Christian fiction: “Just pray your illness away!”

The prosperity gospel as applied to health

I recently heard a story about a woman who saw a book in a thrift store with a title that declared that Jesus wants us to be healthy, wealthy and happy. She picked up the book and placed it in the “Christian fiction” section of the store. What this woman did represents what I (and many others like me) have had to do in a figurative sense. So much of what we have been taught qualifies as fiction rather than faith.

While I didn’t grow up in a church that preached the prosperity gospel, some of the churches I attended in my late teens and early adulthood preached various versions of it. I will be addressing various aspects of the prosperity gospel in a series of essays. This one focuses on physical health.

The idea that faith in God is a guarantee of physical well- being is simply not consistent with the realities of life. From a biblical perspective, the Apostle Paul spoke of his “thorn in the flesh”, and how he prayed three times for it to be removed, but it wasn’t.

The same apostle advised Timothy to “drink a little wine” due to his poor health.

“Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.”

• 1 Timothy 5:23 (NIV)

If the early disciples couldn’t just “pray their illnesses away,” why should we expect to be any different?  In any case, we have scientific knowledge and options for treating diseases that the early disciples didn’t have. Why not be grateful for the scientific advancements that God has blessed us with?

There are so many examples of people who had great faith and never got healed from their physical ailments. Joni Earekson Tada is a great example – her faith is no less genuine than that of anyone else who may have experienced physical healing.

Does using the right “techniques” guarantee answers to prayer?

Many years ago, I attended a church where the pastor taught that if we had faith and spent the right amount of time praying according to the specific techniques he was teaching us, then bad things wouldn’t happen. If something bad happened, then it meant we had somehow “missed it” and left a “loophole” somewhere. These teachings were new to me at the time. As a child, I had been taught that sometimes bad things happen to us because we are Christians. I had understood that following Jesus meant we should expect to be persecuted for our faith, rather than expecting our lives to be free of challenges. I spoke to the pastor about this and he quoted the verse below in defense of his teachings.

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.”

Psalm 34: 19 (KJV)

Looking back on this conversation, it seems ironical that the pastor would use a verse that clearly states that the “righteous will have many afflictions” to prove the opposite point. He was focusing on the second part that states that God will deliver us, but there wouldn’t be a need for deliverance if we didn’t have any troubles in the first place, would there?

Unfortunately, many of us accepted   teachings which were counterproductive and, in many cases, downright harmful because they came from people who claimed to be speaking for God.

It is heartbreaking to read stories of miracle crusades where fake “miracles” are publicized and those in need of real healing prevented from getting in front of the large crowds and cameras.

“Do as I say, and not as I do?”

Another disturbing issue is that those who discourage their followers from accessing medical care don’t necessarily practice what they preach. For example, in Nigeria where faith healers abound, the same preachers who tell their followers to “use their faith” for healing, will send their own family members to developed countries to access the best health care available. Their average follower can’t afford to go abroad for medical treatment, and in many cases won’t even access the care that is locally available because they have been indoctrinated to believe that all they need is faith.

These predatory preachers are taking advantage of people’s vulnerability and that is not what Christ, whom they claim to represent, did or taught.

God gave us the ability to think critically

The ability to think critically and ask questions is a gift from God. Asking questions does not mean we don’t have faith and neither does seeking medical attention when we need to. It is unfair to tell people that they or their loved ones didn’t get healed due to a lack of faith. There are many reasons why people don’t get healed. We need to accept that we don’t have all the answers.

I do believe that we should strive to do our own part in staying healthy, but having faith does not guarantee that we will never have health challenges. Some things are beyond our control and understanding and that’s where faith comes in. While faith does not provide immunity, it should inform our approach to life’s challenges.

Be well and stay healthy!