Objection: The Choicest Saints on Earth are Suffering Shut-Ins

The full sentence, in case you’ve never had the misfortune to come across it yet along with the “classic” old anti-healing book that contains it, is:

“The choicest saints on earth today are the thousands of shut-ins, who suffer in patience and sing their sweet songs in the night.”

followed by:

“They are living in the closest possible communion with the Lord, and by their gentleness, meekness, their whole-hearted and uncomplaining resignation to the will of God, manifest the all sufficiency of His grace to sustain and keep; they glorify Him a thousand times more than all the pretending faith-healers with their sensational methods.”

This is followed by a statement that you feel the presence of the Lord more with them perhaps nowhere else this side of heaven.

Not a single Scripture is cited to support this syrupy sentimental slush; there is not even a Scripture innuendo to be found in it, though as we will see, Scripture certainly contradicts what this author says.

I know that in my experience, when I’ve ministered in nursing homes, I’ve never found the “choicest” saints there.  Many times, they’re miserable and unhappy, and if I had to live somewhere listening to the constant screams of “I want to go HOME!” and “Helllllp meeeee!” I probably wouldn’t be too happy either.  Maybe nursing homes in the author’s bygone day were different; I wasn’t around then.

Even dear old saints are often found constantly complaining about their physical misery.  I don’t know if I’ve EVER encountered someone in a home who totally “accepted” his horrible illness – the patients don’t hesitate to ask a nurse for something to combat their allegedly God-given pain.  If they REALLY believe that God wants them to be in pain, then rather than ask for painkillers, they should beg the staff for PAIN-ENHANCERS so that they can suffer more severely and be in even CLOSER communion with the Lord as they are unable to sleep due to their misery – which will enable them to sing their sweet songs in the night instead of sleeping in the night as most of us prefer to do.

This old book has been the model for countless “faith preacher personal attack books” since then.  There is nothing sweet or patient about its diatribes of healing ministers who were alive back then, whom it doesn’t hesitate to name and vilify.  But I suppose the author had not yet reached the lofty spiritual heights that he thinks are reserved for the bedridden.

I’ve never been to such a facility where I have had a great awareness of the presence of God when I walked in, but I’ve been in multiple such places where there was certainly a presence of demons that were afflicting some of the patients, and sometimes speaking and acting overtly through them.  I know that in my experience, I have sensed the presence of the Lord the strongest in healing meetings when the power of the risen Christ manifested and the sick were set free.  It is clear that the author did not have that privilege, as he no doubt stayed away from people he labeled as sensational pretenders.

Nothing in Scripture even hints that ILLNESS causes you to live “in the closest possible communion with the Lord” and if the author stopped and thought a minute about it, his actions would belie his own words.  After all, isn’t the closest possible communion with God a worthy goal?  If so, the author should have proudly told the world that he was praying to get so sick that he had to go to a convalescent center so that he too could enjoy the closest possible communion with the Lord.  If that’s really the case, we should pray for EVERYONE to have this God-appointed physical misery so that EVERYONE can be as close to God as possible.  If YOU really believe the objector’s statements, why aren’t YOU praying to be as sick as possible as soon as possible to enhance your communion with God?  (“Lord, cause me to be a suffering shut-in so that I can sing my sweet songs in the night and be one of the choicest saints on earth.”)

In fact, from a Bible perspective (much better than a purely emotional or experience-driven one), if it were really true that serious sickness grants you the closest communion with God, then Jesus went about doing BAD when he healed the sick!  If intense suffering that confines you to a home gives you the closest walk with God possible, we should read that Jesus went around DISHING OUT sicknesses that left the crowds bedridden so that they could ALL enjoy the marvelous spiritual benefits of debilitation.

At least the author points out something true about these people – they live in resignation (as opposed to faith)!  Because they think that their suffering is heaven-sent (though they want the staff to fight it with painkillers), they don’t do anything to escape what they think is the oppression of God, rather than what it is, the oppression (cruel tyranny) of the devil.  It is tragic that so many people die in this delusion, which books like the one in question promote.

Do the suffering shut-ins really glorify God a thousand times as much as healing ministers?  Not according to Scripture!  The apostles (healing ministers if there ever were any!) were called “the glory of Christ” in 2 Corinthians 8:23.  (The word for messengers here is translated apostles all over the New Testament.)  Men glorified God when the sick were healed.  But there is NOT ONE CASE in Scripture where men glorified God when they encountered a person who had just resigned himself to suffering and saw the person’s meekness and patience.  Gushy emotional appeals should never be confused with the actual Bible.