re: Bible and sickness

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And the prayer of faith shall save the sick,

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This is the key to this whole passage of scripture. Faith!! Not doubt. If you believe, mountains can be moved. There is nothing impossible with God. Mark 9:14-25 shows a great example of this. (24)"Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

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For the love of god, can you stop with all the religious posts? JFC

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This site should treat the usage of this, and other forms of it in a negative way, like it does other "no-no" words/references. This is insulting to way more people than other words on the list combined. If there were no filters, than go for it, but if there are going to be filters than put this on it.

Only a disgusting vile person would make this comment.

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While the apostolic age saw miracles of blindness restored, lame men healed, and people raised from the dead, I’ve yet to see someone in this age empty a hospital in the name of Christ, but only supposed healings of invisible illnesses.

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I think during the 3 1/2 year period when Christ is teaching His disciples and Apostles miraculous signs were required to demonstrate Christ’s power over the fallen world, at the same time these miracles convinced many Jews Jesus was indeed the Messiah. This 3 1/2 year period ended with the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, followed by the period of the Great Commission where the Holy Spirit worked miracles through the Apostles to seed Christ’s church throughout the ME and the Mediterranean. I’m rambling a bit but the point is once the church was firmly established it seems the breathtaking visible miracles diminished rapidly, it was almost like God said,

(I pray the following is not blasphemous, if it offends it was unintentional, I don’t claim to know the Creator’s thoughts on why miracles no longer occur as they did in the times of Jesus and His Apostles.)

“You’ve seen enough, document what you’ve seen and teach the people the importance of My grace and forgiveness of sin. Teach them of Christ’s sacrifice of His life to redeem their life, teach them of salvation and repentance. Remind the people, blessed it he who believes but did not see these great signs and wonders….The Truth and the miracles are recorded in My History, the Holy Bible, it’s all there for mankind’s benefit.”

Never forget what Jesus told a gathering of Pharisees in Matthew who asked/questioned Him for a sign…

16 The Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus. So they asked him to show them a miraculous sign from heaven.

2 He responded to them, “In the evening you say that the weather will be fine because the sky is red. 3 And in the morning you say that there will be a storm today because the sky is red and overcast. You can forecast the weather by judging the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

4 “Evil and unfaithful people look for a miraculous sign. But the only sign they will be given is that of Jonah.”

Then he left them standing there and went away.

We should also remember with great clarity when the Creator tabernacled with His chosen people in the wilderness. Some of His chosen people sinned in His Holy presence. The point is, even with the Creator in their presence some people still sinned……they had the definitive sign/proof of God’s existence and many still chose to sin vs honoring God.





This ^^^^^ is possibly why there are few miracles like in Jesus’ time. We have been taught by reading the Bible, that to many people a sign means nothing…..they will choose their own way.

I believe it’s very important to recognize that God is still offering every man, woman and child a miracle everyday….the gift of Salvation and eternal life.

Point to a bible verse where it explains that those gifts have ceased?

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Does anyone here truly believe the Bible? The world has us going to medicine for every little thing, but the Bible says we can pray our sickness out. Does anyone believe this?

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100% believe it and have experienced it.

Most people will never experience it because they lack true faith.

Here's a good article from Catholic Answers that addresses this issue of "Bible and sickness". It also acknowledges that many miracles of healing of the sick have occurred in these days since the Apostles lived on Earth.

The article also explains why many Protestants have at times denied the reality of such miracles.

Good food for thought. Well researched and footnoted.

LINK

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Where do you find in the Bible that the gifts of the spirit have ceased?

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Just to clarify, I'm talking about the apostolic gifts, also know as the charismatic or pentecostal gifts, namely miraculous healing and speaking in tongues.

Now, to your specific question, there is no verse that says that those gifts have ceased, primarily because the Scriptures were written by or on behalf of the Apostles who were empowered by the Spirit with those gifts. Similarly, there is no verse in the Bible that describes the Bible as the "Bible", nor is there a verse that describes the Trinity as the "Trinity". Doctrines are derived from Scripture, either directly or indirectly through "good and necessary consequence".

With that said, I believe the gifts have ceased for several reasons:

1. Miracles/signs were always temporary to accompany God's revelation to the people in order to authenticate that the messengers (Prophets/Apostles) were really from God and that their message was really God's message. This is true for Jesus' ministry and the same trend seemed to occur at Pentecost. Scripture provides us a pattern and cessation of the gifts would align with that pattern. The three periods of time where the gifts were provided were during the times of Moses and Joshua (about 65 years), during the times of the Prophets, especially Elijah and Elisha (about 65 years), and then during the ministries of Jesus and the Apostles (about 70 years).

2. The sign of tongues, in particular, was a sign for the unbelievers in Israel (1 Cor. 14:21-22) for them to know that salvation was given to other nations. Such a sign would not be needed long-term, and Paul tells us that the sign of tongues was an inferior gift, anyway, and that believers should seek the gift of prophecy over tongues (1 Cor. 14:1-3).

3. The miraculous sign gifts were only mentioned in the earlier/oldest NT writings, in particular, 1 Corinthians and James. The later writings speak of the Spirit and spiritual gifts but don't mention these gifts, which seems to indicate that such things were waning already by the end of the lives of the Apostles.

4. Similar to #3 is the demonstration of such gifts by the Apostles, themselves. Even though Paul raised someone from the dead (Acts 20:9-12), he didn't heal several others who were sick in some way, such as Timothy (1 Tim. 5:23) and Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25-27), or even himself (2 Cor. 12:7-9). That must mean that the signs performed by even the Apostles were temporary in nature, only being done to authenticate their authority as Apostles.

5. The early church (post-Apostolic) fathers didn't write about tongues in particular, and others like Justin Martyr and Augustine considered them only gifts for the earliest times of the Church.

6. Lastly, because the gifts were always from the Spirit and the Spirit dispensed the gifts as He saw fit, it would make sense that if these signs/gifts were to continue, that the Spirit would be working in that way by providing those gifts throughout the Church. There are faithful believers all over the world who do not have these gifts, especially missionaries who would benefit greatly from the gifts of tongues and healing.

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Bible and sickness

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What if I told you that you could pray for healing and still go to the doctor when you get sick?

I swear, the PT board keeps it weird. We got any snake handlers in this thread?