In the comment section of the video Time Is Up, a someone asked the following question:
Did Elisha die of a sickness because he stopped serving the LORD?
2 Kings 13:14
14) Now when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash king of Israel went down to him and wept before him, crying, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”
Victor’s reply:
Elisha and Jacob did not die the sickness of premature death. It was their time to go, a natural sickness, a “dis-ease” (note the hyphen) and not one born of sin or evil abuse of any kind. It would fall into the same category of Isaac’s blindness. As well, Jacob had a hard life, as he declared to Pharaoh (“few and evil have been the days of my sojourn”) when Joseph his son brought him and his family into Egypt.
Things wear out after a time, sooner or later, depending on the kind of life one has lived. Another example is of King David, “whose body gat no heat” in his last days. David had lived a life of war, great stress, and much killing. These things impact us so that our bodies, body parts, and minds can wear out prematurely.
BUT we’re not talking about the loathsome, painful, wasting, humiliating kinds of diseases like cancer and heart disease that the Lord laid on the Egyptians, which He promised wouldn’t happen if people walked in faith and obedience to Him. Even Josiah died a short-term death, albeit violent, when he “got too big for his britches” after living a highly commendable and fruitful life before God.
Does the above explanation sound to you like an unfair argument or irrational justification for the Truth that faithful servants of the Lord do not die untimely and ugly deaths, according to the Testimony of the Scriptures?
Also know this: If I should ever perish from disease or sickness of the evil kind, it will not be because God is a liar or promise-breaker, or because what I’ve been teaching has been an error. It will only be because at some point I will have become proud and unfaithful to the Lord and had to die the death of heathendom and not sainthood. By God’s Grace alone, that will not happen and both the Lord and I will be vindicated before all the world forever.