Book Review: Healing is a Choice

Healing is a Choice. Stephen Arterburn. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc. 2011 454 pp

In his newly revised and updated book, Healing is a Choice,” Christian Minister Stephen Arterburn states, as the purpose of this book that he is going to:

“Use ten choices to help you pull out of the rut where you are living a life much different from the life God has called you to live.”

He’s succeeded brilliantly.

When most people think of healing, they think of physical healing. But there are many other types of healings—such as spiritual, emotional, and mental—that block us from our enjoying our lives to the fullest. Healing is a choice, Arterburn says, and it is a choice that each of us must make before we receive healing from any of our various afflictions.

Arterburn goes on to list 10 of these choices that we must make. I was enthralled with this book. This updated edition of Healing is a Choice includes a workbook that helps you to analyze the one or more choices that you have heretofore refused to make to be healed.

This book is an easy read and well written. Arterburn clearly knows that he’s talking about in this book. But he is also a Christian minister with a following…and his own radio show.

When I chose this book to review, I did not expect to be so pleasantly surprised. I am a Christian, but I consider myself to be more of a New Age Christian. Although I knew many of the biblical stories Arterburn related, it had been a long time since I had been confronted with traditional Christianity.

I guess I was a bit surprised by this, but not offended.

Anyway, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be healed from anything.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Is Oprah Winfrey the Antichrist?

I was surfing YouTube one day, when I came across many unexpected (and even scary) videos…

Oprah Winfrey, many Christian ministers claim, is the Antichrist…or Satan’s pawn…or demon possessed.

Why?

Because Oprah has openly denied Christ as the one and only way to obtain salvation.

I watched a few of these videos like the one above, and I must say that I was scared of Oprah and her New Age teachings. How dare this prominent and very influential woman lead people to hell?

But then I remembered something…I believe the same way! Was I going to hell? I began to doubt myself, began to feel ashamed of my belief system. Dammit, I shook myself, why can’t we all just get along? Why can’t we just accept each others’ religious or spiritual belief systems? Why do we Christians have to believe that Jesus is the only way to God?

Because the New Testament of the Bible tells us so, that’s why.

A Christian New Ager

My initial response to Oprah Winfrey being the Antichrist because of her New Age beliefs had been but a reflex action that had come from my Baptist Christian roots.   

As a child, I went to church regularly. I can still recite from memory many Bible passages. But I soon realized that there was something missing. The Bible wasn’t telling us everything about Jesus and his teachings.

Through much study and contemplation, I finally realized that the Bible that we read today was skillfully compiled by men with a political and religious agenda. Important and enlightening books were left out of the Bible, some of these books were part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The books that were left (to be included in the Bible) were subject to massive revision of verses in order to get them to follow a prescribed belief system. Then, the New Testament was written in Hebrew or Aramaic, so mistranslations of these ancient books abound in the Bibles that we read today.

And if that weren’t enough to shake one’s faith in the veracity of the Bible, consider this:

The four books of the Bible that talks about Jesus’ life and his teachings—the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—debate whether or not any of these authors ever knew Jesus or knew anyone who actually knew Jesus.

My Belief in Jesus

I consider myself a Christian with a love of, and a belief, in Jesus. But from there, my beliefs diverge  quite a bit from those of traditional Christians.

Here’s what I believe about Jesus:

·         I believe that Jesus was a highly evolved, enlightened being who came to earth to teach enlightenment to humans.

·         I believe that Jesus came to teach us how much power we have, that we are co-creators with God:

o   The Kingdom of God is within you – Luke 17:21

o   If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. – Matthew 17:19-21

o   Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. – Matthew 15:28

·         I believe that when Jesus spoke of himself as the Son of God, he was not speaking of himself as the unique son of God. Rather, he was speaking of himself as the son of God just as all of us are children of God.

·         I believe that Jesus did not intend to start a religion. But the people who heard Jesus’ teachings and witnessed his miracles were understandably awed enough to construct a religion around him.

Yes, I am well aware of the Bible’s warning about false prophets who will turn us from Jesus whereby we will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Is Oprah Winfrey one of these false prophets, the Antichrist? I don’t believe so. I believe that she has woken up from the same religious dogma that has caused so much negative judgments of others’ lifestyles and beliefs, the same religious dogma that has caused so much hatred, which has started so many wars and caused so many deaths.

As for myself, I cannot believe in a vengeful God who also loves us, nor can I believe in an egotistic Jesus who demands that we can only be saved through him.

What do you believe?

Ann Rice Quits Christianity

Anne Rice, a writer primarily known for her vampire novels, has quit Christianity. The 68-year-old famous author aroused controversy when she posted this message on Facebook:


"Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious and deservedly infamous group. For 10 years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.... In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen."

I don’t know what particular event spurred Rice to such a public rejection of Christianity, but I also have to say “AMEN” to the points that she so eloquently enumerated. How much hatred is spread in the name of Christianity!

Although Jesus told us to love everybody and to judge nobody, what do many Christians, and Christian organizations, do?

• We Christians condemn homosexuals because their sexual orientation is a sin. Therefore, they should not be allowed to work in occupations dealing with our children. They should not speak of their twisted, abnormal, and sinful sexual orientation. And they certainly should never be allowed to marry someone of the same sex!

• We Christians treat women as second class citizens in most endeavors (this despite the fact that Jesus did not discriminate against women) and the Catholic Church will not allow women to become priests.

• We Christians of a certain sect (Catholics) will not allow a woman to control her reproductive system with artificial birth control.

• We Christians somehow think that being a Democrat is a huge sin and that we must stamp out this evil political party before they infect our society with their liberal (read sinful) views.

…And I could go on and on.

How many wars have been fought in the name of Christianity? How much hate has been fostered in the name of Christianity? How many people have we hurt in the name of Christianity?

I was raised a Christian and, like Rice, I remain committed to Christ. But I gave up traditional Christianity a long time ago.