THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT HEALING

by Herbert W. Armstrong
1979 edition

Is the day of miracles past? Does the living God heal sickness and disease today upon believing prayer? Or was healing performed only by Christ and the original apostles? Did God raise up medical science for our day? What about modern faith healers and public healing services?

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Chapter One: Healing in Our Time?
Chapter Two: Learning to Believe
Chapter Three: What the Old and New Testaments Reveal
Chapter Four: What Is Faith?
Chapter Five: Is Healing Always God's Will?
Chapter Six: Claiming God's Blessings





CHAPTER SIX

CLAIMING GOD'S BLESSINGS

Let's see if we can pick up the loose ends and put them together. We need clearly to understand HEALING as Christ put it in His Church for us today.

Today the medical profession is a much greater factor than when Jesus taught and healed. Correct UNDERSTANDING, as Christ intends for God's Church today, necessitates openmindedly seeing it in the light of God's revealed teaching for TODAY.

To clear the air we need to understand WHY this is not God's world. We need to understand how this world has developed and changed and WHY God has called His Church to come out of this world and to be a separate and peculiar people -- GOD'S PEOPLE!


The Pre-Adamic World

We need to clear our minds of today's concepts and confusion -- to UNDERSTAND the beginning of human life, the world into which Jesus came, and the changed world out from which God calls us today. We need to begin by refreshing our minds on what led up to MAN'S creation.

God created angels before the existence of the physical universe -- immortal spirit beings, each individually and separately created. Then God created the heavens -- the vast material universe -- and the earth.

But understand this basic truism. God's creating is a DUAL process. In the physical universe, what God created was perfect as far as the first stage of creation which had been produced. But God placed angels on the earth to be used by Him in the finishing stage -- to utilize the material already created -- working with its elements to beautify and finish earth's creation in physical splendor and glory.

This was merely the testing ground to qualify the angels to finish the creation of the entire limitless universal other planets.

As God's principle of creating is a dual process, so was the creation of angels -- and so is it with man.

The finishing stage of angelic creation, as it is with MAN, was creation of holy and righteous CHARACTER, which must emanate from GOD. That is something which cannot be created instantaneously by fiat. It requires a process of development in which the created beings must MAKE THE CHOICE, acquiesce in and seek this righteousness from God.

Angels, as was man afterward, were created in their initial stage with MINDS with which to think, acquire knowledge, reason, make choices and decisions. God first instructed them.

God's own holy and righteous CHARACTER is the WAY OF LIFE of His SPIRITUAL LAW. It is the way, the principle and attitude of LOVE -- outgoing toward God first of all, in reliance, faith and obedience; and, secondly, outgoing concern for the welfare and good of one's fellows. This LAW was made the basis of THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD, which He first set over the angels that they might proceed in what God purposed for them in harmony, unity, cooperation and peace -- in united effort.

On the throne of the earth God set a cherub -- a super archangel named Lucifer -- to administer God's GOVERNMENT.

But Lucifer defected. He led his angels into rebellion against God and God's WAY OF LOVE, into the way of GET -- vanity, lust and greed, jealousy and envy, competition and strife, rebellion against authority.

Instead of CONSTRUCTION -- finishing earth's creation -- Lucifer's way led to DESTRUCTION. Chaos and confusion and decay were the results.

Lucifer was DISqualified to rule God's GOVERNMENT. In his state of perversion Lucifer's name was changed by God to Satan the devil, and his angels became demons (that is, the third part of all angels who had been under Lucifer).

Now (Psalm 104:30) in six days God RENEWED the face of the earth for MAN.

God now had set out on the supreme act of creation -- REPRODUCING HIMSELF through mortal and physical MAN. Though composed of matter from the earth, man was formed in God's own likeness -- form and shape.

The MAN and woman He created were the first stage in the DUALITY of man's creation. This was the PHYSICAL state -- the material with which to form and create the SPIRITUAL phase.


Man -- and God

As the physical stage of man's creation began with Adam, so the spiritual phase began with Christ.

Adam was given an opportunity to qualify to succeed Satan on earth's throne. But to qualify it was necessary that he reject Satan's way of rebellion and GET, and accept God's way of GIVE and obedience.

As God had first thoroughly instructed Lucifer and his angels before placing them on the earth, so God first instructed Adam and Eve -- in His LOVE, His righteousness, His WAY, and His government.

In the Garden of Eden where God placed the man and woman were two symbolic trees. One symbolized God's Holy Spirit and the gift of eternal life upon obedience. The other, the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil," represented -- IF they partook of its forbidden fruit -- taking to themselves GOD'S prerogative of determining the knowledge of good and of evil -- of deciding for themselves the WAY of righteousness or of sin -- the way of determining CHARACTER. And this, of course, meant REBELLION against God's REVEALED knowledge.

Satan was not allowed to contact Adam until his Maker first instructed him in THE WAY of righteous character. Then the wily Satan got to Adam by deceiving his wife. But Adam was not deceived and willfully REJECTED GOD AS THE SOURCE OF REVEALED BASIC KNOWLEDGE as well as his God and Ruler.

Holy and righteous CHARACTER can come only by the free choice of its recipient. Adam had made the decision for his HUMAN FAMILY -- except those God should specially call to make their own decision.

When God "drove out the man" from the Garden of Eden and barred reentrance, "... LEST he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" (Genesis 3:22-24), God said, in effect: "You have made the decision. You were instructed personally by your Maker. You did not believe what He said -- you rebelled against Him as Ruler and Revealer of basic KNOWLEDGE. You have decided for the whole world that shall spring from you, except such as I shall choose to specially call in preparation for MY KINGDOM, which shall follow the day of MAN.

"Therefore I SENTENCE YOU and your world, which you shall sire, to 6,000 years of being CUT OFF from me. Go, produce YOUR OWN KNOWLEDGE, form your OWN RELIGIONS, your own GOVERNMENTS, your own CIVILIZATION. And after the 6,000 years I have allotted to you for YOUR civilization, I shall by my divine POWER restore my GOVERNMENT and establish MY KINGDOM -- my serene FAMILY ruling the earth.


The World Cut Off

And so THIS WORLD'S CIVILIZATION was developed by MAN, cut off from God and the revelation of God's KNOWLEDGE, yet craftily and invisibly swayed and led by Satan in Satan's WAY.

Man has NOT BEEN FREE TO VOLUNTARILY SEEK AND GAIN CONTACT with GOD. So said Jesus!

Look at the historic FACTS! Noah did not seek God -- God called Noah for a definite project. Abraham did not seek God. God called Abraham, and Abraham responded and obeyed without argument.

Moses did not seek God. And when God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery, Moses protested: "I can't do it. I have a speech impediment -- I stutter." Jonah did not seek God -- and when God called him to a special assignment, he tried to run away in a ship.

Isaiah did not seek God or the office of prophet -- he protested he was a man of unclean lips, until God cleansed them. The same with Jeremiah, who gave the excuse that he was too young. Did King David seek God or the kingship? No, David was interested only in herding sheep.

Jesus came saying, "No MAN CAN come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (John 6:44). And His 3 1/2 year public ministry proved it. Of the many thousands who heard the Master Himself, only 120 believed Him after 3 1/2 years.

Peter and his brother Andrew wanted to be fishermen -- and also John and James. And Matthew wanted to be a tax collector. Jesus said to His twelve, "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you."

The apostle Paul did not seek Christ -- he was on a hate campaign to imprison Christians until Christ struck him down blind and revealed to him the GREAT COMMISSION he was to carry to the Gentiles.

Last and least, the very last thing I wanted to do was to become a minister of Christ's gospel. I wanted to be an advertising man in the business world -- until God CONQUERED me and after real conversion committed to me the GREAT COMMISSION for our time.

It is important that we KEEP IN MIND that this is NOT God's world -- it is MAN'S world, cut off from God and God's ways, yet deceived and led by SATAN.

The people of China, India, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and many populous areas of the world have been so completely cut off from God, few in those countries know anything about Him.

God called ancient Israel out of Egypt to be His separate and peculiar people -- under His REVEALED LAWS. Yet He offered only their prophets His Holy Spirit. They were carnal-minded. They said to Samuel they wanted to be like the people of this world and have a king -- rejecting God as King (I Samuel 8:7).


Healing Arts in Jesus' Day

Into such a world Jesus came -- a world that did not accept Him or His teachings.

Now the medical profession antedates the time of Christ by many generations. However, man's development in the healing arts and medicine was then quite elementary compared to its status today.

Let's UNDERSTAND and fix firmly in mind this TRUTH: The medical profession is one of THIS WORLD'S humanly devised phases of a man-made civilization -- CUT OFF from God, but swayed and deceived by Satan!

Jesus had nothing to do with it. But I repeat, medical practice (and I use the word practice significantly) was then crude and undeveloped compared to the medical profession of the late 1970's. Jesus had compassion on the sick, the diseased, the blind and crippled. MAN'S civilization had not as yet developed a healing art that gave him much, if any, help. In His compassion and mercy for the people of Judah -- God's chosen -- He healed people of the general public as He came across them or they came to Him.

Jesus' ministry, as emphasized in the first chapter, was a DUAL ministry. He proclaimed the good news of the future KINGDOM OF GOD, and He healed the sick. Preaching and healing went hand in hand as a DUAL ministry. So with the first apostles.

Jesus did not come on a soul-saving crusade, but He did make forgiveness of spiritual sin possible by His SHED BLOOD on the cross of DEATH -- and He did also PAY THE PENALTY IN OUR STEAD for the broken laws that function in our physical bodies BY HIS STRIPES. I devoted some considerable space to that fact in an earlier chapter.

For emphasis I repeat: Jesus PAID THE PENALTY FOR us of both physical and spiritual transgression. He reconciled us to God by His shed blood and death (Romans 5:8-10), and by His stripes we are HEALED (Isaiah 53:5, I Peter 2:24). "Stripes" biblically means lashes given by a scourge or rod.

But now, when we come to the prophecy of the GREAT COMMISSION in our day, Jesus gave the proclamation of the KINGDOM OF GOD as the ONLY SIGN by which we might know when the end of this world -- this DAY OF MAN -- would come and His KINGDOM be set up to rule the earth. BUT, SIGNIFICANTLY, JESUS MENTIONED NOTHING ABOUT HEALING BEING PART OF THE GOSPEL PROCLAMATION TO ALL THE WORLD. Why?

Perhaps it is because we of Christ's ministry do not have the faith of Peter, Paul, James and the early first-century apostles. And of our time Jesus said, "... when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8.) Or could it be because man's world has developed a medical profession, which Jesus foreknew, so that the people uncalled of God would be far better cared for than those of the first century?


Our Day, Now

But what we do find is that healing today is FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD'S CHURCH, as per James 5:14-15.

I repeat, there are two conditions to healing: commandment keeping (I John 3:22) and faith (James 5:15). Commandment keeping has been restored to God's Church today. And we should have faith, which is a gift of God, but we are almost out of faith today, and when we're out of faith we're out from GOD!

It seems so much easier today to just go to a doctor and TRUST IN MAN -- MAN CUT OFF FROM GOD -- than to RELY ON CHRIST and His PROMISES!

Especially when we are so well aware of the progress made by the medical profession in our day.

Forty-five years ago I spoke of the use of medicines and drugs as poisons. Written 32 years ago, the only booklet the Church had, until now, published on healing spoke of it as prescribing an opposite poison to counteract the poison of the body. Unlike all our other booklets it was transcribed from the recording of an adlibbed broadcast. I said that the medical arithmetic was that one poison plus one more poison equals NO poison, and I remarked that a student of second-grade arithmetic ought to know that one plus one does not equal zero!

In the early days of Ambassador College in the late '40s, our Dr. Ralph E. Merrill, M.D., and a pioneer member of the Church at Pasadena, said, "We doctors have been kept so busy treating those already sick that we haven't gotten around to much research into diet and other causes of illnesses." But for the past 15 or 20 years the medical people have made considerable progress in this area.

Further, it is true that today most doctors prescribe medicines that are NOT poisons but rather are designed to help nature do its own healing.

However NO MEDICINE -- NO DOCTOR -- can HEAL! I have never heard a medical doctor deny that statement. They do not claim to heal.

I am not saying that God's people should trust in doctors instead of relying on God and His PROMISES. I shall have more to say about those promises a little later before closing this booklet.


Understanding for Our Day

At this point we need to clear our UNDERSTANDING on two vital points:

1. God created MAN in His own image -- after His own likeness. Man is wholly material flesh -- yet there is a spirit essence in each human. Man was made to have a special relationship with God. Man's potential is to be BORN INTO the GOD FAMILY -- changed from material to spirit composition.

Consequently, when God made MAN after His own kind -- not after the dumb animal kind -- God endowed man with near-creative powers. In the sense of designing and making out of already existing materials, man does have creative powers.

At the tower of Babel God said, "... and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do" (Genesis 11:6). Therefore, to put the brakes on man's misguided civilization development, God confounded their language.

Thereafter there was little progress in man's complicated educational and industrial development until after the invention of printing. Even then it took time for dissemination of knowledge by the printed word until man began to narrow the language gap. For a while French seemed to be making progress as the world's universal language, but today English has overtaken it.

Most civilization development has occurred only in the last 125 years -- and technical knowledge and industrial development have more than doubled in the last two or three decades.

This is especially true in the practice of medicine and knowledge in that profession. The fact of man's ability and capacity for development reflects, not the glory of MAN, but the creative might of our Maker in creating man to have such abilities and capacities.

Yet we must remember this development is not always progress forward. Too often, under Satan's unrealized sway, with man CUT OFF FROM God and His revealed knowledge, it has been progress in reverse. As Isaiah 1:4 says of ancient Israel, "... they are gone away backward."

Satan has had access to deceive and sway man into Satan's CHARACTER IMAGE, whereas we must acquire and develop GOD'S CHARACTER IMAGE to be born into His Kingdom! It is vital that we REMEMBER THAT, in considering healing vs. medical reliance TODAY!

2. God reveals knowledge -- to those called and having His Spirit -- which man could not discover for himself.

God left it for Copernicus to make first discoveries about astronomy, for Newton to discover the law of gravity, Galileo to discover that the earth is round. Yet for UNDERSTANDING, bear in mind that what was accepted as science yesterday is sometimes the laughingstock of today -- especially in the speculative and philosophical sciences. Revelation from GOD is the basis of real TRUTH.

The same principle pertains to what man can DO. The great advances in the medical field enable man to do for his human family many things he could not do 50 years ago, short of actual healing. God does for us (often by miracle) that which we are unable to do. God gave man talents, mind-power (physical) and abilities that He intended us to use and develop under His guidance, and always for His glory and toward our development in the holy, righteous CHARACTER of God.

To this end, God intends man to excel and improve -- but never in a way to inflate vanity or detract from reliance on and trust in God. We must rely on GOD for guidance even in what we are made able to do for ourselves.


Righteous Character Must Be Developed

But the very PURPOSE of human life (God reproducing Himself) is this holy and righteous character development. AND IT IS ACQUIRED, DEVELOPED and INCREASED primarily through OBEDIENCE AND FAITH.

I said earlier that God creates by the principle of DUALITY. UNDERSTAND THIS! I explained that the first stage of human creation was the physical creation, starting from Adam. The second stage is the SPIRITUAL CREATION, beginning with Christ.

But even in the conversion of one called of God in the present age, that conversion is brought about by the DUALITY principle. First, upon being called of God, granted real repentance and being CONQUERED by Him, and having faith in Christ, with baptism we are PROMISED the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is the first stage. There is a definite time when one receives God's Holy Spirit. But only Jesus (John 3:34) was not given the Spirit by measure.

All other humans do receive initially only a certain measure of God's Spirit. Then we must GROW in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ (II Peter 3:18). That is the second phase of the spiritual creation.

The natural-born human has only the human spirit -- imparting the power of intellect. Yet all such human minds are confined to knowledge of the physical and material. And by the fact that Satan is prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), he broadcasts -- surcharges the air with his ATTITUDE of SELF -- vanity and love only toward self. We call this attitude Satan instills human nature. We acquire it from earliest childhood gradually.

Repentance is change from that attitude. Through God's Holy Spirit joining with our spirit, we acquire -- become partakers of (II Peter 1:4) -- the divine nature.

But this initial stage of conversion does not eradicate human nature. Real repentance is a change of WILLFUL INTENTION to turn from the attitude Satan had injected.

I don't know (for God does not reveal) what percentage of human nature is driven out and the divine nature GIVEN through the initial measure of the Holy Spirit at conversion.

But to illustrate, let us suppose one receives one percent of complete full measure of the Holy Spirit. Such a one might be, shall we suppose, 99 percent actuated by the selfish nature. Possibly that may vary in different individuals.


Principle Illustrated by Parables

Jesus illustrated this principle by the parables of the pounds and of the talents. In Luke 19:11-27, Jesus is pictured as giving His ten servants one pound each. This unit of British money symbolized a measure of the Holy Spirit. For sake of clarity let us suppose it represents one percent of the full measure of God's Spirit. When Christ returns from heaven as KING of kings and LORD of lords, each of the ten is called to give account. The first had GROWN in grace and Christ's knowledge ten times from where he started. In the Kingdom of God -- in the next life -- He is given rule over ten cities.

The second servant had increased his original spiritual stock- in-trade five times. He was not saved by his works but rewarded according to his works. He was given rule over five cities.

But the third had gained NOTHING. He thought his original conversion would get him into God's Kingdom without any spiritual growth. He had the one pound taken away from him. He lost out totally. He did not make it into God's Kingdom! In other words, if we do not GROW in God's spiritual character, we LOSE the salvation we thought we were starting with.

We GROW in God's Spirit -- receiving increased measure-by whatever extent we overcome the SELF and Satan-injected attitude, and increase in God s LOVE, FAITH, OBEDIENCE -- and in PRAYER and BIBLE STUDY.

The means God has given His Church for this development is primarily our part in loyally standing behind Christ's apostle in supporting the GREAT COMMISSION. In fact that is the primary PURPOSE of calling some to conversion NOW instead of after Christ comes to rule and Satan is bound.


Means of Spiritual Growth

But another important means God gave His people of our time for spiritual growth is RELYING ON HIM AND HIS PROMISES FOR HEALING.

Let me help you UNDERSTAND. True, God does for us that which we cannot do for ourselves. HEALING is something we cannot do for ourselves -- something doctors, medicines or knives CANNOT do.

Do not misunderstand. Doctors may be a real HELP -- because they have specialized in learning many things humans can do. Again I refer, IN PRINCIPLE, to child delivery and binding and setting a broken arm or leg. Today doctors can do for us many other things possible for a human to do short of actual healing.

But the VERY FACT that two conditions to miraculous healing by God are obedience and faith requires the exercise of, and therefore GROWTH in, obedience and faith.

Jesus said, "... whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do [a PROMISE], that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13).


But My Father Died

Finally, a most important matter to UNDERSTAND!

What if one relies on God for healing and DIES? I've heard so many refer to this old bromide to justify lack of faith that I want now finally to answer that DOUBT with God's TRUTH!

My conversion occurred in the spring of 1927. I first learned about HEALING in August of 1927 -- through the miraculous healing of my wife. I was learning rapidly in those days to TRUST GOD.

In the spring of 1933 I was visiting my father on his farm near Oregon City, Oregon. That evening around sundown my father told me he had repented and wanted Christ's salvation. I was to baptize him next morning.

My father had been a solid church member all his life in a respected Protestant denomination. He was what everyone called a good man. He never used profanity, tobacco or strong drink. I knew of no bad habits. He owed no man any money.

He had a deep bass voice -- had sung for years in a male quartet. He could fill an auditorium with no amplification clear down on lower C. I know of none who can do that today. When later I came into possession of a personally autographed record by Caruso, I was astonished to recognize the same voice color or tonal quality, except in the higher range, that my father had -- although he had but little voice training.

That night he sang out, with gleaming eye and joyous voice, the old hymn "Praise Him, Praise Him." Then suddenly, a STROKE!

I had been ordained in 1931, about 3 1/2 years after conversion. I anointed and prayed for my father. I BELIEVED! He believed! I continued praying for him through the night in FAITH! Yet at 9:40 the next morning, he died!

That was my first experience in seeing one anointed and prayed over for healing die. Several astonishing healings had resulted from my anointing and praying.

I cannot say I was not shaken -- and I can understand how others may be in such a case. But it did not destroy my faith! I prayed, asking God to give me HIS UNDERSTANDING!

He led me to the faith chapter in the Bible -- Hebrews 11 -- and I prayerfully studied. There I found the answer. Faith is the ASSURANCE -- the EVIDENCE -- of what is NOT SEEN! Faith precedes the requested result. And faith is the ASSURANCE God gives us until the petition is answered. Faith is BELIEVING WHAT GOD SAYS!

Adam did not believe what God told him face to face. Faith is relying on the veracity of God -- trusting that what God has PROMISED He will perform.

A promise I have often relied on is in Psalms 37:5, Moffatt translation: "Leave all to him, rely on him, and he will see to it."


Believer Relies on God's Promises

The doubter denies God's PROMISES. The BELIEVER relies on them -- UNTIL God performs them.

God has given us MANY PROMISES. God promises (Romans 5:10)"... we shall be saved by his [Jesus'] LIFE." God promised salvation and eternal life through Abraham. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the PROMISES [of eternal life] made" (Galatians 3:16). They were repromised to Isaac and Jacob. Jesus Christ came to CONFIRM the PROMISES made unto the fathers (Romans 15:8). And Abraham, "... being not weak in faith [as so many are today] ... staggered not at the PROMISE of God through unbelief [as do many today]; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being FULLY PERSUADED that, what he [God] had PROMISED, he was able also to perform" (Romans 4:19-21).

Yet Abraham, Isaac and Jacob "... all died in faith, not having received the promises ..." (Hebrews 11:13).

A minister, apparently lacking either in faith or in UNDERSTANDING, writes, "Case histories in the Bible, and especially thousands of case histories in the present Church, show that faith was present in the lives of people, and God did not heal."

I could not vouch for the fact that FAITH was present in all such cases -- I cannot judge others; only God can. The same letter gives the following, striking home to me, in contending against God's PROMISES to heal on faith: "What about the many of our dead we have buried -- Mrs. Loma Armstrong [the wife of my youth who died at age 75 1/2], your son Dick ..." and four others.

My answer, in simple FAITH, is that they, like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all died IN FAITH, not having received the PROMISES- -YET! But in the next fraction of a second from their loss of consciousness in death, THEY SHALL WAKE UP HEALED -- in the resurrection, and in GOD'S KINGDOM! I have faith that in the not too -- distant future I shall SEE my father, my first wife, my son Dick and others this minister named FULLY HEALED in the Kingdom of God.


Proclaiming the World's Only and Sure Hope!

God says through Paul, "If in this life ONLY we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (I Corinthians 15:19).

UNDERSTAND! God HAS PROMISED TO HEAL -- on faith and obedience!

But neither you nor I can dictate to God how or when He shall do WHAT HE HAS PROMISED.

Nowhere has God promised that we shall be healed so repeatedly that we shall never die. My wife and my son had been REPEATEDLY HEALED! God says, "For as in Adam ALL DIE ... (I Corinthians 15:22). But He also promises "... so in Christ shall all be made alive."

You who misunderstand or lack faith, but trust in medical doctors, DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF THE MILLIONS WHO DIE DIE UNDER THE MEDICAL DOCTORS' CARE? Yet you who disbelieve still have faith in M.D.s.

Frankly, it makes me a little indignant, as I fully believe it does the living CHRIST, to find people exalting the advances and "expertise" of medical doctors, while at the same time denying that God's PROMISES are promises -- discrediting faith in God, excusing their lack of trusting GOD while they argue for trusting MAN!

God has PROMISED salvation and eternal life on the SAME conditions He PROMISED healing -- obedience and faith. Jesus paid our penalty, making possible eternal life by His shed blood on the cross. He paid the penalty for physical broken law, making possible our HEALING by His stripes (Isaiah 53:5, I Peter 2:24).

"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases" (Psalm 103:3). If you can't believe the one, how can you believe the other?

The Eternal God called me and committed to me Christ's GREAT COMMISSION -- to go into the whole world proclaiming the world's ONLY and SURE HOPE -- the soon-coming KINGDOM OF GOD!

All whom God has called to come into His Church today -- coming out from among those of the world -- have been CALLED to stand back of this WORLDWIDE proclamation of the soon-coming KINGDOM -- the time of LIFE after this life!


Look to the Glories Ahead

God wants our minds to be looking FORWARD to HIS KINGDOM and the glories ahead! That's what is meant by Colossians 3:1.

WHY, then, should any of us be saying to God, "Do it RIGHT NOW, Lord -- RIGHT NOW" or else we'll drop faith in God and trust in MAN?

God's PROMISE to those who died in faith, not YET having received the PROMISES, STANDS SURE AND INVIOLATE! If we can't believe that, we simply do not believe GOD!

I have made it plain that God's Church does not condemn medical or other doctors -- nor sit in judgment of those who are weak in faith and rely on MAN. There is much doctors can do for us today.

I have given the BASIC PRINCIPLE: God does for us what we humans cannot do. One could get into endless arguments and controversy on technical specific issues of what we may go to man for and what to rely on GOD to do. I have given the broad guidelines. The Church will encourage God's people to BELIEVE GOD -- RELY ON GOD -- to say, with the apostles, ... Lord, INCREASE OUR FAITH (Luke 17:5).

After writing the above lines, intending them to be the conclusion, I turned on television for a moment's relaxation. A medical drama was on. In a heated argument between two doctors -- actors taking the part of doctors -- one said to the other, angrily, "You're not a miracle worker -- you're a doctor!"

God does not expect His ministers to make your decisions for you -- and God's Church will not sit in judgment of you if you go to a doctor. But GOD says one of His BENEFITS, for which He makes no charge, is that He offers you the loving services of a MIRACLE WORKER -- the living JESUS CHRIST!