Big Healing Book - Greats of Faith Were Stoned, Sawn Asunder, Slain, Destitute

Objection: Greats of Faith Were Stoned, Sawn Asunder, Slain, Destitute, Afflicted and Tormented. Therefore, We Can Be Too, Even If We Have Great Faith Like Theirs.

This objection is based on Hebrews 11:35-38, which in context appears below with my notes in brackets (as usual) in the passage Hebrews 11:32-40:

And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
[Okay, stop here. Tradition seizes upon the people who were killed and ignores the people who did something with their faith. However, note that these people did not accept deliverance. It seems that deliverance as in the first part of this passage was available to them and they knew it, but they chose to die, anticipating a better resurrection. This is another case of people choosing to die.]
And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
[Consider Paul, who had all of the above. We are redeemed from sickness but not from persecution for the gospel’s sake. Of course, the writer of Hebrews spoke of Old Testament people, not Paul.]
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

This set of verses has also been used to preach that poverty is godly. But consider why they were poor. They were refugees, persecuted for the sake of the Word of God. This has absolutely nothing to do with a believer in a civilized country where the gospel can be preached publicly. It cannot be used as an excuse for a believer not currently undergoing persecution and exile to be poor and sick.

By the way, please notice that sickness is not mentioned once in this list of sufferings for the sake of the Word of God. Healing is mentioned here, though – the dead who were raised to life again had to be healed or they would have dropped dead again immediately.

Therefore, you simply can’t use this passage to claim that faith for healing doesn’t work. Well, a couple of people have tried to use it for that, but they’re wrong. One person wrote that the fact that they were “afflicted” proves that they were sick. But the Greek word translated afflicted means to crowd (literally or figuratively), and it is translated afflict, narrow, throng, suffer tribulation and trouble. It has nothing to do with sickness. (It amazes me that people make statements like this without even bothering to look up the word in a concordance or a lexicon. That’s part of the problem right there.)

You CAN have great faith and be persecuted and even martyred, as were all the original 12 Apostles of the Lamb except John according to some church historians. But that doesn’t stop you from receiving healing, which is an entirely different matter.

The people who had “great faith” in the New Testament were those who believed that Jesus would heal the sick. He expressed exasperation when His disciples did not exercise faith in their authority over sickness and Satan. He told people that their faith had made them well. If you can have great faith and still stay oppressed, Jesus surely didn’t know that! Where people stayed sick (Nazareth), Jesus marveled at their unbelief, not their faith!

Jesus in His teaching clearly puts the responsibility on us to receive what God has promised. It is already provided. It is up to us to believe that we receive it when we pray.