____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ August 1, 1999 ____________________________________________________ The Great Pretenders by Tracy Schell ___________________________________________ About the Author Tracy Schell was a victim as an infant of Werdnig/Hoffman syndrome, a rare disease which prevents the development of muscles. This has resulted in many side effects. He has never been able to walk, has been confined to a wheelchair virtually all of his life except for the last few years during which he has been confined to the bed. But he has a keen, active mind and a wide range of interests. More importantly, he is a God fearing, Bible believing young man who has a magnificent spirit. He calls and writes from his bed, encouraging his brethren and favorably affecting their lives. One recently reclaimed brother gratefully confesses that he was the major influence in the recovery of his spiritual health. Tracy is a member of the body of Christ, attended services and worshipped with us at North Courtenay as long as he could, and now participates in worship each Lord's Day with brethren who gather to join him in the praise of God and the study of his word. -- Jere E. Frost, February, 1992 ___________________________________________ The Great Pretenders When one is faced with an illness for which medical science offers no hope, people will look for other alternatives, anything, which will offer some glimmer of hope. This can lead people down the road in search of the elusive miracle. This is the situation my parents found themselves in shortly after learning of my diagnosis at the age of 17 months as having a disease typically fatal by the age of three. Given no hope by the best specialists in the field at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, they turned to their belief in God for miraculous help. In Search of a Healing My mother, having been raised Baptist, with other relatives having somewhat charismatic beliefs, hoped that the miracles like those in the Bible might still be happening today. After all, many today claim to have these miraculous Bible abilities and many claim to have been healed by miraculous means. Although I was quite young I can still remember a few of these attempts at healings and I want to share with you my memories of what was to be learned from them. A well meaning friend of the family gave my parents a copy of a book called ``Healing Hands'' by George Chapman of London, England. Having some flight benefits which were about to expire, my mother, brother, sister and I all went to London. At the time I was four years old and my memories of those times are like snapshots of people, places and things. I remember it as my first plane ride on a 747, a one night stay in New York, arriving in England late at night at an old fashioned Country Inn, and room service bringing up hot tea and sandwiches, playing on a carpeted staircase, two large dogs which roamed the downstairs pub and dining room, a taxi ride, double decker busses, the palace, the changing of the guard, and many other things, mostly trivial. One thing I remember almost nothing about is George Chapman. I remember being in an office, and that is about it. I know from my mother that I did see him. I have always thought it strange that I can remember the color of the curtains in the hotel room (white) but nothing of this visit. I think the reason for this is obvious. Nothing miraculous happened, nothing even noteworthy or memorable. When I was around six I was taken to see Kathryn Kuhlman. She was perhaps the leading faith healer of the time (along with Oral Roberts). Incidentally, she was the mentor of a current well known faith healer, Benny Hinn of Orlando. I remember a large auditorium and seeing people on canes, crutches, and many in wheelchairs. I can recall talking with a young man in a wheelchair whose loved ones had obviously taken him to many crusades of this type because he knew the routine well. On this occasion my grandmother went with us. She believed in this type of preacher. She often watched Oral Roberts and others like him. She was a diabetic who had to take daily insulin shots. She made it onto the stage with ``Kathryn the Great'' and had hands laid upon her. She fell back as if struck with some great power. I remember asking afterwards what it was like, and she said it was like being shocked or struck by lightning. I am sure to this day that she honestly believed that. But the fact remains that she continued to take insulin till the day she died. No attempt was made to get me, or anyone else with a visible handicap, on the stage. No one was cured of anything I could see. Certainly, I was not, the young man in the wheelchair near me was not, nor was my grandmother. Yet friends and well-wishers always insisted their congregation could get the job done. So there were other attempts locally. I recall a Pentecostal friend invited us to her church where people were supposed to write on a piece of paper the miracle they needed. It would be granted! I wrote, ``I want to walk.'' But neither I nor anyone else with a visible problem was helped. Another failure. It was always the same. Reflecting on the Failures What effect did these failures have? On my parents, none. Their faith in God remained strong. Yet the faith of some people is shattered while others look for some slight, or even imagined, improvement as a rationalization to continue looking for a miracle. For some reason, people see these failures as stemming from either one of two possibilities, namely, (1) a lack of ability on God's part, or (2) as some failure on their part, such as a lack of faith. Yet there is a third possibility which most people overlook: God is not performing miracles by or through these men; they exercise no miraculous power at all. Do the healers today have the power of God? Are the miracles allegedly being wrought today the type of miracles read about in the Bible? As I have learned from firsthand experience, they are most assuredly PRETENDERS. It became evident to me when I first started studying the Scriptures and comparing the nature of miracles in the Bible with what I had seen. Many faith healers today claim to heal the deaf, but do any do as Jesus did? He restored a severed ear (Luke 22:50-51). They claim to make the blind see, but how do we know if the subject was truly blind? Why don't they heal Ray Charles or Ronnie Millsap? These are two well known singers the world knows are blind. Why don't Oral Roberts, Robert Tilton and Benny Hinn heal them? Recently Benny Hinn claimed to heal a woman with AIDS. I don't know if she had AIDS or not. But we all know that Magic Johnson has AIDS. Let Hinn heal him. The Cry for Money They are always raising money to feed the hungry of the world. Could they not feed the hungry the way Jesus did in Matthew 14:15-21? Why do they even need to ask for money? Can they not get it from a fish's mouth as Christ did in Matthew 17:27? The Difference in Then and Now Who among today's healers raises the dead? I am not talking about someone who was ``clinically dead'' for a few minutes. I am talking about someone dead and buried. When Lazarus died, Martha met Jesus at the outskirts of Bethany, and she expressed belief that had he been there while her brother yet lived, he would not have died. Jesus promptly told her, ``Thy brother shall rise again.'' Martha thought he spoke of the resurrection at the last day. It did not occur to her that he would be raised within moments. Even when Christ commanded them to roll away the stone, Martha said, ``Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.'' His flesh had already begun to rot, Martha thought, and it was too late. But not for Jesus. ``He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth'' (John 11:20-44). No so-called healer of today ever did anything of this magnitude, much less in front of so many witnesses. Does the shoe pulling parlor trick of W.V. Grant lengthening a supposedly shortened leg compare with the inspiring account of Jesus making a withered hand whole? (Mt. 12:13). Do the silly antics of Benny Hinn blowing on people compare with the miraculous feeding of 5000 men with just 5 loaves and 2 fish? (Mt. 14:5-21). Robert Tilton says you have to ``plant'' a faith seed by making a pledge of at least $1,000 to get your miracle. Did Christ or any of his disciples ever ask for money before or after performing a miracle? No, in fact, Jesus commanded them to perform miracles freely (Mt. 10:6). Some people ask about all those people who go on stage and are ``slain'' by the spirit? Are they all liars? No. But they are all caught up in the same psychological state of mind. It can best be explained by an old fable I recall. The Pretenders' Nakedness There was once a king who was preparing for a great parade before his subjects. He ordered his tailor to prepare him a magnificent suit. This troubled the tailor for he had no fine fabrics. So he devised a story for the king about a magic cloth only the wisest could see. The king ``saw'' it for he was the wisest of the wise. So a proclamation was made to the people telling them of the special suit that was made. The day of the parade came, and there went the king down the main street naked as a jaybird. Yet the people remarked one to another about what a wondrous suit the king was wearing, for only a fool could not see the suit, and none wanted to be a fool, so none could admit the truth. Finally, a small boy, still in the simple innocence of childhood, said, ``The king is naked.'' The king was naked and The Pretenders are impotent, but who will say so? Their sick stay sick and the maimed are still maimed. But the crowd plays along. In reality, healers do not even fare well when compared to the magician, David Copperfield. He has made lear jets and the Statue of Liberty disappear before our eyes, levitated a train car, and walked through the great wall of China, or so it seemed. Conclusion The difference between magicians and ``miracle'' workers is simple. Magicians promise entertainment, hurt no one, make no pretenses, and blame no one but themselves if they fail. They are magicians. ``Miracle'' workers promise healing, put themselves forward as great powers of God, and leave multitudes sick, suffering and disillusioned, and blame the disappointed sufferers for the failures. Yes, they are The Great Pretenders. ___________________________________________ Just Say ``No'' by Dwane Derrick It is seldom easy to go against the crowd. Often we are confronted with circumstances that demand courage. Usually in such circumstances it is not very hard to find excuses for giving in. Someone has said that the opposite of courage is conformity. Do you want to be known as one who has the courage to stand for what is right? If you want to be a ``man''--stand against everybody else who is doing wrong. That's courage. The opposite of that is to do what everybody else does--that's conformity. Daniel had that pushed upon him. He was a young man, faced with temptation that you don't face. You are not a captive in a strange land with a wicked king telling you, you must do this. Solomon admonished, ``My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.'' Say ``no'' to sin. ___________________________________________ NEWS & NOTES Being the 1st Sunday of the month, I look forward to Rick Fleeman being our guest speaker for tonight. By the way, Rick's brother Karl and Wendi Dupuy were recently married. We wish them well in their new life together. Free Bible courses are available upon request. ________________________________________ Tri-State CHURCH OF CHRIST 1314 Montgomery Avenue, Ashland, Kentucky 41101 Sunday: 10:00 A.M. Bible class 10:50 A.M. Worship 6:30 P.M. Worship Wednesday: 7:30 P.M. Bible study evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (606) 325-9742 e-mail: tedwards@zoomnet.net Gospel Observer web site: http://www.zoomnet.net/~tedwards/go ________________________________________