That Simple!: Doctors and Doctrines of Christianity

By Terry Stratton

As the accounts above illustrate, there is no single way that God helps; the important thing is that God is there to help—always! Even in my specific experiences, when I did not make the specific request, he provided an answer. I learned to listen for God. Of these examples, the only time it may have cost a dime, maybe, is when I was to acquire some vinegar. All these treatments were far less expensive and more effective than if one were to use the traditional means of a worldly physician.

One does not lose a thing by asking God what to do, and with a little bit of practice, one will begin to anticipate the answers before one asks. Much of one’s healthiness is psychosomatic; that is, to think healthy, merge with healthy thoughts and attitudes, reflect on healthy ideas and ideals, and practice these healthy activities on a daily basis. This doesn’t just mean physical health but also spiritual, psychological, social, and whatever. For those who have trouble moving in this direction, things like meditation, prayer, yoga, and tai chi are simple ways to assist in such matters, but trusting in God and what God has given you is the ultimate way. Ask! He is there always, and nobody will have any better answers or be any more concerned.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781546244431

Book preview

© 2019 Terry Stratton. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/02/2020

ISBN: 978-1-5462-4444-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-4442-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-4443-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018906427

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Bible verses are from KJV, RSV, & NIV.

Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

General Introduction

Looking From Outside The Box

Part One: Doctor God

Doctor God Introduction

Personal Experiences

Uppers, Downers And Emergencies

Preventative Health

Doctor God Summary And Conclusion

List Of Biblical Healing Passages

Part Two: Baptism In Water Or Holy Spirit?

Baptism Introduction

What Is Baptism?

Immersion Background

Reasons For Immersion

Common Questions

Kinds And Number

What Of Water Immersion?

What Is Immersion Into Holy Spirit?

Unity Through Immersion

By One Spirit

Specific Water Immersions

The Great Commission

Immersing By The Disciples

Spiritual Armor

Yohannan’s Immersion Of Yeshua

Immersion Yeshua Wish Were Done

From Where Did Yohannan’s Immersing Come?

Saved By Faith

Pharisees And Legalists Reject Yohannan’s Immersing

Place And Time References

Nikodemus And Rebirth

Saoul

Apollos

Mosheh And The Exodus

Unity Of The Body

Immersion For The Dead

Rebirth’s Washing And Renewal Of Holy Spirit (Holiness)

Maturity Of Spirit

Holy Spirit (God’s Holiness) And Yeshua

Good Conscience Toward God

Other Points Of Christian Immersion

Immersion Summary

Part Three: Holy Spirit As Not Being A Person

The Holy Trinity Apple Analogy

Holy Spirit Introduction

Word Altering

Holy Spirit Doctrinal History And Tradition

Personification In The Bible

Comprehensive List Of Holy Spirit Passages

Old Testament Verses

New Testatment Verses

Holy Spirit Conclusion

Bibliography

Dedicated to those that particularly inspired me in the ways of God:

to Marcella Ward,

who I wished for my wife, but instead she gave me her life;

to Cheney Faith Center and Pastor Mark Posthuma,

who announced a Holy Spirit service that

inspired me to finish this writing;

to Julianne Piper – Butorac,

who helped with the financing;

to our Heavenly Father,

who through His Holy Spirit inspired this work as a whole.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

CHOICE OF TOPICS

The three topics, Dr. God, baptism and Holy Spirit, may seem a bit of a hodgepodge collection, but it came about in a rather logical way. The original impetus for starting these came from a home Bible study group about 1990. The question of the requirement of baptizing somehow came up. Of the dozen or so in the group, only two of us felt that water baptism wasn’t required. While the others did not really know why they believed that it was required or have a clue as to why it would be so required, I had already asked such things of my perspective when I was a kid. In having years of experience into seeking out such questions and answers, I proposed leading a study on the topic of baptism and whether or not it was required and for what, if it was. When the study was completed, only one of the group indicated one felt it to be required, while at least one other thought it to be commanded, but not required for salvation.

Upon discovering that so many felt it was required and learning that denominational doctrines often had similar sentiments about baptism, I was naturally compelled to address the point on a more extensive discussion, albeit, writing about it, with the possibility of publishing the results of the study someday. This led to a point that is distinguished numerous times in the New Testament. Which is the important baptism, the one of being baptized in water or the one in Holy Spirit?

Circa 1995 in another home Bible study the question of the Holy Spirit as a person or a spiritual condition came up, mostly between one woman and myself. Between this point and the point of the Holy Spirit being a medium, like water, which was addressed in the baptism study, I felt a demand for expanding the discussion as to whether Holy Spirit was a kind of condition, or a kind of person. Originally, this discussion was merely a few pages added to the end of the baptism study, but has since developed into an entity having a full life in its own right.

Spiritual healing, the topic of the first part, is a key element of discussing my spiritual background. Although the actual writing for this topic began in 2009, well after the other two topics, it presented itself as significant enough to be used as an introductory topic leading to the others. That is how these three topics came together. It is that simple.

My life was directed to be out of the mainstream culture via a childhood illness and largely away from traditional interpretations and truisms. The earliest recollections with the divine experience took place at the age of two to four years. What I recall is plenty enough to make me a believer. I describe this divine experience as an all-encompassing warm, peaceful and secure feeling of comfort-not just physically, but also psychologically and spiritually.

My next well-defined experience was when I was eleven or twelve, when I was led to seek God’s guidance regarding an illness addressed below for which modern medicine had no known cure.

LOOKING FROM

OUTSIDE THE BOX

The inspirations to address the spiritual topics in these writings are tied to these events and more mundane, everyday experiences in later years. Often placed in situations that presented conflict of ideologies and various concepts of truth, the Lord let me see that one’s understanding of truth is very relative and plagued as much by untruth as truth. One particular aspect is the dichotomies presented by the views of my parents. Dad was typically liberal, politically Democratic or independent, of the opinion of whatever works is okay, laid-back and easy going, pro-labor union, etc. Mom on the other hand was typically conservative, voted over-whelming Republican, of the opinion that there was only one right way to do things, was a go-getter and tended to be somewhat anti-union, etc. Whatever related topic might be brought up, I could see that both had substantial points, but yet both would be over-looking points brought out by the other. Both seemed to be more right on some things and more wrong on other things. Neither was viewing the given topic by any more than from either’s unique experiences and traditions.

From a gender issue, Dad tended toward chauvinism and Mom toward a feminine liberation. The same dichotomy revealed itself with my maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother, both of which I was very close. I could see points on both sides of the fence and in between. Being raised with four sisters and no brothers and with Dad working evenings, I got plenty of opportunities to see the feminine perspective and learned, contrary to cultural philosophy, that men had no real monopoly on logic.

From a religious point, they also had quite different ideas. Neither were church goers, but that was about all they had in common as far as

religious views. Mom could be described as a believer in God, but like most, did not trust in God. Relating to another paper I’m working on that discusses the complimentary accounts of today’s often debated question in fundamentalist circles on evolution and The Bible. Mom had no difficulty in accepting both The Bible and the Theory of Evolution. During my early years Dad did not believe in God, The Bible or evolution, but seemed to be more immersed in Holy Spirit. Go figure!

While many other points can be addressed, within and without the family and more specifically, these examples should be sufficient to illustrate the point that no matter how one sees things, there are a lot of aspects that are over-looked and that whatever one may believe or think, they are as likely to be wrong in as many aspects as they are right. This makes life a continual effort of seeking, if one is to find any truth at all. Interpreting Holy Scripture is no different.

Whatever we believe, or think we know, has some element of fallacy to it. Knowledge and understanding are infinite, but our comprehension thereof is essentially finite, which means we cannot intellectually comprehend all things. We are not God! But listening to fundamentalists, one would think that they thought that they could not err in Biblical interpretation, thus making them look like they think they are of Godly understanding.

The key tool for transmitting information, Biblical or otherwise, for learning is human language, which is at best, is meager. One could take the minutest phenomenon and devote thousands of volumes to its description and still fall short of being complete. Our perceptions are equally tenuous. As an example, take an object, any object, something that is generally considered to be solid matter. Observing it on an atomic level, one discovers that most of it is empty space, comparable to the amount of matter found in the solar system versus the amount of empty space therein. As such, nothing described in human terms or in human language or of human perception can come anywhere close to the whole truth.

My childhood illness described below, my being the only boy in a family of girls and other factors led me to be somewhat separated from the social, cultural mainstream and thus forced me to be reflective. It allowed me to readily think more freely, to see traditional truths as not being quite as true as tradition or society wants to believe. Traditions are of human origins, usually colored by worldly desires, not of a Godly one. Just read through the Scriptures. What did Christ say of traditions? What do the prophets in general say of tradition. Reflection further allows God’s Holy Spirit to work more effectively within one.

A personal example presented itself when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. Our eighth grade teacher had presented a series of absurd stories, in which we were each to identify the absurdity within. The third story had a decided cultural bias that I failed see. The story was about the death a man and his family was making funeral arrangements for two weeks after the fact. To me there was no found absurdity. As an experience a few years down the road illustrates, my failure to see that given absurdity was justified. I had a cousin killed in Vietnam and by the time the military took care of their end of the business and transporting his body stateside, it was well past two weeks before we had the funeral. Those trapped by tradition failed to see the possibility. Tradition usually relies on imprinting to survive.

It is through allowing God’s Holy Spirit to work through me that I have actively sought out such things and have been guided to see through such traditional and cultural truisms. I feel in good company, because if one looks through the Holy Scriptures they will consistently find that the prophets warn us about trusting in tradition and other worldly teachings, especially by leaders of faith. The Scriptures are meant to lead us to seek, to reflect, to grasp and not to be complacent, not to be blindly accepting, not to be unquestioning. Ask and you shall receive! Pray on such things! Is it not that simple?

THAT SIMPLE 1

DOCTOR GOD

(trusting God first for health guidance)

2010/4/19

Revised 2014/2/27

68852.jpg

DOCTOR GOD

INTRODUCTION

This trusting in God for healing and health is ultimately an account in trusting in God in all things. My impetus for this specific work is that I see so many people, particularly people close to me, so addicted to drugs and I don’t mean the illicit kinds, even though they could be included. For the most part I’m referring to medicinal drugs. The conditions for which they take the drugs, whether it is an everyday aspirin or prescription drugs, rarely do anything to heal the condition. At best, they relieve some symptoms, which depending on the particular case, is likely to return once the drug is used up. Even at age five or so I had an unconscious knowledge of this fact and resisted such medication. What is the sense of taking all this medication, spending all this time, effort and money and not getting healed? The same can be said of other treatments, as well. Often other treatments are applied only to be equally superficial and do not overcome the root of the affliction, but yet are often very expensive. Using such methods seem utterly absurd and foolish.

Further, the long-term effects are still not fully known. The body has its own spirituality, physics and chemistry capable of addressing most of the afflictions without such invasive procedures. God gave you the ability. Use what God has given you. I knew of this at least by eleven years of age, as addressed below. Guess what! That usually doesn’t cost a penny and one doesn’t even need to leave the comforts of home to utilize it. Following such a method seems like a no-brainer to me. On top of doing nothing to heal whatever condition, these drugs and other external treatments can be costly and for those with limited incomes, very costly. Would it not make more sense to overcome the illness than to treat just the overt symptoms indefinitely? Is it not that simple?

Who knows more about anything, God or man? Would it not make sense to inquire of God first to see what He says? He may occasionally say to go to a worldly physician, maybe some physician in particular, or maybe to take some drug, or maybe modify one’s diet, or to merely change some aspect of one’s life style, or to exercise one’s own healing capacity. Most ailments probably would not need any expensive or long-term treatment. Indeed, a lot of it is just having a positive mental and spiritual attitude. Simply ask God what to do about the situation and then follow His advice. It is that easy! It is that inexpensive! It is that simple!

Just by exercising the ability that God has given each of us, we can maintain a much healthier and happier existence. We would get ill less often, less severely, for shorter duration and it would cost a whole lot less. It is that simple!

68852.jpg

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

Healing, any kind of healing, is a part of what God does, if we just listen. I use these accounts as a testimonial to God and to give support to those who may have a difficulty in believing in the other things that God has sent me to do, some of which are described later in this paper and in later works. Let’s start with a number of specific healings of which I have been personally involved, four of me, then three about others.

The first situation started when I was two years old and recovered from a case of the measles. It left me with what the doctors described as a chronic affliction of the kidneys called Bright’s Disease. This form of glomerulo-nephritis was expected to take my life upon reaching puberty. My parents chose not to let me know about the terminal aspect of the condition until several years after the fact. I was prescribed medication amounting to taking three or four pills four times daily. This medication was not designed to heal the affliction, but to only deal with the overt symptoms that accompanied the condition and to minimize additional infections. In spite of all this medication, there was no change in the prognosis, death before reaching fourteen.

While the pill-taking was a nuisance, restriction of outdoor activities was the real pain. A childhood dream was to join the Boy Scouts, but the illness kept Mom and Dad from letting me. On other occasions the whole family sacrificed outings. The last straw was when I was eleven or twelve. One of the most joyful activities, particularly of