10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
10250 North Freeway @ West
Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
What
We Believe and Why
Written by Dr.
Lester Hutson
Copyright
- Lester Hutson - 1986
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced
without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
MIRACLE
HEALING
ACTS 3: 1-11
We believe God heals people. If we didn't, we certainly wouldn't ask prayer for, nor pray for the sick. But, we do pray for sick people, believing God will heal according as He has promised in His Word. We do not believe that much of the healing claimed today is bona-fide. We believe the miracle healers of today are realy fake healers preying upon the psychologically weak and unlearned. The Apostles did have the "gift of healing"; but since the completion of the Apostolic ministry, there have been no divine healers nor miraculous healings performed by them. Since the gift of healing was one of the gifts of the Spirit, which we believe was limited to the Apostolic age, therefore we believe the gift ceased when its purpose was fulfilled. Thus we believe that since the completion of that Apostolic ministry, no one has that gift. Consult our chapters on "The Completion of the Apostolic Ministry." They show why we believe the gift of healing has ceased. Since those chapters are in this book, this chapter will consider fraudulent healing practices, the limitations of the healing promises, and scriptures on healing rather than the proof that the gift of healing has ceased.
I. Bible evidence is that the promises of healing are not without limitations:
A. We know full well that God could heal anyone of anything:
1. "With God all things are possible. " Matt. 19:26.
2. He, who created the universe, designed the human body and spirit, and has "All power ... in heaven and in earth", (Matt. 28:18), proved while He was on earth that He can heal any and all kinds of infirmities and even raise the dead.
3. It is not, nor never has been a question of whether or not God can heal. He can; but the fact is, He doesn't always see fit to heal.
B. Those who claim to have the gift of healing and those who profess to believe in healing by "miracle healers" use James 5:13-18 to support their belief. They say that if you have enough faith, when a healer prays for you, you will be healed:
1. It is noteworthy that in the case of the real healers (the Apostles), the Lord told them once when they failed to heal a lunatic (Matt. 17:14-16) that the failure was due to their unbelief, Matt. 17:17, 20:
a. Note that whether or not the sick man had faith had nothing to do with it.
b. Of course, the loophole through which modern fake healers jump is "The person to be healed didn't have enough faith."
2. The truth is that some of the Bible people, who had the greatest of faith and who prayed for healing, never were healed, which is evidence that the promises of healing are not just to everyone who has faith and prays:
a. Who could argue the fact that the Apostle Paul was a man of faith and faithfulness, and was filled with the Spirit? Yet, inspite of his prayers and faith, Paul continued to have a "thorn in the flesh," II Cor. 12:4-9.
b. Trophimus was a man of faith (Acts 20:4; Acts 21:24), yet he was "left at Miletum sick." II Tim. 4:20.
C. Timothy is an example of Godliness (I Tim. 4:12), yet he was not healed of his stomach disorders and various other "infirmities", I Tim. 5:23.
d. The book of III John will tell you what a faithful man Gaius was, yet he was not "in health", vs. 2.
e. Epaphroditus was another Godly man of faith who continued to be sick, Phil 2:25-30.
3. Thus, the evidence of Scripture supports the position that the promise of healing is not general to just anyone who may be sick, to the contrary, it is limited to the people and circumstances indicated in the Scriptures.
II. The truth is that modern fake healers and supporters of miracle healing make no attempt to operate and act within the limitations of Holy Scriptures:
A. In the first place, fake healers are dishonest:
1. If they have the power to heal the sick, then they ought to have enough human compassion to walk through the hospitals, clearing the rooms of their patients, and to go over this world and restore the handicapped and amputies.
2. If they have the power, then who would say they shouldn't use it? And, if they can't do what we propose, then they lie when they claim to be healers.
3. Inspite of a rash of these Pentecostal type "healers" today, the hospitals (physical and mental) are running over and they are continually building more, and every doctor seems to have more patients than he can handle.
B. The miracle healers make their mileage by dealing with psychosomatic problems:
1. It is a medically proveable fact that a large majority of all ailments (perhaps in excess of 80%) are brought on by stresses. These can cause all sorts of mental and physical disorders including ulcers, gout, arthritis, headache, high blood pressure, etc.
2. If a fake healer can get such a person to have faith that he is healed and all is well; generally the problem will decrease or even vanish completely, for the stress is gone and the nerves which were causing the problem to begin with, settle back down.
3. It is easy to see that the healer's power was really only "imaginary" and his supposed healing only a lying wonder.
4. This is why fake healers always seem to deal with internal functions, which an observer can not see, and never with a broken bone sticking out through the skin or a ten inch gash in a man's side.
5. You always hear of these second hand; never are they documented and not correlated with any psychological disturbance.
6. Furthermore, since these healers (and often those who claim they were healed) diagnose the cases themselves, it is easy to see how this aids in obtaining miraculous recoveries from incurable diseases, since the patient really didn't have that disease to begin with; or if he did have something wrong, he would have gotten over it anyway through natural recovery.
III. Consider the healing which is promised us in God's word:
A. By faith we can avoid or be healed of those ailments which we bring on ourselves by carelessness, neglect, worry, overindulgence, and stress in general:
1. Remember that faith is not a matter of doing things blindly, (Heb. 11:1-2). Faith is a matter of obeying the council of God's Word, Rom. 10:17.
2. By obeying the council of God's Word (exercising faith), many sicknesses would clear up:
a. The Word of God says, "But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth," Col. 3:8. These very things cause a host of maladies in the body. See I Pet. 2:1, Eph. 4:31, Titus 3:3.
b. God's Word teaches against worry (Luke 12:22), hate and resentfulness (Mt. 18:21-22), fear (Mt. 10:28), greed (Eph. 5:3, I Tim. 6:10), and many other such things which bring on high blood pressure, heart diseases, apoplexy, gastric disorders and countless others.
C. I Cor. 3:16-17 teaches against abusing the body, which such things as smoking, drinking, overwork, overweight, and improper diet.
3. Most people having high blood pressure or back trouble due to overweight could improve their health immensely by exercising faith in God's Word and losing 25 or 30 pounds.
4. When a person has an ailment brought on by disobedience to the teachings of God's Word; he need not go exercise presumption (not faith) in some fake healer, expecting the healer to make him well inspite of his disobedience. (It's for certain that there is no healer who can override God's consequences for disobedience). What that man needs to do is heed (exercise faith in) God's Holy Word. When he does, thus eliminating the thing which was causing his ailment in the first place, then chances are the ailment will clear up.
5. Since "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.." (Jam. 1:17), we know that such recoveries are of God.
6. Such healing as this is real faith healing,for it results from hearing and heeding God's Word about good health.
B. Furthermore, God's Word teaches us to cooperate with medicine in bringing about healing:
1. There are ailments which are not related to God's chastening nor to some foolish practice of the victim: There are allergies, infections, and injuries, plus many other such problems.
2. We are by God's council to get knowledge and to use wisdom and understanding:
a. The Bible extoles wisdom and understanding (Prov. 3:18-23) and exorts us to get it, Prov. 4:5-13.
b. Notice that one of the results is, "the years of thy life shall be many, " Prov. 4:10.
3. The Bible gives us examples of using medicine for illnesses:
a. Timothy was told, "use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities," I Tim. 5:23.
b. James's teaching to use "oil" on the sick man seems to stand symbolic of using medicine, Jam. 5:14.
C. Christ himself spoke approvingly of using "oil and wine" on the wounds of the man who was beaten and wounded on the road to Jericho, and illustrates God's sanction of the use of medicines. Luke 10:33-34.
4. Here again is taking God's council, and thus exercising faith; thus any resultant cure would be the result of faith.
5. It should be noted that God does not promise that every use of medicine, however wise, will result in a cure. All men must eventually die (Heb. 9:27) and God may be working out a divine purpose in one's life as He did with Job and the blind man of John 9:1-3. Since we do not know which the case may be, we can simply use what understanding we have, depending upon God to heal, if He sees fit. (The faith is in using understanding as we are told.)
C. Also, God's Word teaches we can be healed from those illnesses brought on by reason of chastening, providing the Bible plan is followed:
1. Unconfessed sin will bring the chastening of God upon a person, who is a child of God:
a. Heb. 12:5-11 shows it can be very "grievous," (vs. 11).
b. Some of the Corinthians were sick, and some dead as a result of this very thing. I Cor. 11:28-32,
C. Old Testament Israel illustrates this truth as they were often plagued with sickness, disease, and pestilence for their disobedience. Ex. 15:26, Deut. 28:15, 21-22, 27.
d. It is particularly hard on a man who has brought public reproach upon the church. I Cor. 5:1-13,
e. If the guilty person does not follow God's plan for removing the cause, which brings on such sickness as this, he will very likely be guilty of a "sin unto death", (I John 5:16) for Jam. 1:15 says, "sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
2. Jam. 5:13-20 outlines the plan for healing from sicknesses stemming from this cause:
a. Notice that James definitely is considering this kind of sicknesses for he indicates:
(1) That "death" would occur if the person were not healed, vs. 20.
(2) That the sick must "confess" (vs. 16), which is exactly what those Christians guilty of sin are told to do, I John 1:9.
b. Such ones are to call the elders of the church (Jam. 5:14), especially in such cases as I Cor. 5:1-13 where public harm to the testimony of the church has been done and perhaps even church action has been taken. Mt. 18:18.
c. The sick man is to "confess" his faults both to each other and to God, (Jam. 5:16).
d. As he does, they are to pray for him (Jam. 5:14-15) and the result will be healing.
e. When the cause of this sickness (unconfessed sin) is removed, God will remove the effect , which is the sickness itself.
f. That the prayer of the elders would have been of no avail except the man confessed his sins is illustrated by Jam. 5:17-18 where Elijah is involved:
(1) Elijah prayed there'd be no rain (vs. 17), but the prayer, was answered because of the wickedness of Israel and Ahab's house. I Kings 18:17-18.
(2) Elijah prayed again that it would rain (vs. 18), but he could only do that and have his prayer honored because Israel had repented, so meeting the conditions necessary to remove God's chastening from them. I Kings 18:39-45.
3. The use of oil (Jam. 5:14) involves primarily the house of Israel:
a. James addresses his book to the "twelve tribes which are scattered abroad" (Jam. 1:1) who were his brethren nationally as well as spiritually.
b. Christ sent the 12 Apostles among the 12 tribes of Israel telling them to annoint with oil (Mk. 6:13), but he limited this to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel", (Mt. 10:6) and forbade them to go "into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans," Mat. 10:5.
c. Oil is never used in the New Testament in connection with healing outside the house of Israel, and we believe the context so limits its use here.
d. We believe the oil mentioned here is symbolic of the need to use medicines as they are available.
D. We believe healing, outside of these methods set forth in the Scriptures, is fradulent, fake, and counterfeit:
1. We believe these to be the methods by which God heals today, in cases where man other than the one sick, is involved.
2. We believe God could directly intervene in any sickness or injury; but it would not be upon the strength of a "healer."
3. Thus, we conclude that the "miracle healers" of today are not healers, but frauds; and that those believing in them are deceived.
4. This is not to say there haven't ever been miracle healers, for certainly there have been. Our text (Acts 3:11) talks of two, and tells of a miraculous healing performed by them.
5. But, we believe that since the Apostolic ministry, there have been no more such healers.
6. Again we encourage you to consult the chapter on "The completion of the Apostolic Ministry" to see why we believe the gift of healing along with all the other gifts has ceased.
"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"