Bill Johnson: “I believe it is the provision of the Lord in his suffering on our behalf; Jesus bore stripes in his body through brutal beating as an atoning work to deal with the power of sickness and disease…”
Jesus did not need to go to the cross to heal your cancer. Throughout the earthly ministry of Jesus, he healed people. During his earthly ministry, Jesus appointed 72 people to go out and heal people and share the gospel. Physical healing, while miraculous, wonderful, and beautiful, was not the purpose of Jesus’ ministry—preaching the gospel (Mark 1:36–38), the good news of forgiveness of sin was the primary purpose of Jesus’ ministry. I promise you, a leper that was healed of their leprosy, but in turn rejected the gospel, received no lasting good from their physical healing.
We know why Jesus went to the cross. The apostle Peter writes, “He (Jesus) himself bore our sins in his body on the tree (cross), so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24 ESV)
The phrase, “by his wounds you have been healed,” also translated as, “by his stripes” in 17th century King James English is first introduced to us by the prophet Isaiah about 700 years before Jesus’ earthly ministry. In describing the purpose and events surrounding the suffering servant (Jesus) in Isaiah 53. Isaiah records, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isa 53:5) The wounds Jesus voluntarily bore upon himself describe a healing from sin (for believers in Christ), as summed up at the end of the passage, “yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.” The same point the apostle Peter makes in 1 Peter 2:24.
While Bill Johnson’s sermon message is consistent with his legacy of an anthropocentric health, wealth, and power centered “gospel” message which appeals to the goals of every sinful human—it absolutely pales in comparison to the true gospel of Jesus. Where Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection was not to provide you with the things that will pass away (health and wealth), but rather, to provide you with true grace, mercy, holiness only available through the Christ Jesus leading to eternal life that is full of goodness, joy, love, kindness, peace…because it gives us fellowship with God Himself back in the Edenic state.
The theology of Bethel Church in Redding is carefully nuanced—where we find scriptural axioms mixed between tragic errors and old heresies—the result of a faulty biblical theology, bad hermeneutics, and frequent eisegesis. Over the next few days, I am going to catalogue and write on a number of significant (i.e. Bible, Jesus, gospel) errors and heresies openly taught/advocated by Bethel Church in Redding. I am not talking about minor differences that make one a Southern Baptist versus a Presbyterian, but rather, the difference between those saved in Christ versus those outside of Christ. The difference between those who have received and teach the gospel of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins versus those who have embraced and teach a different gospel centered around health, wealth, and power.
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If Jesus didn’t need to go to the cross to heal people because he healed them during his earthly ministry, then presumably you are also saying he didn’t need to go the cross to forgive people, because he forgave people during his earthly ministry too?
Greetings Fiona,
I suppose if we needed to speculate one could explore your proposition. But, you are forgetting that Scripture tells us why Jesus came and went to the cross. No speculation needed. For example, Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” John records, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We know that Jesus’ sacrifice was necessary for salvation because, “the wages of sin death” (Rom 6:23). Paul writes, “God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).
Scripture also shares with us why Jesus healed some people during his earthly ministry. Jesus healed people to fulfill prophecy (Matt 12:15-17), demonstrate his authority, (Mark 2:1-12), demonstrate the Kingdom of God was near (Matt 8:1-17), demonstrate his compassion (Matt 14:14), as evidence that he was the Christ (Matt 11:2-6, John 20:30-31), and to demonstrate the works of God (John 11:4).
If you want to assert that Jesus needed to suffer and die on the cross in order to heal people (or to do any other miracle) I am going to need a Bible verse that supports your proposition.
The very word for salvation grants us God’s promise of protection,provision, deliverance from the levitical law, and healing…. look it up. Heals all our Diseases. I ask you again how many is all? God is moving in a big way today and people that just believe every word the Bible says. He is also letting those who refuse to believe and obey to just watch from the sidelines. Who do you want to be? Stop raising up accusation against God’s very anointed.
Greetings John. King David wrote much about praising God for being the, “horn of my salvation.” Yet, as Peter explained in Acts, “David both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day…” Clearly, salvation, even in an Old Testament/Old Covenant context means more than your understanding of the word. After all, even all the apostles of Christ experienced illness and succumb to physical death, yet even while acknowledging their physical illnesses or pain (Galatians 4:13, 2 Timothy 4:20) they understood their actual hope (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). I agree that God is moving in big ways; His word is being spread and planted across the globe, His servants are serving the bride of Christ, and the saints are proclaiming the victory of Christ over sin and death (the proclamation of the gospel).
I have raised no accusations against God’s anointed. Bill Johnson is a false teacher, a false prophet, a charlatan, and a heretic. His own myopia reveals the tragic truth of his false theology.