Objection: Some Children DIE Because Their “Faith Healing Cult” Parents Deny Them Medical Care
Have you ever noticed that when a child dies because his parents were in a “faith healing cult” and would not take them to get the help they needed, the secular media goes wild with it and disseminates that story as far and wide as they can, but when God does notable miracles, the same news outlets refuse to even cover them? Some of them love anything that makes Christians (or people who claim to be) look bad.
I know what I’m talking about first-hand. When I pastored in Maine, the two local newspapers, owned by the same person who didn’t mind using his media clout to attack me publicly, refused to publish my press releases and healing event announcements or even letters to the editor in response to his attacks. He refused to print anything about the many miracles that were being done in the name of Jesus at my church. But he didn’t mind printing the obnoxious actions of a pseudo-Christian kook group! That’s just how the game is played in some places. It’s also why the world desperately needs Christian journalists!
The first thing you have to realize is that there are NON-Christian cults that do things like refuse blood transfusions or medical care in general. The press doesn’t make a distinction, but you should. The parents of children who died without medical help are often not involved in anything remotely mainstream in Christian circles, and often they aren’t even in Christian circles. But the press would love for you to think that they are all hyper-faith, hyper-whatever Christians so that you will stay away from anyone who believes in divine healing.
I don’t deny that the stories are true. There are bad apples in some bushels. They’ll cover an insignificant “church” (which may not even really be one) just because they do really stupid things publicly – they love to leave the impression that all Christians are like that. (Note: Speaking what the Bible says about sexuality and gender issues is NOT hateful in and of itself; it’s possible but not necessary to do it in a nasty way. When I did street ministry, homosexuals were just behind high schoolers as those MOST LIKELY to take my tracts even though I disapprove of their lifestyle. I disagreed with them but respected them as people on the street. Of course, if you say ANYTHING biblical about their lifestyle, you will be tarred and feathered by some people as judgmental, intolerant, hateful and homophobic. But often, the ones with the tar and feathers aren’t even homosexuals; they’re just “sympathizers.” And by definition I’m not homophobic; if I FEARED homosexuals I wouldn’t have handed them so many tracts with the good news of what Jesus did for them in an area noted for its “gay community!” Nor would I have given anti-gay-marriage and anti-transgender-bathroom-“rights” speeches to 3- and 4-figure crowds. At least some of the homosexuals in Maine won’t be able to stand before God and say that no one ever told them that their lifestyle is a dead end, showed them the love of Jesus or shared the plan of salvation with them.)
The scare stories don’t represent what I or any healing evangelists I know teach people to do. None of us ever tells people to stay away from doctors or medicine. We never encourage people to act the way the people in the sad news stories act. It was not a case of God letting them down, but rather their own foolishness that brought disaster on themselves. Perhaps they bought into the old-time teaching that it’s a sin to even take an aspirin (quite a few of the old-time Pentecostals were like that, by the way). Unfortunately, they didn’t get their hands on a book like this one in time to straighten out their thinking.
People who get good teaching on healing do not get involved in situations like this. If you want to “tough something out” by faith that is happening to YOU, you can, but don’t impose that on your other family members who may not be where you are with such things. I’ve personally eschewed medical help at times and trusted God – successfully. But I knew what I believed and in whom I believed, and I have divine healing testimonies instead of sad, hyped failure stories. If you know that you’re in over your head, get yourself to a doctor as soon as possible.
Even for me, I had never gotten any kind of medical care (even checkups) for over a quarter of a century, but one day I got a dangerous insect bite on a golf course (technically a gouge; horseflies gouge instead of bite) that carried some kind of really bad infection. My face swelled up and my eyes were almost swollen shut. I believed God – and then went to a clinic and got antibiotics – and I took them faithfully for as long as I was supposed to! I wasn’t going to play games with something like that. I don’t mind admitting that to you in this book – I want to admit it to you to drive home the point that when you know you need care, you get it. In your heart, you know when you need it. As I heard one prominent faith preacher say, I didn’t want it written on my tombstone that I died proving my doctrine! I don’t want to give the secular media another tragedy story to circulate that makes faith preachers and faith churches look bad.
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