What does the Bible say about healing?

Stories of Healing in News and Culture

Recently, the news reported a remarkable story about a young teenage boy who was named a saint by the Pope after his death. According to Catholic tradition, this honor was bestowed because the boy’s intercession was linked to a documented healing, a powerful testament to the belief in miraculous intervention. At the same time, I found myself re-watching the medical drama House, a show where the ever-skeptical Dr. House clashes with a young man who claims to have the power to heal. The episode, as is typical for the series, aimed to expose irrational thinking, yet it left even the cynical Dr. House with questions about his closed, science-only worldview.

This fascinating parallel between real-world news and fictional drama highlights a tension that exists in our society today. On one side, we have those who believe that there is more to our existence than just the physical and material. They are convinced that a spiritual reality can, and does, break into our world. On the other side are those who reject this notion, viewing it as a baseless and even dangerous superstition.

Given that Christianity is a faith concerned with truth, it’s vital for Christians to consider the various questions surrounding claims of miraculous healing. Miracles have been reported throughout history, but what do Christians believe about them, and where do these beliefs come from?

God as Healer in the Bible (Jehovah Rapha)

The Bible, from the Old Testament to the New, reveals God as a God who interacts with his creation and reveals who he is—a God who heals. This name for God, Jehovah Rapha, is first seen in the book of Exodus. After Moses leads the people out of slavery in Egypt, they begin to fear the unknown future. God leads them to a piece of undrinkable water, and through a miraculous act, he makes it safe to drink. The Lord tells them that they can trust him because he is the God who heals you (Exodus 15:26).

This promise is at the very core of God’s nature: that healing is part of his being. The ultimate fulfillment of this promise is a day when humanity is fully in his presence, experiencing complete and permanent healing of mind, body, and soul.

While this promise of future healing is comforting, the Bible also makes a more startling claim: that God will perform miracles of healing in the here and now. For Christians, experiencing these miracles is not just about intellectually affirming God’s existence. It’s about interacting with what the Bible calls the kingdom of heaven, and encountering a God who can heal.

Common Questions and Objections

This belief in a God who is both able and willing to intervene and heal in miraculous ways today raises several important questions:

How can a rational person believe in miracles?
What kind of God would heal some people and not others?
Have there been any documented cases with evidence of healing claims?
How does mental health feature in questions of healing?
What about the charlatans who manipulate vulnerable people with false promises of a cure?

These are all valid and critical questions that need to be addressed. To start, let’s look at the Bible’s “big picture” on healing.

The Bible’s Big Picture on Healing

The theme of healing runs throughout the entire biblical narrative. It begins after the fall of humankind, when sin, evil, and suffering enter the world. God speaks of a challenger to this evil in Genesis 3:15, a theme that continues all the way to the last pages of the Bible, where evil is ultimately defeated, and the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:4 says that in the new creation, there will be no more sickness, crying, or death.

The Bible presents a consistent picture of God’s heart for the suffering:

God is not the author of suffering. Suffering and death cause him immense sorrow.
God enters into our suffering. While he has allowed sickness and suffering to be part of our experience, he empathizes with us in it.
God has promised to reverse suffering. He has promised to do something to reverse the power of death and sickness.
God’s attention is on the suffering. His special attention is on those who are in pain.
God promises to turn trials for good. He promises to take the grief we experience and turn it for our good (Romans 8:28).
He promises ultimate healing. He promises ultimate healing and restoration in his presence.
Encountering Jesus brings new life. As a person engages with Jesus, they can begin to experience a new life and a new power to overcome darkness. This may include a spiritual healing and, for some, miraculous physical healing.

Miracles in the Old and New Testaments

Throughout the Bible, we find specific stories of God’s miraculous intervention. In the Old Testament, the prophets Elijah and Elisha provide compelling examples. In 1 Kings 17, Elijah heals the son of a woman from Zarapath. The prophet, who has just experienced God’s miraculous provision in his own life, is able to pray with faith for the woman’s son, who had died. The boy’s life returns to him.

Similarly, in the New Testament, the gospels are filled with accounts of Jesus performing miraculous healings. He heals a woman who had suffered for 12 years just by her touching his cloak. He raises a 12-year-old girl from the dead. He heals the blind, the deaf, the paralyzed, and those with leprosy. One of the most famous stories is when Jesus brings his friend Lazarus back to life after being dead for four days. Many historians believe these incredible accounts are what caused Jesus to become so well-known.

Following Jesus’ death and resurrection, the book of Acts records his followers performing similar miracles. In Acts 3, Peter and John encounter a poor man who cannot walk. Peter says to him, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” The man’s feet and ankles are instantly healed, and he begins walking, leaping, and praising God.

Do Miracles Still Happen Today?

Some Christians believe that the miraculous healings we see in the Bible were confined to a specific time for a specific reason—often as a sign to authenticate Jesus and his apostles. However, many Christians believe that these miraculous healings continue to happen in response to prayer today.

The Bible presents a worldview where miraculous encounters are an expected part of encountering God. Jesus taught his followers that they too could receive his Holy Spirit to be empowered to see the sick healed. The book of Acts, as we’ve seen, records this happening. Stories of miraculous healings continued to be recorded in the early centuries of the church and, as modern writers attest, continue to this day.

I have even encountered stories like the one in Acts 3 personally. A close friend suffered a significant break in his heel after a fall. The X-ray confirmed a clean, severe fracture. Ten days later, after being prayed for, he instantly felt a sensation of fire in his foot, and the pain completely vanished. He returned to the doctor, who performed another X-ray. It showed a complete disappearance of the break. The doctor had no medical explanation for the healing other than the one my friend gave.

While this is an extraordinary story, it’s important for Christians to be careful and not jump to conclusions or call every unusual event a miracle. There are unfortunately many stories of so-called “healing ministries” that have preyed upon and manipulated vulnerable people. It is a sad reality that some have fabricated or exaggerated events for control. Christianity is about presenting facts plainly, without lying or manipulation.

While the Bible speaks of healing, it also acknowledges the reality of pain and suffering in this world. It is certainly true that many times when people pray for healing, a miraculous event does not occur. This can lead to questions about God’s goodness or his willingness to heal. To truly understand this tension, it is vital to read the works of authors who hold these two realities in balance, acknowledging both the hope of healing and the reality of ongoing suffering. The Bible, in its entirety, gives us a framework to hold these truths together.

This tension between faith and suffering is a big topic. I hope that the stories we have looked at here simply cause us to pause and consider whether there might be something here that is worth investigating further.

Why Doesn’t God Heal Everyone? An Honest Look at Suffering and Faith

In 2015, when asked what he would say if he met God, comedian Stephen Fry’s answer was both raw and profoundly honest: “Bone cancer in children. What’s that about?”

Fry, known for his comedic brilliance and distinctive voice in the Harry Potter audiobooks, expressed a sentiment shared by many—atheists and Christians alike. The question of how an all-powerful, all-loving God can exist in a world so full of pain and suffering is a deep, agonizing mystery. This is sometimes referred to as the “trilemma.” While philosophers have offered many complex answers, the question becomes even more pointed for a Christian: If God can and does intervene to perform miraculous healings, why doesn’t he heal everyone? Why does one person claim healing from a minor headache, while another in agony finds no relief?

This blog post will explore how Christians have grappled with this question throughout history, drawing on biblical stories and the reflections of well-known Christian thinkers.

The Problem of Blame

For centuries, there has been a tendency to link suffering directly to sin or a lack of faith. In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ disciples ask him about a man born blind: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus’ response is clear and definitive: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” He shuts down the impulse to blame and judge, refuting the idea that every instance of suffering is a direct punishment from God. We see a similar theme in the Old Testament with the story of Job, a righteous man who loses everything. His friends repeatedly insist his suffering must be due to some hidden sin, but the book makes it a central point that they are wrong. Job’s suffering is not a result of his lack of faith; if anything, it’s the opposite. The Bible, therefore, is unequivocal that we cannot directly correlate a lack of healing with a lack of faith, nor can we attribute it to God’s disapproval.

Elijah’s Frustration and Human Faith

The Bible is filled with stories of people of great faith who still struggled with this question. The prophet Elijah is a prime example. He was a man who saw incredible miracles, including God miraculously providing food and water and even healing a widow’s son. Yet, in another moment of crisis, when he saw the widow’s son get sick again, he was confused and angry. He accuses God of bringing the tragedy upon her, much like Stephen Fry’s modern-day objection.

This shows that Elijah, like us, was a very human believer. He panicked, felt confused, and even doubted God’s goodness when miracles dried up. But despite his frustration, he still cried out to God for a miracle, and the story records that God answered his prayer. The Bible doesn’t hide the fact that even its greatest heroes had moments of doubt and deep frustration with God’s mysterious ways.

The Mystery of Unanswered Prayer

So, if God is good and wants to heal, why does he sometimes say no? The Bible doesn’t give a simple answer. It presents a paradox: God is both powerful and loving, yet there are reasons linked to a greater reality beyond our full understanding. The story of Job, in particular, is one long account of a man who receives no specific answer for his suffering. His ultimate consolation comes not from an explanation but from his intimate relationship with God, which allows him to trust even in the face of immense confusion and hurt.

This mystery is a common theme in Christian experience. The Apostle Paul, a man who saw countless miracles and was even released from prison, also suffered from a persistent “thorn in his flesh” that God would not take away. Paul learned to accept this, trusting God’s grace to be sufficient. The ultimate example, of course, is Jesus Christ, who in the Garden of Gethsemane, asked God if the suffering of the crucifixion could be avoided. The Christian story of the cross is a triumph through suffering, not a way around it.

Hope Beyond Healing

While the Bible does not promise that we will be healed from every illness in this life, it assures us that God always hears our prayers. We are encouraged to pray for healing, not just to receive a miracle, but because prayer helps us remember God’s character. It is a way of finding comfort and solace, and a way to learn to see things from his perspective.

The ultimate Christian hope is not in physical healing alone, but in a final, complete healing that will one day come for all who believe. This is a promise that one day, God will “make all things new” and bring an end to all sickness, pain, and suffering.

Writer Joni Eareckson Tada, who was paralyzed from the neck down as a teenager, provides a powerful testimony to this. Despite her relentless prayers and those of many others, she was not miraculously healed. Instead, she found a deep faith that helped her navigate her circumstances. She reminds us that while we might be trapped in a physical disability or paralyzed by inner fears, God’s love is a “perfect filling.”

In the end, Christians are called to trust God’s heart, even when we don’t understand his ways. We are assured that he loves us, that he works things together for our good, and that one day he will bring full healing, but in the meantime, we are given the grace to endure and to find hope in him.

Section 2: Do Miracles still happen?

Do Miracles Still Happen? A Look at Faith, Science, and Eyewitnesses

In 2015, Christy Beam’s book, and the subsequent film Miracles from Heaven, told the story of her daughter’s terrifying accident and miraculous healing. The story captured the public imagination precisely because it grapples with a question that has challenged philosophers and theologians for centuries: Do miracles still happen today?

The Beams were not naïve believers; they were initially skeptical, recognizing that religious fervor can sometimes lead to exaggeration or wishful thinking. This healthy caution is something many people share. It’s a sentiment famously articulated by Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume.

The Skeptic’s Challenge

Hume’s famous argument against miracles states that a miracle is a “violation of the laws of nature.” Since these laws are established by “firm and unalterable experience,” any testimony to a miracle, no matter how convincing, is less probable than the laws of nature themselves. For Hume, believing in a miracle is fundamentally unreasonable, a form of “superstitious delusion.”

While many philosophers have offered counterarguments to Hume’s position, his core challenge remains: how can we trust claims that defy everything we know about the world? This is where the Christian commitment to truth comes in. It encourages a careful, evidence-based approach, even when considering the miraculous.

The Scientific Pursuit of the Miraculous

Today, some Christians are taking on Hume’s challenge directly by using scientific methods to investigate miracle claims. Dr. Joshua Brown, a neuroscientist, founded the Global Medical Research Institute (GMRI) to do just that. Motivated by his own life-threatening brain tumor diagnosis, Brown began to investigate cases of reported miraculous healings with a team of academics and medical professionals.

They have researched thousands of claims, looking specifically for instances with verifiable medical documentation. Their findings suggest that there are far more people, including doctors, who have witnessed events that seem miraculous than we might expect. One survey from 2004 found that over 50% of U.S. doctors had witnessed something they considered miraculous. Another survey revealed that over a quarter of Americans believe they’ve experienced a physical healing that cannot be explained by normal medical processes.

Evaluating the Evidence: Two Case Studies

So, what does this evidence look like? GMRI has published detailed case studies that attempt to meet a rigorous set of criteria for a miracle. These criteria, which have been used for centuries, include:

The disease must be serious and nearly impossible to cure by human means.
The cure must be instantaneous, complete, and permanent.
No medical treatment can explain the recovery.

One compelling case involves a woman who was diagnosed with juvenile macular degeneration at age 18. Her vision quickly deteriorated to the point of legal blindness, and she relied on a white cane and Braille for 12 years. After her husband prayed for her, she reported that her sight was instantly restored. Subsequent medical exams, with photographic evidence, showed that her vision had improved by over 400%, a change that had no medical explanation.

Another case is that of a young man with severe gastroparesis. From just two weeks old, he was unable to keep any food down due to paralyzed stomach muscles. For 16 years, he was dependent on feeding tubes. After being prayed for at a church, he experienced intense vibrations in his stomach and was able to eat a full meal that night. He has been symptom-free for over a decade. Gastroenterologists consulted on the case concluded that a spontaneous, permanent cure of this condition is not medically possible and that a psychosomatic explanation is highly unlikely.

Why Are These Not in Medical Journals?

A valid question, and one that Christian skeptics, like Dr. Peter May, have posed. Dr. Brown’s experience has been that many academic journals refuse to engage with his research on principle, dismissing it from the outset.

This brings us back to Hume’s challenge. Can we, and should we, simply dismiss eyewitness testimony when it goes against what we believe to be true? As historian Craig Keener argues, eyewitness testimony is a fundamental form of evidence in law, journalism, and history. Why should it be different for a miracle? Keener’s point is that the sheer volume of claims from otherwise credible witnesses around the globe warrants investigation rather than an in-principle dismissal.

Ultimately, the Christian faith is founded on the claim of a miraculous event—the resurrection of Jesus. While science is a crucial tool for understanding our world, it may not be the only one. For the believer, the invitation is not just to analyze the evidence but to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” as King David wrote in the Psalms. It’s an invitation to engage with the possibility of the miraculous, not just through intellectual assent, but through personal experience.

Do you have any further questions you’d like to explore on this topic? We could discuss other biblical stories of healing, the philosophy behind miracles, or even the practical aspects of how Christians today approach prayer for healing.