Welcome to the Hard Questions. This is a six session course designed to take you through
the biblical answers to some of the very hardest questions concerning faith. How does a God
of love allow suffering? Does God heal today? What will be God's treatment of those of other
faiths and what should be our attitude to them and what happens when we die? These fundamental
questions are pondered by all who are searching for faith and I'm sure that you'll be surprised
and delighted about what you will learn concerning life's hard questions.
How are we to account for the towering figure of Mahapnagandhi? If Hinduism is false, how
is it that Gandhi could live such a morally exemplary life as a Hindu? What are we to
make of the compassion of Buddha or the sensitivity of Confucius? What does God want us to believe
about other faiths?
Whilst some faiths believe that God requires moral, wise or pious acts to reach him, Christianity
does not. The Bible says that our wisdom is foolishness compared to God's standards and
also makes it plain that none of us can ever be good enough to earn the right to God's
acceptance. And that places us in an impossible dilemma for we can never earn the right to
God's acceptance through our own efforts.
Knowing that we could not reach God by anything we could do, God came to us in the person
of Jesus to rescue us. God died on a cross for us, suffered judgment for our sins and
provided us with a way into God's presence. It only remains for us to have faith in God
and his rescue plan for us.
How can you say that only those who believe in the Christian God will be saved? All religions
lead to God.
Pluralists find it objectionable to think that only those acknowledging the Christian
God will be saved. I would also like to add that all good religions lead to God, which
raises the interesting question of who it is who decides what ultimate good is.
Good teacher, what must I do to receive eternal life? Why do you call me good? No one is good,
save God alone.
Justice should be the focus of all talk between religions. It's not about the right beliefs,
it's about the right behaviour.
The ethical pluralist says that only those religions that are effective at caring for
the poor and which insist on justice are valid.
All religious experiences are just various experiences of the same God.
Sure Jesus made an impact on the people he met but he wasn't God. And the Bible, great
stories but they're myths, they're not to be taken literally.
Unfortunately in order to believe in incorporating pluralism, Jesus is not allowed to be God,
for that would make Christianity unique. One can quickly see that central to the debate
about other faiths is the identity of Jesus.
Jesus' question to his disciples, who do people say I am, has never been so relevant.
So what do you think about these opinions? You may find that you have some sympathy with
the pluralist position but there are some worrying features of it.
Firstly pluralism removes anything that is distinctive about Christianity. For example
Christ's saving action on the cross, Christ's resurrection and the authority of scripture.
Secondly pluralism is often driven by another ideological cause. For example eco-justice,
feminism or social justice. And because of this it designs God to serve this cause. And
to help do this they may often borrow selectively from sections of scripture to support their
ideas.
Thirdly the pluralist God lacks identity, is impersonal and unknowable. It is simply
a vague abstract form that hides behind the gods of many religions able to be revealed
as any or all of them.
Fourthly pluralism is equated with social tolerance and if you don't embrace pluralism
you risk being considered intolerant. Jesus did not come primarily to show the right ethical
way to live. Jesus came primarily to restore our relationship with God within which right
ethics is achieved. Jesus made it plain that life with God is only made possible because
he died to pay the penalty for our sins. These sins would otherwise make us ineligible for
life with a holy God. As such Jesus' teaching and history are not an optional garnish to
the faith. They are the faith.
If you haven't heard the gospel or belong to another faith you can't be saved. It's
just not possible.
The belief that those who have not heard the gospel or who belong to other faiths cannot
be saved contradicts God's expressed will that everyone should be saved.
For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
It also contradicts the three things we know about God's character. The first is that
God is righteous. The second that God is loving and finally that God is just. The Bible makes
it clear that God is just in that he takes into account what we know when dealing with
us. It goes on to teach that God will judge us according to two things. The first is how
we have responded to Jesus. The second how we have responded to our conscience and the
ethical laws we know to be right.
Whilst everyone may not have the opportunity to respond to Jesus, everyone does have the
opportunity to faithfully live out the values they instinctively know to be right.
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
Another book was opened which is the Book of Life. The dead were judged according to
what they had done as recorded in the book.
The Bible teaches us that the incredible wonder and complexity of the universe should point
people to the possibility that God designed it for a purpose. As such, it is reasonable
for people to seek that purpose and to live life as well as they know how in response
to this.
For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and
divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that
men are without excuse.
It requires a certain selflessness and humility of heart to acknowledge God and not all have
it.
We are surrounded by evidence for God. Nature shouts it out and whenever anybody acknowledges
the truth of that in their heart from whatever culture, there is the beginnings of faith.
A Confucian monk once said on hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ, I've always known
him but now I know his name.
Central claims of Christianity are true and Jesus is unique but God's revealing himself
from providing salvation through other religions too.
This position seems reasonable but is also dangerous. What does it mean by salvation
of people through other faiths? For the Bible makes it clear that there is salvation only
through Christ. It was Jesus who said in John 14 verse 6, I am the way, the truth and the
life. No one comes to the Father but by me.
The inclusivist position can be modified slightly so that it takes better account of the essential
work of Christ.
Modified inclusivism can allow that there is some undeniable truth and beauty in other
religions. However, these truths do not add anything new to the essentials of salvation
spoken of in scripture. It is not that people can be saved through other religions so much
as that they, by God's grace, may have access to Christ's saving action from their own
sincerely held faith position.
Modified inclusivism preserves the need for the essential work of Christ and maintains
the urgency of mission and evangelism. Why should anyone risk judgment on how well they
have lived up to their own standards or live with a shadow of the truth when they can know
the reality of truth? Why allow people to hope for a future with God when they can have
a loving friendship with God and fulfil his purpose for their life right now?
If you have been bewildered by the competing claims of other faiths and are unsure of what
to believe, then know that this day God is calling you to a loving friendship with him.
He has revealed himself to us as God the Father, as God the Son, that is to say Jesus, and
as the empowering presence of God with us, the Holy Spirit. And he has done this so you
can have the fullest understanding of God possible and so that you can live out your
purpose with him.
The book of Genesis teaches us in story form that God did not want us to live forever in
an imperfect world. Death would ensure that none of us would be trapped in an imperfect
world forever. And yet, death seems such a terrible waste.
Some philosophers try and convince us that we should see ourselves as being no more than
a wave on a shore, destined to fall back into the great ocean of existence, giving up its
individuality so it can give its constituent parts to other emerging waves. However, a
lot of people find this very unconvincing. Many of us feel that we have been too much
and meant too much to believe our ultimate fate is to die and make good compost.
There is a sense, of course, that whilst the skills, learning, and relationships acquired
in life end in death, what is done with them will have more lasting consequences. The Bible
teaches that what we do with them will have eternal consequences. The thing we were particularly
designed to do was to have a loving friendship with God. That's why he made us. However,
true relationships need choice. God must therefore allow the possibility of people rejecting
him and not putting their faith in Jesus. But do such people go to hell?
The Christian idea of hell has a Jewish background. The traditional Jewish understanding of hell,
the Hebrew word for which was sheol, was considered figuratively to be a place under the earth.
Hell was not so much a place as a state of being with a dead, waited for God to bring
them into his presence. The concept of hell being a place of damnation and heaven a place
of eternal reward was an understanding that developed quite late amongst Jews and even
then was not something that was believed by all of them. However, Jesus taught clearly
about eternal rewards and insisted on their reality.
In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going
there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
back to take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am.
The Bible tells us that hell was designed primarily for the devil and his evil spirits.
In order for people to go to hell, they will need to have rejected God's will for them.
Sadly, the Bible teaches that hell is the state of being that many people choose. We
need to understand that God will respect anyone's decision to have nothing to do with him, both
now and eternally. C.S. Lewis put it well when he suggested that the gates of hell are
firmly locked on the inside.
The rich imagery of the apocalyptic style of Jewish writing in the book of Revelation
describes hell as a lake of burning sulfur. This of course is not literally true, but
it does teach that hell is a place to avoid.
It is important to remember that God's agenda is that we be saved, not sent to hell. God
did not intend anyone to go to hell. It was to save us from hell that Jesus came.
When I die, mate, I will be all over, finished, body and soul dead, annihilation. No tomorrow,
just all finished, all done.
The difficulty with this theory is that it is difficult to reconcile with the biblical
passages which speak of eternal punishment.
He will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these,
you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to
eternal life.
When I die, I am going to heaven, because God is a God of love. Hell doesn't exist
anyway.
However, there is no scriptural evidence for this. God's love cannot be separated from
his justice. If justice is ignored, then God's love becomes unholy. God cannot turn a blind
eye to evil or force unwilling people to love him.
I believe that death will be the occasion that I have the opportunity to accept God,
so I see no reason to respond to Jesus until then.
This theory carries a great risk. That's why scripture encourages us to tell people
about Christ so that they can put their faith in him and be saved now.
By accepting Jesus as Lord of our life, we have the assurance that we are saved now and
we can enjoy God's love and support now. But if we reject God now, there is a risk
that we will never accept God.
The Bible is consistent in saying that we will all face God's judgment when we die.
But for the Christian, judgment holds no terror, for they have been given Christ's righteousness
when they put their faith in him. Christians may, however, still be judged in order to
determine any special rewards. But for those who have rejected God, the Bible is not nearly
so positive.
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will
give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil,
there will be wrath and anger.
If you want to become a Christian and have the certainty of an eternal future with God,
then there is no reason why you can't become a Christian right now. To do so, simply speak
with God in prayer and say four things. Firstly, tell God you want to accept his offer of a
loving friendship made possible by Jesus. Secondly, apologize for all the bad things
that you have done wrong so that you can have a new beginning in God and be forgiven of
them.
Thirdly, ask God to fill you with the empowering presence of his Spirit. And finally, say thank
him that you are now a person of destiny with an eternal future to look forward to. Here's
an example of a small prayer which incorporates those things which are usually good to say
when you want to pray a prayer to become a Christian.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your love for me. Thank you for sending Jesus to die for
me, to pay the price for my sins. I turn from them now and ask you to forgive me for living
life without you in the past. I accept you as my Lord and ask that you fill me with the
empowering presence of your Spirit so that I can follow Jesus faithfully and fulfill
your purpose for my life. Amen.
If you've prayed this prayer, then congratulations on becoming a Christian. And I strongly suggest
that you tell someone today that you said yes to God, for you will be the stronger for
doing so. Three habits will help you grow as a Christian. The first is, make it a daily
habit to read a passage from the Bible. Secondly, learn to share your thoughts each day with
God in prayer. And finally, get along to a good church that will encourage you in your
faith and in your ministry.
It is perfectly understandable for anyone experiencing great suffering to ask, why did
it happen? What does it mean? And why did God allow it? So let me say three things straight
away. The first is that God loves you and cares for you more than you will ever know.
The second is that God understands suffering, for he suffered himself as Jesus. And thirdly,
know that our God excels in bringing hope from ruins, life from ashes, and resurrection
from death.
There are no easy answers to the vexing question of suffering. There are some things we can't
fully explain. However, the Bible does give us some guidance on the subject. Suffering
comes from two sources. It comes as a result of moral evil, and it also comes from the
inherent dangers present in our physical world.
Suffering is one of the sad features of a world that is off the rails. That is, which
has been corrupted firstly by our sin, secondly by our lack of wisdom, that is our bad choices,
and thirdly by Satan. This means that suffering does not come from God. However, whilst it
does not come from God, he does allow it. Why?
As any parent knows who has had to let their children leave home in order to embrace adulthood,
true love allows people the freedom to choose their actions. Freedom, therefore, has its
risks. God gives us freedom to make our own choices and risks. God risks that we will
make bad choices and suffer the consequences of them. In other words, whilst the will of
God is perfect, the way of humankind is not.
It is a fact that some children die of cancer. It is a fact that 50,000 people were killed
during an earthquake on All Saints Day in Lisbon in 1755, and many were killed in churches
when they collapsed upon them. Couldn't God have organised it so this didn't happen?
John Polkinghorne, once professor of particle physics in Cambridge University, says that
creation needs to have random acts of chance if it is to develop. For example, mutations
can occur quite spontaneously in the reproductive cells of animals which may be lethal to them
or alternatively make them better adapted to their environment.
Another point of view is voiced by David Toole, who suggests that we should no longer speak
of natural disasters, but rather of what happens when our unfaithfulness meets God's integrity.
Our sinful state somehow causes the forces of nature to behave wrongly and go against
God. And God is in the process of rescuing us and nature back to himself. But this is
a bloody business.
Another point of view comes from Diogenes Allen, who suggests that we are natural beings
and like all natural beings, we are mortal and vulnerable to disease, accidents and natural
catastrophes. The dangers of nature exist in order to lead us beyond ourselves to God.
But the truth is that for many it doesn't. The pain and suffering in nature leads some
away from God.
What can we say then in the light of what's been said? I think there are two things. The
first of these is that God will not allow himself to be reduced to being a good luck
charm that people believe in to stop bad things from happening to them. Secondly, this world
of risk is a necessary backdrop for us to act out our moral choices and to accept or
reject God's friendship. But whilst saying this, it's important to remember that suffering
is an imperfection, a consequence of sin. And as such, God will not tolerate it forever,
but will make all things new when the need for risk and moral choice is over. And we
are engaged in the exciting new challenges of eternity.
Some atheists believe that God should be rejected because God is responsible for suffering and
has done nothing to change it. They ask how anyone can be expected to believe in a just,
all-powerful God who is unmoved by suffering. Because Auschwitz took place in full view
of God, God failed the test. Well certainly, the horrific events of the Nazi extermination
camp in Auschwitz test the worth and credibility of faith.
In the Nuremberg war crimes trial, a Polish guard at Auschwitz described how children
were thrown straight into the furnaces without first being gassed. He said that their screams
could be heard at the camp. The Jewish thinker Greenberg says, no statement, theological
or otherwise, should be made that would not be credible in the presence of burning children.
Many could not find that statement. The atheist philosopher Camus was one who could not find
God in suffering. In his novel The Plague, Dr. Roo watches the torturous death of a child
and says, until my dying day I shall refuse to love a scheme of things in which children
are put to torture. In a similar vein, C.S. Lewis also asks, whilst in grief and anguish
over the death of his wife, whether God is like a surgeon who remorselessly cuts into
us for our later good whilst we scream in protest at the hurt. Attempts to explain suffering
by pointing to a higher purpose whilst having some truth are not enough to explain suffering.
So what questions about God's character arise from suffering and how might they best be
answered? Does God care or is God distant and uninvolved in my suffering? God is not
above us in our misery but alongside us in our darkness sharing our pain. God is not
some remote unknowable deity, a prisoner in his aloofness shut up in his solitariness,
but he is a God who will not be without us. Does God understand what I'm going through?
Yes, God shared our suffering as Jesus and suffered for us. He was despised and rejected
by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their
faces he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he took our infirmities and carried
our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But
he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment
that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed. He came to live
with us. Jesus was born a suspected illegitimate child, had no home of his own, he wept, got
tired, was betrayed by friends and executed in the most humiliating and painful way devised
by humankind. That's how much God identified with us. God is therefore, as Alfred North
Whitehead says, the great companion, the fellow sufferer who understands. This truth is also
graphically illustrated by a story told by Ice Weisle, who when imprisoned in a concentration
camp watched a nine-year-old boy being hung by the Nazis. Another prisoner said, where
is your God now? To which Weisle replied, he is there, hanging from that rope. Although
we may not be saved from hardships, we never need to face them alone. The promise is that
God will never forsake us and if invited, will walk with us through life, lending us
his strength. Surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Is God just a
compassionate spectator when I'm in trouble? No. God works actively against suffering,
evil and oppression through his people. Christianity does not give a weak response to the problem
of suffering based only on some future hope. On the contrary, it directs believers to also
work at overcoming suffering and injustice wherever they see it today. Jesus came in
history to bring concrete liberation now, not just a projected future hope. And we must
do the same. God is not a God of pain and suffering, but a God over pain and suffering.
He's with us in our suffering to give us strength and comfort, but he's also beyond us in our
suffering to give it perspective and meaning as God works out his eternal purpose. Whilst
God does seem to garnish the faithful work of his people with miracles now and then,
God has ordained that the universe run according to the normal laws of nature. And this means
that you and I can't escape the reality of pain and suffering. Pain can either make us
selfish or saintly believers or cynics. And I wonder how you respond to suffering.
The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Jesus. Unrolling it, he found the place
where it is written, the spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach
good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery aside
for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour. Then
he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone
in the synagogue were fastened on him and he began by saying to them, today this scripture
is fulfilled in your hearing.
Some people believe that bad things only happen to bad people and are therefore very confused
when something bad happens to a good person. Well Jesus corrects this teaching and he makes
it plain that those who suffer are not necessarily any more evil than those who don't. He makes
it plain that suffering is one of the sad consequences of the rejection of God by all
of humankind and of humankind going down a path God never intended. That such suffering
points to the need for all of us to come to God in repentance.
Life without pain is neither possible nor desirable. Some pain is necessary as it is
the way our body tells us it is damaged. Some psychological pain is also necessary as it
tells us for example that lack of love and selfish individualism are not fundamentally
good for us. There is also a sense in which we need the risks of life to help us mature
and whilst not wishing to sanitise or justify pain there are some things that are only taught
through pain.
As someone who believes that God heals today I was shocked when my wife got very ill with
cancer. We searched our hearts as to whether it was sin in our lives or perhaps a lack
of faith for healing. We did discover though that we have a God who sometimes does not
always answer our why questions. What he did teach us through that time was that he is
a father whom we can trust in life and in death.
God can sometimes allow suffering to refine faith. Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever
you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops
perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete
not lacking anything. Therefore God may allow suffering in order to bring about a greater
good and as we do not have the mind of God we cannot always appreciate how this can be.
To us it may just look dreadful.
God is far more concerned with our character than he is with our comfort. His plan is to
perfect us not to pamper us. For this reason he allows all kinds of character building
circumstances conflict disappointment difficulty temptation times of dryness and delays.
God sometimes allows sickness or disabilities in order to display his authority over these
things by healing them and when this happens the healing serves to give God glory.
As he went along he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, Rabbi who sinned
this man or his parents that he was born blind? Neither this man nor his parents sinned said
Jesus but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.
On other occasions God may allow cracks in an otherwise perfect mold to continue so that
God's love can shine out. There are many wonderful stories of people who have encouraged
others by their faith in the face of suffering.
I was diagnosed with kidney failure when I was eight. I never really was able to deal
with it properly and I always had a very sort of negative attitude to my health or my lack
of it. Then when I was talking to a colleague at work one day I was introduced to God and
became a Christian and accepted Jesus into my life. Once that happened I immediately
started praying for healing for my kidney disease and although my kidney problems themselves
weren't actually healed God sort of healed me in other ways like he healed my attitude
about my sickness. I believe that through my suffering God has opened a doorway for
me to relate to other people who are suffering themselves and to help them to understand
God a little bit better through their own suffering and experiences.
God's comfort of us in our suffering teaches us to comfort others in their suffering.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and
the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those
in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
Our inability to change some situations of suffering has led some to say that if the
Creator allows things like this they don't have much faith in him. However whilst being
born deformed is not God's best will for anyone it must be said that God's perception of
pain and deformity is not the same as ours. We are preoccupied with economic output and
external appearances but God looks on the inside. God sees that people are deformed
when they are too selfish to give, too hurt to love or too self-absorbed to concern themselves
with God.
Christians are not immune from suffering. If they were people would become Christians
just to stop bad things from happening to them. In fact the Bible makes it very clear
that Christians particularly will be persecuted. The early Christians considered this to be
a privilege that brought its own rewards. They had their eyes firmly fixed on their
future hope and we too whilst we can lay hold of some of God's kingdom now our eyes also
are on our future hope when we will be with God, when every tear will be wiped dry and
God will make all things new.
I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Now the dwelling
of God is with men and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will
be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will
be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed
away.
Pain is inevitable but we can choose how we respond to it. We are called to be a people
who do not let suffering have ultimate power over us. We are called to be a people who
will not be overcome by it. This is why the Bible teaches us to give God thanks in all
things rather than for all things.
Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
In the end we don't fully know why there is suffering. What we can know however is that
God hates evil, suffering and injustice at least as much as you do. You can also be convinced
of three things that God cares, that God loves and that God understands. We also have the
wonderful promises of God in the Bible that God will be with us in our suffering and that
he is faithful and will not let us be tempted beyond that which we can endure.
An Old Testament prophecy about Jesus in the book of Isaiah makes it clear that Jesus paid
the price not only for our sins but also for our sickness. He saw sickness as an enemy
to be overcome and healing was an integral part of his ministry. It's important to remember
that the Jesus who healed then is the Jesus who is alive today.
The Bible tells us that the devil is the origin of sickness and disease. However Jesus made
it clear that he had come to destroy the works of the devil. He showed this was the case
both by healing people and forgiving their sins.
Clearly there are a lot of people Jesus healed. Equally there were some that Jesus didn't
heal. We read for example on one occasion in John chapter 5 where Jesus stepped through
a whole crowd of people to heal just one person. However it was obviously Jesus natural predisposition
to heal and he did so often because of his compassion for them.
Jesus not only healed people but he told his disciples to do the same. He also promised
that when his disciples will be filled with the Holy Spirit after he left them that they
would be able to do all that Jesus had done in his ministry and more. The Bible records
that the disciples found this to be true and continued to heal people using the authority
of Jesus name after Jesus had left them.
Then Peter said, Silver and gold I do not have but what I have I give you in the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk. Taking him by the right hand he helped him up and instantly
the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then
he went with them into the temple courts walking and jumping and praising God.
Certainly it was the normal expectation of the apostle Paul that the preaching of the
gospel be accompanied by demonstrations of God's power now and then. In fact the healing
ministry of the church was one of the factors that caused the early church to grow because
it convinced people that the gospel was true.
When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did they all paid close attention
to what he said. With shrieks evil spirits came out of many and many paralytics and cripples
were healed so there was great joy in that city.
And this gives us the assurance that we are being faithful rather than presumptuous, fanatical
or foolish when we pray for people to be healed today.
Why isn't everyone who has prayed for healed? There are four reasons. First the church collectively
has done more miracles in Jesus name than Jesus ever did in his brief three years of
ministry. His promise in John 14 12 that this would be the case has proved true. However
we as individual members of the church do not have the same discernment or faith as
Jesus had when he prayed for people to be healed. And this means that our individual
success rate in praying for people to be healed will be lower than that of Jesus.
Secondly Jesus victory over Satan, sin and death was won through his death on the cross.
His resurrection showed that none of these things could have any claim on him. Their
power was defeated. However although Jesus has won that victory for us we will not inherit
the full blessings of that victory until Jesus comes again and God establishes his kingdom.
We therefore live in the in between time. We are heirs of that future kingdom but currently
live in the present but we don't yet fully possess it.
Thirdly sometimes people aren't healed because they haven't let go of things they know to
be sinful. God is interested in healing the whole person. We can't ask God for physical
healing but ignore our selfishness, unforgiveness and destructive behavior. That's why it's
good to ask the person seeking healing if there is anything they feel God wants them
to confess before they are prayed for.
If I had cherished sin in my heart the Lord would not have listened.
Fourthly lack of faith may be another reason that people aren't healed when they are prayed
for. Lack of faith does not honor God or show that God is being trusted. However faith should
not be regarded as an emotion we whip up in order to manipulate God. Rather faith is the
greatest compliment anyone can give God. Faith is a relationship that allows action and that's
why the Bible makes it clear that faith in God is very powerful indeed.
If faith is important when praying for healing it raises the tricky question of how we can
have faith when a lot of people are not healed through prayer.
Well I think as we look at the accounts of various healings in the ministry of Jesus
we see there in some cases people who on their own admission had very little faith yet nevertheless
they were healed. In other cases people demonstrate a kind of tentative faith and sometimes the
faith of the person who is healed isn't even mentioned.
As we look at these different accounts it seems to me that what all of these people
have in common is an openness to God's healing in their lives and that I think is the key.
If you want God's healing in your life and you're open to God's healing then I believe
God will provide that healing. It may be physical healing, emotional healing, relational healing
or spiritual healing or a combination of any of these but openness is the key.
We know that we can't as it were generate faith within ourselves especially when we're
feeling low but we don't need to. God doesn't ask anything extraordinary of us but stands
at the door of our lives waiting to be invited in. What I'm saying is that all we need to
do is to open that door. Openness is in a sense the first step of faith and that openness
is what I think constitutes faith for healing.
There is nothing worse than being sick and having someone tell you that God hasn't healed
you because of lack of faith or because of some unconfessed sin as if you didn't feel
bad enough already. This world is an imperfect place and God has chosen to limit the expression
of his power until he makes all things new.
At no point did Jesus ever suggest that doctors were not necessary. He even spoke about them
in his teaching in Mark chapter 2. God has built into our bodies a natural healing mechanism
and doctors can't operate without it. In fact much of what they do is simply to allow this
natural God-given healing ability to work. And when we pray for healing we go to the
same source, God. Medicine and the prayer of faith are not so different and both can
work together. As David Watson said, we need prayers, pills and pillows.
I once heard about a cardiologist, Dr Randolph Bird, a former university professor in California
who conducted a carefully controlled experiment on the effects of prayer. Over a 10-month
period he studied 393 patients in a coroner care unit. He divided them into two groups.
One group of 192 were upheld in prayer by a home prayer group. The other group of 210
were not remembered in prayer. Now the results were just striking. Of the group that was
prayed for there were five times less likelihood of them requiring antibiotics. The incidence
of pulmonary edema was three times less often in the group that was prayed for and I suppose
importantly fewer people in the group that was prayed for died. Now I have often prayed
for my patients and I believe that prayer is a most powerful force for healing.
An increasing number of people have grown weary of conventional medical practices and
many have turned to alternative therapies such as shiatsu, reflexology, polarity therapy,
crystal healing and Reiki instead. However some alternative therapies have a spiritual
basis to them that may not be of God. So be careful and check them out before you get
help.
The Bible tells us in the book of James to pray for the sick. So don't give up doing
so. No prayer sincerely prayed will ever be wasted. It will always bring some sense of
blessing, peace or perspective. Sometimes God may heal. On other occasions he may speed
up the healing process or he may give someone a fresh understanding of God's love in their
lives. But be confident of this if we pray faithfully for healing, God's name will be
honoured.
Many people who have had a near death experience talk of seeing a tunnel of pure white light
and of being very much at peace. Is this simply the result of the successive shutting down
of nerve endings from the periphery of vision or is it the beginnings of a glimpse of life
after death?
The Jews did not feature heaven much in their Old Testament writings. In fact there was
one Jewish sect, the Sadducees, that did not believe in an afterlife at all. However there
are references to life after death in the Old Testament. And Job was one character who
expected to meet with God face to face after death to be vindicated by him.
Much of the Jewish concept of heaven developed as a result of their expectation that God
would establish a new Jerusalem where God's Messiah would rule in glory with his people.
This idea particularly developed whilst the Jews were in exile in Babylon and it gave
them something to look forward to in an otherwise bleak existence. However this new Jerusalem
they hoped to return to still had its shortcomings. For example death could still occur. As such
the idea of a God given new Jerusalem was a curious mixture of the earthly and the heavenly.
When the Jews eventually returned from exile they discovered that the new Jerusalem they
were rebuilding was not very glorious at all. This led them to understand that the new Jerusalem
God promised was still a future reality. And this leads us to ask whether the idea of heaven
was simply a fiction designed to boost the morale of the Jewish exiles.
It is the teaching of Jesus that particularly gives us confidence in the existence of heaven.
He taught clearly about life after death, sometimes using parables. Jesus also described
himself as being the gate into heaven. This was because Jesus came to suffer judgment
in our place, making us worthy of life with a holy God. The Bible tells us that Jesus
is not only our way into heaven but that he is also the one who prepares heaven for our
arrival.
In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so I would have told you. I am going
there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come
back to take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am.
The central reality of heaven is our unhindered relationship with God. Christians can already
experience some aspects of heaven before death because they already have a relationship with
God. That's why Jesus taught that the kingdom of God was within us. However, whilst the
kingdom of God is a present reality, it can only be partially enjoyed whilst we are on
earth. That is why Jesus also spoke of it being a future reality, something we can only
fully enjoy once we go to be with God.
The apostle Paul taught clearly that God will reward people depending on whether they have
been good or selfish. He doesn't teach any real details of what resurrection life will
be beyond saying that our resurrected bodies will be imperishable, glorious, empowered
and spiritual. Whilst our resurrected body will be a spiritual body, it will not be a
disembodied phantom that lacks individuality. We will still retain our unique individual
identity. A helpful concept that Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 is that our physical
body is like a seed which, unless it dies, cannot grow into its future spiritual potential.
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable.
It is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonour. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness.
It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.
There is no solid biblical evidence of there being an intermediate place where people go
to after they die before they reach heaven. Although there are indications that we may
have to wait. In the final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, there are those who
have been martyred for their faith ask God, how long will it be before final justice is
enjoyed? And God gives them a white robe, a symbol of blessedness and purity and invites
them to wait a little longer.
To try and pull the heavenlies into the narrow confines of our earthly understanding is impossible.
The Bible says no eye has seen, no ear heard, no mind conceived what God has prepared for
those who love him. We cannot yet fully understand heaven. And that is why the writers of the
Bible have to resort to imagery to describe it.
The Bible describes heaven as being a banquet or a wedding feast.
In fact, one of the meanings of Holy Communion is that it foreshadows this heavenly banquet.
The Bible says heaven is a joyful city.
We can learn some things about heaven from the symbolism of the city described in Revelation
21. This city called the New Jerusalem, an analogy for heaven, is not surrounded by any
sea. And the Jews were not a seafaring nation and they saw the sea as an evil, restless
and fearful place. Heaven is therefore not an evil or fearful place.
The New Jerusalem is perfectly square. This is symbolic of heaven being a perfect place.
The perfection of heaven is also described using imagery and tales of the streets of
the New Jerusalem being made of gold so pure that it is transparent like glass.
Verses 22 and 23 say that there is no need for a sun because God's radiance gives all
the light that is necessary. This teaches that God is the central theme in heaven and
is the one who gives definition to everything in it.
What else can we know about this heaven God has prepared for us?
Heaven is a perfect place. It's a place where there's no suffering, where there's no death,
there's no mourning, there's no crying and there's no pain. In fact the Bible says that
God will wipe away every tear.
The Bible says heaven will be a place of true justice.
It will also be a place where God will reward us for our faithfulness on earth. Therefore
invest in your heavenly future.
The Bible says that heaven will be a place of worship. It will be a place where we can
live in closer intimacy with God than was previously possible.
It is a place where we will be trusted with responsibility. In other words it will not
be a boring place. We will share in the work of a God who loves to create with harmony,
humour and holiness.
In the film Ghost Patrick Swayze says in the last scene where angels come and take him
to heaven, it's amazing. You take your love with you.
And there's an element of truth in that. We must be able to take our love with us for
it is that which God relates to. Heaven is therefore a place where we can give love and
where we can appreciate the grandeur of God's love.
I'll go to heaven for sure. I've got a faith in Jesus and I've lived it out.
Jesus once told a story to illustrate the importance of living out our faith in our
actions.
Then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, take
your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I
was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to
drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I
was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me.
Possibly. I mean, I mean good. I get me presents at Christmas time and all, you know. I mean
I help people. Now that's going to count for something. That ought to get me there.
Won't it?
Those who have lived faithfully to the standards they instinctively know to be right may possibly
go to heaven. God deals with people according to what they know. For God is righteous, holy
and just.
Religion is the final condition of things that fully expresses the will of God. So get