THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT HEALING

by Herbert W. Armstrong
1979 edition

Is the day of miracles past? Does the living God heal sickness and disease today upon believing prayer? Or was healing performed only by Christ and the original apostles? Did God raise up medical science for our day? What about modern faith healers and public healing services?


TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Chapter One: Healing in Our Time?
Chapter Two: Learning to Believe
Chapter Three: What the Old and New Testaments Reveal
Chapter Four: What Is Faith?
Chapter Five: Is Healing Always God's Will?
Chapter Six: Claiming God's Blessings





CHAPTER FIVE

IS HEALING ALWAYS GOD'S WILL?

Some, it was explained in chapter one, say God raised up the medical profession for our time. Some say they believe God could heal, but they don't know whether it's His will. But what does GOD say? To answer, we turned to the BIBLE.

Jesus came in person with a dual ministry. He went about the cities and villages in Judea and Galilee preaching the good news of the coming Kingdom of God. But also He healed the sick among the public as He encountered them.

He trained His original apostles, and after His resurrection they continued in the same dual ministry. The Church of God was founded on the Day of Pentecost, A.D. 31.

But soon a fierce, violent and organized persecution set in. Immediately after A.D. 33 the Babylonian mystery religion appropriated the name Christianity, proclaimed a false Christ, and by A.D. 59 the proclaiming of Christ's gospel was SUPPRESSED! Another and counterfeit gospel was being accepted (Galatians 1:6-7).

Neither the KINGDOM message nor healing of the sick had any part in what from then became traditional Christianity. For 1,900 years the world has not heard Christ's gospel message. It has been deceived by false gospels about a false Jesus.

But both Christ's true gospel message and miraculous healing have today been restored in God's true Church. Only today healing is within the Church -- not public healing of the sick as encountered by God's apostles in the first century A. D.

In chapter two, I stated that I could best bring this truth to the reader by relating my own personal EXPERIENCE in discovering this truth about healing.

It was very shortly after my conversion, baptism, and receiving God's Holy Spirit. This had occurred in the spring of 1927. In August of that same year I experienced a most miraculous healing of my wife from four fatal simultaneous diseases. I then KNEW God heals the sick, and thereupon I let the living Christ teach me from His written Word the full scriptural UNDERSTANDING of this vital subject. Hundreds have since been healed from my prayers.

Chapter three covered that biblical revelation of God's truth from both Old and New Testaments. Chapter four covered FAITH.


What About Medicine?

But now, what about medicine?

Let's review briefly the teaching of the apostle Paul in his instruction regarding the Passover to the Church at Corinth.

In regard to taking the bread -- symbol of Christ's body beaten with stripes to pay for us the penalty for broken laws governing physical health -- the inspired teaching is: "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily [the RSV translates it "in an unworthy manner"], eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body" -- that is, His body was broken or beaten with stripes, paying the penalty we suffer in sickness or disease. "That is why [RSV] many of you are weak and ill, and some have died" (I Corinthians 11:29-30).

Some in the Church lacked the FAITH to BELIEVE Christ paid for us the physical penalty of sickness, disease -- or even the first death.

This is important; UNDERSTAND the meaning of what was written here! Taking the broken unleavened bread means we ACCEPT Christ's beaten and broken body (prior to being taken to the cross) that WE MAY BE HEALED. How does His broken body make our healing possible?

It is IMPORTANT that you UNDERSTAND the answer to this- -because some have been falsely teaching there is no such thing as physical sin. I John 3:4, properly translated from the Greek, says, "Sin is the transgression of LAW." It does not refer to -- or say -- the spiritual law of the Ten Commandments. Yet it is referring to LAWS INSTITUTED BY GOD -- not to transgressing man-made codes.

As made clear in chapter 3, GOD formed the human body out of matter (Genesis 2:7). God so designed our physical bodies that they function according to definite PHYSICAL LAWS. The digestive system, the eliminative system and the circulatory system, for example, were designed to function together and this functioning is a LAW OF NATURE -- physical LAW. Eating improper food, neglecting elimination or polluting the lungs with tobacco smoke prevents those laws from perfect functioning definitely transgresses laws that God set in motion and that operate in the human body. This definitely is TRANSGRESSED PHYSICAL LAW! It is a law GOD designed and set in motion. This TRANSGRESSION OF LAW, according to God's definition (I John 3:4), is physical SIN! Its penalty is sickness, disease or debility.

The RSV translates I John 3:4, "... sin is lawlessness" -- without regard to WHAT law GOD instituted.

Now back to our important question -- although it was made clear in chapter 3: How does Christ's broken body make our healing possible? I answer with another question: How does Christ's shed blood -- His DEATH -- make possible the forgiveness of spiritual sin -- transgression of the spiritual law -- the Ten Commandments? Simply by having PAID THE PENALTY IN OUR STEAD -- THAT'S HOW! His beaten body paid in our stead the PENALTY we are suffering when the physical laws in the human body have been transgressed and have brought on the PENALTY of the sickness, disease or whatever -- sometimes the first death!

To say there is no such thing as physical sin, as has been said by self-professing intellectuals, is NOT intellectual -- it is rank STUPIDITY, IGNORANCE or WILLFUL PERVERSION OF PLAIN SIMPLE TRUTH!


Some Lack the Faith

The important point here, however, is that some in the Church of God at Corinth did lack the faith to be healed -- or else carelessly took the broken bread at Passover in an unworthy manner.

And WHAT WAS THE RESULT? They were physically weak or sick or had died. THAT WAS THE PENALTY. They did not in faith accept Christ's broken body as payment of the penalty, which, if they had, would have by a God-given miracle been removed from them, and they would have been HEALED!

But now it is IMPORTANT that we note carefully that the RESULT of this lack of sufficient faith DID NOT DISFELLOWSHIP them from the Church! Disfellowshipping is the penalty for causing divisions and offenses (Romans 16:17-18). That is important!

If one in the Church of God today lacks the FAITH that he should have, the penalty is NOT disfellowshipping. The penalty is that he still PAYS THE PENALTY in the form of sickness, disease or even death. He himself pays it! Too bad -- when Christ already had paid it FOR HIM. But he should be helped to receive faith -- not be disfellowshipped.


The Crackers-and-Cheese Diet

Back in 1927 or 1928, when I had only recently at the time learned God's truth about healing, I heard a most apt example of this.

We did not yet cross the Atlantic in airplanes in those days. A man was sailing to Europe in a transatlantic steamship. He felt the meals aboard ship would be too expensive. So he packed in a suitcase a full supply of crackers and cheese. After three days' sailing, he was becoming truly fed up on crackers and cheese. A steward had noticed that this passenger never went into the ship's dining room and asked him about it.

"Oh, I can't afford to eat in there," replied the passenger. Then he learned that MEALS WERE INCLUDED -- no extra charge!

How many in God's Church today are on a crackers-and-cheese ration, when HEALING IS INCLUDED? JESUS CHRIST PAID FOR YOUR HEALING!

Why do YOU go on PAYING THE PENALTY or else paying the DOCTOR BILLS or probably BOTH, when Jesus Christ paid it all FOR You?


The Weak in Faith Helped, Not Condemned

Now notice the important teaching in Romans 14.

"Him that is weak in the faith receive ye" do not condemn or disfellowship "but not to doubtful disputations." Or, "not for disputes over opinions" (RSV).

Verse 2 (Romans 14): Although one believes (has faith) to eat meats, another, weak in faith, eats only vegetables. But the very fact he has not yet received FULL FAITH from God does not bar him from God's Church. Rather this chapter in Romans teaches "RECEIVE HIM" -- help the weak in faith. The ministers should teach him more about the WAY to achieve more faith.

And so with the member of God's Church who has not as yet achieved full FAITH to BELIEVE GOD'S PROMISES for the physical healing. He should have that faith! He may pay himself the penalty of the sickness or disease if he lacks faith to believe Christ paid the penalty for him -- to rely on GOD'S PROMISE to heal.

So therefore, if a member has not yet grown in the FAITH OF CHRIST to absolutely KNOW he can rely on God's PROMISE of healing -- and if this member does call in the doctor or go to the medical profession for help, God's Church does not condemn him -- but rather, God's ministers should encourage such a one to GROW IN FAITH until he can rely on God instead of relying on MAN.

Once more to the question, Did God raise up the medical profession for our day?

EMPHATICALLY NO!

Remember, God sentenced Adam's world to being CUT OFF from Him for the 6,000 years now almost ended. God said, in effect: "You, Adam, have made the choice for your human family. You have REJECTED me. GO, therefore, and form your own governments, your own religions, your own human concepts of the gods you will serve and worship -- develop your own fund of knowledge." God, however, reserved the prerogative of calling to His service such comparative few as He should choose to carry out his special commission.

To those whom God has called, He has revealed IN HIS WORD to them that HE is Yahweh-Rapha -- their HEALING God -- the God who HEALS those who believe.


What Is the Medical Profession?

What, then, is the medical profession? Remember, it is only one of several of the so-called healing arts DEVELOPED BY MAN. My parents, when I was a young boy, used a homeopathic doctor. There are osteopaths -- although they now also practice medicine and are accepted by the medical profession. There are chiropractors -- and I personally knew the founder of chiropractic, B.J. Palmer of Davenport, Iowa.

But the medical fraternity is by far the largest in number. They have allotted a very huge sum of money to operate a LOBBY in Washington, D.C., to influence government legislation. The medical profession has become so powerful that an M.D. could quarantine even the President of the United States and enforce his virtual imprisonment in the White House. In such an instance, the medical profession has even MORE POWER than the President of the United States!

It is well to UNDERSTAND this! The medical profession has the GOVERNMENT on their side!

A well-meaning, Bible-believing man and wife (not members of the Worldwide Church of God) had an 11-year-old son with diabetes. They had been administering insulin as prescribed by medical doctors. Then a "divine healer" came along. I know nothing of the credibility of this healer except what I read in the newspapers -- he certainly was not a minister of the Worldwide Church of God.

This "divine healer" anointed and prayed for the lad, and the parents took him off the insulin. The parents, according to news dispatches, were staunch in faith -- but after removing the insulin the boy died. The parents were arrested and taken to jail, charged with manslaughter. I did not learn of the final legal disposition of this case in the courts.

I cite this, however, as a PRECAUTION! I might mention, too, that insulin is not a drug or medicine, but a substance or hormone that the human body should normally generate. Medical doctors prescribe insulin in cases where the body is not of itself generating the substance.

In the case of the illness of a child, God does heal -- but remember Jesus said, "According to your FAITH be it unto you." If faith is lacking -- or if in any case the child dies -- the parents certainly run the risk of criminal prosecution if they have failed to call in a doctor.

In the case history described above, I do not know all the facts. Press reports indicated the parents had "supreme faith." But was the healer a fake or a self-appointed healer uncalled and unused by God?

Again, God says, "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight" (I John 3:22). The press stories on this case would indicate that the parents were not "commandment-keepers." But, on the other hand, God says, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). If the parents had not known the command to keep God's commandments, God would not have held this ignorance against them. Also it is a question, in the case of administering insulin, as to whether it was possibly not right in God's sight that it be supplied -- since instead of being a drug, it was a substance supplying what the body itself normally should generate and supply.

I do not judge in such a case as I have mentioned -- because I do not know all the facts. I MERELY CAUTION THE READER: If a sick child dies, and a doctor has not been called, the parents may find themselves in trouble with the law!


What Is God's Will?

God's Church does not judge or condemn those who, through lack of faith, utilize the services of the medical profession. God's Church merely says to you, HEALING IS INCLUDED -- Christ already has PAID for it-it is a PROMISE of God (with conditions of obedience and faith), and it is one of God's BENEFITS which is INCLUDED in the gift of His grace!

Speaking of God's BENEFITS reminds me of a case in point. I had been called to the bedside of an elderly lady for anointing and prayer for healing.

"If I anoint you and pray for God to heal you, will you believe -- will you be sure that you will be healed?" I merely wanted assurance that she BELIEVED GOD.

"Well," she replied, "I know God can heal me -- if it's His will -- but I can't be sure of His will."

"Well," I responded, "it's too bad that you don't know whether it is God's will to forgive all your sins so you might be saved."

"Oh, I know it's His will to forgive my sins and give me salvation," she hastened to reply.

"Oh yes," I continued, "you know you can rely on God's promise in Psalms 103 -- which I will read: 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities ... ' You really KNOW He will from that scripture, do you?"

"Yes, I can rely on that promise with no doubts whatever!"

"Well," I pursued, "will you read, with your own eyes, the rest of that SAME sentence? I handed to her my Bible, opened to Psalm 103, verse 3, and she read aloud, "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who health all thy diseases."

"How does it come," I asked with a smile, "that you really believe the first half of that verse, but not the last half?"

"Well, I guess," she said, "I just never noticed that God's promise to HEAL is given right alongside His promise of forgiving sin."

The woman then believed. She was healed.


One of God's Benefits

Notice, HEALING is one of the BENEFITS God gives us along with salvation. Like the meals on the steamship, IT IS INCLUDED -- no extra charge. Jesus already PAID FOR IT!

And God wants His people to learn to rely on Him!

One intellectual writing on healing said, "It is quite evident that God is not healing today in the same manner or to the same degree that He did in early New Testament times."

That intellectual is simply IGNORANT of the Word of God, the promises of God, the power and the will of God! He had had no experience in healing. He was studying the subject carnally and rationally, as a scholar -- as one, like Job, who said, "... Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not .... I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear" -- but Job had not yet come to really KNOW God (Job. 42:3, 5). But when God revealed Himself to Job, he said, "... I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6).

This same scholarly and erroneous teaching continued, "It is equally evident that the physiological and medical expertise of the end of the 20th century is far advanced over that of the middle of the first century."

The above was sent out to our ministers, UNAUTHORIZED, in an attempt, craftily influenced and inspired by Satan, to DO AWAY WITH THE BASIC TRUTHS JESUS CHRIST HAD PLACED IN GOD'S CHURCH! It was sent out with the UNauthorized statement that this erroneous teaching MUST BE PREACHED -- and that it superseded past teachings and earlier understandings which Jesus Christ, the LIVING HEAD of God's Church, had, through His apostle, made the very FOUNDATIONAL TEACHINGS of Christ in God's CHURCH!

It is part of a whole new, erroneous and corrupt teaching encouraging faith in MEN and doubt in God (Romans 14:23) -- subtly prepared and distributed to ministers without the knowledge of Christ's apostle -- though it was falsely represented to have had his approval. The one responsible for this entire comprehensive effort to replace CHRIST'S and GOD'S TRUTH with carnal pedantic scholarship and FALSE TEACHING has been excommunicated -- and this entire unauthorized teaching made null and void BY JESUS CHRIST through His apostle!

GOD is still on His throne and Jesus Christ is there with Him -- and THEY will not leave nor forsake the true CHURCH OF GOD!

As SHOWN BY THE QUOTE ABOVE, THE ENTIRE APPROACH to this false teaching was the secular, carnal concept that perhaps God, like the professor emeritus, may have once done splendid things, but now has grown old, senile and lost His power. Poor God!


God Is the Same!

But God tells me He is THE SAME, yesterday, today and forever! He is today the SAME GOD, with the same power He had in the first century -- and has had eternally.

Today Christ does not lead His apostle or any in God's Church to heal indiscriminately the sick encountered among the general public -- as Jesus did, and the first apostles did until SUPPRESSED by worldly powers.

The great commission and ministry for God's Church today is in Jesus' prophecy concerning it in Matthew 24:14: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end [of this age] come." The proclamation worldwide of Christ's KINGDOM message was the sign Jesus gave by which we might know when the end of the present world was imminent. But He said nothing about healing going out to the general public!

Rather, what we do find in the New Testament is in James 5:14-15: "Is any sick among you?" That is, among you brethren in God's Church. "Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of" -- meaning saw AUTHORITY OF -- "the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."


God's Will Expressed

This carnal scholarly Systematic Theology Project mentioned above attempts to refute this plain Word-of-God PROMISE of healing in God's Church. With the very cunning inspired by Satan, this comment is made to cause DOUBT in the definite WORD OF GOD: "Although this one statement appears to be written without qualification, the condition 'if it be God's will' was no doubt tacitly understood."

On reading that, I was absolutely flabbergasted! NOWHERE IN THE BIBLE DOES GOD SAY, "IF it be God's will! This very verse, along with many others I have given you, EXPRESSES God's will!

Notice that sly, subtle IF. That is satanic! When Satan was trying to overthrow Jesus Christ in his greatest temptation at tempt -- after Jesus had fasted 40 days and 40 nights -- Satan said twice to Jesus, TEMPTING Him, "IF thou be the Son of God." That little two-letter word IF is just about the biggest little word in the English language! It is intended to cause DOUBT in GOD'S WORD. It was used by Satan in trying to overthrow Christ. Satan inspired it in this Theology Project to try to overthrow faith within God's ministers -- and within God's Church!

With all my being, I CONDEMN that kind of teaching -- and the one responsible for handing it out to God's ministers (though undoubtedly he himself did not write it) has been disfellowshipped and is NO LONGER A MEMBER of God's Church. And that Satan-inspired teaching is going out of God's Church as well!


God's Promise

Now that diabolical teaching about the passage in James 5:14-15 requires a complete refutation -- to make the true GOD intended meaning clear beyond DOUBT.

As a result of this insidious attempt to cause DOUBT in the Word of God, many have said, "This Theology Project teaches that James 5:14-15 IS NOT A PROMISE!"

But it is a definite, plain, clear PROMISE from GOD! I pray for God's mercy on those who allowed Satan to inspire them to cast DOUBT on the holy, sacred WORD OF GOD!

Look at those words again. "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins [undoubtedly referring to physical sin], they shall be forgiven him."

If THAT IS NOT A PROMISE then we have NO PROMISE of the forgiveness of sins or of salvation and the gift of eternal life!


Faith Is a Condition

The point is made in this now null-and-void teaching that there are conditions. That is true -- but WHAT conditions? Within the very statement in James 5:15, it plainly says "... the prayer of FAITH .... Yes, FAITH is a condition.

In some instances where Jesus healed, the FAITH for healing was supplied by the one healed -- like the woman who had spent all she had on physicians and had grown worse. Jesus said to her, "Daughter, THY FAITH hath made thee whole." Again Jesus said elsewhere, "According to your faith be it unto you."

But, in other cases the one healed did not supply the faith Jesus Himself did! So what does this teach us? Definitely healing is conditioned on FAITH either on the part of the one needing healing or on the part of the minister of God who prays and anoints.

I have prayed for and anointed hundreds. There have been a great many miraculous healings. Some with cancer in an advanced stage were HEALED -- while others at this stage were relieved of the intense pain, though they died and will have their healing IN THE RESURRECTION. More on this a little later. One woman with leukemia in the hospital with apparently less than 24 hours to live, and with tubes in her ankles for blood transfusions, tubes in her nostrils -- a horrible sight -- was healed instantly when I anointed and prayed for her (after putting all nurses out of the room). She left the hospital the next day.

On the other hand I have prayed for others where I myself had the same faith, yet they were not healed -- because they lacked the faith.

In James 5:14-15, the very scripture here gives a condition: "the prayer of faith."


Keep His Commandments

Also, I John 3:22, mentioned before: "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight."

I personally know of a case of a man who wanted healing, but stubbornly refused to keep God's commandments. He was NOT healed.

Oh yes, there are conditions -- but God tells those conditions. But NEVER does the Bible say, "IF it's God's will." NEVER! Rather, God's Word says, Be ye not unwise, but UNDERSTANDING what the will of the Lord is" (Ephesians 5:17). The Bible is His Word, where He tells us what is His will!

NOW as to GOD'S PROMISES. The Bible is full of God's PROMISES -- and God expects us to BELIEVE them.

Perhaps the outstanding example is the promises on which YOUR very salvation and mine depend.

Notice: "Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers" (Romans 15:8).

And who were the fathers to whom the promises were made? "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers ..." (Acts 3:13).

YOUR SALVATION depends on those PROMISES made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! Yet notice: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises ... (Hebrews 11:13).


God's Promises Are Sure

WHAT, THEN? Does not God KEEP HIS PROMISES? Here in this very FAITH CHAPTER of the Bible, all the way through, it shows Abraham's FAITH, Noah's FAITH, Moses' faith, even the harlot Rahab's faith. Then, "And these all, having obtained a good report through FAITH, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us [born long since] should not be made perfect" (verses 39-40)

In other words, GOD IS FAITHFUL! God's PROMISES are FIRM -- they do mean what they say. The fathers will receive the PROMISES IN THE RESURRECTION -- along with many of us born millennia later!

GOD'S PROMISES ARE SURE!

Although I have written this before, let me recount here how I learned this lesson of FAITH.

My conversion and baptism had occurred in the spring of 1927. By 1933 I had come to have strong faith -- there had been many miraculous answers to prayer! Then my father was stricken, early summer 1933, with a stroke. I prayed for his healing. I anointed him. I BELIEVED! HE BELIEVED! I prayed all night -- yet at 9:40 the next morning he died.

That was a terrible SHOCK to my faith -- but it most certainly did not destroy my faith. But I had to UNDERSTAND! I had claimed GOD'S PROMISE in James 5:14-15 and OTHER PROMISES for his healing. To UNDERSTAND, I did not try to use human reason, as exemplified in this Theology Project. I went to the faith chapter of the Bible for UNDERSTANDING.

And there I found it, in what I have written immediately above. GOD DID NOT BREAK HIS PROMISE! His promise was SURE -- unbreakable. As sure as the rising and setting of tomorrow's sun. In Hebrews 11 God showed me that His PROMISE FOR MY FATHER'S HEALING REMAINS SURE! He, like Abraham and the fathers, died BEFORE receiving it. It is still SURE -- not IF it is God's will."

But there is LIFE AFTER this life.

And, in human consciousness, a fraction of a second after losing consciousness in death, we shall wake up IN THE RESURRECTION. God has planned that there be an interval of UNCONSCIOUSNESS -- just as if it did not even exist -- until we LIVE in the resurrection! I am still having patience -- and FAITH. My father's healing is SURE! He shall receive the healing God PROMISED!


Rely on God

God has not promised that, by continual healing, we shall never die. As in Adam all die -- "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).

God has positively PROMISED to heal. And He names the conditions -- OBEDIENCE and FAITH. But God has not told us how soon or when He will heal. HE EXPECTS US TO TRUST HIM WITH THAT!

That most certainly should not weaken or destroy our faith IT SHOULD MAKE OUR FAITH MORE SURE!

I know, in this deceived and evil world of Satan's, it seems that the worst thing that can happen is death. Humans not knowing God get to thinking that death ENDS ALL. That's why some commit suicide -- supposing that the suicide PUTS AN END to their troubles. But virtually in the same instant that they lose consciousness in death, they wake up IN THE JUDGMENT -- their problems not ended -- but with a MURDER of self-destruction now facing them!

Our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all died IN FAITH. My own human father died IN FAITH. God's PROMISES to them are yet SURE.

Instead of causing us to lose faith, this wonderful knowledge should STRENGTHEN our faith -- we know we may place ourselves in GOD'S HANDS and RELY on Him for healing. The most remarkable and supposedly impossible healings I have experienced, as a result of my own prayers, have occurred after my father's death. God did not let that experience weaken FAITH IN GOD AND HIS PROMISES!


God Alone Heals

I have been frankly aroused to indignation to learn of this false, faith-shattering teaching in this supposedly scholarly theological manual, wherein ministers were literally instructed to encourage God's people to TRUST IN MAN -- in the "advanced expertise" of the medical profession -- and to discourage them from having faith in God. I realize that Satan is the real culprit that those who prepared this manual did not intend harm -- and were misled and deceived into supposing they were teaching truth.

Jesus Christ, through His apostle, teaches ministers to ENCOURAGE RELIANCE ON THE LIVING CHRIST, rather than on man.

Medical practice may be the best thing that carnal MAN, cut off from God and His revealed truth, has in 6,000 years come up with.

Do we ever need doctors? Yes we do -- but the true people of God do not need them to compete with God as our GOD-HEALER (God's name is also Yahweh-Rapha -- our GOD-HEALER)! God is a jealous God and does not allow any other to do what He alone can do -- HEAL!

We do, in this modern degenerated day, need doctors for child delivery. A doctor can render real help in the case of a broken arm or leg -- but even then it is GOD who heals, though the doctor may properly bind it up so that it may heal.

What about the ramifications of sickness and disease? As stated, medical practice may be the best thing MAN without God has been able to produce. If a Church member simply lacks the faith to be healed by the living Christ -- if he has more faith in medical "expertise" than in God and God's promises -- God's Church will not judge or condemn him if he puts himself or his child under medical treatment. If that is the best he has faith in, better let him have what help MAN can give, RATHER THAN NO HELP AT ALL!


Healing Is a Miracle

God's ministers should NOT high-pressure any against medical care -- but definitely they should encourage Christians to build and receive FAITH in the living CHRIST.

But God's people should be taught that healing is a MIRACLE and not to be considered lightly. The definition of a miracle is: "An event beyond the power of any known physical laws to produce; a supernatural occurrence produced by the power of God."

Healing definitely is a MIRACLE. But we must never forget our God is a MIRACLE-WORKING GOD! He is the supernatural GOD-not man. Yet He intended man to have a direct and intimate contact with Him through Christ. Those called are called to become His begotten children, and by growing in grace and Christ's knowledge in spiritual character, to be BORN, by a resurrection, INTO THE VERY GOD FAMILY. The human potential is that WE shall BECOME VERY GOD -- even as Christ -- firstborn of many brethren -- already IS!

And His people, whom He has called, must remember that "without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that HE IS, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6). And He is the GIVER of FAITH.