John 14:12 seems very clear to me. As is Mark 16:18 – unless people try to claim the end of Mark isn’t in the bible!

But you don’t really need Mark 16 – Jesus healed the sick, so John 14:12 says we do. Jesus always healed and never made sick. Do we need any more than that?

I’m just thinking aloud here, but if sickness is death in small bites, and sickness is a conquered foe, then so is physical death. Indeed it is the last enemy (1 Cor 15:26). One day the first death will be consumed by the second death (Rev 20:14). So God’s plan is for death to die.

Jesus said “heal the sick, raise the dead.” We are quick to do the former… I’m not preaching immortality, but I am intrigued by your phrase “death on God’s terms.” Maybe you could write a post called Death on God’s Terms. I would read it!

Maybe this will help.

Ecc 3:1-2 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die.

There is a time appointed to die. This is not a bad thing. I am not that concerned about dying physically because I will be trading up, this corruptible body for a glorious incorruptible one. Also, to receive a new body, to me means there will still be some form of physicality in Heaven. You leave this plain of existence when you die here, but you live on physically in your glorified body in heaven. You don’t just become a spirit. If you just stayed a spirit, what is the point of glorified bodies?

1Co 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

To be raised from the dead at the last trumpet you first have to die. You cannot receive the incorruptible without doing away with the corruptible. Death is not a bad thing, it is a promotion.

Php 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Gain means to profit and to become greater. So again, to die is to become greater and to profit. It is not a bad thing. But, since Enoch and Elijah didn’t die physically, we know it is possible to enter the hereafter without experiencing physical death. According to your faith be it unto you.

In Grace

I have never said or implied that we are going to escape physical death. It is of course possible if you look at Enoch and Elijah. They didn’t experience physical death. However those are 2 cases out of the thousands of people in the Bible. Therefore it is the exception, not the norm. Some will also escape physical death if they are still alive when Jesus returns. That is something to look forward to!

However the point I am making is that even though we will experience physical death, we do not have to experience it on the devil’s terms. There is but a breath between us and the hereafter. I will fight death in the form of sickness for as long as I have breath in my body. I do not fear death. I do not cling to life with all I have, I fight death with everything in me.

Gee whiz, Cornel, doesn’t James 5:15 say:
And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

It says “IF he has sinned”, so sickness is not always the direct result of a person’s sin, right? So how can we then categorically state that if our sins are taken care of, our sicknesses are too?

I agree with what you said about being empowered to stop sinning, but as you also said, that is not the only application. The word in the Greek for ‘give life’ or quicken is specifically one that means to restore life, to extend life, to produce life, to give increase of life specifically referring to physical life.

I don’t know why you want to make God out to be any less good than He is. I wonder if when I get to heaven He will say, “Cornel, I am not as good as you told everybody I am. Your idea of good was actually far superior to the character and nature of my goodness. Your good news was actually better than my good news. I wasn’t as good as you made me out to be.” Can you see how ridiculous this sounds? How can man with our peanut brains think up a better form of goodness than what is personified by God Himself? I can’t even scratch the surface of how good He is and and yet you are trying to make Him out to be less good.

John, honestly you are not going to convince my otherwise. You might as well stop trying. I have seen too many people healed to believe otherwise, and likewise I have seen too many people hurt by and leave the church through your way of thinking. God heals. Period. If you have a problem with that, take it up with Him.

Please take a look at the Romans verse you cited in its proper context (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8&version=NIV). In Romans 8, Paul is talking about life through the Spirit, which means not gratifying the desires of the flesh (verse 5), but living according to “what the Spirit desires.” Verse 9 goes on to say:

“You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”

Then, the verses you cited (10-11) follow in the same paragraph. It is very clearly that this giving life to our mortal bodies refers to the ability for us to conquer our sinful desires through Christ within the verses’ context. In verse 12 towards 17, it continues to talk about living life by the Spirit and not gratifying the desires of the flesh. So verse 10-11 are sandwiched between verses that talk about sin, and not physical death. It wouldn’t make sense for Paul to start talking about sin for 8 verse, abruptly switch to physical death for 2 verses, and then finish off with 6 verses about sin. Try reading Romans 8 as a whole and you’ll see what I’m trying to get at.

When one says “give life to our mortal bodies,” it could mean one of many things. For example, if I’ve had a huge burden taken off my shoulders at work, I could say that my mortal body has been given life. Likewise, if I’m healed of an ear infection, I could also say that my mortal body has been given life. Expressions are often used without literal intentions. Therefore, it’s necessary that we observe the context of a verse before making a conclusion.

Same goes with the word “healing.” Healing means a lot of different things in the Bible, from physical healing, to spiritual healing. It’s important that we check what type of healing it’s really talking about in a certain verse before we draw conclusions as to what the verse is talking about.