Christ the Healer: An Analysis (part 10)

A study of the book, Christ the Healer, by F. F. Bosworth:

• Part 1 (Introduction)
• Part 2 (Interpreting the Scriptures)
• Part 3 (Where Sickness Comes From)
• Part 4 (Healing and the Will of God 1)
• Part 5 (Healing and the Will of God 2)
• Part 6 (Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh)
• Part 7 (Healing and the Atonement 1)
• Part 8 (Healing and the Atonement 2)
• Part 9 (Healing in the Present Age 1)

VI. Healing in the Present Age 2

God does, in fact, heal and physically restore, using a variety of means (including the miraculous).

1. He built amazing recuperative powers into our bodies, and heals through those. It has even been shown that the mind can influence the condition of the body to a great degree.
2. The use of medicines augment and enhance the body’s own powers, as do things like rest, exercise, and diet. These are a part of the design of the Great Physician.
3. The intervention of doctors, providing a surgical solution can be a part of His plan. God gave them the mind to learn and the skill to work as they do.
4. Then, beyond that, there is the operation of divine providence– which we may not recognize at all. (For example, a man may lose his job in a factory. In God’s providence, it may be a way of delivering him from the long-term effects of toxic fumes not even recognized.
5. And in addition to these means, there are times when God intervenes in a supernatural way to heal.

We bandy about such terms as, “Didn’t he make a miraculous recovery”, when we sometimes do not know whether that is so. What combination of the above means were involved? It is not always easy (or productive) to try and guess. Suffice to say that miracles likely happen somewhat more often than the unbelieving skeptic will admit, but rather less frequently than the naive and gullible suppose.

In any case, God is the source of healing. “Every good and perfect gift is from above” (Jas. 1:17).

Let’s deal now with a few more quotations from Mr. Bosworth.

Since in the darker ages of the types [he means Old Testament times] they all had the privilege of being healed, surely in this “better” dispensation, with its “better” Covenant and “better” promises, God has not withdrawn this Old Testament mercy. If so, we are robbed that much by the coming and Atonement of Christ.

(a frequent argument, see pages 45-46, 57, 66, 74, 156-157)

In response, it is a fallacy to suppose that each successive age is superior in every way to those that preceded it, or that no advantage of any kind was enjoyed by earlier dispensations. (For instance, Peter and John saw the living Christ, walked and talked with Him, and were able to ask Him questions, listen to Him teach and watch Him minister. That “advantage” has been withdrawn, for the time being.)

God’s covenant with Israel was, as we have seen, conditioned upon their strict obedience to the Law (Ex. 15:26–Ps. 103:3, “Who heals all your diseases”, is an expression of the same covenant, by David, living under the Law. It was a blessing available to those Jews who were “such as keep his covenant [the Mosaic Covenant – the Law], and to those who remember his commandments to do them” (Ps. 103:18). Bosworth makes frequent use of the 3rd verse of the psalm (pages 8, 21, etc) – but he never puts it in context. That promise of healing was a special advantage enjoyed by Israel, of which there were a number. A sovereign God favoured her above all the nations of the earth.

But His method in the Church Age is not to work with one nation in particular, but to favour all peoples equally (Gal. 3:28). The writer’s repeated use of the word “better” in the above quotation is an apparent reference to its use in Hebrews, where it is found more than a dozen times. The point of Hebrews is that we are better off because the Old Testament system offered symbols and shadows, whereas Christ has fulfilled these so we can experience the reality behind them. What is past was merely temporary, until the fulfillment came. That is the sense in which we are “better” off.

Any understanding of the glories of life under Grace, as compared to the fear engendered by having to face God on the grounds of Law, will soon show how blessed we are. Bodily healing (which is temporary at best) is not to be compared with our new standing as a kingdom of priests, perfected forever, and blessed with every spiritual blessing (Rev. 1:6; Heb. 10:14; Eph. 1:3).

Christ planned to carry on His healing ministry during His absence by means of the whole Church… not through an obscure member of that Body. He said, “These signs shall follow THEM”–the Church, not “him”–the individual.

pages 166, 168

He is quoting from Mk. 16:15-18. The key to understanding the passage lies in identifying “those who believe” (Mk. 16:17). In the context, it is the Apostles and those who would work with them. And the miracles did not confirm their faith, but rather their message. Mk. 16:20 – “They went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the Word through the accompanying signs.” Nowhere does God say the whole Church will be engaged in working miracles or healing the sick. Even in Apostolic times these gifts were not universal (I Cor. 12:28-30) – if they were, it would have been impossible for such things to identify God’s special messengers as He intended “signs” to do (II Cor. 12:12).

The Bible differentiates between the “gifts of healing” and the gift of “miracles”. Christ could do no miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief, but He healed a few sick ones. If everyone were to be made perfectly whole, instantly, there would be no place for the gifts of healing.

pages 95, 98, 184-185, 205-206

Bosworth combines a number of errors here. First, there is a clever misquote of Mk. 6:5 – Bosworth has “Christ could do no miracle in Nazareth…but He healed a few sick ones.” That makes the verse sound like the healings were distinct from the miracles – and maybe were some kind of non-miraculous healings. However, the verse does not say that. It says, “He could do no mighty work [miracle] there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them”. The literal Greek is even plainer: “He was able there not any work of power to do except on a few infirm, having laid hands He healed”. The healings were miraculous– works of power.

It seems that Bosworth is trying to find support for the kind of slow-motion, partial healing that is passed off as the demonstration of God’s power in our day. But that is not the biblical pattern. There seems to have been an instant, dramatic change. In every case but the two-stage miracle of Mk. 8:22-26, healing was instantaneous, complete and permanent– even with some who exercised no faith and did not even know who Jesus was (see Jn. 9:6-7, 25).

Yes, there is a distinction made between gifts of healing and of miracles, but not in the sense that gifts of healing are not miraculous! “Miracles” is a more comprehensive gift, including demonstrations of the supernatural beyond healing. That is all. To say, as the author does, that divine healing is a process and that “every one of you will be healed, though not always instantly” (p. 98) is a cop-out. As discussed previously, it is granted that God heals through many means and avenues, but that is hardly what we see in the recorded examples of healing through Christ and the Apostles.

As soon as disease has advanced beyond the power of nature to recover us, it will result in death in every case unless removed by the power of God.

page 14

I did not know quite what to make of that! Is he saying every prolonged disease is fatal? Surely, there are many chronic conditions that are merely annoying or restricting, but not life-threatening.

The author, as has been previously noted, places great stress on the faith of the sick to be healed. Faith is everything.

To the extent that we base our faith on our improvement, or are affected by our symptoms, or by what we see or feel, instead of the Word of God alone, just to that extent ours is not real faith.

p. 106, and see 107, 110, 114, 117, 119, 133, 135, 137, 142-143

This, of course, becomes the way to explain away all failures. There is certainly an element of truth involved – that we walk by faith and not by sight. However, he is setting up preconditions for receiving healing that would do credit to a robot! And he is placing God at the mercy of man’s ability to visualize correctly what is to be received. “God can be no bigger in you than you confess Him to be” (p. 147). “Confessing lack of faith increases doubt. Every time you confess doubts and fears, you confess your faith in Satan and deny the ability of the grace of God” (p. 142). Does this rule out the biblical confession of sin? It almost seems to.

(continued tomorrow)