An Obvious Conclusion
And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind?” John 9:2 NASB
That – Everything has a cause. That’s the underlying assumption of the disciples. It’s not incorrect. It’s just that sometimes we look in the wrong places for the cause. In the thought of the disciples, the cause of illness, deformity or imperfection is sin. They work on the following syllogism:
Major Premise: Sin causes punishment
Minor premise: Blindness is punishment
Conclusion: Therefore, sin causes blindness*
Application: Wherever there is blindness, sin must be the cause
The obvious next question is, “Who sinned?” But the syllogism is wrong. The syllogism contains a mistaken assumption, namely, that all physical imperfection is connected to sin. Yeshua challenges the minor premise. Blindness is not punishment. Therefore, the conclusion is not correct. While sin may result in physical imperfection, it does not necessarily result in outward physical illness. Sometimes physical illness has nothing to do with sin. Sometimes physical illness is about God’s glory.
Many believers today follow the disciples. They believe that the presence of illness or imperfection has only one cause – sin. With this premise in mind, they claim that repenting of sin will inevitably lead to the removal of illness and physical imperfection. If sin is the necessary and sufficient condition of illness, then repentance is the necessary and sufficient condition of health. The problem is the assumption of “necessary and sufficient.” Sin does have results. Sometimes those results are exhibited in illness. But not always. Not necessarily. In the opposite direction, the presence of illness is not a necessary and sufficient condition for the presence of sin. If I have a cold that does not mean that I have sinned. It means that I have a cold. The presence of sin in my life can have detrimental consequences on my health, but that does not entail that illness equals the presence of sin. The equation does not work in both directions. Sin might show itself in illness but illness does not require that sin be the cause. Sometimes God is the cause. Even the Suffering Servant of Isaiah (where people point to the proof text regarding healing) is afflicted because YHWH desires it. And sometimes just being alive in a broken world is the cause. You can never tell just by looking.
If sin were always the cause of illness or impairment, then repentance and forgiveness would always result in perfect health. If I fall and break my leg, do I need to repent for my leg to be healed? If I get the flu, should I repent in order to be well? Does repentance make me immune to AIDS or food poisoning? There is a serious underlying error in this kind of thinking for it assumes that I can control the actions of God over my physical condition by demanding that He make me well if I repent. Is God my medical genie? Do I employ a magic formula by expecting Him to heal me when I repent? One must wonder when the paradigm is so strong that if I repent and I am not healed, I am told that I didn’t repent enough!
But let me add this caveat. When we are ill, we should examine our spiritual as well as our physical condition. There is a connection between sinful disobedience and well-being. Repentance can lead to removal of stress and stress is one cause of illness. Praying for healing is a good thing to do. Repenting is an excellent thing to do. The disciples got half the equation right. Sin has consequences. But the presence of consequences that are sometimes associated with sin does not entail that sin is always the cause. Let us pray for healing. Let us repent if needed. But God still has His purposes regardless of our desires and His purposes prevail.
Yeshua’s words are translated with the Greek hina (that). The word in the LXX is used to point toward God’s action. It is teleological, not causal. That means it looks to the purposes in future results, rather than to the causes in past conditions. It is not about who is responsible but rather about what will be the outcome. The disciples ask the wrong question. The question is not, “Who is to blame?” The question is “How will God use this?” Perhaps our illnesses are not so much about why we got sick as they are about how we will see God’s handiwork in the illness. Yeshua directs us toward the outcome, not the cause.
Topical Index: that, hina, teleological, illness, John 9:2
* You may substitute any other physical imperfection for “blindness.”
I have to confess, at times when I have self medicated my sorrows or unwillingness to allow true change in my life these are the times I have suffered with sickness,so I always have associated my sickness with those very things. Seems to me when we live in this world and on purpose walk out of our protective covering from the Father we are an open target. But, and then things start getting messed up and I look at people who have terrible diseases and suffer from things that leave them so low in our eyes and understanding and I like the disciples ask, was it because of someone’s sin. Have to think and pray ok n this one more. I remember Kathryn Kolman said that was the first thing she was gonna ask when she saw the Father. Wonder how that went.
Babs..the meeting of Kathryn and the Father will take place at the gathering of HIS TOTAL bride and not in part. The Christian’s hope is no different than the hope of Abraham: THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD of the dead.
Kathryn is fast asleep until this day until the trumpet of the LORD shall sound and the DEAD in Christ shall be raised ……………….and you know the rest of the story.. 🙂
Can you give me some references on this. I also wonder about the claims of people who have died and gone to heaven. Not discrediting you just curious. Have been taught the opposite my whole life as I am sure many have.
May I say Babs that it is wonderful that you have asked. I just pray that I will be able to convince you and many that our HOPE of Glory is Christ in us.
All through the OT and the NT it is a given that physical death for the believer is the same death that all experience. It is appointed unto all men to die and then the judgement.
All the way through the Written Word of GOD is the HOPE of the resurrection that we are to be looking for at the Coming Of The Lord.
Titus 2:13.
Now Job gives an account of all of this through his book and if you read chapter 14 of Job and Isaiah 26:19 ; Job 19:25 ; Isa.57:1-2 are just a few that Paul the Apostle brings out clearly in the resurrection chapter in the NT. 1 Cor. 15:
Death was never the agent to bring us into the presence of GOD after death.
We , who believe and have believed will be resurrected UNTO ETERNAL LIFE at the judgment day of HIS RETURN.
This is the way that I see it. I do NOT teach , share or care to share that death gives me anything.
It is the curse and the robber while Christ came to give life: eternal life over eternal death.
In my littleness of understanding ; I hope that you will take a look at this as you have asked.
Good speaking with you too.
My son was born deaf due to the rubella epidemic of 1963-1964. I has been shocking to me how many people have told him that if he had enough faith he could hear again. Fortunately, no one has asked me what my wife’s and my sin was that caused Mark to be deaf, though I am sure that was in the back of their mind. Forty-eight years later my son is still deaf and is too old for a cochlea transplant to be effective, though I doubt that he would want such a transplant, even if it sort of worked. Somewhere, I had the sense to not make the equation of deafness=sin. I guess that intuitively, I was pretty smart.
I have a blind brother,he is 45 now,my parents were also told they sinned to make this happen.Yashuahs response to this question puzzels me to this day.How anything good came out or will come out of this is way beyond me.He was born blind,this leads me to two conclusions,one he was not born into sin.And the second is children don’t pay for the sins of there parents.You might be raised in a bad culture because of there sin,but not hit with blindness because of there sin.Ps he is very ill and in the hospital now,his name is Bruce and needs prayer.He gets very upset when I talk about torah,pray that his spiritual eyes may be opened.
Brian, I AM SO SORRY FOR THE CRUEL WAYS OF IGNORANT, PRIDEFUL PEOPLE.
Let’s pray right now:
YHVH, the ONE TRUE GOD, we plead with You to deliver Bruce of spiritual blindness right now, Father God. If You would be better shown by delivering him of physical blindness at this time, we ask that You would touch him with that miracle. Whatever this illness is that has taken him to the germ-ridden hospital, we ask that You would use it to Your glory.
Father, I ask, too, that You give Brian a supernatural peace about his brother’s physical challenge in blindness. Let both of them and those who love them LEARN AMAZING THINGS from Bruce’s physical blindness. Blind people SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY than those with vision. Please, Father, if Your desire is not to remove the physical blindness, then show this man how to share the WONDERMENT of living with the keen awareness with his other senses that most of us just dull down and take for granted.
(I had a dear old gentleman friend who was blind and a piano teacher [and tuner in his later years.] HE WAS FUN… and he had the greatest sense of humor about his blindness. He would sit in a room of chatting friends and, all of a sudden, he’d say something like, “Daria, are you tired?” because he’d notice, above all the noise, that I WAS YAWNING.) He thought a lot… he was a quiet man tho a physical giant of a man. When he spoke, people listened. [Way wiser than that silly E.F. Hutton guy!]!!!
Oh Roy,
I wish I could erase ALL THE PAIN that was caused to you and your wonderful son because of the SINS OF OTHERS. Wow, the nerve!!!
Back to topic, Skip wrote, “sometimes just being alive in a broken world is the cause.” AMEN! That’s it exactly. The world, the flesh and the devil.
BUT WORK TO KEEP A CLEAN SLATE BY ONGOING REPENTANCE… and PRAY THAT THE LORD WOULD HEAL! I’ll share a little story here: long ago, in a life as a nurse, I did home care. I was LIFTING a 160 lb dead weight patient (long, STUPID-ON-MY-PART story) for a period of a year and my knees were wearing out. They felt as tho they were “fading away”… no swelling or localized pain… just the entire knee area hurt all the time. I had some believers pray over me and THE PAIN WAS GONE… never to return. I give praise to my God always for that and my witness to His touch is told over and over again.
Of course, we’ve prayed for healing many other times for others and ourselves and we’ve been praying for 11+ years that this nightmare called “fibromyalgia” would be removed, but God has chosen to have me keep it. I only want Him to be GLORIFIED in it. I suffer… a lot, my husband suffers because I suffer, our kids suffer at watching me; about 2-4% of the world population suffers with it. I’m sure that God is capable of healing ANYTHING ALL THE TIME… Yet, He chooses not to. HE IS GOD… HE CAN DO WHATEVER HE WANTS!
As a side note, THANK YOU to all who wrote me privately to encourage me. You have brightened my days more than you know!
“Tho He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” Job 13:15a This is no glib, flippant response to a tormenting disease. I really do live by this. I have no better place to be than in the Palm of my ALMIGHTY GOD’S HAND.
My daughter was born with Down’s Syndrome. I heard it all too. We were believing Christians too. I remember people in Sunday School classes talking about how healthy their kids were and life was a blessing. I remember thinking ‘So you are all looking at us like we are cursed.’ I began to wonder what God had in mind. It certainly was not the desire of my heart. My daughters disability is not a blessing to her and is a struggle in all our lives. Brain damage, poor speech, visions, you name it is not whole and walking in the image of Messiah. So, where do we go from here? My child is 18 and I have prayed for her whole life for God to heal her and restore her, changing her DNA and removing that extra chromosome that has wreaked havoc in her life. I’m still waiting. I’m ready for God to get the glory. Always have been. Lately I’ve been gearing up to remind him again. I’d sure like to know why her healing has not manifested yet.
Oh Theresa, as you read here about others who have faced exactly what you talk about and have known forever, PEOPLE ARE STUPID and you can’t fix dumb! Shake it off and walk on with your LORD God Almighty.
You wrote, ” I’m ready for God to get the glory.” He gets it every day through your daughter’s simple, honest ways. Your beautiful daughter… oh how I wish I could know her. (People with Down’s Syndrome are a rare commodity nowadays. THANK YOU FOR SAVING HER LIFE!) People with DS are my favorite people (I was a Special Ed teacher and a nurse prior to the fibro plague.) Yes, they have problems… who doesn’t? Yet, there is something curious about them. While they are unique individuals as we all are, they almost seem to belong to a “family” unique to them (‘m sorry this post is sounding as tho I am stereotyping people. I don’t mean to sound that way, nor do I do that. Please forgive me.)
I have worked Special Olympics at times and OH MY GOSH it is fun to walk/run/roll/play/laugh along side of Down’s Syndrome people. Awhile ago, I was blessed to “house-sit” with a Down’s Syndrome woman, age 50, while her mom was gone x 10 days. WE HAD A BLAST AT WAL-MART! For the first time in her life, she got to PUSH THE CART and LEAD ME wherever she wanted to go! We weren’t in any hurry at all like her weary Momma is whenever the two of them are running errands. I was so blessed to give her mom a reprieve but even more blessed to spend time with “Miss” as I called her.
The very very sad news is that her mother was most angry at me for sharing Yeshua with “Miss” and I was never allowed back in their home. The mother told me they were “christians” and “had been baptized recently.” Before Mother left for vacation, I had given Miss a Bible with LARGE PRINT (she could read pretty well!) and the mother was most appreciative. Of course, I was totally shocked at the mother’s anger and dismissal of me.
Miss (who had many medical issues) wanted so badly to come stay on our min-farm for a few days, which her mom promised would happen. Miss, Ric and I are sad that we never got that privilege. Again, YOU CAN’T FIX DUMB.
I live in northcentral WA state and would love for you to email me privately through my website, http://www.bittermansbanners.com Oh how cool it would be if we were physically close enough for us to become friends.
Beloved of God, it seems to me that we have missed the boat to spend hours and years asking God for
something in terms of what WE want. ALL things work for GOOD to those who love Him and are
called for His purposes. Rom. 8:28 Therefore, why not praise God for his will to be done, submit ourselves to His Word, and know that God knows BEST. Life is so much easier when we can live in praise of Him daily and know without doubt that His way is best, in spite of what we want for self, family, or other loved ones, and in spite of how much it may hurt.
Trials, Tribulation, Testing, Tears, Time
~ to everything, there is a season. ~
I praise God for all my past sickness. And I praise God for all my healing. I praise God for my scars! May I testify?
So, – what’s your story? (about His glory!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CwModBlV2E
I, (like you) have also been through some “stuff.” But have we suffered “sufficiently?”
Wow! Why do we suffer? Why are we sick? Why is there “sorrow, and pain and suffering and affliction?
(All of the above!), – down here below!
~ But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus ~ (Philippians 4.19)
May I inquire? – What are my “needs?”
Lessons learned? lol! (the hard way?) Mr., the sign says, “Wet Paint..’ – what u gonna do? and why do you now have paint on you? Did you fail to believe?
How was the Captain of our Salvation made “perfect?” ~ For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain [“founder,”] of their salvation perfect through sufferings ~ (Hebrews 2.10)
The servant (me) is not above His Master (Him). And He has said unto us: ~ in this world YOU will have tribulation ~ Has He ever lied? Are we (ever) “tribulated?” Only on those days ending in “y!”
Why tribulation? Why sorrow? Why are we offended when we are afflicted? Is there a greater purpose in our pain? Praise God, YES!, – there is. There is an “after!”
What happens we when go through the valley of the shadow of death? Uhh.. we reach the other side?
What happens when we go through the fire? Uhh.. we reach the other side?
What happens when we go through the flood? Uhh.. we reach the other side?
And “through it all,” we learn. ~ in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us! ~ (when did He ever “quit” loving us?) – Never!
Pain IS our best teacher! (Why do I always have to learn these things “the hard way?”) Which life-lessons “remain” in your memory? The ones that were reinforced by pain and left a beautiful scar of remembrance!
Do you have any scars? – Brothers, sisters, – if you’ve been out walkin’ in this world, – I know you do!!
Who is “blind” here? ~ to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me. ~ (Acts 26.18)
Who is “blind” here? ~ I want you to know my brethren, this mystery, lest you would be wise in your own opinion, that blindness of heart has for a little time come to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles will come in ~ (Romans 11.125)
~ without (a?) vision the people perish ~ (Proverbs 29.18)
May we pray with this beggar, LORD and Light of the world, that I might receive my sight!.. Amen. ~
~ Open my eyes so I can truly see the marvelous things in your Law! ~ (Psalm 119.18)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbe7OruLk8I
We have a limited understanding from a NT perspective and millenia of wrong teaching. Scriptural healing is never about just a miraculous intervention, it is about the wholeness of each individual. He is not interested in continually fixing our messes or repeatedly “healing”. He is in the business of transforming us into obedient, well mannered, healthy, children.
Exodus 15:26 – 26 And He said, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, YHVH, am your healer.”
Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. So you shall serve YHVH your God, and He will bless your bread and your water and I will take sickness away from the midst of you. Exodus 23:2,25
. . .because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them . . . YHVH will remove from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known. Deuteronomy 7:1,15
This is a conditional promise which indicates cause and effect. Healing or rather health is directly correlated to obedience. Lack of obedience is what brought the first consequences of deterioration and death. The Hebrew word for healer in this passage conveys the idea of making one thoroughly whole – body, mind, and spirit. This is a promise which has a condition. That means it requires you to do something in order for it to be activated. The language used says “if you, then I”. In order for the “then I” of the promise or blessing to occur, which is the part we all want to happen, the “if you” must first be operating. This is the definition of faith. Simply believing what YHVH says is not enough. Remember the demons believe and have enough sense to tremble, but they do not “do” what they believe.
The words ‘shalom’ in Hebrew and ‘sozo’ in Greek both reveal more than we can fully translate into English. Both words indicate a status of well-being in spirit, mind, and body as a whole – echad. It is clearly established in the Word that whatever happens in your spirit or your body or your mind will affect the other two because they are all interconnected.
It is true that as with Paul, YHVH may decide not to remove a particular infirmity or sickness, but that does not mean HE made the person sick in the first place.
Does YHVH use sickness to teach us a lesson?
Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O LORD, and teach out of Your law, that You may give him rest from the days of adversity. Psalm 94:12
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. John 14:26
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16,17
Although, we have a tendency to seek the Father when we are sick and often learn valuable lessons, that does not mean He makes us sick in order to teach us something. We are told that what the enemy intends for evil can be turned by God into something good if we love Him and are operating out of that to which we have been called.
The world we live has been in self destruct mode since the first disobedience and I personally believe that marginalizing the effects of disobedience or sin in the case of sickness and infirmity is not a ‘healthy’ thing to do. “As in heaven, so on earth.” Spiritual first, physical second. Too often, IMO, we are more focused on getting physical relief than on becoming spiritually mature.