Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Does God Heal People?

Does God Heal People?

Last updated on: August 29, 2022 at 12:24 pm by Eric Scot English

Does God Heal People? 2022-08-29T12:24:59-04:00 Eric Scot English

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It’s 2018 and we get word that my wife’s best friend had just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. This friend is only 37 years old and is the Executive Director of a non-profit that does an enormous amount of good in the world. She is the personification of a faithful woman of God. In all honesty, she is one of the most faithful people I have ever known in my life. If one tries to find an explanation for why this horrible thing is happening to such a wonderful person, one will come up short.

Meanwhile, there are people in her life telling her that she need not fret because they have word that God is going to heal her. It’s not entirely clear how they know this, but what is clear is that they are certain about this proposition. Because this friend is a part of a certain denomination that emphasizes things like healing, she believes with faith that can move mountains God will heal her.

A few months later this once vivacious woman of God dies.

So what happened? Why wasn’t she healed? Did she not have enough faith? I have not known another person in my life to have more faith than our friend, so it certainly could not be that. Were not enough people praying? She had people praying all over the world for healing. So, it couldn’t be that.

So, what then?

Does God Heal?

Yes. At least I think so. But I also think it is very rare. It seems to me that if someone believes in the reality of God, then they must also have to believe that God heals. Healing is a primary emphasis of every gospel. I think that it is unlikely that Jesus only healed during his time on earth, but did not heal people before or after.

The better question is, do I think that we can know whether or not God is going to heal and whether or not there is a prescription or magic formula for one to receive that healing?

I think the first step would be to challenge the person making the claim. Why do they think that God would tell them that another person is going to be healed? Why would God not just tell the person who is inflicted?

It takes a certain amount of arrogance to think that a person’s righteousness is such that God would speak to them instead of speaking to the inflicted individual directly. I would add that although the person probably means well in providing hope for the inflicted individual, they are inevitably providing them with false hope. For example, what if the person doesn’t get certain medical treatments because they believe this prediction to be true? What will other people think when the prediction doesn’t come true – because you know what, it probably won’t.

It seems to me that no good can come out of a situation where an individual is making such a bold prediction about another person’s life. Consider for a moment that the individual is not healed. Who is to blame for this? God? Of course! God had nothing to do with this individual’s infliction. Sure, he could have healed them if he chose to, but he didn’t. God is looked at as the bad guy simply because someone else thought it wise to invoke his name.

Are There Prophets?

People that believe in this way of practicing their faith call this type of prediction a prophecy. This of course assumes the individual making the claim is a prophet. If we look to prophets within the Bible to give us an understanding of what a prophet is, then we will see that many of these people who claim to be prophets are not in fact delivering prophecies, but predictions. Moreover, they are not as much a prophet as they are a soothsayer. If we want to put a good western Christian spin on it, they are Christian fortune-tellers.

According to the example set forth in the Bible, a prophet is one who delivers a message from God to the religious establishment of their time. In the case of prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures, the prophecies were also directed toward political leaders as well. This is primarily because the governing body was theocratic. However, prophets also delivered messages to foreign powers as well. But, in most of these cases that occurred when there was an occupying power.

My point is, what you don’t see, is how prophecy is practiced today.

Additional Thoughts

We don’t know on this side of eternity why God chooses to heal some and not others. To me, it seems that in the situation with our friend there was no good reason whatsoever to take her from this earth. If God was going to heal anyone, it would be her. And, yet she died so quickly she didn’t get a chance to receive any medical treatments for her cancer.

Let’s flip the coin for a moment and consider that maybe a miracle did take place, but we were looking at it wrongly. Much of my own justification for this situation has been to understand the fact that my friend had cancer. She was going to suffer through the pain of cancer along with the treatments. The miracle is that God chose to take her out of this world before this happened.

For some reason, we always think of life as the best option for most situations. Why is that? What is with our obsession over life? If Christians truly believed in an eternal afterlife that is devoid of suffering why would that not be the better place to be?

Perhaps it is just human for us to want to find answers for things that don’t make much sense to us. I think that is fine as long as those solutions don’t accompany certainty or are a substitute for truth.

I think if you are someone who believes in the idea that God shares personal information with people outside of the individual with the infliction, then you should be careful and exercise discernment with who you decide to share that information. I personally don’t think God does this because it seems to be a violation of HIPPA rights on his part, but I could be wrong. I don’t mean to be insensitive about people who are suffering from infliction. I am just tired of seeing people I care for have a glimmer of hope in their eyes because some other person is trying to reconcile within themselves this terrible situation. It seems selfish to me to assert such a hopeful claim to another person when in reality they have no idea what God is going to do, if anything.

I think the best help a person can give another person is their friendship, their presence. Certainly, pray for healing as well. But it’s never a good idea to proclaim something you have no power over.

You can view my UNenlightenment YouTube Channel HERE
You can view my UNenlightenment Podcast HERE
You can follow me on FaceBook HERE

About Eric English

Eric is a rogue philosopher, theologian, podcaster and ninja. He is a father of three, husband of one, and a poet unto himself. Eric’s main areas of thinking are in philosophy (specifically, Soren Kierkegaard), theology (Narrative Perspectivism), and culture. Eric also hosts the podcast UNenlightenment. If you are interested in having Eric speak at your event, please contact him on Facebook. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

August 13, 2022

Feds Getting Involved in SBC Investigation

Next Post

October 10, 2022 Progressives Love Jesus Too

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Atonement Bible Book Review Church History Church/Culture Creative Deconstruction Deconstruction & Reconstruction Discipleship End Times Fun with Philosophy Incarnation Issues Jesus Meaning News Philosophy Podcast Polemic Political Problem of Evil Progressive Christianity Questions Return of Christ Second Coming Sexuality The Church Theology Truth Truth Uncategorized Universalism Women in Ministry

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 December 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 August 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was called by God to leave his home and go to a land God would show him?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jacob Noah Abram Moses

Books by This Author Books by UNenlightenment

See All Titles »