Healing Reawakening

Francis MacNutt

Description

For the first three hundred years of Christian history, healing prayer was fundamental in the life of the church. It even proved the main method of converting the unbelievers of the day. Then began the long slide of healing prayer into near insignificance. Ironically, Christians themselves, by reserving healing prayer for the most "holy," were the ones who almost killed this mission so central to the gospel itself.The mystery of how this happened is described by Francis MacNutt in this fascinating history, which includes his own personal journey. MacNutt sees this loss as tragic and shows how necessary it is for us to rediscover healing prayer and once more embrace it, according to Christ's original mandate--with amazing results! Christian leaders and anyone involved in the healing ministry must read this book.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Pentecostalism

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781585582693
• Langue: English

Extrait

“MacNutt is communicating a desperately needed and passionate prophetic call, born of God’s eternal Word and rooted in the heart of the Father. Yes! The ministry of healing is intended in the arsenal of power given to us by the Holy Spirit to manifest the relevance of God’s love to human pain, just as the message of salvation reveals its answer to human sin. This book is more than timely. It is avant-garde, a ‘forerunner’ statement among signals I sense the Spirit is sending the Church, saying, I’m ready to move again in earth-shaking, revival power, ready to move in and through those who will invite My works and wonders. He wants to glorify Jesus mighty Savior and loving Healer!”
Jack W. Hayford, chancellor, The King’s Seminary; president, Foursquare Church International
“Francis MacNutt has reached into his vast storehouse of experience to produce a book of extraordinary enlightenment. He skillfully answers the question ‘Did prayer for healing disappear without a trace in the Christian churches, or is it alive and well today?’ The solution to this mystery is solved in this revealing book. It is destined to become required reading for all seekers of truth.”
Barbara Shlemon Ryan, president, Beloved Ministry
“Francis MacNutt’s Nearly Perfect Crime is a hard-hitting book that should be read by every Christian. Both popular and scholarly, it calls us back to the healing ministry that was almost wiped away from the life of the Church. MacNutt, as much as any other person in modern times, has brought the ministry of healing back to the attention of contemporary Christians in every denomination. I highly recommend this book.”
Vinson Synan, dean, School of Divinity, Regent University
“Dr. MacNutt’s new book, The Nearly Perfect Crime , is an important work for today’s Christians. It explains clearly and without theological jargon how the Church lost its healing ministry and how it was regained in the last century. For those of us in the charismatic renewal, it gives us a coherent story of why and how this happened. For those in the mainline churches, it shows that the healing ministry was and is an intrinsic part of the Gospel. This book belongs on the reading list of seminarians, pastors and laypersons alike.”
The Rev. William L. De Arteaga, Ph.D., Hispanic rector, The Light of Christ Anglican Church, Marietta, Ga.
“Francis MacNutt’s words, like his healing ministry, forcefully show us how the gift of healing, so powerfully present in the early Church, began to weaken and almost die out, only to rise up time and again. Though forces within and outside the churches have diminished the gift of healing, the Holy Spirit continues to cry out for Christians to reach out and touch the sick and wounded once more today.”
Fr. Murray Bodo, O.F.M., author, Francis: The Journey and the Dream
“This is the book for the whole Church at this critical moment in her history. Out of the maturity of a life poured out to restore the center of Jesus’ message and ministry, Francis MacNutt writes with authority, integrity and passion. Our Lord’s purpose is summed up in His name and title: As Jesus, He is Savior/Healer; as Christ/Messiah, He is Spirit-empowered. Thus He fulfills His name as He comes to save and heal through the power of the Spirit. For the early centuries this mission was the mission of the Church. It resulted in evangelizing the Roman Empire. But along the way the double reality of healing and the power of the Spirit were largely marginalized and lost. Catholics and Protestants alike receive equal time and equal blame. Thus the almost perfect crime. MacNutt diagnoses with theological and historical narrative both the loss and today’s partial recovery. In our remarkable time, Jesus as Healer and the Spirit as Empowerer have become the cutting edge of the Church’s worldwide advance. What will restore the Church today, especially in the West? Solving the almost perfect crime and going into action. MacNutt has done it and does it in spades.”
Don Williams, Ph.D, author, Vineyard pastor

© 2005 by Francis MacNutt
Published by Chosen Books A division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.chosenbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-5855-8269-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Unless noted otherwise, Scripture is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture marked JB is taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, copyright © 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Scripture marked MESSAGE is taken from The MESSAGE by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NJB is taken from THE NEW JERUSALEM BIBLE, copyright © 1985 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Scripture marked KJV is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
The internet addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers in this book are accurate at the time of publication. They are provided as a resource. Baker Publishing Group does not endorse them or vouch for their content or permanence.
To Judith, my beloved wife devoted mother of Rachel and David loyal, encouraging and inspired companion in the journey to better understand Jesus’ passion to heal. And to all those pioneers who showed me the way, among whom were Rev. Tommy Tyson, Agnes Sanford and John Wimber.
C ONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1 A Christian Manifesto
1. The Nearly Perfect Crime
2. There Has to Be More!
Part 2 The Way We Were
3. Our Long Lost Inheritance
4. “And His Name Shall Be Called . . .”
5. How Did Jesus See His Mission?
6. Basic Christian Preaching
7. The Baptism with the Holy Spirit
8. Ministry with Power: The News Spreads
9. The Spirit Flourishes: The First 325 Years
Part 3 How the Nearly Perfect Crime Was Committed
10. The Church Unplugs the Power
11. Forgotten Motives: Compassion and Witness to the Truth
12. The Major Decline: Plato and the Pagans
13. Caught in Transition: St. Augustine
14. Healing Gets Lost in Chaos: The Barbarian at the Gate
15. Healing Prayer Is Elevated Out of Reach
16. The Royal Touch
17. The Protestant Reformation and the Further Decline of Healing
18. The Enlightenment and Dispensationalism: The Final Blows
Part 4 The Long Road Back
19. Expectant Faith Remains in the People
20. Fires Start (and Are Put Out)
21. Pentecost Returns: The Twentieth Century
22. Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave
23. The New Face of Christianity
24. Will We Remain on the Sidelines?
Appendix: My Discovery of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit
Notes
Bibliography
Index
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I n a very special way I want to thank our secretary, Mrs. Gail Mosely, who not only typed this manuscript but made many helpful editorial suggestions. She also shielded me from many of the inevitable interruptions that break the quiet I needed to write.
Also, in a special way, Jane Campbell, Chosen Books editor, who has worked with me on several books and whose advice I seek when I run into a question of what to include in the vast subject I have attempted to approach in this book. Her unfailing cheerfulness as well as editorial wisdom always encourage me when I phone her for suggestions.
Over the years, too, my dear friend, the late Rev. Tommy Tyson, was like a brother to me and we often talked over the fascinating topic that is at the heart of The Nearly Perfect Crime .
I NTRODUCTION
I want to write as simply as possible, stating my point clearly in order to help the Church return to an essential part of the life that Jesus Christ came to give us.
The point is simply this: Jesus came to bring us healing (and deliverance) on every level of our being physical, emotional and spiritual through the power of the Holy Spirit. As Peter summed up Christ’s ministry: “God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil” (Acts 10:38, JB ).
This teaching is central to the Gospel; it is not a side issue. But over the centuries a lively belief in healing prayer was taken away, not only by the enemies of Christianity, but, surprisingly, by Christians themselves. We are not dealing with villains here but good, even holy leaders who nearly killed Christian healing; the monks, for instance, fled to the desert (ca. A.D. 400) to escape the sinful cities and then refused, in the name of humility, to pray for the sick.
As a result, by the opening of the twentieth century healing prayer had largely disappeared from the mainline historic Church. This has been a tragic loss: The full expression of Jesus’ main ministry has, by and large, remained lost to the traditional centers of Christianity. That is a bold statement, but it needs to be set out in plain view, in its stark outline, so we can come to realize that we have accepted “the traditions of men” rather than the authentic traditions of Christianity. You may be surprised, perhaps even angered, at what this book contains. All I ask is that you read with an open mind, an open heart and an open spirit.
See if it’s not true.
In stating my case which I believe is the case of the Gospel I will not write with a multitude of subtle distinctions and a profusion