A couple of years ago this article was on God Discussion. It is as timely today as ever since people continue to die in PCG and LCG because of it's rejection of doctors (unless of course you are the fearless leader and then no expense is spared.)
Years ago, my brother almost died because of a ruptured appendix. This was not the fault of the local physicians. It was the fault of the Worldwide Church of God, which at that time was headed by Herbert W. Armstrong. Because of the church's stronghold on my parents' intellectual reasoning, they and the minister prayed over my sick brother for months, putting stupid little "anointing cloths" and oil described in the bible on him. He became sicker and sicker, wasting away to nothing except for a grossly bloated stomach. He was so weak he could not walk. He suffered tremendously.
Fortunately, my parents allowed reason, love and compassion to prevail and took him to the emergency room, despite the instructions of the church. They did so in the nick of time. The appendix had ruptured and my brother hovered near death. My parents felt guilty about this for the rest of their lives. In fact, my mother manifested appendicitis in her late 50s.Death by God
10 comments:
Death by God?
Sounds more like Satan, if we were to believe Scripture.
Anyway, it's near impossible to imagine Armstrongists able to tell right from wrong, let alone knowing God in any significant way.
Tell me, would Jesus have treated these loyal members as shabily as the Armstrongist ministers did?
Or does Scripture suggest that he'd be overturning the pamphlet tables in the Ambassador Auditorium as the booklets fairly represented the new age Pharisees?
Armstrongism is a religion of death. We cannot forget that.
Armstrong was always calling for "sacrifice." The ultimate sacrifice is yourself and your loved ones. That was viewed as necessary "collateral damage" and nothing of any real import.
"God's will" answers anything.
I believe that there is supernatural healing today. However, I don't believe it is a universal, blanket thing. It's a special thing, used to fulfill some of God's specific goals or purposes.
In most cases, God expects us to do for ourselves what we can, using the tools available to us. Many people with terminal diseases have exercised all of their medical options, and it's always reaffirming when such a person is later healed by God. Some become powerful witnesses, retaining the medical evidence of the conditions of which they are healed.
I don't believe that members of the clergy should be making medical decisions for their church members. That mentality, which was all too prevalent in WCG, is rooted in a time in history when those in the medical profession were shamans and witch doctors in pagan religions. Today, you just are not going to find pagan shamans working in the hospitals, many of which were actually founded by Christian churches. Many doctors are Christian, and many others are areligious. HWA didn't recognize sincere non-WCG Christians as being Christian, which is why he failed to make the distinction between pagan shamans and modern day medical professionals.
It is likely that Jesus would join the rest of us in emptying the newsboxes at supermarkets of their Philadelphia Trumpets, and throwing such refuse in the market's trash dumpster.
BB
It may be wise to pitch James 5:14 etc out of our consciousness, New Testament or not.
That verse has been itself responsible for more heartache than any other provoking tens of thousands of sincere people to think that this is the way to treat illness as a Christian. It does not give any alternative suggestions.
While some may make the apologetic that Luke was "the beloved Physician" where was he when this nonsense verse and method for healing of disease came up in the Church? Did he wonder at all about the sanity of this as spoken by some "James" in the Church? What kind of Physician was Luke? He could have been an herbalist for all we know or a Gentile Pookey Master.
While there are many loonish humans who have done crazy things in the name of the Chrisitian faith, it is the Bible that gives them fertile ground for misunderstanding and limited alternatives.
There can be no proof that any "miracle" of any kind ever took place. It's just stories with no way for anyone today to know if someone was healed, raised, restored or resurrected. It's just stories and we take them like they were newspaper articles.
James 5 is also responsible for much healing foolishness.
M.T.Testube
Byker Bob said, "I don't believe that members of the clergy should be making medical decisions for their church members. That mentality, which was all too prevalent in WCG, is rooted in a time in history when those in the medical profession were shamans and witch doctors in pagan religions."
MY COMMENT - The following is a direct quote made from the pulpit at the Washington D.C. Worldwide Church of God congregation in 1969:
"If you die in the hands of Doctors, you will go to the Lake of Fire".
Richard
Well, that quote about the Lake of Fire is certainly an indicator of the "gate keeper" mentality very prevalent in the WCG. Keys of Peter and all that. I can't imagine God being very amused at people claiming to serve Him, but being so presumptuous as to usurp His prerogatives. And, we let them get away with such presumptuous authority for so many years!
1969? I think that was the first time I had ever made a doctor's appointment by myself. I had mistakenly confused a prostate infection with the clap, and darned sure wasn't going to get in the sabbath annointing line for that! Oh ghastly! (as all church members used to say back in the day!) I would have been on the way to TLoF for sure, had I done that! Reluctantly, I went to the doctor, and regular doses of tetracycline over about two weeks knocked it right out.
BB
Got a chuckle out of your comment, Bob. I can just imagine your consternation. In the old WCG, innocent until proven guilty rarely entered into any judgment.
I guess the choice is a personal one and faith comes into play. Whether or not HWA was for or against medical intervention, what he preached and what he practiced were not the same thing.
I remember one Sabbath we were all asked to get on our knees in front of our folding chairs and the pastor led a very long prayer for Herbert's ailing wife, Loma. At the time She was surrounded in their Pasadena home buy a cadre of medical staff. Since 1963 I had never seen this done for anyone except Loma Armstrong. She subsequently died. In spite of more prayers than were ever offered at one time in the church for a healing and no doubt the most expensive medical staff.
Having relayed that, My family did believe in healing and I still do. I judge no one in their personal choices and never think I am any better than the next guy on this same journey of life.
But when I was 13 I had an appendicitis that ruptured. I was annointed twice to no avail. I was almost dead but I told my Mom and Step-father I wanted to trust God for my healing, I did not want a doctor. This was during a ministerial conference and there were no ministers available for a third annointing so my parents knelt beside the sofa where I was lying in fever and delirium. They prayed for hours knowing I would not make it to see another morning.
The next morning when I woke up I realized I was starving. The fever gone, the searing pain and swelling in my lower righ abdomen gone, and no fever. I washed up and proceeded to eat everything in site. My appetite fully intact the next day I was up early, dressed and on the bus heading for school. A miracle or just blind dumb luck?
When I had children we never got any vaccinations, they never got any of the child hood diseases their school mates got. They never went to a doctor except for some stitches, and they were always healed when we prayed, many times nearly instantaneously. I just simply believed the promise God gave "none of these diseases", and looked in faith to God as My person YHWH Rapha, your healer. So I figure this is just one of the benefits that comes along in the new covenant too. So far so good.
This is one little piece of one mans journey along this bumpy road of life.
Michael
TTDOCF
correction: "my personal...
Post a Comment