A spiritual “healer” from Cuba, who claims he started healing 30 years ago after being visited by a spirit, treats as many as 150 patients a day and performs surgery with a machete – and no anesthesia.

According to YahooNews.com, Jorge Goliat, a Havanna resident with no medical background, alleges that he has been healing people for decades with a variety of unconventional means, including the use of a machete for surgery.

In a video appearing on the Daily Mail, Goliat can be seen performing surgery on patients – all without anesthesia – by inserting the tip of a machete into a patient’s back and pulling out blobs of tissue. He also uses what looks like a hammer on a patient’s head, and tongs to probe flesh.

In addition to these bizarre methods, his remedy to fight COVID is to “use a bag with camphor on top of you, from time to time, smell it and have rum once a week at least. Even after half a bottle of rum you will see that the pandemic will not enter your soul.”

Instead of using X-rays, Goliat uses a piece of paper and a candle to create makeshift scans of the patient’s body.

Goliat claims he can cure anyone with his methods in 10 minutes.

Surprisingly, people come from all over the country to be treated by him, many of them swearing that they have been healed.

One young couple who came to Goliat to be treated for infertility after traditional medicine failed to help them, said they were convinced of Goliat’s credibility when he was able to guess their background, the man’s job, etc. even though he had never met them before. To date, the couple do not know if Goliat’s treatment worked.

If Goliat is not a doctor, how is he managing to convince so many people that they’ve been healed?

First, as this blog explains, there are at least a dozen different reasons why a person might think they have been healed by an unconventional means when no such healing has taken place.

Second, because Goliat says he was contacted by a “spirit,” we have no choice but to question where this spirit came from. Because God usually uses natural means for healing, i.e., physicians, medicines, etc. rather than resort to extraordinary means, and Goliat does not profess any particular religious beliefs, it’s safe to say this spirit probably didn’t come from God. That leaves only one other source – a demon.

If demons are behind Goliat’s work, and so many people claim to have been cured, does this mean that Satan can heal?

No, but he can easily appear to do so. Satan’s healings may look real, but they are always counterfeit and attributable to the placebo effect or illusion. The bottom line is that the devil has more than enough power to convince someone that they’ve been healed, even when they have not.

Scripture gives us important clues about how Satan can appear to heal.

For example, in Job 2:7 we read “Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.” This tells us that sickness or injury can definitely originate from Satan if God allows it. Therefore, it follows that Satan would certainly be able to make a person feel better or even appear to be healed if he simply stopped inflicting the sickness on a person.

Scripture also tells us that Satan is a master of illusion. “For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2Corinthians 11:14). There are ample warnings about this aspect of Satan in Scripture. “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matt. 24:24), and “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders” (2 Thess. 2:9). The anti-Christ will mimic all the great miracles of Christ, such as walking on water, raising the dead, healing the sick, but these will all be lies. We know from these warnings that Satan is entirely capable of fooling even the holiest among us, which is why our benevolent God has promised that He will shorten this time.

Keep in mind, because Satan is incapable of doing anything good, he’s not withdrawing the affliction because he wants to help the person. He’s doing it because he wants to trick them into turning away from God and convincing them to rely on other powers such as those found in the occult and New Age “energy” for their needs.

As for Goliat knowing personal details about the lives of strangers, demons are very well aware of these details and can easily transmit this information to another.

Although we do not know what powers are at work in Goliat’s clinic, this story gives us a powerful warning about how Satan and his powers of persuasion can operate under the right conditions – and the very real danger posed by indiscriminate “healers” who claim to be relying upon hidden powers for their accomplishments.

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