[05.19.08] Some 200 Christian doctors and medical professionals from more than 38 nations say medicine alone cannot deal with some of today’s worst illnesses and that “spiritual healing” is the remedy needed in the 21st century.
Medics from places like Bolivia, Brazil, Burundi, China, Indonesia, the U.S. and Vietnam gathered in Trondheim, Norway, May 14-25 for the 5th International Medical Conference organized by the World Christian Doctors Network (WCDN ).
The theme of the event was “Spirituality and Medicine,” and the medical professionals examined actual case studies of miracles that were presented by various respected doctors as well as some patients. The case studies of miracles they had experienced were flashed onto a big screen and then, after each presentation, were closely analyzed by their colleagues. The cases ranged from a man being raised from the dead to a detached retina being healed and a woman who received healing after being incapacitated when she was kicked by a horse.
“Doctors are the most credible people to testify to God’s healing powers,” said Honduras-born doctor Armando Pineda, who is now based in Florida and is director of the WCDN USA. “We need to realize that miracles are far more contagious than any disease.”
Dr. Jenis av Rana, director of WCDN Scandinavia and a general practitioner in the Faroe Islands, said Christian doctors have a privilege like few others: “In addition to the help that medical science has to offer we have the complete help, which only the Savior brings –the help He won on the cross when He, for our sake, won the complete and eternally valid freedom from everything our adversary tries to put on us. As believers it is our responsibility, in addition to providing medical or surgical aid, to bring them the complete help, which only the Savior can bring. [We must] be bold in this.”
The most dramatic part of the conference was when Dr. Chauncey W. Crandall IV, who serves at the Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., recounted how a patient who had died and was being prepared for the morgue was brought back to life after prayer. “This has been a wonderful experience for me as being with so many other doctors who believe as I do in God’s healing power,” Crandall said. “Sometimes you feel so alone, and now I realize that there are many of us in the medical profession.”
A surprising part of the conference was when the doctors who were not feeling well themselves lined up to be prayed for by other doctors, including Crandall. During an altar call, one doctor committed his life to Christ. “This conference has been like a Christian holiday for me because we have been given a lot of proof of the power of God today,” said Mikhail Morgulis, chairman of the Spiritual Diplomacy Project and a well- known journalist originally from Ukraine. “These resource items from our medical friends are a contemporary demonstration of miracles and show that miracles didn’t cease some 2,000 years ago, but our God is still working today.”
The next doctors' conference has been slated for Kiev, Ukraine, in May 2009. —Dan Wooding
