Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts

by Craig S. Keener

Healing and exorcism offer the primary appeal of Pentecostalism there,[83] and statistics show that the majority of new converts to Pentecostalism in South India come in response to healings and exorcisms.[84] Reported healings usually follow a brief prayer, often simply, “In the name of Jesus, be healed!”[85] One new pastor with no members prayed for a woman with cancer, on whom doctors had apparently given up; “within a few days, when she began to recover,” people began attending his new church, which grew and became very successful.[86] Another new pastor with no members just felt impressed to lay hands on a visitor and pray; the man left, saying nothing. The man, however, had felt heat and found himself healed of a nervous breakdown that had incapacitated him for more than four years; the next day the doctor cleared the man to work, and that Sunday thirty-five people attended the church, which eventually became