[Roundtable] Sickness and the will of God

[Jefferis Peterson]

I'm going to post a couple of thoughts  today.

The first one is just sort of an observation about how no one really accepts
and believes that illness is the will of God for their lives. If they think
they do in their minds, they don't act on it and believe it in their hearts.

Background: if scripture is our touchstone,  and we look at Jesus as the
image of the Father, [as he says of himself: "he who has seen me has seen
the Father also... I and the Father are One," ] then we see Jesus as the
perfect expression of the Father's will for Creation. It says over and over
in the Gospels that Jesus 'healed all who came to him.'  He never turned
anyone away and said, 'it is my will for you to be sick to teach you
something...' 

But I've run into some strong Calvinists that believe that God ordains
everything, including sickness, as his perfect will. Now there is a
difference between allowing sickness and willing it. God allows sin, but he
does not will it.  However, I've never run into a single Calvinist, no
matter how staunch, who doesn't go to the doctor when seriously ill.

Now, if they really believed that God ordained and willed their sickness,
then it seems to me that they would be defying God and in rebellion against
God's will for going to the doctor to try and get well!  If God wants you
sick, why are you going to man to escape God's perfect will?  They are
saying in effect, "God willed me to be sick, but I'm going to the doctor
anyway..." Perhaps God will change his mind???

I think this is ironic, because what it shows is that no matter what we
think we believe in our heads, we cannot help but act upon something far
more instinctive. Just like a dog will lick its wounds to heal it, we cannot
help but go to the physician if he can help us when we are ill.  In short,
we actually believe [or hope at least!] God wants us well, and that is the
reason we seek medical care... No matter which doctrine about God we hold as
true, we cannot help but behave as we really believe or desire in our
hearts. And we want to be well.


Jeff 
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jefferis Peterson, Pres.
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