Will God Heal My Back?

by Tyler Young

As I type these words I am lying flat on my back, laptop sitting at eye level on the coffee table which has been positioned next to the couch, wireless portable keyboard across my lap, trying to remain as still as possible to minimize the pain caused by a ruptured disk which I hope to have corrected by surgery next week. I have been praying, of course, that the surgery will go well and that I might have a full recovery, and many others have likewise been petitioning God on my behalf.

There are those who would say there is no need to go under the knife to get well. If I just had enough faith, they would argue, then the Lord would heal me miraculously. After all, Jesus healed the sick, and the Bible says "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8). And didn’t Jesus say, "Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive" (Mat. 21:22)?

Unfortunately, many have been led to believe that the Bible teaches God has promised—virtually without qualification—miracles of healing to those who believe today. Recently I received an email from a Bible believer who wished me well with my upcoming surgery. He had just had surgery himself, and was told by a church going coworker that it is a deception of the devil to think we must resign ourselves to sickness and that, as per the teaching of the health and wealth prosperity preaching televangelists like Ken Copeland, we can receive a miracle of healing if we just believe. My friend is confused on the issue, and expressed skepticism toward his coworker’s claims. My reply to him follows. I hope it will help us to "give answer" to those who raise similar questions about the Bible and divine healing.

Dear George (not his real name),

You are correct in your assessment of the Hagen and Copeland theology. It is dangerous, deceiving and damning error that they are teaching. If these characters really had healing power, as they claim to have, and if the Lord were really working miracles of healing as he did through the apostles and others in the early church, then they would be emptying the beds at the children’s hospital. And, as you noted, they themselves get sick just like the rest of us. They pass by the crippled child and leave him bound to his wheelchair for the rest of his life, and then get up preach that God has a miracle of healing for anyone who is sick. It’s a shame, a disgrace to the name of Christ. I know there are those like your coworker who sincerely believe that God has promised to heal all who have faith, but they have been deceived by false teachers who are perverting the gospel for their own profit.

George, the Bible teaches that miracles such as those performed by Jesus and the apostles (raising the dead, healing the sick, speaking in tongues, etc.) were temporary (they would "cease" 1 Cor. 13:8), and were not intended to be available to all Christians throughout the entirety of the Christian age. The only way anyone in the church other than the apostles received miraculous power of the Holy Spirit was through the laying on of the apostles hands (see Acts 8:14-19; 19:5-6). The only exception to this was the case of Cornelius and his household (Acts 10-11), and the scriptures make clear that the outpouring of the Spirit in that particular circumstance was for a unique purpose (to show the Jews that the Gentiles were to be accepted into the church).

This does not mean that God does not work providentially in the world today. God does indeed intervene in the affairs of men according to his will, and can work to bring about healing in answer to prayer, but he does not do so by means of miracles such as those performed by the apostles and those on whom they laid their hands in the first century church. There is a difference between God providing bread for us by working "behind the scenes" to arrange opportunities for us to earn the money we need to buy bread, and making bread appear on our table miraculously, as he did with the Israelites in the wilderness. I’m praying for my surgery to go well, and for God to bless me with a good recovery. He can use the doctors, the medicine, and other means to bring this about, if it is his will to do so. But I’m not expecting God to touch me and miraculously heal my ruptured disc, because he has not promised to work in that way among us today.

Here is a link to an excellent article which sets forth in detail the teaching of the word of God on the purpose, nature and temporary availability of miracles: http://www.apologeticspress.org/modules.php?name=Read&cat=1&itemid=2569. I urge you to study this thoroughly and carefully, as it refutes the claims made by many today and clearly sets forth the truth about the fact that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit were not designed to be available in perpetuity in the church, but were limited to the apostolic period, and even then were not universally available to all believers.

When someone claims if you just have faith then God will heal you, remember this: Paul spoke to Timothy of that young evangelist’s frequent "infirmities" (1 Tim. 5:23). He didn’t tell him to "just claim your miracle, Timothy, and the Lord will heal you." He advised him to pursue medical treatment for relief from his health problems. In his last epistle, Paul told Timothy, "Trophimus I left at Miletus sick" (2 Tim. 4:20). Now why would Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, baptized in the Holy Spirit, who actually did have miraculous power and had exercised that power to heal many, leave a brother in a state of physical sickness? That simply does not fit with the doctrine that God promises miracles of healing for all those who "just have faith."

The word of God tells us, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world." (1 John 4:1). We must search the scriptures to see if what we hear and what we believe is actually what God’s word teaches (Acts 17:11). Why? Because, "Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son" (2 John 9). It matters what we believe and teach on these things. When it comes to these fundamental matters of the faith, our differences in beliefs on these matters make a difference. To be acceptable to God, we must abide in the truth. That is why I hope you will study these things. Let me know if you have any more questions.... (end of letter).

And so I believe God can heal my back, but I don’t think I’ll cancel my surgery. It may be
the answer to my-—to our—prayers.