Psalm 25:8 tells us "Good and upright is the LORD."
Psalm 100:5 tells us "For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations."
James 1:17 tells us "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."
The goodness of God is certain; the scriptures declare it. It is a divine attribute, therefore God would cease to be God if he were not good. He *is* good, and may He be eternally praised for it!
You ended your post by writing "Let me know what you think about this and if you have any questions." These posts will contain what I think about this and questions for you, so I hope you enjoy it.
First, I grieve for you and all the friends and family of those you lost to cancer last week.
You wrote that your home body (what I might call the local church I attend) have declared that your city will be a cancer free zone. You went on to define that a cancer free zone is "[a] zone where the presence of God is so strong that cancer absolutely can not exist."
Since I'm not familiar with these sorts of declarations, I'm led to ask several questions:
1. By what authority do you declare that your city will be a cancer free zone?
2. Are these sorts of declarations Biblical? If so, can you cite some examples? For instance, where do we find someone in the Bible declaring that a city will no longer be afflicted with a particular ailment?
3. If God is omnipresent as Jeremiah 23:23-24 tells us ("Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.), what does it mean that His presence is strong in a zone?
3.1 What must be done for God to strengthen His presence in a zone?
3.2 How much strength does God need to provide in order for cancer to not exist in a particular zone?
3.3 What is the boundaries of the zone? For example, is it only the city? Let's say that God's presence was so strong cancer didn't exist in San Francisco, would it still exist in Oakland, or is the zone more regional in nature?
4. If you declare that a city be cancer free, why not a whole metropolitan area, county, state, country, hemisphere, or the earth itself?
5. Is the declaration effectual, or is it God's reaction to your declaration effectual?
You went on to write "When we appear to have setbacks like this last week, we won't pretend that they didn't happen and ignore the facts. Instead we embrace them, and then stand on what we know, that God is good all the time and his will for us is to have healing all the time, because he is good, and by being [a] good God, he can't have it any other way."
You write that the death of your friends is a setback, but I don't understand exactly why it is a setback.
6.1 Were these deaths setbacks because the declaration wasn't effective?
6.2 Were these deaths setbacks because it was up to you and your church to work hard enough to convince God to remove the cancer?
6.3 Was it up to you and your church (not God) to heal your friends?
7. What does it mean to embrace the setbacks?
8. Why do you think they died?
9. You write "...his will for us is to have healing all the time..."
9.1 Do you mean that God will always heal us from every illness?
9.1.1 If so, what is your scriptural basis for this assertion?
9.1.2 If so, why does everyone die?
I'll end this post by asking you this: is God sovereign over all things?
In Acts 4:24-28, we read:
"And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed’ —
27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place."
I believe that God is sovereign over all things, including the trial and murder of the Lord Jesus. In fact, it was always God's plan to send Jesus to die for our sins, which by our perspective might seem heinously evil. But, since we know that God is good, we must distrust our perspective and strive to see this, and all things, with the divine perspective.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28.
JT
Soli Deo Gloria
Posts
6 comments:
I really enjoyed reading this post. Thank you for all the time you put into researching these scriptures and publishing it into a post! Very well writen!
Thanks for the respectful questions. What we are doing is not normal which is why I shared it, to open up paradigms. I'll just answer the questions in the order they came.
1. The authority of Jesus' death and resurrection. He says all authority has been given to him. We do this in his name and in our own restored right relationship with the Father.
2. When Jesus taught us how to pray, he said, thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. Since there is no cancer in heaven, we know it is his will that there would be no cancer on earth. We've learned that by being specific our prayers can be more effective. I couldn't find the exact stat in my archives, but there was like a 50% decrease in cancer admissions in the city hospitals in '07 compared to '06. That was very encouraging!
3. True God is everywhere. But there are times and places where there is MORE of him then normal. For example, when the ark of the covenant held his his presence, that was good for obed, or bad for the phillistines. When Solomon dedicated the temple (2 chronicles 5:14)
3a. Worship is the primary "invitation" for God "inhabits the praises of his people". There is no special formula, God doesn't operate by formula, but by relationship.
3b. No idea. I'll let you know when we get there. :) (see above, there is no formula, no X amount of God = 0 cancer.)
3c. No idea on this either, it seems like you are focusing on the semantics rather then the principle. I would encourage you not to get caught up in the details, rather focus up on the idea first, if you can come to grips with that, then worry about the details later.
4. see above answers. I might add that this would be an example of first fruits that Piper used. First a block, then a city, etc. When Jesus comes back it will be the whole world, but the first fruits are for now.
5. I would say it is like a cosmic dance between us and him. He says "should I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do"? He cares what we think, at the same time, us by ourselves is powerless. We co-labor together. He doesn't need us, but he wants to include us because that means a relationship, which is what it is all about.
6-9. These questions made me feel uncomfortable. I don't look at it that way at all. Again, no formulas or contracts between us and God. We are working together to destroy the works of the enemy. Yes, we prayed, we fasted, we declared, we did everything we knew how to do, yet we lost them. Anytime you lose someone to cancer it is a setback for the kingdom. We are in a war for souls, for health, for all things that bring life and against anything that would kill, steal and destroy. The war is won, but there are still battles to fight. We don't pretend to know all the answers, we don't know a lot of things, we haven't figured this all out. There are so many things we don't understand. But we are contending for something wonderful, and getting to know God more intimately during the process is what it is all about. I hope this helps.
"Anytime you lose someone to cancer it is a setback to the kingdom" I don't understand that at all. It seems to me that losing someone to cancer is more of a setback to your "cause" because if they were believers we know that they now have been completely healed! What greater joy as a believer!
To Jon -
I appreciate that you acknowledge my questions as respectful, as that is how I want them to be read. I respect you as a brother in Christ, therefore a fellow heir to the promises of God.
Are you concerned that when you declare your city cancer free in the name of Jesus, and yet someone in the city dies of cancer, you are bringing dishonor to the righteous name of Jesus, even perhaps making Him out to be a liar?
I have no problem asking for God's healing of this world; I do pray for that. I also pray for Jesus to return and close the age so that his Kingdom on earth can be fully realized. I just think you might want to consider stopping short of saying that you have the authority from Jesus to make your city cancer-free when you clearly don't have that authority.
It seems like your theology of healing doesn't match up with your results. Might that suggest that your theology of healing is wrong?
Respectfully,
JT
To Heather -
Thanks for the comment!
Hey JT,
I've left some recent posts and comments that I think answer your questions below. Let me know if i didn't answer them satisfactorily and I can give more information.
Peace,
Jon
Post a Comment