Does God Still Discipline His Children with Sickness...?

I believe God does, but I'm also very hesitant to look at a specific illness, or even a death, and attribute it to God's disciplining.

 

I think that all difficult things in the lives of believers are God's discipline, not in the sense that it is retribution for specific wrongdoing, but in the sense that it's purpose is our sanctification.

Hebrews 12:7ff

 

When we think we know why God allows everything, 'tis a recipe for us to make ourselves look foolish...the disciples looked foolish for that reason.

From John 9:1-3:

It's God's place to decide why something is done, not ours.

Just my humble opinion.

 

So we're all pretty much agreed so far.

Now it's confession time. There have been a couple of occasions when I privately felt an individual sickness or death could have been God's retribution or disciplining. I would never say it out loud, and it was only speculation. But I still wondered.

Have any of you ever harbored those private speculations?

 

Simple answer: Yes. I've seen it firsthand in my family with the chastening of my sister.

 

I agree with everything thus far as well.
And as for your last question Tom, I do admit one time of so doing.

Reason: This person was the known instagator of 2 church splits over 10 year period, and the new church he was in began to have problems of division, guess who was the name most mentioned. You guessed it. Eventually the church did split (that makes 3) but shortly afterwards he felt fatigued and week. He went to the Doctor and was found to be in the initial or beginning stages of cancer. But according to him the progression/growth was even startaling to the doctor. He died not quite 5 months after the diagnosis. Not that cancer can't be a quick killer, but the circumstances at the time it came about, and the doctors amazement at its progression and inablilty to seen to be treated definately is cause to wonder.

 

This brings me to a question that has been discussed before, but I would like your input. Let's assume, just for the sake of discussion (because we don't know) that the man you refer to was disciplined by God. Did God take his life because of the shame he was bringing to the church and the name of Christ, or was it to save the man from further loss of rewards?

 

I know of anther story but it was told me by my old Pastor concerning a friend of his who was also a Pastor but of a very divisive, gossipy, slanderous church.

After much prayer, he bagan preaching the Text about the Lords supper and those being sickly or dead amoung them. And instituted the Lords Supper at every service until the Lord brought the church to a place of repentence.

They buried more people in 2 or 3 months than in the last 5 years. The Church began to fear the Lord and it was crushed of its pride, predjudices, and decention. The Pastor felt lead to stop the Lords Supper at every meeting and go back to when ever they normally held it. And funny enough people stopped dieing and being placed in the Hospitals onthe scale that had begun under the preaching of God's judgement and the Lords Supper.

 

To be honest I don't know. I know he stopped going to church and talking about God when his cancer began to speed up. I personally was not sure of his salvation anyway, Not so much because of his actions but his beleifs. He was a devoted 33rd degree Masson (Masonic Lodge) He believed when you die you would rule your own planet (that is a mormon belief) and I could never get a straight answer from him about realizing he was sinner who deserved Gods wrath, and that he called out to God for mercy. He would tell me many things and stories and that he was pretty sure he saved, but never could he give me a straight answer (He wouldn't even tell others about Christ and salvation - that wasn't his thing he would say). So while I am inclined to hope he was saved, I could not make that call on or by his own personal testimony.


But my answer all thing considered in regard to your question (regardless of him or not) would be both.

Editted IN >>> IN case you are wondering how I know about this guy, we were in the same martial arts school for about a year and half.

 

Your welcome. If anything good came of it, it is the fact I can share her story for her in order to help other believers.

Short story: She met a guy who was involved in occultic practices (vampirism, witchcraft, etc.). She was a believer at the time, slowly drifting away from God. Since she never had a boyfriend before, she fell for this guy...hard. She slowly started playing with this garbage. In the span of one year, she was invloved in 5 car accidents, a torn up knee requiring surgery, back problems and constant sinus infections. She never got the message. God took her life in a very painful manner (CO poisoning) along with her boyfriend. I believe what she go messed up in was a sin unto death, and God saw to it.