Faith Healers and the Bible: What Scripture Really Says

An insightful read for anyone who is interested in religion, this book offers fresh, biblical insight into the preaching of faith healing from a Christian perspective. Faith healing has been a popular religious phenomenon in this country for well over a hundred years, gaining thousands of followers and raking in millions of dollars annually. What faith healers teach, however, often goes unchallenged. Faith Healers and the Bible: What Scripture Really Says offers an informed critique of many of the themes found in faith healers' preaching that documents that much of what they teach is not biblically based—contrary to what they would like their listeners to believe. Drawing on a lifetime of study and nearly two decades of teaching a university course titled "The Rhetoric of Faith Healing," Stephen J. Pullum, PhD, provides scriptural insight into the false claims frequently found in the preaching of healing revivalists. After an introductory chapter that explains why faith healers have been so persuasive, the author addresses a breadth of topics, including the miraculous, the providential, demon possession, the call of God, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the health and wealth gospel. Meeting faith healers on their own turf—the Bible—Pullum clearly demonstrates that much of what faith healers preach cannot be scripturally supported.