Harlequin-type ichthyosis

[GaryWonder]

I'm reading a Ravi Zacharias book and he tells a story of a child suffering from Harlequin-type ichthyosis. His description of it made me want to google it, so I did. What I saw was horrifying. My daughter is sleeping right now and it made me want to pick her up and hold her and kiss her little head and thank God she was healthy. It is so easy for me, at times, to forget how blessed I am. I just can't look at the pictures anymore of the kids with the disease. I'm a pretty tough guy, but this is heartbreaking. I won't post any pictures of it. If you want to see it, google it. But be aware it's terrible.

It's hard for me to understand why God allows this kind of thing. The only thing these babies did, was they were born. I understand that humanity's own acts led to the fall, but I wish I knew why things like Harlequin-type ichthyosis existed. Then again, it's just my feeble mind at work. I can at least admit that.

 

[joey_downunder]

It's the type of thing that will always be a mystery to us in this lifetime.Instead of ''why did God make/ allow this to happen'' I have learned to think ''what good will happen as a result of this...''

E.g. massive earthquakes open otherwise hostile to the gospel countries to potential evangelism via humanitarian efforts. Illness puts things in a better perspective. Keeping up with the Joneses will be so unimportant after personal tragedies. Charities and support groups set up when families lose a relative and they discover no help is out there e.g. victims of crime.

 

[SQLservant]

I thought the same thing with another congenital disease which I won't share. In my estimation, we probably won't know why for all this this side of heaven.

 

[asiyreh]

This is a difficult subject but I be very careful of allowing your emotional attachment and love for another human, this love given to you by God; to be used by the enemy in an attempt to loosen the grip on your faith.

Atheists used to use this argument all the time in an attempt to disprove God. The real pros don't use it anymore, let me show you why. Ok so here's how the argument would breakdown logically:-

1. If God existed then evil and suffering wouldn't exist.
2. Evil and suffering exist.
3. Therefore God doesn't exist.

Do you see already the large burden of proof they've taken on here. The atheist must show that it's inconsistent for evil and suffering to exist and God to exist simultaneously.

However for those of us who've read the bible we must consider, did Jesus suffer: Yes...
Did Job suffer? Did Paul suffer? Did Peter suffer? Did James the brother of Jesus suffer and on and on and back and back as well into the old testament Moses and David and on and on...

Clearly we must logically conclude that that suffering is consistent with the God of the bible.

Therefore we must conclude logically that it's possible for evil and suffering to exist and the Christian God to exist.

But that's very harsh isn't it. Sometimes we must divorce ourselves from emotion however and adopt a logical approach when considering these things.

So why then now that we've got the logic problem out of the way let's adopt a slightly more theological approach. Consider for a moment the Adam and Eve story purely as a parable and let's break it down.

Ok so God creates everything and says to Adam and Eve (that's us) ok listen guys, just do as I say I'll manage everything. Life will be sweet they'll be no pain, cause I'm in control. They'll be no death and sickness for I am life and we say -

Nah we'll do it our own way!

Does anyone see the problem here?

To be continued....

 

[asiyreh]

3. I love this one: I call it assigning blame we're it belongs.

Consider the parable of the wheat and the tares

The Parable of the Weeds

24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.


You see? Say it slowly with me now... An enemy has done this!

Not God, his design for this place was perfect. Who has done this?

Tbc.

 

[asiyreh]

4. The Africa argument.

Now this one isn't really applicable in this case. But it's a very popular one and as you can easily tell has certain parallels here. So you'll often get the person saying how could God let the little children of Africa starve?

We'll did you know that Africa is actually one of the richest places on Earth? They're mineral wealth is pretty much unparalleled. So why then are the Africans starving. Every one of us here has a share in the burden for this crime. Now that's not mean't to depress you. It is simply something to consider when assigning blame, and should you ever get the chance it might be an idea to attempt to attempt to heal some of that hurt.

tbc.

 

[asiyreh]

5. The creation argument:

Now before I continue, I am not here to start a creation / evolution debate. It's been done to death, I won't waste any more of my God given time on it. If you can accept Christ and believe that you're rock scum well hey who am I to argue? More power to you, please entertain yourself how ever you see fit.

However for the creation believer these genetic mutations we see happening more and more have a logical cause and therefore some measure of hope and understanding can be taken from them.

Ok so one of the least known and under used arguments for young earth creation is why every specie on the planet has been made extinct a million times over. You see as we progress more and more mutations are being copied into our genetic code. Even an evolutionary scientist will tell you that 99.9 percent of all mutations are bad. It therefore begs the question why haven't we returned to the pond scum from whence we came? On the creation side the answer is simple the further we get from the original design God created for us the worse the design will become. Also every disease on this planet has a parent cause. I'm not going to use the word lest we cause some of our theistic evolutionary brothers and sisters unnecessary and unhealthy stress but I think we all know what I'm talking about.

However these diseases don't always have completely detrimental effects on the larger scale. Consider my brother in law. This was one of the worst people you might have had the displeasure to meet. A real low life and he wouldn't mind me saying so. He robbed people, stole cars, beat people up you name it. Now he spends all his time caring for his little girl Summer who has a very rare form of motor neuron disease. After this brief life God will pull Summer into his loving arms they're be no more tears he'll shower her with his greatest gifts and Martin her father my brother in law who has accepted Christ into his life will be with her in heaven. (I want to be careful here, that's up to Christ, it's his judgement alone but I believe it will be so)
Now had Martin not had Summer in his life, would he have changed his life and come to know Christ?

I think no...

 

[toLiJC]

Hi garywonder

all ailments, whether infectious, degenerative or congenital, are work of the devil and its kingdom which is the world of spiritual/religious iniquity

John 9:1-7 "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that(ie but because the wicked harmed him, and now) the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing." - lo who can cure/correct all people

and the question of why until now God allowed such severe ailments to exist, here is one reply: http://www.christianforums.com/t7670023-44/#post60974592

Blessings