I have suffered a severe crippling disease since 1999i. I had followed the faith teachingii and believed I would be healed if I had "enough" faith because total healing is included in the Atonement and belongs to the believers now. But, instead of receiving the healing, I became very ill and almost died. According to their teachings, I am the one to blame because I did not have enough faith to receive the healing. After three years' struggle, I decided to turn my trust to the Lord himself instead of the faith teachings. I found peace and rest in the Lord and my body started responding to the medical treatment. I am sharing this experience now with you to let you know that, sometimes half-truth is not truth and even worse, it could be very harmful.
The faith teachers claim that all their teachings are Scripture oriented. This is the main reason why I had followed their teachings. Later, my illness forced me to take a closer look of their teachings. There are three sets of biblical text that support these assertions iii. The first set is Paul's discussion that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:14). It is then coupled with Deuteronomy 28:21-22 where disease is one of the curses of disobedience to the law. It is argued from these texts that Christ has freed us from the curse of the law and thus freed us from illnessiv. However, it is unlikely that Paul was referring to the "curses” of Deuteronomy 28 when he spoke of that in Galatians. Theologically speaking, from the book of Romans, we can see that the structure of law produced death rather than life. It is this death from the working of the law as a means of self-righteousness that Christ redeems us from.
The second set is from Isaiah 53 and the citation of 53:4 in Mathew 8:17 and of 53:5 in 1 Peter 2:24. Isaiah 53 describes the suffering Messiah will be the one who bears our diseases and weaknesses. The stories of healing in Matthew 8:17 and 1 Peter 2:24 (especially the change to the past tense) are understood to be the fulfillment of Isaiah 53. Mattew's use of Isaiah 53:4 has nothing to do with Atonement; it is a part of Messiah's earthly ministry. If we take Isaiah 53:5 and 53:6 joined with l Peter 2:24-25 than we can see that healing here is to restore health from the sickness of our sins.
The third set is texts that remind us God honors faith, e.g., Matthew 11:24, 17:20; Luke 17:6, Mark 9:23; and James 1:6. These faith passages are used by believers to claim their healing as promised by God. They see healing as a gift that has been atoned for and the vehicle to get this gift is through "the hand of faith"v. Faith and healing have a direct cause-and-effect relationship. Lack of faith, then is given as the final reason why this covenanted grace of healing is not realized by all Christians. Faith is defined as the human will to believe. The human ability to "believe" is the key that unlocks God's promises. If you pray enough, repent enough, know enough, then God's blessings and healing are yours. The emphasis is on claiming the promises and the magic power of positive confession. This kind of faith formula teaches that God responds to His people because of their work (to get enough faith) rather than of His gracevi.
The total healing teachings only see the receiving healing as a manifestation of "full faith" and condemn the ones without. However, the full faith should not only get these biblical texts to work for total healing, but also know how to trust God when prayers not answered and healing not received. Let's take a look at the Apostle Paul and his associates. Paul was ill when he first visited Galatians (Galatians 4:13). Epaphroditus fell ill and was nearly dead. He recovered because of God's mercy not his faith (Philippians 2:26). Trophimus was left sick in Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20). Paul advised Timothy to take some wine to treat his digestion problem (1 Timothy5: 23). How about those who died in faith yet they did not receive God's promises (Hebrew 11:34-40)? These great church fathers all had ministry accompanied with power and wonder, yet, why they did not have enough faith or did not have total healing? Because in addition to faith they also had hope (Hebrew11: 40). When our prayers are not answered and healing has not been manifested; we still have hope in Christ.
Although the Bible is a book for all seasons and speaks out of the past directly to our recent situations, the meaning that the author plainly intended to the original readers is essential while interpreting it. We should not distort the Scripture to fit into our own theory. However, based on the scriptures mentioned above, two major assertions were madevii. First, healing is a covenanted mercy in the same way that forgiveness of sin is a covenanted grace through the death and resurrection of Christ. Healing is part of the Atonement; God is obligated to heal every one from every sickness. Second, therefore, it is God’s will to have every Christian enjoy total healing right now in this present life.
The first assertion views disease and sin as part of the same construct, as though all disease is the direct result of sin through the Fall of Adamviii. The Atonement that destroyed the power of sin also destroyed the effect of disease. However, as we discussed earlier, there is no clear scriptural support that freedom from diseases is warranted to every believer in Christ in the same way that freedom from the condemnation of sin is warranted to the believers. The second assertion claims that healing from disease should be experienced in this present time in the same way as forgiveness of sins. Indeed, the forgiveness of sins and healing are included in the Atonement. But, the end-time nature of both should also be taken into considerationix. Many of us believe that forgiveness of sin is a present reality. If we make this assertion and we contend that healing is in the Atonement, then, we really are saying that healing is available to us now. This is the mistake the faith teacher make. In fact, the forgiveness of sin is tied to the resurrection of Christ instead of death on the crossx. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:17, "if Christ is not raised from the dead, you are still in your sins." Paul also says in Philippians 3:10-11, "I want…to become like Him in His death in the hope that I myself will be raised from the death to life". Because resurrection is contained in the Atonement, both the forgiveness of sin and healing are contained in the Atonement and both will be realized when the believers are raised from death at Christ's Second Coming. What we have now is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives to assure us this future reality.
In fact, we now live in a period between Christ's first coming and His coming again. Although the victory over all evils has been won through Christ's death and resurrection, the evil and its power have not yet been removed. The evil age and the age to come are present at this same time. Our salvation is experienced under the tension of these overlapping powers-the power of God and the power of evil. Because we are in the "now and not yet" we are subject to the weakness of the flesh, we still continue to suffer affliction, disease and death. Therefore, real faith will enable us to endure the unexplainable events occurred in lifexi. We can not explain every thing and we don't have to, things just happen. There are mysteries we still don't understand. But we can learn to embrace the larger dimension of love, including suffering and death.
The presence of the kingdom of God as manifested in healing and other Christian ministry is now only partial because of this now-and-not-yet nature. Divine healing that does occur now is temporary, provisional, and not final. It is not something that gives one person a favor over another because God has no respecter for persons (Acts10: 34). It is more a kind of sacrament and ministry to the Church and to the whole world that Christ's resurrection is real xii. It reaffirms believers of their final resurrection in Christ. It makes visible that the Kingdom of God is breaking into the world through His Church and the Church as His representative has authority to heal and deliver.
"Now what is faith?” It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see" (Hebrews11: 1). It is when we are resurrected that we will receive all the benefits of the Atonement; forgiveness and whole healing. Until then, we live in faith under the tension of "now-and not yet"; continue to advance the kingdom of God through preaching, healing and caring in love as Christ commands us until His coming again.
