God's indeed a good Father--how NAR leaders have twisted a biblical truth

Christians would agree: God is good. But not every Christian would agree with what that means exactly. For instance, could God, as a good father, ever use a sickness, disease, or other type of suffering to teach his children a lesson?Most Christians would say yes, that God does sometimes work in the hearts of individuals through human suffering, painful though that truth may be. But many leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) insist that a good human father would never do such a thing and, therefore, neither would God. This teaching is promoted by the influential NAR apostle Bill Johnson, the senior pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California, who has written a new book titled God is Good: He's Better Than You Think. In his popular book When Heaven Invades Earth: A Practical Guide to a Life of Miracles, Johnson writes this:

Faith lives within the revealed will of God. When I have misconceptions of who He is and what He is like, my faith is restricted by those misconceptions. For example, if I believe that God allows sickness in order to build character, I’ll not have confidence praying in most situations where healing is needed. But, if I believe that sickness is to the body what sin is to the soul, then no disease will intimidate me. Faith is much more free to develop when we truly see the heart of God as good.The same misconceptions of God affect those who need to have faith for their own miracle. A woman who needed a miracle once told me that she felt God had allowed her sickness for a purpose. I told her that if I treated my children that way I’d be arrested for child abuse. She agreed and eventually allowed me to pray for her. (Chapter 4)

The problem with Johnson's teachings about God's goodness and sickness is they don't square with Scripture. What's more, they can lead to a shallow faith that is ill-prepared to face health problems and other trials of life that will inevitably come. This will likely lead to increased suffering for ourselves and those around us. Rather than denying the reality that God uses suffering as a tool to shape us, how much wiser it is to recognize His care and goodness in the midst of suffering.

Sickness as a tool in God's hand

Consider the following people who suffered sickness--and some even death--because God had a specific purpose for their suffering.

• Job: God allowed Satan to inflict Job with painful sores over his entire body. God allowed this attack on Job's health to show that Job would remain faithful to God even during terrible suffering. (Job 2:1-8)
• King David's child: God afflicted David's baby with a sickness that resulted in death, even though David fasted and prayer fervently that God would spare the child's life. God told David, through the prophet Nathan, that the death of the baby was discipline from God for David's sins of adultery and murder. (Samuel 12:13-23)
• The author of Psalm 38: The unknown writer of this psalm laments that he is suffering extreme sickness and pain as discipline from God for his sins.

More examples of sickness being used by God for a specific purpose could be provided. But Johnson discounts examples that are found in the Old Testament. Read what he says about them here. So, let's look at some examples from the New Testament.

• A man born blind: A grown man suffered blindness many years before Jesus healed him. Jesus explained that the reason God allowed him to suffer from blindness was so that "the works of God might be displayed in him." (John 9:1-7)
• The Apostle Paul: God allowed Paul to suffer from a "thorn in the flesh," which most commentators believe was some type of chronic health problem. Paul begged God to cure him, but God didn't because He wanted Paul to learn to rely on His grace. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
• Members of the church in Corinth: Many people in the first-century church in Corinth were sick, and some even died, because they partook of the Lord's Supper "in an unworthy manner." The purpose of the sickness was to discipline those individuals who had dishonored the Lord so they would repent and not have to undergo God's ultimate judgment.  (1 Corinthians 11:27-32)

Again, more examples from the New Testament could be given, and I'd love to see them in the comments below. The point is that God does sometimes allow people to suffer from sickness and disease for specific purposes. Yes, He's a good father. But He also knows best.Recommended reading: Preparing to Succeed in Severe Suffering, a blog post by Clay Jones---------Holly Pivec is the co-author of A New Apostolic Reformation?: A Biblical Response to a Worldwide Movement and God's Super-Apostles: Encountering the Worldwide Prophets and Apostles Movement. She has a master's degree in Christian apologetics from Biola University.