Scripture Reading: Matthew 8:14-17
The Healer
Intro.
1. New TV show (TLC): “The Healer” (Charlie Goldsmith).
a. “Energy Healer”: “Charlie Goldsmith says he can alleviate body pain and allergy symptoms, even cure infections, just by focusing his mind on what ails us.” (“Energy Healing Works—Many Say. But How Do You Prove It?,” Chip Brown, Elle, Sept. 21, 2015)
b. Charlie Goldsmith: Who is he?1 Doesn’t take money for EH.
c. Energy healing (EH).2
2. Credible medical treatment, or fraudulent?3
-Goldsmith doesn’t claim to diagnose illnesses, nor does he claim to heal everything, every time.4 (Pain, allergies, infections, etc.)
3. EH is a medical treatment; not miracles like Jesus worked.
4. The Great Physician healed bodies, proving He heals souls, Matt. 9:6-8.
I. JESUS, THE HEALER.
A. Jesus Healed All Kinds of Sickness and Diseases, Matt. 4:23-24.
-Energy healers make no such claims.5 (Placebo, promote self-healing)
B. Jesus Healed without being Present, Lk. 7:1-10.
-Goldsmith claims EH ability via telephone calls, other rooms, etc.
C. Sometimes, Jesus Touched the Sick, and Sometimes the Sick Touched Jesus, cf. Matt. 8:2-3; 9:20-22.
-Goldsmith claims EH ability to heal without physical touch.
D. Jesus’ Healed Immediately and Completely, without Relapses, Matt. 8:3; 14:35-36. (EH cannot claim this.)
E. When Jesus Healed, His Miracles Testified He is from God, Jno. 5:36; Acts 2:22; 10:38.
-Produce faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, Matt. 11:2-6; Jno. 20:30-31; 10:25, 38; 11:42.
II. THE PROBLEM WITH ENERGY HEALING (TLC’s, “The Healer”).
A. The Potential of being Deceived.
1. Undoubtedly, some will be convinced God working miracles via Goldsmith (energy healers).
2. Bible miracle: Beyond natural occurrence; a miracle “is used of works of a supernatural origin and character, such as could not be produced by natural agents and means…” (Vine, III:75)
3. In Bible terms, a miracle is the supernatural intervention of divine power into the natural world (cf. Jno. 6:19; 11:39, 43-44).
B. Energy Healer’s Faith-Denying Potential.
1. EH may have some medical benefits, but it is not miraculous (cf. penicillin). Like other, more traditional, medical treatments.
2. In the hands of the unscrupulous, EH can be used to give false assurances, and false hope, cf. Acts 8:9-11.
3. We are susceptible to the deception that EH is a spiritual power, a divine power, a divine calling (lying wonders, 2 Thess. 2:9-10).
4. Time of miracles is over, because their purposes achieved.
a. Complete authentication (validation) of Jesus and His word, Jno. 20:30-31; Gal. 1:11.
b. Complete revelation to guide and edify, 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:3-4.
c. Complete standard for testing (Heb. 4:12; 1 Jno. 4:1, 6).
d. Until the death of those who were given miraculous power.
III. JESUS: HEALER OF THE SOUL.
A. Jesus Healing Bodies a Prelude to Healing Souls, Matt. 8:14-17.
1. Purpose: To heal our souls, Isa. 53:4.
2. He bore our transgressions in death, to heal our souls from sin, Isa. 53:5-6; 1 Pet. 2:24.
B. Humble Hearts of Faith are Healed, Jno. 12:37-40; Matt. 11:28-30; Acts 2:37-38.
Conclusion
1. “The Healer” on TV cannot heal the soul, and only temporarily heal some pain and some afflictions.
2. The Great Physician will heal your soul if you will believe and obey His prescription for sin: H-B-R-C-B; then, live faithfully to Jesus.
NOTES
1 “In the 17 years since the bewildering day that Charlie Goldsmith discovered what he calls his "gift," the 35-year-old energy healer from Melbourne, Australia, has been trying to get someone in the medical world to take him seriously. He has wanted to be of use, working with the formal sanction of doctors in hospitals. He has wanted to be recognized for what he knows he can do—not simply to justify the strange turn his life took when he was 18, but to shore up the credibility of a practice long plagued by fraud and religious superstition, and to make the experience of discovering and developing a healing gift like his less traumatic for other people.” (“Energy Healing Works—Many Say. But How Do You Prove It?,” Chip Brown, Elle, Sept. 21, 2015)
2 “Today some 200 studies (published in peer-reviewed science journals but, for the most part, not in prominent medical ones) have detailed the apparent effects of energy healers on the physiology of humans, animals, plants, bacteria, and cells in culture, and even on the activity of enzymes. As pioneering medical researchers in the last two decades have explored how the mind can change the body—how objective physiological indices of health can be influenced by the subjective reality of emotions, thoughts, intentions, expectations, environmental conditions, beliefs, social relationships, and prayers—medical science has begun to appreciate the intricate reciprocity of psyche and soma.” (Ibid)
3 “I wanted to be studied," he said. "I kept wondering, What is it going to take for people to stop and say, 'This is pretty compelling'? If you're good in tennis, if you're good in math, there's a path; there are people to talk to; you can prove yourself. If you're a healer, what's the path? You can work out of a second bedroom, but it's borderline illegal and you never have any real credibility." (Ibid)
4 “Goldsmith says his success doesn't depend on whether people can feel what he is doing or even if they think it's real: "I've healed people who don't believe in what I do, and I haven't been able to heal people who do." Experience has taught him that in 2 of every 10 cases, his energy has no effect—he doesn't know why. He doesn't diagnose problems; he depends on feedback from patients not only to know what's wrong and where the pain is, but to learn if they feel better. He has helped people cope with painful side effects of cancer but doubts he can treat it; it baffles him that he has been so effective at treating allergies, frozen joints, herpes outbreaks, and infections but can't do anything about the common cold. And he can't heal himself.” (Ibid)
5 “What is neglected, disparaged, and dismissed by critics of energy medicine is the well-recognized placebo effect, which represents the power of self-healing," says Daniel J. Benor, MD, an American psychotherapist living in Canada and a leading advocate of an energy-based holistic approach to medicine; his four-volume Healing Research is the definitive compendium of healing studies. "Whatever else they may do," he says, "it is evident healers are experts in promoting self-healing.” (Ibid)
By: Joe R. Price
Posted: November 2, 2017