HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV Sanctification through Sickness Divine Determinism Faith Formula

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV Secular World View

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV Theologian Don Cupitt In the present century modern man has come into a new kind of understanding of himself and his place in the universe which has made obsolete all previous world views…so we have come by now to a completely secular view of the world and our place in it.

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV Secularism is that system of thought that denies the existence or significance of anything religious. God is removed from the modern view of reality so the world is not understood to be a closed system, governed by the cause and effect of natural laws. These laws are discovered by scientifically observing the empirical world.

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV David Hume A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature… a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined.

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV Malachi Martin Almost one hundred years ago, Western culture in Europe and the US underwent its one an only radical religious change since the 4th century…that change, apparent among Europeans and Americans by the 1800s, was an utterly new thing: unbelief in God as an acceptable option. This is not to say that none of us believe in God anymore, but rather that He has become nonessential to the way we live our lives. We Western Christians may be theists in our heads, but we tend to act like secularists in our daily activities.

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV CS Lewis once pointed out that for many moderns seeing is not believing. This is the first thing to get clear in talking about miracles. Whatever experiences we may have, we shall not regard them as miraculous if we already hold a philosophy which excludes the supernatural.

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV Medical science and Christian faith fight a common enemy with different means; therefore the polarization between science and faith is false. The real tension is not between church and science but between a secular world view and a view of reality which allows for the activity of the living God. Too many times the church is all too often aligned with the world’s skepticism about the possibility of God’s acting in the world.

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV 2 Timothy 3:5 Holding to a form of godliness (religion), although they have denied its power…

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV 1 Corinthians 4:20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power.

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV Leslie Weatherhead Man should part forever with the idea that sickness or disease is the inscrutable will of God, that He sends it in order to discipline man, and that resignation is the attitude required of us. God created the body to be the perfect instrument of the Spirit. It cannot be His will that it should function imperfectly.

HINDRANCES TO HEALING IV In summing up thus far, we have encountered the various theological hindrances to a healing ministry. Embracing sickness as a sanctifying blessing. Passively accepting sickness as a decree of God. Substituting presumption for genuine faith. Secular world view that contradicts the activity of God.