“FAITH CURE” AND FAITH by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Jul 23, 1901

“FAITH CURE” AND FAITH.

By L. A. S.

A GREAT many people have the idea that faith cure is a peculiar kind of cure which is suddenly and miraculously accomplished upon the sick in answer to prayer. They think that faith in God as the healer of disease requires that nothing should be done for the sick except to pray for them, and that if the sick are not healed by this method, in every case, it is because of a lack of faith.

This idea does not come from faith at all. It has some truth in it, but it is one of those counterfeits by which the enemy of gospel truth is seeking to confuse the minds of the people and deceive them in regard to the nature of faith in God.

In the first place, the healing of disease in answer to prayer is not a different kind of cure from any other healing of disease. This is so for the simple reason that there is only one power exercised in the healing of disease, and only one Being who has that power; in other words, it is always the power of God that heals disease. The devil can simulate this power, but it is God who heals in every genuine case.

It is God who heals, and not the doctor. What, then, can the doctor do?—He can at best only assist “nature” to repair the injuries caused by disease. He can create conditions, or instruct the patient to create them, under which “nature” can succeed in restoring what the disease has destroyed. But such assistance is most important, for without it, the vital forces of the body would often fail in the combat, and death would ensue.

But it is God who works in nature. “There is no power but of God,” and nature manifests no other power. The laws of nature are God’s laws. The Creator has established laws which control affairs in the physical world, and man must conform his physical life to these laws. When he is violating these laws, and from such violation suffers in health, he cannot reasonably expect the Lord to remove the consequences until he himself removes that which brought on the consequences. He cannot reasonably ask God to reverse His own laws, which are the laws of health. The violator of the law must reverse himself; he cannot ask God to reverse himself. Neither can he reasonably ask God to do for him that which he is able to do for himself.

“It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Phil. 2:13. Therefore man is to work out his own salvation, to the extent of his ability. No man creates his own power; he only exercises the power given him of God. And the power that man has is given him in order that he may exercise it. That God has given man power to do a thing, is clear evidence that God wishes man to do that thing when it needs to be done. At the same time it is God working in him that makes it possible for him to do it. When man refuses to do what he can do for himself, and tries to have it performed by prayer, he simply presumes to dictate to the Lord how or through what agencies He shall work. This is not faith.

It is God’s plan that man shall co-operate with

Him. It is for this that God gives man the power to act. God rained manna down from heaven, but not into the mouths nor into the vessels of the Israelites. It fell on the ground, and they had to gather it. Christ miraculously provided loaves and fishes for the five thousand, but He told His disciples to “gather up the fragments.” To ask God to do everything for us is not an exhibition of faith, but of foolishness. If a swimmer should swim out into deep water, and then fold his hands and make no effort to keep afloat, but simply ask God to take him to the shore, he would drown, and God would not be to blame, either. He is able to take himself to shore, and the Lord would expect him to do it.

God does for man what man cannot do for himself. This is for the glory of God, but it would not be for His glory to perform what man himself can do, but does not choose to. That would be to reduce the Creator to the position of a servant.

Is it faith that sees God only in the power which suddenly restores the sick to health in answer to prayer? Or does true faith take a broader view, and discern God in all His works, and give God the glory for the restoration that is gradual as well as for that which is instantaneous? Is it faith which would dictate to God when and how He shall work? Or does true faith leave the Lord to work in that way and at that time that He may choose?

The “faith” of the “faith-cure” doctrine is altogether too narrow and short-sighted for true faith. And a faith that is too narrow is not faith at all, but fanaticism.

It is not “faith cure” that the people need to-day, but faith.

L. A. S.