Several dozens of readers had been in touch with me in the last ten years with the request that I write frequently on scriptural or spiritual issues because they had learned a lot from my articles on religion as I had provided the information that no other person had ever made available. And they gave glory to Almighty God for discussing issues in the Bible with me for the enlightenment of people.
Of course, I too cannot thank the Lord enough for His rare blessings on me in this regard, especially since I am the first person since creation that He had discussed some issues in the Christian Holy Book with. One of which was that the ordeal of Job in the 42 – chapter Book in his name lasted 30 years.
Another was my providing proofs in the Bible that the Lord is not against polygamy as many a pastor had been preaching since 1842 (177 years ago) when Christianity was brought to Nigeria. I did this by showing that the Rock of Ages has no law against multiple – marriage in the Bible while Jesus Christ did not preach against it during the Sermon on the Mount or elsewhere in the New Testament.
Rather, the Heavenly Father gave rules in Exodus 21:10 – 11 and Deuteronomy 21: 15 – 17 to men with two wives on how to run their families successfully. While in Deuteronomy 27:20 He cursed any man who would have sex with any of his father’s wives, a statement that shows that a man can have more than one spouse.
The death recently of a born – again Christian in his 60s in my neighbourhood in Lagos is the reason for writing this. As he had been doing for more than ten years, he refused to go for medical treatment in a hospital or take herbal medicine when he took ill a few months ago. His reason being that the Pentecostal Church he belonged to believes it is a sin for a Christian to do so. To them, a true follower of Christ should rely only on prayers and the use of olive oil for the cure of illness.
Their weird belief derives from the statement in the Book of James 5:14 – 15 where he said: “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he had committed sins they shall be forgiven him” (King James Version).
True, a sick Christian can resort to or rely solely on prayers for cure. But it has to be someone who is very strong in faith in Almighty God and Jesus Christ. The statement of James just quoted even makes this clear. Of course, only God knows the Christian with strong faith that can cure an illness. To prove this let me recall what happened to a prophet and leader of a Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Lagos in the 1970s.
He was a colleague of mine at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Ikoyi, Lagos, and at his invitation I attended some of the services in his church. He used to preach that a Christian should only depend on prayers to cure illnesses and that no circumstance could make him go to hospital to see a doctor or take drugs because he knew the God he was serving was above any disease and would heal him.
In 1974 or 75 he had a swollen arm and used to pray and also got the prayer -warriors in the church to intercede on his behalf while he also applied olive oil to overcome the problem. But it was to no effect and he had to be taken to Germany when it became cancerous. But then it was too late. Although the arm was amputated, he still died.
For me, it is foolishness for a Christian to depend only on prayers to cure an illness. If supplication or use of olive oil is not bringing improvement in one’s health situation within a few days or at most a week, I believe the person should go to a hospital or herbalist for treatment.
For anyone who has studiously read the Bible from cover – to – cover, that is the 66 Books from Genesis through Revelation, it is clear in the Old and New Testaments that the Heavenly Father is not against seeing a doctor or using herbal or orthodox medicine. The first is that it is stated in the Books of Ezekiel Chapter 47:12 and Revelation 22:1 – 2 that God gave mankind trees to provide food and their leaves for healing the sick.
While it is also in Colossians Chapter 4:14 that Luke, the author of the Books of Luke and Acts of the Apostles, was a physician, another name for a doctor or healer. In other words, he was treating and curing people with herbs, since modern medicine was not available at the time (58 – 65AD) which was one thousand, nine hundred and fifty – four years to one thousand, nine hundred and sixty – one years ago.
So, if God in the Bible approves the use of herbs to treat people and Luke was a doctor, how can any pastor or bishop preach that it is a sin for a Christian to go to hospital for treatment or take drugs? I think the only thing a good Christian should not do is go to an herbalist who is a witch-doctor for treatment. This is because he or she is a pagan worshipping idols and who depends on incantations to his or her deity to treat people. But it is alright for a Christian to go to an herbalist who belongs to his faith.
From the evidence I have provided in the Bible, like the issue of polygamy which I treated last year, I hope clerics preaching that God is against herbal medicine know that they are placing a curse on themselves. The Lord made this clear in Deuteronomy 27:26 where He said His curse is on anyone who does not obey all His laws and teachings. A statement that means that one cannot remove or add to anything in the Scriptures.
Without doubt, it is double tragedy for such Bible-confusion-causing and disobedient pastors if people die for refusing to seek treatment from orthodox doctor or herbalist. This is because apart from lying, they could also cause the death of someone or persons.
Indeed, can one call pastors who preach against what God has no law on and which Jesus did not teach a Bible – believing cleric and that his or her church is a Bible-practicing House of God. This is obviously food for thought.
Let me also add that a Christian can patronize an herbalist who is a Muslim, because the people of the two religions worship the same God. I know this because the Ancient of Days confirmed it to me and I wrote a series on it in 2009, ten years ago, that the adherents to Judaism, Christianity and Islam known as the Abrahamic religions worship the same deity.
More to come next Wednesday