Among the exaggeration and false claims among certain sections of the church it is rare to hear an authenticated, verifiable account of a healing. In over 40 years, this is the first one I have heard, and I heard it in person.

Jack (a name we will use) is a contractor, which in our country means someone who has access to a lot of machinery and knowhow, and who does work for other people. Jack was suffering terrible and immobilising back pain. He was accepting fewer contracts because he couldn' t cope with some of the work, and his income was falling, which was bad news for his family. On one occasion he asked two of his men to lift him into a mechanical digger in the morning and out of it in the evening.

Jack then visited an orthopaedic surgeon, who ordered a CT scan which revealed that two lower vertebral discs had ruptured, sending sinovial fluid into the spinal column. It was a real mess. The only solution was a spinal fusion, which would immobilise the area, but might later just reflect the problem up the spine again.

Then a friend suggested he go with him to a healing meeting. Jack went, though not very hopefully. To cut a long story short, he went forward to the stage on invitation and duly submitted to the usual hocus pocus. Nothing happened. When he returned to his seat high in the auditorium, he found himself running up the stairs! He had been freed from the immobilising pain.

In due course he returned to his specialist who ordered another scan. It showed no damage to his discs. "I can't explain this," said the specialist. The specialist, by the way, was a Christian. Nevertheless he was a scientist and would not let his prejudices get in the way, especially with the two-scan evidence.

That was all many months ago. Now all Jack can say to people is, "Do you know what happened to me?" And that was how I got to hear his story, related in a private conversation at a church lunch.

Some sceptical church members, however, wouldn't countenance this event as a healing. Despite the before-and-after medical evidence and the principle in Leviticus 13, they maintained, "Miracles are not for today." They, as New Zealand Christians, had previously been chided by native pastors from overseas for not having faith. In their country, they said, people were being raised from the dead. No resuscitations, like Lazarus, were acceptable to this couple because of Hebrews 9:27: "...it is appointed for man to die once..."

I asked if they thought Mark 16:9-20 should be in the Bible? Yes. So I noted that there the disciples of Christ were to undertake healing.

Weren't they putting God in a box?

Later, I thought again of the list of spiritual workers in 1 Corinthians 12:29, which includes healers and workers of miracles. If miracles are not for today, why is Paul writing to the church about miracle workers in the mandatory New Testament?

Jack's story, I am told, is all over the town. I hope he has identified the Lord Jesus Christ as the worker of his miracle.
 

First published May 12 2008