Healing School 2019 – Part 7
More times than not, the road to divine healing is not an expressway.
It is often littered with roadblocks by the devil to keep us from being able to receive our healing. (WAZE GPS APP)
These roadblocks wear subtle disguises and come from many sources based in tradition, superstition, and wrong teaching from the Scriptures.
Roadblock #1 – God sends sickness upon people
From: The Permissive Sense: Hints and Helps to Bible Interpretation by Troy J. Edwards
The foundation of all faith in the Bible is really based on God’s character and our understanding of it.
People are not angry at God… They are angry at a false representation of God.
Too often theologians attributed Satan’s works to God and have led many people to hate the wrong person.
One can easily understand why the enemy would seek to integrate these wrong theological ideas into the Church. It is thinking such as this that causes agnostics and atheists to hate God. Doctrines that denigrate God’s character are responsible for numerous lost souls and passive Christians.
This leads people to accept one of two possibly answers:
Marcionism or Liberalism
Liberalism is the leaning to question the divine inspiration or infallibility of Scriptures.
Marcionism comes from Marcion of Sinope (a son of a church leader in the first century). He completely rejected the Old Testament because of the incompatibility of the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. He went on to create his own Bible with the Epistles of Paul and the Gospel of Luke.
(We see that even Jesus taught from the Old Testament and said that the Old Testament is the Word of God.)
Thankfully, there is another option.
In his book Redeemed from Poverty, Sickness and Spiritual Death, Rev. Kenneth Hagin notes that the curses in Deuteronomy 28:
Dr. Robert Young, author of Hints to Bible Interpretation, points out that in the original Hebrew, the verb is in the permissive rather than the causative sense. Actually, it should have been translated something like this: “The Lord will allow you to be smitten… The Lord will allow these plagues to be brought up you…”
The only problem was that this article by Dr. Young was a part of the larger Young’s Analytical Concordance and really does not offer a large amount of detail.
What is the “permissive sense”?
The permissive sense is God allowing circumstances that He would normally protect and individual or nation from. This usually happens when an individual or nation refuses to repent (from sin) and continues in disobedience. This leaves God with no choice but to remove His protection from them.
God will let a person suffer from the inevitable consequences of their sin, as the punishment for the sin is in the seed of sin itself. He allows the person to reap what they have sown.
God respects the freedom of choice that He created people with. God will permit a person to sin without restraint when there is no integrity of their heart (as in Abimilech’s case in Genesis 20:1-7) This is exactly what is meant when God is said to harden someone’s heart. It only means that He did not restrain them or prevent from hardening themselves.
God exercises this permission of sin and circumstances by departing from and forsaking an individual or nation and allowing whatever forces, both spiritual and physical that desired to destroy them but could not due to His presence, to have their way.
Nothing can ever harm us when we have God’s protective presence (Psalm 91) but, if He ever withdraws from us then woe be unto us.
(Hosea 9:12 NKJV) Though they bring up their children, Yet I will bereave them to the last man. Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
These things that God permits are NOT His will and His DESIGN!
What we see is a good God who has been pushed away by His creation because they prefer the temporary pleasures of sin more than a gracious God who wants to protect them from sin’s destructive power.
So, what is the answer to these seemingly contradiction of the Scripture?
“The solution is to take time to understand the Bible language – its use of certain phrases and idioms. We must understand how they differ from our culture, language and expressions.”
“For when the Deity has condescended to speak by the mouth of men, He has always left them to use the modes of expression current and intelligible in the age in which they lived…” (quoted from Dissertations on Some Parts of the Old and New Testaments Which have been supposed Unsuitable to the Divine Attributes – Richard Twopenny, 1824)
Things to remember:
- The Bible is a Hebrew Book.
- The Hebrew people were an ancient Eastern Oriental culture whose language and understanding of life was quite different than modern day wester society.
- The Hebrews had modes of speech and idiomatic language that is different from our own.
- Our western Bible translators quite often engaged in literal translation of the Scriptures.
- They did not necessarily interpret the Hebrew Oriental Eastern idioms.
- There are no contradictions or errors in the Bible. There is only a failure to thoroughly examine the language of the Bible.
- The original writers of Scripture did not view certain statements in Scripture the way we do today.
“The Hebrews and indeed the orientalists, often use verbs metonymically with respect to those who are not themselves the authors of any action, but who afford occasion of performing it by not performing it.” (A Treatise on the Peculiarities of the Bible – Elias Rendell, 1853)
Metonymy – the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing.
In other words, “…the Hebrew was fond of using a causative verb for a permissive.”
Another scholar stated that “…in the style of Scripture, God is often said to do what He only permits to be done…”
It is very important that we have knowledge of this fact since our attempts to understand God’s Word with a Western mindset has denigrated His character.
We must also understand that the Scriptures, while inerrant and infallible, must be interpreted in this light. Without this, error will abound.
Nehemiah 8:8 BBE And they gave out the words of the book the law of God, clearly, and gave the sense of it, so that their minds were able to take it in.
Nehemiah 8:8 AMPC So they read from the Book of the Law of God distinctly, faithfully amplifying and giving the sense so that [the people] understood the reading.
Proverbs 1:6 NLT by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles.
We know that Jesus used several parables to explain Scriptural principles.
Luke 24:27 AMPC Then beginning with Moses and [throughout] all the Prophets, He went on explaining and interpreting to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning and referring to Himself.
Luke 24:32 AMPC And they said to one another, Were not our hearts greatly moved and burning within us while He was talking with us on the road and as He opened and explained to us [the sense of] the Scriptures?
The KJV of the Bible was written with a Calvinistic viewpoint by the translators as they sought to interpret the verses. When given the choice of meanings, they would often lean towards their particular “slant” of theology and interpret in that light.
Calvinism believes that God exercises such stringent control over the affairs of the universe that freedom of choice is negated. In this system of theology, God not only metes out the punishment for sin, but also actually predestines, controls, and ensures that the sin is committed.
King James who authorized the KJV translation did so to please the Calvinists. After all, King James embraced the Calvinistic doctrine because it was beneficial to his reign. This doctrine was essential to his successful tyranny over the people he reigned.
Example:
Exodus 4:21 KJV And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.
To provide the world another Bible translation to offset the notions of the KJV translators, he wrote…
Exodus 4:21 “And the Eternal said unto Moses, when thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all the wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will suffer his heart to be hardened, that he shall not let the people go.” (Rabbi Dr. A. Benisch Jewish School and Family Bible, Volume 1, 1852)
Failure to understand has allowed Satan to deceive Christians into accepting sin, sickness, poverty, disaster, and failure as coming from the hand of a “loving God” as their predestined lot in life. The painful circumstances are attacks from Satan, but people submit to them because believe that it is God doing it to them. Yet James 4: 7 tells us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
If we believe these things are God’s doing, we will not resist Satan’s attacks.
1 Samuel 16:14 NKJV But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him.
Walter Scott in his book, The Existence of Evil Spirits Proved, (1853) explains this verse in the light of understanding the Hebrew idioms:
“We are told in the same verse that the Spirit of God departed Saul. This must mean that the Holy Spirit withdrew His influence, and, consequently, Saul lost the gist, ability for government, and managing the affairs of his kingdom, which had been imparted to him when the Spirit of God came upon him and he became another man.”
1 Samuel 10:6 NKJV Then the Spirit of the LORD will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.
“Does it not follow from this, that the tempers which he afterwards manifested were the effects of influence of an evil spirit, opposite to the Spirit of God? This fits the Hebrew idiom, according to which God is often said to do that which He permits to be done…”
Now with this insight we can more easily understand verses such as Deuteronomy 28:
Deuteronomy 28:15 NKJV “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
Deuteronomy 28:20 NKJV “The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.
The Scriptures are clearly saying that by disobeying the Word of God, we force God to allow these things to come upon us and again it is translated that in allowing these things, He is causing them.
Deuteronomy 31:16-18 NKJV (16) And the LORD said to Moses: “Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. (17) Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ (18) And I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.
“Forsake” (HEB) “azab” – loosen, relinquish, permit
The Bible Is Its Own Dictionary and Commentary
“Study your Bible comparatively. That is compare Scripture with Scripture. The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself. Wherever you find a difficult passage in the Bible, there is always some passage elsewhere that explains its meaning.” (R. A. Torrey How to Succeed in the Christian Life, 1906)
God wants us to know and understand specific things about His character. He wants us to know that He is loving, kind, fair in judgment, and would never do us wrong.
Example: Does God create handicapped people?
Exodus 4:10-11 NKJV Then Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” (11) So the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?
Matthew 12:22-29 NKJV Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. (23) And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” (24) Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” (25) But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. (26) If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? (27) And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. (28) But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. (29) Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.
Another example:
What about generational curses:
Exodus 20:5-6 NKJV you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, (6) but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Jeremiah 32:18 NKJV You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them–the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
Yet God tell His people to not punish children for the sins of their fathers:
Deuteronomy 24:16 NKJV “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin.
In Jeremiah 32:18, the word “repay” should be interpreted in the permissive sense.
Jeremiah 32:18 VOICE Translation: “You show loyal love and endless mercy to thousands. But You also allow the damaging effects of the parents’ sins to fall into the laps of their children. You are the great and powerful God; the Eternal Commander of Heavenly armies is Your solemn Name.”
Example of pornography in a parent’s possession and the child discovers it. The sin is then passed down to the child but God did not cause it. And, at any time the child can repent, and God will forgive and deliver and break the curse.