John Piper is an author, speaker and the pastor of
Bethlehem Baptist Church. One the eve of prostate surgery earlier this year
he wrote to his congregation. This is how he started:
I believe in God’s power to heal—by miracle and by medicine. I believe it is right and good to pray for both kinds of healing. Cancer is not wasted when it is healed by God. He gets the glory and that is why cancer exists. So not to pray for healing may waste your cancer. But healing is not God’s plan for everyone. And there are many other ways to waste your cancer. I am praying for myself and for you that we will not waste this pain.
In my youth John’s words would have been a bit controversial because I approached healing from a
Charismatic Fundamentalist perspective. Back then I embraced a theology that said that it was always God’s will to miraculously heal and I thought that to entertain something other than healing when you prayed was being double-minded. That kind of theology is problematic for several reasons:
- It reduces God to Santa Claus. It predetermines God's answer based on our desires. It puts us in charge and makes God our servant.
- It makes prayer a spiritual formula to be chanted instead of a conversation to be had with a close Friend. This kind of prayer stifles transparency in prayer and keeps us from connecting with God at a heart level.
- It enables the denial of reality and keeps us from dealing with our pain. It keeps us in hiding and causes us to not get help.
- It blocks wisdom and clouds our decision making process. I know of people that have gone off insulin, delayed surgeries and avoided doctors in the name of miracles and healing.
- It causes us to judge rather than help. This is the dark side of this theology. It relegates sick and hurting people to those who are either faithless or sinful.
- It has is a narrow perspective of trials and tests. It doesn't embrace and help the many people in our church communities with chronic illness and pain.
- It offers a false hope and sets people up for disappointment. The vast majority of people who pray for healing are not healed miraculously.
The last point is the heart of the issue. A theology that doesn't help people to live with hope is an inadequate theology at best. The people who are most inspirational are not the ones who were miraculously healed some time in their life. Those who inspire me the most are people like my online friend Karen at
The Sword's Still Out. Karen occasionaly writes about her battles with
Tinnitus. Here are a few excerpts from
her writings:
I started having some kind of hum in my head but didn't think much about it. By the next morning, though, I had full blown jet engine noise on the left side of my head, static in the middle, and ringing on the right. If you want an example, go drive your car outside some mega air conditioning unit, open the door with the keys in the ignition so the ringing starts, and tune your radio to a static state. That would be it. 24/7.
I found out that 20% of people with tinnitus that drives them crazy started out with getting hit with it suddenly like this. That percentage of people are often totally disabled, unable to keep a job, marriage, etc.
I'd end up on my knees, pleading with God to make it stop, weeping, slobbering prayers; considering suicide because I felt worthless to everyone, including myself.
I started ministering to people with tinnitus; and found that I was "habituating" it more rapidly than they were, or still are as I write this. Some are still under very expensive treatment to try to get where I got in a relatively short time. I thought...what is different between them and me? Why am I surviving this better than them?
I praise God that He has brought me out of bondage with this. The noise is still as loud. It annoys me a lot. But it doesn't devastate me. Please pray for these other folks....that they will let Him in to cause a change, to give them peace. Now, it's my time to minister to them.
Does this sound like the writings of a sick woman? Not hardly! Oh, that we were all this healthy ... that we would walk out God's will with transparency and vulnerability. In retrospect maybe that is what, in part, God's will is all about ... being healthy in spite of sickness and pain. Something to think about.
I am very unnerved by sudden loud noises. And high pitches are even worse. (I can usually hear a siren about 3 or 4 seconds before anyone else around me. I feel like Radar from M.A.S.H. sometimes. And when the siren is right near me, I have to cringe because it peirces.) When my kids let out one of their SQUEALS OF DELIGHT I am prone to "squunch" every muscle in my body and lash out because of the sharpness of the pitch.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that I would handle tinnitus as well as Karen. She is obviously a woman of great trust in God. Very inspirational!
As far as healing goes, I am in agreement with you. Let the doctors do their thing...while I pray for a solid trust in God that whatever they are doing is under His control. And a miraculous healing is quite acceptable to me if it means that the doctors don't have to poke holes in me or anything like that.
I am not totally sure that cancer exists to give God glory, though. I think it may also be because those who get it are being called by Him to draw near to Him. Some who have gotten cancer (or some other illness) would not seek Him without having such a hardship put upon them. But I guess those who do respond by drawing near to God do end up giving the glory to Him afterall. So perhaps Pastor Piper is right anyway.
(Ooooo....circular reasoning. But it works for me.)
"It reduces God to Santa Claus. It predetermines God's answer based on our desires. It puts us in charge and makes God our servant."
ReplyDeleteThis really struck a chord, KB. It's so true...some have the "name it, claim it" mentality. I get tired of not being completely healed...but more tired of hearing that I need to have more faith and "receive" healing. Hey...receiving! Send it on! OR, maybe God has something to do in me...Lord knows there is a lot to be done! You humble me with your post, KB. You should know that YOU are an inspiration to me..you have a lot healthwise to deal with and here you are, ministering to everyone, every day.
Danny kaye...sounds like you suffer from hyperacusis...you have my sympathy. There are a few things you can do for that...contact me if I can help.
Hyperacusis: an inability to tolerate everyday sounds.
ReplyDeleteOften, the most disturbing or painful sounds can be sudden high pitched noises like alarms, bus brakes, silverware and dishes, children's screams, and clapping.
I had to look it up, but it seems to fit the bill. Boy, they got a name for everything, don't they?
Karen,
I am not one to go running to get help for every little thing I have wrong with me. But I am curious about what you have to say. Consider yourself contacted.
Hope the website I sent you helps!
ReplyDeleteHi Bob,
ReplyDeleteI missed having a “Christian Blog” so I started one today. Its about my struggles mostly because that’s what my spiritual life feels like – a huge battle, and I don’t know who’s winning. I hope you stop by to visit: Prodigal Daughter
I find it important to remember that healing the ailments of all people (or even all faithful people) does not seem to be God's will.
ReplyDeleteTake Jesus' healings in the Gospels: the people that were healed by Jesus were only healed temporarily -- eventually, they all passed away.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteIn the introduction to Job in Eugene Peterson's Message he says
" real faith cannot be reduced to spiritual bromides and merchandised in success stories. It is refined in the fires and storms of suffering."
This is one of many thoughts I have highlighted that intro. He says many many thought-provoking things.
Cliff and I visited a church when we were out of town couple years ago. At the end of the service a man sent up front for prayer. He had a doctor's appointment the next day and although I can't remember all the details, there was reason for concern about cancer. The preacher put his hands on him and prayed that no matter what the doctors said, he knew that the man was going to go to that appointment the next day and there would be no cancer because Jesus is the great physician. I left there wondering and worrying about that man. What if you didn't get that kind of news the next day. This point of yours made me think about that.....
It offers a false hope and sets people up for disappointment. The vast majority of people who pray for healing are not healed miraculously.
Thank You Bob. You are such an encouragement in my life.
Love
Jill
1. Is God a Santa Claus when we ask for salvation? As you know healing is provided in the atonement of Christ. Isa 53 and Matt 8:17 The serpent for healing and a type of Christ on the cross in Numbers and Jesus lifted up John 3
ReplyDelete2. Chanting prayer for healing? Wow when I have prayed for healing there has been no more intense prayer and closer walk with God then when I looked to Him in my need for healing. Because if He didn't heal me I would be out of work and homeless. My reliance on God was close and personal during my times of prayer.
3. Looking for healing denies reality???? Wow again. I am living in a different world. When I look to God. When I have prayed for healing life has not been more real. Pain has a way of causing you to see what is important and what is frivolous. The Lordship of Christ is made more real as I look to God to heal. I put aside things that will keep me from God to grow closer to Him.
4. Trusting God and His word blocks wisdom???? What is going on here? Following a form blocks wisdom. I am saddened that you reject God's word. Yet it seems you were following a form and not the creator.
5. Causing to judge? Faith works through love. Those who judge and not love the sick are not following God. The sick need the help of those who are walking in faith. We should minister to those in need not judge them. If a person has faith he will pray and the sick will be healed. If they are not healed the person is not a believer Mark 16:17 Let us not be proud but humble knowing that we are in desperate need of God's help.
7. False hope? The Bible gives false hope? Answers don't come from canned religion. They come from a living God.
Yet let us serve Jesus as Lord with faith and not just disagree on points of doctrine. Yet what I say is just knowledge. The kingdom of God is not words but power. Pray for me!
Thanks for the feedback Jill. I think that your feedback is very consistent with a person that believes that it is "always" God's will to heal. Some of your feedback leads me to think that you read what I wrote and missed the point altogether. It is not that God does not ever heal - I heartily embrace healing prayer and have personally prayed for hundreds of hurting and sick people.
ReplyDeleteIt is the unkind aftermath of a theology that proclaims that it is "always" God's will to heal that concerns me. Such a theology marginalizes chronically ill people as ones who live outside of God's will in the same way that a lost person lives outside of God's will.
Sorry Bob,
ReplyDeleteThe post listed as Jill was actually written by me.
The chronicley ill people are not living outside of the will of God.
Those who are strong ought to bear the weakness of those without strength and not just please themselves. We live in a culture of busyness and don't accomplish anything of value in the kingdom.
To me it would be better to get one person healed in your lifetime then to write and teach a theology book.
To look down on someone that is sick is to completely not understand faith. Jesus always ministered to those who were sick. Faith works through love.
To teach faith is to teach love or there will be arrogance. 1 Cor 8:1
You can't pray effectively for someone to be healed if you don't know that it is God's will to heal them.
I can't reject the teachings of the Bible because it may make someone feel bad.
It has been my experience that a person that is handicapped will be ostracized in church. Those are the people I will talk to. I take the attitude of reaching out to people in need and not just hang out with the mucky mucks. Romans 15:1
"The chronicley ill people are not living outside of the will of God."
ReplyDeleteGlad to read that Scott.
"You can't pray effectively for someone to be healed if you don't know that it is God's will to heal them."
Why? One can pray effectively for all sorts of things without always knowing God's implicit will. One can always pray for His will to be done and His kingdom to come as it is in Heaven.
"I can't reject the teachings of the Bible because it may make someone feel bad."
I do think that one should always accept the explicit teaching of scripture but I do not see what you are saying as an explicit teaching but more of an interpretation.
The danger of tightly coupling physical healing with the spiritual healing mentioned in the atonement (i.e. Isaiah 53:5) is the focus on the flesh instead of the spirit. One need not doubt their spiritual healing simply because their flesh is not healed.
"It has been my experience that a person that is handicapped will be ostracized in church."
My thinking is the Televangelists and radio teachers are the source of this kind of behavior. Many of the so-called faith teachers that I have heard speak down to people who are hurting and insinuate that their problems would disappear if they had superior faith. Their followers simply mock their behaviors.
Interesting to note that my first wife (who was healed of blindness in one eye) was personally prayed for by some big named folks like the Hunters and Andrew Wommack with no healing results. When healing did not come Andrew put the blame back on my wife.
On the flip-side people that I go to church with now are the most loving and accepting folks with regard to the chronically ill and disabled. Good teaching makes all of the difference.
Enjoying the dialog Scott. Hope you are well.
It is obvious that someone that is not 100% walking in health does not have complete faith. That's why they are having someone pray for them.
ReplyDeleteTo say it is the sick persons fault that they are sick after nothing happens when they pray is cowardly. Why not as the minister take the blame for the lack of faith when nothing happens? Or be honest and say I don't know.
Mark 16:15 They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover is not an interpretation. That's what the Bible says. (or my recollection :) )
Knowledge makes arrogant. Yes people who know something can be arrogant. But are we to reject knowledge to stay sweet? Both sweetness alone and arrogance are wrong. God says the kingdom of God is not words but power. Sweetness has something right while arrogance has nothing right.
Faith and love must be taught together. The great commandment is to love God and your neighbor. Love needs to be the foundation everything else is built on.
________
"You can't pray effectively for someone to be healed if you don't know that it is God's will to heal them."
Why? One can pray effectively for all sorts of things without always knowing God's implicit will. One can always pray for His will to be done and His kingdom to come as it is in Heaven.
This is one of our basic differences. A prayer without faith won't stand up under testing. And all things will be tested at one time or another.
I am in good health. Some people I am ministering to are not.
Scott McCrae
My thinking is that no one has complete faith Scott. So I do not see that as relevant at all. We are all a work in progress and it is the will of God that we all "become" like Jesus. Even the so called faith healers need to grow a lot in faith.
ReplyDeleteBeing "in good health" is a very relative phrase. Folks that wear glasses need to be healed but seldom is there focus on the healing of their eyes because it gets a bit too personal for them. I have had interesting conversations with those who (like me) wear glasses. That type of chronic illness is never considered. LOL, I have even heard people use scripture to justify the wearing of glasses.
The Mark 16 verse also indicates that those will speak in new tongues. Are you also saying that it is also always God's will that a believer speaks in tongues? It seems that would be consistent with what your are saying.
"Or be honest and say I don't know. "
You have hit at the heart of the issue. Sadly most of the so called faith healers do not deal in a humble way about these things. They proclaim that it is always God's will to be healed then (because it is the only logical recourse) they have to play religious detective and try to blame someone's sin or unbelief. It is a nasty result and has infiltrated the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements for a very very long time. To them saying that you "don't know" is to say that the bible does not have answers for unanswered prayers.
"A prayer without faith won't stand up under testing."
I think that you feel that one must have faith "for" healing. In my theology believers have faith "in" Someone and not "for" something. It is totally consistent to ask the Healer to be healed because one believes that He can heal. It is not the same to ask to be healed because of faith. In a sense what I am saying is that we should have faith in God and not faith in faith.
When someone is sick and looking for healing. Why criticize them for a lack of faith?
ReplyDeleteI've discussed the wearing of glasses with you. And you know I'm not hiding behind any rationalization about my glasses.
Are you also saying that it is also always God's will that a believer speaks in tongues?
Tongues is a gift. Why not accept it from the Lord and be blessed? Yes it is God's will to give His gifts those who will accept it.
To them saying that you "don't know" is to say that the bible does not have answers for unanswered prayers. Romans 3:4 May it never be? Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, . . . " Faith and pride don't go together. Habakkuk 2:4 When someone is not instantly healed I would suggest to say, "I don't know why your not healed now, but if you continue to believe God He will heal you." Referring to the fig tree that withered 12 hours after Jesus cursed it. Mark 11:12-14; 19-24
A prayer without faith that Jesus is a man of His word, won't stand up under testing. Praying thinking Jesus won't do any good for me, or thinking this religious stuff is just there to keep me honest and is not to be taken seriously; won't get an answer. Zeph 1:12
Thank you for this discussion. It refines and sharpens me.
I will try to sign on as Scott, Blogspot has not let me know who I'm signed up as when I click publish.
"A prayer without faith that Jesus is a man of His word, won't stand up under testing."
ReplyDeleteOn that we agree Scott.