Satan’s Counterfeit Healing

by Charles Bakker; Roy Matheson; Lawrence E. Burkholder

Publisher:

Wipf and Stock

, 2019

Overview

"The Christian church worldwide has been taken prisoner by Satan’s counterfeit healing." This statement is based on the author’s personal experience, modest exposure to the Toronto Blessing, observation of parachurch healing ministries, and extensive historical reconstructions. Satan’s Counterfeit Healing presents and evaluates Satan’s supernatural healing from the Paleolithic period (ca. 45000 BCE) to the contemporary church. The guiding thesis is that Satan and his demonic surrogates perform miracles which are evident as psi paranormal phenomena. These manifestations include physical and exorcistic supernatural healings. Paleolithic and Neolithic periods produced Great Mother goddess worship and healing, which have persisted ever since. These idolatries, combined with OT nature gods, were a backdrop to Jesus’ true miracles. For two thousand years of church history there’s been a tug-of-war between true and false healing. Mother goddess as Mariological shrine healing joined with natural and demonic magic, and esoteric energy psi. Alongside these the Holy Spirit has raised up genuine healers and their ministries. Modern healing is marked by energy counterfeits and faith healing, the latter especially accompanied by trance, false prophecy, and psi transformations. True divine healing can be recovered when Christians repudiate nature gods, reject false prophecy, and restore proper eschatology.

Praise for Satan’s Counterfeit Healing

“Satan’s Counterfeit Healing is an equal-opportunity offender: spiritists, charismatics, Pentecostals, Roman Catholics (particularly Marianists), exorcists—all come under critical scrutiny and censure, albeit largely to the degree that their activities are associated with those who have experienced psi phenomena, altered states of consciousness, and near death, out-of-body, and related manifestations . . . Although some readers will dismiss the ‘argument’ as fantastic, those who can appreciate this author’s struggle to make sense in a post-Enlightenment world of biblical references to the deities and demons of the ancient world against the broad historical and contemporary data on spiritual and occult healing will be lead to note previously overlooked connections, reconsider age old questions, and perhaps catalyze important paths of inquiry regarding these difficult (and oftentimes life-and-death) matters.”

—Amos Yong, Professor of Theology and Mission, Fuller Seminary

Product Details

• Title : Satan’s Counterfeit Healing
• Authors:
  • Burkholder, Lawrence E.
  • Matheson, Roy
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Publication Date: 2019
• ISBN: 9781532642326

About the Authors

Lawrence E. Burkholder was a Mennonite pastor and independent scholar. He was the author of The Leviathan Factor (Wipf and Stock, 2017).