F F Bosworth - Christ, the healer : sermons on divine healing

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FOREWORD TO THE 2000 EDITION

by Bob Bosworth
Christ the Healer, first published by my late father, F. F. Bosworth, in 1924, has been in continual print for seventy-six years. The book has been the living pioneer classic and textbook on the subject of God's compassion and longing to heal all who are sick.

It lives because of the current flood of testimonies from those spiritually feeding directly on my father's ministry through the book. Other vast multitudes are benefiting through the ministry of countless preachers around the world who are proclaiming the same truth that they have learned through these teachings. It seems to be in order to explain the need to revise, expand, and publish another edition of such a successful classic.

My father said in his preface, "In this book we have tried to use the vocabulary that common people understand...." In his day, this goal was accomplished, as evidenced by the stream of testimonies that flooded his ministry office from those converted and healed. Dad's passion was to communicate transforming truth, transferable concepts that would surge forward and spread from one believer to another. He longed to see God's Word grow, creating a domino effect and bringing true revival.

Although the truths published in the early editions never changed, language, writing styles, and vocabulary have become more direct. The first messages were made up of long sentences with many compound phrases making comprehension difficult.

Many of the newer messages in the eighth edition were presented in a more modern and easy-to-understand way. The older messages were left as they were, and to the younger generations, these became more difficult to understand.

In presenting this limited revision, I have sought to enhance truth without changing it. Long sentences have been broken down and the concepts have been checked for clarity. I have been very careful to maintain the integrity of truth as stated in the old text.

At the time the original book was published, my dad was experiencing much ministry pressure, and he felt strongly the necessity to publish printed truth for the masses. Never having developed writing skills, he merely gathered his most important sermons and put them in a logical sequence. His book became a compilation of sermons. The sermons were written in the same style as he preached. Proof-texts and references were kept to a minimum. Many quotations of the Word were from translations and helpful paraphrases unavailable today. He had a habit of using quotation marks to emphasize a truth, not always a quotation. Because of the necessity in ministry to recap previous truths, there is a certain repetition and overlapping in the sermons presented. I have not revised or edited these.

Little has been written concerning the life and ministry of F. F. Bosworth and his brother, Bert, as it relates to Christ the Healer and their healing ministry. Dad and B. B. were dedicated evangelists. To them, the saving of souls was paramount, and every other consideration, including the healing of the body, was secondary. Early in Dad's ministry, he discovered that the healing side of the Gospel had been given to the Church as its greatest evangelizing agency. This discovery continued to guide him through more than fifty years of ministry. This guiding light eventually took him to Africa at the age of seventy-five where he had his most successful ministry.

Christ the Healer has been expanded to briefly cover Dad's testimony of healing and successful ministry after the age of seventy-five.

In the preface to this book, F. F. Bosworth expressed his earnest prayer that many thousands would learn to make the promises of God's Word work in their lives. With this thought in mind, we present the new revised and expanded edition of Christ the Healer.

Little did I realize, when I published the first popular paperback edition of this book, what a surge of new interest would be generated. When the dust of skepticism, kicked up by the mercenary methods of a decade of "faith healers" had finally settled, there was a deep hunger in the hearts of many sincere Christians for a sane and scriptural presentation of irrefutable Bible truth.

Many men of God have been aware that the Reformation has never been completed, that God seems to be systematically working toward a return to New Testament faith and simplicity so as to eternally silence man's excuse of ignorance of God's message. Fundamental Christianity has suffered great damage through the efforts of some theologians to excuse their own spiritual impotence through relegating everything supernatural into an imaginary transition period of dispensational truth, which cannot be scripturally proven. It can only be substantiated through their own interpretation of isolated passages and is perpetrated through blind traditionalism not unlike that which Christ faced. Yet, deep within the hearts of sincere men, there is a longing to rescue the Book of Acts from becoming nothing more than a historical record and to put it back in its proper place as a pattern for the modern church. In this way God can continue to confirm His Word and give proof of the resurrection of His Son in this day of universal unbelief.

When the first simple truths concerning God's attitude toward sickness and human suffering came to my father as a result of intensive study of Scripture, it was like a bright light in a traditional darkness. Not only did God illuminate Scripture, but He confirmed His Word through Dad's personal ministry, healing those beyond the help of medical science. The Word also produced a depth of holiness in their lives. I'm sure my father did not realize that the truth received was fifty years ahead of its time. Only after it had been proven through Dad's life and ministry, could it be used as a major contribution in God's reformation process of returning supernatural power to His Church.

Medical science has made great strides in its effort to alleviate human suffering. Yet the accelerated pace of our modern society continues to take its toll on the bodies of men and women, producing sickness beyond a man's ability to help.

The demands for sufficient doctors, hospitals, beds, and cures grow with increasing pressure, and many new drugs and medicines are creating new problems. The population explosion has caused problems of poverty, malnutrition, and epidemic disease that can only intensify the message that man needs a healer God. How the father nature of God must long for man to return to the security and simple faith of pure fellowship with Him, taking His Word as fact that can be fully trusted!

It is within the context of human need that the greatest message of this book shines forth as a beacon in a faithless world. Basically the Church has only one message: In all things, our Heavenly Father can be trusted to honor His Word. Beyond just the message of divine healing, this book clearly presents the principles of faith in a way whereby every Christian can discover and possess, through the benefits of Calvary, all that Adam lost.

It is to hungry, needy men and women everywhere that we present this new edition of Christ the Healer.

R. V. Bosworth

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

When, in the year 1924, we wrote the messages for the first edition of this book, little did we dream that the truths presented were to bless such vast numbers in so many parts of the world.

The results, down through the years, have been a demonstration of the truth of the inspired declaration that God "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3:20).

During the forty-four years that have followed, six more large editions have been printed and read by thousands of ministers and laymen who have written to us telling how they have been enlightened and blessed, soul and body, through reading and rereading these messages.