The miraculous recovery is scientifically certifiable: many repeatable experiments have been performed to show that the placebo effect is a real phenomenon. In 1955, for example, a study by the American anaesthesiologist Henry Knowles Beecher85 showed that the condition of thirty five percent of his patients improved when they were prescribed placebos. The medical profession regularly prescribes placebo’s as a standard treatment for a whole variety of conditions. It must be emphasised that placebo’s do not work in every case, however their use is considered a valuable form of treatment because when successful, healing is effected without the need for the introduction of chemical substances into the body.

The essential ingredient then is belief, or faith in the treatment. The treatment itself is only relevant in that the patient must have faith in its healing potential; so it could be a pill, a lotion, a linctus or even a kiss! The understanding of this truth is a vital key to our grasp of just what is possible through faith. There is a growing body of support within the medical profession for the power of faith to provide solutions for many of our physical, emotional and psychological problems. The American neurosurgeon Norman Shealy, who holds this view, defines faith as ‘the lack of resistance to that which one hopes to receive’. This is almost identical to the biblical definition: ‘faith is the substance of things hoped for86’.

Success or failure in life is largely determined, not by ability, but by attitude. Sales people know that a ‘positive mental attitude’ is often cited as a key to success87; and it is true that really successful sales people are never the grumpy, nervous or introverted types. This basic truth has become the cornerstone of modern, sales technique. Psychologists say that this powerful substance can transform lives because of its impact upon the belief system. In fact, ‘the more central a belief is … the greater the change in an entire cognitive system88’ when that belief is changed.

In proposing that a simple change of heart can have such a profound effect, have the psychologists discovered the mechanism which accounts for the phenomenon which the Bible calls spiritual rebirth? The Biblical position appears to be in complete agreement with the psychological one. Spiritual rebirth which, according to the Bible, is accomplished by the process of belief, or faith, alone has far-reaching implications: according to St John, ‘everyone born of God overcomes the world89’ .This means that the inevitable outcome of an authentic change of core belief is a genuine new life, so that anyone who has faith becomes ‘a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come90’. The resultant transformation is the result of an automatic process which has been apparently built in to the human condition.

The Bible says that faith is the only means by which a relationship with God can be achieved. It says that disbelief, or lack of faith, initially caused man to become separated from God; and that restoration of the relationship can be achieved only through a re-establishment of that faith by belief in Jesus Christ. Of course, summoning up faith is a difficult if not impossible task, but the Biblical ‘good news’ is that the necessary faith, by which this relationship may be entered into, may itself be received as ‘the gift of God91.’