WRONG!! I read the Bible through annually. And God does not cause disease or broken bones to teach us something. Would a loving father cut his boy's finger with a knife to say, "be careful." for if you're not careful this could happen to you? I don't think so. This is where much of mainstream "religion" loses people. God does not cause pain, sickness, disease, or striff to teach us anything. He wants the best for us always. Satan is the God of this world and he causes sickness, death, and strife. The world's reality is to not get well. When Jesus died on the cross He not only died for our sins but also for our health (by His stripes we are healed - Isaiah 53:5). And if reality says "don't believe" then we say it's God's will?
Don't bother to respond because I am finished posting on this thread. Many tried to help you to see the truth here, I hope that you can.
Of course satan wants us to suffer - emotionally, physically, in any way possible. And while God may not CAUSE us to be sick or maimed or die, He often ALLOWS it, as He did with Job. He used His faithful servant Job to prove to satan that a mere and fallable human being would remain His faithful servant without all his money, property, family and health.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Take a look at the life of Joni Eareckson Tada - God used her paralysis to forge a great ministry. Without her disability, she wouldn't be where she is today, and long ago stopped praying for healing because she realized that God's purpose was bigger than her desire to walk again. He used her shortcomings to do great things.
2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
Yes, by His stripes we are healed - our sin is gone and our hearts are made whole and clean. We are promised perfect heavenly bodies, but never on this earth are we guaranteed health and prosperity. How can we have the promise of health when we know we are to suffer for His name's sake? Physical persecution isn't physically healthy. :) In this life we are only promised peace and spiritual security.
John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
I liken talking this whole thing to talking to a close friend who has been swept up in Amway. Before I go on, I hope that everyone who attacks me now would understand, that I know there are many who make it, but for purposes of the argument the vast majority do not and one would have better spent their time mastering J2EE or enterprise software. Anyway, when you point out to them that the various Gods of the upline are making most of their money pushing tape of the week and endless seminars and weekly meetings people have different reactions.
1. You have the rational types who are willing to intellectually examine your claims and go over them point by point.
2. You have some who are not bothered by the claims, and look forward to making their money this way when the time comes. Nothing wrong here, they have at least weighed your claims and are not that terribly offended although they now understand why the group pushes these non-Amway materials so hard. After all Amazon does it why shouldn't they!!!
3. Finally you have the dogmatic cult types who call you a dream stealer and refer to people who don't do well as losers who didn't understand the business. I correlate this type of personality very strongly with many hard-core followers of Word-Faith, Oneness Pentecostalism, Modalism, Name-it-Claim or whatever it is called lately.
Once someone falls into the number 3 category, it becomes tougher to reach them because they either do not have the capacity to study things for themselves, or do not wish learn enough about the issue to enter a battle of wits. They begin to attack the critics (hank hannegraaf or whoever) as heretic hunters and such, but refuse to examine the evidence for themselves.
You see people who are strongly convicted of the truth of what they believe are willing to courageously defend their beliefs with evidence. You will never, I repeat, you will never see any big time TBN evangelist have the courage to publicly debate a Reform Apologist like William Lane Craig or James White about their beliefs.
So my point in all this is that the only thing people would like is for you and others to not make dogmatic assertions and attacking "heretic hunters" but to find out just why we think you are better off in an evangelical church that holds to biblical orthodox views of christianity.