Trivially, all of those who are in faith for their healing die anyway -- sooner or later! You just don't have to be sick before you die.

A correct restatement of this objection is, "Many who say they are in faith for their healing die anyway." The sad fact is that most people have no idea what being in faith really means. They may be better Christians than a faith-filled person with no love walk, but if they do not understand faith, they cannot get "in faith." It is a presumptuous statement to say that you know that someone else was in faith. Are you telling God and the rest of us that faith doesn't work? That would be news to God and to Jesus. Do you know claim to know the whole story?

Faith works. If you are in faith, you get healed. If you die, you are not in faith or you have let some other hindrance (such as unforgiveness) in. That's blunt, that's direct, and that offends a lot of people. It's still the truth. We sometimes compromise the gospel just to soothe people who have suffered a loss (or whose relatives have). We assure them that the baby dying was God's will. We assure them that the young father who died, leaving his widow to care for four small children, was supposed to die because it was his time. When we do this, we are no better than the scoundrel who preaches at a funeral that the sinner with the good works is surely in glory now. (This won't offend the unsaved relatives.) I'm no diplomat (I'm sure you've noticed), but you must come up with something else to say, or you are guilty of denying the gospel. This would probably send dozens more people to hell when they believe that they can be religious but unsaved like Uncle Henry and still go to heaven based on good works! I wouldn't want that blood on my hands! Likewise, you are setting the stage for unbelief and sooner funerals for more people by preaching at a funeral that an untimely death was the will of God. I'm no pastor, and I don't know what to say, but I can sure tell you what NOT to say! You can't deny the gospel to spare people's feelings! You just have to pray for nice, wise, diplomatic words that don't contradict what your Lord taught.


People get all bent out of shape and say things like, "Well, there was never a finer Christian than Aunt Glarda. If anyone had faith, Aunt Glarda did. She was into that faith stuff. She had all the right faith tapes. She said she was in faith according to their teaching. But she's dead. So there. It didn't work for Aunt Glarda, and it really doesn't work for anyone anyway. People just want to believe that faith stuff because they're looking for an easy way out."

I witnessed to a relative on many occasions, and as far as I know, he died and went to hell. Should I then stop preaching the gospel because "it didn't work for him?"

People get scared by people who have stories about those who "tried it and failed." If only the church world would be so quick to broadcast successes in divine healing as it is to broadcast failures! I have talked to people who have "tried" to get baptized with the Holy Spirit and failed. Do we stop believing in the Spirit baptism because they failed? No! Once these people are instructed from the Scriptures, they can get baptized with the Holy Spirit, too.


Are there people who say that they have "tried it and failed" for one reason or another? Yes. Are there people who would insist that they were in faith for their healing who died anyway? Yes. Some people "tried" to stay out of adultery and failed. Some people "tried" to walk in love and failed.

People all over the world can testify that faith for healing works. You can find people who say it doesn't, and I can find people who know it does and are living proof of it. You cannot base your doctrine on anyone's success or failure. You can base it only on the Word of God. Does God say it's so, or doesn't he? You have to be convinced for yourself. Once you are, you won't care if "a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand." You will know that you can walk in health.