Great faith? Or great deception?

When was the last time you ran into someone with measles?

Measles, a disease which used to kill up to 500 Americans a year, has been officially eradicated in the Western Hemisphere, thanks in large part to the vaccinations we receive as children. As a result, most of you will go your entire life without meeting someone with measles.

But what if you believed in the teaching of Christian prosperity, health and wealth preachers? What if you believed that “by His stripes we are healed,” that physical healing is guaranteed for all believers, and so vaccinations are a sign of unbelief? As one of the giants of the prosperity gospel movement, Kenneth Hagin, put it:

Friend, healing is one of the benefits of our redemption! According to the Word of God, Jesus not only died and rose again for our sins, but He died and rose again for our sicknesses and diseases too. Healing belongs to us just as salvation belongs to us. Healing is part and parcel of our redemption!

Last August, these questions were brought to the forefront when a measles outbreak in Texas was linked to Eagle Mountain International Church, a church led by the daughter of prosperity gospel televangelist Kenneth Copeland. Because of this movement’s belief that Jesus’ death purchased physical healing for all believers, many of the church members and their children were unvaccinated, and had therefore become contaminated by the virus. Among the infected were nine children who were a part of the church’s on-site day care center.

This incident is a sad testimony to how false theology can have catastrophic effects on the lives of those deceived by it. I have heard other testimonies of individuals who have watched family members go to their graves unnecessarily, refusing treatment, all in the name of “faith,” believing that accepting treatment would be a sign of unbelief and a rejection of the healing purchased by Christ at the cross.

The reality, as I pointed out during my sermon on Sunday, is that Christ’s death did purchase our healing, but that the benefits of that healing for most of us will not be fully realized until we are with Him in heaven. As Joni Eareckson Tada put it, it is true that there is an oak tree inside of every acorn, but that doesn’t mean we start sawing the acorn in order to make planks for a picnic table. God will heal all of us fully once we are with Him, but on this side of heaven, we will all experience the effects of living in a fallen world, and our inability to get well is not because we don’t have enough faith.

It is not a sign of unbelief to pursue medical treatment. And a failure to pray away your illness is most likely not a sign of a lack of faith on your part. After all, even Kenneth Hagin died at 86 years old.