A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN PRAYER ON PAIN

OR MOBILITY RESTRICTIONS FROM SURGERIES

INVOLVING IMPLANTED MATERIALS

Randy Clark

B.S., Oakland City University, 1974

M.Div., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1977

Faculty Mentors
Andrew Sung Park, Ph.D.
Jon Ruthven, Ph.D.
Gary Greig, Ph.D.

A FINAL PROJECT SUBMITTED TO

THE DOCTORAL STUDIES COMMITTEE
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF MINISTRY

UNITED THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

DAYTON, OHIO
December 2013
 United Theological Seminary
Dayton, Ohio

Faculty Approval Page

Doctor of Ministry Final Project

A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN PRAYER ON PAIN

OR MOBILITY RESTRICTIONS FROM SURGERIES

INVOLVING IMPLANTED MATERIALS

by

Randy Clark

United Theological Seminary, 2013

Faculty Mentors

Andrew Sung Park, Ph.D.

Jon Ruthven, Ph.D.

Gary Greig, Ph.D.

Date: __________________________

Approved:

_______________________________

_______________________________

Faculty Mentors:

_______________________________
Associate Dean of Doctoral Studies
Copyright © 2013 Randy Clark
All rights reserved.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi

LIST OF TABLES xi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xii

INTRODUCTION 1

Structure of Thesis 22

CHAPTER

1. MINISTRY FOCUS 26

2. THE THEORETICAL BASIS FOR PHYSICAL HEALING:

BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL, AND HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS,
AND INTEGRATION 37

Biblical Foundation 38

Theological Foundation 91

Historical Foundation 138

Conclusion 169

3. METHODOLOGY 182

Hypothesis 182

Research Design 184

Measurement 185

Instrumentation 189

4. FIELD EXPERIENCE 196

Collection of Data 196

Did SIM Disappear? 206

iii
 Analysis of Data 209

Outcome 226

5. REFLECTION, SUMMARY, AND CONCLUSION 232

Reflection 232

Summary 272

Conclusion 275

APPENDIX

A. WRITER’S HYPOTHESIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF VARIABLES 282

B. HEALING QUESTIONNAIRE AND SURVEY RESULTS 287

C. TEN-TO-FOURTEEN-DAY POST-HEALING INTERVIEWS 297

D. TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEWS 299

E. LINKS TO VIDEO TESTIMONIES 336

F. SURVEY AT THE TIME OF HEALING 338

G. CALCULATION OF PAIN AND RANGE OF MOTION RESTRICTIONS

AND SIM HEALING PERCENTAGES BY CONTINENT 342

H. FIELD NOTES 346

I. INTRODUCTORY TEACHING TO BUILD FAITH FOR HEALING 364

BIBLIOGRAPHY 366

iv
 ABSTRACT

A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN PRAYER ON PAIN

OR MOBILITY RESTRICTIONS FROM SURGERIES

INVOLVING IMPLANTED MATERIALS

by

Randy Clark

United Theological Seminary, 2013

Faculty Mentors

Andrew Sung Park, Ph.D.

Jon Ruthven, Ph.D.

Gary Greig, Ph.D.

This study of the effects of Christian prayer on pain and mobility restrictions reportedly

resulting from surgeries involving implanted materials seeks to answer whether people

are being healed. The study utilizes action research to explore variables that impact the

probability for healing. Many people experienced healings from surgically implanted

materials with pain reduced or movement restored by 80 percent or more, much higher

than from traditional therapies. Six variables had unexpected, mixed results,

demonstrating a personal theology of healing, practical principles of training on healing,

and previous experience with healing to be significant factors for those who were healed.

v
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank the following people who have encouraged, enabled, and equipped

me to not only complete this thesis, but who have helped make it a better thesis. I could

not have completed this project without their help. The limitations and imperfections of

this work are mine alone. However, there would have been more limitations and

imperfections without the aid of some of my staff, mentors, and other doctors, professors,

and theologians.

I want to thank those who served as my context associates, professional

associates, and peer associates. My context associates were: Paul Martini, who helped

with interviewing at the meetings, videotaping, recording healing statistics, and for being

my personal assistant who traveled with me, ministering with me for the year of this

study; Vicki West, who helped with conducting the qualitative interviews, writing field

notes, and who assisted in finding citations. This was an important task because this

thesis was not written from a cubicle at the library or even from an office. Most was

written on airplanes, hotel rooms, or at home in bed, when this writer’s wife, DeAnne

was asleep. In some ways, parts of the thesis were written backwards: instead of having

books from which research was done, notes were kept with pages for quotes, and much of

the work was done from memory of books read over the years. Then the books had to be

vi
researched to find the information mentioned in the thesis. Vicki was a great help in this

way. She also helped edit and format the work.

Those on my staff who helped with the project were: Marion Hayes, the primary

editor, who had the challenging job of trying to keep the various versions of the thesis

straight. Many e-mail communications occurred as she sent me the latest versions with

instructions of what I still needed to do. She would then edit what I had finished. Her eye

for detail and editorial work was a lifesaver.

Caleb Ostby, an assistant researcher, also helped with calling people to follow up

on testimonies and with some of Paul Martini’s responsibilities when Paul could not be

with this writer. Caleb traveled to several events during the year and interviewed,

videotaped, and kept track of records. He also helped with evaluating the data.

Canaan Henady was the main person on the team from the media production

department who traveled to most of the larger meetings. He shot videos and testimonies. I

would also like to thank Rebecca Rinker, from the media production department,

Christian Imbesi, from the media production department, and my son, Jeremiah Clark, for

helping with footnoting, making sure the citations were correct for earlier versions of the

thesis, and for helping find citation information.

I want to thank Tom Jones, my peer associate, who is the Executive Director of

Global Awakening, and who traveled even more than this writer did. Your friendship has

been one of the greatest blessings of my life. Your wisdom has saved my ministry and

you gave me back my life, by carrying the responsibilities in the several director roles

you have had at Global. I do not think I would have enrolled in this Doctor of Ministry

Program without you.

vii
 I thank my faculty mentors for all your input into my life, not just this project.

Your input was such a great help, and constructive feedback and editorial advice was

crucial to the betterment of this thesis. I thank you for being willing to be my mentors.

Jon Ruthven and Gary Greig, you were the two professors I had asked God for even

before I started this Doctoral Program at United Theological Seminary. I had asked

another seminary on another continent if you could be my mentors, but my request was

declined. Following my acceptance, I chose not to enter that program. Then, God made it

possible for you to be my mentors at United Theological Seminary. The insights I gained

from both of you, and especially Jon, have made a tremendous impact on my

understanding of the Kingdom of God, faith, the gospel, and their interrelationship. I feel

God gave me the best, my heart’s desire. Before I met you in person, I was already

indebted to you both for what I had learned from you through your writings. Gary, your

eye for detail is amazing. Your depth of knowledge is amazing. Jon, you are my favorite

theologian.

I want to thank my United Theological Seminary faculty mentor, Andrew Park.

Andrew, God used you to bring me to United Theological Seminary. Thank you for

recruiting me and for recognizing my potential for theological reflection and practical

application. You have been a ‘Barnabas’ to me. I believe God has purposes greater than

either of us imagined for our connection.

I want to thank my professional associates for their input into my life and this

thesis. Martin Moore-Ede, MD, Ph.D., Stephen Mory, MD, Ph.D., and John Park, MD.

Thank you for reading chapters three through five and giving me your professional

advice. Also, thank you for recommending some articles from the medical field.

viii
 I want to thank the theologians and religious studies professors who read chapter

two, giving much-needed feedback, and sometimes correcting where I had misunderstood

something or was misrepresenting a movement or part of the Church.

Mary Healey, thank you for helping me with the areas that dealt with the Catholic

Church. You brought a correction to a blind spot in my understanding, especially in

regard to Aquinas. Your many insights were very helpful, and I hope you will be able to

see how you tempered me and made me a more usable vessel in the Lord’s vineyard.

Craig Keener, I am amazed that you took the time to read the long section on the

biblical, theological, and historical foundations. Your insights have made that section

stronger. Your two-volume book, Miracles, was one of the highlights of the reading for

the Doctoral Program.

Joshua and Candy Brown, thank you for your encouragement and advice, as well

as input. Getting to know you over the years has been a joy in my life. Thank you for

inviting me to the Symposium, Healing: Catholic, Protestant, and Medical Perspectives,

at St. Louis University. Being part of the lecturers for the symposium was a catalyst God

used to light a fire in me for reaching into the medical community. Candy, your books

have been a great blessing to many, including me.

Michael McClymond, thank you for your suggestions and recommendations of

articles that could be helpful to my studies. Thank you for your support and the wisdom

you freely offered to me when I reached out to you for advice.

David Zaritsky, thank you for your hospitality, your zeal for the Lord, your input

on the international ministry trips, and your professional medical opinions and

ix
interpretations. Thank you for your encouraging words and your willingness to help us

with the healing verifications.

I want to thank my family. You all had to forgive me for so often being

preoccupied with this thesis. It took more time from you than I had planned. I was not

able to get it done by writing on the road, and I did have to spend many hours working on

it while at home. Thank you, DeAnne, for being understanding, and when you knew I

was under pressure to meet a deadline, you were supportive. Thank you for being willing

to give up some of the too little time we have together. Thank you to all my children and

their mates who put up with a preoccupied dad. Josh and Tonya, Johannah and David,

Josiah and Allie, Jeremiah and Lizzie, thank you for being understanding and supportive.

x
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Results of Utilizing Candy Brown’s Survey Template 193

Table 2. 2012 Healing Percentages by Country 212

Table 3. Percentage of People Healed from SIM in 2012 213

Table 4. Change in Pain Levels 228

Table 5. Change in Range of Motion 230

Table 6. Calculation of Pain and Range of Motion Restriction—Brazil 343

Table 7. Calculation of Pain and Range of Motion Restriction—USA 343

Table 8. 2012 Healing Percentages by Continent 344

xi
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

BDAG Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other

Early Christian Literature

CHCP Christian Healing Certification Program

DIP Distance Intercessory Prayer

GSSM Global School of Supernatural Ministry

GMRI Global Medical Research Institute

KJV King James Version

NAS New American Standard Version

NIV New International Version

NT New Testament

OT Old Testament

PIP Proximal Intercessory Prayer

PCP Platform Commanding Prayer

SHI Global Awakening Schools of Healing and Impartation

SIM Surgically Implanted Materials

STEPP Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Proximal Intercessory

Prayer

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament

TDOT Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament

xii
 INTRODUCTION

When one is faced with serious illness, all else fades to the periphery of the mind.

Nothing is as important to a person as their health. Divine healing as a part of health care has

been, is, and will be an urgent matter to individuals and to nations.1 If the Church was to awaken

to its divine mandate that includes healing, it could save the government billions of tax dollars

each year.2 Yet the Church in America has allowed religious traditions to cause the commands of

God to be ignored.3 It is the New Age movement’s interest in healing that is helping to contribute

to its fast growth.4 The phenomenal growth of Reiki, Therapeutic Touch (TT), and Healing

Touch in America is a sign of the interest in non-traditional means of healing.

1
Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire AD 100-400 (New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 1984), chap. 3-4. MacMullen emphasizes that the primary reason for the conversion of the Europeans from
the Greco-Roman gods to Christianity was its power to deliver from demons and to heal sickness and disease. He
also points out that the last god whose temples were consecrated as churches was Aesclepius, the Greco-Roman god
of healing. William DeArteaga, Forging a Renewed Hebraic and Pauline Christianity (Tulsa, OK: Word & Spirit
Press, forthcoming). DeArteaga adds to MacMullen by pointing out how important healing was to the American
Church in the final quarter of the nineteenth century, and the first part of the twentieth century. David Harrell Jr., All
Things are Possible (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1975). Harrell presents a scholarly portrait of the
interest in healing at the mid-twentieth-century. While in South Africa, a taxi cab driver shared that he had left the
Pentecostal denomination to join the Zionist movement, a cult in South Africa. When asked what motivated him, he
said, “I was healed through the Zionist church, so my whole family and I joined it.” This is consistent with the
emphasis of MacMullen. See also: Henry I. Lederle, Theology with Spirit: The Future of the Pentecostal-
Charismatic Movements in the 21st Century (Tulsa, OK: Word & Spirit, 2010).
2
Harvard professor of medicine, Dr. Herbert Benson, believes there could be huge tax savings to Americans
through the use of self-healing practices. Herbert Benson, Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology of Belief (New
York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1997), 223-24.
3
An allusion to the words of Jesus in Mark 7:8-9: “You have let go of the commands of God and are
holding on to the traditions of men. And he said to them: ‘You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of
God in order to observe your own traditions!’” New International Version (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman
Publishers, 1984). Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible references in this paper are from the NIV.
4
Wouter J. Hanegraaff, New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular
Thought (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1988). This work provides an important understanding

13
 Many church leaders have expressed concern that the Church is not awake to the post-

modern era. Some believe that the Church should return to a first-century approach to

apologetics and evangelism, relying heavily on the ministry of healing, which is the birthright of

the Church. The Church needs to bring back basic discipleship and training teaching Christians

how to pray for the sick. Sadly, there has been little training in this area for most Christians,

especially in the historical denominations, the Restoration movement, the Fundamentalist

movement, and the Evangelical movement.5 There is no scholarly work that has attempted to

approach this subject from an academic position.

As grounding for the premise that systematic training among Christians for medically-

recognized healing can indeed occur, this study seeks to demonstrate that such training can, and

indeed, does have a substantial empirical reality. This project is meant to offer a contribution in

the area of Christian discipleship, attempting to point out how healing is to be part of normal

Christian discipleship. Its secondary purpose is to reveal the causal connection between

revelatory gifts to the creation of faith, and faith’s connection to the working of miracles or

healing. It hopes to offer a Christian option to alternative medicine’s energy healing models such

as Reiki and Therapeutic Touch, as well as Healing Touch. The Christian alternative should rest

upon a scholarly approach to biblical, theological, and historical theoretical foundations. The

practice of healing should also be cognizant of the medical context of praying for the sick in

hospitals or clinics, not just within the context of the congregational or small group meetings.

from a scholarly position on the New Age movement and the role of healing in the New Age movement. Also, for
the role of healing in the spreading of Christianity, see Phillip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of
Global Christianity (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002).
5
Jon Ruthven, What's Wrong with Protestant Theology? Tradition vs. Biblical Emphasis (Tulsa, OK: Word
& Spirit Press, 2013). The book discusses the importance of bringing back biblical discipleship, which includes
healing and deliverance, not just Bible study.

14
 This study utilizes academic methods to test the hypothesis that one can be healed

through prayer following pain and movement restrictions reportedly resulting from surgery

involving surgically implanted materials (SIM). This study has found that in a significant number

of cases prayer alleviated chronic pain and/or loss of movement reportedly resulting from

surgeries involving SIM. The measurement used for determining what qualifies as healing has

been a self-reported 80 percent reduction in symptoms—a formula derived from thousands of

self-reported and objectively confirmed healing cases in the ministry of Global Awakening.

Anyone who reported a decrease in pain or an increase of mobility of 80 percent or more was

considered healed. The period for the statistical analysis was the year 2012, though there are

some remarks regarding the total number of people healed of undesirable symptoms from SIM

going back to September 21, 2009.

This study focuses on platform commanding prayer (PCP) as the model of healing prayer.

This type of prayer is not distance intercessory prayer (DIP), where one is not close to the person

and cannot see them, nor is it so close to the person one could lay hands on them. The number of

healings in the Global Awakening ministry is about 50 percent proximal intercessory prayer

(PIP) and 50 percent PCP. Most of the PIP healings occur through large teams, usually

comprising between forty and one hundred people that travel to many countries. In addition, a

high percentage of healings occur following the giving of words of knowledge.6 However, this

study is limited to PCP without the giving of words of knowledge for this condition. The reason

6
A word of knowledge is a gift of the Spirit that provides revelation about the nature of the disease or
problem. This grace gift, which reveals information or knowledge, does not come via natural means. Instead, this
knowledge comes from the Holy Spirit and, in the case of healing, it provides knowledge regarding someone’s
condition. One can receive a word of knowledge through: (1) feeling someone’s pain that is not one’s own pain; (2)
having an impression of a particular condition; (3) seeing a mental picture—such as a daydream; (4) reading words
that appear on one’s mind; (5) seeing an open vision, for example, of how the person was injured or the part of the
body injured; and (6) dreaming about the condition. These are some of the ways a Christian can receive a word of
knowledge. See 1 Cor. 12:8; 14:24-26.

15
for this limitation is that there were no words of knowledge specific for SIM. If there had been,

this study would have included healings following words of knowledge.

The type of prayer that has been shown to be successful in this study changes the most

common understanding of prayer from petitionary, asking God to do something on one’s behalf,

to exercising the God-given authority of a believer in covenant relationship with God to

command the body to respond to the word of command. This type of prayer is believed to

sometimes carry the power of the Kingdom of God behind it. This is not an independent free

agent type of prayer. Rather, it is an ambassadorial dependence upon the Kingdom of God being

present, and it is based upon an understanding that we are co-laborers with Christ. This

relationship of co-laboring with Christ is dependent upon receiving communication from the

spiritual realm that creates the faith for specific declarations. This writer is not sure that others

have studied this type of prayer, and almost all of the cases studied will be related to PCP.

Sometimes, during the ministry by word of knowledge, someone has pain in the area called out

by word of knowledge, and is healed. However, this healing may not be connected to a specific

word for people with SIM. When this happens, it is a methodological confound of the study.

Since 1984, this writer has continuously been involved in the ministry of praying for the

sick, a practice that affords a relatively extensive breadth of experience. This study affirms that,

within a “real-world” setting of active ministry, scientific observation, investigation, and the

creation and testing of hypotheses, are as legitimately applicable to these phenomena as to any

other. Since this same process is also at work within the intuitive working of this writer’s make

up, he had already come to some tentative conclusions regarding healing, and has spent over

twenty-eight years trying to gain a better understanding of the variables that can affect the

probability of healing.

16
 This writer hopes that in the midst of the quantitative and qualitative data that is

marshaled to support the conclusion that healing through PCP is happening and can be verified,

the more important meta-narrative will not be lost. It is important that the conflict between two

meta-narratives (theistic and rationalistic interpretations) will become clear to the reader. Story

will be utilized to create expectation that the present meta-narrative of rationalistic materialism,

which has shaped theological opinion since the Renaissance and the birth of Protestantism, needs

to be replaced by the meta-narrative of eyewitness human experience, as its own legitimate

evidence or truth. This fits much better with the new meta-narrative of Postmodernism. Today’s

postmodern culture does believe in the miraculous, in angels, demons, healing, spiritual

experiences, and miracles.7

The modernist meta-narrative of our culture was and is based upon skepticism. This

skepticism was established by many pronouncements of “the way things are,” of “what is

possible,” of “moving beyond the pre-scientific superstitions of society before the

Enlightenment.” This narrative came to be expressed in science as materialistic evolution,8 and

7
Craig Keener, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Academic, 2011), 1:426-507.
8
Richard Lewinton’s explains the philosophical presuppositions of materialistic evolution, which strongly
reject not only creationism, but also theistic evolution. Lewinton writes:

Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an
understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side
of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to
fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the
scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior
commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of
science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world,
but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create
an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no
matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that
materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.

The quote above reveals that the science of materialistic evolution is not based so much on science, but on
materialistic philosophy. Richard Lewontin, “Billions and Billions of Demons,” a review of Carl Sagan, The
Demon-Hunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, (New York, NY: Random House, 1996) in New York
Review of Books, 9 (January 1997), 28-30.

17
in politics and economics as Marxist dialectical materialism.9 The developing meta-narrative of

Postmodernism places considerably greater value on story or testimony, that is, the report of

one’s experience. These testimonies represent human expressions of another realm of possibility

actualized by the power of the announcement of the good news of the Kingdom of God being in

or upon us. This announcement of “good news,” of a power beyond us, derives from a

relationship with Jesus, the Christ. This proclamation is important in creating an environment

that neutralizes the skepticism of our culture. Both meta-narratives are suggestive; both have

power to influence. Both are “manipulative.” To the contrary, scientific observation has given

credibility to healing related to prayer.10 Evidence that God affects this healing is beyond pure

9
Van A. Harvey, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta (New York, NY: International
Publishers, 1940), s.v. “Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach,” http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2011/entries/ludwig-
feuerbach (accessed July 17, 2013).
10
Candy Gunther Brown, Testing Prayer: Science and Healing (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
2012); Candy Gunther Brown, “Global Awakenings: Divine Healing Networks and Global Community in North
America, Brazil, Mozambique, and Beyond,” in Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing (New York, NY:
Oxford University Press, 2011), 351-69; Candy Gunther Brown, “Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Proximal
Intercessory Prayer (STEPP) on Auditory and Visual Impairments in Rural Mozambique,” Southern Medical
Journal 103, no. 9 (September 2010): 864-69.
Some of the most thorough investigations of healing prayer in Britain were conducted by Dr. Rex Gardner,
MD, a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist. His presidential address to the Newcastle and Northern Counties
Medical Society was published in the British Medical Journal and contained half a dozen medically documented
cases of otherwise inexplicable healings associated with prayer in Christ's name. Rex Gardner, "Miracles of Healing
in Anglo-Celtic Northumbria as Recorded by the Venerable Bede and His Contemporaries: A Reappraisal in the
Light of Twentieth-Century Experience,” British Medical Journal 287 (December 1983): 1927-33. See also: David
Lewis, Healing: Fiction, Fantasy, or Fact? (London, UK: Hodder & Stoughton, 1989); David Lewis, “A Social
Anthropologist's Analysis of Contemporary Healing,” in Gary S. Greig and Kevin N. Springer, eds., The Kingdom
and the Power: Are Healing and the Spiritual Gifts Used by Jesus and the Early Church Meant for the Church
Today? (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1993), 321-43.

Perhaps partly as a result of the exploding Pentecostal/charismatic movement worldwide,

belief in miracles is spread broadly into the popular culture. A 2003 Harris poll revealed
that 84% of the public believed that miracles occur today. A later, differently phrased poll
indicated that 73% of adults believed in miracles, a figure that agrees with a poll of 1,100
physicians’ responses, at 74%, who believed that miracles occurred in the past.
Interestingly, for this study, 73% agreed that miracles occur today. A surprising result
showed that 55% of the physicians claimed to witness medical miracles in their practice.
The recent trends over the past decades show a persistent, even growing belief in the
miraculous today. Interestingly, an Israeli survey, published at the end of 2008 claimed that
82% of Jews believed in miracles and that 41% claimed to experience miracles of their
own.

18
science, and moves from the chair of the secular academic to the chair of the theologian. Having

said this, it remains that the majority of average people would be open to interpret the scientific

findings as probable evidence of divine causation for the healings.11 A minority would interpret

the same information from the skeptical a priori assumptions of modernism, therein rejecting any

theistic explanation.

This project, while limited to the question of whether people are being healed of pain

and/or movement restriction involving SIM in response to Christian prayer, must in fact deal

with these meta-narrative issues. These issues cannot be resolved by the exegesis of a text, for

one could exegete a particular text through the lens of Lutheran or Reformed cessationism

resulting in a proof text that is superficially convincing because it is “based” upon several pages

of exegetical work and also supported by anti-supernaturalistic presuppositions, which are the

result of more eisegesis than exegesis.12 A truly scriptural understanding of the theology of

healing comes instead from a hermeneutic that is transparent to the community of believers.

Specifically, one must ask the question, “What is the emphasis of the Bible?” Is the Bible’s

understanding of faith closer to the interpretations of classical historical Protestantism or is it

closer to the twentieth-century theologians Rudolf Bultmann, Paul Tillich, and the so-called

Jon Ruthven, What’s Wrong, 110-11.

11
Keener, Miracles, 1:426-30. In a December 2008 Gallup survey, 65 percent of survey respondents said,
“that religion was important in their daily lives.” Frank Newport, “State of the States: Importance of Religion,”
article posted January 28, 2009, http://www.gallup.com/poll/114022/State%20-States-Importance-Religion.aspx
(accessed July 18, 2013).
12
Anthony A. Hoekema, Holy Spirit Baptism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1972); Frederick D. Bruner, A
Theology of the Holy Spirit: The Pentecostal Experience and the New Testament Witness (Eugene, OR: Wipf and
Stock, 1997), 155-218; Myung Yong Kim, “Reformed Pneumatology and Pentecostal Pneumatology,” in Reformed
Theology: Identity and Ecumenicity, ed. Wallace M. Alston Jr. and Michael Welker (Grand Rapids: MI: Eerdmans,
2003), 170-89; O. Palmer Robertson, The Final Word (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1993). See the critique of
Robertson’s exegesis in Jon Ruthven, What's Wrong, 46-49.

19
“Jesus Seminar” participants,13 to name a few of its representatives? Or is it closer to the crude

interpretations of early Pentecostalism or the more nuanced and refined supernatural

interpretations of Pentecostal scholars, such as Craig Keener, Amos Yong, M. M. B. Turner,

Jack Deere, and Jon Ruthven, among others?14

The missionary context has allowed experience to inform hermeneutics. Mark Knoll

illustrates this by sharing the experience of Andrew Walls who experienced the modern day

worldview of Acts in his missionary experience in Sierra Leone causing his hermeneutical

method to be informed by experience. Knoll then makes a powerful statement pertinent to the

subject of the preceding paragraph.

Westerners who minister in Latin America, China, the Philippines, Africa

or the South Seas consistently report that most Christian experience reflects
a much stronger supernatural awareness than is characteristic of even
charismatic and Pentecostal circles in the West. In Western Christian
history there is a long tradition of learned theological debate over
cessationism—whether or not the implementation of Christian practice
based on Scripture (Protestants), or Scripture with tradition (Catholics), has
taken the place of more direct contact with God and the spirits more
generally. In the Christian world as it exists today, that debate has been
rendered moot by a tidal wave of Christian practice. With only some
hyperbole, we might say that although some of the world’s new Christian
communities are Roman Catholic, some Anglican, some Baptist, some

13
The Jesus Seminar was a group of scholars that used extremely subjective reasoning to suggest that only
certain sayings of Jesus in the Gospels were actually spoken by Jesus. Presuppositions against the supernatural signs
and wonders or predictive prophecy had powerful influence upon their rejection of all such passages. The Jesus
Seminar's reconstruction of the historical Jesus portrayed him as an itinerant Hellenistic Jewish sage and faith healer
who preached a gospel of liberation from injustice in startling parables and aphorisms. See Robert Walter Funk and
the Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus (San Francisco, CA: Harper,
1998).
14
Ruthven, What's Wrong; Keener, Miracles, 2:632; Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit:
Discovering How God Speaks and Heals Today (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996); Max Turner, The Holy Spirit
and Spiritual Gifts: Then and Now (Peabody: MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2005); Max Turner, Power from on
High: The Spirit in Israel's Restoration and Witness in Luke-Acts, in Journal of Pentecostal Theology Supplement
Series 9 (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000); Gordon D. Fee, Gospel and Spirit: Issues in New
Testament Hermeneutics (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1991), 70; Rudolf Bultmann, Existence and Faith, Shorter
Writings of Rudolf Bultmann (Cleveland, OH: Meridian Books, 1960), 289-96; Gordon D. Fee, God's Empowering
Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009), 2; James D. G. Dunn,
Jesus and the Spirit: A Study of the Religious and Charismatic Experience of Jesus and the First Christians as
Reflected in the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997), 135-96.

20
 Presbyterian and many independent, almost all are Pentecostal in a broad
sense of the term.15

This research project will utilize quantitative data as well as qualitative data. Quantitative

data alone is insufficient fully to address the subject of this project because this research is not

limited to the study of humans from a sociological perspective. This research also is an attempt

to study the belief in, and reality of, the presence and power of a God who is both transcendent

and immanent. This project, unlike that of the hard sciences, involves human volition, faith,

doubt, guilt, shame, trust, confusion, and existential realities of the human predicament. This

project also studies the volition and purposes of an understanding of God that is not based upon a

pantheistic understanding of principles or forces, but rather upon an understanding of God that is

theistic, one that allows for God’s personhood to be understood as involving will and timing to

act or intervene in the human predicament or context.

A basic assumption of this research is that the causative factor in the healing from SIM

was the God who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, as recorded in Scripture. Another assumption

of this project is that the types of healings occurring in His name around the world and

throughout the history of the Church are greater in number and in the degree of supernatural

causation than occurs in other religions.16 It is hoped that this study will become foundational for

other studies, not only on the effects of Christian prayer for healing, but for others who will

follow up with studies on the efficacy of Jewish, of Muslim, of Hindu, or of New Age prayer.

This project will have to wait for researchers to conduct future studies involving other religions

15
Mark A. Noll, The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith
(Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009), 34.
16
Preferring Christian prayer to the prayers of other religions is contrary to the claims of the books written
by professors of medicine, both psychiatrists, like Dr. Herbert Benson and Dr. Harold Koenig, and epidemiologists
like Dr. Jeff Levine. These books state there is no evidence that it makes any difference what religion one believes
in, rather it is spirituality that has proven efficacious to longer life span and higher quality of life.

21
to determine whether its assumptions are true. There are other sources that sustain the beliefs of

these assumptions. These sources are church historical17 and missiological studies18.

This writer became interested in studying SIM after attendees at his meetings reported

healings from chronic pain and/or restoration of range of motion following surgeries involving

SIM, beginning with cases on September 19, 2009. The pain and/or loss of range of motion were

caused by surgeries that involved implanting foreign material into the body. Attendees at such

meetings had given hundreds of testimonies by January 2012, and the Global Awakening media

department recorded more than one hundred videos of these testimonies.19 A few reported they

could no longer feel material in their bodies or that the doctor could not find it. Thus, this

research seeks to explore the variables associated with healing from pain and loss of range of

motion, reportedly resulting from SIM surgery, in response to Christian prayer.

This is likely the only study that focuses on PCP in connection with SIM. However, it is

not just the opinion of this writer that medically inexplicable recoveries have and are occurring;

other professionals from several fields also have studied Global Awakening’s ministry, albeit,

not with a singular focus on SIM. Dr. Candy Brown led a team that studied Global Awakening,

especially its ministry to those with visual or auditory impairments.20

Dr. Candy Brown conducted previous studies on healing and Global Awakening’s

ministry, which she studied for over nine years. She had conducted several interviews, surveys,

17
See Introduction page 1n1. Also, Jenkins, The Next Christiandom; Keener, Miracles, 66-72, 359-425.
18
Randy Clark, ed., Supernatural Missions: The Impact of the Supernatural on World Missions
(Mechanicsburg, PA: Global Awakening, 2012); Keener, Miracles, 264-358.
19
Video testimonies may be viewed at:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUERmgsb980UQCHzNUzFzB9qnRiZ73edZ&feature=edit_ok
20
Brown, “Study of the Therapeutic Effects,” 864-69; Brown, Testing Prayer. Global Awakening was the
focus of Candy Gunther Brown’s research.

22
and tests at his meetings. Dr. Candy Brown had asked this author to come to St. Louis

University, where she was teaching, to be part of a symposium entitled, Healing: Catholic,

Protestant, and Medical Perspectives. This meeting precipitated the author’s interest to research

what the medical community was discovering about the effects of prayer on well-being and

healing.

There is much information coming from the medical profession today on the effects of

spirituality on health and well-being that often leads to a longer and happier life. There was no

distinction made between the types of spirituality; whether Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, New Age,

or Christian. This writer’s belief, that it does make a difference, is based not only upon

considerable personal experience, but also upon the historical study of Ramsay MacMullen, a

secular historian at Yale University,21 and extensive missiological evidence.22

Substantial data, specifically pertaining to Christian healing, deserves a hearing within

academia, especially within Christian colleges, universities, divinity schools, and seminaries.

During a four-day School of Healing and Impartation, Dr. Andrew Sung Park heard this writer

teach on healing. Dr. Park offered him a full scholarship if he would come to United Theological

Seminary to study for the Doctor of Ministry degree. Prior to this invitation to attend United, this

author had already determined to study the reports of SIM being healed, and sometimes

disappearing. Having read statements by Dr. Harold Koenig and others about the need for more

research on the subject of healing within the context of Pentecostal/Charismatic healing services,

it only seemed natural to feel qualified to do such a study.23

21
MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire, chap. 3-4.
22
Donald R. Kantel, “Downstream from Toronto: The ‘Toronto Blessing’ Revival & Iris Ministries in
Mozambique” (D.Min. thesis, Regent Divinity School, 2007); Clark, Supernatural Missions.
23
Harold G. Koenig, Michael E. McCullough, and David B. Larson, Handbook of Religion and Health
(New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001), 473.

23
 Attitudes toward healing by the traditional Church (Evangelicals, so-called “mainline

denominations,” and Catholics) range from rejection to nominal acceptance. In almost all cases,

there is little interest in stimulating the actual practice of divine healing among either the clergy

or their laity. For this writer, however, healing has become normative—an imperative from the

very emphasis of Scripture itself. Nonetheless, on a personal level this normativity grew

incrementally over time. Beginning in January 1994, healing became somewhat normative, and

after January 1995, it became fully normative. Not only did it become normative, the kinds of

healings became greater in 2009. Such healing should be normative for the Church, even though,

sometimes it is not. Why healing is occurring is the most basic and fundamental question that

needs to be addressed.

This research focuses on six variables related to the increased probability of healing.

These six variables are: (1) the person’s theology of healing; (2) the person’s expectation of

healing; (3) the person’s degree of personal training on healing; (4) the person’s experience of

healing; (5) the type of prayer that preceded the healing; and (6) the person’s experience

regarding words of knowledge. These variables were approached through different means of data

collection, such as interviews, surveys, field notes, and case studies. Not all variables could be

determined in every mechanism used to gather the data, but some of the variables did show up in

all the mechanisms used to gather the data.

As expected, there was a significant correlation between the percentage of people

reporting that they were healed from pain or range of motion restriction involving SIM and the

variables listed above. For some, there were multiple variables that affected the probability of

healing. This confirmed the assumptions from the beginning of the project.

24
 This study examines whether there is evidence of people receiving what the medical

community would call “medically inexplicable recoveries” from pain and range of motion

restrictions reportedly resulting from SIM surgery following Christian prayer for healing.

Skeptics would say that these recoveries are just examples of the anomalies that occur in the

medical field. For instance, one out of 60,000 to one out of 100,000 cancer patients experience a

spontaneous remission.24 This is an anomaly of the anomaly. Not only in regard to cancer, but

also in regard to pain and range of motion restrictions reportedly resulting from SIM surgery. If

normal probability of a spontaneous remission is 1 in 60,000 or 1 in 100,000, then if a particular

ministry has seen five to ten cancer patients healed out of say 1,000, this would be an anomaly of

the anomaly, it would be unusual and outside the probabilities by a significant percent.25

When it comes to recovery from a surgery involving SIM, there is sometimes persistent

chronic pain and decreased functional status. In a study on treatments for people with “failed

back surgery syndrome” following instrumental spinal fusion, only 35 percent of patients

reported good outcomes, even after sometimes having multiple procedures.26 When it comes to

SIM, there is also often dismal hope for relief of the pain or for regaining range of motion.27 In

24
Keener, Miracles, 2:632.
25
When healings are automatically discounted as spontaneous remissions, or as misdiagnosis, instead of a
divine intervention in response to prayer, it reveals the working of materialism clothed in scientism. Many theories
of science are grounded in faith without evidence. This faith is based upon a materialistic philosophical
understanding of reality, which not unlike theism depends upon faith without evidence. Scientism’s weakness lies in
the belief that science already understands all the “regularities” of nature, and that a miracle would “rupture” these
regularities, failing to understand there are higher regularities or laws of the Kingdom of God that one day may be
understood and added to the regularities of nature. It is not a rupturing, but rather drawing upon a higher law of
creation’s Creator. For more information on scientism, see footnote 8 of this Introduction.
26
Mark P. Arts, Nicola I. Kols, Suzanne M. Onderwater, and Wilco C. Peul, “Clinical Outcome of
Instrumented Fusion for the Treatment of Failed Back Surgery Syndrome: A Case Series of 100 Patients,” Acta
Neurochirurgica 154 (July 2012):1213-17.
27
Dr. Stephen Mory, former Global Medical Research Institute medical director, phone interview with
author, October 10, 2012.

25
contrast, from February 23, 2012 to December 15, 2012, forty-two meetings where prayer for

healing involving SIM were studied. The average number for persons per meeting who had SIM

was nineteen people, and of this number, nine would be able to recognize if they were healed

because their surgeries resulted in undesirable symptoms. Of these nine, about four people

reported being healed and demonstrated what they could now do that they could not do

previously. The total percentage of people at these meetings who needed healing and were

healed from pain and movement restrictions reportedly resulting from SIM surgery was 38

percent. These statistics will be discussed further in Chapter Four.

A more scientific approach to this project would be the testing of the null hypothesis that

no one is being healed of SIM in the meetings held for this purpose.28 Since science cannot

actually prove something because there could be more evidence later to disprove the theory,

what science can do is falsify a hypothesis. This study will examine whether the null hypothesis,

that people are not being healed of surgically implanted materials resulting in ongoing chronic

pain, loss of range of motion or both, is true. The evidence presented in this study proves this

null hypothesis false; however, science still cannot prove whether people actually receive a

divine healing. Such a determination would go beyond skeptical science, even beyond the socio-

scientific sphere of authority or magisterium. One can, however, record cases of self-reported

interpretation of the healing as being from God—an interpretation that comes from a source as

close to the healing as is possible—the people who were healed.

28
The scientific method does not prove a hypothesis. It can merely falsify a hypothesis. “When scientists
investigate a variety of phenomena, they look for evidence to disprove rather than prove hypotheses and theories
that might explain those phenomena. A purpose of statistical analysis is to weigh the relative probabilities not to
prove that effects that appear to exist are not merely the product of chance.” Brown, Testing Prayer, 11.

26
 Nonetheless, the conclusion drawn in this thesis belongs to the magisterium of Christian

Faith. A materialistic or humanistic atheist may look at the results and ascribe them to the

placebo effect.29 This study will seek to examine a reported improvement of 80 percent or more,

even one hundred days after healing. Scientism’s knowledge is not the only legitimate form of

knowledge, and evidence that is limited to the constraints of materialism is not the only form of

valid evidence.30 While scientism’s evidence may be helpful in a court of law, it definitely is not

the only admissible evidence for serious researchers of reported healings. Ultimately, in a court

of law, cases are not judged based on scientism’s materialistic interpretation of reality alone, but

on the common sense of the jurors who listen to the evidence presented by the attorneys. In past

generations, theology was called the Queen of the Sciences. Now, sadly, the queen has been

dethroned by many. However, the King of Kings still reigns, and divine revelation is still a

means to scientific discoveries.31 Divine healing belongs to the magisterium of the Church, and

29
The placebo effect and reasons for rejecting the naturalistic explanation of healing as placebo effect will
be discussed in more detail in Chapter Five. On July 16, 2013, this writer had a physical. His doctor asked him about
the work he was doing for his thesis. During the discussion regarding placebo effect, and what people often reported
happening to them during the healings—the heat or energy in their bodies, especially where the problem was—the
doctor said, “That isn’t how placebo works. There aren’t those kinds of physical sensations during placebo effect.”
30
Refer to Introduction page 6n8. Mortimer Adler, the great philosopher and educator of the University of
Chicago and editorial director of the Encyclopedia Britannica, also criticized “the claims of science that the only
knowledge we can have concerning human nature comes to us from the laboratory or the clinic.” Mortimer Adler,
Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind (New York, NY: Macmillan, 1988), 3.
31
A Nobel Prize winner in an area of science received his/her breakthrough theories through divine
revelation that turned out to be true. He/she is afraid to admit to the scientific community that the formulas involved
in his/her research came by divine intuition where the formulas were revealed to him/her. Indeed the well-known
electrical engineering genius, Nikola Tesla, whose invention of the AC (alternating currency) induction motor made
possible the transmission and distribution of electricity over one hundred years ago, whose father was a Serbian
Orthodox priest and whose mother was also the daughter of a Serbian Orthodox priest, attributed to divine revelation
his mental powers that produced ingenious inventions: “At this time, as at many other times in the past, my thoughts
turned towards my mother's teaching. The gift of mental power comes from God, Divine Being, and if we
concentrate our minds on that truth, we become in tune with this great power. My Mother had taught me to seek all
truth in the Bible; therefore I devoted the next few months to the study of this work.” Nikola Tesla, My Inventions:
The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla (Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2005), 69; see also David H. Childress, The
Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla (Kempton, IL: Adventures Unlimited Press), 1993; Robert Lomas, The Man
Who Invented the Twentieth Century: Nikola Tesla, Forgotten Genius of Electricity (Terra Alta, WV: Headline
Books, 1999).

27
should be studied by the academy of science. It is here that this writer’s definition of miracle

needs to be stated because it is not the definition of the academy that is being used with its

Humean influenced presupposition or the Catholic Tridentine understanding of miracle.32 It is a

more biblical understanding that does not have to regard miracle as complete, instantaneous,

without any naturalistic explanation, but rather, sees the miraculous in the timing of the occasion

of the answer to prayer,33 especially when the answer to prayer would be highly improbable.34

What is a miracle?35 As the term is used in this work, “A miracle is an unusual event, based upon

divine revelation, which is the basis for the faith that results in divine causation through divine

power, often associated with the prayer, command of faith, or act of obedience of a believer.”36

There is much the Church and its pastors can learn from science, but there are limitations

to the kinds of knowledge that science can provide, especially when it comes to the spiritual

realm.37 This project will use insights from physical therapy, medicine, psychology, physics,38 as

32
“The Tridentine guidelines were predicated on a skeptical approach to claims and a demand for evidence,
prominently including that presented by physicians, with the goal of finding scientific explanations for asserted
miracles . . . For a healing to be considered miraculous, the diagnosis had to be unquestionable; the prognosis
incurable; the recovery instantaneous, complete, and permanent; and with no suggestion that nature or medical
treatment could be responsible.” Brown, Testing Prayer, 66.
33
Yair Zakovitch, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman and Astrid B. Beck (New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990), s.v. “Miracle Part 1: Covering Signs and Wonders in the Old Testament,”
4:847.
34
Ibid., 4:845-856. Sections A to F provide biblical insight into the nature of a miracle; however, in section
G, “Miracle and Myth” and section H, “Miracle and Magic,” the content is typical liberalism.

For a different understanding and definition of miracle, see Harold Remus, ibid., s.v. “Miracle—Part 2:
35

Covering Signs and Wonders in the New Testament,” 4:856-869.

36
This definition is original to the author and is not based upon someone else’s definition of miracle.

Drug companies “prove efficacy” of their drug on far less evidence than what this thesis is presenting for
37

healings of adverse SIM side effects. “Science” is every bit as dependent on interpretation as this study. If
something is “scientific,” then it can be proven. The correlation here is that SIM healing—an extremely unusual
event—and its occurring in Christian healing context represents overwhelming evidence for divine intervention.
38
As for disappearing metal during prayer representing a phenomenon that “violates the laws of nature,” see
the so-called “Hutchison Effect,” in which metal changes characteristics, apparently at the atomic level, due to

28
well as biblical, theological, and historical studies to look at the probability of spontaneously

regaining of range of motion and the probability of failed back surgery being healed from a

medical viewpoint. It will also detail how pain and range of motion is tested for in physical

therapy and the effectiveness of placebos on pain and restoration of range of motion from a

psychological viewpoint. Furthermore, this study will provide insights into the way God healed

in biblical times through Jesus, the apostles, and other Christians—noting the role of faith and

the gift for healing, and whether the healings depicted in the New Testament continued in the

history of the Church through the historical studies. Through these various lenses, a better picture

of what is happening concerning healing is made possible.39

Prior to examining the subjects in each of the following chapters, this author should state

why he chose this particular study. First, Dr. Harold Koenig of Duke University Medical School

advised him that he should choose to verify healing for a condition that would be practical to

study in the field where there is little access to medical devices. He suggested testing for hearing

loss or for sight loss that could be done for an investment of a few thousand dollars. Dr. Candy

Brown and her team did this and reported in both the STEPP article, which appeared in a peer-

reviewed medical journal, and in her book, Testing Prayer: Science and Healing.40 Since Dr.

Candy Brown had already completed these two studies, utilizing Global Awakening meetings in

the USA and internationally, he decided to move beyond a replicative study into a fresh area of

investigation.

electromagnetic or scalar frequencies requiring little power input. See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnBdhsXl088 (accessed July 19, 2013).
39
The concept for various lenses to get a more accurate view is drawn from Brown, Testing Prayer, 19-20.
In addition, during the discussion peer group, Rolland Baker, a missionary who earned a Ph.D. in Systematic
Theology at the University of London, kept mentioning the need for multiple perspectives to obtain the truth of
something. Rolland was offered a full scholarship to California Institute of Technology, but turned it down to enter
the ministry, especially the field of missions.
40
Brown, “Study of the Therapeutic Effects,” 864-69; Brown, Testing Prayer.

29
 The subject needed to be such that researchers could check for improvement without

expensive medical equipment or a hospital context. Chronic pain or loss of range of motion

seemed suitable. Tests involving self-awareness for pain levels are used by physical therapists as

a basis for determining whether further treatment is merited or insurance companies continue to

pay for the treatment. In addition to pain monitoring by the injured persons, the mobility test or

range-of-movement test is also used in physical therapy. This writer learned this as a result of

having been treated through physical therapy for three herniated disks and two pinched nerves

for ninety days and also after having received two epidurals.

Despite extensive medical treatment, marked improvement came only as a result of two

prayers that were directly identifiable as the means that brought about relief from pain, and

restoration of movement to this writer’s back. This does not mean that physical therapy was not

helpful. In this, the pain levels decreased minimally, and range of motion improved slightly.

However, he was unable to put weight on the foot without major pain. As a result, this writer

became well versed in how to test for pain, particularly in the back.

Another reason for the selection of pain and movement restrictions reportedly resulting

from SIM surgery was that it made the explanation of healing due to the placebo effect or “mind

over matter,” a much less viable explanation. This is particularly the case for the sudden

disappearance of metal. The placebo effect can sometimes be understood related to analgesia, or

a person’s ability to be insensitive to physical symptoms of pain. However, the concept of the

placebo effect, related to decreased symptoms or pain, has long been debated by medical

professionals.41

41
Donald D. Price, Damien G. Finniss, and Fabrizio Benedetti, “A Comprehensive Review of the Placebo
Effect: Recent Advances and Current Thought,” Annual Review of Psychology 59 (2008): 565-90.
pharmacology.ucsd.edu/graduate/courseinfo/placebarticle.pdf (accessed April 10, 2013).

30
 Another differentiated approach of this thesis was to narrow the focus of the study to

PCP, a certain type of prayer. DIP had already been studied for other problems, for example in

Dr. Byrd’s study, which will be discussed in more detail,42 and Dr. Candy Brown’s study on PIP,

another prayer form.43 No studies on PCP could be found. This prayer form is neither long

distance nor proximal since the praying person is not touching the person receiving prayer, but

unlike DIP, the one praying can see the person in need of healing, and the person needing

healing can hear the praying person. For this thesis, this writer was always the person praying.

PCP was selected as the basis for his study to discover if some of the claims to healing, which

were even more unusual, were true. These were claims of SIM disappearing, not being able to

feel the SIM anymore, or reports that doctors could not detect the SIM in x-rays after prayer.

This author’s objective was to confirm or falsify these claims during this project. Of

approximately 880 reports of healing from adverse symptoms resulting from SIM surgery,

between September 2009 and December 2012, there were only about six to ten reports of SIM

disappearing.44 However, it was still necessary to limit the study to only those who self-reported

having at least an 80 percent improvement of range of motion, or an 80 percent improvement of

chronic pain.

42
Robert C. Byrd, “Positive Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer in a Coronary Care Unit
Population,” Southern Medical Journal 81 (1988): 826-31.
43
Brown, “Study of the Therapeutic Effects,” 864-69.
44
The approximately 880 healings refer to the number of healings resulting from SIM surgeries recorded
from September 19, 2009 through December 16, 2012. However, for the purpose of this research project, detailed
statistical data were only captured for those healed in 2012.

31
 Structure of Thesis

This project has been divided into five chapters. Chapter One covers the ministry focus,

that is, the events that prepared this writer for his role as participant observer in this study, the

context of the study, and how the synergy of the two is important to this research project.

Chapter Two reviews the literature related to the broader subject of the effect of prayer

upon physical healing. As noted before, to date there are no studies dealing with PCP and its

effect upon pain and movement restrictions reportedly resulting from SIM surgery, the focus of

this study, which underscores the groundbreaking nature of this research project.

Chapter Two also addresses the biblical, theological, and historical issues related to

healing. This is the longest chapter in this research project because the issues addressed in this

chapter significantly affect the probability of a person being used to heal others or the probability

of a person receiving a healing. Experience shaped the understanding of theological, biblical, and

historical data, which in turn formed the foundation for several of the variables of this research.

Chapter Three presents the methodology and the design of the model to be used in the

field experience to test for the falsification of the null hypothesis. This chapter also presents the

reasons why a qualitative study was chosen as the research method. Furthermore, this chapter

discusses the reasons why the survey, developed by Dr. Candy Brown for her research on

healing, was augmented, focusing more on determining the intervening variables that affected

the outcome of whether a person was healed. The sociological issues of gender, education, and

income, tested for in Dr. Candy Brown’s survey did not seem as germane to this study as are the

biblical, theological, historical, and experiential issues.

32
 Furthermore, Chapter Three explains the timing of the interviews, and why three

interviews were used. In this context, the study examines the placebo effect and how it was

screened in the third interview that occurred one hundred or more days after the reported healing.

The study further posits and evaluates the frequent use of the self-reported 80 percent

improvement in pain and movement level as a significant measure in the research.

The related tables and interviews are found in Chapter Four. These testimonies were

conducted immediately after the persons came to report what they believed were their

experiences of being healed.

Chapter Four evaluates the field experience of applying the research methodology. It

includes: (1) the effectiveness and utility of the various measurement instruments; (2) the results

of the methodological triangulation of data from the surveys, interviews, and field notes; (3) the

actual field study experience; (4) the analysis of the data; (5) the reasons to believe the self-

reports of decreased pain or increased range of motion; and (6) the reasons why a placebo effect

fails to explain self-reported healings.

Chapter Five provides both a summation of the results of this project study and a

conclusion drawn from the results. Suggestions on how to approach this study differently based

upon a different context of ministry are presented, as well as suggested areas of future study in

related areas pertaining to healing and prayer. The results of this study support the reports that

people did in fact experience significant reduction in pain or restoration of movement following

PCP for those who were suffering from pain and movement restrictions reportedly resulting from

SIM surgery.

As a result of this study, the researcher discovered that too often God is perceived to be

unwilling to heal due to the issue of divine sovereignty, when in fact the deeper issue is more a

33
widely-held theology of unbelief, which causes a lowered expectation of receiving healing. This

writer’s considerable exposure to hundreds of thousands of meeting attendees each year revealed

that, in addition to one’s theological beliefs, the biblical and historical beliefs as well as the

personal experiences of the people who attend the meetings are all variables that positively or

negatively affect the probability of receiving healing. He also views expectation as an important

variable that can be increased in the lives of those present in a meeting by the teaching of the

minister, the videos shown, the worship, and the testimonies of others who experienced healing.

Beyond this, it is of the utmost importance to emphasize the significant connection of the gift of

words of knowledge to healing.

This study upheld the hypothesis that people are in fact being healed of pain and/or

mobility restrictions resulting from pain and movement restrictions reportedly resulting from

SIM surgery. Certain variables studied, such as personal theology, expectation, and personal

experience of healing all proved to be key factors for healing. The type of prayer used and word

of knowledge expressed in the meetings proved not to be significant indicators of whether one

would be healed. However, it is important to note that the reason why they were not significant

was due to confounding factors, which will be explained in further detail. Normally, when not

praying for SIM, the type of prayer and words of knowledge significantly increase the

probability of receiving healing.

34