Big Healing Book - Who or What Causes Sickness?

Who or What Causes Sickness?

First let’s determine whether sickness is bad or if it is a “blessing in disguise.” The answer should be obvious to any rational person. Sickness is bad. It is not a blessing in disguise. It looks like a curse because it is a curse, not a blessing wrapped up to look like a curse. Were it not for religious but biblically clueless ministers, no one would ever believe that sickness is a friend or a blessing in disguise. You certainly won’t think so after you see what God says about sickness.

Sickness Is Bondage to the Devil

Luke 13:16 speaks of a woman who could not lift herself up for 18 years:

“And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?”

The devil bound her. Jesus loosed her.

Sickness Is Oppression of the Devil

Acts 10:38:
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him.

The devil oppressed the people. Jesus healed them.

Sickness Is Captivity

Job 42:10:
And the Lord turned the captivity of Job...

Job’s trials, which most notably involved sickness, are called captivity. We know that Satan, not God, put all of Job’s sicknesses on him.

Sickness Is a Curse

In Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and elsewhere, sickness is called a curse.

Sickness Is Evil

God speaks of the evil diseases of Egypt in Deuteronomy 7:15.

Satan Is the Author of Sickness

According to John 10:10, it is the devil, not God, who steals, kills and destroys. Jesus came to give abundant life, not abundant death or abundant sickness. Sickness takes away from the abundance of your life. It also steals your time (and often that of others who must care for you) and sometimes destroys your bank account in the process. No one but a detached theologian would ever say that being unable to lead a normal life because of sickness is “abundant life.”

1 Corinthians 5:1-5:
It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

In this passage, a man is to be turned over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. Therefore, Satan, not God, must be the one who would destroy the man’s flesh. If God were going to do it Himself, there would be no need to hand the man over to Satan.

These verses may be troubling at first, as they almost give the impression that the Church is coming together to curse someone in the name of Jesus! However, this is far from the case. The issue here is that a member was engaging in serious, willful and persistent sin. He was not repenting or even being told to repent by the other members. Later in the same chapter, Paul instructs us that such people are to be kicked out of the local church and not even eaten with (1 Corinthians 5:11-13)! In many churches today, such people are even put on the worship team if they are good musicians and no one obeys this passage about what to do with such people. Then such churches wonder why they aren’t seeing miracles while they tolerate this kind of sin in the camp, contrary to the Bible’s explicit instructions.

Actually, handing the man over to Satan means to disfellowship him. This was to be done so that the person would not go to hell. Far from being a malicious act tantamount to witchcraft, this “delivering unto Satan” was definitely an act of love. It’s a bummer to have the devil eat your lunch, but it’s even more of a bummer to go to the lake of fire that is the second death. The idea was that the church would quit praying for his protection and let the devil rough him up. Once this happened, he could realize the error of his ways, repent of his sin, realize that he was not actually saved, and get saved for real. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 assures us that people who persist in such things are not saved.) We can see later in 2 Corinthians 2:6-7 that this man did repent: “Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.” So Paul’s purpose of “delivering him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit might be saved” was accomplished.

Also, this is not the way to deal with a shacked-up sinner who walks in and needs to hear the gospel. After such people get saved, they can repent and you can host their wedding or see them abandon their sinful lifestyle. Neither is this how you deal with a repentant brother who has “fallen,” as Galatians 6:1 says, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” The people you kick out are those who pose as Christians but won’t repent of their immorality.

And remember, if you see someone in a pit, it accomplishes nothing to tell the person, “Hey, you’re in a pit!” A spiritual person would toss down an end of a rope and be willing to pull the person out of the pit. Simply saying to someone, “You’re gay? It means you’re going to hell!” is not useful, while telling him the plan of salvation, which has the power to liberate him from his bondage, is useful.

When God renovates the earth, there will be no sickness on it. He also says that there will be no curse (Revelation 22:3). Sickness and the curse on the earth that came because of sin go together. In the future, there won’t be any sickness to get! If God were the author of sickness, we would expect it to be around throughout eternity.

In Exodus 15:26, God said that He would not put the diseases on Israel that He put on the Egyptians because He is The Lord Who Heals You. This raises an interesting question – if God won’t put diseases on you in the first place, why would you ever need to be healed by The Lord Who Heals You? The only answer is that someone other than God is the source of a disease from which you need to be healed. And we know from many other Scriptures cited in this book that Satan is behind the propagation of diseases.

Based on these verses, you can see that Satan is behind sickness and God is behind healing and health.

Having said that, some things you do will bring physical trouble on yourself, and it isn’t God or the devil doing anything directly. See God, Satan or You?.

Sickness in fallen creation is a judgment for sin. Thank God, Jesus redeemed us from sickness by allowing our judgment to be served on Him when He was punished in our place. Although sickness is part of fallen creation, it no longer needs to play any part in our lives. We are redeemed!