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Today's Little Lift
by Jim Bullington
Quoting from our previous message, “Those who claim to speak for God apart from that which is written [the Bible] are purveyors of error and seek to delude others with their lying signs and wonders. There are few exceptions to this rule!”
God has spoken through His written word and He still speaks in this manner. There are no new revelations today; those who claim such are the very sources of error against whom Paul warned when he wrote, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2.9-12).
One mark of these false teachers is the almost unanimous chorus they sing claiming that only those who have the faith to be healed can receive that blessing. With this built in excuse, they cannot fail; if a person is not “healed” it was that person's fault for not having adequate faith! However, there is a major flaw in these claims; they are anti-biblical! While there were many people in the Bible who had the faith to be healed, there were scores, hundreds, or even thousands who did not have that type of faith. To make a claim contrary to scripture proves way too much for the purveyor of error! Though many such proofs could be offered, two biblical examples will be used here to disprove the claims just mentioned as well as to show that those who make such claims are teachers of error.
The following quotation is from Luke's description of Jesus' arrest the night before His crucifixion. “When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, 'Lord, shall we strike with the sword?' And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus answered and said, 'Permit even this.' And He touched his ear and healed him.” (Luke 22.49-51). The man whose ear was severed was in the arresting party sent to take the Christ to His death! There simply is no way he could have been a believer in the traditional sense of the word. Furthermore, there is no evidence that he wanted or expected Jesus to heal him. In spite of the man's lack of faith and his animosity toward the Christ, Jesus reattached his severed ear.
The next case of healing without faith is recorded in John chapter 9. In fact, these events are so significant that they occupy the whole of that chapter. A man who had been blind from his birth was healed of his blindness by Jesus. Of course, the man had never seen Jesus prior to his healing and He did not know Him after his healing. In fact, when Jesus approached and spoke to him after granting his sight, He asked, “'Do you believe in the Son of God?' He answered and said, 'Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?' And Jesus said to him, 'You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.' Then he said, 'Lord, I believe!' And he worshiped Him.” (John 9.35-38). Notice carefully that Jesus asked him if he believed in the Son of God and the man did not even know who the Son of God was. Clearly a case where faith could not have existed and yet healing was a reality through the power of God!
The statement that only people with adequate faith can be the recipients of the miraculous is a ruse and a lie. God used the miraculous to confirm His revealed word; when revelation ceased in the first century, so did the need for miraculous confirmation.
Questions:
1. When someone says that God cannot miraculously heal someone without faith, aren't they limiting God? If not, why not?
2. What evidence is there that the man whose ear was severed had faith in Jesus? What evidence is there that he absolutely did not possess biblical faith?
3. When did the man whose eyes were healed learn who Jesus was, before or after his healing?
4. Has revelation of biblical truth ceased? If revelation has ceased, has the need for confirmation of revelation ceased? If not, why not?
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