Hello all, first post on this forum!
I wanted to ask the apologist opinion on amputees. If you don't know what I mean, visit
Why Won't God Heal Amputees?
Does this not disprove prayer? What is the Christian argument against it?
First off, the guy who wrote the above book is very careful to offer only the shallowest treatment of the verses on prayer that he cited. There are, actually, careful stipulations on prayer requests established in Scripture:
John 14:12-14
12 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
If you want to understand what is being said in this passage correctly, you need to ask yourself a few questions: To whom was Jesus speaking? You should also ask yourself what it means to "believe in Jesus." As well, you ought to question if God has any goals He intends to pursue through answering your prayer.
Jesus was speaking specifically to
his disciples in the above passage, not the public at large. His comments were first and foremost to them as his closest followers, not to some atheist looking to make a spurious anti-theist argument about amputees. Jesus was promising that to those who believe on him (
vs. 12) after the manner of his disciples (who eventually gave up their lives in defense of their faith in Christ), he would answer their prayers. To serve just any old end? Not at all! The fundamental purpose of answering their prayers was to glorify God the Father through his Son, Jesus Christ. (
vs. 13) So, this passage does not turn out to be a carte blanche promise to answer any and all prayers whatever their purpose.
Here's an interesting passage on prayer:
James 4:3-4
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
The apostle James puts some further restrictions upon the prayer requests we make of God. Selfish, carnally-oriented prayers God will not answer. Such prayers, James explains, come from those who are the enemies of God. And God does not answer the self-serving prayers of His enemies.
Here's another important verse on prayer:
1 John 5:14-15
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Did you catch that bit about asking
according to God's will? I underlined it so you wouldn't miss it. God's fulfillment of our prayer requests is always contingent upon it being in accord with His will. This rules out the idea that we can ask anything of God and He is thereby obliged to do it. Only those prayer requests that are in accord with God's will get a positive response.
How about this verse?:
Isaiah 59:1-2
1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
Sin hinders our prayers, too. God will not hear the prayers of people in whom sin dwells unconfessed and unforgiven. As in the above passages, this qualification on prayer limits how we read other verses which seem from a superficial reading to give people unlimited right to receive from God whatever they may ask of Him. The truth is that God does
not promise to answer every prayer request we make.
What about that famous "mustard seed" passage? Are there any restrictions, besides having a very tiny grain of faith, that it puts upon our prayer requests? Yup. Again, it is necessary to ask, "To whom was Jesus speaking?" Was it to the general public? No. He was speaking
to his disciples. It was primarily to these men, who would be so instrumental in establishing the Early Christian Church, that the mustard seed promise was given. And they would need all the miraculous answers to prayer that they could get! Overcoming the skepticism and outright antagonism of those to whom they would share the Gospel would require the overt exercise of supernatural power.
Why doesn't God heal an amputated limb? Aside from the reasons suggested by the above explanations concerning prayer, probably for the same reason he doesn't heal a person who has been blown apart by a land mine, or who was burned to cinders in a fire, or splattered all over the ground after his parachute failed to open. Why doesn't God heal these people, too? For that matter, why doesn't God heal
everybody? Why can't we all just live forever in perfect health? Is God being unfair just to the amputees in not healing their lost limbs? Or is He being unfair to us all in not healing every little ache and pain, every disease and disorder, every lethal ailment we contract?
If God chooses to ignore prayer and follow his own path, then what is the point of prayer anyway? If God has already decided your fate, prayer will do little to change it.
This isn't the picture the Bible paints of prayer:
Luke 18:1-8
1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,
2 saying: "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.
3 Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, 'Get justice for me from my adversary.'
4 And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man,
5 yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.' "
6 Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said.
7 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily."
Luke 11:5-10
5 And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves;
6 for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him';
7 and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'?
8 I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
9 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
There is a place for importuning God in prayer. We may move Him by such praying when a less persistent prayer-approach doesn't work.
Prayer is for our sake, ultimately, not God's. He knows what we will say before we say it, what we will ask for before we ask it. But praying focuses us upon God; it reminds us of His Sovereign Providence; it prompts us to humbly seek His help; it allows us to consciously and directly communicate with God; it gives us an opportunity to experience a specific answer to a specific request from God. Prayer is far from pointless.
Selah.
Sorry don't mean to derail the question, it's a good one.
