Judging by the responses to the last Nugget I know there is more to cover in order to deal with the debate as to whether healing is in the atonement or not. Furthermore the responses I received from readers indicate to me the devilish doctrine of healing being ours by right is wider spread than I first thought. Oh believe me I know it flows wide across Christendom but some responses surprised me. I thought it was confined largely to Pentecostal churches associated with the extreme views of the gifts of the Spirit, i.e. everyone baptised in the Holy Spirit should speak in tongues (or whatever terms you like to use). This view on tongues is usually coupled with the doctrine healing is ours but right. But judging by the comments of readers and the personal stories shared it goes wider than that. Some churches which have bought into this teaching surprised me. Not only that but the measures or reactions they use to force their view on their flock is appalling and hurtful to the extreme. Putting people out of a leadership role because one of them is sick and then asking them to leave the fellowship because they are clearly not walking close with the Lord. The inference being, if they were walking close to the Lord they would be healed. Oh how I would love to meet leaders who teach that garbage. I can tell you categorically such teaching is not biblical and is, if nothing else, soul destroying for those who are told such lies. Just who is it who is not walking close to God? Woe to you pastors and “Christian” leaders who teach such rubbish and call it Christian truth. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. People, I would ask such purveyors of false teaching in the name of the Lord, “Did you pray for me pastor in my illness?” “If the answer is “yes” – and it should be – “then why I am not healed. Surely you prayed with full assurance of faith and no sin in your life.” Let’s put an end to this nonsense once and for all.
There that has got some of the righteous anger off my chest. I have experienced embrimaomai several times since I wrote the last Nugget a week ago. The number of readers who wrote to me with their accounts of spiritual abuse at the hands of such ill-informed teachers of lies in the Name of God left me incredulous. I was left snorting with indignation at what I was reading over and over in the responses of readers and was left with a longing for such a pastor to preach that trash while I was within earshot. No wonder we have so many people who have distanced themselves from the church if they have had that doctrine rammed down their throats. Don’t worry with a few more sentences I will have cleared the bile from my system. I had planned to share other things in this Nugget but they will come at a later time. At this point with this Nugget I I have to do something I have never done before. Starting with this Nugget, I will share the fullness of one of the most astounding treasures of Scripture I have found. I usually keep it until a certain point of Deeper Bible. But no longer; all of the big guns have to be brought to addressing this particular issue of false teaching for the sake of the wellness of the Body of Christ.
We use the abbreviation WWJD to flag the question “What would Jesus do?” Can you imagine in your worst nightmare Jesus ever preaching or teaching this garbage propagated by these false teachers – now or in Paul’s time? The words found in Matthew 12:20, which is a quote from Isaiah 42:3 comes to my mind.
A bruised reed He will not break (crush), a smouldering wick (flax) He will not snuff out until He bring forth true judgement (justice).
Matt 12:20 // Isaiah 42:3
I could not imagine Jesus removing a person from a leadership role simply because they were sick. Then to put them out of the body of Christ (the church) because they are not healed when He was one who prayed for them, claiming that the fact they were not healed was an indication they are no longer walking close to God. As I read the story it left me speechless. It is not often I am without words; but in this case I was without words and fuming with righteous anger. I trust I am never in a position of hearing firsthand that kind of interpretation of Scripture. I assure you I will not be without words should that ever happen. I have never interrupted a service in my life but I would given that scenario.
The number of responses to the last Nugget and the nature of the tales told indicates to me this is a huge problem for the body of Christ and the teaching of the church. I feel I have to address it in full. Too many of you have struggled with illness and have been faced with death only to have some Christian (even worse a so-called pastor) tell you that you are still sick or dying because you lack the faith to claim your healing or have sin in your life and that’s the reason you have not been healed. Allow me to gather my thoughts and start off on a different track to address this issue. Paul dealt with exactly this situation in 2 Corinthians. This passage and the sense unit of which it is a part, is the focus of Deeper Bible at 301 level where we investigate the biblical sense unit which addresses this very issue. Paul has been told by the false teachers in 1 Corinthians that he not a real apostle because he doesn’t speak with eloquence and by 2 Corinthians those who oppose him are using Paul’s sufferings against him. You can’t be a true apostle if you are suffering. Suffering is not for victorious Christians. Given that scenario and on-going opposition against him he writes:
But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.
2 Corinthians 2:14-17
From this point on until chapter 13 of his letter Paul keeps returning to the idea of suffering in the context of the teaching of the false prophets and the false apostles. I have heard 2 Corinthians 14 onwards preached so many times by false teachers claiming “we always go forth in victory because we follow Christ and we are marching in His victory parade. We are the head and not the tail; we always go forth in victory and are never defeated.” False preacher, how can you get the interpretation of the Word of God so wrong when the words and the context are so plainly in front of your nose? That interpretation is not at all what Paul is saying. It neither fits the words which open the segment, nor is in accord with the rest of the letter.
The imagery is taken from a Roman victory parade in which the Roman army entered the city marching the slaves before them. The people rejoiced because now there were new cheap slaves to be bought in the market. The stench that came from these slaves being marched at the head of the victory parade was terrible. Alongside the parade came those who were wafting the incense bowls across the crowd. You smelt the Roman victory parade before you saw it, even before you heard it if the wind was in the right direction. It is that imagery that Paul picks up on and develops the idea that we Christians are Christ’s slaves in victory parade. It is Christ’s victory not ours, we are the slaves of Christ. To some we are the stench of death, to others the fragrance of life. The reaction comes from within the heart of the person receiving the Good News. I have told two poignant contrasting stories in Gem 518. Notice what Paul wrote in verse 17 above. Let me repeat the verse again for emphasis:
Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.
2 Cor 2:17
Do you realise false teacher, Paul is referring to you and your cronies. He is talking about the false apostles and teachers who preach this nonsense. The nonsense with which you spiritually abuse the people of God as I have heard time and time again through this last week. Enough false teachers! It’s time someone called you out for preaching this poison and abuse your hearers. For the rest of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians he returned again and again to this same refrain. Why does he do that? I know why. I have had the same feelings through this last week. Each time I would receive yet another emailed response to last week’s Nugget, sharing the pain of the writer having been spiritually abused in church or being told their sickness was the result of their sin or their lack of faith.
One of these respondents was the woman who I featured in the Nugget Hearing God’s Voice 17. The Hearing God’s Voice series is my second most popular Nugget series. It sits second on the list of the Popular Nugget Series on the Nuggets landing page of my website. Why do I tell you that? Because I want to make this as clear to you all as I can. Especially to address the matter with those of you who are false teachers. I want to draw to your attention to the damage you are doing by your spurious false teaching. The fact that you single out people for condemnation because you perceive them to not be walking close to God because they have not been healed. How dare you False Preacher. It is you who ought to be stoned. Give me a stone someone. The woman and her husband you pulled from leadership and then cast out of the church was and is the same woman whose story I told in the above mentioned Nugget. She is the one who sees or saw the words on the bottom of the screen like teletext in HGV 17 and simply read the prophetic words from the screen. How dare you make a judgement on her and her husband that they are no longer walking close to God. Maybe, just maybe, they are no longer close to God because of years of being spiritually abused by you and those like you. You, who I trust prayed for them in their need, maybe even laid hands on them like good leaders ought to do. But then turned when they were not healed and ultimately asked them to leave the church. Perhaps they were a constant reminder to you that you and your elders had failed when you prayed for them and they were not healed.
Oh I know why Paul kept returning to the theme of 2 Corinthians related to suffering, strength and weakness, treasure being found in vessels of clay. I have felt the same recurring feelings this week with each successive response I have had from Nugget readers. This maybe a more strongly worded Nugget than what I usually write, however dear reader, I trust you can understand why. I will continue to peel back the layers of this false teaching in the following Nuggets and help you to see the grandeur of what God has placed in His word on the topic. I promise you the last Nugget in this series will leave you speechless like it does me and it will bring all of these Nuggets on the Puzzling Paradox to a fitting end. But that end is still a long way off. I have many wonderful, helpful things to share with you in this series yet. This Nugget series will without doubt be my longest one yet. I hope you who are following the Nuggets keep reading. Share them far and wide with your friends. Give them the link to read them too. But I don’t imagine the false teachers and preachers will read another one. Hence my reason for putting this one forcefully. I will pursue this new tack for a while before I begin telling you some different stories and ultimately address the issue that confounds and confronts us.
Keep reading these Nuggets. . .
to snort with anger Dr Vail that is a strong word. I love it!
Question:
what chance do these people taught falsely have for salvation? will they have the same as those mentioned in 1Peter 4:6?
Thanks for your comment Ross. Yes all people have the same chance for salvation if they are willing to repent in the biblical sense of the word. But the chance has to be taken before the grave. There is no such thing as prayer for the dead. See Heb 9:27.