Question:  Dear Greg,

            I heard that everything that God did had a reason.  The 40 lashes that Christ received--are there 40 categories of illnesses?  What is your comment on this?

            Thanks,

            Philip

Answer:  Dear Philip,

            What you heard would have been someone’s interpretation of 1 Peter 2:24, itself a reference to Isaiah 53:5.  Nothing in the context of either passage suggests physical healing, and certainly not for 40 specific illnesses, diseases, etc.  That is a stretch, a speculation.  Depending upon what teaching accompanies such in interpretation, it may be an unbiblical twisting of Scripture.  Note, for example, 1 Peter 2:24, which says “by his wounds (stripes in the King James Version) you HAVE BEEN healed.”  This would strongly suggest that God is inspiring Peter to write of spiritual healing because not all of the original readers and recipients of this letter, and certainly not all those who read this passage today are physically whole.  Yet God says we HAVE BEEN HEALED.

            The theory about which you ask is not biblical.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht