Question: I’ve seen televangelists reach their hands out and ask those in the TV audience who want ...

Question: I’ve seen televangelists reach their hands out and ask those in the TV audience who want prayer for healing or prosperity to put a hand on theirs on the TV screen and “agree” for an answer from God. They call this a “point of contact” and the idea seems to be that this procedure opens the door to miracles. Why?

Answer: W. V. Grant has sent out an outline of his feet for recipients to stand upon as the “point of contact.” Oral Roberts sent the outline of his hand to his followers to place their hands upon as the “point of contact.” Other faith teachers have their own variations of this divination technique.

This serious error comes from a misunderstanding of Christ’s statement, “That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (Mt 18:19). The phrase “as touching anything” is taken to mean that the two parties must touch some object together as their “point of contact” and that doing so somehow activates the power of God. That is a form of divination!

The old English expression “as touching” found in the KJV has nothing at all to do with “touching” an object as the faith teachers have mistakenly imagined. The Greek word translated “touching” is peree, which actually means “about, concerning, regarding or with respect to” and is so rendered in modern translations. For example, the NAS says, “if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask....”

Simple ignorance created the damaging error about a “point of contact” as the key to getting miracles. Yet Oral Roberts called it the “greatest discovery” he ever made. Unfortunately, that delusion has been taught by faith teachers and relied upon by millions of their followers for years, a delusion from which anyone could easily have been delivered by some Berean checking of Scripture against popular teaching.