Although our contemporary preoccupation is with the power to heal, we err by failing to understand the miracle of God’s grace in granting the power necessary for endurance and patience.
Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 23. Get this book!
God did not rescue Paul in Asia (2 Cor. 1:8-11) or spare Epaphroditus from death (Phil. 1:27) in order to encourage others to seek a miraculous deliverance from affliction. Rather, these acts of deliverance were intended to encourage Paul and the rest of God’s people to endure suffering in their own lives as a profound testimony of God’s sufficiency (2 Cor. 1:6; 4:7-12; Phil. 4:6). This side of Christ’s return, God does not reveal His power and love in our lives primarily by performing miracles but by enabling us to persevere in the midst of adversity because of our trust in Him. God rescued Paul in the past to teach him to trust God for his future, in order that he might endure in the present.
Why do God’s People Suffer? by Scott Hafemann taken from The God of Promise and the Life of Faith by Scott Hafemann, copyright 2001, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, page 152.
[Jesus] healed people sometimes who had faith and sometimes who didn’t. He healed people who asked for it and some who didn’t. He healed people near and He healed people far. He healed people He was looking at and people He couldn’t see… He healed not psychosomatic disorders, but organic illness. He healed people from demon oppression and possession. And He always healed immediately. There’s no such thing as a lingering healing, a multiple phase healing. There’s no such thing as: I was healed and slowly, I’m getting better. He healed everything, everyone He wanted to heal, completely, instantaneously, and permanently.
Christ Creates Conflict in the Synagogue. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-182/christ-creates-conflict-in-the-synagogue) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
We never see the gift [of healing] being used at random in the churches. It is a gift associated only with Christ, the twelve [plus Paul], the seventy, and some who were intimate co-workers with the apostles.
Charismatic Chaos, Zondervan, © John MacArthur, 1992, p. 261, www.zondervan.com.
Healing was a miraculous sign gift to be used for special purposes. It was not intended as a permanent way to keep the Christian community in perfect health. Yet today most charismatics teach that God wants every Christian well. If that is true, why does God allow Christians to get sick in the first place?
Charismatic Chaos, Zondervan, © John MacArthur, 1992, p. 264, www.zondervan.com.
Scripture teaches that although God is concerned about our bodies, He is infinitely more concerned about our souls (Matt. 10:28). We must realize that even if Christians could heal everyone at will the way Jesus did, the masses still would not believe the gospel. After all Jesus marvelous healings, what did the people do? They crucified Him. The apostles fared no better. They did miracle after miracle of healing. And what happened? They were jailed, persecuted, and even killed. Salvation does not come through experiencing or seeing physical healing. Salvation comes through hearing and believing the gospel (Rom. 10:17).
Charismatic Chaos, Zondervan, © John MacArthur, 1992, p. 248, www.zondervan.com.
Scripture reveals six noteworthy characteristics of Jesus’ healing ministry (in contrast to those who profess miraculous healings today):
1. Jesus healed with a word or a touch… There were no theatrics, no special environment.
2. Jesus healed instantly… People often say, “I’ve been healed, and now I’m getting better.” Jesus never did “progressive” healing. If Jesus had not healed instantly, there would have been no miraculous element sufficient to demonstrate His deity. His critics could easily have said the healing was just a natural process.
3. Jesus healed totally… There was no recuperation period.
4. Jesus healed everyone. Unlike healers today, Jesus did not leave long lines of disappointed people who had to return home in their wheelchairs. He did not leave healing services or programs that ended at a certain time because of airline or television schedules.
5. Jesus healed organic disease. Jesus did not go up and down Palestine healing lower back pain, heart palpitations, headaches, and other invisible ailments. He healed the most obvious kinds of organic disease – crippled legs, withered hands, bind eyes, palsy – all healings that were undeniably miraculous.
6. Jesus raised the dead… People who tout the gift of healing today do not spend much time in funeral parlors, funeral processions, or cemeteries.
Charismatic Chaos, Zondervan, © John MacArthur, 1992, p. 257-259, www.zondervan.com.
Since no charismatic healer can come up with genuinely verifiable cases of instant healing involving organic disease; since no charismatic healer heals everyone who comes for healing and hundreds go away from their services as sick or crippled as when they came; since no charismatic healer raises the dead; since the Word of God needs no confirmation outside itself and is sufficient to show the way of salvation; since charismatic healings are based on a questionable theology of the atonement and salvation; since charismatic writers and teachers appear to disallow God His own purposes in allowing people to be sick; since charismatic healers seem to need their own special environment; since the evidence they bring forth to prove healings is often weak, unsupported, and over-exaggerated; since charismatics are not know for going into hospitals to heal though there are plenty of faithful people in hospitals; since most instances of healings by charismatics can be explained in ways other than God’s unquestioned supernatural intervention; since charismatics get sick and die like everyone else; since so much confusion and contradiction surrounds what is happening – let me ask the return question: How do you explain it? It certainly is not the biblical gift of healing. Healings are occurring today. But the biblical gift of healing is not present.
Charismatic Chaos, Zondervan, © John MacArthur, 1992, p. 265, www.zondervan.com.
Now, could God in cutting-edge missionary situations grant miracles and signs and wonders to accredit the gospel as He did in apostolic times? Yes. But that’s not the same thing as having these gifts as a regular feature in the ongoing life of the church. If the signs and wonders of the apostles have returned, we should see the blind receiving their sight, the lame walking, and the dead being raised. God heals today (sometimes dramatically), but the healing of colds, the flu, TMJ, stomach, and back problems, and so forth aren’t in the same category as the healings found in the Scriptures. If people truly have the gift of healing and miracles today, they need to demonstrate such by performing the kinds of healings and miracles found in the Bible.
Why I Am a Cessationist, www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/cessationist Used by Permission from the Gospel Coalition. www.thegospelcoalition.org
