Pastor’s Comments

July 17, 2009

“. . . I AM the LORD (JHVH ROPHEKA = JHVH that heals you) who heals you (Exodus 15:22).

“You live in a world that relies primarily on Medical Doctors to treat illness”
Plain Truth about Healing, Chapter one, page 8, Healing in our Time, Mr. Armstrong.

In this writing, we will continue considering the present practice of medical science and their modern use of vaccines and drugs in view of what Holy Scripture reveals about them; and God’s promise of healing.

In the past three (3) writings, we have seen from historical writings that medical science originated this side of the Flood with Satan’s use of Nimrod. This was necessitated due to the LORD God afflicting mankind with different kinds of sickness and disease because of their sins against Him as can be seen from the following Scriptures:

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The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. The LORD will strike you with madness (insanity- mental hospitals are filled with such people; it has even affected cattle in England, mad cow disease) blindness and confusion of heart. And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness . . .” (Deuteronomy 28:27-29).

The development of medical science was another effort by Satan to side-track mankind from worshiping the true God and worship himself through Nimrod. And he succeeded! (Romans 1:18-26).

onsider the use of thalidomide by pregnant women some years ago and the fallout of it after their babies were born. Recent news makes known this drug is being experimented once again with its possible use to try and combat other health problems.

Note: Good News, October 1959, A History of Medicine, page 641, Origin of Medical Science: “Ancient physicians guided by their god—Baalzebub, used filth to try to prevent or cure diseases as doctors do today—inject people with vaccine made from monkey pus SV40 Contamination of Polio Vaccine. ‘The inoculation of human pus from small pox cases had been known since far distant times.’ ”

Note: The Plain Truth About Healing, page 22, 1979 publication, Mr. Armstrong: “The patron deity of medicine—the medicine god of Ekron. The manner in which people inquired of this god was through the medical doctors.

“Is it because some of us do not know and rely on the true God that we rely instead on doctors? God has said, “I am the God who heals you.”

Just as Israel was taught a new way of life after having left Egypt, we as God’s true people having been called and drawn by God our Father through Jesus Christ (John 6:44), began learning a new way of life that had been completely obscured to us; God’s way of life:

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For it is the God who commanded LIGHT TO SHINE out of darkness, who has SHONE in our hearts to give the LIGHT of the knowledge of God” (II Corinthians 4:6).

Three days after the LORD God led Israel out of Egypt, they were put to A TEST to prove their obedience to Him:

So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; and they went into the wilderness and found no water. . . . Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. . . . And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters became sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He TESTED them, and said, “If you DILIGENTLY HEED THE VOICE OF THE LORD and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments, and keep ALL His statutes, I will PUT NONE of these diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD (JHVH ROPHEKA = JHVH that heals you) who heals you” (Exodus 15:22).

God brought the Israelites into circumstances which would put their faith and belief in Him to the TEST whereby they would be tried then, and with their future health problems.

Soncino Commentary: “The moral and social basis of Hebrew [God’s] law is here taught the people in connection with the sweetening of the bitter waters. God set before them the fundamental principle of implicit faith in His providence, to be shown by willing obedience to His will. The healing of the waters was a symbol of the divine deliverance from all evils. ‘. . . that healeth thee . . .’ lit. “Thy Physician.” A physician demands obedience for the purpose of securing the patient’s welfare.”

With ancient Israel in mind, consider the duality of the Church of God that is made known by the apostle Paul to the Church of God that was begun in 31 A.D.

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Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were UNDER THE CLOUD (Exodus 13:21-22), all passed through the sea (Exodus 14:12), all were BAPTIZED into Moses (Exodus 4:16--into the Congregation of God) in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food (manna – a type -- speaking spiritually – type of God’s Holy Spirit), and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (I Corinthians 10:1-12).

To both Israel, and to the Church of God, God makes known: “I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 42:8; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8).

History repeats itself: Elijah the prophet was sent by God at a time when the possibility existed of the LORD God destroying mankind with utter destruction because of their worship of Baalim by Israel (Baalim is a plural word that covers any number of so-called gods, idolatry) and other abominable sins; this included the sacrificial deaths of their firstborn babies in their worship of Molech (Malachi 4:6; II Kings 17:17).

Their worship of God at that time is much like it is today in God’s Church: Soncino Commentary: “Sometimes they followed God and sometimes Baal as if they could not make up their minds.”

And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.” But the people answered him not a word (I Kings 18:21).

The same problems exist today as they did with Israel during the time of Elijah. That is why Jesus Christ said in view of sending Elijah with the restoring of His laws, that unless a sufficient number of families were turned to each other, He would strike the earth with utter destruction (Malachi 4:4-6; Genesis 18:20-32).

The same horrifying sinful problem continues today as it did with ancient Israel who voluntarily offered their babies in sacrifice to Molech! The sacrifice in our time is of the unborn babies through abortion!

Medical doctors have written the unborn babies that are aborted in our time today experience great excruciating pain and anguish at the hands of uncaring calloused medical doctors.

heir cries go unheard because of being inside the womb (See my Three Elijah’s Writings, chapter eight). It would appear their pain is much greater than the born babies who were roasted to death in sacrifice to Molech.

The lack of real love for the born babies at that time is a real parallel to what is occurring in this time. The vast majority of women do this without any real love and consideration for the new life that is carried within her body, for the killing of it is largely done for the sake of convenience! (Slouching Towards Gomorrah, Page 180, by Robert Bork, former Appeals Court Judge).

Israel and many members in God’s Church, without realizing it, have also lost sight of the true God; and without realizing it, place their faith and trust in medical science instead of God and Jesus Christ.

This is why God sent the Elijah of our time to restore His true identity and with it His promises of blessings (Psalm 103:1-3). Think about it!

The very name of Elijah reveals a major part of his commission: Elijah = YAH is EL or YAHWEH is God. He restored the knowledge—the true identity—of the true God and His laws (Malachi 4:4-5).

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God made man from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). We are composed of matter. He designed our bodies so that they function according to definite physical laws. There can be no law without a penalty for transgression [Romans 3:20; 4:15; I John 3:4; Romans 6:23].

And God never compromises with His laws or their penalties. Once a penalty is incurred it must be paid. God never suspends the penalty. . . . Then how do we avoid paying it? By the fact that He paid the penalty for us . . . He paid the death penalty for all mankind—conditioned on our repentance and faith. . . . We may be healed by the same principle (Mark 2:1-12; John 5:14).

One may not himself have broken a physical law. It could have been an accident. It could have been from a contagious disease contracted without his knowledge. In the case of Job (Job 2:6-7), Satan was the cause of Job’s ailments for a special purpose, by God’s permission. Nevertheless, sickness and disease are the penalty being paid for broken physical law.

God the great Lawgiver (James 4:12), demands that the penalty must be paid! God never compromises that principle! No HEALING without the penalty having been paid.

In the human body are a number of systems— each functions separately, yet all work in perfect harmony with each other . . . They function according to definite physical laws. These laws when transgressed, exact a PENALTY. When a person is sick or has contracted a disease, he is simply paying the PENALTY of transgressed physical laws in his body. . . .”

Another area of the curse to befall Israel is through heredity. When one becomes ill from a disease or finds oneself with diabetes or other health problems, it could be through heredity from previous generations.

One must remember people from previous generations were no more obedient to God’s laws than they are today. As the result there is the curse that the LORD God said He would bring upon Israel due to their disobedience to Him and His laws.

“The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. . . . If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may FEAR this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants [2^nd Commandment] extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the LORD bring upon you until you are destroyed” (Deuteronomy 28:27-28, 58-61).

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, THE LORD YOUR GOD, am a jealous God visiting the INIQUITY of the fathers to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who LOVE Me and keep My commandments” (Exodus 20:5).

Strong’s Concordance: ‘Iniquity’ # 5771 and 5758 > Perversity, depravity, evil, do amiss, pervert, make crooked, do wickedly, do wrong, sin.

The iniquity of the fathers being passed on to the 3^rd and 4^th generation expressed in this 2^nd Commandment cannot be spiritual sins as the following Scripture makes very plain:

“The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Ezekiel 18:20).

Spiritual sins often lead into physical sins—health problems—that can have end up with death! This could be thought of as being similar to what God brought upon Job—with us, we bring about our own health problems due to our disobedience to Him and His laws in ways we normally do not understand.

Considering heredity: During the early 1960s, I was asked to pray for a young girl that was found to have a diabetic condition; this was very puzzling to her parents for there was no one else in the family who had the problem. The mother told me she began a search to try and see if anyone in the family had this problem. She discovered there was a close relative from about two generations back that had the problem; but no one since.

To bring this present writing to a close for this time, it is necessary to add the following comments.

Internet - Current State of Medicine Today There is a great dichotomy in the state of medicine today. While modern medicine is greatly able to take care of many health problems it is incredibly inept and handling many others. Medical professionals are very adept at repairing bodies broken in accidents, but in trying to correct chronic health problems like thyroid disease, diabetes, or any of a long list of diseases, they are virtually helpless.

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I have made it plain that God’s Church does not condemn medical or other doctors—nor sit in judgment of those who are weak in faith and rely on MAN. There is much doctors can do for us today.

I have given the BASIC PRINCIPLE: God does for us what we humans cannot do. One could get into endless arguments and controversy on technical specific issues of what we may go to man for and what to rely on God to do. I've given the broad guidelines. The church will encourage God's people to believe God -- rely on God -- to say, with the apostles,". . . Lord, INCREASE OUR FAITH (Luke 17:5).

God does not expect his ministers to make your decisions for you -- and God's Church will not sit in judgment of you if you go to a doctor but God says one of his benefits, for which he makes no charge is that he offers you the loving services of a miracle worker -- the living Jesus Christ!”

Before ending this series of writings to make it complete it is necessary to write about another area that carries a curse with it that most members do not even consider; yet, the penalty is continuing to be paid with real health problems.

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