ROD PARSLEY
It is reported that this up-and-coming Word-Faith prosperity teacher has recently been admitted to a hospital for back surgery. There go all his claims of being able to "name it and claim it"! And it doesn't stop there, according to G. Richard Fisher of Personal Freedom Outreach:
We owe everything (all spiritual and physical blessings) to the atonement of Jesus but we do not receive all of those blessings right now. Scripture makes that abundantly clear. Parsley has evidence in his own home that his teaching on healing is off-base — his son Austin has been diagnosed “with Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism.” God has provided evidence of Parsley’s own errors but for whatever reason he refuses to see it. It is sad that Parsley can so compartmentalize that he lays teaching on his followers but has a different reality at home. Parsley shared in a sermon televised last June 4 that his son was diagnosed at the Cleveland Clinic and reports while he is making improvement, “we're not all the way out of the woods but we're on our way.”
Parsley has since claimed that his son, Austin, has been completely healed of Asperger's syndrome. However, since his son is never brought on his father's TV program, it is still to be confirmed that Austin has had any "healing" at all apart from traditional treatments and programs since the diagnosis at Cleveland Clinic. The question remains ... why would Parsley need medical practitioners to diagnose his son when God is supposed to heal him immediately when Parsley commands Him to?
The funny thing is thta the author of the piece is critisising Parsley, but they are both way off base according to the christians on here. Interesting stuff
The healing is according to God's will, not the healer's or the person with the "affliction".
Actually disease being a result of sin is not a Christian doctrine. Jesus said so when he healed people and if you really want a challenge about learning about suffering, read the book of Job. I don't have time to research scripture here and I don't think too many people here are interested anyway.
All the things we call diseases and disabillities are proof that when God lets Satan run the world instead of simply annihilating him forthright, Satan can't run the world.
My personal belief is that in order to get rid of all these diseases and disabilities God would have to judge everyone, I think there a resault of the common sin of man.
God does not judge us yet, becuause he loves us and holds hope that we (man) will change.
Where'd my quoted for truth thing go?
Wait..wrong thread, I think..I dunno
Yeah, exactly--one time when Jesus healed a blind guy, his disciples asked him whether he or his parents had sinned, and Jesus answered, "Neither".
I was under the impression that Christians believed, not that illnesses are a punishment for the specific sins of a person, but that disease existed in the world because of the general degredation of a sinful world. Which raises the question, is Autism a result of sin and degredaiuon, or would it exist in a perfect, sinless world? I asked this of the christians on WP, but didn't really get an answer beyond "what does the question mean to you" "what does this raise in your mind". I wanted yes or no, to be honest.
Oh now I have to quote scripture.
The book of Job, chapter one: Job had a really good life before his troubles started. "Job 1:6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.
Job 1:7 The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”
Job 1:8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
Job 1:9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied.
Job 1:10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.
Job 1:11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
Job 1:12 The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD." God just allowed Satan to run around and cause all this suffering to Job. It was not caused by Job's sin. God allows Satan to exist. Of course he could destroy Satan if he wanted to. Sin is the disobedience to God's will and evil is the essence of that. That is it. simply. NO hocus pocus, secret mystery etc. People and (some angels, notably Satan) choose sin because they have free will that God allows.
I would never encourage people to believe that their autistic children are a punishment to them. How terrible. Never did God punish a person and give them a child who was "not perfect" as a punishment. They might die but God never said "Noah, you have sinned. I will give you a child with a clubbed foot." I think in God's mind there is no "not perfect" just "different" because he makes us all different.
Suffering does have a purpose. It makes you a stronger person. It can make you question important ideals in your life. It can make you appreciate what you have more or what you can do more.
Suffering does have a purpose. It makes you a stronger person. It can make you question important ideals in your life. It can make you appreciate what you have more or what you can do more.
i agre and this is why i have always felt off about pentecostal healers as I know lots of people , not just autistics who don't want ot lose the community, identity, and sense of pride they get from their disability group. Hope noone is offened at me calling autistics disabled, it may not be perfect but i had to fit in the sentence somehow. language can never be sufficent.
Autism's part of your personality. Like many mental disabilities, it connects quite seamlessly with who you are and how you think; and that means your personality is shaped by it. I think, if the world were perfect, you'd still be autistic, but it wouldn't hold you back any; it wouldn't be a disability... if you were bipolar, you'd have the creativity but not the depression and psychosis... It would take a supernatural effort to separate the personality from the drawbacks; but then, we're talking about exactly that. Think... amazingly keen senses, noticing everything, without ever being overloaded... I'd love that.
An interesting, yet strangely plausible fantasy. It sounds nice and I think in a world where we treat others with respect it may be possible.
I think that fake Christian healers are only a problem when they claim that people will get healed if they donate large sums of money.
I knew someone who went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes to get healed and didn't. She just did it on her own and no one made her any promises. If people want to spend X number of hours praying and money in donations -- that is up to them.
So if someone was looking to heal their child of autism from a faith healer due to their ignorance of autism and autistic culture -- would it be totally wrong if that child learned to speak better or do some things for themselves but still have autism. Likely people might think it was a miracle when it was just the child growing up and learning something. Would it be a fake healing if they were not totally healed from autism?
Either it is cure or noncure thinking. I don't agree with the cure.
Making a person's life better would really be more important to me whether it would be considered a miracle or not.
Does autism let us see God any better than the NTs can? Think about that, maybe that has a purpose. Maybe there is a little bit of divine purpose in the autistic perception.
No.
On behalf of non-monotheistic autistic people everywhere, I agree.
on behalf of the Atheists, the pagans, and the Heathens, at this point i will say "no" and raise you a sarcastic glare.
Could you not say the A word and my heathen beliefs in the same sentence -.o
I'm being a twat Arctoris, it's what I do, it's who I am.