Healing

I have some friends (folks who get my blog delivered to their e-mail each time I hit "post") who sometimes discuss their beliefs on healing. I disagree with their take on what the Bible has to say about healing and I feel compelled to air my opinion in response to their interpretation. I want to start by saying that they are fine people and strong Christians. They were used in a mighty way by God to bring me to saving faith in Christ and I do not write this "rebuttal" out of any animosity towards them. They are sincere believers with whom I simply don't agree. Because I think that dialogue about important issues is essential - I give you their view and my response. Comments welcome, especially from the friends of whom I write.
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My friends said:

"The second part of our belief in Healing is a little harder to explain.

And like I said, I don't claim to understand it 100%, but hey isn't that what faith is about?

Boiled down, we believe that Isaiah 53:5 is proof that Christ took our sickness on the Cross.
Christians believe that Christ died on the Cross for our sins, but if you read the rest of that verse you find that Jesus also died for our diseases. He was reversing the Fall of Man, and that would include sickness.

In our family, the husband is our Bible Scholar.
I personally have a hard time interpreting and focusing on the text. So most of what I know about Healing I have learned from sermons from Pastors like Andrew Wommack.
When we pray a sickness off us, it isn't much different then when people talk about praying for the sick. We just have a different mindset.

We claim Healing once and only once. The same way we ask to be forgiven once and only once.
From there, we begin to thank God for the Healing that is taking place.

And sometimes believing it is hard.
I think that Healing is even harder in America because we are bombarded by negative information about health all the time. There is always an epidemic on the news and WebMD makes us all sure we are dying from something.

It's a rule in our house that when one of us isn't feeling well, we cannot go online or watch TV. We try not to talk to people about it who don't believe in Healing.
It just helps keep the negative disbelief out of our minds.

We also are big on not speaking death over our house.

The Bible says that there is power in the tongue and that you are either speaking Life or you are speaking Death at all times.

For example, when someone says, "Little Billy has the flu. I hope Susie doesn't get it since we were over there last night. I think they shared a cup!", we simply say, "She won't get sick, she's covered by the blood of Jesus."

Some people are sensitive so we don't say it to them. We just claim it.

We believe that God took All the disease and sickness with him and that we are healed of any problem. That's where we lose people.

We acknowledge that people of extreme faith die of illness. That sometimes, it seems their claiming didn't work. And as I said, I don't have all the answers. I do believe that it has to do with having unbelief.

You know the verse that talks about moving mountains with faith as small as a mustard seed? I believe that you only need a teeny tiny bit of faith, but just a teeny tiny bit of unbelief mixed in there will block that belief. That's why we think its so important not to let our fast technology scare us out of claiming.

See, sounds kinda crazy huh?

We have lost friends over this and a lot of people write us off when we tell them that we don't get sick.

But that's OK with me.

The proof is in the fact that we don't get sick."
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My reply:

1) Healing is mysterious, I agree. No one can understand the will or actions of God perfectly - but we can come pretty close by looking at the whole of his redemptive plan in Scripture.

2) I do not deny that Christ's sacrifice on the cross conquered sickness once and forever. But, I don't see evidence that this is immediately applicable anymore than our spiritual perfection is immediate. The effects of a fallen world plaque us until we die and pass on to be glorified and ushered into the presence of God. It is in that moment, when we leave this realm behind that the victory of Christ over sickness is realized for us. Check these passages:
1 Corinthians 15:52-53
1 Corinthians 13:12
2 Corinthians 5:2-4

3) The use of Isaiah 53:5 by charismatics to give "proof" that Jesus death on the cross was as much for physical healing as it was for spiritual rebirth falls flat when one looks at the context and the original language. The first part of the verse tells us what things that Christ healed us from. The context does not denote physical illness. Instead it clearly refers to our transgressions and iniquities. Physical illness is not a transgression nor an iniquity. It is obvious that the reference here is to sin. The word "healed" can only be properly interpreted when it is studied in light of its surroundings. In this case, it does not mean "healed from physical sickness" - instead, it appears to be used as a metaphor. Sin is our disease, Jesus heals us.

4) I suggest that one should stay away from preachers like Andrew Wommack. People like him, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, even Joel Osteen are not Christ-centered ministers. The gospel that they preach is a false one that elevates man to an absurd degree. They seem to preach Jesus as a means to an end, a slot-machine for our gain, instead of the all-powerful and sovereign God of creation who deserves our praise regardless of what he does for us or not. Jesus is our greatest treasure, he is our end - not health, wealth, or success...only Jesus. Those things may come, they may not - if he is our chief pleasure and our ultimate aim in this life, we have not wasted our existence. If, however, we see Christ as the way to get rich, healthy, and powerful we will miss out on the true joy of loving Him for Him and we will have wasted this life. Scripture is clear that greedy false prophets will come and deny the all-sufficiency of Jesus (2 Peter 2:1-3), but they will not escape final doom.

I suggest trying to listen to a few sermons from John Piper or John MacArthur. Most importantly - become a bible scholar for yourself. We ALL should (that means me and my family too).

5) I agree that the media and the world are very negative and that they can influence us to jump to conclusions and to overreact. Self-diagnosis via the web is a horrible thing.

6) The neo-pentecostal idea of "name-it, claim-it" or "speaking life and death" over oneself is a serious theological misunderstanding and honestly appears to border on turning biblical faith into some hocus-pocus mystical new age stuff. Proverbs 18:21 is the "proof-text" for this idea. However, as we again look at the context it seems clear that the writer is not being literal in verse 21 anymore than he is talking about actual fruit growing in ones mouth satisfying ones hunger (see verse 20).

The principle here is that our tongue can be used for edifying people or for breaking them down. Compare with Proverbs 12:18. This is certainly true. Our human nature stands in defiance to that old schoolyard poem...words can really hurt us.

7) Claiming things does not seem to make them happen. St. Paul, who authored most of the New Testament, was afflicted with an illness in 2 Corinthians 12 and he didn't seem to be able to pray it away. In fact God told him that this messenger of Satan should stay with him. Why would God do that? Why would he allow a man of amazing faith, a man begging to be relieved of his pain, to be tortured through physical sickness?...

Because God is not most ultimately concerned with us being in good health, financially well-off, or secularly successful. God is most concerned with his Name, he is most concerned with getting glory for Himself. That isn't conceited for a being who deserves it, its natural and good. He is the potter and we are the clay (Romans 9), he will mold us in whatever way he sees fit that he should receive the utmost glory and honor. This is borne out by Paul and the story of Job. Horrible, horrible things occur to Job and God patently allows Satan to do them. By that allowance, God ordains, even wills the action in some sense.

God is in control, despite what Andrew Wommack would say, and he will be gracious to whom he will be gracious (Exodus 33). The wind blows where it wills (John 3), not where we claim it should blow.

8) No one has all the answers, some unregenerate people receive miraculous healing and other people with great faith die. Even if claiming was true, it often does not seem to work. And why not? According to this theological mentality, it is due to a lack of faith and an abundance of unbelief in the one who needs the healing or the ones praying for that person . Malarkey!

Great saints of God are struck down by the fallenness of this world every day. Cancer kills grandmothers, lung disease racks godly women who never smoked a day in their life, children get leukemia and die even when their parents have raw and rug-burnt knees.

These things don't happen because the person didn't have enough faith to force Jesus into performing his magic healing trick. They happen because God sovereignly ordains them. He made all things and he has authority over creation, not us. Sure, he sometimes delegates specific authority to specific persons - but we are not all little-Gods. He alone is God. He is all-wise and all-good. He is working all things (even the horrible ones) together for the good of his people. The ultimate good, that is eternal life and a inner man that resembles Christ more and more each day.

God will work differently in each of us all to achieve that goal. Some will be rich, some poor. Some will be healthy, some terminally ill. Some will be CEOs, some will be pizza boys. God works in all things that his people will be taken care of (Romans 8:28) and he works in all our lives to bring us to a place where he will be most glorified in us and we will be most satisfied in him.

9) Everyone gets sick, and ear infection is a sickness. There may be many reasons that someone does not usually get sick. They might eat well, exercise regularly, have good genetics, decide that a common cold isn't worth a trip to the doctor, etc...To say that the "proof is in the pudding" again brings the center of attention to ones own abilities (we are good claimers with lots of faith) and not Gods ruling hand/ deserved glory. We must learn to take our eyes off this world and our own work and say with Job:
"The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord" (1:21)

10) In conclusion...Christianity is not a religion of magic words, its a relationship of trust even when the relief doesn't come. Faith is not best explained as "what Jesus can do for me" if I have enough of it, but as resting in what Jesus did for me that I might enjoy eternity with him and obey him forever. Sickness is not a consequence of ones lack of belief, its a consequence of this natural order and it is always a thing allowed by God for ultimate good. Gods number one priority is not us, it is himself and thats the way it should be. The "full gospel" isn't - its actually a false gospel.
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Thats all I felt that I needed to get off my chest. I realize that my friends posted their views with the request that:

"... if you don't agree or believe the same way, please keep your negative comments away."

...thus, I have not responded on their blog nor have I named them and few people who read this blog could figure out who they are even with some effort. Ultimately, I don't feel that I was negative in my post, unless you think that disagreeing is inherently negative. My hope is that I have provided some food for thought and some lively discussion fodder.

Please hit me up with some feedback. I don't claim to know it all, I just claim to try and have good biblical reasoning behind my views - what do you think?