Assembly of God, Isaiah 53, and “Divine Healing”

What is divine healing? 

In this post, I want to discuss this issue and the “Assembly of God’s” position on Isaiah 53. So, let’s dig in. 

The assembly of God’s position on healing and Isaiah 53 is that “Christ’s death on the cross not only provides for forgiveness of sin but also healing for sickness. The One who gave you the gift of eternal life…is the same One who can heal your body.”

They say that healing is a privilege of being a Christian. – https://ag.org/

They say that God CAN heal your body, but not that He WILL heal your body. They say that healing is so interconnected with salvation that we must make it a high priority. They basically say that recovering from the cold is God’s way of proving His love for us. They say that the cold and the flu is on the same level as the remission of cancer or an accident victim being healed. They place the same importance on surviving the common cold as being miraculously healed from cancer. 

They admit they don’t understand why God would choose to heal some and not others. And why God would heal quickly in some cases and in others slowly using medical knowledge (ie doctors). They state that some are healed and some are not. 

They boldly claim that Jesus was crucified so that we could be physically healed. 

“I don’t think God would have promised healing for us if He wasn’t interested in bringing about a healing.” -AG

They belive that God promises to pysically heal the sick in James 5. But again, if God is promising to heal the sick, why is He letting so many suffer? They don’t have an answer for that. 

On the one hand, God is said to heal divinely. And the other, His healings are hit or miss, and really not much different than what modern-day medicine claims to be doing. 

This is a problem for me. What, exactly, qualifies today’s healing experiences as divine or a privilege for believers? For me, the phrase “divine healing” strongly implies supernatural healing. Otherwise, I fail to see the point of using the word divine. As a Christ follower, I believe that without Christ we would not be able to do anything at all. But I wouldn’t highlight that as being divine, because it applies to everyone across the board. Divine, is being used to mean something special; something unlike the ordinary experiences we have day to day. Correct? Otherwise, why use the word in this context? Isn’t this why they claim this to be a special privilege for believers? They are trying to convince you that this is something unique. Something out of the ordinary. Something miraculous, if you will.

However….

There is no miracle. Where is the miracle? What makes it special? What makes it unique and a privilege for the believer? Don’t atheists get healed by today’s medicine? Non-believers survive the cold just like everyone else, correct? Consider Covid, for instance. Were believers any better off than non-believers? If they are, it sure is a hard thing to prove that anything divine happened for the believers only.

Did the AG believe in their healing powers, or did they close their doors when Covid hit?
If they were so privileged in their healing abilities why did so many of them get sick and die? 

Consider, for example, First Assembly of God, an Arkansas church north of Little Rock, which met from March 6 to March 8. Within weeks, it became an epicenter of an outbreak involving at least 35 parishioners, three of whom died. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/

No one wants anyone to suffer through Covid or any other disease. Obviously. My point is just this: their belief that they have the privilege of healing compared to unbelievers is constantly proven to be false. I am sorry, but the facts simply do not align in their favor. 

Does God heal? Absolutely!! Does God heal only the believer? No. Of course not. Is God doing something miraculous with His healing right now? Sure doesn’t look like it. If God was doing something miraculous, or divine, then the AG would not have to explain why God doesn’t always heal stating that God is a mystery and can do whatever He wants.

It’s rather humorous. Of course, God can do what He wants and when He wants. So why is the AG trying to play both sides of the fence here? You either have divine healing or you don’t. If you have divine healing, where is the evidence of it? 

Which brings me to Isaiah 53. Using Isaiah 53 to support your wish that God heals when you want Him to, is ridiculous. And that is really what it comes down to, isn’t it? The AG wants you to believe that God heals when you direct Him to do so. Believing that you have the power to tell God when to come and heal someone is pretty prideful. “..evangelists were telling people they were healed..” If you let God do what God does, you would ask God to do His will and let His decision be. Amen. So be it. 

Anyway…

Isaiah 53 is about sin and restoration with the Father. It is a prophetic look into the Messiah. The Messiah had a purpose in coming here, and it wasn’t so that you could be healed physically. Jesus performed miraculous healings to prove He was God. He wasn’t healing people so that you would think to yourself that if He did it then He must do it now. Again, His purpose in dying was to save us from our sin; restoring us to God the Father, not heal us physically. 

“But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole.”

The reason is right there. He died because of our rebellion, our sins. He died to make us whole. Not whole physically… here on earth… no. Whole, as in back the way we were before the fall in the garden of Eden. 

“He was whipped so we could be healed.”

Healed from what? What again was the purpose? Restoration! 

Assembly of God’s take on Isaiah 53 is completely off the mark. Completely. It is so far off the mark that it is embarrassing, in fact. What is the Gospel? That God sent His only son so that we could wouldn’t get sick? No. When Jesus performed a miracle of healing it proved He was God and sent to ‘heal’ us from our sin. It wasn’t to show us that we can go and stop sickness from occuring. It wasn’t to show us that we can do what He did. Jesus was special. The powers and authority Jesus gave his Apostles were also special. Special and for a specific purpose. To prove His authority. To prove He was the Messiah. To prove that He was the one that was prophesied to come and restore the repentant man. The one that came to die so that you may live. 

IMO It is belittling to say that He came so that you could be saved from sickness. It is belittling to say that His purpose was to save you from getting sick. 

Again, if He wants to heal, He will. But that is on Him. It is His choice. And if you look around you will see that man is dying everywhere. You better stop putting all your hopes into His healing you physically and start putting it into where you will spend the rest of eternity.  Remember that even when Jesus was praying He said, nevertheless not my will, but yours be done. Pray for healing. Please do. But keep in mind, He may desire that you not be healed. Sounds terrifying, I know. Imagine how each Apostle felt. Locked up. Hungry. Beaten. God’s grace is sufficient. Healed or not. 

From the AG:
“Years ago I was studying divine healing. At that time, evangelists were telling people they were healed, but those who were supposedly healed later died.”

Okay, so stop saying that Isaiah 53 is a promise of divine healing that only believers get. 

“The Lord showed me something that was liberating: No Scripture instructs a minister to tell people they are healed. I only need to pray the prayer of faith. There are times when God gives the pastor a word of knowledge. Then he can proclaim with confidence that a person has been healed. But to tell everyone you pray for they are healed is a mistake because of God’s sovereignty.”

So, when will they stop with the doctrine of divine healing? When will they take Isaiah 53 down as proof of some sort of divine healing privilege?

I pray soon.