Dowie - What Should A Christian Do When Sick? (Pentecostal Pioneers)

A Sermon

by

Rev. John Alex Dowie

General Overseer of the Christian Catholic Church in Zion.

Voices from the Healing Revival Series

No. 15

Published by The Revival Library

www.revival-library.org

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Delivered in Central Zion Tabernacle, 1621-1633 Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, Lords Day, July 11, 1897.

Invocation.

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight and profitable unto this people and to all to whom these words shall come, oh Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer.

I will ask you this question before I announce my text: Should not a Christian obey the commands of God as contained in His word?

Say Yes or No.

Voices: Yes.

Then, there is no question what a Christian should do when sick.

Here is the apostolic command inspired by the Spirit of God showing you what was the practice of the primitive church.

What should a Christian do when sick?

Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him.

Confess therefore your sins to one another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.James 514-16. R. V.

A commonly quoted saying, amongst people who like to make declarations that they do not live up to, is The religion of the Protestants is the Bible.

It is a very good saying in a sense, although I do not approve- of it wholly even as perhaps they want it to be understood.

I BELIEVE THE RELIGION OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS GREATER THAN THE BIBLE.

I believe in the perpetuity of inspiration, and the perpetuity of the Life of God in His church.

A dead apostle or a dead epistle has no power.

The Spirit of God makes the words spoken in every age to live, and I have just as much right to ask today that the Holy Ghost shall guide me, inspire me, and control me in speaking in Chicago as Paul had when he spoke in Ephesus. ('Amen.')

I believe the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ is greater than the Bible; that there are thousands of things that Christ could not tell us, that we were not able to bear, and while no religion can ever be true that contradicts the Bible, yet that religion is forever true which fulfils and which develops, and which embodies, and which applies the principles of the Word of God.

Now, returning to the expression, I have a right to require of every Protestant to do what the Bible commands, and the answer to the question, what a Christian should do when sick, is provided by the Bible.

Neither in the Old Testament, nor in the New, from Genesis to Revelation, covering 4,100 years of human history of Divine Revelation, in no part of that Bible is there one single word approving doctors, surgeons, or drugs.

There is no provision in the Bible for any other healing of Gods people than God Himself.

They who say the opposite have a right to give us the chapter and verse and prove it.

On the other hand my lecture of last Sabbath day, tracing Divine Healing from Genesis to Revelation, provides the other answer. The lecture of today concentrates upon the question: What should a Christian do?

A CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO BE A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH.

A Christian is a member of the Church, that General Assembly and Church of the First-born, whose names are written in heaven, and cannot help being if he is a true Christian.

Therefore, he ought to be identified with the visible Church in some form, even in some imperfect form. If I were pushed to it I would not hesitate to say that it would be better for a man or woman to be connected with the Church of Rome than not to be connected with any part of the Church.

Apostate though that church is, fallen though it be, it contains a vast mass of truth, and I have no sympathy with those who say, I am going to be a Christian, but I refuse to be connected with any organization.

You might just as well in the late war have said, I am going to be a soldier, but I decline to go into the army. I am going to be a soldier all on my own account. I am going to fight just as I like and where I like. I am going to fight rebels where I meet them and just as I like. Now you were a soldier (to Mr Dinius) what did they call these fellows?

Mr Dinius:Guerrillas.

Dr. Dowie:Why they are not reckoned as soldiers. They were called sometimes guerrillas, and they were an utterly irregular kind of soldier. And they were not recognized as regular soldiers by either, and were shot as brigands and murderers.

A soldier in the great army of the Lord must be willing to enter and shoulder his musket, and wear the uniform of the regular army, in some of its many parts; and, if he cannot get a higher place than a full private, be a full private. It was the full privates that won the battles, anyhow. Generals directed them, but the full privates fought the fight, bled and died and won the battle.

A Christian ought to be associated with the Assembly, with the Ecclesia, as it is called in the New Testament. You know I am against denominations as they stand just now, but I would rather that a man, after all, was among the miserable Baptists with the water frozen sixty feet thick around the baptistery, or with the Presbyterians who have got great chunks of doctrine, which are just as hard as steel, and would require the stomach of an ostrich to digest. (Laughter.) I tell you I would rather they were in some portion of the Church of God, imperfect as it might be, than not under cover at all.

There were many regiments that were not of much account, and there were regiments during the war that were composed of splendidly educated men, and these men formed the crack regiments of the army, but everybody must be in the army one way or another.

WHEN YOU ARE IN THE CHURCH, YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO CALL FOR THE ELDERS OF THE CHURCH.

But, if you are not inside of the church, what right have you to call for any elders?

A Christian is supposed to be associated with some portion of the Church of God, and I do not hesitate to say that it is evidence of a lower type of Christianity when a man says, I will not be associated with any. For instance, the other day a brother said to me, Well, Doctor I see so much inconsistency, and so much of this and that in the Church, that I cannot be connected with any, not even with your church.