Me the Cynical Christian.
Last weekend we celebrated Independence Day here in the states. Our family joined a bunch of friends who camp every year at the state park just up the road. They bring their boat over and spend a week on the river dragging the kids around on inflatable toys.
When we arrived, the boat had just pulled up to the dock and we noticed the father carrying his son up the hill to the picnic area. Come to find out, they had been dragging kids behind the boat in a tighter and tighter circle when the inflatable hit the wake and the boy went flying, landing awkwardly on his back. You could tell he was in a lot of pain but was brave enough to hold back the tears.
What was interesting about this scene was what happened next. Several of the women in the group huddled around him in prayer calling for Jesus to heal him. This went on for quite some time. Meanwhile, the men were also huddled saying stuff like, “Give him a few minutes, he’ll shake it off and be back on the river in no time.”
Sure enough, he was fine after resting for a while and was back on the inflatable in no time.
Later, I heard that same group of women commenting on how fast Jesus had healed this boy. They kept using words like miraculous and super natural to describe the event. It was as if the kid would have been bound to a wheel chair for the rest of his life if they hadn’t called for healing.
This was where I had this really uncomfortable cynical feeling come over me. My first thought was, “Wait a minute, if the atheist kid in the next campsite had this happen to him, would he have been in a wheel chair for the rest of his life?”
I kept my mouth shut and nodded in agreement.
I’ve talked about this healing thing before on this blog and am still wrestling with it. My scientific mind wants double blind tests and lots of data before coming to any conclusions. I’ll admit it, I’m the Thomas in the blog world.
I can see God sitting on his throne like Darth Vadar, pointing a finger at me and saying, “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
So please set me straight on this healing thing if you have any insight. The only thing God promises in the Bible is that he will be with us if bad stuff happens. But does that mean we’ll have healing on demand?
Tags: Christianity, Faith, Family, Healing, Life, Love, Marriage, Random, Relationships, Religion, Thoughts
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July 11, 2009 at 6:24 am
Hi. Well…since you asked….
God does heal, but not everyone and no one knows why that is. I have to believe there are still miracles in that God can heal someone suddenly out of His own will and not because someone with an overblown sense of importance has commanded or demanded or declared anything to Him or from Him.
Then, of course are the liars who like us to believe otherwise but who are more interested in building for themselves a big name and bank account.
I believe God would heal an unbeliever the same as he would a believer. He has compassion on everyone regardless of how they feel about Him. However, He is more interested in our spiritual condition than our physical.
Yes, you are right– we are called to endure because like Jesus told His disciples we will have tribulation, but He has overcome it.
Peace and blessings to you! Pop in and say hi (or whatever) sometime.
July 11, 2009 at 5:19 pm
i think i’m in your camp CR.
even the ‘by His stripes we are healed’ pertains to our spiritual healing, not physical. i wrote a post about the praying for a parking spot thing a while ago.
maybe i just dont have enough faith that the product im praying will be at the store will miraculously appear while walking thru the parking lot.
if we remember that God does *everything* for our good and for His glory, then we can right our thinking about accidents/incidents that occur to us in life.
July 12, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I think this is something most believers struggle with. It’s not a belief that He can’t – the question we ask is “will He?” His thoughts are so above ours, beyond our logic. Some he heals, some right away, some not until they get to heaven. Why?? Only He knows and I believe He doesn’t share His reasons with us because: He’s God and He doesn’t need to explain to us; we’re just too demanding sometimes; our praying – while He knows – may not bring about a healing in the natural – the actual gesture of praying aloud may very well be the healing that someone overhearing it needs – to know He is reachable, with us at all times. We’ve spent our entire lives learning how to be self-sufficient and independent – rarely inviting Him or giving Him an opportunity to do what He does best, but what people don’t seem to realize is that sometimes, the answer to a prayer is “NO.” We may never know on this side, the why not, but even if He explained it we would never understand. His thoughts are bigger than ours. With God, logic is turned on its head.
July 14, 2009 at 2:43 pm
My answer is, I don’t know. One of the things that makes me, like you, quite cynical is that people who have incredible faith are often not healed from illnesses or disease. Does that mean that God loves them less, or that they are less worthy or less important to Him? I don’t think so. It’s stories like this that remind me of the dangers of “experiential hermaneutics”: will these people’s faith crumble the day that God’s answer to their prayer is “no?”
I liken stories like the one you describe to the opposite of seeing the devil under every rock – attributing to God healing of something that wasn’t really an illness or injury based on the outcome. But maybe I just have little faith. Personally, I suspect that the real miracle was that the kid was not killed by combined acts of stupidity…. But I don’t know those people, so I really shouldn’t comment on that!
I do agree that God does accomplish miracles, and that sometimes, we have not because we ask not, but I also think that the most common reason that God does or does not comes down to His sovereign will. What comforts me more and strengthens my faith more than the times He heals are those times when He says “no” and comes alongside the hurting individual with His strength, peace, hope and joy. I think that is the greater miracle.
But that’s just me!
October 23, 2009 at 3:10 pm
The problem within the narrative that you recounted is in the mindset of those involved.
The mothers clearly have a mindset of God that He wants everything in life to go right/be right whenever possible. However, this view defines right as in perfect before the fall of man, i.e. no sin, suffering etc. This view is very prevallent among people who see Christianity as God’s attempt to solve the worlds problems and return it to an idyllic state pre the fall of man. The real deal behind this attitude is that God has come to save/retain what is good and cast out what is evil, thereby saving the world. But isn’t that correct?
Actually no, this christian view is more akin to a social reform movement than faith in a Messianic figure who is seeking to actualise Lordship over His rebelious creation, without having to destroy it ALL. A social reform view of Christ makes God the person who is there to solve every individual problem and thereby arrive BACK to the inocence of the garden, rather than Christ who has done everthing we need to guarantee that we will be with Him in a NEW heaven and earth in eternity FUTURE.
Obviously it is impossible to even take the ‘old’good from this world into a new world, therefore an attachment to anything in the present world that cannot be severed in hope of the new, is a love of this world and a selfish ambition/possesiveness condemned in scripture!
This social view of christianity also contradicts scripture which tells us that God will hand people over to sin and even increase the potential for people to sin/suffer harm in order to help them see they are sinners in need of a saviour, Romans chapter 1, Galatians.
I understand why Christian parents want a safe environment for their kids to grow up in and for them to avoid all evil and why they then think that that is God’s view too, but how does He achieve that when all the people around the Christians are more than happy to live in a pleasant environment but REFUSE to give the glory to God which will leave them in the lake of fire?
Is God more interseted in Chrisitans temporal comfort/pleasure or in an unbelievers eternal destiny?
Some of this social view of Christianity problem stems from replacement theology where Christians become the kingdom of God on the earth and get the physical blessings of God promised to physical Israel fulfilled to them instead. Such a view naturally breeds and attracts people who are looking for temporal comfort, over sacrificing the here and now for the hereafter.
Consider the wisdom of Solomon. He was willing to sacrifice a childs life to determine the truth, and the childs true mother was willing to hand her child over to a deciever to enable it to have life (which in a NT context is eternal life). I am not suggesting that Christian parents should push their children into the depravity of the world, but they should consider why God let the serpent into the garden in the first place?
No trials no proven character!
Consequently the issue here is not miracles or cynicsm but carnal, immature, christians who are self/physically orientated. Such brethren naturally depress others who, like Solomon, are willing to pay the price for the truth. Consider Thessalonians 2:10 ‘recieve the love of the truth’, it doesn’t say recieve a love of salvation, or the idea of salvation, because salvation is a relative concept until defined by THE TRUTH.