A Practical Guide to the Logic, Philosophy and Thoughts of Christianity

Section 2 - Article 1

Section 2

Certain issues within Christianity

This section comprises of articles that are targeted at elaborating certain Christian doctrines. Unlike the 1st section which over-utilizes logic, science and philosophy, this section elaborates on grace, understanding and belief.
Article 1 – Healing and health problems

This article addresses my own health problems and those that I see in people around me. Many have tried the spiritual healings of the Pentecostal Charismatic movement including myself, and often found no improvement. After some reflection and Bible study, I have come across the following answer.

We have heard the Disciples of Christ ask the Lord Himself on birth defects when they asked about the sins of the man who was born blind. Jesus replied that the particular man was born blind for God's glory to be shown as he was to be healed by the Lord Jesus Himself.

Yet this answer does not address all people with chronic problems or birth defects in today's world when miracles are now thought unnecessary for proof of authority. In additional, many of these diseased individuals may not necessary belong to the Charismatic and Pentecostal sects of Christianity to actively go for spiritual healing worship services. To make it worse, some individuals develop chronic problems (old-age related) later in life, even after they have become Christians and have a close walk with God.

How can one explain such a phenomenon? There may not be a satisfactory one, but certain issues in an attempt to answer part of the question will be highlighted.

Firstly, the Lord sometimes uses pain and suffering to bring people to Him. There are times that the rich, overflowing with material satisfaction and human happiness, do not realize that they do not have the Lord. And a perturbation to their human happiness may serve to remind these individuals that they need something greater, namely the Lord. And in all honesty, what is transient damage to the human body if it brings the eternal soul to salvation and understanding of the Lord?

Quite often, the Lord calls out to individuals gently, and upon further ignoring of His gentle reminder, He makes a louder call, and at times this can be a great awakening. The Lord also affirms and tests the faith of His believers (for the believer's own realization) as He did to Job and the woman with the issue of blood. Not that the Lord needs to know, but Job and the rest of us who reads his account need to know. What about the disciples of Jesus? Most of them suffered greatly but they also realized that their earthly sufferings were nothing compared to the joy of doing God's work. Moreover the evil and suffering that man had experienced since the beginning, were a result of the fallen world, as opposed to God sending pain and torment to us. In the plea that Paul asked for the Lord to take away the thorn of the flesh, God's reply was that His grace was sufficient. This means that if the Lord does not see it as a problem or obstacle for Paul to get closer to the Lord, why should it matter? Sometimes, we lose all sense of perspective of importance. Does it matter if you were stung by a mosquito or an ant if you are collecting 1 million dollars from the lottery? Are you going to let an ant bite stop you from collecting that money? Therefore should any physical ailments and pain stop one from approaching the Lord? It is not that the evil and pain we go through are insignificant, but it is that the Lord is so much greater and priceless. Perhaps that Lord increases the pain or suffering to put into perspective that He is greater, He is more rewarding, He is worth much more than whatever the individuals has to endure.

Will one stop going to Church or praying when one has a bad ugly pimple? Then it must be weighted to see if an ant bite was worth the halt from collecting 1 million dollars from the lottery office.

The Lord may even use chronic problems as a form of protection. One may be given chronic problems to stop them from committing regrettable sins. I have known of individuals who through the experience of pain and suffering were able to mature and see things in a clearer perspective than those who did not. Life is unfair, but God is just. We are in a fallen world, where God's order is no longer in place, why then do we seek fairness in a world where God's original order is not present and blame the Lord for being unjust, especially when we first deviated from His laws and His truth?

The Lord is not to be mocked. We ought to pay for our own crimes so we can learn that we reap what we have sown. Sometimes the Lord is gracious and delivers us, but that is because the Lord is gracious, not because we warrant His rescue and deliverance, for we deserve not His help, nor can we take Him for granted.

A person may suffer from a punctured spleen, or some chronic liver problems, and the resulting change in lifestyle demanded, may be what was needed to avoid further problems. I know of one individual who had severe allergies since he was 2. He had the basic full house of allergies from eye, nose, skin, to asthma. It was not easy living with those problems, and he was prompted through his conditions to seek an answer from God on them. In one sense, the suffering he went through made him think and come to the conclusion that everything had to have a reason, and everything had to have a purpose. And in order for everything to have a purpose and reason, there has to be a God overseeing, designing, planning, arranging, or predestining. He could see things in a perspective that many could not. He sought to see the reason behind everything, and he learnt lessons from God by simply observing nature. He could not be an atheist, and cannot believe that things were random and reliant on chance. Nothing happens without a reason, God planned it all. Psychologically, children going through chronic diseases or health problems do tend to mature in their thoughts and understanding of the world faster than their healthy counterparts who finds fun to be the meaning of life. The painful experiences allow individuals to see that there is more to life than what is merely seen, heard and understood materially. And may I suggest that to be close to God, the ability to see beyond the materialness of the world is needed, for the Lord does not walk amongst us materially or in physical form (in the present day).

In the midst of the suffering, this individual learnt to treasure his healthy times, and did not take time for granted, he became a productive individual, and fueled by his understanding of life, he sought to help those around that might be going through pain. These efforts were more effective especially since he could empathize better than those who had yet to experience them. His life had meaning, and as God took him back from death's door once, he felt indebted to the Lord, and had a desire to work for the Lord. He did not see life as what most people saw life, but rather tried to see life from a biblical point of view, and made many useful and wise insights to everyday problems. The Lord was also faithful, and his conditions alleviated as he grew entered adulthood, permitting a relatively normal life, albeit on long-term medication. On hindsight, he admitted that through peer pressure and bad worldly influences, he would have strayed, but he did not partly because he was limited by his health, and that he was more reliant on the Lord for comfort than from his peers.

Just as in this real-life example, would it not be better to suffer chronic health problems and be close to the Lord then live a perfectly healthy life without the Lord? Pain and suffering is not always bad or evil, for the Lord can do wondrous things from evil. He can make good out of evil to show His grace and glory. Diseases, pain, and suffering are often the fruits of what we have sown, yet the Lord uses them to bring us to Him. And it is His justice that ensures that we reap what we sow, so we may learn the consequences of our actions. If we do not get burnt after playing with fire, we would not know that it is not right to play with fire. And in this world, where many mistakes arise from our ignorance, the most dangerous consequences arise from ignoring God's instructions.