Sin - Sickness (some thoughts)

Leviticus 14 deals with the ceremonial cleansing of a person who had a skin disease.

Among the things required of the sick person, are the guilt offering and the sin offering. Why?

From the earliest times, it would appear that sickness was associated with sin. As time progressed however, "science" reduced sickness to random or genetic flaws un-associated with sin. This shift in ideology is evolutionist thinking. This evolutionist thinking has infiltrated the Church as much as it has covered the earth.

The doctrine of suffering (as I call it) has its root in evolutionist thinking. Randomness is always associated with evolutionist thinking - a random big bang, a random coincidence of arrangement of particles, it's all random. The doctrine of suffering is, at best, ignorance of the Bible, and, at worst, outright proud and arrogant blasphemy that denies the nature and character of God.

To associate sickness with randomness is to deny the Bible. It is no different than associating the arrangement of life as we know it with randomness (the "Big Bang" as it is called), which is to deny the Bible. The Bible clearly associates sickness with sin (the book of Deuteronomy most clearly does so) just as the Bible in Genesis attributes life as we know it with the creative handiwork of God.

There has been a gross erosion of belief in the Bible.

If Old Testament law teaches us anything, it teaches us the basic Kingdom principle that sin and physical suffering are related. I fear that in our "New Testament" freedom, we have proudly and erroneously believed we are no longer accountable for sin while the sin-indicators of sickness and disease run rampant in our midst! Even with the New Testament documentation of Jesus' numerous and repeated miracles of healing (remember, He came to save the world from its sin), we still don't get it!

Instead of crying out to God to "forgive us" and "help our unbelief" when we experience physical trouble, we proudly disassociate ourselves from the personal (or corporate) accountability for sin and faith and embrace the evolutionist-random-event lie. We go the the doctor, take medicine and then sometimes even go to God to see what wonderful blessing we might receive because we are suffering.

I am not suggesting we revert to Old Testament law. I very much embrace Grace! But Grace is only available to those who do the two things Jesus was adamant about: repent and believe. The outcome is up to God. We must remember the struggles Jesus' disciples had with faith - do we think it will be any less a struggle for us? But, struggle or no, we are, and will remain, accountable to repent and believe. No bulls or lambs or goats - just repent and believe - that's Grace.

If we find ourselves in physical suffering, we come to a decision: is my difficulty the result of sin or not? Likewise, we are faced with another decision: will I believe for "as it is in heaven" or not (regardless of outcome)?

To say "we are under Grace" at the expense of denying Jesus' command to repent is dangerous teaching. Old Testament and New Testament share this: we must repent. The difference between the two is that in the Old Testament repentance was followed with required sacrifices and offerings, but New Testament requires faith in Jesus - but still following repentance.

I cannot say I really know where I am going with this except to say I want Truth. I don't want evolutionary thinking and doctrine. I want Truth - Bible Truth - Jesus Truth - God Truth.

Jesus wasn't okay with sickness on the earth - we should not be either. Unless, of course we think somehow we are exempt from living a life on earth modeled after Jesus...

Father, I want to get out of prideful evolutionist thinking. I want my thoughts to be based on Your Word - Your Son - Your Truth. I know the message of repentance is not (nor ever will be) popular, but I know that faith is null and void without it. Please forgive me for thinking that sin has no less consequences today than it ever had. Please forgive me for drawing stupid conclusions about You when my lack of faith is the problem.