Objection: Divine Healing Is Practiced by False Cults
Although some mind science cults profess belief in divine healing, real healing through the Word of God has nothing to do with their practices. Many sects today profess a belief in supernatural healing, including some satanic covens. However, the fact that there are false healing cults does not mean that the real thing doesn’t exist, any more than the presence of counterfeit money means that real money doesn’t exist.
Real healing through Jesus Christ is NOT mind over matter. It is using God’s promises to change matter. Your trust and faith are in God’s ability to perform what He has promised, as in Abraham’s example:
Romans 4:20-21:
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was also able to perform.
Mind science cults stress YOUR so-called ability to heal yourself with your own mind. While having a positive attitude is definitely helpful, faith is a lot more than a positive attitude. It trusts God to fulfill the promises He made concerning your health as a believer. It makes the impossible possible.
And no, the doctrine of divine healing is not equivalent to “Christian Science,” which is neither Christian nor scientific. Although this cult believes in healing through non-medicinal means, what its practitioners believe has nothing to do with what informed Christians believe.
Just to disillusion anyone who thinks that Christian healing has anything to do with so-called Christian Science, here are some quotes from recognized standard Christian Science literature. Any true Christian can immediately recognize and reject these as non-Christian cult teaching:
“Jesus was the offspring of Mary’s self-conscious communion with God.”
“The dual personality (Christ Jesus) continued until the ascension, when Jesus disappeared, while Christ continues to exist in the eternal order of Divine Science taking away the sins of the world.”
“His disciples believed Jesus to be dead, while he was in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive.”
“Here also is found the cardinal point in Christian Science, that matter and evil (including all inharmony, sin, disease, and death) are UNREAL.”
“Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death.”
“Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed as devoid of reality as they are of good.”
“Evil is unreal.”
“The only reality of sin, sickness, or death is the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring belief, until God strips off their disguise.”
“Death is an illusion, the lie of life in matter; the unreal and untrue.”
“The way to escape the misery of sin is to cease sinning. There is no other way.”
“Sin makes its own hell, and goodness its own heaven.”
As you can see, Christian Scientists, despite their apparent fondness for “supernatural healing,” deny the virgin birth, the death and resurrection of Christ, the reality of sin, sickness and death, eternal judgment and atonement for sins. Do yourself a favor and stay away from their Reading Rooms. Divine healing has nothing to do with so-called Christian Science, which will lead you directly to hell.
An Interesting Observation on Mark 11:23-24
Did you ever notice that Mark 11:24 is for the believer, because prayer is involved, but Mark 11:23 is for “whosoever?” In other words, anyone, even an unbeliever, can practice Mark 11:23. The fact that you believe and practice the principle in Mark 11:23 does not necessarily mean that you are a Christian! Jesus said that many would do wonderful works in His name and yet not be Christians! Think about it: The people who received healing from Jesus during his ministry were all unbelievers in the sense of not being born again!
Some cults have picked up on this truth and taught it, perhaps better than many Christian churches have. The fact is, Mark 11:23 can work for “whosoever,” including people in false cults. (That is no excuse to join a cult.) In fact, people “have what they say” more than they realize, even if they do not identify with any religion! Just as gravity works for believer and unbeliever alike, there are spiritual principles that work for believers and unbelievers alike.
When I was a child, we would visit my grandfather in Florida, and while everyone else was down by the pool, I would sneak into his study and read a certain occult book that he had. It contained many testimonies of people who believed they would have what they spoke. This was better than anything I had seen at “church” (the place to which I was dragged was actually a club for religious sinners, not a real church, as the new birth was never taught there). Now I SHOULD have heard testimonies from Christians, but I wasn’t in a place where you could hear them. This powerlessness of “church” is what drives many to seek something “real” from the occult, and that was the case with me. Now the principles they acted on when it came to this were what Jesus taught, but they left Jesus out of it. (That’s a giveaway that something is of the devil – any attempt to access supernatural power without Jesus is of the devil. But I didn’t know that then, so I was deceived.) But Jesus was right when He said that “whosoever” could follow His instructions. The statement “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21) was written to sinners at the time, so obviously sinners could work that principle. But what good would all that be today if you ended up in hell without Jesus?
The mistake many anti-faith websites make is implying that if a false religion teaches something, Christians must not believe it because the opposite must be true. But wait a minute – Muslims believe in a literal hell. We would not stop believing in a literal hell for that reason. Mormons believe that the office of the prophet did not cease with the “early church.” We would not conclude that the office of the prophet has been done away with just because Mormons believe that it hasn’t. New Age and Eastern Religion teachers believe in supernatural healing, but that does not mean that we should not believe in supernatural healing just because they believe in it. We just don’t follow the same practices and doctrines of New Age and Eastern Religion adherents, which is good because their brand of religion offers you a temporary healing (that isn’t from God) but still leads you straight to hell without Jesus!