Question: What should be the position of the Church of God and saints in general in regard to ministers and gospel workers who willingly submit themselves into the hands of doctors and go to hospitals or resort to medicines? Would it be thought conceivable that God would instruct such an one to submit to doctors, etc.?
Answer: Divine healing has been a fundamental, cardinal doctrine of the Church of God from its inception on the Day of Pentecost and throughout this dispensation of time down to now. In Act. 5:12 we read of many signs and wonders being wrought among the people by the hands of the apostles. Verse 15 tells of them bringing forth the sick and laying them on beds and couches in the street in order that the shadow of Peter might pass over them that they might be healed. Verse 16 tells of many people from the cities roundabout bringing their sick folks into Jerusalem, and they were every one healed. The Church started out this way, and everywhere the gospel of the kingdom has been preached, both then and all along through the ages of time until now, it has been accompanied by healing of the sick. The preaching of the gospel and divine healing have always gone hand in hand they are actually components one of another.
The doctrine of divine healing was taught and practiced by all the early ministers of this Evening Light Reformation, and is still taught and practiced by the true ministers of God today. My parents were both among the early pioneer ministers of the Evening Light Reformation, and I had first hand knowledge from them as to how this doctrine was taught and practiced among them. They taught that saints should trust God with their bodies as well as their souls, and it was God’s will and plan to heal His people without the aid of doctors and medicines in answer to the prayer of faith. This has been the code that true saints of God have lived by throughout this age of time. God has set His seal to it, and has healed every kind of sickness and disease in the books, and has confirmed the preaching of this doctrine with signs following.
It has always been considered substandard for saints in light to resort to medical remedies and treatment, and still is. There are too many among us today going to hospitals and dying there in the hands of the doctors. This is not according to God’s Word. Because of this, we are being robbed of victories and the manifestation of God’s power and glory in our midst. But when ministers do these things, what shall we say? What can we say in behalf of those who have persevered in their faith, died in the faith, and refused to accept deliverance from pain, sickness, and death by human aid in order to please God and hold their integrity with Him? Consider the young saints who have laid their lives on the line to trust God and be faithful to Him in times of severe and potentially fatal sickness young mothers and fathers trusting God with their families as well as their own lives, and have persevered and gone down to the bars of death trusting in the Lord. Then God came and healed them, raised them up, and now they sit in the service listening to someone preach who has been in the hospital and maybe had an operation, etc. What shall we say; what can we say to people like that in such a case? Folks, it cannot be that we would ever represent folks as being in good standing who do these things and lower the standard of truth in this way until they have properly cleared themselves.
F. G. Smith, in his book What the Bible Teaches, on page 197 (chapter ten, “Divine Healing”), says, “This blessed truth is established in the Word of God.” Then he continues, “This doctrine has been ignored by many; but ‘what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?’ (Romans 3:3.) It is not what men believe or do not believe that is to settle the great facts of truth, but it is what the Word of God says.”
The healing which was to characterize the life of Jesus Christ was prophesied in Isaiah 35:3-6, Isaiah 53:4-5, and in many other Old Testament scriptures. These prophecies of Isaiah were declared to be fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus in Matthew 8:16-17 where it says, “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” And we also read in Matthew 4:24, “And his (Jesus’) fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy: and he healed them.”
Jesus also delegated this power and authority to cast out devils, heal the sick, and preach the kingdom of God when He sent forth His twelve disciples (Matthew 10:1; Mark 6:12-13). He also delegated this same power and authority to seventy others when He sent them forth in Luke 10:1-9. In fact, Jesus delegated to the Church, His body, and especially its ministry, this power and authority to heal the sick and cast out devils, as well as other miraculous things. This was a permanent arrangement throughout this gospel age of time. The commission as given in Mark 16:15-18, states this: “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;… And these signs shall follow them that believe;… they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Do we believe that the part of Jesus’ commission which says, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” is still in effect today? Surely, we do. But what foundation do we have for believing this and not believe also that part of the same commission which says that they who believe “shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover” is also in effect today? Surely, the commission that Jesus gave shall stand in its entirety in all of its parts until the end of the world. Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to day, and for ever.”
In James 5:14-15, we read these instructions to the Church after it was set up and operating: “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up;…”
Yes, the doctrine of divine healing is well founded in the Holy Scriptures throughout. This is what God’s ministers are to preach and teach to the people. But if we are going to preach it, we must also practice it and demonstrate its work ability. The Word of God says, “The husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits.” II Timothy 2:6. The ministers are to be ensamples to the flock (I Peter 5:3); teach them what to do and then show them how to do it.
This doctrine taught so general and generously throughout the New Testament is being grossly corrupted in our day. We have a parallel of this in the corrupting of the gospel in regard to salvation in the New Testament. Paul was preaching the pure gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ only without any human works attached to it. The Judaizers in Paul’s day accepted Christ as the Messiah, but they connected to that circumcision and the works of the law, without which they said people could not be saved. This was a corruption of the pure gospel of salvation which Paul was preaching, and it was in this area that he had his greatest conflicts. In II Corinthians 2:17 Paul declared himself to be not of the number which corrupted the Word of God.
We have the same principle at work here in our day in corrupting the Word of God with regard to the doctrine of healing. It is held that God gave us physicians and gave them skill, knowledge, and understanding of the human body to be able to help us in our sicknesses. Oh, of course, we say, they have their limits, but they do what they can do and then God does the actual healing. Is this not the same corrupting principle that Paul encountered in his day regarding salvation? But I say, if God has to do the real healing in the final analysis of the case, why not let Him do it all in the first place and not get any human works mixed in with it? Let God get all the glory and we get all the inspiration and blessing that comes with this work of God upon us. This is God’s plan and purpose for bringing about a closer relationship between His children and Himself.
