Most Americans believe God can bring about supernatural physical healing, according to a new study released by Barna, with evangelicals leading the way in that belief.
However, where Baptists stand in those attitudes depends on whether they have adopted the high-profile healing practices of other Christian groups, according to Art Allen, who recently retired from Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas.
“In recent years, Baptists have come to be connected with Pentecostal and charismatic and evangelical” movements, especially around beliefs on spirituality and physical health, Allen said.
Those who consider their Baptist faith to be an expression of evangelicalism likely would fit into the trends uncovered in the Barna report, he said.
According to Doug Wilson, dean of the school of Christian Studies at the University of Mobile, Baptists have common distinctives — such as believer’s baptism, baptism by immersion and the priesthood of all believers. But Baptists also have “historically approached practical and theological aspects of our faith from a variety of perspectives.”
‘Variety of perspectives’
Wilson explained to The Alabama Baptist that some “Baptists identify as Cessationists, believing that manifestation gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:7–11) ceased at the close of the Apostolic Age. Others identify with the Third Wave of believers — the first wave being Pentecostalism and the second being the charismatic movement — who believe that manifestation gifts, including supernatural healing, are normative for the Church. Still other Baptists are cautious about affirming every spiritual healing as a work of God, believing that the enemy can counterfeit the works of God.”
Barna found that 66 percent of American adults “believe people can be physically healed supernaturally by God,” as reported in the study titled “Most Americans Believe in Supernatural Healing.”
Researchers found strong consensus across generations among those who believe in supernatural healing. However, it also learned that 25 percent of millennials strongly disagree with the concept. That compares to 21 percent of Generation Xers, 14 percent of boomers and 13 percent of elders.
Wilson said he has not seen this trend to be true of young believers, noting that many of the students he interacts with are “absolutely convinced that God is able to heal without the intervention of doctors and medication if He chooses.”
Evangelical support
The strongest support by far comes from evangelicals, with 87 percent strongly agreeing in supernatural healing. Protestants as a whole were at 55 percent and Catholics at 19 percent, according to the study.
Practice matches belief, Barna added. It found that 68 percent of Americans say they have prayed for someone else’s supernatural healing — compared to a third who have never done so.
However, the survey found relatively few who report being healed supernaturally. Only 27 percent of Americans said they have had such an experience, compared to 73 percent who said they have not.
Roxanne Stone, Barna editor in chief, said, “The experience of actual physical healing is, of course, less frequent. Evangelicals in particular are more likely to pray for and believe in miraculous healing than they are to experience it, though this does not appear to affect their belief in its possibility.”
Stone added that most Christians have heard pastors pray for the health of others during worship services.
And that would be the extent of many Baptists’ experience with faith-based healing practices — at least historically, Allen said.
Wilson did note, however, that throughout Baptist history “we have recorded anecdotal evidence of supernatural healing,” referencing the Shantung Revival of the 1930s. During the revival several Southern Baptist missionaries in China chronicled a great move of God through revival in the Shantung Province churches, “which was accompanied by several instances of physical healing by supernatural means.”
Traditionally, however, Baptists have placed more importance on seeking spiritual health, Allen said.
“That’s what we Baptists have been doing: focusing not so much on the physical aspect of life but on our relationship with God and with other believers,” Allen said.
Healthy results
Those traditional practices during the past 400 years have produced healthy results — whether or not illness is reversed, Allen said.
Wilson agreed.
“Historically Baptists have met physical needs with physical responses,” he said. “Medical missionaries have been sent, Baptist hospitals and clinics built and disaster relief volunteers deployed to respond.
“At the same time, we recognize that the physical body is a shell we inhabit for a glimmer of history. By contrast, our souls are eternal, which is why such great emphasis is placed on evangelism and discipleship.”
Allen said, “The real miracle is not physical healing, but spiritual healing and spiritual growth and maturity.” (BNG, TAB)
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