In the LDS Church, we have the Priesthood of God. One of the magnificent things that comes with that Priesthood is the power and authority to call upon God through the laying on of hands in blessing the sick and afflicted to be healed. Healing power is one of the evidences in the LDS Church’s truth claims. And As RFM points out, it appears to be a gift no longer present in the Church. He takes the last General Conference as a prime example and shows that in the 11 cases in conference where surely a Priesthood blessing did or should of taken place, the afflicted individual does not fare to well even with access to God’s Priesthood army. If the game were baseball – People dying would in an offensive onslaught while throwing a no-hitter against those being healed!!!
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RFM, why do you think this is? I see 3 options.
1. The miraculous healings by apostles in the Bible never happened and there never really was priesthood power to heal.
2. The Priesthood is real and was restored to the Church through Joseph but shortly thereafter the power died out.
3. The priesthood is real but never actually got restored into this Church.
Which do you think it is? Or is there another option I’m missing?
I don’t get it, do you want them to continue making up faith promoting stories?P
My faithful wife is currently fighting cancer, and the docs have told her she won’t be cured. She has held out faith in a miracle that we are both praying for. After conference she looked at me and said “after listening to all that, what chance do I have?”
It really hit home since multiple stories about mom’s dying from cancer were told. Yet multiple times we were told to care for the widows. How about one of them tell a story about a widow rather than all of these mom’s dying and leaving widowers behind.
But stories of father’s dying doesn’t have the same sting to the heart as mom’s dying. If you’re going to manufacture a spiritual feeling pull out the big guns and take away a few moms. It works for Disney.
I really wish we did have the power to heal. But when God’s prophet can’t heal his wife or child, in the words of my dear wife, what chance do I have?
Thank you RFM for putting this together. I love your view and look forward to your podcasts.
I’ve also noticed the lack of miracles. I had an ex-brother-in-law explain that his faith crash (which he internalized) came from a priesthood blessing where promises were made and nothing happened: the person blessed got worse. Unfortunately in his case, he took that to mean he was a failure: Had he enough faith, she would have been healed.
Its amazing to me the way shame is used to justify lack of power in the priesthood, and then how that is spun to make it more noble to actually NOT be healed than being healed in the first place.
This runs counter to doctrine in other ways. IN the NT, it says that if a person is healed, his sins will be forgiven. Does that mean that if someone has enough faith to NOT be healed, their sins are also forgiven?
Doctrinal dilemmas are unending!
The other subtle evil in this whole thing is how much the corporate “leaders” basically tell everyone to rely on the arm of flesh when it comes to cancer treatments. Of course not only is there no healing, but standard cancer treatments (chemotherapy and radiation) are expensive and ineffective. Meanwhile, the LDS Corporation is also a major proponent of keeping cheap, alternative, effective treatments banned because they are “illegal.”
Sick and wrong on all fronts.
Dave P. says, “. . . standard cancer treatments (chemotherapy and radiation) are expensive and ineffective.”
That statement is demonstrably false. If diagnosed early, most people with cancer stand a good chance of surviving it. If you’d said, “. . . are expensive and not always effective,” it would be truthful.
Here’s the thing: the LDS “priesthood” is an imaginary thing. You won’t find a single instance in the Book of Mormon of “priesthood” doing anything. It doesn’t exist. Never has.
Authority is not priesthood and priesthood is not authority. Alma had authority to baptize, not priesthood. The Nephite disciple were given power and authority to baptize, not priesthood.
Read Ether 12 and Hebrews 11. Not one miracle comes through priesthood–ever. It is wholly dependent upon faith in the Lord Jesus and nothing else.
3 Nephi 8: “…and there was not any man which could do a miracle in the name of Jesus save he were cleansed every whit from his iniquity.”
Why don’t LDS GA’s perform miracles? There’s your answer.
I also do not see any evidence of people being healed in the New Testament or in the Book of Mormon through the power of the priesthood nor did early church members, including the Prophet Joseph, heal through the power of the priesthood. It was always in the name of by faith in Jesus Christ.