Faith Healers and the Bible: What Scripture Really Says: What Scripture Really Says

by Stephen J. Pullum

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440832147
Publisher:	ABC-CLIO, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/14/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	209
File size:	479 KB

About the Author

Stephen J. Pullum, PhD, is professor of communication studies and former associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, where he has taught since 1988.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

1 "Hallelujah! Thank You, Jesus!": Selling the Miraculous in the Preaching of Faith Healers 1

2 "Do You Understand What You Are Reading?": Making Sense of the Bible 23

3 "That They May Believe": Distinguishing the Miraculous from the Providential 43

4 Exorcising Evil: The Bible and Psychology on Demon Possession 67

5 Burning Bushes, Talking Donkeys, and Still, Small Voices: The Call of God in the Present Age 87

6 "All Things Are Possible": When "All Things" Does Not Mean All Things 105

7 "Led By the Spirit of God": The Baptism, Indwelling, and Gift of the Holy Spirit 119

8 Name It and Claim It: The Gospel of Health and Wealth 145

9 In the Final Analysis, Why Care? 169

Notes 175

Author and Subject Index 197

Scripture Index 203