By Chris Rosebrough
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I recently watched an expose of a popular TBN preacher/healer. My feelings we're so raw afterward that I decided to write a piece of fiction.
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The arena was packed. It was hot and there was an eager electricity in the air. Everyone knew that something big was going to happen tonight. You could just feel it.
For the last few weeks billboards and signs had been placed all around town announcing the arrival of The Healer. He was going to hold a service of faith, hope and miracles. Everyone, knew about it. Nearly everyone planned to be there.
The Healer had a television show that broadcast all over the world via satellite. He wore expensive suits, had a private jet, slick hair and beautiful teeth.
The Healer always prayed with power and authority. On each show he would receive messages from God telling him about people who were being healed of cancer, pneumonia and other diseases. He was anointed of God and now he was coming to town.
As the arena filled, a careful observer would have noticed that all the people who arrived in wheelchairs or those hooked up to hospital-like support machines were ushered to a special place in the back of the arena. This section was just for them. This section was as far from the stage as you could get. Those in this section thought that The Healer had special plans for them. He did. But it wasn't what they were thinking.
The arena lights went out. There was a collective gasp. The anticipation reached unbearable levels. Then there was a single light on a door. Then you could see him. The crowd erupted in elation. The Healer was there. He was really there! He marched to the stage like a prize fighter. The service had begun.
First there was singing and praying. Then there were words of power and wisdom. Then an offering was taken. The buckets were overflowing. Then The Healer looked to heaven as if to say, “Thank you Father”. He announced that the Spirit was upon him to heal. He called out healings. A woman with cancer was told that her cancer was gone. A man with AIDS heard the words that he came to hear, “AIDS has left your body”. A woman was told to throw down her cane because her arthritis was no more.
Friends and neighbors were signing, clapping their hands, praising God and weeping. But those in the wheel-chairs in the back of the arena sat in silence. They were alone. No miracles were being announced for them. No healings were taking place in their section of the arena.
Now people were being ushered on to the stage. They were claiming that they had been healed. A woman had energy to dance again, a man said he felt the cancer leave his body. The arena was now in a frenzy. The Healer began touching people and they were falling to the ground. The spirit was moving in power. Everyone could feel it, everyone except those in the back of the arena. Some of them were beginning to pack up and leave. God obviously had no plans to touch them that night. You could see the pain and disappointment on their faces. Those who had brought them had tears in their eyes.
The Healer now began waving his coat at people in the crowd. Whole sections in the arena fell to the ground as if slain by an unseen spirit. The show was building to a crescendo no one knew how much longer this could go on.
Without warning, the lights went out.
The women let out shrieks.
There was murmured silence.
The Healer told everyone not to worry. But his microphone was dead.
There was scrambling on stage.
Then from the back of the arena came a sound. It was a woman praising the Lord and shouting at the top her lungs, “I can walk! I can walk!”
There was a light in the back of the arena. No one had ever seen a light like this.
Then there was another voice. A man could be heard shouting, “I can see! I can see!”
There were sounds of astonishment. There were voices of praise.
The Light spoke with a deep and rich voice filled with love and justice. The whole arena heard him say to a woman in a portable hospital bed, “Daughter your sins are forgiven. Rise and take your bed and go home.” She got up!
A boy with shriveled hands was told to stretch them out and he did. The light grew brighter. The Light looked like a Son of Man. He touched the people in the back of the arena. He kissed them. He loved them. He healed them.
But, The Healer was angry with The Light. Who was this person who’d stolen his thunder? The Healer's microphone clicked back on and a few of the stage lights flickered back to life. The Healer shouted at The Light with an angry voice. “How dare you come in here and disrupt my service. I am an anointed healer of God.”
The Light ignored The Healer as he put his hands on a small child who was breathing on a respirator. The machine vanished and the girl took a deep breath. Her eyes brightened and she threw her arms around The Light and kissed His beard.
The Healer’s voice was now shrill, “You have no business being here. I command you to leave this place at once!”
The Light turned to look at The Healer. The Healer had a sinking feeling in his stomach. The Light began walking toward the stage. The crowd parted effortlessly before him. You could still hear the people in the back of the arena singing and praising God.
The Light approached the stage and stopped three rows back. His eyes were locked with The Healer’s. The Healer was nervous and sweating. The Healer's voice cracked as he shouted, “In the Name of Jesus Christ I demand to know who you are!”
The Light answered, “I am.”
The Healer was thrown back. He landed on the drum set with a crash. A symbol rolled off the stage and into the crowd.
The Healer stood up and shook himself off. His cheek was bleeding. Fire was in his eyes.
He marched back to the edge of the stage. Lifted his finger as if he were going to scold a child. He was about to say something but then he noticed that his hand was snowy white and leprous. In a panic he hastily looked at his other hand. Dread over took him when he discovered that it was leprous too. The Healer let out a shriek.
The crowd gasped.
The Light vanished.
The Healer ran off the stage, wailing.
Very good Chris.
It could almost be a true story...being the track record that so called tele-evangelists and high profile healers have.
Peace!
Posted by: jimmy@relevantchristian | June 29, 2007 at 10:57 PM
Chris, The alleged healer that your story mimics, already claims that a prophetess told him that Jesus would be on stage with him. And he is positive that it will come to pass and that he can't wait! If it was possible Jesus would be on stage with the alleged healer, then your piece of fiction would be a factual account. God made it so clear not to believe anyone who claims Jesus is here or there on earth, that I am overwhelmed by the in HIS face attitude toward GOD that these carnival fakirs carry. This life is so short , the worldly pleasures so empty and lacking, it's worth it in this life to overcome the ways of man. I find peace in this life denying temptations that I know would be ungodly. And the times I fail, I find stress and unrest. I can't imagine the fear the charlatans and their followers will have when they face the judgement God gives them. Your story made me pray for myself and every true believer to be strengthened in whatever we each need to keep our faith strong and our discernment keen. The charasma these wolves have can tempt desparate people, whether it be health or wealth.
Posted by: lc | June 30, 2007 at 01:48 AM
Very much something I wish would happen. I think the only thing beyond this story that I'd like to see is Jesus appear to cast a demon out of the Healer and those who are by his side praying in tongues, and having them beg him for forgiveness for blaspheming the Name.
Okay, scratch that - I want the Light to appear at a Joel Olsteen service and cast a demon out of of Joel, and then show up at Saddleback and do the same for Purpose-Driven, and have them both begin preaching the true Gospel at all costs. Maybe the same at a few other mega-"churches" (they aren't really churches if they don't proclaim the Gospel, at least not from a Biblical perspective, so I hate calling any one of them a "church.")
Oh well, it probably won't happen - but we can be praying for it, anyway!
Posted by: Drew | June 30, 2007 at 07:02 PM
Great story.
If you have not seen it you need to see the Steve martinmovie Leap of Faith. Very similar to your story but with the added joy of a great musical soundtrack.
Posted by: david mc | July 05, 2007 at 12:20 AM
There is a hidden side to the stories of folks who send millions of dollars to "healers" and bye their crap hook, line and sinker.The hidden side is that they try to convert other family members into their religion and if the other family members don't believe their heresy then they are "prayed for" and talked down to as if they are not spiritual enough. What's worse is if something tragic happens in the life of the "unbelievers" somehow the tragedy becomes thier fault with all the guilt, blame and shame the "believers" can heap on them.
I was married to a woman who was raised by parents who believed and sent money to guys like Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagan, Joel Ostein and their ilk. Our story is that we had been trying to conceive for sometime. One blessed/cursed evening I got home from work and my wife had our apartment decorated in ribbons, confetti and candles. She'd fixed a special meal for us and she'd bought me a gift, wrapped it and set it on the kitchen table. It was a coffee mug with "worlds greatest dad" printed on it. There was a card on the kitchen table announcing she was pregnant. "AT LAST" we were, to say the least, extatic. So, for 3 months we planned, we bought stuff, we painted, we told the parents, the family, the friends, etc. We planned names. We debated whether we should know if our child was going to be a boy or girl before birth. We did all the stuff brand new expectant parents do. We had huge expectations. Our hopes and dreams were becoming reality. One night, at about 12 weeks into the pregnancy, I'd come home from work at the usual time I found my wife sobing. I asked what was wrong. She said she was bleeding. I was stunned. I said call the doctor lets get you to the hospital. She'd called the doctor, she'd called her mom and dad. The doctor had made an appointment for her in a day or two. She didn't want to worry me so she suffered alone that day until I'd gotten home. Within a day or two we had lost our baby. We had to go the hospital with his remains. He was my first son. My wife had to get cleaned out. My wife's parents arrived at the hospital too and they couldn't believe it. They didn't know what to think. They didn't understand how a God that promised healing and health, if one was to pray hard enough, would let an innocent baby die. My wife's sister accused my wife of having sin in her life and not believing the healing power of the lord. My wife's sister asked my wife what unconfessed sin she had in her life because God would not let a baby die if the parents were "Holy". I wish I had been there to intercept my sister in-law that day. It would have prevented my wife from some of the suffering and guilt she was already feeling.
I had a pastor who called that stuff for what it is, it is witchcraft and it is evil. While pastors will want to pray for those evil men I want something else to befall them and I pray for forgiveness of my evil heart in my wish...
Posted by: Steve Lownes | July 09, 2007 at 09:35 PM
I pray in tongues. It's nothing like Chris described here, but I do. As does my mother. It's a quiet, beautiful thing very often.
The scene described here is not the only way praying in tongues occurs, nor the only way people who do it behave. We don't send our money in to such people, nor do we even watch or advocate them in anyway in our A/G church. Chris has written something relevant. But it is not the only way pentecostals or charismatics are.
Be careful about who you think is blaspheming, and why.
("Fletch Lives" also has a fake healer. It's fairly funny. And painful to watch.)
Posted by: Julie | July 10, 2007 at 02:21 PM
Julie, I don't see where Chris mentioned praying in tongues. The scene he is describing can be found over and over on tbn, as well as other less popular networks. I attended a pentecostal church until I moved. I still refer to them as a church, though some members had a firm belief in hinn, warren, baxter and new paraphrased versions of the bible. I also know they have dropped warren and baxter. I can only pray they also see the other two issues for the deceptions they are. I love those people and do not doubt their faith. As with any of us we have to test everything with Scripture alone as our guide. If it doesn't pass, then it's false. I know the Holy Spirit works miracles today, I have not spoken in tongues, however, I have no reason to doubt they are spoken. I don't care much for labels and unfortunately with so many denominations, I see them as labels only. I honestly believe The One True Church will be the believers who have God's word written on their hearts.
Posted by: lc | July 11, 2007 at 07:52 PM