'Why wont God heal amputees?'
This question has been circulating around the internet, and there is also a video on youtube.
I know its only a matter of time before I get asked this question at school, so I want to be prepared.
The most common questions asked are:
1) If God loves us all, why are there diseases, famines and suffering on Earth?
2) Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible?*
3) Why do bad things happen to good people?
4) How do you explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to you?
*From what I have read, the people weren't innocent who where put to death.
I think it would be helpful if we made a sticky with common questions asked, with quotes and scripture refences and such.
It is hard to address these questions without sounding Callous, but I believe all of lifes answers, only come with an understanding of certain concepts that take years to fathom. Free will, the importance of of suffering to gain compassion and knowledge, and the need to learn to rely on something other then our own power all factor in, when discussing issues of suffering and pain. Short answers probably cannot do these questions justice, and answers that work for me do not necessarily translate when talking to others.
This is my philosophy:
Life is difficult, but very temporary in the eternal scheme of things.
It was not meant to be easy, primarily because it is short (A crash course in compassion and experiences that will be useful in the eternities, but must involve pain, as well as joy and pleasure).
Laws that rule the temporal world necessitate for accident and injury, (death and pain must come to us all, and we must be frail to a certain extent, in order to understand others' suffering.)
How often when things are going great do we forget about others and focus on our own excitement and wants. If we never saw suffering in ourselves or others, selfishness and unkindness would be more of a problem then it is now.
Bad things happen to everyone, not exclusively to the bad or the good. Mortal life prepares mankind for eternity: if it was not difficult then it would have no purpose.
The question of innocent people dieing in the bible as I see it:
From the perspective of God, Death is only a transition from one sphere to the next. We cannot understand this, because we see good people we love die in youth and old ones suffer in pain before they die. When God takes someone out of this existence through death it is not necessarily a bad thing. In God's perspective death is a transition from one part of eternity to the next. This does not mean that God does not feal pain when his children feal pain, but it does mean that he sometimes does what is necessary to further his work (the immortality and eternal life of man). Before one can receive immortality he must die, and before he can have eternal life with God he must pass through mortal life for the time allotted by God. Sometimes God chooses to bring the innocent out of the world for a purpose, and sometimes I think God allows temporal laws to mandate when someone is taken out of this world (murder, accidents, health problems) or suffer some unique malady that helps the individual progress.
As I stated before these answers work for me. Some people have different answers, and some people may not be ready for the right ones, whatever they may be.
But I do believe that these answers will be answered for every individual in due time, and that we will be given more incite into our own suffering and that of others. All of the answers, I assume, may not come until much later in our eternal existence, but they will come.
Name: Healed
Comments: Heavenly Father heals your heart which is more important than your leg. We are in a test right now, and he is watching to see how you handle a missing leg for a short time.
Life must be hard so we can prove ourselves. When we prove ourselves worthy, and only when we prove ourselves worthy, then can we attain the great reward that God lays up in store for us. We don't get a free ride (although we get TONS of help), but we do get the atonement, and we are promised great blessings.
Name: Nick
Country:
Comments: SamstaUK, God will heal your leg in time but for now it is your heart and mind that He is concerned with.
Know that for a child of God there are no coincidences or accidents in life.
My life has been filled with every conceivable tragedy to make a grown man want to stop living, which I once tried.
But I have come to understand that it matters not what our personal tragedies are in life but rather what we do to see them as being sent from God.
And He sends nothing but things that will help us grow.
What you can't see where your leg once was, will be reconstructed in your heart.
God can and will, easily replace your leg in time but there is no way to replace the value of overcoming a difficult trial in life. That trial is more important than your leg ever was.
And unless we have those trials, we will not gain that extra sense of becoming something greater than we once were when things were easier.
I'm a far greater man for having weathered life's storms.
I'm older now and think I may have this life thing licked. And fully expect God to bring on a different aspect of living for me in the near future.
And it will only be as good as it's going to be because of what it has taken to get here.
Hang in there Buddy, it's all good and it's all ok. You just need to see the light.
God is with you always and this is what will cause you to have a better understanding of that.
And His companionship is the one that counts the most. Like your leg...It's the one you can't see, but rather feel within your heart.