Let us begin by asking a very important question, How did sickness enter this world?”
Our answer is found in Romans 5: 12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Then physical death and all that produces it are the direct results of sin.
But how came man to sin? Read Genesis 2: 17 and Genesis 3: 1-19 and you will find that it was Satan who caused our first parents to disobey God. Then Satan is the real originator of sin, sickness and death. Many deny this, and say that God Himself is the real author of sickness and death because He said to Adam (Gen. 2: 17), “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” But who caused Adam and Eve to disobey God’s command, and so bring sin, sickness and death into this world? Satan. Then Satan, and not God, is the real author of sin, sickness and death.
This explains why Christ said to the man whom He cured at the pool of Bethesda (Jno. 5:14), “Sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee.” His sickness had come as the result of sin. This explains also Christ’s words in Mark 2: 9, “Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy. Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say. Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? (10) But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (He saith to the sick of the palsy), (11) I say unto thee. Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.”
The people would not believe that Christ had power to forgive this man’s sins, so He says to them in effect, I will now prove to you that I have the power to forgive sins by curing this palsy, which is one of the consequences of sin. When you see that I can cure or take away this sin-produced disease, then you will know for a certainty that I can also take away sin itself.
Again we are absolutely sure Satan is the author of sickness as well as sin, because Christ always uses the same harsh word, “epitimao,” to rebuke sickness (Satan’s work), as He uses to rebuke evil spirits.
In Luke 4: 35 we read, “And Jesus rebuked (epetim
