The Bible records many miracles and works of wonders. Many such miracles are related to the healing of sicknesses. These are signs used by God. But many heresies in this world attract men by miracles and works of wonders. The Lord prophesied that before His coming again, many miracles would appear to deceive men (Matt. 24:24). A big part of heretical teachings involves the healing of sicknesses. These heresies attract men by their power of healing. We have to be careful about all forms of healing and supernatural phenomena. The miracles and supernatural events in the Bible were initiated by the Holy Spirit through the hands of men. The Holy Spirit acknowledges Jesus as the Lord; He testifies for the Lord. There is nothing wrong for a man who has faith, who has a word from God, and who believes in such a word to pray and anoint sick ones in the name of the Lord. But some miracle workers in some heretical groups do not believe in sickness and death at all. They say that both sickness and death are lies. But it is interesting that they themselves also die. Christian Scientists do not believe in aging, sickness, or death. After Mary Baker Eddy died, a scandal developed. Her will instructed that a certain sum of money be given to her followers. Yet her followers insisted before a judge that she had not died. The judge considered this to be absurd, because if she had not died, the will could not go into effect, and the church could not claim her inheritance. Yet if she had died, it would disprove her teaching about the absence of sickness, pain, sin, and death. We should not be too obsessed with healing and miraculous things. Sickness is a fact. Some sicknesses are the result of natural laws. Some sicknesses are the result of attacks from Satan. Some sicknesses are the result of sin. On the one hand, we believe in the existence of sickness and death. On the other hand, we also believe in supernatural acts as the free manifestation of the work of the Holy Spirit, who always acknowledges Christ Jesus as Lord. But we should also realize that the world likes to believe in strange and inexplicable things. We should exercise our care in discerning these things.
Many people believe that the Lord will come again. But the Lord told us that no one knows the day of His coming, not even the angels or the Son of Man Himself. This is a basic principle concerning the day of Christ’s coming. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Christ came in 1874. The founder of the group, Charles T. Russell, preached this, and his follower Joseph Rutherford continued this. The strange thing is that even though they claimed that they saw the coming of the Lord, we do not see it. They say that we are already in the millennium and that this is the reason for all the wonderful inventions like the typewriter, the telephone, and the automobile. Some also believe that the Lord Jesus entered the Holy of Holies in heaven in 1844. Others say that Christ came in 1918. Two places in the Bible speak of a day as a year: Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6. Some base their arguments on these verses and postulate that a day signifies a year in every prophecy. But God only said that in certain particular things a day is like a year. He did not say that this is true for all things. It is wrong to calculate the day of Christ’s coming according to this “day-year theory.” The seventy weeks in the book of Daniel may fit the “day-year theory.” But other than that, all other days should be considered merely as days. If a person says that a day is always a year, then the millennium would be a period of three hundred and sixty thousand years. Some would then argue that a day, being short, can be interpreted as a long year, but that a year, being so long, is a long enough period, and there is no need for further interpretation. It is tiresome to argue about these things, and we do not have to bother ourselves with them. All those who predict the day of Christ’s return based on the “day-year” theory are in danger of being heretical.