Author: Joan C. Thomson

They say, “Not Being Healed Makes a Better Testimony”

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Jesus never ever told anyone that it’s better for them to not be healed because it will make a better testimony. Rather, every person who came to him was healed, as well as many he sought out. It’s good to be patient in sickness, but so much better to receive the gift of God’s healing, which brings glory to God!

The Bible instructs us, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act (Proverbs 3:27). It was definitely within Jesus’ power to heal everyone—he did not withhold the good, he gave freely.

Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:7-11

When we ask for healing, he doesn’t say no, it’s better if you’re sick.

Yes, I know all too well that not everyone who asks God for healing is healed. I don’t know why—there are many dynamics in each case, but he doesn’t say that it makes for a better testimony. I recommend though, that people who have this question ask God rather than making up their own reasons or putting words into Jesus’ mouth.

What about Paul’s “thorn in the flesh?” Read about that here:https://urbanlegendsbible.com/?s=thorn+in+the+flesh

They say, “Jesus told parables to help people understand better.”

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No.

The opposite was true. Jesus put his teachings into parables so that the people would not understand—to fulfill prophecy.

The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see;
    though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
    you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
    they hardly hear with their ears,
    and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’

Matthew 13:10-15

They say,“Religion is a dirty word; Christians aren’t supposed to have religion but relationship.”

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No.

It’s been the “in thing” the last several years to despise the word religion, and define it differently than the Bible does, instead, defining it as man’s way of getting to God, as judgmentalism and formality. But James spoke of true religion as taking care of widows and orphans, and remaining unpolluted by the world (James 1:27). How can that be bad? Jesus cared very much about widows and orphans, about holiness—how can you have a relationship with a person and not care about what they care about? Religion isn’t bad—the problem is with false religion.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

They say, “Jesus Never Said That He Was The Son of God.”

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Yes, he did.

At his trial, when Jesus was asked by the high priest if he was “the Son of the Blessed One,” he answered, “I am.”

Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”

“I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Mark 14:61,62

When Jesus asked Peter who he said he was and Peter answered that Jesus was “the Son of the living God,” Jesus blessed him and said that he got that understanding from God, the Father in heaven.

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 16:15-17

When Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God,” Jesus encouraged him as a believer (John 1:48-50).

Jesus further acknowledged that he had directly proclaimed, “I am God’s Son.”

…what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? John 10:36

They say, “Christians can be under generational curses.”

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“God Curses People Because of the Sins Their Parents and Grandparents Committed.”

The second commandment and several other passages in the Bible really do say that:

You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, Exodus 20:5

But God in his mercy and grace didn’t leave us there!  Even as far back as Ezekiel’s time, God stopped passing the blame through the generations!

“Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?  Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live.  The soul who sins is the one who will die.  The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son.”  Ezekiel 18:19-20

This entire chapter is clearly about individuals not bearing any guilt but their own—even in Ezekiel’s time. Then Jesus sealed it when he bore the curse of sin and death including the generational curse for us.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Galatians 3:13

Hallelujah!  Jesus has already done it!!!  We who follow Jesus are no longer under the Law!  Each person is only responsible to repent for his or her own sins and Jesus’ death and resurrection have won us forgiveness!  We don’t need any rituals to “break off” such curses; the New Testament never even suggests such a thing!  Even in the Old Testament, God had Ezekiel rebuke the Israelites for saying such a thing.

They say,”Sometimes you have to chose between the lesser of two evils.”

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Why in the world would a Christian ever choose any evil? God has clearly urged us to choose good and blessings over evil and cursing.

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. Deuteronomy 30:19, 20

Followers of Jesus are to walk in the light of obeying his teachings—not giving into the devil.  To conclude that one must “choose the lesser of two evils” is, in effect, to say, “Well, the devil has me backed into a corner and I have no way out so I have to do things his way.”  God always provides a way out of every temptation (1 Corinthians 10:12-14). Followers of Jesus do not have to give in to the devil.

The “lesser of two evils” can sometimes even look good, as can a political candidate but Scripture warns that even the devil can appear as an “angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

Don’t be fooled—evil is always from and of the devil and should never be accepted by a follower of Jesus.

Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Luke 6:44-46

If you choose evil, you’ll get evil.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:7-9

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:7,8

They say,“Paul was wrong about a lot of things, so we don’t have to go by what he said.”

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What things?

Peter, the one chosen by Jesus to be the lead apostle had this to say about Paul’s writings:

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 2 Peter 3;16,17

Peter refers to Paul as “our dear brother”, said that Paul wrote “with the wisdom that God gave him.” He calls Paul’s writings “Scriptures” and that those who distort them are “ignorant and unstable people” who are headed for destruction by doing so.

Some protest that Peter’s “opinion” isn’t a good example because he was “always saying the wrong thing.” The Bible is unique in not hiding people’s miss-steps, even sins.  However, none of the inappropriate things that Peter said (Matthew 16;22,23; 17:4) were for our instruction but only his reactions to the utterly new things he heard and saw.

Of course, Jesus is the better witness:

But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. Acts 9:15

Jesus sought Saul of Tarsus/Paul out and appeared to him personally to call him to be his follower.  Jesus chose Paul to proclaim his name to us so we pick and choose what we observe of Paul’s teachings* at peril of rejecting Jesus’ commands.

*Perhaps a few things are only for the culture but probably not as many as people think—and everyone seems to have differing opinions on this.

They say, “It would have been better if God hadn’t given Hezekiah another fifteen years of life.”

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They say, “It would have been better if Hezekiah had gone on and died and not asked to be healed since his son, the extremely wicked King Manasseh was born during Hezekiah’s extra fifteen years.”

God told Hezekiah his time was up at the age of only thirty-nine (2 Kings 20:1) but Hezekiah cried out to the Lord to remember his faithfulness and heal him (v.3).  The Lord heard his prayers and tears (vs. 4-6) and healed him—he even gave him a sign (vs. 8-11).

From a very narrow view, I can see how some might think that it would have been better if Manasseh, a king who led the Israelites into horrendous idolatry (even sacrificing his son in the fire, 2 Kings 21:6) had never been born but God has a broader view.  First of all, to say that Hezekiah should not have been healed is to say that his faithfulness (to God) or his prayers should not have influenced God.  Next, it is to say that God made a bad decision in healing him.

Though Manasseh’s son Amon was also evil (21:20) Amon’s son Josiah was a righteous king who restored the Book of the Law and renewed the covenant.  Then we fast forward to the gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and in reading Jesus’ human genealogy (Matthew 1), we find not only Hezekiah (v.10) but the troublesome Manasseh and the righteous Josiah!

So while this was not Jesus’ direct bloodline but Joseph’s and though not his birth father, Joseph was the man selected by God to raise Jesus to manhood here on earth.   God used Joseph’s lineage to place Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, the City of David, in fulfillment of prophecy.  (Micah 6:2; Matthew 2:6)  Without Hezekiah’s extra fifteen years there would have been no Joseph.

To sum it up, God made the right decision in honoring Hezekiah’s faithfulness and healing him.  Yes, his son Manasseh was very evil but that was his personal rebellious choice (and that of the Israelites in following him).  God still had a plan for good King Josiah, the faithful Joseph who watched over Jesus as he was born and grew, and the fulfillment of prophecy concerning Jesus.  He also had a plan for all who would follow Jesus—to rescue them from the dominion of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of light and eternal life!  (Colossians 1:12, 13)

They say,”Peace an indicator of God’s will.”

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It is said, “You can tell if you are in God’s will by the ‘indicator of peace’—if you are in God’s will you will have peace, if you’re not, your peace will lift.”

If this were true, Jesus would have been out of God’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane and in his suffering on the cross. His was not a picture of peace (the kind referred to in this saying) but of agony, even questioning, though he gained what might be called resolve.

Using the peace as indicator formula has enabled Christians to come up with some outrageous self-permissions such as “It’s okay if I have a room mate of the opposite sex because we aren’t doing anything,”(yet) or “I have peace about leaving my husband because God wants me to be happy.” Remember the adage from the 1960’s? “If it feels good, do it.” The human mind can manufacture all sorts of things to justify what it wants—or lie about it.

No, the best indicator of God’s will is what the Holy Spirit has already spoken in the Bible (especially the New Covenant). You may think that it doesn’t cover everything for contemporary living—dig a little deeper, make sure you’re asking the right questions (the most basic ones)—you might be surprised how much is there.

They say,”God allows sickness to teach us something.”

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I know of no New Testament scripture (since we “followers of Jesus” are people of the New Covenant) that even hints at this. The only one that is remotely close is John 9:3, the account of Jesus saying of the man born blind, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Jesus immediately healed him. The work of God in this man’s life was his healing, not the blindness!

Jesus said that the devil comes to kill, steal and destroy but he (Jesus) came to give abundant life—not a lesson from sickness! (John 10:10)

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. I John 3:8

No, God permits sickness and other things that are of the devil to come into our lives so that we can fight it! That’s what the “full armor of God” is for (Ephesians 6:11-18). That’s what the “gifts of the Spirit” are for (1 Corinthians 12:7:11).

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4,5

When sickness comes your way, don’t embrace it—fight it!

Note: Of course, no teacher wants to let a “teachable moment” get by without using it for teaching. God certainly makes use of every opportunity, but why not be open to his teaching while you’re in health?!

But what about Paul’s “thorn in the flesh?” Read about it here: https://urbanlegendsbible.com/?s=thorn+in+flesh