Bethsaida Two-Step

In an episode of the Simpsons, Comic Book Guy questions Lucy Lawless about inconsistencies in episodes of Xena. Her repeated answer is ā€œwizardā€. When we question why we werenā€™t healed, why our faithful tithing didnā€™t solve our financial worries, why ā€¦ The standard answer we get is that itā€™s our fault.

In Mark 8:22-26, Jesus was in Bethsaida and heals a blind man. But it was a two-step process ā€“ initially, vision was restored, but it was indistinct; then, it was fully restored. The man was told to go straight home.

An RCG Q&A deals with the ā€œtwo-stepā€ healing:

Christ could have healed the man by the simple touch of His hand, or even with His words. But He probably realized that the manā€™s faith was weak.
We find that even after Christ had been resurrected, His disciplesā€™ faith was weakā€¦
Christ healed the blind man in a ā€œstep-by-stepā€ manner, rather than all at once, in order to increase the manā€™s faith, before totally healing him.

This is the type of response weā€™d expect, the old not enough faith boilerplate. Of course, the verses in question donā€™t say that.

Many years ago, I heard a talk by Dr Dorothy (Charles V. Dorothy, once a popular WCG minister, AC professor and researcher, several times was relieved of duty, and has a real PhD). The details are now fuzzy, but essentially the two-step healing process was what would be expected for the disease he believed had caused the blindnessā€.Ā  This reminds me of adding a peripheral to a computer – get the hardware working, get the right driver; a two-step process. Regardless of oneā€™s opinion about healing, I think it appears more acceptable than ā€œnot enough faith.

Either the RCG writer was unaware of this answer, or, dismissed it as being from a ā€œliberalā€ minister (an independent thinker).

Author

  • James

    The Worldwide church of God attempted to annihilate peoples personality, individuality, will, and character. The stranded souls that hitched their wagon to this organization unknowingly supported a power-hungry pharisaic and fastuous authoritative cult leader and his son, Garner Ted Armstrong. For all the alarums and excursions, the fact remains that without knowing it, we nurtured these two ungrateful incubi's. For that I can only ask for forgiveness. After my WCG experience, I went to college to educate myself so I would have a greater understanding of the world about me and to understand why I ever fell for HWA's scam religion. This lead me to the conclusion that the appropriate action to take, in my judgment, is to provide people with opportunities to learn, develop, and exercise their potential as human beings, by freeing them from men who exploit and abuse them. This website and others are my vehicle to do just that.

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4 Replies to “Bethsaida Two-Step”

  1. Never saw anyone grow a new arm on, new set of eyes, eardrums or even a neck spasm cured by any religion or cult. Nope, only thing that might get “healed” are mental diseases with physical side effects.

  2. Bob,

    “Nope, only thing that might get ā€œhealedā€ are mental diseases with physical side effects.”

    Only the things observers can’t see get healed. That’s a real faith builder is it not?

    1. James declared:Only the things observers canā€™t see get healed. Thatā€™s a real faith builder is it not?

      It’s a miracle of and by itself James how people continue to trust them, and I agree fully with Tin Hat Louie, when he states they can’t heal and don’t.

      I wonder if I can share this fact with the viewers, a painful truth, that my X wife got sucked in by them because she developed a profound hearing problem, genetic like her sister. In spite of all the promises of the lord, and WCOG ministries, that failed, a surgical implant from our medical SCIENCE restored her hearing to a point she could hear again to a certain level. Not perfect but functional.

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