Why doesn't God heal amputees?

[lori4dogs]

At the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne, Australia a video was introduced that is a challenge to Christians. It includes ten questions, the first of which is 'Why doesn't God heal amputees?'

God is all-powerful. Therefore, God can do anything, and regenerating a leg is trivial.

God is perfect, and he created the Bible, which is his perfect book. In the Bible, Jesus makes very specific statements about the power of prayer. Since Jesus is God, and God and the Bible are perfect, those statements should be true and accurate.

God is all-knowing and all-loving. He certainly knows about the plight of the amputee, and he loves this amputee very much.

God is ready and willing to answer your prayers no matter how big or small. All that you have to do is believe. He says it in multiple places in the Bible. Surely, with millions of people in the prayer circle, at least one of them will believe and the prayer will be answered.

God has no reason to discriminate against amputees. If he is answering millions of other prayers like Jeanna's every day, God should be answering the prayers of amputees too.

Nonetheless, the amputated legs are not going to regenerate.

The argument seems to be, if God has placed the stars in the sky and has even raised Jesus from the dead, why does He not heal amputees?

I've got my own ideas but I'm interested in yours.

The video is at the bottom of the page:


http://www.davidould.net/index.php?/blog/comments/10_questions_from_the_atheists

 

[Thinkingstuff]

At the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne, Australia a video was introduced that is a challenge to Christians. It includes ten questions, the first of which is 'Why doesn't God heal amputees?'

God is all-powerful. Therefore, God can do anything, and regenerating a leg is trivial.

God is perfect, and he created the Bible, which is his perfect book. In the Bible, Jesus makes very specific statements about the power of prayer. Since Jesus is God, and God and the Bible are perfect, those statements should be true and accurate.

God is all-knowing and all-loving. He certainly knows about the plight of the amputee, and he loves this amputee very much.

God is ready and willing to answer your prayers no matter how big or small. All that you have to do is believe. He says it in multiple places in the Bible. Surely, with millions of people in the prayer circle, at least one of them will believe and the prayer will be answered.

God has no reason to discriminate against amputees. If he is answering millions of other prayers like Jeanna's every day, God should be answering the prayers of amputees too.

Nonetheless, the amputated legs are not going to regenerate.

The argument seems to be, if God has placed the stars in the sky and has even raised Jesus from the dead, why does He not heal amputees?

I've got my own ideas but I'm interested in yours.

The video is at the bottom of the page:


http://www.davidould.net/index.php?/blog/comments/10_questions_from_the_atheists

Uh. Because its all mythology. Its easy to deceive people into believing a whole person died and can be raised back to life. To make something look like skin disease is cleared. But to make an arm come back or a leg? That would have been a real trick. But unfortunately, you can't do that without getting caught. And since the writers of the stories in the bible believed the majority of what they wrote they didn't say anything about things they haven't heard of. Kind of funny Jesus was going around in an age when people used swords and he didn't heal any amputees. I wonder if Jesus and Bar Kochba hung out together?

 

[ReformedBaptist]

Uh. Because its all mythology. Its easy to deceive people into believing a whole person died and can be raised back to life. To make something look like skin disease is cleared. But to make an arm come back or a leg? That would have been a real trick. But unfortunately, you can't do that without getting caught. And since the writers of the stories in the bible believed the majority of what they wrote they didn't say anything about things they haven't heard of. Kind of funny Jesus was going around in an age when people used swords and he didn't heal any amputees. I wonder if Jesus and Bar Kochba hung out together?

I didn't realize you denied the Gospel.

 

[RAdam]

I think I've seen that video before. It's amusing that atheists consider that a challenge to Christians. Surely they could come up with something better than this.

 

[matt wade]

I think I've seen that video before. It's amusing that atheists consider that a challenge to Christians. Surely they could come up with something better than this.

To me it is amusing that atheists attempt to challenge Christians at all. Really, what's the point?

As a former atheist, I can answer my own question . The point is that most atheists don't just not believe in God, they hate Christianity (and it normally is exclusively Christianity that they hate, not other religions). For some reason atheists love to mock and scorn Christianity and get great pleasure out of it.

It's amusing because one of their big complaints is that Christians are always trying to convert people...then they go and attempt to do the same thing.

 

[Thinkingstuff]

I didn't realize you denied the Gospel.

Its called being Facetious

 

[ReformedBaptist]

Its called being Facetious

I hope so. Sounded serious to me.

 

[lori4dogs]

The bible is clear that God does loves us and 'knows our plight', however, the problem with this conclusion is that because of God's nature, He seeks to remedy every bit of human suffering. The bible has so many, many examples of people suffering at the hand of God. I think Job would be the best example. Even Jesus Himself suffers terribly and even after asking for that suffering to be taken from Him He then faces death.

The idea that God must answer all prayer in the positive is too simplistic. I wonder how the Word/Faith movement would answer this first question by the atheists.

 

[Thinkingstuff]

I hope so. Sounded serious to me.

Kind of hard putting a sarcastic sound or facial expression when typing. Its kind of like british humor very dry.

 

[ReformedBaptist]

The bible is clear that God does loves us and 'knows our plight', however, the problem with this conclusion is that because of God's nature, He seeks to remedy every bit of human suffering. The bible has so many, many examples of people suffering at the hand of God. I think Job would be the best example. Even Jesus Himself suffers tremendously and even after asking for that suffering to be taken from Him He then faces death.

The idea that God must answer all prayer in the positive is too simplistic. I wonder how the Word/Faith movement would answer this first question by the athiests.

So your view of God is that He wants people to suffer?

 

[Thinkingstuff]

So your view of God is that He wants people to suffer?

Isn't that very catholic? Mortification leads to Godliness?

 

[thegospelgeek]

So your view of God is that He wants people to suffer?

In some cases, yes. In some others, no. There are times we suffer for the cause of Christ. The Bible tells us to count those times as joy or blessings. There are other times we suffer so that God can teach us or lead us in a diffection he wants us to go. There are other times we suffer because of our sinful choices, and yet other when we suffer because of others sinful choices.

As far as the claims that Jesus never healed any amputees is refuted by scripture. I do not know why he has not chosen to heal any that I know. My guess would be that we are to accept God by faith. He has given us his word and holy spirit, that's enough for me.

 

[lori4dogs]

Actually, amputees are healed all the time these days. People who lose fingers have them re-attached routinely. Maybe a better question would be 'why don't amputees grow limbs back?' My answer would be because the human body doesn't do that. Amputees will be healed eventually but in this life it seems that God does His healings at particular times for particular purposes. Take Jesus healing of Peter severing the ear in the Garden of Gethsemane. A particular time and place.

I know of a person in a Word/Faith church that believes that if he prays for the rain to stop (so his son can play in a baseball game) it will happen. I wonder how he would account for a local farmer is praying for rain so that his crops won't die and that God might be more inclined to intervine on their behalf instead.

 

[steaver]

I would answer as Jesus often answered, with a question to provoke their thoughts...

Did God raise Jesus from the dead after three days in the tomb?

Luk 16:31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

And even if God restores an arm or a leg the antichrists would find another reason not believe in a just and holy God.

 

[thegospelgeek]

I would answer as Jesus often answered, with a question to provoke their thoughts...

Did God raise Jesus from the dead after three days in the tomb?

Luk 16:31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

And even if God restores an arm or a leg the antichrists would find another reason not believe in a just and holy God.

:thumbs: ...........................

 

[ReformedBaptist]

Ok, against what I would normally do, which is to deal with this merely on an intellectual level, I will share a couple things:

God is all-powerful. Therefore, God can do anything, and regenerating a leg is trivial.

First, God cannot do anything just becasue He is all-powerful. Yes, He is all-powerful, but God cannot sin or lie for example. So the premise is in error.

God is perfect, and he created the Bible, which is his perfect book. In the Bible, Jesus makes very specific statements about the power of prayer. Since Jesus is God, and God and the Bible are perfect, those statements should be true and accurate.

They are, and there is no challenge here.

God is all-knowing and all-loving. He certainly knows about the plight of the amputee, and he loves this amputee very much.

What this is doing is using man's reasoning and apply his/her own set of right/wrong and making a judgment about God.

God is ready and willing to answer your prayers no matter how big or small. All that you have to do is believe. He says it in multiple places in the Bible. Surely, with millions of people in the prayer circle, at least one of them will believe and the prayer will be answered.

This is riddled with misunderstandings and false assumptions. It carries a misunderstanding to the will of God, answered prayer, and the false assumption that God has never healed an amputee.

God has no reason to discriminate against amputees. If he is answering millions of other prayers like Jeanna's every day, God should be answering the prayers of amputees too.

Again, this is making a moral judgment about God as to what He should and should not do. Something people have not even the least bit qualification for.

 

[Thinkingstuff]

When has God healed an amputee?

 

[ReformedBaptist]

When has God healed an amputee?

How do we know He has not? That is the point. In order to make the statement that He never has, we would have to possess all knowledge of all people who ever lived.

 

[Thinkingstuff]

How do we know He has not? That is the point. In order to make the statement that He never has, we would have to possess all knowledge of all people who ever lived.

However, we have his living word which never mentions once that he healed an amputee.

 

[steaver]

At the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne, Australia a video was introduced that is a challenge to Christians. It includes ten questions, the first of which is 'Why doesn't God heal amputees?'

A simple answer would be that God has chosen this type of healing to be part of His ressurrection plan. Could He do it now if He wanted to? Of course, but He obviously has chosen to wait.

God is perfect, and he created the Bible, which is his perfect book. In the Bible, Jesus makes very specific statements about the power of prayer. Since Jesus is God, and God and the Bible are perfect, those statements should be true and accurate.

True

God is ready and willing to answer your prayers no matter how big or small. All that you have to do is believe. He says it in multiple places in the Bible. Surely, with millions of people in the prayer circle, at least one of them will believe and the prayer will be answered.

God has no reason to discriminate against amputees. If he is answering millions of other prayers like Jeanna's every day, God should be answering the prayers of amputees too.

The prayer is always "heard", sometimes the answer will be no or not right now.

As ReformedBaptist pointed out, these statements leave out of the biblical detail of the sovereign will of God who knows best. This atheist challenge is defeated pretty easily.