Healing In the Atonement, part 11 of 16

Some people have recognized the inconsistency between healing in the atonement and the fact that people deteriorate and die. To account for it, they usually say that wearing glasses and having rickety bones is a natural part of the aging process. Many of them also admit that Paul's vision was likely failing him in his older years, but that this does not contradict healing in the atonement. I beg to differ. If God intends for us to live in perfect health until we die, that includes poor vision, poor hearing, blindness, deafness, diseases, stomach problems, headaches, deformities, arthritis, and any kind of physical malady whether you can technically lable it as a disease or not because anything short of that is not perfect health. Some people seem to think healing is guaranteed in the atonement provided you neither sin nor get old. It seems that healing is not guaranteed for old people. Some people actually admit this, and they use Psalm 90:10 as proof.

"The length of our days is seventy years-or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away." (Psalm 90:10)

It is argued that since God only gave us seventy years to live, then we come out from under his covering once we reach that age. I submit this as proof that a two-legged creature will believe anything. This scripture is only making an observation about the extent of the Israelites' lifespans, and there is nothing in the Bible to hint that God protects people from sickness who are younger than seventy and not those who are older. If seventy was a fixed number, it wouldn't have said, "or eighty, if we have the strength." Clearly, there is no fixed number for how long people live. We see in our own experience that some people have the strength to live a hundred years. Everybody has to die of something whether it be heart failure, stroke, lung failure, or whatever. Some part of the body has to give out and stop working. Everybody dies of something. Aging itself is the primary human disease from which we all suffer, regardless of how holy we live or what religion we belong to.

Noticing the above inconsistencies, other's have attempted to make distinctions about what kinds of physical maladies are covered under the atonement. What I usually hear is that only infectious diseases caused by viruses or bacteria are covered, and that deformities and abnormalities, such as poor vision, poor hearing, and missing or deformed limbs are not covered. This distinction, however, is nowhere found in the Bible. People in the ancient world were unaware of viruses and bacteria. They made no distinction between different kinds of physical ailments. Jesus healed every kind of problem people had, including physical deformity. He even raised people from the dead and cast out demons. If Jesus' healing ministry is any indication of what kinds of healings are guaranteed in the atonement, then we should expect to find that a Christian who is under the atonement will never be missing an arm, a leg, or even a finger or toe, and he can put his glasses and his hearing aid away. But if Jesus' healing ministry is irrelevant to what is covered under the atonement, then proponents of healing in the atonement should not use his healing ministry as a pretext to support healing in the atonement.

Continue to Part 12.