An unpleasant encounter with an anonymous visitor

There was recently an anonymous visitor to this blog, henceforth referred to as AV, who is under the obstinate delusion that I do not believe in divine healing. I was seriously contemplating whether I should continue the argument with this fellow who, despite my attempts to reason with him, denounces me as someone who comes close to blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

AV’s comments can be found in the comments section of the article Refutation of City Harvest's "Divine Healing" Article (Part 1).

AV revealed that he is from Marine Parade Christian Centre. In addition, he has made some unfounded accusations and fantastic claims:

1. He attacked my character and disparaged my sincere intentions to reveal the theological errors present within the divine healing article by Kong Hee.
2. He accused me of not being grounded in the Word of God. He has also stated in his own words, “You are merely selective in taking passages out of context and ignored reality... You are the one who lacks knowledge.” However, he has not cited any examples to back up his accusations.
3. He has quoted Bible verses out of context, which I have addressed and refuted in my responses.
4. He cursed me i.e. “Cursed be your self-righteousness!”
5. His remarks were extremely impolite i.e. “Young man… Stop practising armchair Christianity…”
6. He claimed to possess first-hand accounts and witnesses of divine healing. But when probed further, he was unable or unwilling to provide further details and proofs. Instead, he dodged my question and accused me of denying divine healing.
7. He refused to give himself an alias to make our discussion less awkward.
8. He flattered himself by saying “So, you cannot stand to my scrutiny already?” despite me taking pains in addressing his accusations.
9. He has not, at any time, address the points that I have brought up in the parent article on divine healing.

Through this unpleasant encounter with AV, I do feel a certain empathy with James R. White, in his recent email exchange with Ergun Caner. Now I confess I am far from being as gifted as White in his exegetical Biblical arguments, but I do get an inkling of the frustration he felt when his opponent is unable or incapable of seeing reason and debating rationally.

While White has invited Caner to a public debate, I have invited AV to present his supporting evidence in detail, which he has refused to do so. Instead, he has resorted to challenging me to go to word-faith churches, as if that would address the main issue of concern – the absence of medical evidence for divine healing. And by the way, I have attended more than my fair share of “healing” rallies when I was in the charismatic movement.

I would like to reiterate once again that I believe in the sovereignty of God in healing. However, like any discerning Christian (or any theistic-minded and rational person for that matter), I do not simply accept any claims of divine healing without clear medical proofs or believe in anybody who waves the Bible around, purporting to be a healer.

Strong claims of miraculous healings require factual backing. Even Jesus, after healing the lepers in Matthew 8:1-4 and Luke 17:11-19, asked them to show themselves to the priest, to prove that they were actually healed. Therefore, I do not think I am being unreasonable in demanding medical proofs for verification. Attacking my faith is also irrelevant since my faith is in Christ, not in some alleged healing miracles or faith healers.

Anyone can easily invoke the name of God to lend a semblance of authority to his “ministry.” Like this guy “John of God” for example, who claimed to be possessed by the spirits of deceased doctors. Or the alleged healings at Lourdes that supposedly cured blindness, cancer, paralysis and tuberculosis. Or even Haitian voodoo healing, which mixed Roman Catholicism with African primitive religions. Would their gods be real then, since there are many claims of miraculous healings?