I’m not saying God won’t heal- but to say someone doesn’t have enough faith when he chooses not to is not Scriptural. What about all the martyrs in the Hebrew Hall of Fame? They weren’t blessed with healings and prosperity. Did they lack faith?
You can’t trust it, either.
Of course God can and does heal. As a former evangelical, I have seen many healings. And as a Catholic I have seen them, too. We are simply saying that it is not always God’s will that we be healed, or get rich, or anything else that we choose to demand of Him, through so-called faith. Jesus Himself asked for God to take the cup from Him, but only if it was God’s will. Jesus, being fully human, did NOT want to die! And would you deny that He had the faith to demand that God bring about His salvation plan in a way that would allow Jesus to live? Well, He supposedly taught Dad Hagin that was how it worked. So why didn’t He do it? He didn’t, because He knew that God’s will must be done, not anyone else’s. To get around that question, Hagin simply taught that Jesus was NOT divine on earth! He taught that Jesus only became divine after he went to Hell, battled Satan, and got “born again”. Go figure! Jesus wasn’t “filled with the Spirit!” Why didn’t Paul, whose faith was more than Hagin’s to be sure, demand that God allow him to get out of prison or not be martyred? Why didn’t all the apostles demand to escape martyrdom? Didn’t Jesus teach them the same thing He supposedly taught Hagin in all those “visions”?
That was my point. It is counter to Catholic teaching. No one is immune from having someone misrepresent or abuse their faith. He is a cultural Catholic, I know him well. He’s my cousin.
Wow, thanks for your vote of confidence! You’re definitely not likely to win many converts from the Protestant camp villifying us like that. Why do you think I’m posting to this forum? Do you think I have nothing better to do than attack and harass Catholics? I am in the middle of a crisis of faith and am prayerfully considering if the evidence for Catholicism is enough to convince me that I need to cross over. Why would I make something like this up if I am honest with myself enough to ask questions that are very hard to consider- that go against everything I’ve ever considered truth. While searching for answers on the Apologetics forum, I’m just trying to provide some info about what we believe in mainstream Protestantism and trying to say to be careful about stereotyping others.
It is very easy to make generalizations, and that is one of the main problems when debating. I was an evangelical for years, and I still tend to lump them all together, even though I’ve known some great ones. I apologize for any offenses, as I’m sure everyone else does. It is natural to get defensive when people seem to be attacking your faith, and defense turns quickly to offense. After being on this forum for a few weeks, I’ve seen that we could all work on remaining more neutral and polite. Darned sinful nature that we have.
Actually, you drove home the point that justifying a party lifestyle with Catholicism goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church. It is anti-Catholic.
(although one coming to “disturbing” realizations about the Eucharist that challenge the faith I’ve always rested solidly on).