GCB

BLOGGER

Youngest kid of six with an inferiority and black sheep complex, but determined that God saves not just his soul to heaven but the remainder of his manic-depressive life, so others won't say he became a Christian and remained a jerk.

MAIN THEMES

On identity
i won't be transparent before i'm opaque. and you'll get to know me starting from the small things: who my favourite bands are. what kind of movies i like. who are my heroes.

On Christianity
I’m convinced that when confronted with sincere, real love, the Jesus factor will become obvious. But let’s not plant the cross before we carry it. I’m not trying to con you.

On dreams
Some dreams are meant to be achieved. I know that. But maybe other dreams are meant to drive us, privately. Never known to anyone but ourselves.

OTHER THEMES

On melancholy
It is a sadness that, when choosing between crying and sighing, will choose sighing. I'd almost say that melancholy is being sad about sadness itself.

On memory and nostalgia
It saddens me when life moves forward and people decide that certain things are worth forgetting.

On language
I've learnt that the word irregardless is filed as a non-standard word in the English language. That's a lexicographer's way of saying it's not a real word.

On politics
Crowds are fickle things. So when we stand in the thousands and cry against the present government, do we know who we're actually crying for?

On society
People always want the best for themselves. But I want to sometimes take second or third or fourth best, just so that the loser down the road doesn't always have to come in last. It must feel like shit to always come in last.

On growing old
Leasehold property make me feel sad. It doesn't matter how old the family photos are that you put on your wall. It's your family but it's not really your wall.

On philosophy
I ask you, if God loves everyone, and if God is also incapable of loving evil, how can there be such a thing as an evil man?

On a daily basis
One line quips, like this.

CHAT

VISITORS

FEEDS

Get RSS Buttons

ARCHIVE

March 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 July 2005 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 February 2010 June 2010

Monday, April 24, 2006

I’ve never really liked healing testimonies. Every time someone takes over the mic and shares a testimony about how person x had cancer and persons y and z prayed and x eventually got healed, I always feel uneasy and uncomfortable. The truth is that I don’t buy it.

I’ve heard lots of healing stories in my time. I’ve heard them from Buddhist sources, from Hindu sources, from Sai Baba sources, and of course, I’ve heard tons of Christian ones. I live my day to day family life with the evidence of some of these healings, and I’ll tell you right now, the purported healer in these cases was not Jesus from Nazareth. And for the longest time, it was impossible to explain why my Jesus is special, different and worthy of exclusive claim to divinity when lives were being saved left, right and center by gurus of the world. Was the Jesus I came to love just ordinary?

My big problem with healing testimonies is when they are used to sell Jesus, especially in conjunction with altar calls. Why is this a problem? It’s problematic because anyone who hears a healing testimony, and then accepts Jesus, accepts Jesus thinking that he is a hospitalic vending machine, where they insert prayers “here” and select from a range of healings from cancer to the common cold, and bang! their can of healing plonks down in completion, plus added blessings in change. Well, I’m sorry if this blows your worldview wide open, but Jesus isn’t your healing machine, and he’s not gonna heal everyone everytime. Even if you’re upright and sincere, there’s a pretty good chance your lump’s gonna be there when you go back for a scan. Why am I being such a wet blanket? Because I don’t want you to build your faith on an imaginary Jesus, where the Jesus of your imagination is the Alobliging Dr God.

Does Jesus heal? Yes, he does! It’s biblical, and it’s a promise of God. Is his healing real? Yes, it absolutely is! But his healing is his prerogative, and if you build your faith on a slot machine Jesus then you’re standing on sinking ground, my friend. Your faith needs to be built on the person of God, not the evidence of his wonders. That which you worship is a person, a God with a distinct personality – you don’t worship healing rallies, and you don’t chase after them either. We’re so used to Christian clichés like “I seek the giver, not the gift”, but at the drop of a hat, we exploit one of his intimate miracles and turn it into a marketing gambit.

LOOK EVERYONE! JESUS HEALED HER! HE IS WORTHY TO BE GOD!

Jesus is worthy to be God even if he didn’t heal her. Heck Jesus is worthy to be God even if you don’t see a single healing miracle all your Christian life. His status is not dependent on any amount of evidence you and I can fish out as sales gimmicks and the last thing his kingdom needs are self-centered converts who say the sinner’s prayer to purchase a plug n play God.

You know what’s so dangerous about converting people with miracles? Miracles are a dime a dozen. Any old guru can pull a rabbit out of a hat, tell you your life story and grow back your twisted fingers. Like I said, I’ve heard it from about a million sources. And if Jesus Christ, Savior of the World is substantiated simply by a fuzzy healing story, then the Buddha, Kuan Yin, Sai Baba, all of their divinities would also be substantiated, because ask their devotees for fuzzy healing stories and they’ll keep you all day. Do you see what I’m saying?

The divinity of Jesus Christ is so immensely more than his ability to heal. And any attempt to sell Jesus as a healing God ridicules him, dishonours him, reduces him to a wonder pill. The Jesus Christ who got bashed up, spat at, stripped and flogged till he was disfigured, then hacked onto planks and left to die for hours, died like that for us because he loved us THAT MUCH. That is what separates him from every other purported divinity, because not one of them – NOT ONE OF THEM – can claim to have made that kind of sacrifice.

So don’t market Jesus as someone’s savior because he healed someone else of cancer. That’s just 21st century paganism of self-serving instantaneous divinity. He died a bloody monstrous death, and the only way anyone should ever receive Jesus is by understanding what this monstrous death was for.

Anything short of that cheapens his death, and turns Jesus Christ into a bar of soap.

Labels: christianity

Genusfrog [ 9:19 am ]

4 Comments:

True, miracles seem to be like a dime a dozen nowadays (sorry, God!) and too many testimonies on them is mucky, very mucky but miracles should also not be taken lightly. Big or small, many or few, they ARE wondrous acts of God's. Tell a drowning man not to clutch at that straw! When you're diagnosed with a life-threatening disease and you're crying your eyes out because your very young children still need you, you go..."pleease God..." It is our right to ask but it is His wish to grant. And when healed, you are grateful, very grateful. This second chance at life teaches you Hope that even in your darkest hour, you're not alone. It teaches Faith and it teaches Gratitude. That's why we have Thanksgiving. Never, never reduce God to just being a miracle-worker. He stands for more than any one can ever comprehend!

By Anonymous, at 12:28 pm
I'm skeptical when it comes to healing testimonies/services too. This is probably a worn-out question but I sometimes ask "Why can't the evangelistic healer go down to the local hospital and heal the patients there, instead of holding large, grand, "ONE NIGHT ONLY!" services at stadiums and churches?".

I believe that God heals, yes. But it's sad when people start feeding only on that aspect of Jesus. Sometimes God's answer may be "No", and I'm just afraid that if people fail to realise that, they'll end up saying things like "Oh Jesus never healed me, but this monk did, and that's why I'm no longer a Christian now".

By Anonymous, at 2:46 pm
Hey Fergus, It's Jesse/beatuifulmess from ModBlog. Good post! I have thought for some time that in some places Jesus has to take a back seat to miracles and signs. It is idolotry!

By Anonymous, at 4:18 am
Agree with chingz. God does heal, yes. And when He does it's deemed a miracle. It's not for us to know why sometimes God chooses not to heal. To say the reverse, my god couldn't heal me so that's why i'm a Christian now. This happens all the time.

By Anonymous, at 11:35 am