Dr Paul Allen

What does the Bible teach about “the laying on of hands,” and how should this ancient ritual function, or not, in the church today? Like anointing with oil , much confusion often surrounds these outward signs which the New Testament has very little (but something) to say. Like fasting, the laying on of hands and anointing with oil go hand in hand with prayer and healing. Because of the way God has made the world, and wired our own hearts, on certain special occasions we reach for something tangible, physical, and visible to complement or serve as a sign of, what is happening invisibly and what we’re capturing with invisible words. Before turning to what the New Testament teaches about the laying on of hands today, let’s first get our bearings by looking at how this practice arose, functioned, and developed in the story of God’s people . Old Testament Foundations Throughout the Bible, we find both positive and negative senses of “the laying on of hands ,” as well as “general” (eve...

A. The Two Types of Diseases     1)      Functional disease A functional disease is one in which there is a change in the function of an organ or tissue yet without structural or substantive damage being done. Examples would be high blood pressure , lower back pain, and most headaches. Whereas there are symptoms involved, such would not appear under X-ray because there is no demonstrable tissue damage.     2)       Organic disease An organic disease is one in which there is a demonstrable change in a bodily organ or tissue. Examples would be broken bones, paralysis due to a severed spinal cord, congenital malformations , coronary artery disease, etc. Evidence for an organic disease often shows up on an X-ray.  Someone has illustrated the difference between these two types of disease in this way: If a computer showed that two plus two equals five, the problem is probably functional. Someone most likely programmed it in...