I was loaned a book Why Are Christians Sick.
In Hosea it says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Hosea 4:6 (KJV) 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
One of the reasons people are sick is because pastors and teachers have not taught the definitions. Paul said to use wholesome words; sound words. If they are not using wholesale words and teaching the definitions you should get out from under their teaching. It is going to hurt you. It will rob you of what the Lord wants you to understand. Scripture says desire the sincere milk of the word. Sincere means uncorrupt. Thank the Lord we’re born again but we’ve missed a lot of things that belong to us that are our rights through the blood of Jesus.
The Lord said the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy. Most translators were scholars; they could have done a better job and some translations are terrible. So we are going to study into why Christians are sick.
Deuteronomy 7:6-15 (KJV) 6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD (the covenant keeping God thy God (Creator): the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. 7 The LORD (Yahweh the covenant keeping God) did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: 8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD (the covenant keeping God) thy God (Creator), he is God, the faithful God (El Almighty God), which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; 10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face. 11 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them. 12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD (the covenant keeping God) thy God (Creator) shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:
Otherwise he’ll keep His covenant if you keep your covenant.
13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb (your children), and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. 14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. 15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.
I was in my church for twenty five years. I was baptized when I was a teenager and from that time on I was in many meetings, teachings and bible studies. I can’t even remember missing Sunday school. In the sixties while working on my first book I ran across Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. I began to look up through the bible dictionary what the curse of the law was.
A couple days ago I was looking through the pictorial dictionary and came across the plagues. I saw a picture of a man with a tumor underneath his armpit; it was about the size of a pool ball with a knot on the end. I was in one of Leroy Jenkins meetings where a lady had a cancerous tumor. Jenkins gave her an offering bucket and told her and her husband to go around and she passed the tumor. In A.A. Allen’s meeting he prayed for a woman with a brain tumor and the tumor crawled out of her nose like a worm. My mother was healed of a goiter when Oral Roberts placed his hand on it and the goiter disappeared. In twenty five years I had never heard Christ had redeemed me from the curse of the law; I thought this is awesome, I didn’t know if I believed it myself. I didn’t like finding unbelief in myself. At this time my dog walked around the corner and I said if this is true my dog should be healed. Then I thought I should have thrown in an itch I had under my arm that I was trying to believe the Lord for a healing for a year. My dog got healed and I didn’t right away. I struggled with that but the Lord did heal me.
The man who wrote the book Why Are Christians Sick is a Baptists. He credits himself with impressive credentials. He like a lot of Baptists is influenced by Billy Graham. Many years ago in the Columbus Dispatch newspaper there was an article where someone wanted to know the meaning of salvation. Billy Graham said in the Old Testament it was physical and in the New Testament it was spiritual. That was a lie of the devil. There is no excuse for that; he has schooling. I’ve been to the large campgrounds in the Carolina’s and Baptists schools around for leadership meetings. I’ve heard others who know Greek and know the meaning. In Jerry Farwell’s school he pointed out the word healed means ratha. They had a program for alcohol and drug abuse. The problem is he never went any further than using that word. It also includes mend, stitch, sew or repair.
When my son Noah was in an accident and his bones were broken I saw an x-ray of it but the Lord sewed up his bones.
I walked into a missionary alliance church to pass out literature. There was a Greek man there reading the Greek text. It escaped his mind what the meaning of salvation meant. I was speaking at Spellman college; the college where Dr. King’s funeral was held. The home where they held their meetings were made available to us, which was a miracle. I had six seminaries there. The first time I heard about sozo was from a required reading from a class dealing with demons. I began to teach about the word sozo, including on a T.V. program I had many years ago. At this school I had my charts up on the platform teaching and I was mispronouncing one of the words. One of the students said you mean the doctrine of Soteria. I paused for a moment then it hit me, I was pronouncing it incorrect. That day I learned seminary students have heard it. Many of these students went on to be pastors of Baptists churches. This proves the definition is out there but people still have blindness on their eyes.
The Lord says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. The reason Christian are sick is because they haven’t been told the whole truth. We’ve come on a watered down gospel. They could have just as easily been doing what I’m doing right now. When it comes to Christians being sick it’s because they weren’t told about saving health.
Psalm 67:1-3 (KJV) 1 God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. 2 That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. 3 Let the people praise thee, O God (O Creator); let all the people praise thee.
I was never taught about saving health. I always heard God may want you sick for his glory; sick to keep you saved; sick to keep you humble. Yet I never heard about saving health.
Isaiah 49:6 is prophesying of the Lord himself.
Isaiah 49:5-6 (KJV) 5 And now, saith the LORD (the covenant keeping God) that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD (the covenant keeping God), and my God (Creator) shall be my strength. 6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles (this is us), that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
It’s saying in verse six that thou might be my rescue, safety, physically or morally, saving health, deliverance unto the ends of the earth.