A Christian shouldn't get sick.

[joep222]

I find nothing in scripture that supports that "A Christian shouldn't get sick".

 

[joep222]

Good answer!

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I find nothing in scripture that supports that "A Christian shouldn't get sick".

Precisely! If Christians shouldn't get sick, then they probably shouldn't die, either. Isn't that the logical next step? Or, why do we age? Why, when we come to faith in Christ, don't we stop aging? It's a ridiculous line of thought.

I've heard a lot of messages from pastors who preach this bogus line of faith. One in particular stands out.The preacher mentioned that whenever he felt some pain in his heart (chest pains), he would “bind the little devil and tell him to go away with his lie, that he was a liar”. He said he had lost count of how many times he had bound the devil after feeling the pain around his heart. My first thought is the guy is going to drop dead of a heart attack one day and all his family and his congregation will wonder, "How did he lose his faith?" They should wonder, "How did he believe this line of malarkey?"

To many who were gathered, that was a satisfactory and acceptable answer to why are there sick Christians, so they applauded the preacher and his one-liners about the “little devil”. However, others who look at the pertinent Scriptural foundation and its proper interpretation, are not so easily convinced. After reading a passage of the Bible (that, by the way, was not even looked at or mentioned again during the lengthy sermon) the first thing the preacher said was “sickness is a curse and anyone who thinks that sickness is a blessing needs to pray to be sick”. He did not want to have a curse on him, so no Christian should accept the curse of sickness.

He then proceeded to read a few passages from the Old Testament where the Bible states that if the people of Israel disobeyed, God would "curse them and make them sick with the same plagues He had brought upon the Egyptians". He also cited the Old Testament passage in Psalms that says, “...neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling” (Psalm 91:10). The preacher stated that God was a good Father and did not want his children to be sick because no father would ever want his children to be sick. “It is not the will of God for any Christian to be sick”, said the preacher.

Then he asked rhetorically: "Would you want your children to be sick?" Of course who would answer ‘YES’ to that question? Nobody in his right mind or in a perfect day, but despite his claims, I have heard some mothers and fathers declare that they would prefer their children to be sick in bed or even dead instead of living sinful lives. So, maybe there is something good about being sick or even dead. But that would be another thread.

One would conclude that perhaps the reason why many have been deceived into believing how they do about sickness because of the pure emotional manipulation coupled with some verses taken out of context by preachers like the one I heard. The whole focus of his message was supposedly to get people to come to faith in Christ and be saved (which I agree is an admirable goal and desire it as well), but it seemed more important to get the listeners, who for the most part were Christians, to have enough faith to be "divinely healed."

I must admit that many (not all) of the things said about sickness were not totally wrong, in fact, some of it was totally correct except that it was not all the biblical truth about the topic and seemed to believe the majority of Christians do not know that. In my humble understanding, I think that the topic of physical illness can be considered a mystery of the Bible. Like it or not, the truth is that Christians do get sick and the majority -- in fact, 100% of them that I know about -- die from their last physical illness like Prophet Elisha did (2 Kings 13:14) as will probably happen to most of us including those who believe and preach as the above-mentioned evangelist does.

One day, he too will die of his last illness. For the Bible has established that ...

Hebrews 9
27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,
​

Yes, sickness is a curse, or to put it in a more biblical way, sickness is part of the overall curse that came upon man through Adams’ fall because of his failure to obey God. But we must understand that not only is sickness a curse, aging and physical death are curses also. Yet, mysteriously, God sometimes uses sickness, aging and death as means to operate the eternal salvation and blessing of his people and not only that, but it may be also used as a means to bringing closeness to the Lord during our lives or to even have one’s faith tried or tested and thereby strengthened. Anyone who doubts that should take a refresher look at Job 2:3-10.

 

[Hammer]

Precisely! If Christians shouldn't get sick, then they probably shouldn't die, either. Isn't that the logical next step? Or, why do we age? Why, when we come to faith in Christ, don't we stop aging? It's a ridiculous line of thought.

As I noted earlier, there hasn't been any complaints from the Christians-don't-get-sick crowd concerning Obama's insurance mandate, arguing that insurance is useless to them. It's like they don't believe their own nonsense. Or, when they're willing to believe blatantly fake faith healing and faith healers, is if they don't really care whether it's real or not.

If God didn't want us to get sick, we'd be like Moses who didn't die of violence or disease, but was still young at 120 when God took him.

 

[Yah1]

I think that the topic of physical illness can be considered a mystery of the Bible.

Yet, mysteriously, God sometimes uses sickness, aging and death as means to operate the eternal salvation and blessing of his people and not only that, but it may be also used as a means to bringing closeness to the Lord during our lives or to even have one’s faith tried or tested and thereby strengthened.

Very well put. My mother's been teaching disabled children for 20 + years. Her age group is i think 2-5 years old. I've seen some pretty debilitating illness's in this life. Children that are paralyzed from the neck down, brain damage, down syndrome, deaf, blind children...children who only have weeks to live. It's hard to visit her classroom sometimes, but when i do i sit down with them and put a smile on their face. It's a good feeling.

What about the mother who has a healthy nine months, eats and drinks well during pregnancy but the birthing goes wrong. Now take another mother who does drugs, smokes and drinks during pregnancy birthing a healthy baby. Why does this happen?

Or my cousin that died of Leukemia when he was 11 years old in 1987-'88. Why didn't the bone marrow work. Why did my aunt have to live with that pain then die of alcoholism.

 

[eddif]

I am enjoying this thread.

I really get to hear the various gift areas in operation.
Faith thoughts can be heard from some
Miracle thougts from others
Healing thoughts can be heard from others
Discerning of Spirits (satan as a source of some sickness)
A word of knowledge (word about where, why the sickness is there)
A word of wisdom (what to do to relieve a particular person)
Etc.

Put Godly love between these gifts and you see the body of Christ in operation

I Corinthians 11:29-31 (and surrounding text)
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

Then chapter 12 tells how to solve the illness issues (use spiritual gifts to get to the bottom of the problem). Every individual case is different (Carolyn thanks for identifying satan as a source and stating that there might be several formulas to find out what the cause and remedy might be).

The Lord's body, IMHO, can be His body or us the body of Christ. We probably need to discern both. I think chapter 12 tries to tell us we have individual gifts, and chapter 13 tells us we should have love buffering between each of the gifts and between each other.

A person into miracles just usually has some truouble understanding a person into healings. And some persons have a gifting that seems strange to most folks.

As a jerk from Mississippi I often feel I fit a body part seldom understood. LOL

Keep up the good work y'all (you'se guys? sp).


eddif

 

[Blev]

I am enjoying this thread.

I really get to hear the various gift areas in operation.
Faith thoughts can be heard from some
Miracle thougts from others
Healing thoughts can be heard from others
Discerning of Spirits (satan as a source of some sickness)
A word of knowledge (word about where, why the sickness is there)
A word of wisdom (what to do to relieve a particular person)
Etc.

Put Godly love between these gifts and you see the body of Christ in operation

I Corinthians 11:29-31 (and surrounding text)
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

Then chapter 12 tells how to solve the illness issues (use spiritual gifts to get to the bottom of the problem). Every individual case is different (Carolyn thanks for identifying satan as a source and stating that there might be several formulas to find out what the cause and remedy might be).

The Lord's body, IMHO, can be His body or us the body of Christ. We probably need to discern both. I think chapter 12 tries to tell us we have individual gifts, and chapter 13 tells us we should have love buffering between each of the gifts and between each other.

A person into miracles just usually has some truouble understanding a person into healings. And some persons have a gifting that seems strange to most folks.

As a jerk from Mississippi I often feel I fit a body part seldom understood. LOL

Keep up the good work y'all (you'se guys? sp).


eddif

Excellent post!

And I don't think you should consider yourself a jerk, I don't
Some may think you are different but thats ok, God made us all unique, but thats not a jerk ;)

 

[Classik]

Hey Classik, I'm sorry you are sick. We can pray for you, if you aren't well by now. That was posted several days ago. Isaiah 53:3 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed. 1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live to righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed. The Lord does heal, because of the stripes that were put on his back, he was beaten so we can be healed. We pray, believe and recieve healing from Him. But sometimes there are hindrances to receiving healing and there is always the devil who tries to block us from recieving anything from God. Healing is usually a gradual process. If we keep believing then we will get better and better until we are well. If we are healed immediately then that would be called a miracle, not healing, but it just happens that way sometime though.

Thanks

 

[Destructus86]

Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.
1 Timothy 5:23


I think that settles this conversation/debate.

 

[farouk]

Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.
1 Timothy 5:23


I think that settles this conversation/debate.

Paul (who also had a 'thorn in the flesh') certainly recognized that Christians do get sick.

 

[elijah23]

He's probably right. Was Christ ever sick? Were his disciples sick? They were with the Lord at all times. Why are some of us always with their family doctors and rarely with Christ?

When we walk with the Lord, he teaches us how to take care of ourselves to avoid illness. I haven't got it all figured out yet, though.

 

[Classik]

HIS disciples weren't sick, where they?