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Healing
Jul 7, 2008 21:44:55 GMT -5
Post by faithpreacher on Jul 7, 2008 21:44:55 GMT -5
Hey Pastor Mike. How come the Baptist do not emphasis healing? It was such a big part of Jesus ministry. James 5:14 tells us to pray for the sick. I grew up baptist, and we never anointed with oil or eeven half way asked God to heal anyone.
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Post by Mike Miller on Jul 8, 2008 6:52:18 GMT -5
Well . . . and this is only my opinion based on my observations . . . most Baptists (but not all) don't have much faith. On the one hand, we are typically leery and weary of the faith healers like Benny Hinn (who I believe is a charlatan), so our reaction is to move in the opposite direction. But on the other hand, we don't live by faith because we don't have any. Oh, we talk about faith, and we believe that we are saved by grace through faith (which is very true). But good grief, only about 4 percent of Baptists have enough faith to tithe! We don't really believe God will provide. Our decisions in church are rarely based on God's will, but they are frequently based on our bank account.
While the Word of Faith (WoF) people put all their faith in faith, and base their name-it-claim-it theology on a few out of context Scripture verses, we Baptists place all our faith in ourselves and our wallets. WoFers believe whatever they say will happen, which is not biblical. Baptists believe nothing out of the ordinary will happen, which also is not biblical. They say things like, "We have to be realistic," and "God gave us a brain." And they think they are being super-spiritual.
Therefore, WoFers believe God will do things He never said He would do, and Baptists don't believe God will do much of anything. I know this sounds very critical, and I'm generalizing. Not all Baptists are like what I've described. But the fact is, the world isn't seeing the church do anything extraordinary because the church isn't doing anything extraordinary. And the reason the church isn't doing anything is because we don't believe God enough to step out on faith in much of anything. We're like the Israelites who didn't believe God could defeat the giants, so we wander around in the desert griping and complaining because we're living in the desert.
And that, my friend, is why I believe Baptists generally place little or no emphasis on healing.
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