Toxic Faith #3

In God We Trust?

Trust: a firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something.

Our nation is celebrating its 250^th birthday today. I saw a flag recently commemorating the Semiquincentennial* with the words “In God We Trust.” It got me thinking. As a nation what do we actually trust God for? For our Freedom? No! Our freedom was purchased over the last 250 years with the blood of American soldiers. Since it’s on our money, do we trust God for our prosperity? No! Capitalism is the reason for our prosperity, and that’s certainly not in line with the teachings of Jesus.

Can God be trusted to keep us safe from natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, wildfires? All you have to do is watch the news and you’ll see that this kind of divine protection is not happening. Are we trusting God to heal us from diseases? According to Stephen Arterburn, God can’t be trusted for that either. So, back to my question, “What are we actually trusting God to do for our nation?” We’ll get back to that.

A brief intro

In the book Toxic Faith, the authors present twenty-one beliefs that they say constitute a Toxic Faith. They write,

“Faith is slowly poisoned as lies and false ideas are integrated into a person’s beliefs about God. At first glance they make such good sense. And plenty of people support and distort beliefs that have been around for thousands of years.”

My question is, “Why have these distorted beliefs been around for thousands of years?” Perhaps, it’s not the individual christian who has a adopted a Toxic Faith. But rather, maybe it’s religion itself that’s toxic.

“If I have real faith, God will heal me or someone I am praying for.”

Hum! I wonder where christians might have gotten this “distorted belief”. Perhaps from the bible? Let’s see what a quick search of the internet reveals.

I typed in “Scriptures about healing” and got these results.

25 Bible Verses about Healing That Only God Can Give
36 Bible Verses about Healing That Show God Cares about Us Body and Soul
15 Healing Scriptures to Declare
Top 15 Bible Verses about Healing
25 Bible Verses About Healing to Bring You Hope
40 Encouraging Bible Verses For Healing And Strength

Let’s look at some of these verses about healing. I have chosen not to give chapter and verse. If you’re interested, you can do your own search.

What’s the true, dammit?

It’s true that the bible teaches that whatever christians ask for, God will do it for them.

“Again, I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.
And whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive it all.”
Whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

It’s also true that the bible teaches that God will heal the sick.

“Is anyone 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 will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.”
“O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.”
Jesus said to the woman, “You are now well because of your faith. May God give you peace! You are healed, and you will no longer be in pain.”
The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health.

With that in mind, is it also true that these two beliefs (which have been around for thousands of years) are actually (in Arterburn’s words) “lies that are slowing poisoning christians’ beliefs about God”? If someone actually believes these verses, do they have a toxic faith or a toxic religion?

Christians say the darndest things.

Sometimes I come across christian writers who say something that completely defies logic. This little gem comes from a blog entitled “God heals all our diseases – Really?”

Psalm 103:3 “God forgives all your iniquity and heals all your diseases.”

“This is how I would teach my people to read that psalm. He ‘heals all your diseases’ means that he will heal them in the age to come.”

(Let’s read between the lines, shall we. What he is actually saying is that God will heal all your diseases… after you die. That’s what he means by “in the age to come”.)

“He heals them often now”. (It would be more accurate if he wrote, “He rarely, if ever, heals them now…”) “And when he doesn’t, (which he mostly doesn’t) they will get healing that is even better.” (Meaning, after you die, your healing will be even better than the healing you would have gotten if God had actually lived up to the promise in Psalms and healed you while you were still living. Oh, the silly things christians say sometimes! And the saddest part is that no church going christian, I’ve ever met, would even think to question such ridiculous reasoning.)

Speaking of ridiculous. Arterburn tells a fantastic story that bears telling here. It’s a rather long piece (183 words) but it’s well worth examining.

A Christian Fairy Tale

“While preparing to write this book, I was discussing with a dear friend about how God chooses to heal some and not others. He relayed a story about his secretary that illustrates God’s supernatural intervention. His secretary had not been a believer, but she had always paid close attention whenever someone mentioned God and faith. One day as she flipped through the TV channels she stopped to see Pat Robertson on the 700 Club. He was praying for people to be healed of various ailments. This nonbelieving skeptic was startled to hear him say that he believed someone with a deformed bone structure in the hand would be miraculously healed. The surprise came because her hand was deformed, a bone protruding in an unsightly way. At the instant she looked at her deformed hand, a sensation overcame her, a peaceful calm she had never felt. She looked up to see something bright, like a large beam. A ﬁnger of light burst from the ceiling and ended at her hand. In an instant, the bone deformity vanished; her hand was completely and instantly healed.”

My Reply

Absolutely have to call the BS card on this one. Let’s see; Arterburn was talking to his anonymous “dear friend” who had an anonymous secretary, who was a nonbelieving skeptic, who was just flipping through the TV channels and just happened to turn to and continue watching the 700 Club. And it just so happened that Pat Robertson was praying that someone with a deformed bone (which she just happened to have) would be healed. A large beam of light came from the ceiling and ended on her hand and the deformity instantly vanished, just like that. Here’s the kicker, the show she was watching was actually a rerun of an old show. Arterburn thinks that this only goes to show how a powerful God can work any way he chooses. I think it shows that the whole story is completely made up.

Would it be too much to ask Arterburn to produce the anonymous “dear friend” and the anonymous nonbelieving skeptic secretary? Would it also be possible to see before pictures of the deformed bone and also the after pictures showing it completely healed? Words are cheap and as we’ve seen before, Arterburn has a rather dubious relationship with the truth.

This story, just like most other fairy tales, needs a warm fuzzy “fairy tale” ending. That way, it would be even more attractive and believable to his christian audience. Would it surprise you to learn that (according to Arterburn) God’s intervention profoundly changed the nonbelieving skeptic secretary? “She became a believer” (surprise, surprise) “and has grown in her faith ever since.” There it is… all tied up with a nice little bow. She lived happily ever after.

What if God doesn’t heal?

So, what is Arterburn’s message (in his own words) to “the thousands of mothers who have babies and young children with disabilities or terminal illnesses” who are praying (like the bible teaches) for a miraculous and supernatural intervention of divine healing? How might these parents feel when they read Arterburn’s story about God healing a non-believer whose affliction was an “unsightly” bone deformity in her hand? It wasn’t life threatening, like a child with cancer or leukemia, it was simply “unsightly”.

Here’s what Arterburn basically tells his faithful christian readers, Tough! God does what he chooses. If God chooses to heal an unsightly deformed hand of a non-believer and yet chooses to allow a sick child of a devout christian, to remain sick or possibly even die, it’s his sovereign will.

“Like it or not” Arterburn says, “God is God. He heals whomever he chooses.”

In God We Trust?

So, on this 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, let’s spend a minute asking what exactly we are trusting in God to do for our nation and for us personally. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those who thinks it violates the separation of church and state. That’s not my main objection. I just think the phrase is meaningless.

By the way: The phrase “In God We Trust,” has been the official national motto since 1956, when it replaced e pluribus unum, which means “from many, one.” At least that one made some sense.

_____________________

Semiquincentennial seems a bit intimidating, doesn’t it? But when you break it down it really is quite simple

Semi/half – quin/five – centennial/hundred. So, when you break it down it simply means half of 500. That’s it! Kinda silly!

From Where I Stand

July 4, 2026

Dale Crum

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