Cause of sickness

Physical sickness and illness can be caused by different factors.

Cause of sickness

Much if not most illness is self-generated through ignorance, error or neglect.

Cause of sickness

To be sick, therefore, is not necessarily to have sinned. Sickness is sometimes the result of sin and healing sometimes includes the forgiveness of sin.

Cause of sickness

The Body of Christ has members remaining weak and ill and some even having died due to having a wrong manner or attitude toward the body and blood of Christ.

Faith

Divine healing is according to faith, as well as other factors.

Faith

It is surely not a sign of faith to neglect appropriate physical methods which can cure a disease, slow an illness or relieve suffering.

Faith

It is also not a sign of faith to seek obscure second-class treatment when competent first-class health care is readily available.

Faith

Faith in God for healing and the sensible, sagacious use of the most modern medical/health procedures do not clash.

God vs. Medical Science

Faith in God does not conflict with use of medical science.

Godly purpose

God is not healing today in same manner as New Testament times.

Godly purpose

God healed for different reasons in different circumstances.

Godly Purpose

God does desire to heal our diseases, to eliminate our afflictions, and to bring us out of distress. But what He will actually do in any given situation remains unknowably beyond our limited understanding.

Godly purpose

God's earnest desire is for all human beings to live an abundant life in perfect health.

Godly purpose

At all times, whether sin is involved or not, healing is a manifestation of God's mercy and an exemplification of God's love.

Godly Purpose

Speaking to the decline of miracle healings in the 1st century: it was not part of God's plan for His Church to grow very large-that was not His purpose in that age-so God apparently withdrew His tremendous power to perform spectacular public healings.

Godly purpose

God has set up physical life to be temporal.  We all die.

Godly purpose

God has healed; He does heal; He will continue to heal as long as there is physical life extant. But the reasons for doing so are always temporal.

Godly Purpose

The object of God's purpose may not always be the sick person himself:

Godly Purpose

God is intensely concerned with an individual's mind and heart.

Godly Purpose

In the matter of healing, it may be one's attitude as much as one's faith that may influence what God will do.

Godly purpose

Faith is total belief.  However, there is also the will and purpose of God and anything held in faithful belief will not come about if it is contrary to God's will in the specific situation.

Godly purpose

God will not honor a request contrary to His will, regardless the level of faith the person has.

Godly purpose

A person can have "absolute faith" when he asks for healing and still be denied it, because God in His wisdom may think it is better for that person not to be healed.

Godly purpose

Healing is an extension of God's mercy; it is not an absolute promise according to one's faith.

Godly purpose

God will not heal a person because that person thinks he has faith if he in reality does not. (God may heal him in spite of that fact.)

Godly purpose

It is possible that that the person not being healed is the stronger Christian spiritually.

Godly Purpose

Faith says that God can heal; it is not a guarantee that God shall heal in every individual situation.

Godly purpose of

God has healed in different degrees for different purposes.

God's Promise

"If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in His eyes, and give heed to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I put upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord, your healer."

Gospel

Healing and Christ's message of the coming Kingdom of God were almost inseparable.

Gospel

Healing returns the body to its original, pure, wholly sound state; and so it is with the Kingdom of God, which shall return the earth to its original, pure, wholly sound state (referred to as "the times of restitution of all things" in Acts 3:21).

Healing Symbolism

Healing is the physical representation of the spiritual cleansing.

Jesus

Healings established His credibility as being sent from God.

Jesus

He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Jesus

It is by his wounds that you have been healed.

Meaning of the word

Healing of:...

Meaning of the word

Medical science

Physicians and healers in the Bible are not condemned.

Medical Science

Nowhere in the ministry of Jesus do you see Him condemning physicians, though He mentions them a number of times.

Medical Science

Medicines used to heal sickness are not condemned in the Bible.

Medical Science

Physical procedures cannot be evaluated based on spiritual criteria.

Ministry

The Church teaches that its ministry must not attempt to influence the person in any way regarding what type of action he may wish to take for his health other than to recommend that each person seek the most professionally competent specialists available for consultation or procedure.

Ministry

Any reasonable request for anointing should be honored, regardless of the nature of the illness or affliction and regardless of whether the person is consulting a physician or of what treatment he may be undergoing.

Ministry

A minister cannot put himself in the position of a medical diagnostician and refuse to anoint because he regards the persons illness as "minor" or "not life-threatening."

Ministry

It is not the Church's responsibility to endorse or condemn any particular treatment or procedure.

Ministry

-A minister of God is a professional in spiritual understanding; he should be ready to fully explain the purpose of healing-what it is and what it represents-to all who desire to know.

-The minister is the expert in counseling his people and serving his congregation.

-He is not necessarily, by virtue of ordination, a medical or nutritional expert.

-He should faithfully teach what the Bible says about health and healing.

-He should encourage his people to seek the best professional advice available when needed.

Ministry

-The minister must be truly neutral on medical matters.

-He cannot tell one person one thing and another something else on the same subject, procedure, medicine, diet, food or supplement.

-He cannot assign fallacious levels of righteousness to physical procedures, as they are all the same in God's sight.

Ministry

-The minister is the spiritual leader of his congregation and must take great care not to abuse this position of spiritual power, trust and respect.

-He must be as aware of his physical limitations as he is of his spiritual responsibilities.

-His realm is the spiritual and this is where he must give his counsel and advice.

-He must be sure that members of his church are not judging each other and are not comparing themselves among themselves with respect to health.

-He can be the most effective by emphasizing God's positive instructions on these matters and following up his teaching with encouragement and exhortation.

Member responsibility

Seek the most competent professional help.

Member responsibility

Members able to take advantage of medical science knowing it does not detract from faith in God.

Member responsibility

Healing should not be taken lightly

Member responsibility

Healing is conditional.  We must diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord our God.  Do what is right in His eyes.  Keep the commandments.

Member responsibility

The promise of healing is conditional and predicated on obedience.

Member responsibility

A vital component of a good health program is a balanced diet which includes wholesome, natural foods and which excludes (as much as is practical in our society) processed foods such as sugars and starches, and artificially flavored and preserved foods.

Member responsibility

The right amounts of exercise, sleep and relaxation are important.

Member responsibility

Maintaining a positive mental outlook and a peaceful mental attitude by eliminating (or at least attenuating) stress and flares of emotion is being increasingly recognized by modern health specialists as an essential health principle, considering the enormous effects (called "psychosomatic") that the mind exerts on the body.

Member responsibility

Caution should be taken to prevent accidents and bodily harm (without becoming obsessive or paranoid in the process.)

Member responsibility

Member should have a regular program of routine physical examinations by a qualified doctor is also important in recognizing and solving any potential problems before they become serious.

Member responsibility

Individuals must care for their bodies physically, just as they must care for their minds mentally and spiritually.

Member responsibility

God expects us to take care of our bodies.

Member responsibility

God expects us to make good use of available knowledge about the human body, its functions and processes.

Member responsibility

The ill individual should look to man for whatever physical help he can receive but should also look to God to do what man cannot do-supernaturally intervene and divinely remove the illness, sickness or disease.

Member responsibility

The sick person should call for the elders of the Church who will lay hands upon his head, pray over him and anoint him with oil.

Member responsibility

It is not wise to become sidetracked by undue concern over whether certain detrimental physical practices under consideration are, or are not, sin.

Member responsibility

If the physical practice under consideration is indeed detrimental-as determined by biblical revelation or scientific fact-It should be stopped, as even common sense would dictate.

Member Responsibility

Understanding the significance of all these healings is essential to salvation since they are a direct verification that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ.

Member Responsibility

Examine yourself before taking the bread and wine.  You are examining yourself to answer one question: "Am I in the faith"...the Salvation Process?  By definition, if one is in the process, he or she is rightly discerning the body and blood of Christ as it relates to healing and salvation.

Member responsibility

A Christian must discern the body of the Lord which was wounded so that we could be healed.  We must also identify with the sufferings and sacrifice of Jesus Christ which are vital elements in the healing Process.

Member Responsibility

Anyone who seeks to be healed to show others his righteousness or favor with God, or who desires vindication of his position, or who craves recognition of his spirituality will be sadly and sorrowful, disappointed.

Member Responsibility

God is looking for he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at His word (Isaiah 66:2).

Member responsibility

The relationship between healing and faith is complex, necessitating an understanding of the whole Bible and current, practical experience.

Member responsibility

An actual healing or the lack of such a healing must never be viewed as a straightforward indication of an individual's righteousness, spirituality or favor with God.

Member responsibility

It is our responsibility to yield to God and His Spirit so that we may grow in this God-given faith. We should beseech God to do what the apostles asked of Jesus in Luke 17:5, "Increase our faith."

Member responsibility

We must understand there are factors in our own lives that can sometimes work against our faith and that sometimes it may not be there.

Member responsibility

The fact that one person decides to seek anointing for the healing of a physical condition while another suffering from the same condition, does not, can in no way be taken to mean that the first person is necessarily righteous or that the second person is necessarily unrighteous.

Member responsibility

We are not to blame a person who lacks or seems to lack faith since faith comes from God.

Member responsibility

Do not overestimate your own faith.   "Hoping" or "wishing" to be healed is not the same thing as having the special faith that God must give to really be healed.

Member responsibility

Neglect is not faith, neither is fear of doctors and hospitals.

Member responsibility

One should acknowledge his lack of faith if this is the case.

Member responsibility

Each must appraise his own faith realistically. But a Christian who is realistic enough to soberly assess his own faith and find it wanting is not a "weak" Christian. He may in fact be quite a strong Christian, who is converted enough to see himself as he really is; such an individual will not bow to stubbornness or yield to pride when his need of external help highlights his physical debilities and spiritual imperfections.

Member responsibility

No one should take upon himself the role of spiritual judge or "second guesser" over another's actions regarding healing or faith.

Member responsibility

Any reasonable request for anointing should be honored, regardless of the nature of the illness or affliction and regardless of whether the person is consulting a physician or of what treatment he may be undergoing.

Member responsibility

It is neither possible nor profitable to determine why God has or has not healed an individual.

Member responsibility

 Healing may relate to any number of factors-the person himself, his immediate family, his close friends, his wider acquaintances, the minister involved, the timing, the circumstances, etc.-and it is pointless to try to discern why something did or did not happen with respect to healing.

Member responsibility

If God's will is for a person to die, it should be in spite of his best efforts to recover and not because of his stubbornness in avoiding professional aid.

Member responsibility

God chooses who His martyrs will be: we cannot and must not make this decision for ourselves.

Member responsibility

A Christian has responsibility to help himself if he becomes ill or injured in addition to having trust in God for healing.

Member responsibility

 If we can stand on our own feet, we should. If we can do something for ourselves, we are derelict in our responsibility if we do not. God's Church has taught this for years.

Member Responsibility

Each individual has the same responsibility to examine alternative proposals, and seek and evaluate advice from several professional sources before making a decision in a serious health matter.

Member Responsibility

To refuse the operation may only be the unintended neglect of one's Christian responsibility to God and His Work.

Member responsibility

James wrote that "faith without works is dead." This applies to all aspects of the Christian life including health maintenance, health care, disease prevention, regular checkups by a qualified doctor, and healing and/or medical procedures in times of illness or injury.

Member responsibility

Christians should avail themselves of the best health care that man can provide and, at the same time, ask God to supernaturally supply what man cannot. This could also include the sick person asking God to bless the skill of the doctor in his diagnosis and treatment.

Member Responsibility

It is the responsibility of each Christian to recognize the important distinction between the physical and the spiritual. God's miraculous intervention to heal is spiritual; this healing is God's prerogative. What we do for ourselves is physical, a means of aiding and complementing the natural bodily processes in healing the body. God does expect us to do what we can for ourselves.

Member Responsibility

Surgical interventions, pharmacological prescriptions and other medical procedures (whether diagnostic, preventive or curative) must be evaluated on their own merits and on their own terms.

Member responsibility

When one chooses a physical procedure or medicine, his concern should be for their effectiveness rather than which method or medicine is more spiritual or biblical.

Member responsibility

In evaluating physical procedures in matters of health, the Christian is encouraged to emphasize proper health maintenance and disease prevention: there is minimum expense, little inconvenience and no side effects to a balanced program of health care.

Member responsibility

Eat natural foods (as much as logically possible) in a balanced diet and avoiding processed sugars and starches.

Member responsibility

Proper health care should include periodic physical examinations for all Christians and their families by a qualified medical doctor.

Member responsibility

Care should be taken to select the most able and proficient doctor available as the family physician. He should have a genuine interest and concern about the health of all members of the family. Eminently qualified specialists for particular problems should generally be recommended by the family doctor.

Member responsibility

When one seeks professional medical help, he should select the most competent within his means. One is not more "righteous" than another, but one might be more skilled than another.

Member responsibility

He will be sound-minded in matters of health, not seeking physically "miraculous" or unorthodox "cures " under the false assumption that they are somehow more righteous than the procedures of a knowledgeable specialist

Member responsibility

Christians must never judge one another, nor compare themselves among themselves.

Member responsibility

Do not attempt to impose [force yourself on others] your will or opinions on health and healing unto others.  Be respectful of another person's approach to health and healing.

Member responsibility

Do encourage your brother in the faith to seek the best care and professional help.  Encourage them to be in the best health they can.  Encourage them to seek the best information and ministerial counseling [see paragraph 143-145].

Sin/degeneration

Mankind has so polluted the environment and human beings so often ignore the basic rudiments of health that imbalances occur, with sickness and disease the natural result.

Sin/degeneration

To the degree that a person disregards the obvious physical principles of health, such as proper nutrition, adequate sleep and rest, a positive mental outlook, etc., is generally the degree to which one suffers ill health.

Sin/degeneration

Sickness is the general result of violating the principles of health, or perhaps the direct result of a person's own sin (Matthew. 9:1-7; John 5:14). At other times, sin is not involved; and the illness or infirmity is inherited (John 9:2) or the result of injury or accident (Luke 13:1-5).

Sin/degeneration

Whenever sin is involved, healing includes the forgiveness of that sin (Matthew 9:1-7).

Sin/degeneration

Not all illness is the result of sin.

Sin/degeneration

The Bible nowhere speaks of "physical sin."

Sin/degeneration

It is not always possible, of course, to discern when illness or injury is the result of sin.

Source of Healing

Healing is a miracle of God.

Wrong Attitude

Some people's requests for anointing border on superstition. To anoint for every sniffle or mild ache makes a mockery of divine healing and Christ's suffering.

Wrong Attitude

It is both offensive and inaccurate to say that one who is not supernaturally healed (or who seeks medical aid) is a "Weak" Christian.

Summary

-God can and does heal in ways and manners and at times and for reasons that He determines for Himself.

-Divine healing is totally beyond the scope of medical science

-Seeing the most competent, professional assistance in times of illness or injury will not inhibit God from healing us.

-Healing is a special blessing from God given according to His mercy and our faith.

-His healing represents God's power through Jesus Christ to forgive our sins, cleanse our minds and, ultimately, establish the Kingdom of God on earth and resurrect our bodies from the dead.