Physician or Opiate Pusher? (to Davey)
Douglas R. Larson berean@brookings.net
Mon, 16 Feb 1998 00:39:18 -0600 (00887632758, 00ed01bd3aa5$cbabf120$349b2ace@geek)
LARSON 2/16
Hi Davey! I'm very happy that you have found much agreement with all that I
have written this weekend. Your silence is very encouraging as it endorses
my answers--I am most honored. In your discussions with Jim Washburn
regarding whether a Christian (or any person) should seek a physician, or
Jesus in finding rendered cures is most interesting.
I'm glad that you agree that your God was the perpetrator of divine
ordinance, giving man a disease for which he could never escape (Gen
3:16-19). I'm sure that you are also aware that your God "cut short the
life spans"
of people as he deemed fit (Ps 90:10) down to 70 years--80 years if that
person is mighty.
But I must ask, have you "really seen" these verses at work, in the lives of
those you encounter as believers, such wonderful manifestations of God's
divinely instituted glory?
Matthew 7:11 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things
to those who ask Him!"
Mark 11:23-24
23 "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be
removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but
believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever
he says. 24 "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray,
believe that you receive them, and you will have them."
I ask these questions, as I myself was once a Christian, and I have prayed
with, and worshipped with, those who truly believed that they would be
healed (those big mountains) by God your Heavenly Father. They believed
just as St. Mark had penned Jesus's words, yet, many died terrible
unspeakable deaths due to diseases given to them by God your Heavenly
Father.
Dave, can you see the irony in this picture? Christians pray to be
delivered from the same sickness that God has given them. Enter in Jesus,
the same perpetrator of disease (as found in the fall), promising and
telling His followers to "believe that you have received them and you will
have them."
Now I ask you Dave. In this grand scheme of things:
1. Is Jesus the "Great Physician" or an "Opiate Pusher?"
2. Is Jesus essentially feeding His followers (brain candy) to ease their
pain by numbing their pains in faith?
3. Can Jesus's promising words (Mark 11) be verified today?
4. Are Jesus's promises applicable to sickness and disease?
5. Is there a timeline of expiration for manifested miracles of healing the
sick in our day? If so, can these be documented through secular sources
from institutions that have no religious agenda?
6. Could the above passages be in error?
James 1:14-15
14 "But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and
enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and
sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death." It's ironic, that one time
I delivered a sermon discussing man's sinful nature. I used the analogy of
a pig's nature and an elks nature. One can't change an elk to take on the
nature of a pig, neither can a pig take on what is natural to an elk. But
God your Heavenly Father gives to man a sinful nature in which man can never
escape. I quote James on this note, as you are condemned to death, sentence
to a nature in which you can't change, yet your God will hold you
accountable for everything that He has made you. Can you address this as
well? Is this what you believe?
Sincerely,
Doug Larson