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Sermon Illustrations: Health & Healing

Hobart Freeman began Faith Assembly ........ in 1963. ........... He referred to doctors as "medical deities" and claimed that medicines had demonic names and, if taken, opened one up to demonic influence. Members of Faith Assembly were, and still are, strongly discouraged from seeking medical attention for any maladies suffered. As a result, at least ninety persons of Faith Assembly have died of preventable and treatable illnesses. One report indicates that the church has averaged about one preventable death per month since 1978. These deaths include forty-two infants, ten children between the ages of one and seventeen, seven mothers who died of complications related to home births, and numerous adults who suffered illnesses that were inadequately treated. According to Freeman's "faith-formula theology," God is obligated to heal every sickness if a believer's faith is genuine - so that Faith Assembly members felt they could actually avoid death. After a "positive confession" is made concerning the healing, symptoms of illness or injury that remain are viewed as deception from the Devil. ....... Freeman himself died of severe cardiovascular disease and mild bronchopneumonia in 1984, an embarrassment to his church. ........... [Members of the church] buy no insurance, wear neither glasses nor contact lenses, and remove the seat belts from their cars, preferring to "live by faith alone."¹

Fear causes sickness - Num 22:3 And Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many, and Moab was sick with dread because of the children of Israel.

A study of 1000 Israeli men with heart conditions found that those men who felt they were loved by wives had a 50 per cent reduction in their angina and cardiac disease.²

A hypochondriac went to a doctor and burst into tears. "I'm certain I've got liver disease, and I'm going to die from it." "That's ridiculous," said the doctor. "You wouldn't even know if you had liver disease or not. There's no discomfort of any kind with that ailment." "That's right!" said the hypochondriac. "And those are my exact symptoms!"

A patient goes to his doctor and says, "Doctor, I have a terrible problem. Every morning at 7am I have a bowel movement." "What's wrong with that?" asks the doctor. The patient says, "I never get up until 8am."

A patient went to her doctor about a weight-loss patch she'd seen advertised. "Apparently, you stick it on, and the kilos just fall off. Does it work?" she asked. "Sure," the doctor replied. "If you put it over your mouth."

Self-discipline, a sense of purpose and strong scruples may help prevent Alzheimer's disease, according to a new report in the Archives of General Psychiatry. … The authors say conscientious people are more likely to achieve academic or career success, which has been linked to a reduced risk of Alzheimer's.³

Australia has the fifth-highest adult obesity rate in the world behind the US, Mexico, the UK and Greece.⁴

1 Enroth, Ronald M., Churches That Abuse pp182-183
2 Readers Digest June 2005 p 164
3 Readers Digest Dec 2007 p 31
4 Readers Digest February 2008 p 18