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

The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt

Home
Progressive Christian
Does God Still Heal The Sick?

Does God Still Heal The Sick?

Last updated on: June 17, 2015 at 9:47 am by Zack Hunt

Does God Still Heal The Sick? 2015-06-17T09:47:08-06:00 Zack Hunt

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.

Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 9.07.04 AM

You know you’ve been blogging for a while when you come across blog posts you don’t even writing.

Yesterday I got an email alert about a comment left on a post that I have to confess I don’t even remember writing. I mean, my name is on it and after rereading it I have some vague memory of writing something like that, but if that’s not a sign that I’ve been doing this too long, I don’t know what it.

Then again, maybe I don’t remember writing the post because it was about a topic I never write about because, well, it’s not something I’m particularly comfortable talking about: divine healing.

The original post (some of which I’ve repurposed for this post) was a response to this billboard that went up in New Zealand a few years ago.

jesus heals cancer

That billboard still makes me squirm.

I mean, I love Jesus, I believe in God, and if God exists then simply by virtue of God I kind of have to believe that God has least has the ability to heal disease, right? But come on. It’s cancer. Besides, even if God does sometimes heal people from cancer, what about all the other people that die from cancer? Why didn’t God heal them? And if God heals some people from cancer, why doesn’t God ever restore the limbs of people whose arms or legs have been amputated?

Obviously, it doesn’t take rigorous academic training to see the theological quagmire that is divine healing. (Though, it is important to point out that the reality of divine healing, periodic reality of divine healing, or total lack thereof, has no bearing on whether or not God exists.)

For someone like me who prides himself on having a rational faith – or at least as rational a faith as one can have – even talking about divine healing is something I avoid like the plague.

Pun kinda intended.

Personally, I don’t know what makes me more uncomfortable when it comes to divine healing: the theodicy issues it creates or the science that seems to say pretty definitively that divine healing just isn’t possible.

However….

I’m also not ready to completely dismiss God’s ability to miraculously heal the sick.

After all, healing people both spiritually and physically was at the heart of Jesus’ mission.

So, I’m sincerely torn on this issue.

I’ve never been miraculously healed myself or seen anyone miraculously healed with my own eyes, but I’ve heard countless stories – often times from very reputable people – that attest to God’s continued ability to heal the sick. And if God does exist and loves us like we think God does, then surely healing people, at least from time to time, would be something that God would want to do.

But then there’s that part of my brain that says “God doesn’t work that way anymore.” There has to be a rational (whatever that means), scientific/medical explanation for why their stage 4 cancer suddenly went into remission, right?

And maybe there is.

I’m sure there is.

I’m well aware of the fact that people of faith have the tendency to insert God into the vaccum of our inability to explain things we don’t understand and I have no doubt that this is often the case with events we deem to be proof of divine healing. Besides, there are plenty of times when after the pronouncement of divine healing have been made, we (or more accurately, doctors) learn later that there was a less than divine explanation for the healing that occur.

But as people of faith who profess allegiance to a Jesus who made divine healing a central part of his ministry, what do we do with claims like the one on that bilboard?

Do we play the “God doesn’t work that way anymore” card? And if so, why doesn’t God work that way anymore? Has God chosen for some mysterious reason to withhold God’s ability to heal? And if so, why would God do that? And what kind of God would that be who could heal miraculously and has healed miraculously, but doesn’t anymore?

Or were the miraculous healings in the gospels just made up by the gospel writers? Maybe Jesus’ miracles mere metaphors for some spiritual truth? Perhaps, but wouldn’t people who had known the blind, demon possessed, or dead people before the miracles happened called out the gospel writers for making the story up?

Or do we face a situation like Santa Claus did in the movie Elf? Maybe Jesus’s divine healing powers, like Santa’s sleigh in Central Park, can’t get off the ground because enough people don’t still believe in him? Honestly, that sounds far more absurd to me than the idea of a pastor healing someone through the laying on of hands.

So, what then do we with our great 21st century, scientifically grounded intellect do with claims of divine healing? It doesn’t seem to me that as people of faith we can simply dismiss them out of hand for to do so we would also have to dismiss the greatest medical miracle of all time: resurrection from the dead.

And without the resurrection, we’re left without a gospel.

So, I’m torn.

I think I believe that God still heals the sick. I want to believe that God still heals the sick. So, I wonder if perhaps I suffer a certain kind disease myself and am in need of my own healing. I wonder if I suffer from what John Milbank calls the “false humility” of faith. I wonder if in my need to be accepted and affirmed by an increasingly secular society I cower away from the more “extreme” claims of my faith. I wonder if perhaps I’m ok with God’s grace being radical so long as it fits within my parameters for acceptability. I wonder if maybe I don’t really believe that God is actually capable of all the incredible things I’ve claimed God is capable of because I’m embarrassed, not by what that would look like but by the story I would have to tell my friends.

To be honest, I just don’t know what to make of divine healing.

So, I’m left with a bunch of unanswered questions and for now that will have to do.

But what I do know is there are countless people out there who have been seriously ill and whether through divine intervention or more earthly methods they are well today and that is something worth celebrating.

What do you think? Does God still miraculously heal the sick? Or is divine healing just something we proclaim when we don’t understand how someone was actually made well? Let me know in the comment section.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

June 15, 2015

The Church Is A Disaster, The Church Is Beautiful

Next Post

June 19, 2015 Our Prayers For Emanuel AME Are Worthless

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Book Review Classifieds Commentary Fundie Friday Funny Pictures Music Video News Prophecy Technology Televangelist Throwback Thursday Tract Tuesday Tracts Uncategorized Videos

Select a Month June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 August 2018 June 2018 May 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 September 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz