Healing - a Cautionary Tale#
It is disturbing to me that God can be viewed by Christ's followers as a willing under-achiever.
Countless generations prior to the invention of the printing press (c. 1440) and the Reformation's arrival (c. 1500) were already deceived. The Tree of Knowledge strangled the spiritual and supernatural life from Christianity. Yet the ancient Celtic Christians (c. 500) resisted (maybe as they were geographical far from the poor Mediterranean influence) and continued to celebrate a Lord who could and would still heal.
Christ was seen as being with and for the poor; healing was regarded as a grace that released, the essential life and health of body and soul, and not in oppostion to the natural process of death. (J. Phillip Newell)
Wind the clock forward a millenia or two to this day; for around six centuries much ink has been spilt and many Amazonian (now Vietnamese) rain-forests have been felled in the evangelical quest of theology to convince that miracles ended with the Apostles. This quest is technically referred to as cessationism. If miracles are finished, or at least suspended until Jesus returns - so then too is Jesus' miraculous healing these days. To respond, A.W.Pink (1886-1952) penned in Divine Healing - is it Scriptural?:
does that (the absence of miracles) include nothing better than drugs and medicines, such as the Christ-rejector has access to, when I am ill?
Remember ecclesiastical man holds the yellow plastic ruler called 'theology' against the Bible to measure what the Bible teaches. But this is wrong - the Bible is to be the rule that measures 'theology'.
Theology is a servant, it is not a regent.
Does God lie? Is this next verse a falsehood? When did God decide to rescind His words so it could return to Him empty? (See Isaiah 55:11)
But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
In fact Jesus quotes the above verse as He explains to the gathered masses His healings are a divine completion to this prophecy. (See Mark 8:16-17)
Cessationist theology has robbed its adherents of their faith and God's power, rendering God impotent to His word, His promises void and their ill-health continuing. BUT -
Then Jesus said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:19)
Faith in a false theology has now replaced faith in His true words.
There are many reasons why people fail to receive healings. Is a neutered - now cautious academic Christian faith the most significant one?
my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. (Hosea 4:6a)
Today's Soul Snippet:
"The Tree of Knowledge is a vine choking the world in an ever increasing bondage to the continual study of its good and evil fruits." ~ Michael Cartwright
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#ENJOY the previous 2 SoulSnacks in this mini-series:
A Healing God? ~ Part A, and A Healing God? ~ Part B