Why do Christians disobey their Bible by getting medical treatment?
James 5:14-16: "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
From the point of view of a Christian, the line that goes "The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well" should sound like a promise of faith.
So why do Christians claim to have heaps of faith about trusting that Jesus will save their souls … yet they rely on science instead of Jesus alone to heal their bodies?
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P.S. The quote from James does not say prayer "in addition to" medical treatment: it clearly says prayer is -all you need-!
Mark was written after the quote from Jesus, sorry: after Jesus became "God" (according to Christians) he was given the power to HEAL. You’re not understanding your own Bible there.
Christians believe Jesus always had the power to heal, yes, but after his "resurrection" faith was all that is required to be healed, according to James.
What I’m seeing here are excuses hiding a lack of faith in what the Bible says, and that looks a lot like hypocrisy.
James continues:
15"And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.16Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.17Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.18And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."
Rain=literal rain. Sickness=literal illness. Want more proof? Okay:
Acts 19: "11God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them."
Illnesses=illnesses. Sick=physically ill.
Period.
You’re right, it doesn’t say to seek medical treatment in addition to prayer. It also doesn’t say to NOT seek medical treatment, nor does it say that prayer is all one needs.
Therefore, seeking medical attention is not a violation of the Bible.
2 meaning: Spritual illness and Physical illness.
What if that elders also a doctor? ha? what if? God gives us all the things like herbal plants for making medicine if you will research it. Do you prayer? God answers your prayer by giving plants and other herbal medicines to us. BECOMING A LAZY PERSON MAKES GOD HATES US.
Faith without work is nothing<—remember this.
Good question. Bad, bad answers.
Christians (claim to) believe 100% that Jesus literally healed the sick, and not the "sick of spirit" — oh please! — but people who were literally sick – with leprosy and all kinds of physical ailments. But show them a quote about how the same Jesus (in heaven) will heal the sick by answering prayer, they pull out the old hypocritical "oh wait a minute, this particular verse doesn’t mean what it says" excuse. I wonder if they realize how hypocritical they are? Probably not.
To answer your question, Christians don’t obey their Bibles in respect to James 5:14- because the only kind of "faith" they have is the lip-service kind that they wouldn’t actually apply to the real world.
James 5:14-16: "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
This verse is not talking about physical sickness.
It’s keywords are:
Prayer
Sin
Forgiven
Confess
These are spiritual terms not medical terms. Your argument has no win here since you are using the term sickness ONLY in the physical sense and not allowing better fitting context of James 5:14-16 being in the spiritual context.
I suggest on this one you drop your offense since you are losing in the face of reasonableness.
Maybe that’s all they had back then. ???
Some lunatics do refuse medical treatment on that basis. It has resulted in the deaths of several people, including children.
I disagree..
Mark 2:17
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
There is nothing wrong with medical treatment, Luke was a doctor.
Naughty! But what do we expect.
Christian Scientists go for that though…
Harriet
Hmmm, that is talking about spiritual sickness not physical sickness. But that is the context James is referring to. I know it is not the context you would like it to be but… (shrugs).
Hammering your square shaped argument in the the round shaped hole of truth is not going to fit very well. The first essence of truth is its ability to reason not argue.