Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Written by: April J. Buchanan

Faith healers and those who teach that it is always God’s will to heal expose the emptiness of their doctrine when they themselves experience the same sickness, suffering, tragedy, and death common to all men.

We see this not only among well-known figures like Kenneth Copeland who has a pacemaker, Bill Johnson who wears glasses and whose wife sadly passed away from cancer, and Todd White who reportedly suffered from a serious heart condition, but across the movement as a whole and evident among many who aspire to such fame. Those who insist that healing is guaranteed now, and that its absence is due to a lack of faith or some personal failure, contradict their own teaching when they suffer just as others do. Their lives bear witness against their doctrine.

And yet, they continue. Why? Because men love the lie. They desire to be told that if they only believe enough, do enough, or give enough, they will receive their miracle, their healing, their breakthrough.

It is my sincere prayer that those who are deceived may hear the truth, as only God in His grace can reveal it, to the eyes of the blind, the hearts of the hardened, and the minds of the darkened.

I hold no ill will toward those who believe these things and suffer as we all do. But I warn those who walk in the truth to exercise discernment. Many who are given over to these teachings do not desire to test their beliefs by Scripture, nor to be corrected by it, but instead to draw others into the same error.

I know many who are fully persuaded of these doctrines. I know I cannot change their hearts or minds. No argument, however clear, can accomplish what only God can do. Yet this I also know, God saves His own, even out of false and dangerous systems such as these. His Word is sufficient. His Gospel is powerful.

Many will hear and remain unmoved, confident in themselves, convinced they serve God, and yet without truth, without life, and without hope.

My heart is grieved when I see such widespread deception, when falsehood is celebrated, and the Gospel, Christ, and His church are misrepresented. And yet, I rejoice in what God is doing. His work is often unseen, while error is amplified, dominating social media, “Christian” television, “Christian” bookstores, and “Christian” radio.

You may know a false teacher personally, and because of that, you may be inclined to defend them. But truth is not determined by relationship. There are times when speaking the truth feels like casting pearls before swine. Few will hear. Fewer still will test what they believe, and, if found false, forsake it.

Not many. For many will be deceived. Many will walk the broad path, convinced they are on the narrow way, only to hear the words of Christ that He never knew them (Matt. 7:22–23). Savingly. He did not know them. They did much in His name, and yet they were strangers to Him. This is a grievous reality.

Some will compromise conviction for the sake of relationships, choosing familiarity over truth. But Christ has made it clear, there will be a cost. There will be division. To follow Him is to choose Him above all, even when it severs what is closest to us (Matt. 10:34–37). It is not without pain. But we must choose.