Will faith-healers step out in faith and heal Corona virus victims? I doubt it.

Will faith healers step out in faith and heal Corona virus victims? I doubt it.

Why isn't Todd White, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, and Bill Johnson hopping on jets, and going to the nations which are most afflicted to heal them?

The article below makes me wonder.

California mega-church cancels its ‘faith healing’ hospital visits, citing coronavirus

BY RYAN SABALOW

A prominent Northern California mega-church whose members believe their prayers heal the sick and raise the dead is advising the faithful to wash their hands, urging those who feel sick to stay home, canceling missionary trips and advising its faith healers to stay away from local hospitals.

Bethel Church leaders say they’re in close contact with local health officials, but they’re not yet canceling services for the 6,300 people who attend services each week in Redding, one of the largest regular gatherings in far Northern California.

“Through email communications, signage, and church announcements, we are actively encouraging health practices and precautions to our whole community,” Aaron Tesauro, a church spokesman, said in an email. “We believe that wisdom, modern medicine, and faith are meant to work together, and express the value for each in the pursuit of continued health and healing.”

Bethel is one of the north state’s largest institutions. Some 2,400 students from around the globe are enrolled at the Redding church’s School of Supernatural Ministry. The church has around 9,100 other members in Redding, Tesauro said.

Bethel faithful are well known in Redding for approaching strangers and offering to touch them and to pray away their ailments including at local healthcare centers — a practice that is now at odds with public health officials’ campaign to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Health officials advise practice “social distancing measures” such as keeping at least six feet of space between people in public settings.

One Redding woman told The Sacramento Bee on Saturday that on Jan. 31, she was approached by two Bethel students in the emergency room at Mercy Medical Center in Redding. The pair said “they would pray over the people there and put Jesus in their hearts and this would heal us all and we didn’t need to stay at the ER and could go home,” the woman said in a text message. She asked not to be identified to protect her family’s privacy.

She said she filed a complaint with the hospital after one of the students touched her 5-year-old daughter without permission. Mercy didn’t return a message seeking comment.

Tesauro said that while students regularly visit hospitals to offer healing services, church leadership is now advising against it.

“Though we believe in a God who actively heals today, students are not being encouraged to visit healthcare settings at this time, and moreover, are taught that even under normal circumstances, they must receive permission from both the facility and the individual before engaging in prayer,” Tesauro said in the email.

Kerri Schuette, a spokeswoman for Shasta County’s Health and Human Services Agency, responded cautiously when asked what someone should do if approached by a stranger seeking to faith heal them.

“I would say that having a healthy barrier between yourself and other people is a good way to protect yourself from any of the diseases that are circulating right now,” she said.

RELIGIOUS SKEPTICS RESPOND

For skeptics of faith healing, Bethel probably would have been criticized no matter what it did in response to the virus.

As it was, there was no shortage of schadenfreude that a church known for claiming to have healed everything from brain tumors to deafness is now telling people to wash their hands to keep disease at bay.

“It’s clear that when it comes to something really serious like coronavirus, their actions speak louder than their words,” said Michael Shermer, the editor of Skeptic magazine and a professor at Chapman University in Southern California. “So, God is omniscient and omnipotent and can cure diseases if he wants, but just in case: wash your hands!”

Bill Johnson, the church’s founder, says on his website that not everyone who wants to be healed will be.

“Many visit Redding weekly, hoping that God will touch them. I am happy to report that many leave well and whole,” Johnson wrote. “But many others leave in the same condition in which they came. I refuse to blame God for this, as though He has a purpose in their disease. While Jesus did not heal everyone alive in His time, He did heal everyone who came to Him. His is the only standard worth following.”

Tesauro, the church spokesman, said the Bethel faithful believe in the healing power of prayer, but God also wants believers to practice common sense. “Healing happens, but it’s foolish to take risks,” he said in an interview.

Bethel is among a group of “charismatic” Pentecostal Christian churches whose beliefs are controversial among evangelicals. During religious functions at Bethel, church members reportedly speak in tongues and members claim gold dust and angel feathers appear out of the air.

Late last year, hundreds of church members gathered in an attempt to resurrect a 2-year-old named Olive Heiligenthal, hours after the toddler had stopped breathing and died on Dec. 14. Church members gathered to sing, “Come alive/ Come alive/ Come alive, dry bones/ Awake, arise/ Inhale the light.” Thousands of people posted on Instagram with the hashtag #WakeUpOlive.

In October 2008, a Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry student moved to Washington and started a “dead-raising team” that worked with members of the local fire department to pray over bodies found on emergency calls, according to the Redding Record Searchlight.

Johnson’s church produces a popular preaching subscription streaming service called Bethel.TV, and it sells products including apparel and books.

Bethel is perhaps best known internationally for its Christian music. Justin Bieber is a fan. The Bethel track “No Longer Slaves” was one the top three songs on his iPod playlist, according to a 2017 Buzzfeed News article. The song’s YouTube video has been played 115 million times.

LAWSUIT OVER CLIFF FALL

Bethel’s belief in the power of resurrection at one point factored into a local attempted murder investigation.

In 2010, a Redding man claimed in a lawsuit that he became paralyzed after he was either pushed or allowed to fall off a cliff above the Sacramento River by two members of the School of Supernatural Ministry after a night of drinking together, the Record Searchlight reported.

Rather than call authorities, the suit alleged the two students, who believed he had died, attempted to reach him so they could pray him back to life. After spending hours unsuccessfully trying to ford the river and push through blackberry bushes, they eventually notified authorities, who found the unconscious man and took him to a local hospital.

For a time, Redding police investigated the incident as a possible attempted murder, but no charges were filed.

Bethel Church has deeply ingrained itself into Redding’s political scene.

In 2011, the city was nearly forced to close its dilapidated Civic Center from a lack of funds. Bethel founded a nonprofit that now manages the facility. The building is still owned by the city, and the church says the nonprofit is an independent entity from the church.

The Civic Center receives $750,000 a year from the church, which uses it for its School of Supernatural Ministry. The building also is featured prominently on the church’s website.

https://www.sacbee.com/entertainmen...h9YZVQc8PRw87IAywrLwRJWsV42KExgl5di6aWLdofNzc

There is also reasons why not all are saved.
Does not mean that salvation is not for them or available to them.
But rarely do people equate those not saved with a dynamic that salvation has ceased.

Why in the world take faith off the table?????

Fearing some comment that someone says "you do not have faith" is bizarre.
I have been in ministry for many many years. I HAVE NEVER seen the "you would have been healed if you had more faith" invoked EVER.
That assumption needs to die.

You ALWAYS want faith on your side.
What we see with Jesus was about half the time it was THEIR faith and the other half it was Jesus faith.

There are some 70+ verses in the nt on healing. Faith rises as we ingest the word. Words of faith. Words of healing.
But what do folks do?
They got 3 or 4 quotes from paul that they actually use to CANCEL FAITH for healing.

No I don't. That was my original challenge suspecting there aren't any. Someone mentioned this passage which may come closest...
John 18:10 KJVS
[10] Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.

Of course Luke being a physician is the only Gospel writer mentioning the healing of the ear...
Luke 22:51 KJVS
[51] And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.

When you say you don’t, are you saying you don’t believe he is an unbeliever?

I was there to arrest Jesus but somehow I still believe in him?

So you have an example of someone, who is very likely an unbeliever of Jesus, getting healed by Jesus.

It simply was in response to your question... It was a question, correct?

You were there??

I don't see the other miracles that took place in Acts going on today, do you?

It was apparent to see that her body was all twisted up, even after their alleged healing, but they claimed a healing because she could walk better after the alleged healing.

By the way, the NT, particularly Acts 10, indicates that all animals have been cleansed in terms of food.

Okay your view is that he was a believer too.

I had already answered you back on post #27... I had stated
"It may be reasonable to assume that (and assume it would be), but equally it would be unreasonable to assume that he was a denier. Many hadn't heard enough about Jesus to make a decision either way. "

IOW I don't believe he was a 'denier' but I can't say that he was an actual believer. You do know the difference between someone 'not knowing' and someone 'denying' don't you? I believe Malchus probably didn't know enough about Jesus to deny or accept him.

I see, you allow someone to be indifferent.

For me, As a Jew, if you don’t accept Jesus as the messiah during the gospel of the kingdom, you are an unbeliever.

But the point about Jesus healing was this, it doesn’t matter, you can get healed even if you don’t believe in him.

You see nothing. Indifference is when a person learns about a matter and then doesn't care. You can't say that Malchus learned about Jesus.

You're an unbeliever if after hearing the truth, you reject it...Jew or Gentile.

Again, we can't say Malchus was an unbeliever. Do you have proof he learned of Jesus?

I believe healings still take place in the Church, according to God's sovereign will.

However, I don' t think, in general, that He is a showman.

I noticed a pic by CMA missionaries that claimed this young lady was healed. It was apparent to see that her body was all twisted up, even after their alleged healing, but they claimed a healing because she could walk better after the alleged healing.

So, I think the vast majority of claims are false.

Regarding James' teaching, I notice that he focuses on bringing the sick to the elders. He doesn't recommend bringing them to a designated, single healer. I think that the word is plural, because this makes sure God receives all the glory. Neither elder can make fantastic claims of being a healer.

And, it does seem to me like charismatics are all about self-glory. I have talked to charismatics who brag about how many people they brought to Christ. One was a prisoner in the jail I ministered in. It was obvious to me that he lacked humility but he had been coached by a charismatic chaplain who told him that hehttps://www.bibletools.org//index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28390/eVerseID/28393was going to be someone great, and that he was a prodigy. Well, the guy ended up going off the deep end about as soon as he got out.