Physical Healing and Jesus' Pattern of Ministry

When God does heal it is a foretaste of the complete healing we will receive in the future. This healing was purchased on the cross. --idea from Wayne Grudem (theologian)

The story of Lazarus confirms this idea. (John 11) One cannot look at the healings done by Jesus and then conclude that "physical healings" will be a regularity of ministry. Throughout my Christian journey I have heard several say (maily Pentecostal and Charasmatic, but not exclusively) that Jesus' miraculous ministry of healing should be the regular pattern of how ministry is done today in the church. Since Jesus made the blind to see and the lame to walk and the diseased healed, we should too. The reason that there isn't is because we don't have enough faith.

But is this really so? It would, then, appear that since Jesus made the dead to rise, we should too. However, I have not heard anyone advocate as part of a funeral ceremony to have a section for the "raising of the deceased." By using the logic that Jesus did and we should too, should then the models of Lazarus or Jarius' daughter be the pattern that we should aim to follow? Should we go to funerals and aim to see people whose lives were "tragically" taken at a young age (the child who died of lukemia, the young father who in an auto wreck leaves a grieving widow and fear struck children) raised from the casket? Or should we understand the story of Lazarus as a triumphant illustration where Jesus demonstrates:

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Jn 11:25-26

As Grudem says, when God physically heals or even raises from the dead, it is a foretaste of the healing and victory of life which God has secured for us through the cross and will be completely realized in the future.

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 1 Cor. 15:22-23

Do not follow your heart. Lead your heart. --Fireproof

Obama and the New Evangelicals:"DeJa Vu" All Over Again

There are a new breed of evangelicals which are embracing key platforms of the Democratic party and the cultural left. They are proudly distancing themselves from the "narrow minded and partisan voices" of the "religious right," like Dobson and Robertson. They are represented in part by groups like the Matthew 25 Network and some from the emerging church movement leaders, who are greatly enthused over the presidential victory of Barack Obama. "Climate change" is, now, one of the biggest issues they embrace.

These evangelicals want to move beyond the partisan issues which have "divided" our nation, like abortion and gay marriage. They want to be done with the culture wars. The way they do that is to capitulate to key issues on the Left. These evangelicals, for example, do not like abortion but they no longer believe that it is the job of government "to force mothers to give birth to their children."

This is supposedly a new and fresh approach to help Christians think and act on social issues. But is it really new or fresh? Can anyone remember in 1976 when a "born again" evangelical Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher came to the White House? Anybody up for another round of Jimmy Carter?

Change In the Wrong Direction

With Obama picking such a large number of cabinet and department leaders from the former Clinton administration it is very hard to justify that we are going to see a revolution in government that has been promised. Obama ran not simply on a change from the last eight years, but on a change with the very way government itself runs. It does look like we are seeing "change," it is just change in the wrong direction.

Above Obama's Paygrade

Barack Obama has picked Tom Daschle to be the secretary of the health and human services, the department that deals most closely with abortion and human life issues. Tom Daschle is radically pro-abortion.

After three decades of intense public debate on the issue of abortion, Obama declared that any declaration of moral judgment of when life begins to be "above my paygrade."

So much for "healing" the moral divisions in our culture.

Secular Bigots

The atheist Richard Dawkins has sold over one million copies of his book, The God Delusion. In his writing he belittles Anthony Flew (professor at Oxford and Harvard) who has been one of the most prominent philosophical atheists of the last century, who converted in 2004 to the position that the universe has a divine creator. Flew, amazingly, converted! Flew has contended that Dawkins is a "secular bigot" because when he critiques theism (the belief in God), he attacks not the strongest arguments, but ones that are more easily challenged and dismissed. Flew writes...

The fault of Dawkins as an academic was his scandalous and apparently deliberate refusal to present the doctrine that he appears to think he has refuted in its strongest form.

Business and "Lifestyle Choices"

Business cannot manufacture hardworking and morally virtuous people. Yet, these qualities in the workforce are essential to a strong business and work environments. So, how are they produced? They are produced through strong families. Families are the primary moral educators of children. It is at the root of where our moral values and character training are first instilled and reinforced. For this reason it is vital to our nation's economic policy that strong families are preserved and the institution of marriage is not reduced to a "lifestyle choice," which is simply equal to other "lifestyle choices" available. To do so is to undercut the foundation of the family. The results will be increasingly catastrophic.