God's past healing activity in Scripture.

The word 'healing' comes alive where there is brokenness, injury, a tear, ill- health, etc. It carries the meaning of restoring things to their former and intended state. God's presence and activity in the world can only be understood through this word. The divine intention was for human beings to live in communion with God, each other and nature. But that was disrupted when sin entered the picture. Thereafter humanity became estranged from the source of life and everything around. It is this estrangement that brought psychosomatic diseases (Nel 1999) and power-mongering which led to deterioration in human relations and many other forms of brokenness.

God, in assuring the Israelites that their doing right and obeying his commandments would save them from the calamities that were visited upon Egypt concludes by stating that he is 'Their Healer' (Exodus 15: 26). The psalmist takes the thought forward by stating that in Israel's wilderness wanderings, God sent forth his word and healed them, such that, for forty years, no one was sick among them (Psalm 107:20). Some healings are recorded during the days and ministries of Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17: 19-22; 2 Kings 4:32-35; 5:9-14). But with Jesus Christ, healing takes on a new meaning. Many healings which Jeus did are recorded in the pages of the New Testament. At some stage he indicated that 'his Father' was working and so was he (John 5:17), and referring to his actions, he called them ' the works of my Father' (John 10:37). It angered him that the Jewish leaders would put restriction on his healing activity because of Sabbath observance whereas he understood these very activities as serving those for whom God instituted the Sabbath in the first place (Mark 2:27). He even intimated that his disciples would 'do greater works than these' (John 14:12) and sent them preaching, casting out demons and healing the sick (Matthew 10:1,6-8; Mark 16:15,17-18). When Jesus left for heaven, the entire package of Jesus ministry was entrusted to his disciples. Healings continued to happen under Peter and Paul's ministry. When Paul wrote the Corinthian church a letter dealing with the charismata, he mentioned 'gifts of healings' (1 Corinthians 12:9, 28, 30 ALT). It would be absurd to think that these gifts were not operating in this particular church. Thus healing is established as an activity which God did and the Scripture bears testimony to that. However, there is no lack of consensus among Biblical scholars that healing happened during Biblical times. The dispute concerns today, does God still heal today?