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A fast growing movement in the United
States in recent days is the movement
called the “Healing Rooms”.
The Healing Room Ministry is an
interdenominational organization based
in Spokane Washington claiming to
understand the key to “unlocking”
God’s power for healing the body. It
is the same “Healing Rooms” that was
started by John G. Lake about 80 years
ago (and the same Healing Rooms that
died since Mr. Lake’s death), but has
been revived by current director Cal
Pierce.
They have a daily national radio program
called “Jesus the Healer”, in which
the director of the Healing Rooms
Ministry (Cal Pierce) gives an info-mercial
on the organization, complete with
testimonies of tremendous accounts of
miraculous healing as a result of
attending the Healing Rooms. Then at
various points in the broadcast, the
need for donations in interjected.
The teachings of the Healing Rooms is
based on the original teachings of John
G. Lake, who is considered the pioneer
teacher of modern day faith healing.
The current Healing Rooms Ministries has
also patterned their evangelistic
efforts after John G. Lakes methods,
which are, to teach others the key to
tapping into the “anointing” so they
can spread the Healing Rooms gospel.
The first false teaching propagated by
the Healing Rooms Organization that I
would like to point out is also the most
obvious when one listens to their radio
program. The introduction to
Catholic teachings. Which I would
assume is being used by them to present
themselves as appealing to the Catholic
and Reformed Catholic crowd. They
first teach that in order to be a
subject for divine healing, you must
first have faith… and that faith means
that you must “properly discern the
body of Jesus”. While Bible
believers will fully agree that in order
to have faith in Christ, one must
properly discern who Jesus is… many
immature Christians will fail to
recognize that when the Healing Rooms
state “you must properly discern the
body of Jesus”, they are speaking of
“communion”. In other words,
in order to be a candidate for healing,
you must understand that the bread and
wine (grape juice) of the communion
becomes the body and blood of Jesus
Christ through “transubstantiation”.
The first atrocity committed by the
Healing Rooms Organization is the act of
preying on the desperation of cancer
victims, aids victims, the parents of
crippled children, the wife who’s
husband only has a short time to live…
I think you get the idea. A person in a
state of desperation will actually
become hypersuggestive (will easily
accept what they are told) in hopes that
they will get the healing they
think they need… In this case - physical
healing, and they are being presented
with the suggestion that they might
have a chance of healing if they will
consider the plausability that the
Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation
might be valid. As, Cal Pierce has
said on the radio show, “the first
thing we teach them is… communion…
we teach them to take communion every
day… the healing power is in
communion… it’s how you take it that
matters” (meaning with the
understanding that you are acutally
eating Jesus). Again, this is an
obvious ploy to prey on the desperation
of these sick people in order to
introduce them to Catholicism.
The second, and not so obvious false
teaching that the Healing Rooms
Organization is involved with is to
distract their followers from the most
important area of a Christians life…
the spiritual. By placing such a
strong emphasis on the need for physical
healing, and claiming that God himself
strongly emphasizes physical healing,
they are effectively suggesting that
worldly, physical things are more
important than spiritual.
When a person who is suffering from an
illness… even a life threatening
illness, there is a strong temptation to
be more concerned with the preservation
of one’s life for selfish reasons than
to fulfil the will of God in their life.
Remember, when Job lost everything
including his health he said ” the
Lord gave, and the Lord hath
taken away, blessed be the name of the
Lord (Job 1:21). Job realized that
if God saw fit to take Job’s health,
or even his life God would still be
worthy to be praised. Job 13:15
says “Though He slay me, yet will I
trust in Him”.
Sometimes God allows disease, sickness,
deformity, afflictions in the flesh to
achieve His purposes… and God has
every right to use us in this manner
doesn’t He? The Apostle Paul
recieved an affliction in his flesh, and
although he prayed for three years
asking God to remove it, God said “My
grace is sufficient for thee” (2 Cor.
12:9). God had a specific purpose
in giving the Apostle Paul that “thorn
in the flesh”… it was to keep him
humble so Paul would be more useful to
God in the propagation of the gospel.
How arrogant must one be to think
that easing the discomfort of the
flesh is more important than enduring
suffering for the cause of Christ. How
selfish of us to be more concerned
with prolonging our life here on earth in
order to spend a little more time with
loved ones… or make a little more
money… or indulge in the pleasures of this
life, how selfish must we be to think
more of pacifying our fleshly desires,
than to fulfilling God’s purposes -
however small our part might be.
The ”Healing Rooms”
organization has diverted thousands
of eyes from Jesus Christ, and compelled
them to focus on themselves.
All this to make Cal Pierce a few
dollars.
Cal Pierce is only one of many of these
“faith healers” who preach the false
gospel of selfishness. There is a
long list of many including; John G.
Lake (the pioneer of the faith
healing movement), Benny Hinn, Charles
Capps, the host of heretics that
participate in TBN, R. G. Hardy, and
others who have relegated the
importance of seeking God, and magnified
the importance of self-satisfaction.
These people are not preaching the
gospel, they are preaching
“humanism” (self worship).
I do want to mention here that I am not reproving
any mention of the healing power of God.
It is evident that God does gloriously
heal people, in fact, I believe I have
been healed of a serious condition.
But God does not heal people for
the purpose of enabling their own
selfishness. James said in James 4:3
“Ye ask, and recieve not, because ye
ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon
your lust”. As mature
Christians, our position should be that
of Jesus’ in the Garden of Gethsemane
before he was to be crucified…
“Father, if thou be willing, remove
this cup from me: nevertheless not
my will, but thine, be done“.
John
W. Hardin
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