THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT HEALING
by Herbert W. Armstrong
1979
edition
Is the day of miracles past? Does the living God heal
sickness and disease today upon believing prayer? Or was healing performed only
by Christ and the original apostles? Did God raise up medical science for our
day? What about modern faith healers and public healing services?
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Chapter
One: Healing in Our Time?
Chapter Two: Learning to Believe
Chapter
Three: What the Old and New Testaments Reveal
Chapter
Four: What Is Faith?
Chapter
Five: Is Healing Always God's Will?
Chapter
Six: Claiming God's Blessings
CHAPTER
TWO
LEARNING TO BELIEVE
We come now to the
biblical teaching on the subject of healing. And I can best bring this to the
reader by relating my own personal and unusual experience in discovering it.
When I first came among those of the Church of God in 1926 and 1927,
they still carried the NAME "Church of God." They knew of the second coming of
Christ to reign on earth for a thousand years, though they knew little, or
almost nothing, of what would actually take place during that millennial reign.
Back in 1860 the largest number of them had split off, coming to the
belief that the millennial reign with Christ would take place in heaven. Leaving
the truth they also left the true name.
Although the knowledge of these
simple but sincere people regarding the Kingdom of God was very incomplete, they
did believe in keeping the commandments of God. They had more biblical truth
than any other religious body on earth.
Even though God's Church had
endured through the centuries, gradually much of the original truth of the
gospel apparently had been lost.
True Knowledge Revealed
Subsequent events have shown that I was being called by the living
Christ for a very special end-time commission to raise up the Philadelphia era
of God's Church (Revelation 3:7-13), to restore much lost knowledge (Daniel
12:4), to restore the great commission (Matthew 24:14) and publish (Mark 13:10)
His true gospel of the Kingdom of God "in all the world for a witness unto all
nations" just before the end of this present world.
We had now reached
the final generation of this age -- the generation during which Christ will
return, setting up the Kingdom of God.
The shock of my life came when I
saw in the Bible beginning in the autumn of 1926, that what I had heard as "the
gospel" was in most basic respects the very opposite of the plain and clear
teaching of the real Jesus and of the Bible!
It was an almost
unbelievable shock to see in the Bible the prophecy that ALL NATIONS -- the
world as a whole -- would be deceived today! It was a tremendous shock to learn
the full truth about the Kingdom of God and that God had inspired the apostle
Paul to pronounce a double curse on any who would preach any other gospel!
(Galatians 1:8-9.)
My eyes were opened to the true gospel described so
clearly and unmistakably in the Bible -- for those willing to see and believe.
The Calling
And so, as I have written before, I say
with the apostle Paul (paraphrasing): "I certify you, brethren, that the gospel
which is preached by me is not after man. For I neither received it of man,
neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ ... But when it
pleased God, who ... called me by His grace, to reveal His Son and His gospel in
me, that I might preach it among the descendants of the house of Israel, and the
Gentile nations, and kings [Acts 9:15], immediately I conferred not with flesh
and blood, neither went I to any theological seminary or source of religious
teaching of this world, but I went to Christ, the living Personal Word of God,
who instructed me through the written Word of God, the Holy Bible" (Galatians
1:11-17).
After the first six months' intensive almost night-and-day
study of the Bible, my conversion and baptism occurred in the spring of 1927 --
but not the cessation of instruction the living Christ was imparting through His
written Word. That has continued all through the over 50 years since.
My
family and I were living then in Portland, Oregon. As 1927 wore on, intensive
Bible study continued. I was rapidly beginning to grow, as Peter said Christians
must, "in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (II
Peter 3:18). Upon baptism, I had received the Holy Spirit of the living God. My
mind had undergone a renewing. I was thrilled at this new ability to understand
God's revealed knowledge. Still I was having to learn a step at a time, a
doctrine at a time. The hardest part was having to Unlearn inherited false
teachings.
Mrs. Armstrong Stricken
In early August
1927, my wife suddenly was attacked by a series of physical illnesses. First she
was bitten on the left leg by a dog. Then immediately she was driven to bed with
tonsillitis. She got up too soon and was stricken with a violent relapse.
Meanwhile she had contracted blood poisoning from a rose thorn on the index
finger of her right hand.
The next two or three days her sister and I
took turns night and day soaking her right arm in almost blistering hot Epsom
salts water, covering her wrist and forearm with hot towels, holding her right
arm constantly high.
The backset from tonsillitis developed into quinsy.
Her throat became swollen shut. Her jaws became locked. Of course we had called
a doctor.
For three days and three nights she was not only unable to
swallow food or water, but worse, she was unable to sleep a single moment. She
was nearing exhaustion. The red line of blood poisoning, despite our efforts,
was streaking up her right arm. It had reached her shoulder on the way to her
heart. The doctor told me privately she could not last another 24 hours.
The third sleepless, foodless and waterless day was a sweltering hot day
in early August. Late that morning a neighbor lady stopped in to see my wife.
"Mr. Armstrong," she asked, "would you object if I ask a man and his
wife to come and anoint and pray for Mrs. Armstrong's healing?"
That
sounded a bit fanatical to me. Too embarrassed to object, however, I said
hesitantly, "Well, I suppose not." In two hours she returned, saying they would
come at about 7 that evening.
But I began to have misgivings. What if
these people were Holy Rollers or wild, shouting fanatics? What would our
neighbors say? I went to the neighbor lady and told her I believed we'd better
not have them come after all. She was nice. She would start immediately and tell
them not to come. I learned then she would have to walk over a mile each way to
contact them. It was now the heat of the day, the hottest day of the year.
"Oh, I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't realize you had to walk so far. But I
was afraid these people might yell and wail and shout, and cause a neighborhood
disturbance."
"Oh, they are very quiet people," she assured me. I backed
down. "Well, let them come, then," I concluded.
The Meaning of
Faith
They proved to be simple and plain people, not highly
educated, yet of good natural intelligence.
"This is all rather new to
me," I began, as soon as they were seated at my wife's bedside. "Would you mind
if I ask a few questions?"
He welcomed the questions. He had a Bible in
his hands. One by one he answered every question by reading his answer from the
Bible. I recognized every passage he read, but had not put them together this
way before. Now I saw them for the first time as teachings, admonitions,
explanations and, most important, PROMISES! I began to understand -- and
believe! And I knew well my wife did also.
I knelt with them beside her
bed. The man anointed my wife from a vial of oil he carried. Then he uttered a
quiet but deeply earnest, positive, believing prayer such as I had never heard
before. He actually dared to talk directly to God, quoting what God had said in
the Bible, quoting God's conditions and promises and applying those promises to
my wife, saying in boldness and confidence that he was claiming and holding God
to those promises.
Never had we heard a prayer like that! We knew God in
His Word had promised. We believed God. Mrs. Armstrong and I both KNEW she was
healed -- as this man had claimed -- from the top of her head to the bottom of
her feet.
As they rose to leave, the woman laid a hand on Mrs.
Armstrong's shoulder and said quietly, "You'll sleep tonight." I thanked them
gratefully.
As they left Mrs. Armstrong asked me to bring her a robe.
Without a word, she rose, and arm in arm we walked silently out to the sidewalk
and back.
My wife went immediately to sleep and didn't waken until 11
the next morning. She arose and dressed as if nothing had happened. She was
completely healed -- OF EVERYTHING!
We had learned a new lesson in
FAITH! And that experience has resulted in countless thousands of others
learning that lesson! We had learned that we can rely on God's Word! God's
FAITHFULNESS is perfect.
A New Subject to Study
That
awe-inspiring experience brought before me for study a totally new subject --
HEALING -- and its accompanying subjects of FAITH and PRAYER.
There was
one real disappointment in this whole experience with my wife's healing. I felt
extremely grateful to the man and wife who had brought this experience to us. I
had learned a rather shocking truth in the Bible: The resurrection of Christ was
NOT on Sunday, and the crucifixion was not on Friday. I had written in
manuscript form an article on the subject. This man's fervent prayer not only
saved my wife's life, it also opened my eyes to a new biblical truth. Now I
wanted to share with him the eye-opening truth about the resurrection.
I
took my typed manuscript along and offered it to him to read, asking his opinion
about the truth of it. I left it with him. A few nights later, I called again on
this man I looked to as a man of God. I asked if he had read my manuscript.
"Well, yes, Brother," he replied. "I took it to our pastor and we went
over it together." He avoided giving an opinion as to its truth.
"But
did you find any error in what I wrote?" I persisted.
"Well, no,
Brother," he admitted. "We couldn't find anything wrong with it. But, Brother,
we feel that studying that kind of subject is likely to be dangerous. It might
get you all mixed up. We feel it would be better for you to just forget all
about it. We feel there are more important things for you to study. It's best to
just keep your mind on Christ."
God's Knowledge Rejected
I walked back home disillusioned, grieved, tremendously disappointed. He
admitted I had brought him a new truth. He was unable to find any error in it.
It was the pure teaching of the Bible, yet he not only rejected the admitted
Word of God, he advised me, a newly converted man who had confidence in him,
also to accept tradition and false teaching and reject the Word of the living
God!
Arriving home, I happened to turn to Hosea 4:6 where God says that
because people have rejected God's knowledge, He will reject them! It weighed
heavily on my mind. A week later I walked back down Sandy Boulevard to the old
tabernacle formerly used by Billy Sunday where this man and wife were
caretakers. I hoped I might even yet rescue this man from the consequences of
rejecting truth.
I found him in the big auditorium, looking downcast and
dejected. "Brother!" he exclaimed on seeing me. "Brother, something terrible has
come over me. God has left me. He doesn't answer my prayers anymore. Before, God
used me in a special ministry praying for the sick. He always heard and
answered. People were miraculously healed. But not anymore! Not one, anymore. I
don't understand it!"
Truth -- or Consequences
Poor
man! I understood. I tried to explain, but he wouldn't listen. He had been a
trusting and deeply sincere, if simple and uneducated man. God had used him as
an instrument in performing miracles, helping people.
I quoted to him
from I John 3:22: "And whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his
commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." But he could
not see that rejecting God's truth and refusing to keep His commandments had any
connection with his case.
I had to think of the radio-television show
originated by Ralph Edwards, Truth or Consequences. God had required him to
accept the TRUTH or receive the consequences. I haven't seen or heard from that
man since.
But Christ did continue to reveal His truth, as I diligently
continued studying His Word. Not only did He open my mind to reveal His truth
about healing, but also to understand the truth about His gospel message -- the
Kingdom of God. I saw the great commission to His apostles: "Go ye into all the
world, and preach the gospel ..." (Mark 16:15).
I saw that it was a
worldwide ministry, not a local one, nor even national to our own nation. It was
now revealed to me how, in the ministry of Jesus and His first-century apostles,
miraculous HEALING of the sick and diseased went hand in hand with the preaching
of the gospel.
What happened through Simon the Sorcerer to stop the
worldwide proclaiming of the true gospel and stop the miraculous healings was
not revealed to me until years later. But it was at that time revealed to me how
healing is for God's Church today (James 5:14-15), and also the prophecy
revealing HOW the great commission was to be carried out in this present END
TIME of the twentieth century.
Pivotal Chapter
That
prophecy is in the pivotal prophecy chapter of the New Testament -- Matthew 24.
Before I cover what the Bible teaches about healing in both Old and New
Testaments, it is vital that the reader understand how that gospel message is
today, after 19 centuries, going out into ALL THE WORLD for a WITNESS to all
nations -- not being proclaimed to all the billions of people in every nation,
but proclaimed in all the world-worldwide -- so that it becomes a witness to or
against every nation.
Jesus had been teaching in the Temple in
Jerusalem. Leaving the Temple, His disciples came to Him privately on the Mount
of Olives, asking: "Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the
sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world [age]?" (Verse 3.)
"And
Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many
shall come in my name, saying, I [Jesus] am Christ; and shall deceive many"
(verses 4-5). First, Jesus warned them of the great deception, the false
"Christianity" -- preaching CHRIST to the world, preaching ABOUT the messenger,
but not proclaiming His message -- His gospel.
He did not give the sign
by which we might know when we are at the END of this present world and His
coming is near until verse 14: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached
in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."
The very fact He gave the proclaiming of the true gospel of the Kingdom
as the sign we are at the end time shows it was not preached to the world these
past 19 centuries otherwise it could not be the sign.
But notice, this
prophecy says the great commission will be going out again to the world, yet it
says nothing about healing accompanying it. Elsewhere biblical teaching shows
healing is for the Church. But it is NOT, today, an integral part of the
proclaiming of Christ's gospel to the world!
Why?