Article December 14, 1992 Issue

Second Thought

Looking again at news and commentary

Protestant Service for the Sick "The Healing Powers of Faith" by Dr. Hansjörg Sick, Higher Church Council (ret.)—in Germany, September 12, 1990 (Süddeutscher Rundfunk, Stuttgart)

a radio program

"Jesus ... speaks ...: 'Rise, take up your bed, and walk!'...

"This command lifts up the lame, but it is much more: it is an uprising against a transient world, one marked by sickness, sin, and death. Jesus' healings are blessings to suffers, but at the same time also signals of God's government as it makes its appearance....

"To me, the story of the healing also contains... a challenge for church and theology. There are no indications in the Bible that the time of healing through faith passed with the apostles. On the contrary, we read that the disciples were expressly commanded to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to heal the sick. Here there is clearly an omission, a deficit, on the part of the church if it only claims to be responsible for man's soul. And there are profound consequences for the credibility of Christian preaching if the connection between body and soul, of preaching and healing, is no longer taken seriously. After all, the message of the gospel is not a philosophical truth; it is a helping and healing word. It seeks to permeate our life in all its aspects and change it, and in so doing it also reaches into the physical and social dimensions of our being....

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