E-pistles

Question and Answer

'What was Paul's thorn in the flesh, a sickness, an eye disease of some kind?'

Answer: No, that's a common false teaching Satan uses to keep people in bondage to unbelief and sickness. If that's what is taught in your fellowship, you should get out and find a Spirit-filled Bible believing church. Are you ready for the truth, will you repent and believe the good news of your full redemption?

Paul fell ill, and God healed him whilst he was preaching the Gospel to the Galatian believers Gal. Ch.4. False teachers leap onto his use of the common idiom, 'you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me', to conclude Paul had an eye disease. Yet we still use this expression today without any implication of disease, it's simply a metaphor showing willingness to give your most precious thing to resolve a situation. You've used it like that haven't you? You'd give your right arm to save a soul wouldn't you?

Paul talks about his thorn in the flesh in 2 Co. 12:1-10 stating clearly that it was given to stop him becoming conceited because of the wonderful revelations he had from God. Before a sick person makes the unscriptural claim that their sickness is 'a thorn in the flesh', they ought to have experienced the same revelations as Paul, such as visiting Paradise and being caught up to the third heaven.

Paul's thorn had nothing to do with sickness. It was not a disease; Paul tells us what it was: 'a messenger from Satan, to torment me'. Whenever the expression thorn in the flesh is used in the Holy Bible it is only used to describe personalities, never sickness. For example Canaanites are described as thorns in the sides of the Israelites. Nu. 33:55; Jo. 23:13

The word Paul used for messenger is angelos, it occurs over 180 times in the Bible, translated always as angel or messenger: never is it translated as a thing, or sickness, always a personality. Paul stated quite clearly that his thorn was a messenger from Satan, not a thing.

It was a demon, a fallen angel that went around causing trouble for Paul wherever he went. God permitted it so Paul would stay humble, and rely on Him for victory in riots and persecutions. The demon incited mobs, plotted his assassination, got him whipped, and abused repeatedly. It dealt blow after blow, but because Paul depended on God, the messenger from Satan could not defeat him.

Notice that in listing the trials and sufferings he went through in Chapters 11 and 12 of Second Corinthians, Paul doesn't mention sickness once. Because Paul's thorn was not a disease, but a messenger from Satan, an oppressing demon.

Dr. T. L. Osborn has written extensively about Paul's thorn in his wonderfully anointed book Healing the Sick. Thousands have been healed whilst reading it, as the Holy Spirit open's their eyes to the fullness of redemption and Good News of Christ's Victory over sin, sickness, and Satan.

Power Evangelism Tip

How Much Law: How Much Grace?

Once you get serious about evangelism you'll soon be asking the Lord: 'When leading sinners to Christ, which should I emphasize; Law or grace, and how much of each?' You read Finney, Bunyan, Whitefield and discover their sermons are heavy on Law and Judgment: to great effect.

George Whitefield preached in the open air at Bristol to crowds of 2,000 calling people down from vantage points in trees because when the Spirit fell, they would too. It was common for sinners to shriek and collapse in terror on realising their destiny without Christ. God used Whitefield's vivid sermons on Law, Judgment and Hell to bring them to their senses, and point them to Christ.

The Good News is God's grace to those willing to repent and receive Christ, and this is our main message. But you'll find evangelists who are all Hellfire and wrath, contrasting with most, who are afraid of mentioning anything other than grace in case they get thrown out.

When did you last hear a preacher warn sinners of Judgment and Hell? You won't find that in Satan's pulpits like TBN. Yet Christ began His ministry, by racking up the pressure of the Law, as in Mtt. Chs. 5-7.

e have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Gulp! Own up you adulterers. On and on He ploughs, warning of Hell, and the inescapable Judgment of God, before becoming the Fountain of Grace, and providing the only means of entering Heaven. Jesus of Nazareth: The Hellfire Preacher who bled and died to redeem His hearers.

It's the love and grace of God that brings sinners to repentance; many are already convicted of sin by God's Spirit before you speak. Tell them of His grace.

Cynics, scoffers, and religious people, need to hear God's Law and coming Judgment of sin. If it upsets them, they need upsetting: don't hold back.

Whitefield wrote of one result of his street-preaching: 'There I was honoured by having stones, dirt, rotten eggs, and pieces of dead cats thrown at me.'

Dismayed? No! It thrilled his heart, because he was hitting the mark, in Jesus' Name. You can too.

The key is to be led by God's Spirit and say what He tells you to say, in the love and compassion of Christ. Remember: Love tells the Truth.