The Healing Myth

A particularly tempting myth is the one that teaches it is never God's will for anyone to be sick. According to this myth, one need only believe hard enough and all sicknesses will disappear. Of course, if they do not disappear, then it is proof of some spiritual weakness on the part of the sick individual.

This myth has led to all sorts of dishonest trickery. (According to 2 Thessalonians 2, it is called "lying signs and wonders".) People try to convince themselves and others that they have succeeded in bringing about a miracle through there own faith.
Certainly any God who can create the universe and all that is in it would have no problem healing any sickness. But believing that God is able to perform miracles is not enough for the healing mythologists. They insist that you "claim" your healing as a God- given right this very moment. (As though God could be bluffed into following your orders!)
Jesus obviously did miracles, and he even promised that his followers would do greater things than he did. (About the only thing greater than raising the dead is giving eternal life to someone, something Christ's disciples could only do AFTER his resurrection and ascension.) What people seem to miss is that Jesus taught almost nothing at all about healing. You don't teach healing; you just do it. And Christ did it. We might point out that he also told people not to say anything about it when he did. (eg. Matthew 9:30) However, the healing myth is mostly talk and sensationalism and very little quiet action.
What Christ did teach about healing and other miracles was that they are not for everyone (Luke 4:23-29), and that it is only evil, selfish people who put their faith in them. (Matthew 16:4 and John 2:23-25)
The favourite proof text for the healing myth comes from an Old Testament prophecy about Christ: "He was bruised for our iniquities...and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5) But one might just as well say that Proverbs 12:18 teaches that a wise man can heal sickness by licking your body! Health and healing mean much more than physical fitness (eg. Proverbs 13:12)
The apostle Paul taught that our physical bodies have not yet been redeemed, and that God's Spirit has come to comfort us in our sicknesses. (Romans 8:22-26)
One can ask for healing; but no one can claim or demand it, as taught in the healing myth. Real faith is like that of Job: "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." (Job 13:15) Job was not trusting that God would heal him. Real faith is not in healing, but in God. Job trusted that whatever God allowed to happen would be best for him. That's real faith!

Bible References:

2 Thessalonians 2:9: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and wonders.

Matthew 9:30: And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it.

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Luke 4:23-25: And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land.

Matthew 16:4: A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

John 2:23-25: Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.
24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,
25 And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

Isaiah 53:5: But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Proverbs 13:12: Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Romans 8:22-26: For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
26 ¶; Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Job 13:15: Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.

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