Questions From Our ReadersIn this section we attempt to answer some very important questions from our readers. We want to place our response on this website because they tend to be common among those that are searching for complex Biblical answers. We'll cover more topics as they become available. I was wondering if you could answer my questions. Regarding Divine healing -- I experienced Divine healing before, and I am in firm belief that God heals people. But the question is, does God always heal us? Very few people in church would dare to deny that God heals people even now; stories of Divine hearing abound. Many people just don't think that God responds very often to our call when we or someone we love fall ill. This is a problem of personal experience rather than theology or reasoning -- many people just have not experienced Divine healing even after they prayed desperately. I was browsing a book by Dr. James Dobson the other day, in which Dr. Dobson refers to a paster whose teenage daughter was afflicted with bone cancer. The pastor and the family prayed to God for healing, and in fact the whole church prayed for the girl, so there were literally thousands of people praying for her. The pastor, based on the a faith that he was supposed to have, declared to the hospital doctors that they would find no cancer cells in the operation since God would respond to the prayers. However, after the girl was sent into the operation room they waited outside, and they waited and waited, until they realized that this was gonna be a real surgery as too much time went by. The girl, in the end, had a leg cut off. The pastor's faith was on the verge of collapse. I think this kind of stories abound as much as those of Divine healing. In your opinion, what was happening there? Why did God allowed the girl afflicted with cancer in the first place? Why didn't God respond to their prayers? You emphasized in your writings that the faith must be of the "Biblical" kind. But we are just humans and we don't have the ability to scrutinize our own mental states to see if what we are holding fits the definition of the Biblical faith. Generally I call this kind of problems the "Job's Problem". I have been struggle with this problem for many years, since, as you describe in your writings, I was not certain what God would do in the next occasion. The church teaches us that God has the full authority to do whatever He thinks is good for us. We may not understand but we should accept it, because, as Dr. Dobson points out in his book, the only other option is hopelessness. This teaching is just too familiar to me, and, to be honest, I am very sick of it. However, we cannot predict God's will. We are left with no option but to accept anything that falls on us and to praise the Lord at the same time. I was really tired of this, and this is why your writings interested me so much. I know this may not be a "wise" question to ask, but I will be very, very appreciating if you could answer me. Let me introduce myself a little bit. I am 39. I grew up in Taiwan and got a Ph.D degree in linguistics at University of California, Irvine, Now I am teaching at a local university in my hometown in Taiwan. When I was young I went to a church which originated in Japan with a loose affiliation with the Methodist doctrines. Later when I was in the US I went to Saddleback Church in Orange County. I hadn't been to church for a long time until recently. Thank you for taking time reading such a long message. I look for your reply and your comments on my questions. Sincerely A Brother in Taiwan Our Answers. . . Why Most Christians Don't Get Healed (Pt. 2) |
