Another hindrance to biblical teaching is what Blue calls the faith formula that focuses not on the divine power and desire to heal but on human faith and confession. He points out that "can-do American optimisim has fused with Christian fundamentalism to spawn a triumphalistic theological hybrid, both attractive and dangerous" [footnote:Ken Blue, Authority to Heal (Downers Grove, Ill: Intervarsity Press, 1987), p41] It defines faith as if it were a technique by which one may manipulate the power of God. It promotes the sovereignty of human beings, rather than the sovereignty of God. The issue that runs the faith formula's ship aground is the absolute connection they claim to establish between faith as a cause and healing as an effect. Such a causal relationship between the two leaves little (if any) room for what might be called mitigating circumstances, such as God's timing or chastisement. We deplore such reductionism [footnote: There have been a number of books in the last few years, such as Gordon Fee, The Disease of the Health and Wealth Gospels (Beverly, Mass.: Frontline Publishing, 1985); and D.R. McConnell, A Different Gospel: A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrikson Publishers, 1988), that deal in detail with the errors of this so-called faith movement).]
There are a number of problems with this movement's understanding of divine healing: first, the cultic nature of these proponents' doctrine of the Atonement, the so-called "born-again" Jesus theory in which the devil is atoned and Jesus gains victory through His Gnostic-like knowledge. The Scriptures teach that Christ's sufferings and death provide atonement for sins and deliverance for sickness. In contrast to this orthodox Christian position, the faith movement, as represented by Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland, teach that "diseases are healed by Christ's spiritual atonement in hell, not by his physical death on the cross" [footnote: McConnell, A Different Gospel, 150]. This is in clear violation of scripture.
A second problem with their view of healing is the contribution made by New Thought and other metaphysical cults to their view of the nature of human beings [footnote: The views of E.W. Kenyon, Kenneth E. Hagin and Kenneth Copeland are basically "New Thought" with its denial of the reality of the physical world. They deny that disease has any "physical or organic causes," rather everything is defined in spiritual terms.]
A third problem is that they teach that a sick believer is a reproach. E.W. Kenyon writes that "it is wrong for us to have sickness and disease" [footnote: Essek W. Kenyon, Jesus the Healer 19th ed. (Seattle: Kenyon Gospel Publishing Society)]. The difference between this position and the biblical position is clear. The Bible attaches no moral qualifications to either sickness or health. Being physically healthy or sick may have little to do with our faith or spirituality. The believer, according to the proponents of the faith movement, is made completely responsible for personal illness. The inscrutable will of God or the mere consequences of living in a fallen world may play absolutely no part.
A fourth problem is the practice of positive confession itself. It is a denial of obvious realities under the guise of exercising one's faith. It has more in common with Christian Science than with biblical faith. This error is related to another one that D.R. McConnell identifies as "denying the symptoms". Nowhere in Scripture are we encouraged to deny symptoms. This view is bolstered by a New Thought philosophy that denies the reality of the physical world. Other errors espoused by the faith movement include the necessity of enduring pain, outgrowing the need for medical science, the conviction that believers should never die of disease, and that believers should never die before they are seventy years old [footnote: McConnell, A Different Gospel, 149-50].
The faith movement teaches that believers can be totally delivered from bodily suffering in this life. This is in contradiction to the teachings of Scripture. In Romans 8 Paul refers to the sufferings of this life that will not be removed completely until the future redemption of our bodies when we are changed and become like the risen Christ (Rom. 8:18-25; see also 1Cor. 15:42; 1John 1:2). McConnell is absolutely right when he says, "The error of the Faith theology is that is ascribes power to faith healing that will only be manifest at the end of the age" [footnote: Ibid., 160].
Can sin make us physically sick? Yes, but it does not follow that if we are not healed the problem is necessarily a lack of faith. We whole-heartedly agree with McConnell when he writes, "We must neither deny healing, nor simplify it into 'steps' or 'principles' or 'formulas' to which God must respond" [footnote: Ibid., 159].
Ah well.
