The Three Main Opinions
In the introduction to his book, The Devil, Disease, and Deliverance, John Christopher Thomas says that most Pentecostals fall into one of three categories when it comes to the subject at hand in his book.
Group 1: These people see demonic activity behind every illness and misfortune. God/healing and the devil/sickness are black and white polar opposites. The lack of faith and/or the presence of sin may prevent healing, but it is always God's will to heal people.
Group 2: Believers may become sick from either demonic attack or from "natural causes." Sin and sickness entered the world through the fall of man and therefore believers and nonbelievers are just as likely to suffer. God might sometimes use suffering for his glory. It is always appropriate to pray, but it may not always result in healing.
Group 3: Apathetic "functional deists." These people believe in God and in Satan but have either become frustrated by the inability to know how to deal with this issue and/or embarrassed by other Christians' outlandish claims of divine healing. Although they may pray for healing, they tend to be astounded if they are actually healed. Overall, they are skeptical of our ability to discern a coherent theology of disease.
I am able to identify with all three groups he describes. I waffle between overly supernatural explanations (group 1) and pat theological answers like, "we just live in a fallen world" (group 2) while at the same time I'm frustrated at my own attempts to discern a coherent theology of disease from the Bible (group 3).
Group 1: These people see demonic activity behind every illness and misfortune. God/healing and the devil/sickness are black and white polar opposites. The lack of faith and/or the presence of sin may prevent healing, but it is always God's will to heal people.
Group 2: Believers may become sick from either demonic attack or from "natural causes." Sin and sickness entered the world through the fall of man and therefore believers and nonbelievers are just as likely to suffer. God might sometimes use suffering for his glory. It is always appropriate to pray, but it may not always result in healing.
Group 3: Apathetic "functional deists." These people believe in God and in Satan but have either become frustrated by the inability to know how to deal with this issue and/or embarrassed by other Christians' outlandish claims of divine healing. Although they may pray for healing, they tend to be astounded if they are actually healed. Overall, they are skeptical of our ability to discern a coherent theology of disease.
I am able to identify with all three groups he describes. I waffle between overly supernatural explanations (group 1) and pat theological answers like, "we just live in a fallen world" (group 2) while at the same time I'm frustrated at my own attempts to discern a coherent theology of disease from the Bible (group 3).
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