Many think God's intervention can revive the dying

 I was part of the decision to take my brother off life support, and I hold medical power of attorney for my mom.  I have really struggled with this issue, and finally have become a bit of a fatalist.  If God wants them, they are not there, no matter what the machines say.  If God doesn't want them yet, turning the machines off won't make a hill of beans difference.

I don't know how sophisticated that is, but its the best I can do for now.

 I don't think either of the two posts thus far adequately addresses the issue of the miracle of healing.  Both answers seem simplistic and do not take into account the full teaching of God's Word.

The issue certainly is not about "cheating death" completely.  The Word says we will all die -- but even with that text there is the ambiguity of what about those believers alive when Jesus comes.

The issue of God's sovereignty is certainly something to be considered.  Yet, there is some ambiguity here also because the Scripture mentioned several times that God changed His mind in response to prayer.  Scholars and skeptics dance around the clear language of Scripture to try to erase the ambiguity, but the answers are usually quite inadequate.

The clear teaching in Scripture in not a few places is that some people do not die when it appears they most surely will as a direct result of prayer.  It is the miracle of healing.  Sure, as Tony points out, such divine intervention is rare -- I think that is why it is called a miracle.  However, Tony's statistics are somewhat skewed because the Bible says directly that not everything the Lord did has been recorded.  Therefore, it is impossible to know exactly what the statistical ratio of people healed to people who were not healed truly is.

As a Baptist I'm often at odds with some of my brethren because I believe strongly in the gift of healing.  The fact that the majority of people that I've prayed for have not received a miraculous healing (save that which comes by way of translation from this life) does not discount those who were healed contrary to all human expectations.  Nor does the fact that God sometimes (or as Tony points out many times) answer "no," destroy my belief in the power and providence of God to send any miracle any time He chooses.

I've seen life support removed and the person die.  I've seen life support removed and the person live.  I do believe that whether we live or die, it is a matter of God's power and providence ultimately.  A couple of times I have watched a person remarkably and unexplainably rise from a bed of death.  When that happens, one's faith in God is greatly impacted.

While I don't understand all of the how and why of healing nor the importance of statistical data, I do trust the straight-forward teaching of the Bible in both testaments that demonstrate God's power over death and life.

Off topic: Jesus may have addressed it. Not saying he did, but I have recently read some talmudic scholars say that the "giving in marriage" part of the Noah reference of Jesus was actually a reference to homosexual marriage that was occurring at the time of the flood.

We now return to our regularly scheduled topic.

You may just hafta skip what I wrote in the last post.  It's not all that fluid.  I was multi-tasking with the phone, my daughter, a visitor from the Yellow Pages company, and an office volunteer - all on a very tight compressed schedule of the same five minutes.  It was poorly written and I don't even remember for sure what point I was trying to make. 

I am sure that everyone of us believe that God will and can do anything he desires to do.  I have been with grieving families who did not want to "pull the plug" and said they would rather have their young daughter without brain activity Kept alive."  I have heard Christians in our church who have been healed and have other members of their family healed of cancer because of James passage, that it was God's promise to answer that kind of prayer.  And watched a new widow with with four kids crying because of her lack of faith.  My suggestion is to  be very careful with how you present healing.

$.02 worth Rod

I agree with you that that miracles can definitely be downplayed, I have done that in the past.  But watching a woman dying of cancer who prayed, believed and contacted some of the most well-known healers around spent her last days on this earth feeling condemned because she did not have enough faith to be healed. 

I also have a concern in some cases that some will forget that, "for me to live and to die is gain." 

If I sound like I don't have it figured out it is because I don't.  This is one of the many tough situations we have to go through with people as pastors.  Thank you for your input.  I'm listening.

Rod