Promising Physical Healing in Christ is Preaching a False Gospel

There are many faith healers out there who teach that Christians are promised bodily healing in this life through Christ’s atonement. These often even use promises of physical healing to try to persuade people to believe in Jesus. Promises of healing in Christ though are lies which subvert people towards a false gospel.

Though Jesus healed on earth to demonstrate His true identity and to encourage others to believe in Him as the Son of God, He also never promised that everyone who truly believes in Him will be in good health. His own Apostles experienced prolonged sickness and saw prolonged sickness in their faithful Christian co-laborers. They didn’t miraculously heal all these illnesses, nor claim healing for them, as if that were a guarantee for anyone with faith.

The Apostle Paul not only wrote about his own infirmities in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, he also wrote to his faithful co-worker Timothy about treating Timothy’s illnesses pertaining to his physical body.

1 Timothy 5:23: “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.”

Paul never rebuked Timothy for sin nor unbelief in his epistles to him- something that doesn’t add up if the faith healers’ doctrine of promised healing in Christ’s atonement were actually true.

Other such examples:

Philippians 2:25-27: “Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labor, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick nigh (near) unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.”

Note that Epaphroditus “was sick.” According to some healing in the atonement people, he should have confessed that he was never really sick at all. And if he were actually promised physical healing, then Epaphroditus could have and should have just claimed that as soon as he knew he was sick so he wouldn’t even come close to dying like he did.

2 Timothy 4:20: “Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.”

It sounds like the Apostle Paul considered sickness a normal thing for a Christian- as if Christians, even faithful ones who believe and follow what the Bible actually teaches, are actually still subject to the pains, toil, and hardships of life. That is because they are.

Those who enter into and continue in a living faith in Christ until the end (Matthew 24:13) will inherit a redeemed, perfectly whole body- in the resurrection in God’s eternal kingdom- not here and now (see also Romans 8:22-25 and Revelation 21:1-8 along these lines).

What about 1 Peter 2:24? “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”

Peter is writing to Christians about reconciliation to God through Christ’s blood and the proper Christian living which the true grace of God demands (see especially 1 Peter 5:12). Righteous living that glorifies God is actually the goal of Christ’s redemption and the outworking of a living faith in Him (Romans 1:16-17). Was Peter somehow writing about another type of healing than that? Of course not.

Moreover, Peter writes nothing in his epistles regarding how Christians should be free from physical infirmities. His focus is on following Christ in faith unto righteous living, even and especially when this is not beneficial to one’s earthly interests. Read the entirety of the books of 1 and 2 Peter. Note what Peter’s concern is. It is not about claiming promises unto a perfectly healthy body. A cross-reference to 1 Peter 2:24 is found in Hebrews 12:13 where healing is also directly spoken of in terms of spiritual healing.

Every person who has ever lived, and ever will live, is subject to physical injury and illness. Christians are no exception. And when was the last time you saw a 200 or a 2,000 year old person walking around? If physical healing was promised in Christ’s atonement, then there would be first century Christians walking around today. There aren’t. And that makes sense- because bodily healing is not promised in Christ’s atonement (not in this life). It is also not hard to find several examples of faith healers who eventually died painful, prolonged deaths from bodily illness which previously had gone around saying Christians should never ever be sick and who made money by lying in this regard.

The preachers on television, the radio, at healing crusades, and also those who just walk among the general public telling people that they can be healed if they’ll only comply with their instructions are surely frauds who are deceiving people.

Faith healers have bilked the naive out of unspeakable amounts of money and misled multitudes, this doctrine being foundational to their scam. The faith healers will even track sick and injured people down and hassle them about getting healed, give them false hope, and bring further despair by twisting the Bible and praying silly irreverent prayers as they lay hands on them and pray to “claim their healing.” Though they may not request money from everyone whom they track down, they advertise themselves through these encounters to increase their online presence and draw overall attention to themselves in order to set up financial opportunities down the line.

Sick and injured people are ultimately tormented by these faith healing thieves, though the faith healers really get them excited and maybe feeling better for a few moments. The fraudulent faith healer methods of getting mildly and moderately ill people, as well as mildly and moderately disabled people, to briefly think they have been healed through hypnosis, other psychological techniques, and subtle tricks have been well documented. Merely getting a sick or injured person excited about the possibility of being healed gets the adrenaline pumping and makes people really believe in the moment that they have been healed due to how adrenaline temporarily strengthens the body and relieves pain. A surprise shout mixed in can further increase the adrenaline to amplify the temporary good feelings.

The faith healers also are notable for having an extreme lack of accountability. The one most likely to get blamed when things don’t go as promised is the person who is still sick or injured (even though they totally heeded the faith healer). The faith healers are more likely to blame Jesus for the failure than they are to blame themselves for being the liars and overall frauds which they are when people who heed them don’t get healed.

The people who are doing faith healing activity in Jesus’ name are typically Pentecostals or heavily influenced by Pentecostalism. It should be no surprise then that they often (maybe always) also believe in other false teachings and practices related to Pentecostalism and the various movements begotten thereby. Faith healers therefore often act like showmen, scream inappropriately and excessively, practice emotionalism in other ways, believe that nonsense tongues are the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and work with and justify women pastors (these are other fraudulent beliefs and practices covered in several of our other studies).

It is also realistic to believe that supernatural signs- whether healing, tongues, or other signs were more common in the first century (and by tongues, I’m referring to natural languages spoken by divine assistance rather than blabbering nonsense which is no sign at all and which no one needs divine assistance for). This is not saying that supernatural signs from the Lord could never possibly ever happen now. It is saying that they would have been a lot more common among the first century Christians. The authority of the real Apostles who actually knew Jesus, witnessed His resurrection, and were actually involved in writing Scripture was being established in the 1st century. There are no real Apostles of Christ now- since no one writes Scripture anymore and no one now is a foundation stone to Christ’s church (Jesus is the chief cornerstone and there never was such thing as a pope- yet the first century Apostles had much greater authority than anyone would ever have now). That would only be logical to conclude- since we need to heed the first century Apostles still today through what they wrote which is recorded in the Bible.

Anyone who claims to be an Apostle of Christ today is not telling the truth and should not be trusted. They are only unduly exalting themselves and slighting the great authority which the first century Apostles were given.

It’s also important to understand that even in the Biblical record of first century events we’re not given reason to believe that most Christians healed people or raised the dead or anything along those lines. Even in the first century, supernatural signs were usually or always done by the Apostles or their co-workers. Though the other first century disciples would have had greater reason to pray for such things and were more likely to have witnessed them, they were not things which most would have done directly themselves. It is not uncommon now for silly preachers to make people in their churches feel guilty for not raising the dead, not healing the blind, and not doing other wonders. No one should think they have sinned and feel guilty over not doing such things. In many cases, the lives of the very same people who are being shamed for not doing supernatural signs are filled with actual sin which the preacher doesn’t care about. The people are foolishly being told to do things which few of the faithful Christians did in the first century- while they are simultaneously not being exhorted to walk in the right ways of the Lord (in relation to obligation concerning morality and character adjustment) which are required for all people at all times.

Promises of healing in Christ in this life are related to the lie implying that Christians ought to have the benefits of a blessed resurrection- before the resurrection. This deceit is practically a false gospel which stumbles people from believing the actual Gospel of Christ. This deceit even causes those who were true believers to fall away from authentic faith in Christ. The Bible even talks about this deadly deceit and its awful effects.

2 Timothy 2:16-18: “But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker (a gangrene): of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.”

Don’t let this false healing doctrine overthrow your faith in the actual promises of Christ and in His entire Word. Don’t let it corrupt your understanding of Christianity in any way nor impede you from following everything which the Bible actually commands us. And do not promote it nor uphold it lest you be found a liar and a preacher of a false gospel.