SUNDAY EDITORIAL EXCUSE US, WAIT A MINUTE, BACK UP

We are doing this editorial on a very important issue to us. The misquoting and misinterpretations of scripture. The other day LJG was listening to a very well known religious leader when he in his teaching of a Bible story said the women in question ‘was at fault, she brought it on herself.’ LJG was upset and sent me an e-mail at which I reacted as she did, in anger. LJG is the caregiver for a family member; she herself has some health issues, as do I. Is it our fault we have not been healed? Of course not! What really made us angry is the people we know, some from childhood, who have been scared off by so-called men of God who say things like this. Are we saying that sin cannot bring on illness? Of course not, we have scriptures to support this. We also have scripture to support other reasons. The goal of this article is to show why we say read, study, seek God and take no man/women’s word for what the Bible means.
Now let us get to the scripture in question. We have three accounts of this story.
Matthew 9:20-22 KJV 20And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: 21For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. 22But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
Mark 5:25-34 KJV 25And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

Luke 8:43-47KJV 43And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, 44Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. 45And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 46And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. 47And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.

Three disciples telling the same story and all three report she was healed. Two report that her faith has made her whole. Nothing is said of any sin. Does this mean she had not sinned? Well let us look at other scriptures of healing that Jesus preformed. While we will not print the entire scriptures here, we encourage you to look them up.

John 5:14 Jesus tells the man ‘sin no more.’ John 8:11 Jesus told the women to ‘sin no more.’In these two scriptures we can read the people were told to go and sin no more.

Matthew 8:13 ‘as thou has believe be it done unto thee.’ Luke 9:42 ‘Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child.’ These two are different in that in the first the man is told he has believed and so it is done[and if you read the scriptures you will find he was there for someone else, not himself]. The second scripture tells us Jesus rebuked and healed.

Now we will read and look at the next to passages of scripture.

Here we will include the scriptures.
Luke 5:12-25 KJV12And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 13And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.14And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 15But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. 16And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed. 17And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. 18And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him. 19And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. 20And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. 21And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? 22But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? 23Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? 24But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.25And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.
Scriptures 13 tells us the man asked if thou will; verse 14 Jesus touched him and said be thou clean. If we read further to verse 18 we find a man with palsy; verse 20 tells us when Jesus saw their faith He said ‘thy sins are forgiven.’
John 9:1-101And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 4I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 6When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 7And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
In this scripture, we see Jesus being asked who sinned the man or his parents. Neither this man nor his parents but that the works of God should be manifest in him.

What we can gather from all these scriptures is that God can and will tell if it is sin in a person’s life that has brought on illness, or that believing and having faith has healed them, with no mention of sin.

Returning to our three stories of the women with the issue of blood we see no where was she was told to sin no more, only that her faith has healed her.
Now we will look at what LJG heard in that teaching that got us so angry. Listeners were told she had the issue of blood because: it was sexually transmitted; and as a result her husband divorced her; she lost her children; she had no one; she was shunned; it was all her fault. This is simply the thoughts from this religious leader. Where does it say she was a harlot and brought the disease upon herself? How do we know she was married or had children?
Why is this bothering us so much? LJG stated it this way: 'I have always thought of her as a women who was willing to take her own life in her hands just to exercise her faith in Jesus.' From what we have read and researched this seems to be the case.
If it appears we are not answering some questions it is because we are going to follow this with an article by Kathryn Capoccia. She covers who, when, what, where, and how; which also includes the shunning that would have taken place in that day and age. We encourage you to read it for a further breakdown of the women's story.
This man is not along in the way he is teaching, we find it in many churches around the world. It is the reason we repeat ourselves in saying read and study for yourself.

God Bless each and every one of you.
recj/LJG
http://www.biblebb.com/files/KSS/kss-bleedingwoman.htm
We believe that this article will answer any remaining questions you might have. You can visit the site or continue on to read the article that will be posted here in a follow up article.