Divine Healing in the Early Church
There’s a strange, heartwarming simplicity to the mysterious ways God works miracles. When someone witnesses supernatural healing, there’s an urge to shout to the mountains what the Lord has done! There is also an oftentimes good intentioned desire to encourage other followers of Jesus to seek healing. But good intentions can still lead to bad theology, and bad theology can easily become harmful theology.
I’m a Charismatic, so I proudly affirm the gift of healing to be present today. I affirm and encourage Christians to pray to the Lord to heal those who are sick, including the anointing of oil. And it is because of these convictions and experiences that we must address the diverse ways these practices have been abused in different fellowships.
To say I am a Charismatic isn’t the most specific, so it needs to be said the concerns this blog will address do not apply to many in this specific Church culture. However, it does apply to many, including many teachers and self-proclaimed prophets.
These are the primary theological ideas I’ll be critiquing for this blog:
1. True faith in God’s healing means we must not seek medicine or any medical care.
2. Any kind of sickness/pain must be the result of your sin
3. Any kind of sickness/pain must be the result of demons
4. It is always God’s will to heal
To me, a common denominator in these ideas often stem from a desire to have a fixed formula for the Spirit to move. If we pray this specific prayer, if we declare with enough confidence, if we spoke enough tongues, then the Spirit will answer. But is this really how the Apostles and those who came after them sought the Spirit?
I think there is also a deep rooted desire for many of us to be able to grasp the sudden and uneasy mystery of death. It can be comforting to our fears if we can intellectually understand why sudden tragedies happen. I will have an easier time accepting someone suffering from depression if I convince myself that they are keeping an unconfessed sin to themselves. If a friend prays for their loved one to be healed and it doesn’t happen, I don’t have to face as much disappointment if I am convinced my friend simply didn’t have enough faith.
My encouragement to fellow Charismatics is to look back to those who’ve gone before us. Just like us, the Church Fathers were not perfect, but also like us, they were filled with the same Holy Spirit that filled the Apostles. Examining how they viewed divine healing can be helpful in our discernment for seeking healing today.
Before going into these specific issues, let’s cover some ground:
1. Despite the claims of pop culture Cessationism, it has been widely acknowledged in scholarship that the Early Church professed the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit to be active in their lifetime. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Irenaeus, Origen, and other Church Fathers testify that gifts such as healing and prophecy continued after the Apostles died.
“(new converts) ...are also receiving gifts, each as he is worthy, illumined through the name of this Christ. For one receives the spirit of understanding, another of counsel, another of strength, another of healing, another of foreknowledge, another of teaching, and another of the fear of God. ”
2. It is also widely acknowledged in scholarship that discussion of the gifts in the Church heavily decreased in the mid 3rd century. However, this does not mean that miracles and the gifts themselves had ceased, as testimonies of prophetic encounters are still mentioned and gifts such as healing are referenced on occasion by Fathers like Hippolytus. (Kydd, 1984, Pg. 58-59)
3. Just as the political and ecclesial structure of the Early Church significantly changed and developed in the 4th century, so did many Christians’ understanding of divine healing. For this blog, I will primarily focus on the first three centuries.
Medicine and Health Care
Later Church leaders in the 4th century would expand ministries of health care, but we do find some talk of the subject in the Pre-Nicene era. Clement of Alexandria (late 2nd-early 3rd century) is a good example of an early Church Father who endorses the use of medicine:
“For we are by no means to care for the exciting properties of ointments, but to choose what is useful for them, since God has permitted the production of oil to mitigate men’s pains.” -Clement of Alexandria’s “The Instructor” (Book 2, Chapter 8)
“…for the sake of bodily health we submit to incisions, cauterizations, and medicinal draughts; and he who administers them is called savior and a healer…” -Clement of Alexandria’s “The Stromata” (Book 1, Chapter 27)
A general reading of Clement’s work would see how strongly he cared about holiness, sanctification, and faith. To Clement, this had no conflict with seeking medical care. Clement also wrote about diet and exercise, acknowledging that our personal choices can positively and negatively affect our health. (Rhee, 2022, Pg. 96)
Another Father from the same time period we’ll examine is Tertullian, who testified throughout his ministry of prophecy, exorcisms, and divine healing: “How many men of rank (to say nothing of common people) have been delivered from devils, and healed of diseases!” -Tertullian’s “To Scapula” (Chapter 4)
At the same time, Tertullian did not dismiss the help doctors and medicine could bring, and even brings up examples of people in the Bible who used medicine:
“…Isaiah mentions that he ordered Hezekiah medicine when he was sick. Paul, too, knows that a little wine does the stomach good.” -Tertullian’s “The Chaplet” (Chapter 8)
One last thing to mention before moving on was how important visiting the sick was to Church leaders. In his letter to the Philippians, Polycarp (late 1st-early 2nd century) instructs the church leaders to visit those in the congregation who are sick. Many Christians also sought sacrificial care for those suffering from a devastating plague in the 3rd century, including the well being of pagans:
“Several contemporary accounts from Carthage and Alexandria enlighten us with what the infected endured and how Christians cared for them even in the midst of their own suffering.”
Punishment and Spiritual Warfare
While the Early Church acknowledged the natural causes of sickness and pain, they did not dismiss the supernatural causes. 3rd century Church leaders Cyprian and Lactantius share stories of God punishing individuals for unrepentant sin. Likewise, Christians acknowledged disease and pain potentially coming from demons, which can be found in various apostle narratives of the 2nd-3rd century:
“In the thought world of the apocryphal Acts, where the world is bewitched and dominated by hostile demonic forces, demons are often portrayed as causing physical illness; and the process of exorcism, physical healing, and spiritual healing are all intertwined and interconnected.”
Some Christians may object to the citation of the Apocryphal Acts as they were written after the New Testament, but this isn’t necessary for the sake of our discussion. The question isn’t whether or not these narratives of the Apostles are true, the point is that these were written by Christians to fellow Christians who believed demonic attacks could cause illness, and that deliverance was needed for healing.
It would seem that Christians saw more than one reason why someone may be struck with severe illness, and that there may be a different solution. Prayer, intercession, and trust in God was the first priority, but natural medicine wasn’t out of the question. Understanding the potential cause of the illness wasn’t simple either, and depended on the individual and circumstance.
Is it always God’s will to heal in the moment?
This is a belief that has no shortage of heated debate and diversity of opinion. The short answer for our specific discussion is that as diverse and Charismatic as the early Church was, they did not believe it was always God’s will to heal. Perhaps the more important question is, how did they understand God’s presence in the midst of unanswered healing and suffering?
In general, the Christians looked to the suffering endured from those in Scripture as inspiration. Similar to the famous “Hall of Faith” passage from Hebrews 11, men and women who patiently endured various trials were looked to as a model to imitate.
A key text to shape Christians’ understanding of unanswered healing was Paul’s thorn from 2nd Corinthians 12. While many scholars today are convinced Paul’s thorn from Satan was some kind of physical condition, perhaps even a disability, there is debate and dismissal from many that it was physical at all. For sake of this blog, it’s actually irrelevant to whether or not the thorn was something health related. Personally, I am convinced it was, but more importantly, it seems many in the early centuries of the Church were convinced it was as well.
“I will boast about this person, but not about myself, except of my weaknesses. For if I want to boast, I wouldn’t be a fool, because I would be telling the truth. But I will spare you, so that no one can credit me with something beyond what he sees in me or hears from me, especially because of the extraordinary revelations.
Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”
Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
There’s a few ways Paul’s testimony influenced later Christian thought on unanswered healing. Paul’s reason for God allowing Satan to torment him in the first place is to keep him humble. This line of thought would be similarly testified by later Christians who went through different physical challenges.
Beyond sin prevention, various Church Fathers also saw suffering and illness as a way to strengthen someone’s faith and be a powerful testimony to others:
“Referring to the apostle Paul’s own infirmity, Irenaeus speaks of the ‘beneficial effect’ of an ‘infirmity of the flesh’ (Haer. 3.1-2). According to Tertullian, ‘all the plagues of the world’ come upon Christians for admonition and non-Christians for chastisement from God (Apol. 41.4). Clement of Alexandria states, ‘Penury and disease, and such trials, are often sent for admonition, for the correction of the past, and for care for the future’; and a remedy in this case is prayer (Strom. 7.13; cf. 7.61). Origen also thought that bodily affliction was of spiritual value (Princ. 2.10.6) and that God used suffering to purify and reform people (Comm. Matt. 11.4).”
Where do we go from here?
Placing our vulnerability in God’s hands is a noble act of faith. Believing that the Lord hears us and is willing to heal is something I believe all Christians should be zealous to seek. It’s one thing to tell someone the usual response of, “I’ll pray for you”. It’s a whole other act of faith to bend our knees to the God of the universe, and humbly ask this mighty Creator to hear our request.
We should seek the divine healing of Christ, and we should seek the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told us to ask the Father, and to ask in faith. But we also are not to put God to the test. If God allows one of us to suffer, we should be slow to speak and very discerning if we are to learn why that may be. And if God chooses not to answer our prayers the way we want Him to, we should never shame or dismiss anyone in pain. That was the mindset of Job’s friends, who God condemned. Jesus didn’t feel the need to give us a checklist to know why someone is suffering in every circumstance, but He did instruct us to sacrificially love, give, and care for those suffering.
Bibliography
Schaff, P. (2016). The Complete Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and Post-Nicene Collection of Early Church Fathers. Toronto, Canada.
Kydd, R. (1984). Charismatic Gifts in the Early Church: An Exploration into the Gifts of the Spirit during the First Three Centuries of the Christian Church. Peabody, MA. Hendrickson Publishers.
Rhee, H. (2022). Illness, Pain, and Health Care in Early Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Bercot, D. (1998). A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs. Peabody, MA. Hendrickson Publishers.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.