Why Won't God Heal Amputees?

Some of you may be familiar with the popular atheist website, Why Won't God Heal Amputees.  The basic objective of the organization is not only to prove that God does not exist, but to encourage the believing Christian to rationally contemplate their faith and logically consider their arguments.  Their hope is that those who believe in God will eventually come to the deductive conclusion that faith is simply a superstition and therefore open their minds to a more enlightened thought process.  They seem to claim their arguments are presented to any religion or faith system, but Christianity seems to be their main opposition.  

I have to admit that these kinds of organizations used to make me very defensive.  From a faith perspective, I found it very hard to understand why some people come to a place in life where it becomes so easy to deny God's existence, but also feel compelled to attack the beliefs of others.  If someone truly has no belief in God, what difference does it make to them whether or not someone else does?  I still feel this way to a certain extent, but I have also grown to a place spiritually where I don't feel the need to attack other belief systems.  I believe in God and believe that Christianity is true, but my goal in ministry is not to "force" others to accept my beliefs, but to be a point of influence that will cause others to honestly consider the reality of the Kingdom of God and what it means to be a true Christ follower.

With that said, I find this organization very interesting and compelling.  The honest questions they ask seem genuine and whether right or wrong, they deserve addressing .  Granted, some of their statements are a bit antagonistic and condescending, but if you look beyond the defensiveness, anger and what might appear as an attack on those of faith, I think you'll simply find fellow human beings seeking answers to the same questions many Christians deal with.  And to be honest, the Church and Christians in general have traditionally done a pretty poor job in answering the arguments.  Today's culture demands more than just the typical rehearsed, memorized and cliche "churchy" answers.

So, here is a list of the "10 Questions That Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer" taken from the website linked above.  What I would like to know is how you would answer these questions in an honest manner, if you were involved in a discussion with someone who did not believe in God.  Avoid being defensive, argumentative or feeling as if you need to "win" the argument.  Avoid judging the questions as ignorant or simplistic because of what you know.  These are "real' questions that "real" people ask.  Consider how you would honestly answer these questions from your perspective of faith, knowledge and experience.  I plan on writing another blog that will address how I personally answer these questions, but I wold like to know what you think.

1.  Why won't God heal amputees?  We believe that God answers prayer, preforms miracles and heals in various manners, but we never see someone grow limbs in response to prayer.  Why not?  Does God ignore amputees?  

2. Why are there so many starving people in the world?  Why would God pay attention to your pray to find a job, when He seems to ignore the prayers of people literally starving to death?

3.  Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible?  Exodus 35:2 demands the death of anyone who violates the sabbath, Deuteronomy 21:18-21 demands the death of disobedient teenagers, Leviticus 20:13 calls for the death of homosexuals and Deuteronomy 22:13-21 demands the death of woman that are not virgins when they marry.  In the book of Joshua, God commands Israel to not only kill the men, but woman and children as well.  In Deuteronomy, we see that God commands Israel to kill "everyone" in Heshbon and Bashan.  He also commands the extermination of everyone except the virgins of Midian in the book of Numbers (the virgins were plunder), and in 1 Samuel 15:1-9, the Isralites are commanded to kill all of the Amalekites - men, woman, children, infants, cattle, for something they did 400 years prior.                    

4.  Why does the Bible contain so much anti-scientific nonsense?  Can you remain a logical and intelligent thinker and still believe the supernatural stories of the Bible?

5.  Why is God such a huge proponent of slavery in the bible?  Take a look at these verses from both the Old and New Testament.  Exodus 20:20-21, Deuteronomy 15:12-18, Leviticus 25:44-46, Mark 14:66, Colossians 3:22-24, Ephesians 6:5, 1 Peter 2:18      

6.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Think about it.  We probably all know of someone that ranks up there with Mother Theresa, and yet they seem to be plagued with constant tragedy.  Consequently, we all know of people that could be classified as evil incarnate, and yet their lives seem to be completely absent of even minor troubles.    

7.  Why didn't any of Jesus' miracles in the Bible leave any evidence behind?  Several people have asked me why more evidence is not available of Jesus' miracles other that Scripture.     

8.  How do we explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to anyone?   If Jesus is omnipotent and omnipresent, why does He seem to not appear to anyone?  Apparently, Mary has appeared to people in apparitions, why not Jesus?  

9.  Why would Jesus want you to eat His body and drink His blood?  Many of us have grown up in the Church, so this does not seem unusual.  But what about those who have never heard of this concept?  Could this not seem grotesque and cannibalistic?    

10.  Why are Christian divorce rates the same as that of non-Christians?  This is a great question and one that cannot be denied.  In fact, being involved in ministry, I seem to see more instances of divorce than I do outside the Church.  Why is this?
    

CEOs

I was on my way to church on Christmas Eve and was listening to the local Christian radio station.  Not necessarily for the "Christian" music, (I'm not a big fan of contemporary Christian music), but they were playing Christmas music during December, and I was feeling festive!  That was until the DJ made this comment.  "You know, tonight you're going to see a lot of CEOs at church,  Christmas and Easter only.  Let's make sure we put our best foot forward and make them feel at home.  This may be the only time you run into these people, so let's show them what the love of Christ is all about."     

Just for a moment, I'd like you to think about that statement.  Especially if you're a follower of Christ, think about these words.  Imagine that you are not a follower of Christ.  Imagine that you're one of these CEOs, and on your way to church with your family.  Imagine that you decide to tune into the local Christian radio station because you've heard someone at work talk about it.  Imagine that you're a mom or dad, and beginning to think that you're family needs something more in their lives.  You've been thinking about church more and more, and the Christmas Season has been convicting your spirit.  The New Year is coming up, and you're going to finally start visiting churches.  Maybe you and your family have drifted away from church for a while, and you've finally decided to give it another shot.  Whatever the situation, you just heard yourself labeled as a "CEO".  You've wife gives you one of those looks.  Your husband sighs and glances back at the kids in the back seat.  Your teenager says, "So, I guess we're one of those CEOs, huh?"  You're one of "those" people.  And when you walk into church in a few minutes, you and your family are going to be on center stage.  Are you going to have to wear a name tag that says CEO?  You're not going to feel too self conscious, are you?   

You might have heard this same comment and didn't give it a second thought.  I could have easily heard this, allowed it to go in one ear and out of the other.  But for some reason, it caused me to pause and think about how the Church appears to the rest of the world.  What do they see from outside the walls of our buildings?  What do they see in the neighborhoods, workplaces, homes and shopping centers?  Why do we need to be reminded of things like this DJ referred to?  Why does Christmas and Easter have to be when we "put our best foot forward"?  Shouldn't we be doing this every day of the year?  Should statements like this seem strange to our ears because it's a given for how we live our lives?    

Don't get me wrong, Christmas and Easter are wonderful times of the year.  In the Christian faith, they are considered holy days, and are times that we are all convicted and reminded of what our faith is built on. My point is this:  If we put on a show for people on 2 specific days of the year, will they be disappointed in what they see the other 363 days of the year?  Should they see something different?  Should our celebrations be consistent?  Is this really showing them the love of Christ, or are we just performing to get the "CEOs" in the front door and is this the kind of mindset that we should have toward those that are outside the doors of our church?

Yes, I believe 100% that as believers in Christ, we are called to share our faith with those that don't know the gospel.  We are all called to be on mission and spread the Good News to the entire earth.  But what does that mean in a practical way?  Is it something we turn off and on?  Or is it something we live 24/7?  Is it something that is irresistible to others to the point that there is no question of who we serve and what our faith is all about?  Is it something we "do", or something we "are"?  Why is it not as real for us as it was for the Church over 2000 years ago?   

If you are unfamiliar with the early New Testament Church, read the first few chapters of the book of Acts.  The Church depicted in Acts 2 was a group of people that were "living" their faith in Jesus Christ.  In Acts 2:42-47:  "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,  praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."  

These were people that were consumed by their faith in the risen Lord and could not contain it for one minute.  They lived and breathed their faith in Christ.  Yes, they preached the gospel and spoke this truth to thousands of people and the Bible tells us that thousands were coming to know Christ every day.  It was literally an explosion of faith and the growth was astronomical.  Truly, a revolution had begun in Jerusalem and the world would never be the same.

But this faith and growth of the Church was not conditional.  It was not a "one or the other" kind of thing.  They were living an irresistible life that made others see that it was true.  Their words were backed up by their lives and actions.  There were no "special" times to share the truth of Christ.  There were no better times than others, because they were just living and sharing what they believed.  No one told them to put their best foot forward when they walked outside, went to the Temple or market place.  Both of their feet were the best and were always moving forward.  They didn't see CEOs.  They only saw people that needed to know what they knew, and needed to live as they were now living, because the love they felt could not be contained.            

Buffet Style Christianity

We all like buffets, right? Especially when your hunger is at its peak! You look over the various choices before you and wonder where you should start! And not wanting to offend any one particular food group, we usually take a little of everything. After our stomachs reach the “Full” line, we back away from the table, loosen our belts and realize that our eyes were much bigger than our stomach! But isn’t that the way life is these days? Don’t we wish that all of our choices were as simple as buffets? Think about it. Even with our faith, we have brought the same consumer mentality into the Church. “I’ll have a little of this, a little of that, but not too much of THAT.” We customize our worship services to resemble a lunch at Luby’s rather than worship of God. And after we’re done, what do we do? We loosen our belts and realize that we took too much of what we didn’t really need and not enough of what we did.

Well, the Greeks had this concept down even better than we do, but they were even more specific. They developed a buffet line for their “gods”. These guys had gods for everything! You name it and you could worship it. They were so afraid of accidentally overlooking and offending a particular god, that they had an alter marker, “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”. Now that’s covering your bases!

The Apostle Paul is called to preach among the non-Jews of the time, and that inevitably brought him to Athens: the Mecca of Greek philosophy and pagan thought. In Acts17, Paul happens upon a place called The Aeropagus (Mars Hill), which was somewhat of the forum and center of philosophical discussions at the time. He encounters the two most common types of philosophers: the Epicureans and the Stoics. Not only were their beliefs radically different from each other, they held to beliefs in complete opposition form Christianity. The Epicureans thought that since man cannot connect with god at all, there was no reason to seek a moral stance on anything in life. The highest value in life was “pleasure” and the only reason that man exists. The Stoics, on the other hand, were much like the Vulcans from Star Trek. These guys taught that all emotions were to be denied and would only cause conflict with seeking moral discipline and morality. They believed that logic and reason were the greatest good and god was the sum of all that is good: namely logic and reason.

Now, Paul could have easily thumped these guys with the proverbial Bible and slammed them for their pagan beliefs, but this is not what he does. Instead, Paul connects with them on the same philosophical mindset that they had been conditioned to live by. He basically tells these deep thinkers, “Hey, I know you guys are smart and love discussion! I love discussion too! Let’s talk about this incredible concept that I have been radically transformed by! I noticed that you guys are seeking god! That’s awesome! You even have an alter “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”. Perfect! Because I know who He is! Can I tell you about Him?” Now, some of these philosophers walked away, but the Bible says that many wanted to talk more about Christ. Why? Because Paul grabbed their attention. He met them where they were. He met them where they lived and thought like they thought. He went through their buffet line and showed them where the real nourishment was.

So, when was the last time we took the time to connect with non-believers on their level? Where they are and where they live? After all, we are all seeking “truth” on this journey of life. Some have just gotten off the path a bit. God is still God and wants to connect with everyone on their own specific and customized level.