this
apparent paradox: the God who heals and the God who supplies grace to go through
sufferings.
What the Pentecostals call “Divine Healing” is what others label “Faith Healing”. Divine Healing is a
process through which a person is restored to physical, mental, or spiritual health by what is believed to be
the direct intervention of God through prayer.
2
2
In the light of this, the paper discusses the ancient world and Old Testament (OT) concept
of healing. It continues with why Jesus had to perform signs to authenticate his identity
and ministry as the Messiah. The Pentecostal concept of healing and suffering is set
against the background of African spirituality or religious experience, using the Ghanaian
Pentecostal approach as an example. The challenges and opportunities available in this
ministry are explored and then ends with some pastoral reflections.
ANCIENT WORLD AND OLD TESTAMENT CONCEPT
The ancient Near East and biblical writers did not clearly separate the spiritual from the
physical. Thus, the Lord (or deity in question) was expected to be so powerful to meet the
needs of his/her devotees, offering them with forgiveness of sins, the ability to reproduce,
and providing them adequate food and water as well as good health (eg. Ex. 23:25-26).
A deity who could not heal or protect the worshippers would not be considered powerful
and as such worthy of the name. Some deities who were praised for their healing and
protective deeds among the Babylonians and Assyrian pantheon were Marduk, the lord of
life, and Gula, the lady of life. Asklepios was the most prominent healing deity in
ancient Greco-Roman pantheon.3 Thus among the ancient people, there was a strong link
between faith and healing.
In the light of this, the Old Testament (OT) use of the term Yahweh-Rapha is very
important (Ex. 15:16). Yahweh or Jehovah was a powerful deity who made a covenant
with his people. The condition of the covenant shows the very nature of the Lord as a
powerful healer to those who obeyed him. His promise was holistic: “he would keep
Israel well”, 4 or put in another way, “to restore to health” and “to sustain in health” (Ex.
15:16 cf. Ex. 23:26).
Consequently, in the OT, the Lord revealed himself as healer in many ways. The Lord
healed barrenness and infertility; examples of these are Sarah (Gen. 21), Sampson’s
mother (Jud. 13) and Hannah (1 Sam. 1).
3
4
Brown, Israel’s Divine Healer, 55, 60.
Brown, Israel’s Divine Healer, 78.
3
Again, in the OT, dead people were brought to life. Examples are the widow’s son in 1
Kings 17 and the resurrection of the Shunammite woman’s son in 2 Kings 4.
Furthermore, physical diseases such as leprosy were healed. By means of a testimony of
an Israelite maidservant, Naaman was healed of leprosy and converted to the belief in the
God of Israel (2 Kg. 5:17-18).
Thus here, power was associated with the servants of the Lord; they could bring the
power of God to heal barrenness, heal physical illnesses and restore dead people to life.
A demonstration of power and human affairs is therefore evident in the execution of
God’s redemptive plan in the Old Testament.
In the OT, the primary requirement for healing and health was covenantal obedience,
with emphasis on loyalty to Yahweh alone (e.g. Ex 23:24; Deut 7:1-16); keeping his
commandments (e.g. Ex. 15:25-26), and walking in godly fear and humility (Prov. 3:7-8).
Obedience resulted in divine blessing, not the least, good health and long life (Deut. 28:114), while disobedience resulted in curses, such as terrible sickness and premature death
(e.g. Deut. 28:15-68).
The disobedience of the covenanted people sent them to captivity. The prophets began to
speak of the restoration of Israel and the establishment of the kingdom of God. The
imageries that the prophets used were significant. The disobedience of the covenanted
people sent them to captivity. (e.g Is. 5:25; Jer. 14:19, Eze. 5:14-15 cf. Dan. 9:16). They
longed for the time that the Lord would bring healing to his people.
The beginning of the restoration and the coming of the kingdom of God was to begin
with the coming of the Servant of the Lord, the Messiah. The passages concerning the
kingdom of God and the Servant of the Lord, such as Isaiah 35:4-6; 42:6-9; and 61:1,
indicate that outstanding miracles of healing unprecedented throughout the OT, were
4
anticipated with the coming of the Messiah.
Thus, the Messiah was to be an
exceptionally powerful person than any servant of the Lord who had ever appeared.
SIGNS THAT THE MESSIANIC AGE HAS BEGUN
The New Testament (NT) brings into focus the beginning of the fulfilment of the OT
hopes. The Messianic age had begun. The kingdom of God had been broken into human
history, and was powerfully displacing demons and healing diseases. The early ministry
of Jesus was often summed up in terms of preaching, teaching and healing (Mt 4: 23-24;
9:35; Mk 1: 21-23; Lk 6:6-11). The eschatological jubilee was proclaimed, announcing
liberty from bondage to sin, Satan and sickness (Lk 4:18-19). Consequently, there are
many acts of healing and miracles performed by the Messiah in the gospels (Mt. 15:2128; Mk. 5:11-20; Lk. 8:41-6; Jn 1-12). In response to John the Baptist’s question as to
whether he was the Messiah, Jesus sent the messengers back to inform John that the
blind, lame, deaf, and leapers were healed, the dead were raised, the good news was
preached (Mt 11:4-5, cf. Is 35:6). Thus, here, the mission of Jesus was directly linked
with the power demonstrated in his healing and other miraculous activities.
Healing and miracles continue in the ministry of the disciples of Jesus. The author of
Acts shows his intention of writing: “In my former book [Luke], Theophilus, I wrote
about what Jesus began to do and to teach” (Acts 1:1). One of the implications of this
statement is that the reader will continue to encounter what Jesus began to do and to teach
throughout the ministry of the Church. Accordingly, the Holy Spirit was poured out for
the purpose of empowerment for witnessing about Jesus (Acts1: 8). And Jesus was active
in the missionary activities of the Church (Acts. 16:7).
There is no direct link between missions and healing in the other New Testament
literature. However, some texts like 1 Corinthian 12-14 and Romans 15:19 indicate that
the ministry of healing or signs and miracles were on-going part of the ministry of the
Church. James 5:14-16 clearly indicates that prayer for healing of the sick became the
heritage of the early believers.
5
It is against this background that Pentecostal approach of healing begins. The differences
of practice depend upon the cultural milieu of the people, since Pentecostal faith is
flexible and claims to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Basically,
Pentecostals believe that healing is part of the biblical faith, practised by the early church
that should be continued. Stated differently, Pentecostals believe that the Lord cures
people from physical illness of any kind; he also delivers people from afflictions.
AFRICAN SPIRITUALITY IN THE BACKGROUND
The African Pentecostal churches attempt to appropriate the Pentecostal understanding of
Christianity against the background of African Spirituality. Still in many parts of Africa,
there is the strong belief that sufferings are mainly of supernatural origin. 5 Diseases are
considered as being caused through the agencies of non-human spirits as well as human
spirits–both dead and alive. Concerning the non-human spirits, the responsibility of
illness may be attributed to a punishment from God, whom a person may have offended,
or the punishment from an offended deity, whose sanctions have been violated. The
breaking of a taboo is also considered a common cause of sickness.
On the origin of disease through the human spirit, sickness can be ascribed to the judicial
punitive actions of ancestors or the effect of ancestral curses in the family. The greatest
cause of illness is attributed to witchcraft and sorcery. People become sick because their
souls have been “eaten” or attacked spiritually by witches, or because some enemies have
cast spells on them. Consequently, most neurotic people are considered as witches who
are suffering for their evil acts.
The causes so described do not mean that Africans are unaware of the scientific origins of
particular illnesses.
People mainly become concerned and continue to find out the
supernatural causes of diseases, when initial attempts to find a cure either through the
hospital or the use of herbs had failed. People who are usually consulted are the local
Opoku Onyinah, “Matthew Speaks to Ghanaian Healing Situations” Jounal of Theology, Vol 10, no. 1
(2001), 120-143. Birgit Meyer, Translating the Devil: Religion and Modernity Among the Ewe in Ghana
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999), 146-216; Paul Gifford, African Christianity: Its Public
Role (London: Hurst & Company, 1998), 97-98. Isaac Zokoue, "The Crises of Maturity in Africa,"
Evangelical Review of Theology 20, no. 4 (1996): 362-64.
5
6
traditional priests, diviners or sorcerers. Through such divinatory-consultations, priests
may claim to have received revelations from the deities or source of powers and relay the
nature, cause of diseases, and how to go about curing them.
When healing occurs, it is considered to have been made possible by the supernatural
power of the deity working through the priests, who have the power to remove the evil
influences causing diseases; this, they believe, makes the medicine effective. In the
African concept, therefore, miraculous healing is not incompatible with medicine. Thus,
while traditionally, Africans believe that there can be empirical causes of diseases, there
is hardly any significant distinction between those of natural and supernatural origins.
The growth and development of Christianity as well as civilization make it difficult for
some people to visit local shrines and sorcerers for divinatory-consultation. Meanwhile,
some mainline churches do not give much attention to prayer for healing or deliverance
from life threatening forces.
It is here that the Pentecostal approach to healing becomes important.
THE EXAMPLE OF PENTECOSTAL HEALING MINISTRY IN GHANA
Fundamentally, Ghanaian Pentecostals do not pray for healing because it is within their
traditional framework, but they do so, since they find it in the Bible. Thus, since the
biblical approach to healing intersects with that of the African world view described, it
makes it essay for the Pentecostal Christians to pray for healing. Pentecostalism itself
was greatly influenced by African spirituality. This was evidence in the revival which
started at the Azusa Street, Los Angeles, US, in 1906. This event could be termed as the
beginning of North American Classical Pentecostalism, led by a freed African American
slave, William Seymour.6 Here it is said that the services were spontaneous and usually
emotional; people falling to the ground. A local white Baptist Pastor described it as
6
Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 62.
7
“disgusting amalgamation of African voodoo superstition and Caucasian insanity.”7 It
can be surmised from the above description and statement that Pentecostalism was
influenced by the culture and religion of the African slaves, and thus Africans.
In Ghana, it is not only the Pentecostals who pray for the sick. Many churches, including
some from the historic churches, also conduct healing and deliverance services like the
Pentecostals. Thus, they have been attracted to the Pentecostal faith and practices.
In many places the approach is to pray for sick people until they are so-delivered. Others
attempt to break generational/ancestral curses or evil spirits believed to be behind
diseases.
The process can be short or long. Groups such as ‘Prayer Force’ and
‘Deliverance Teams’ have been formed in various churches and ministries to handle this
issue. Furthermore, residential healing centres akin to traditional shrines have emerged
within some of the Pentecostal churches to accommodate the sick. In such centres, socalled witches are chained until they are “healed” or otherwise. Other churches and
ministries hold non-residential deliverance and healing services.
Healing can be received either through a mass deliverance or a personal deliverance
session. In mass deliverance, confessions are made; often those who do these are selfdeclared witches and demon possessed people. Prayer is said simultaneously to “bind”,
cast out demons behind diseases and “break” curses. The “blood of Jesus” and “the name
of Jesus” are used repeatedly to rebuke diseases. Sometimes people fall down and
struggle on the ground. These are interpreted as an indication of possession by evil
spirits or witchcraft, thereby receiving special attention from the leaders. Sometimes,
during mass prayers, leaders give words of knowledge concerning people’s lives and the
causes of their sufferings.
For those who report chronic diseases the personal approach is adopted.
After an
individual has gone through an intensive interview by the leader, a prayer of deliverance
7
D. William Faupel, The Everlasting Gospel: The Significance of Eschatology in the Development of
Pentecostal Thought (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), 208.
8
follows. The person who goes through deliverance may vomit or urinate in the process.
These are considered to be portents of deliverance and healing. Many people testify
about their healing in these centres. Those who are not healed are sometimes perceived
as not having enough faith to warrant a touch from God.
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
The healing centres are very popular in Ghana and other parts of Africa. All sorts of
people, from top government officials down to the street hawkers, have been to these
places to fast and pray. It cannot be denied that the churches find many converts through
this healing ministry and that it also promotes renewal within Christianity. Further, it
offers its adherents the opportunity to oscillate between the traditional and Christian
beliefs and practices.
For those who think that ancestral spirits or witchcraft are
hampering their progress, they have the opportunity to be “delivered” and seek protection
from other life threatening forces. This ministry has revived people’s belief in God to
intervene in human affairs when they pray.
The uneasiness that some Christians have about this type of healing/deliverance revolves
around the approach. Preaching in these places is centred on the devil, healing and
deliverance. The sovereignty of God and the work of Christ have been left out, making
suffering appear as the punishment of God. However, in the Bible, the Lord is the one
true God, with overall supremacy over all spiritual powers (e.g. Deut.6:4; Deut. 33:2;
Neh. 9:6; Job 38:7; Ps. 89: 5-8; Ps. 148:2; Eph. 4:4-6). Satan is simply one of these
spirits (Job 1:6-7). The spirits, whether good or evil, remain under God’s sovereignty.
They can tempt or afflict one by only divine permission (Job 1:12; Matt. 4:1; Lk. 22:31; 2
Cor. 12:7).
This ministry reinforces the “primitive animistic” belief system that keeps communities
in servile fearfulness and hampers progress.
Many of the symptoms, which are
considered as witchcraft or spirit possession, can be explained away by medical sciences.
For examples, seizures may be symptoms for epilepsy. Personality changes can be
psychological malfunctions or mental disorders such as hysteria, schizophrenia or
9
paranoia.
Habitual behaviours, such as sexual desire, anger tantrum and extreme
quietness may be temperamental traits or associated with past memories. In such cases
repeated exorcisms or deliverance may worsen the person’s condition.
The process of healing, which often involves “breaking links with the past” which
includes families, eventually divides the traditional extended family system and promotes
individualism.
When failure to be healed is interpreted as lack of faith on the part of the seekers that
hinders the Lord to heal, sufferers go home with very bad impression about God and the
Church and in some cases, a low self esteem. Nonetheless, there is a balancing theme on
the role faith plays in the NT. Sometimes, a miracle occurs where there was little or no
faith in order to instil belief in Jesus, as the Son of God (e.g. Mt. 8:26). Faith was
frequently spoken of as the result, rather than the precondition, of the healing power of
Jesus (cf. Mt. 9:18, 22 ; Mt. 15:31). Dickinson observes, “while it is said that Jesus
‘could do no mighty work’ in at least one place ‘because of unbelief,’ no where is
anyone’s failure to be healed upon the word of Christ attributed to a failure of faith either
in nature or degree on the part of the individual sufferer.” 8 This means that while it is
essential for us to have faith in God and his ability to heal, healing is solely the sovereign
will of God; it shall take place whenever (and through any vessel that) the Lord wants. It
does not necessarily depend upon the person’s faith.
Furthermore, in the Bible, not all prayer for healing was answered the way people
expected. Jesus was selective in his healing as in case of the pool of Bethesda (Jn 1-11).
Again, he created the impression that the sick would always be around and would need
the assistance of the healthy; for one of the criteria for judgement will be, “… I was sick
and in prison and you did not look after me” (Mt. 25: 43).
8
Robert Dickinson, Does God Heal Today: Pastoral Principles and Practice of Faith-Healing (Carlisle:
Paternoster Press, 1995), 14.
10
There are indications in the NT that in the presence of the apostles not all people were
healed. When Epaphroditus came to visit Paul, he had an illness that had almost led to
death (Phil. 2:27). Although eventually he was healed, the lesson here is that he was not
healed immediately. Paul told Timothy to stop drinking water and use little wine because
of his stomach and frequent illnesses (1 Tim. 5:23). Again, Paul “left Trophimus sick in
Miletus” (1 Tim. 4:20). Both Peter and James have words of encouragement for those
who were going through suffering of different kinds (1 Pet. 1:6-7; 4:19; Jam. 1: 2-4).
All these show that God does not always heal as we expect him to do. But what should
be done when God fails to act as we expect. Whatever Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was, it
serves as an example of what God does when he fails to cure. When Paul prayed, his
prayer was not answered the way he expected. God allowed it to remain with him and
rather said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2
Cor. 12:8). This seems to suggest that human weakness also provides an opportunity for
God to display his power. In other words, sickness can draw people closer to God and
increase in them obedience to God’s will. Healing in this case becomes a process
whereby the individual is restored to a spiritual and mental health and accepted
wholeheartedly within the community. It is however the grace of God that provides the
strength. What is this grace?
John Christopher Thomas has shown that grace in 2 Corinthians is that which the Lord
gives to believers in order that they make application of Jesus’ redemptive sacrifice for
their sins (2 Cor. 5:21- 6:1); minister to others financially (2 Cor. 8:1-7; 9:14); be
provided with those which they need (2 Cor. 9:8). It is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
that enabled him who was rich to become poor so that believers might through his
poverty become rich (2 Cor. 8:9).9 It is this same grace that would enable Paul to
withstand his condition. The idea that can be conveyed to the Christian is that when the
Lord does not heal, he grants the strength to cope with the situation. That is, the ability
or strength to cope with aflictions becomes the grace or healing here.
9
John Christopher Thomas, The Devil, Disease, and Deliverance: Origins of Illness in New Testament
Thought (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 71.
11
Another issue which becomes alarming, with regard to this type of Pentecostal approach
of healing, is the stigmatisation attached to the “self confessed witches”. Here, instead of
healing leading to liberation, the physical and psychological conditions of such people
worsen and they also become enemies of society. In the gospels, however, the substantial
part of the healing ministry of Jesus was directed to the people of lower stratum of
society and marginalized people (e.g. Mt 8:1-13; Lk 4:16-31), including the Gentiles (e.g.
Mk 5:1-20; 7:24-30; 7; 31-37), and ritually unclean (e.g. Mk 1:40-45). Keith Warrington
concludes that the “Gospel miracles are to be understood as records of Jesus’ meeting the
marginalized and dispossessed, providing hope for the hopeless and help for the
helpless.”10 Thus here, the healing ministry could follow that of Jesus who confronted
the traditions of the people that had crippled and sidelined people of lower stratum of
society and restore them.
PASTORAL REFLECTIONS
Prayer for healing must not be neglected or stopped as a result of some of the weaknesses
of the practitioners; it must be seen as part of the means of dealing with a variety of
manifestations of evil in human life.
The ministries of Jesus and those of the disciples in the NT seem to be those that
encourage Christians to pray to God for healing, and then to continue to trust him to bring
good out of every situation, whether he cures or not.
The methods used in prayer should be simple to show trust in the power of Jesus, whose
death has given the believer the authority to exercise this kind of ministry. Too much
ritual may show a lack of spiritual power on the part of the minister and, in a way, the
authority, that is, Jesus, to whom he appeals for healing. The focus should always be on
Christ and what he has done for humankind.
10
Keith Warrington, Jesus The Healer: Paradigm or Phenomenon (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2000), 6.
12
The place of suffering in the Bible needs to be brought to bear on the healing ministry.
The biblical concept of the fall implies that the whole human race fell as a result of the
fall of Adam.11 Therefore, the whole creation has “been subjected to frustration (Rom.
8:20),” that is, suffering and death exist as an inevitable part of the world. Yet creation
has a hope of being “liberated from its bondage to decay (Rom. 8:20-21)”. The death and
resurrection of Christ marks the beginning of the end, which means “God’s final
(eschatological) saving of his people has already been effected by Christ”. 12 As
Moltmann explains, “the resurrection does not evacuate the cross [suffering],” but it
provides hope for God’s final triumph over evil.13
Thus, since the believers’ final
redemption has not yet been fully realised, redemption is in the future. Fee puts it this
way, “believers, therefore, “live between the times” of “the already” but “not yet”.14 The
outcome of this eschatological tension is that Christians are still exposed to physical
afflictions, including any type of suffering. Suffering therefore does not necessarily
mean that the devil has attacked, neither does it mean that the person has sinned. It can
just be the result of the fallen aspect of humanity. There is the need to accept the fact that
God allows Christians to relate to all suffering in a way that brings good, so that
experiencing suffering becomes for them a valuable way of life (Cf. 1 Cor. 12:7-10).
From this perspective, Pentecostal Christians must not make it appear through their
utterances that they marginalize the less privilege people or that it is one’s lack of faith
that had result in failure to heal. Rather they should have a place for the infirm and
disabled people in their worship as people also have vital roles to play in the service of
God.
11
Paul R. Sponheim, "Sin and Evil," in Christian Dogmatics, Vol. One, Carl E. Braaten and Robert W.
Jenson, eds. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1990), 433-34; Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An
Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 810-812. See also,
T. Douglas John Hall, God and Human Suffering: God & An Exercise in the Theology of the Cross
(Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986), 73-92; Johannes Van Bavel, "The Meaning of Suffering
and Attempts at Interpretation," in God and Human Suffering, Jan Lambrencht and Raymond F. Collins,
eds. (Louvain: Peeters Press, 1989), 121-36.
12
Fee, God's Empowering Presence, 804. In other words, through the death of Christ, the future
condemnation which human deserves has been transferred from future to the past. E.g. Eph. 1:7; Eph. 2:8.
13
Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian
Theology, trans. R. A. Wilson and John Bowden (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1974), 182.
14
Fee, God's Empowering Presence, 805, 799, 805.
13