One such teaching states that a believer lacks faith if he or she takes medicine or some treatment for an illness.
A. There is no scriptural warrant for this. In fact, in the Bible, Paul advises Timothy to take a little wine for his "often infirmities" (1 Timothy 5:23). It was quite obviously for its medicinal value that wine was recommended. One cannot argue that Timothy was weak in faith to support a man-made precept like some believe. Apparently, Timothy had some sort of stomach ailment. Paul the great apostle recommends treatment for Timothy though Paul had the power to heal on various occasions.
Will these same people avoid herbal remedies and wearing of spectacles also? They don’t believe that this is wrong and yet herbal remedies; whether homemade or prescribed by a professional is still within the realm of medicine. Wearing spectacles or glasses is a treatment to correct "sickly" eyes. It is not a secret that ophthalmology is a branch of medicine. Why don’t they go without herbs or spectacles? Please observe the ignorance and/or hypocrisy.
B. In Isaiah 38:21, we read the following: "For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs and lay it for a plaster upon the boil and he shall recover." Hezekiah was given this remedy by none other than Isaiah the prophet, so that he may recover according to the Word of the Lord Who added 15 years to his life.
The Bible says : By his stripes we are healed. We still need to use medicine if it His Will that we be healed through that.
The Bible says : By His poverty, we have been made rich. We still need to work, unless He does a special miracle. We need to use the constituted means unless directed otherwise by God personally.
God does not get glory when someone dies prematurely before the God appointed time. One can die young in the Lord if it is the Lord’s Will and only then He will get the glory. What a horror if we go to the Lord prematurely because we thought it was more noble to die without taking medicine only to find the Lord’s displeasure at such an unscriptural position and act. He might have had so many glorious things for us to accomplish in the world before He wanted us Home in Heaven. Imagine the excuses people will try to give the Lord when they find out that they had been following the wrong teaching.
In the case of this aberrant theology, through misunderstanding and/or misapplication of the Word of God, many are hailed as faith heroes and heroines if they die without taking medicine even though they might have lived if they had taken the God-given medicines. We cannot say that the body gets, "defiled", as some pastors have said, because of taking medicine and therefore will not be ready to be raptured when the Lord returns. All this is unscriptural. God’s people in the Bible, as shown above have taken medicine and He never found fault with them or made them feel as though they are second-class citizens of Heaven. The Lord says on the contrary, that it is not what goes into the body through the mouth that defiles a man but that which proceeds out of the heart. (Matthew 15:17,18) .
God has an appointed time for all of us to die but we should not try to outrun Him in this matter by saying "it is to His glory if I die in my illness and finish my course without taking medicine". We need to understand that it is sin to discourage people from taking medicine if and when it is God’s Will for them to take it. There are of course instances in which the Lord may personally lead us to show His glory to seek a direct supernatural healing. However, we cannot make this a law nor impose this belief on others.
Not taking medicine when one is sick does not automatically make them superior in faith to those who do. On the contrary they may well be displeasing God if He has provided them with the means (medicine) and they refuse to take it proclaiming God is getting the glory by them being sick and even dying without taking medicine. It is not the medicine that really heals us; ultimately it is God in Whom we must trust and understand that if He wills that we take it, then He is simply using it as means.
Of course, He does not need any means but nonetheless He uses whatever He pleases according to His Sovereign Will.
C. Observe Luke the physician who wrote the gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts; neither the Lord nor the Apostles ever found fault with him for being a physician nor saw it as contradictory to preach a gospel of faith and use and/or recommend medicine when it was right to do so. If it was wrong to be a physician then his profession would have been condemned. It only follows logically then to see physicians as "dispensers of sin" if taking medicine is sin. One cannot easily sidestep the issue and say conveniently that doctors are there for the "weaker" believers and unbelievers.
- If medicine defiles, as they say, then is it right to make provision for the flesh by approving of doctors for the weaker believers and causing the believers to sin?
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If Luke ceased to be a physician or if his medical profession was a sin, then Paul would not have addressed him as "Luke the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14) but would have just called him, an "elder" or "brother" or such. People in these fellowships would like some of their sons and daughters to be doctors though. People who endorse this doctrine speak low (directly or indirectly) of believers who take medicine. They call dying without taking medicine, Divine Death.
This is absolutely unscriptural, ridiculous and tragic!