Petitionary Prayer for Healing and South African Pentecostals

Abstract

Most Pentecostals accept and proclaim that God answers petitionary prayers of believers for prayer, whether for themselves or someone else, based on the clear evidence found in biblical texts. Their worship services regularly contain testimonies of believers or about believers whose prayers were miraculously answered. However, to what extent is it true that their prayers are answered, and how probable it is that it can be proven as the outcome of prayer if their desire is granted? Is their belief in answered petitionary prayer justified? Or should they rather stay agnostic about answered prayers? The article uses grammatical-historical exegesis to consider biblical evidence and published empirical research reports related to healing in response to prayer before Pentecostal hermeneutics is used to reconsider and formulate a classical Pentecostal viewpoint.