Mistake: Reading Stupid Books
Faith cometh by hearing the Word of God, and doubt cometh by reading stupid books written against divine healing and those who preach it.
For some unfathomable reason, books written against divine healing often top the Christian bestseller lists. What kind of good news this is, that God might not heal you and might want you sick for a reason, is beyond me. I suppose that the authors think that they are doing the Body of Christ a service by assuring the sick that it’s okay to be sick and that there’s nothing they can do. Not only are the arguments in these books unscriptural, but some of these authors try to dig up dirt about famous preachers who believe that healing is universally available through Christ’s atonement. This practice is despicable, to say nothing of personally dangerous for the authors. It is just as out of line with God’s love as the assertions in their books that God won’t heal you.
At worst, buying one of those books is no better than grabbing a supermarket tabloid to see what awful things movie stars and music idols have been up to lately. It is nothing new for Satan to invent untrue gossip about God’s ministers, and sadly, many people are prone to believe them. Satan did it in Bible days, too. He prompted false witnesses to testify against Jesus. He prompted false witnesses to claim that Paul was saying that we should just go out and sin and God will get all the more glory. He prompted false witnesses to report that Stephen had blasphemed. So it is no surprise that he will try to mount a “smear campaign” against preachers who are pleasing God today. One of his favorite tactics is to quote famous preachers out of context to make it sound like they’re teaching heresy when a reading of such preachers’ other statements disprove that they are teaching anything unorthodox. People can and do get stirred up against men of God for unfair reasons based on untrue reports. You should not be one of the stirred-up ones. You can find bad apples in many bushels if you look hard enough; trouble is not specific to “faith” preachers.
However, it really does not matter what allegations (if any) made against healing preachers are true. You cannot make any man the issue in a doctrinal debate. The only way to debate doctrine is through the Word of God. If I robbed three banks and blew up the Golden Gate Bridge, the truths asserted in this book would still be just as valid because they are based on the unchanging Word of God. Plenty of ministers who preached healing have failed morally. There have always been some moral failures among God’s leaders. Consider Samson, David and Solomon. Solomon’s failings do not stop us from using Proverbs for doctrine. David’s failings do not stop us from using Psalms for doctrine. Let God be true and every man a liar (Romans 3:4)!
Some of these books, while attempting to tear down the Scriptural arguments of good teachers, proceed to make some of the most pathetic and inane interpretations of Scripture imaginable. Many of these are quoted for you in the Objections Overruled! section of this book. The presence of Scripture in any book (including this book) does not mean that the book is in line with Scripture as a whole. Consider the devil’s careful misquotation of Psalm 91 when he tempted Jesus (Luke 4:10-11). Many Scriptures (about Job’s trials, Paul’s thorn, Timothy’s stomach, Trophimus, etc.) are often yanked out of harmony with the Bible (and often the immediate context) to try to prove a point against healing.
Then there are the “scare” stories and books from people who SUPPOSEDLY followed “faith” teaching and let loved ones die without medical help. All this proves is that the people never really listened to modern faith teaching, because the prominent faith teachers of our day all agree that you should not avoid medical help while believing God for your healing.
Then there are the “I tried that faith stuff and it didn’t work” books.
Another category of book claims, “God physically brutalized me to draw me closer to Himself.” These pop up regularly, too. Someone’s cancer, paralysis, loss of a child or other tragedy is presented as the will of God for some twisted reason. You are supposed to be “blessed” reading how the person was brought closer to God and how the person is now better off than he would have been otherwise. In some cases, the person may be a celebrity in Christian circles among those who don’t know any better. If you would like calamity to bring you closer to God, go ahead and read this nonsense and build your faith for calamities. Otherwise, read something better (like this book or the Bible). Besides, the Bible says to draw near to God and He will draw near to you (James 4:8). Thus, it is YOUR responsibility to draw near to God. It is not up to some circumstance to do the job for you. It is not up to God to create circumstances that do the job for you. Perhaps someone who did NOT draw near to God started to do so because of a tragedy, and that is better than never drawing near to God, but that does not mean that GOD was stealing, killing and destroying to draw someone to Himself. It means that someone finally wised up who should have wised up before catastrophe struck.
Anti-healing books have probably been around as long as healing books. They are often advertised well and found in flashy displays at inferior Christian bookstores. (Unfortunately, they are not displayed in the Fiction section where they belong.) If you have had the misfortune to pick up one of these books and have been unsettled by its contents, let me suggest the following:
– Read the Scripture verses from both testaments contained in this book to see what the Bible says about healing in general.
– Reject any opposing argument based on experiences and not on the Word of God alone.
– You will find most of the arguments that are taken from the Word of God in the Objections Overruled! section of this program, as well as some others that are not taken from the Word but which are common today. Read the Scriptural answers to these arguments. As I heard a preacher say, sometimes you need to know what is written, and sometimes you need to know what is ALSO written!
It does not matter how famous or sincere the author is. Bad doctrine is still bad doctrine. Let me say in closing that some of the silliest statements about divine healing are made by preachers who are actually very anointed to serve the Body of Christ in other areas. As long as they stick with what they know, their books are excellent. They only get in trouble when they start dabbling in areas where they are unlearned. This is perhaps part of the problem. The fact that there is a genuine grace on them in another area leads people to believe that anything they say about healing must also be true.