Why Doesn’t God Heal Amputees?

First of all, allow me to apologize to those who endure such a plight as to have a member of one’s body severed. No one who has his or her body intact could ever imagine the trouble you endure throughout life. Some of the little things we all take for granted, such as buttoning one’s shirt or blouse can be a major chore for you. It is sad to even discuss your condition as though it were an example of the proof for or against the existence of God, yet I had been asked on a discussion board to show how a loving God can exist and never heal anyone who has part of his or her body severed. The following was my reply.

 

John’s Testimony of Astonishment!

Did you ever see something that took you by surprise and you did a “double-take”? You know, you looked once as you were walking and then it hit you, and you stopped, because you had to give it another, more lingering look. I believe this is what John is telling us when the Gospel writer records: “I knew him not…” John repeats this in verse-33. He was astonished that he did not know the Messiah without seeing the Father’s sign that the Holy Spirit would descend and remain upon the One who was to come.

 

Jesus Has Shown Us What God Is Like!

Have you ever wondered what God is like? We see him portrayed exactly as he is in the face and life of Jesus (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus is the exact representation on earth of what God is in heaven. You see, no one had ever seen God (John 1:18), so no one knew what he was like. If Jesus is God through whom all things were created, and he came into this world, lived among us, but we never recognized who he actually is, then it is pretty safe to conclude that no one really knows God without knowing Jesus.

 

Grace and Truth Came Through Jesus

In John 1:17 the Gospel writer contrasts Moses with Jesus. He says that the Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus. Isn’t this an odd manner in which to compare the Old and New Covenants? John seems to imply that the Old Covenant contains no truth at all, but, of course, this would be a misapplication of the word truth, because John clearly implies in his remark that it was God who gave the Law through Moses, and it is also God who gives us grace and truth through Jesus. So what is John saying?

 

God WITH Us!

Some time ago, I remember seeing an animated version of Christians involved in ministry at their local church. It portrayed the ministries of three adults involved in children’s ministry. The first two appeared to be nothing more than babysitting. The children seemed to be very active and the two adults seemed a bit annoyed but bearing with it all, while the bubble above their heads showed what they really wanted to do. One saw himself involved in the choir, and the other saw herself helping the aged. The animation showed they truly wanted to help, but they really wanted to be doing something else. The third adult looked like he was really enjoying the children. He was sitting on the floor with them laughing and the bubble above his head was an exact replica of what he was already doing. In other words, he was content in his ministry and wouldn’t prefer doing anything else, no matter what that might be!

 

He Pitched his Tent with us!

John 1:14 and following simply doesn’t make sense if Jesus is a mere man. Why would it be of any importance to say: the Word (Jesus) became flesh, unless the Word is other than human to begin with? For him to be an angel doesn’t fit for several reasons. First, the angels are created beings and John 1:3 reminds us that absolutely nothing came to exist that does exist without being created through the Word. Secondly, the writer of Hebrews insists that God never told an angel: “You are my Son—Today, I have begotten you!” God simply does not refer to angels in this manner (Hebrews 1:5). So what does John 1:14 mean? If we are speaking about God, and if God is not a complex unity, what do the terms God and the Word, or Father and Son mean when the text doesn’t seem to differentiate when it comes to who God is?

 

One Lord ~ Jesus Christ

A lot of folks claim that they can’t find any Scriptures indicating that Jesus claimed to be God, but I have found at least four, and I’ve written a blog on each one. They can be found HERE. Of course there are many other Scriptures showing Jesus is God, and if Scripture is to be considered the word of God, they ought to be considered in one’s Christology. In this blog I would like to consider one of the arguments folks use to say Jesus never claimed to be God. I hope to address other arguments in future blogs.

 

To Anoint the Most Holy

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We now come to the sixth and final work of God as prophesied by the angel in Daniel 9:24, anointing the Most Holy. The term most holy is used at least forty-three times in the Old Testament and is taken to mean various things. It is used to refer to the whole Temple (2Chronicles 3:8, 10) or to the most holy place within the Temple behind the veil, wherein the ark was and the mercy seat (Exodus 26:33-34). It can also be used to refer to those things within the Temple that were consecrated to God, and were considered most holy to him (Exodus 30:26-29). It is also used of the altar of sacrifice (Exodus 29:37) and the altar of incense (Exodus 30:9-10), and the portion of the meal offering that went to the high priest and his family. The sin offering and the trespass offering were also regarded as most holy (Leviticus 2:10; 6:14-17).

 

Monotheism v/s Polytheism

Until recently, I had been troubled by Aaron and the Israelite people building a calf(s) while Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the Covenant written upon the two tables of stone; and this immediately after God had spoken to the whole nation loudly from the mount—thundering out the Ten Commandments. How could they do this and believe that the calf(s) was God who took them out of Egypt?

 

Revelations from the Cross

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Although I do not consider the truth that Jesus is God in the flesh to be the litmus test of one being a Christian, I do have to wonder how anyone could see themselves as being truly evil without this understanding. For example, if to see Jesus is to see God (John 14:9), whom should we see, as Jesus hangs from the cross? When we crucified Jesus, didn’t we crucify God? If not, we certainly are not seeing God when we look at Jesus upon the cross—are we? In my opinion, to the degree we do not see God when we look at Jesus, we lack knowing who God is, because if Jesus is the perfect image of God in human form (Hebrews 1:3), how can we know the invisible, incomprehensible God without seeing Jesus for who he truly is? How is it possible to know God apart from Jesus?

 

What Is Truth?

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Do we know the truth? Pilate once asked Jesus facetiously “What is truth?” as he ended one round of his interrogation of Jesus to go out to the Jewish authorities to say Jesus was innocent of the charges brought against him. Pilate didn’t wait for a reply from Jesus, because he didn’t believe anyone really knew what truth was, at least not in the sense conveyed by Jesus (John 18:37-38). Today, we speak of there being no absolutes, as though that statement were absolutely true, a contradictory statement to be sure, but this doesn’t seem to bother us. We talk of your truth and my truth, and in a world of Political Correctness anything, even contradictory beliefs, can all be true, simply because we say it is so. Is this the truth?

 

Jesus ~ Yahweh ~ I AM…

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If we would allow ourselves to try to understand what our relationship with God was like before the fall of man, what would we see? If we could see that any change God made to reality as it was then, I think we would have to agree that such change would make God vulnerable, in that, he quite naturally accepts responsibility for all that occurs for the things he did. Therefore, when creating mankind God became, or more accurately, God made himself responsible for us—his creation. I believe this is one of the many things that John reveals to us in the Prologue to his Gospel (John 1:1-18).

 

Seeing God’s Glory

Moses once asked God to show him his, i.e. God’s, glory.[1] If we would make the same request of God today, what would we expect to see? Would it be a manifestation of his power? Do we think we would see God seated upon the throne in heaven? Perhaps we may perceive it to be the glorious victory of God over evil when finally all is brought under his authority. What is God’s glory, and what would we actually see, if God chose to reveal his glory to us?

 

Where is God?

If the supreme purpose of mankind is to see God, i.e. to know him, love him and serve him with all of our being, where is he that I might discover him (Job 23:3)?[1] Surely, if it was God’s foremost purpose in creating man that we would know him, he would reveal himself to us, for how can we know or find an invisible God? We might say he is found in his creation, and certainly this is partially true, in that, it is illogical that such order should arise out of chaos. Certainly, nature itself points to a Creator. Men have even worshiped creation, believing God is all and all is God. Yet, in the end we can only say with Job that though the creation does point to a Creator (Romans 1:20), these are but the “extremities of his ways, and we hear only a whisper of him in these” (cp. Job 26:14).

 

What is the Purpose of the Christian Life?

What if the main purpose of being a Christian was not to get out the Gospel?[1] If true, what would this imply? Well, as I see it, it would mean a lot of great big worldwide ministries would not be necessary. But, is it true? First, I should say we are commissioned to preach the Gospel. However, I also need to say this is not the main purpose of my being a Christian. Technically, a non-Christian could spread the Gospel. If it suddenly became a consuming interest of a great many people, the Gospel would be headline news both on TV and in every newspaper around the world. So, technically, just being a Christian is not necessary to spreading the Gospel.