Do Christians Consider it a Lack of Faith to Put Trust into Doctors?

Jaedan said:

Hi, (this is a poorly constructed question)

I have noticed that a tiny minority of Christians (I'm not trying to make a hasty generalization here) don't really trust their doctors. I have heard some stories (and ongoing stories) about people refusing to go to the doctor, trusting that God will heal them of their sickness (in a divine way). Moreover, I have been kinda worried about these people.

I'm no doctor yet (I'm not even a pre-med student yet). However, I just feel a bit worried about this minority group of Christians. But, I don't know if it is right for me to feel this way.


Do Christians consider it a lack of faith (in regards to God) to put trust into Doctors?

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Hi.
Many have responded but I'll offer this.

God is in created all things created, and he is in control. It may not often appear that way (from the evil and the sickness that happens in life). But this is due to the limited sovereignty God has given mankind (so man can have choice).

God "built into" creation certain supplements and medicines that help heal or ease pain, disease, and sickness (which are consequences of man's choices). I'll qualify that:

Not everyone who is sick or injured or diseased sinned to get that way. But sin as a whole creates the realm (our world) of evil and sickness and disease and injury and pain and death are everywhere. It is only the intervention of a loving, forgiving God that affords us life, and peace and healing, and strength, and wellness. And I believe God uses most physicians in this process.

Yours is a most noble cause and profession. And it does not clash with God or Christianity.

People clash with God and Christianity (many times convinced they are Christians or are not clashing with the very God they serve when in fact they are).

I have a cousin who is a G.P. and a sister-in-law who is an (non-abortion) OB Gyn who are Christians. The difficulty with all education these days is not allowing the humanists who run the educational system to indoctrinate you with their anti-God humanism.

Remember, God made the elements and chemicals and compounds that we use to medicate and heal with therapy etc. God made it all that way anticipating man would make bad / wrong choices and evil (like pain and sickness) would result.

People (Christians) who are at various levels of faith and growth in Christ or even wrestling with truth itself make all kinds of unrealistic judgment calls about physicians, politicians, lawyers, even bankers... ahem... LOL. What matters is what's real and really true.

Follow your calling despite the torpedoes of human indifference and mixed up perceptions. Most of what Jesus said we should do as Christians (rather than just saying God bless you, be clothed and healed and fed) you will DO as a physician. Like the Good Samaritan.

Go for it!

God bless you!

Let's just say people better start having MORE faith in God in divine healing then they ever had before. For some of you Americans you can probably walk in clinics, hospitals and be treated relatively soon. In my country NOPE....not so much. To even have a consultation for something weeks and months...YES MONTHS.....then if there's going to be an operation....who knows how long after that. People are literally dying, YES dying waiting....or their conditions are getting worse and worse.

I say this because some dish out, "Well doctors are what God has given us today!" You understand that way of thinking isn't of too much comfort to those who can't even see one. Not saying God doesn't use Doctors but I don't think it wise to be using them as your No 1 savior to make you well. I don't think God would leave one forever without help.

Bobber said:

Let's just say people better start having MORE faith in God in divine healing then they ever had before. For some of you Americans you can probably walk in clinics, hospitals and be treated relatively soon. In my country NOPE....not so much. To even have a consultation for something weeks and months...YES MONTHS.....then if there's going to be an operation....who knows how long after that. People are literally dying, YES dying waiting....or their conditions are getting worse and worse.

I say this because some dish out, "Well doctors are what God has given us today!" You understand that way of thinking isn't of too much comfort to those who can't even see one. Not saying God doesn't use Doctors but I don't think it wise to be using them as your No 1 savior to make you well. I don't think God would leave one forever without help.

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I did not mean to advocate the 'doctors are what God has given us today' mentality. God has blessed us all through modern medicine to heal and deliver us from pain and fatal disease unheard of in the past.

That being said, on Joel Osteen today a young lady once paralyzed from the neck down (spina bifida) rose to her feet on camera this morning. God does miraculous healing. There have been reports in Southeast Asia of raisings from the dead (circa 1980's). Several Christian leaders investigated this and could not disprove it. Other Christian leaders pooh poohed it and said God doesn't do miracles today... I feel sorry for them. They have become hardhearted and overlook miracles all around them.

Science is a wonderful tool to use to discover how and why God does things in the world. It is a horrible god to worship.

How does one know that the doctor you are visiting is not directed by God to help you? I’m reminded of a story. (Kind of a modern day parable actually.)

A town was flooding badly, the water was rising and everyone needed to evacuate. A priest was helping to get as many people out as possible to save their lives. A boat comes by, and they try to get the priest to get in the boat, but he responded that God will save him.

The water got higher, up to his waste, and another boat came by, but he refused to get in saying God will save him.

The water got to his neck and a third boat came by, but the same thing happened. Finally the priest drown and died.

Then he arrived in heaven and asked God why he didn’t save him from the flood. God replied, “I sent you three boats!”

Yup yup! So eitherway/ whether physicians can or can't help, God's power can dissolve all & any kind of poisonous substances, that shouldn't be in our systems, including repairing any damaged organs ( don't matter the amount of damage) and even goes beyond, recreating any missing organs.... Imagine that!

One has to depend on the expertise, medical knowledge and profession of doctors and get as many opinions as possible. One also Google comment and rating to determine which doctor would be possible best fit with. One can also pray that among many doctors, God will offer the right one. It also varied considerably with seriousness of illness. If being defeated by vicious diseases, one will pray and hope that at least God was in some level of control and put oneself into God’s hand ...If everything does not go out as planned, one should probably know at least that we all reunite with God in heaven above

The Lord Jesus repeat this miles of times: nothing is impossible for who has faith.
He can heal you with a prayer. He said too something like
look, sin no more so that something worse doesn't happen to you.

True, but he can also heal you with a doctor. Since you wouldn't know for sure which he chose, it would be better to cover yourself. If you heal miraculously, then the doctor can confirm it. If you heal due to the doctor's prescription, then your prayer also was answered.

SuperCow said:

True, but he can also heal you with a doctor. Since you wouldn't know for sure which he chose, it would be better to cover yourself. If you heal miraculously, then the doctor can confirm it. If you heal due to the doctor's prescription, then your prayer also was answered.

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I define a "blessing" as nature operating as designed in our favor. If I break a femur, a doctor sets it properly and it heals strong within a few weeks. But it took some person discovering long, long ago, that God had established natural rules so that setting a bone properly would allow it to heal strong. That's a blessing.

I define a "miracle" as God intervening to "bend" His natural rules in my favor. In that case, I might break my leg, and it heals strong in a few minutes without being set at all. A miracle makes the doctors sit back and go, "Huh!"

I've had both. In just the last two years I've had two situations of sudden miraculous healing that made the doctors sit back and go "Huh" when they had predicted the worst. In one case they had insisted that I needed spinal surgery, removal of a spinal cyst and fusion of three vertebrae. That was healed instantly. In another case, the prediction was that I would need cancer surgery to remove my prostate...that was healed instantly. My urologist, after the (quite painful) biopsy revealed I was clean, openly admitted he was surprised.

And I've also had a couple of situations where I needed their ministrations and healed well and normally.

My point was that God doesn't necessarily have to answer a prayer with some miraculous event when it is unnecessary. And we shouldn't expect God to do something for us when we can easily do it ourselves with a bit of effort.