Is that a fair summary?

I have noticed a massive trend in mainline Christianity to sort of boil down the sovereign will of God into some kind of lifestyle-fatalism. As though we have absolutely no free-will to make wise decisions, live healthy or chose our spouse/job/schooling etc… It is a complete misunderstanding of how sovereignty and free-will work together.

In that framework, it seems that I understand your point as being that sickness is avoidable, and not something God intends for mankind, but mankind’s free-will allows him to pursue choices that will result in his sickness. I think I understand your premise.

I think what I would need to convince me of this is specific biblical passages that seem to detail (in either application or principle) the methodology behind this idea. I assume you will indeed get to that eventually.

There appear to be around 100 people verified to be over 100 though. I would assume that violence is not considered an “illness” under this definition, though since Paul did walk away from a stoning perhaps Stephan merely lacked faith. So now we can assume that any believer who died of “old age” fits the mold, while anyone dying of any kind of disease (or slow wound?) actually died of lack of faith. Interesting position…

This “God will always heal you” idea is… nonsensical. Some of the most faithful, strongest Christians I have ever known died from illnesses and diseases “before their time.”

I still don’t see how the Bible supports the idea that we can hold God hostage to our will if we have enough “faith.” Isn’t that basically what you’re claiming?

I don’t really know what you mean by the hostage analogy. As far as what I am “claiming” goes, anything anyone claims is irrelevant if it doesn’t agree with scripture. My intent is not to make claims independent of the Bible. If I have inadvertently done that, you have the obligation to reject what I have have written. If, however, I have merely expounded on what the scriptures plainly say, you would have to disagree with God. And that’s between you and him. I haven’t even really begun to speak about faith yet. But when the time comes, you can be sure that I will do my best to show what the roll of faith is from the actual Bible.

If you are serious about this subject, then you will be quite interested in my reasearch and findings on this very topic.

I have summarized what I have found on my main blog:
http://www.Ben-Abba.com

Check out the post “Summary of the Facts” whne you get a chance and then my followup book “Secrets of an Immortal - An Eyewitness Account of 2,800 Years of History”.

Blessings!