Am I Sick Because I Left a Church?

The only case where I could see you being sick because you left a church is because you left a good church that preaches healing and decided to go to one that doesn’t and knowingly listened to vain arguments against healing regularly.  That is a good way to wreck your confidence in divine healing and end up sick.  I’ve seen that play out a lot, unfortunately.  People get DECEIVED into thinking that they are so spiritual that they will be unscathed by the rotten doctrine at Unbelief Comes by Hearing Worship Center.  They like the kids’ outings there, or they think that the people are really sweet, or they like the cool music that comes complete with rock concert pyrotechnics, or worst of all, they think they are God’s chosen instruments to bring healing and revival to a church where the pastor isn’t even Spirit-filled and doesn’t allow tongues in his services!  (That is WAY too common; I have some other comments about that elsewhere.)

The only other reason I can think of that you could get sick because you left a church is that you were a tool of Satan who split that church and undermined a legitimate work of God, bringing judgment on yourself.  1 Corinthians 3:17 speaks of judgment from God on someone who tries to destroy a church.  I’m not saying that there aren’t lousy churches that should be split, but normally, you should “split” without splitting the church if you’re unhappy somewhere.

People sometimes leave a church that preaches healing for a good reason, but if they do, they should find another church that preaches healing rather than running to a “nice, safe denominational church” as many have done.

It is legitimate to leave a healing-preaching church if the pastor is a crook, if the pastor is manipulative and controlling, if the pastor publicly maligns everyone who leaves as “deceived by Satan” (I’ve seen that done), if the pastor pronounces doom on those who leave or shares scary stories about people who left, or if the pastor is known to hound anyone who leaves mercilessly until he returns.  (“Welcome to Eagles’ Song Fellowship, where you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”)  The pastor of a once-popular cult-like Spirit-filled church told the story about someone who had left the church and was killed when his own tractor ran over him two days later.  Alleged moral of the story: “Don’t leave this church or you could be the next tale of tragedy as God judges you for leaving.”  God won’t judge you with sickness or death for changing churches; don’t listen to any such threats.  Get out of anywhere that tries to put that kind of trip on you!

There are other valid reasons too numerous to mention to leave a church.  God is not going to judge you with sickness because you’re in the wrong local fellowship!

We don’t see this scenario play out explicitly in Scripture only because there was only one church in the city in those days.  You didn’t have your choice in Corinth between the First Church of Paul, Central Cephas Church, Apollos Fellowship and a non-denominational gathering.

However, any church that hints that leaving will cause God to judge you with sickness or other disasters is unhealthy because it mispresents the character of the God that IS revealed by the Bible.  Do yourself a favor and get out of there.  And don’t believe any lie that you got sick because you left such a place.