Dr. Richard Mayhue, Speaker
For additional notes, see the Master’s Seminary Journal 14/3 (Fall 2003), pages 263–286. These pages are available online in PDF format.
The Seminary and church are cessationistic in theology. Richard says he tires of those who claim that cessationism is a new doctrine. In the fourth century, John Chrysostom taught the gifts had ceased in response to those who believed they were manifesting gifts. It is not new.
In response to people who say God wills for us to be blessed with physical well-being, Mayhue states, “Some of the healthiest people in the world will die and go to Hell, and some of the sickest people in the world will die and go to heaven.”
Consider these quick points about Benny Hinn:
1. Benny Hinn does not pray “Lord, Thy will be done.” Jesus Christ did (Luke 22:42).
2. Hinn believes that God always intends for believers to be healed. In contrast, the Bible teaches that some of the greatest saints, including Jacob and Paul, had physical infirmities from which they were never healed.
3. Hinn teaches that believers should command God to heal. The Bible teaches them to ask (1 John 5:14-15).
4. Hinn suggests that miraculous healing from God is gradual. Healing by Christ and the apostles occurred instantly.
5. Hinn teaches that faith on the part of the sick person is essential to
healing. Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter could not have exercised faith when they were raised from the dead.
6. Hinn writes that we must do our part before God can heal. The Bible teaches that God is sovereign.
7. Hinn believes that Christians should not be sick. The Bible teaches that Christians can be sick and will all eventually die.
8. Benny Hinn implies that a person’s healing can be lost and that the healed person must do certain things to keep the healing. The Bible nowhere teaches such.
Many false teachings and half-truths about divine healing abound today:
1. Because God wills that Christians enjoy His blessings, sickness shows that you are out of His will.
2. Sin is the root cause of sickness; therefore you must resist sickness as you would sin.
3. Since Christ died for your sickness and your sin, you can be freed from both.
4. If you had enough faith, you would be healed.
5. What you confess is what you possess; so talk sickness and you will get sick; talk health and you will get well.
6. All adversity comes from Satan; so sickness, like Satan, should be rebuked.
7. If you only knew the secret fact of God’s healing power, you could be healed.
8. Since Christ and the apostles healed in their day, Christians can heal today.
9. Since sickness is from Satan, nothing good can come from sickness.
10. Since God wants you well, never pray, “Thy will be done” in regard to healing.
11. Since sin is the cause of sickness, if you are sick, then you have a pattern of sin in your life.
12. God has healed you, but the devil is not letting the symptoms leave.
Can God heal? Of course. The better question, though, is whether God wills to heal everyone in this day and age.
“Healers cannot come to the truth that God maimed and killed more than He ever healed.” Consider Deut 32:39—God puts to death and wounds as well as brings life and heals. Consider also what God said to Moses in Exodus 4:11—God makes people mute, deaf, and blind. “Whatever state you are in, God takes responsibility for it.”
Christ atonement focuses on our sins, not our sicknesses. 1 Cor 15:3; 1 John 2:12,;Gal 1:4—all speak about Christ’s dealing with our sin, but speak nothing of sickness. Hebrews 9:27 says all will die. However, there is a healing promise:
- 1 Peter 2:24a—the fact of salvation: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”
- 1 Peter 2:24b—that we would die to sin and live to righteousness, our sanctification
- 1 Peter 2:24c—this, then, has to do with spiritual healing...
- 1 Peter 2:25—...because Peter returns to the issue of salvation.
- The context of 1 Peter is that it is God’s will that we suffer, the opposite of what healers claim about this passage.
- The healing promise is spiritual.
Consider obtaining a copy of The Healing Promise by Richard Mayhue for more on this subject.
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