Perplexed, what are you talking about? Your theory says “abortion is a personal matter” and God accounts for it accordingly. I’m gonna assume you’re not a moral relativist, so please elaborate.

And, I’ll do you one better: If prayer were employed more, I suspect that we wouldn’t need to make abortion legal or illegal, because we’d be presented with fewer unwanted pregnancies.

And, just to gum it up even more, remember that back in the days before the passage of abortion laws in the late 1800s, presumably at a time when a greater percentage of people prayed than pray today, abortion, in roughly the same form it is available in now, was perfectly legal, and had been recognized as such back to Roman times. And, as far as I can tell, there was no great groundswell of opinion to make it illegal. In fact, when the Roe v. Wade decision came out in 1973, it was universally praised by protestants, even evangelicals. It was only when the culture wars began in the late ’70s, and the right wing saw abortion as a way to play on the emotions of the public, that right wing protestants jumped on the bandwagon.

By the way, if prayer worked, abortion would be illegal.

I feel certain that wrongs could be righted if we as God’s people were united in prayer. Documentation is lacking because we fail to acknowledge or show gratitude for what God does in our lives. It would require taking time out from our busy schedules to write it down or journal it. With the present emphasis on blogging and journaling, perhaps the task of documenting God’s answers to prayers will develop.

I think modern medicine is wonderful; but I would rather know God is going to heal me than to place my entire faith in medicine and find out it has limitations. It may not always be his Will to heal on this side of heaven but I prefer to believe when in the hospital and my relative is on life support and she needs healing. I have experienced it with my mother and a very good friend. My mother was healed in 1974 in the hospital while enduring a subdural hematoma. She was allowed to live 32 more years. The doctors didn’t expect her to live through the night. My friend had two brain aneurisyms last October. She was on life support, in two hospitals, in intensive care, and in one rehab and two subsequent nursing homes. She has been released recently to find an apartment with her daughter. She wasn’t give much of a prognosis. I prayed in both circumstances and God showed up. I knew in my heart that they would be healed. God is good!

John 11:25-26 reads, I [Jesus} am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in--adheres to, trusts in and relies on--Me, although he may die, yet he shall live. And whoever continues to live and believe--has faith in, cleaves to and relies--on Me shall never [actually]die at all. Whether we get healed here or in heaven is up to God!

Either way, it doesn’t really matter. When we pray over the sick and annoint them with oil, we certainly don’t limit what we’re asking God to do: If he wants to send a little miraculous healing, we won’t turn it down, though I suspect that miraculous touch isn’t the main factor in most faith healing. I imagine that the placebo effect has more to do with it than divine intervention.

And, I wonder why you limit your reference to the King James Version of the Bible, which is a translation from Biblical texts we now know not to be as accurate as those available to us today. The Revised Standard Version and the later New Revised Standard Version are far more accurate.

Well, no one’s saying that faith healing is “superior” to modern medicine. But any doctor will tell you that the attitude of the patient has a huge influence on the outcome of treatment. Patients who have lost the will to live will often have very different outcomes than patients who are fighters, for example. This is true even with diseases whose outcomes are almost invariably fatal, like AIDS (well, AIDS before protease inhibitors).

Using the placebo effect to explain faith healing is to appeal to one inexplicable phenomenon to explain another. Kind of like dividing by zero…

The doctor cannot. All he can do is provide a situation for his patient that is conducive for the natural healing processes built into man by God. As one put it. A doctor can nurture the life that is in a person, but only God can put life into a person.

The “faith healer” cannot. Only God can heal, and it is apparent that not everyone who is prayed for is healed and we don’t know why this is so. But what we do know is that, according to James 5, we are commanded to pray for the sick and to believe God for their healing. What the “faith healer” should do is 1) pray for the sick, 2)believe God for his healing, and 3)help the sick person believe God for his own healing.

My thought about the fraud issue is that there are two types of fraud. And both of them are all about the money, that is, the fraud is perpetrated to get money. One is the person, whether doctor or “faith healer,” is one who claims that he himself can heal. The second is the one, again whether doctor or “faith healer,” that claims that a healing has occurred when he knows that none has occurred.

Are all “faith healers” frauds? Certainly not. Are there some who are frauds? Yes. But frankly, how much does that matter? What is more important: being healed or stopping dishonest people?

I know that many are troubled by this, and it certainly seems illogical to us that God would work through people that are not honest, but the truth is that many people have been healed and are alive and well today and all the treatment and ministry that they have received from human beings has been from frauds. How can this be so? Remember that God only can heal and He can use whatever means and whatever person that He wants. After all, He is God. But why would He do this? The answer is found in I Chronicles 16:34 “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.”

I have participated in faith healing services many times, including small groups of people gathering to pray over a person who was sick. On one of these occasions, there was a healing that many would consider miraculous (and it may have been). So, I don’t doubt that faith healing is real, but as Niall suggests, the commercial version might not get it done.