Objection: God Could Give Disease as a Prophetic Sign

As “out-there” as this sounds, a famous person suggested that her cancer could be a prophetic sign that paralleled developments in Israel.  Supposedly, she was being used like Old Testament prophets to have her very life be a sign of prophetic events soon to unfold.

Well, we aren’t under the Old Testament anymore, and we don’t read of a single case in the New Testament where anyone went through something awful as a prophetic sign to the church.

This objection has to assume that the person is standing in the office of an Old Testament prophet.  There are no Old Testament prophets in the New Testament!  Agabus, a true New Testament prophet, foretold two events (that we know of), but he never told anyone what to do.  Judas and Silas are also called prophets; they exhorted and confirmed the brethren (Acts 15:32), but they did not boss the brethren around.  An Old Testament prophet could tell you what to do, and if you disobeyed, you could become part of the food chain when a bear showed up!  But there are NO cases in the New Testament of any prophet acting like an Old Testament prophet.  The Old Testament prophet actually had more authority than a New Testament prophet.

We don’t see prophets today showing signs that affect nations the way that Ezekiel and Hosea did.

Nor is there a single case where Jesus told someone to keep his sickness because it was divinely given as a prophetic sign of what was going on in Israel or anywhere else.

This just gets added to the list of “why God didn’t heal me” excuses, but it’s always sad when people “bite” on the devil’s deceptions that are designed to get people to accept and even welcome their sicknesses when they should be taking authority over them in the name of Jesus.  This thinking promotes a kind of pride that you are such a big deal that God would use you as an international sign.  Satan is the one who wants you to be in that kind of pride, being quite a pride expert himself.  It is far better to humble yourself and accept the healing that Jesus has provided.  Please be assured that the Lord Jesus would NEVER go along with afflicting anyone as a prophetic sign.