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Pastor Jay's Blog

Why Doesn’t God Heal Amputees?

 

This is a great question. I mean that. It really is. To be more precise, the question is “why does God seem to heal all types of diseases, but never once heals someone with an amputation?” Don’t get me wrong. I know how this question can be asked. This question can be launched from a person who is looking at you with the narrowed eyes of a hunter peering through a rifle scope. There can be dubious motives behind such a question. However, we shouldn’t fault the question. Questions can be asked in wrong ways, at wrong times, or with wrong motives, but that doesn’t mean the question is bad. If truth is on our side, then questions are our friends. Let’s not engage in friendly-fire.

But let us neither engage in evasion. This is the bigger problem with this question. As I have looked around on the internet, I have yet to find a really satisfactory answer. The following are the main answers that I have seen to this question: we don’t have enough faith; we live in a fallen world and this is a result; God will one day heal all amputees in the resurrection; God has a better plan in which he uses the amputee for higher purposes; God simply says no and we trust Him.

While there is some truth in all of these answers, none of them really answer the dilemma. The dilemma is this; Christians continually say that God heals people, and yet He never heals this particular issue. None of the above answers address this glaring inconsistency.

The problem with the answers mentioned is that there is either a lack of theology, a wrong theology, or the right theology hasn’t been taken far enough.

So this is the moment of truth, isn’t it? I had better come up with something good or I am going to get some exasperated emails. I would like to take a biblical theology all the way to a satisfying answer.

We begin with God. He not only exists, He necessarily exists. If we don’t start with God, everything falls apart. Without God we can’t make sense of anything. The universal, unchanging, immaterial God is the necessary reason we have universal, unchanging, and immaterial laws of logic that govern all we say, think, and do. Without the God of the Bible, we can’t account for anything, make sense of anything, or prove anything.

This God is omnipotent. That is, He is all powerful and therefore He is the creator who makes everything. Nothing is impossible for Him. He has not only has set the natural laws of physics, he sustains them, and he can change them or suspend them. When he changes them or suspends them, this is a miracle. This is God’s creation and he can do with it whatever he pleases. However, he has made it clear that miracles are rare and that they have purposes. We live in the natural world according to the natural laws He has set in place. If He wants to change something for a particular reason He has the prerogative to do that.

This God is involved in every aspect of creation through His providence. Providence is God’s mysterious and unseen moving of every molecule of creation. He is directing every decision, every action, and every event at every moment according to His wise plan and good pleasure. When contemplated, this is really far more staggering than any mere miracle. This will be important a little further down in the discussion so hang in there.

This God has worked in distinct ways at distinct times. God has been at work in all of history, but at key times His plans go public in spectacular ways. There are really only about 4 times in the course of human history when God has performed a flurry of miracles through men: saving Israel in the exodus; preserving Israel through the ministry of Elisha and Elijah; accomplishing Israel’s salvation through the ministry of Jesus Christ; and spreading Israel’s new covenant spiritual blessings to the world through the apostles.

Lastly, at least for this particular question, God answers prayer. This is crystal clear from Scripture. God commands that we pray and he answers accordingly. However, prayer does not twist God’s arm or force him to work contrary to his nature or plans. His love is too pervasive and unrelenting for that. God’s love ensures that He is continually growing His children to desire things and ask for things that line up with what is true, right, and good. Those things that are true, right, and good will always line up with God’s word.

Up to now, you are either saying that you have heard these fairy tales before (the skeptic/atheist), or you are saying that these are common biblical themes you are familiar with (the Christian). But now it is time to throw them in the pot and stir them up. We need these elements to blend together so that we come out with a thoroughly biblical stew that gives us a stomach full of teaching on God and healing.

Here we go! God doesn’t heal amputees today because all present day healings are providentially planned, and at times prayerfully accommodated, works of our God-given immune systems, which don’t correct amputations. I can see the blank stares through my computer. To be honest, I think that Christians will probably have a harder time with this than the diehard atheist. A lot of Christians have a shallow understanding of God, and a mystical understanding of healing. So, let’s break down my answer.

“God doesn’t heal amputees today…” Notice I said “today.” I am not talking about in the distant past or in the coming future. Amputee healings did happen and will happen again. Jesus healed lepers, who would have had missing body parts (Mark 1:40-42; Luke 17:12-14), paralytics and lame people, a man with the shriveled hand (Matthew 12:9-13), and the restoration of Malchus’s severed ear (Luke 22:50-51). This will also happen in the future when God will raise everyone from the dead and those still alive will receive glorified bodies, complete and majestic (Phil 4:21).

“…because all present day healings…” Our focus here is on God’s distinct work in our current age. As stated above, God did most of his miraculous works during special periods of time. We are not in one of those times. God is doing something different today, something glorious, but not something where the physically miraculous is needed, at least through men, as in those special periods. Even at the end of the apostolic age, Paul couldn’t heal his co-worker Trophimus but left him sick in Miletus (2 Tim. 4:20).

“…are providentially planned, and at times prayerfully accommodated,…” God is in control of everything. This control is called providence. When I pray, I am not giving God new information, nor am I giving Him permission, nor am I giving him some power boost. So why am I praying? Because God has commanded prayer. He has seen to it that the events he has sovereignly ordained will come about through means. Prayer is one of those means through which God accomplishes His works. This is amazing. God wants to use us. He wants us to be intimately involved in what He is doing. Sometimes, God wants to heal a person of a disease because of a thousand wise reasons which he has not made known to us. That ordained healing will sometimes be accomplished through people praying. Sometimes no prayer is needed. There are Christians and non-Christians alike who are healed and no one prayed. But prayer often is God’s means for healing.

“…all present day healings are…works of our God-given immune systems” I think this might be the most controversial one. I believe that the healings that happen, happen because our immune system kicks into high gear. This is God’s creative wonder of the human body. He created us with amazing immune systems. It can accomplish amazing feats in incredibly short periods of time. I hear people speak of spontaneous remission. The Christian credits this to God’s healing. The atheist credits this to some sudden work of the body. I credit it to both. God providentially planned for the immune system he created to switch into high gear and take care of the problem. Prayer may have been a part of the equation. When this healing is not a part of God’s good plan, the immune system can’t handle it and a person remains sick or dies. When healing is in God’s plan, the immune system can handle it and they are healed. So, if death comes, we trust God and thank Him for the love he displayed when he crushed his Son for sinners. Or, if healing comes, we thank God and trust this is for a purpose. Thanks and trust must always be in our response whatever the outcome.

For those Christians that want to say, “God doesn’t need the immune system, he can bypass that and simply heal a person.” I agree that God CAN do that, I just don’t believe He does at this time in history. He is working His plans by the miracle of providence instead of the miracle of suspended laws of nature. If you say that He does heal by suspending laws of nature, then you find yourself back in all those unsatisfactory answers. Why would God bypass immune systems (suspending the laws of nature) to heal diseases, but then never suspend the laws of nature to heal amputees?

“…our God-given immune systems, which don’t correct amputations.” It should be clear now why amputees aren’t healed. When an amputation happens, as it did for my dad, God’s providence has become clear. God wants this person to live without some body part. Prayer is unnecessary because God has made His good and wise will known. We would not pray for healing any more than we would pray for a dead friend to be brought back to life. For both death and amputation, we wait for the final restoration of the resurrection.

The question is; do you trust Him?

I hope that is a big satisfying stew of biblical theology served up on a platter of real life.

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