— 1 —

A Christian should not intentionally expose himself to disease without a good purpose, for as it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” However, if he is exposed by accident, by necessity, or as part of daily life, then he can claim immunity by faith. I disagree that a Christian doctor or nurse should run the other way when an epidemic is coming his way. Indeed, to remain would mean a deliberate risk of exposure, but in this case there is a good purpose for it, and it would not be putting God to the test or abusing his protection. There might be legitimate reasons to leave the area, and a medical professional should obey orders from his superior or institution to withdraw, but I am addressing the notion that it is “wisdom” to escape as a first response. In fact, to flee would in principle make this Christian worse than an unbeliever, as if the unbeliever has more courage, and more faith in his humanity and in scientific procedures than the Christian has in his God. One could argue that this brings disgrace to the gospel. As a medical professional, it is your job to face this. A firefighter is expected to run into dangerous fires, not away from them. And a police officer is expected to confront violent criminals. Therefore, it is not evident that to avoid the situation follows from “wisdom.”

As Christians, we are supposed to exhibit resolute intention and compassion in ministry, and with perfect immunity be able to touch people with highly contagious diseases, and even healing them by this touch. I do not say that a Christian must always make direct contact with disease even in the ministry of healing, but it is indeed possible to do so with immunity. There is no biblical principle that would call for you to retreat in fear, except for the principle that we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, and that we should act in proportion to our faith. Thus it might be better to retreat if there is a lack of faith, if there is such abject terror. If you are unprepared in your faith, then admit it, and escape so that you can fight another day. If you are so worried that you must leave, then that is your decision. But if this happens, do not remain complacent. Hate the fear, and do something about it. Never excuse yourself by calling something wisdom when it is mere unbelief. If you confess your lack of faith, then there is no room for condemnation, but only for forgiveness and improvement. But if you excuse your lack of faith, then your heart will condemn you, and you will not become stronger.

Have you been pounding biblical healing into yourself daily, over and over again? When symptoms of sickness appear, do you routinely command them to leave, and they obey? Do you always think in terms of redemption and miracles? Or do you accept scientific theories as the truth and the standard when it comes to health and healing? It is your responsibility to study and believe what the Bible says about healing. And it is the responsibility of your church to encourage faith in healing, to teach it, to obey it, and to demonstrate it. If your church does not do this, then what are you doing there? Why are you there? Now the Bible says that if you will delight in the word of God and think about it day and night, then whatever you do will prosper. If you want success in healing, then think about the word of God on healing day and night. Think it. Say it. Pray it. Teach it. Do it.

This is a good reminder that we should devote much more attention to healing. If we are sick or if we die, everything else is futile. We have to stay alive and well to function as useful Christians in this world. The claim that sickness can make us better believers or bring more glory to God is a lie from hell, a lie that Jesus contradicted in both word and deed. Anyone who teaches this false doctrine is a prophet of the devil. Science obviously cannot solve every sickness. In fact, it cannot truly solve any sickness. Some sicknesses are less severe than others, but it is not that science can stop them. People can say that science can save them, but when this Ebola epidemic is at their door…well, we see how this is going. We cannot count on it. If it is not Ebola, it might be something else. Even the flu can kill a bunch of people, including seemingly strong and healthy people. Both ordinary and strange diseases will continue to appear. We cannot be complacent. We have a refuge in God, and the power to push back diseases, literally with our bare hands, for he said, “They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” But now Christians call sickness a gift from God, while vile sinners work with their feeble science to keep people alive. How far the church has fallen!

You must decide for yourself, because you will have to bear the consequences. But if you run, you should not call it wisdom, but call it fear. If you are honest, it will benefit your faith and health in the long run, because if you see it for what it is, you might do something about it. There are also other considerations. For example, if the hospital procedures are very defective, you may factor that into your decision. I do not intend any condemnation in this reply, although if you excuse yourself, your heart will condemn you. I see the need for greater emphasis on healing for everyone, and this Ebola situation is another reminder. This could be an opportunity to demonstrate God’s reality, power, and compassion. Wisdom does not call us to retreat, but it calls for constant fortification of our faith on healing. When wisdom tells us to run, it is probably because we have been living in neglect and unbelief.

— 2 —

I am thankful that you accepted what I said. Again, I had no condemnation in mind, for you must bear the consequences of your decision. But it appears all of you were aligned with this kind of thinking, or wanted to, and I merely put ideas into words, and stirred up the faith that was already there. I am reminded that healing is not only a doctrine for fun, for excitement, for emotionalism, for worldly comfort, for sectarianism, for debate, for charismatics, or anything like that. The “Christian” cynics often try to portray the doctrine this way, but to the person who is sick with cancer, or dementia, or even something like a broken leg or food poisoning, the doctrine is not about any of these things. When critics disparage the interest in biblical healing, they trivialize both divine compassion and human suffering. To make themselves look good, and to put down those who have more faith, they make God’s promises and people’s problems into less than what they really are. They make a mockery of the blood of Christ and the suffering of men. Far worse than murderers and idolaters, or thieves and prostitutes, they are some of the most wicked people in human history. The fact that they present themselves as leaders of the church and defenders of the faith make them even more corrupt.

Healing is a doctrine of redemption — “himself took our infirmities and carried our sicknesses,” and “he went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil.” The rejection of spiritual gifts is a diversion. This has nothing directly to do with spiritual “gifts” — a term very rarely used in the New Testament in relation to miracles of healing, prophecy, and other things, and if we take the whole Bible into consideration, the term is almost never used to refer to miracles. Even if all spiritual gifts have passed away, or even if God has never given men spiritual gifts, redemption has not passed away. The real issue has never been a cessation of spiritual gifts, but a cessation of faith. The critics then try to place the responsibility on God by talking about spiritual gifts, and to draw attention away from their own unbelief by complaining about fanaticism. But any attack on healing is an attack on redemption, on the gospel itself. It is another gospel, a heresy, a doctrine of demons. It is stepping on the blood of Christ as if it is a common and ineffectual thing.

That said, the spiritual gifts themselves come from redemption, because the Holy Spirit himself comes to us on the basis of redemption, and the Bible relates miracle power to faith in the word of God and to action from the Spirit, not directly to spiritual gifts. We have supernatural abilities by the Spirit because of redemption. Redemption will never pass away, and Jesus said the Spirit will abide with us forever. It does not matter who we are or when we live. Paul reminded the Galatians that God worked miracles among the people because they believed the gospel. (He did not say that they believed the gospel because God worked miracles.) We condemn the ultra-dispensationalism of the critics. If healing ceases, it would be because sickness has passed away. There will be a cessation of sickness before a cessation of healing.

Healing by supernatural power is integral to God’s mercy to save the whole man. It is practical. It is important. It is the gospel. It is not a pet doctrine. It is not a self-centered teaching or a private obsession. It is just as God-centered and Christ-centered as the forgiveness of sins. It draws attention to God’s power and kindness, and to Christ’s sacrifice and suffering. Even for those of us who believe God’s word, we have not been pushing healing enough on all available channels. We have not preached it and ministered it as Jesus did, or as the apostles did. And the harshest opponents do not come from civil authorities or false religions, but from the church, from those who call themselves Christians. The Bible’s teaching on faith and healing have benefited me greatly through the years, because not only is healing itself valuable, but the kind of thinking that comes with it is applied to other areas of life. For example, it so concretely emphasizes that we are to trust God’s word rather than feelings and circumstances, and we must think and talk in line with God’s word. Some people claim to be expert defenders of orthodoxy, but they resist this thing that we have learned since we were little children, that we walk by the word of God, and not by what we see and what we feel. Always regard such men with contempt.

You might never come into contact with this epidemic, but let us take it seriously. Let us take the idea of it, and any fear of it, seriously. The virus might never come to you, but the fear is already here. This itself is a disease. In any case, we cannot face a virus only with willpower, which might be presumption that leads to disaster, but we must face it with spiritual knowledge and strength. By faith we take refuge in the suffering of Christ and become immune to diseases. We shall fortify ourselves in the word of God, and bring healing to those who are afflicted. If you have never discussed healing with your partners, going into the redemptive basis of healing, into faith for healing, into the ways of receiving and ministering healing, laying on of hands, the name of Jesus, and such things, now is the time to do it. If you have done it before, now is the time to review it. Even when this epidemic has passed, something else might come up. But it will be no problem, because you will be ready. It would be a good idea to go through some Bible passages on healing, and also read some testimonies about it. I remember that you have also ministered healing to people and witnessed God healing them by miracles. You should relate some of these experiences to illustrate the teaching and to encourage faith in the word of God.

— 3 —

The Bible sees sickness as a work of the devil. We must receive a revelation of this. Let us receive the revelation that sickness is an attack from Satan, and not a gift from God. This will set us free to fight it with our faith. Then we will not embrace sickness when we pray, but we will destroy sickness when we pray. Then instead of resigning ourselves to it, we will rise up and curse the disease in the name of Jesus. We will resist sickness and overcome it just like we resist sin and overcome it, because the same God who “forgives all your sins” is the same one who “heals all your diseases.”

We must never test God out of presumption, but to doubt God is even worse than to test God. When we walk in presumption, we have an exaggerated perception of ourselves, but when we doubt God, we have a blasphemous perception of God. Therefore, it is proper to examine ourselves, so that we would walk in faith and not presumption, but never listen to those who complain about presumption just so they can talk you out of faith. Their error is far worse than presumption, because they have rejected the nature of God and twisted his word in order to maintain a show of piety. They obscure the benefits of redemption so that they can preserve respect from men, and as Jesus said, that is all they will ever have – respect from mere men. In some cases, they do not even have salvation from God.

Because healing belongs to redemption, it is necessary to reclassify creeds, councils, churches, and scholars that do not forcefully teach it, or even fight against it. Any view that does not teach healing in the gospel is anti-Christian and heretical. There is really no reason for someone who opposes healing to remain in our institutions. Just as there is no place for someone who denies the atonement for sin, there is no place for someone who denies that “himself took our infirmities and carried our sicknesses.” So what if you think he is brilliant on this or that topic? If he rejects healing – if he rejects the gospel – then he is not brilliant.

We have options. We are not impoverished. There are teachers who believe and teach all of the gospel, or since the gospel is one, we should just say “the gospel.” Why do we need those who teach some of it and condemn some of it? Or again, since the gospel is one, we should say that if we have teachers who teach the gospel, why do we need those who teach against it? “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” There is no need to settle for a no-faith theologian. To tolerate someone like this would make us complicit in his unbelief.

The church should be prepared to confront a new sickness or epidemic even before medical science knows what to do with it. But the greatest epidemic is the theology of unbelief. As it is written, “Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?” The correct approach is eradication. Total extermination.