For many years I have been curious about whether or not praying for someone when they are sick has an effect. Having spent dozens of hours doing so myself, I certainly hope that I haven't been wasting my time.
Unfortunately, after examining several studies concerning the effectiveness of prayer, I came to the conclusion that no prayer study done so far is legitimate in answering the question it seeks to ask (If you know of any good ones, please let me know). Lacking a valid study on the effectiveness of prayer, I considered my personal experience growing up as a Christian. What I remember is that people with mild illnesses were often 'healed' thanks to the prayers of the church (myself included), but those with life threatening illnesses didn't seem to make it.
In particular, there was one person who died at a very young age, despite the fervent prayers of an entire church.
So, does prayer work when it comes to healing the sick? I recognize that there are other reasons to pray, such as glorifying God, expressing dependence upon him, submitting to him, etc. What I am currently curious about is whether or not asking God to heal one of your loved ones has a physical impact.
Consider the following question: Has anyone ever been healed of losing a limb or an organ?
If you have a recorded instance of this happening, please let me know. As of yet, it seems to me that no amputee has ever been healed through prayer (although some cool scientists have made prosthetic limbs and replaced organs).
Does this mean that God has a special plan for amputees? If so, why did He single out the amputees as opposed to people with other kinds of illnesses?
Unfortunately, after examining several studies concerning the effectiveness of prayer, I came to the conclusion that no prayer study done so far is legitimate in answering the question it seeks to ask (If you know of any good ones, please let me know). Lacking a valid study on the effectiveness of prayer, I considered my personal experience growing up as a Christian. What I remember is that people with mild illnesses were often 'healed' thanks to the prayers of the church (myself included), but those with life threatening illnesses didn't seem to make it.
In particular, there was one person who died at a very young age, despite the fervent prayers of an entire church.
So, does prayer work when it comes to healing the sick? I recognize that there are other reasons to pray, such as glorifying God, expressing dependence upon him, submitting to him, etc. What I am currently curious about is whether or not asking God to heal one of your loved ones has a physical impact.
Consider the following question: Has anyone ever been healed of losing a limb or an organ?
If you have a recorded instance of this happening, please let me know. As of yet, it seems to me that no amputee has ever been healed through prayer (although some cool scientists have made prosthetic limbs and replaced organs).
Does this mean that God has a special plan for amputees? If so, why did He single out the amputees as opposed to people with other kinds of illnesses?
In times past those who would normally have suffered an amputation instead died of the condition of the limb. Be it gangrene, bleeding out, zombie bite, etc. Today we have amputees that still get to experience life on earth. Is it not enough that they get to live? If God restored limbs to amputees I imagine people would simply start praying for the dead to rise. God doesn't seem interested in proving His existence, but in our hearts and actions.
ReplyDeleteI can't say whether or not God has actually restored a limb because I don't have absolute knowledge. The same goes for any "has x ever happened" question. Does God have a special plan for amputees? Maybe, we'll never know that either, I imagine. Like I said before, at least they are still alive, enjoying an often-times better life than before their accident.
Hi Tony!
ReplyDeleteWe certainly can be thankful that amputees survive and even have the chance to obtain prosthetic limbs!
However, this fails to address my question- Will praying for an amputee physically help them?
This particular subject does not directly relate to the existence of God (unless one could firmly nail down that the Bible teaches that God promises to heal amputees--then we could say that there is an inconsistency between what the Bible teaches and reality).
Right now I'm simply trying to determine how prayer works. If there is one type of illness that prayer doesn't work on for reasons not disclosed in the Bible, then are there other illnesses that are off limits?
God certainly has the ability to heal amputees, just like he has the ability to heal other illnesses. Perhaps we should spend our time praying for something other than the healing of the sick?
Thanks again for your thoughts.
-JTS
As of right now I'm researching this too. So far I'm still looking. I'm attempting to put a collection together and this is a hot topic I really wanted to find some info. So far I've only found this, and I'm unsure of its validity... How well were things documented in the 1600s? It is worth a read, at the very least. here is the wiki link.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_Calanda
ReplyDeleteHere is another link too about the same story..... i didn't have time to get through the full article, but its a skeptic prespective... very fair though http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4247
ReplyDeleteVery interesting article, and thank you for sharing. I had not been able to find any accounts like this one, so this is certainly worth looking at.
ReplyDeleteI will take a look at this and let you know what I find out. Let me know what you end up deciding on this front as well!
-JTS
Thanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can tell, this story is meant as an April Fool's Joke (it is posted on April 1, the girl's name is Angie O'Plasty). Am I mistaken?
-JTS
7 billion people in the world. If any amputee had a limb restored by prayer, there would be at least one proven story out there where it happened again. There isn't. It's rationalized away by the believers, but what else can they do. Studies have already been done, prayer does not affect the world around us. So either there isn't a god, or there is but he is a liar. No miracle has ever been proven to occur. Not one, not ever. 4200 religions out there. None of them have proof that they are correct. 9 million children die a year on this planet before the age of 5. Prayer isn't helping them. Even if God answered .1 percent of prayers out there, we would see it very easily. We don't. But yet the believers' entire system would be destroyed if that knowledge was actually accepted so they have to find some way to explain it away. We need to get past this nonsense, it is 2017.
ReplyDeleteIf you believe the Bible is historical, then that would be your documented evidence of the types of healing's that have been performed. These healing would have been witnessed by many people. Not sure if there is a story about an amputee being healed in the bible.
ReplyDeleteSome people would say the information in the bible is much more historical and reliable than the information we receive today. I think it comes down to the question do you believe? Even if someone told you of a person being healed today, would you believe them? Even if you witnessed a healing, would you believe what your eyes just witnessed? or would you think there is some trick involved? I think the answer is do you believe the storys of the bible as written?
Google "When God Cured an Amputee: The Astonishing Miracle of Calanda" also google "Creative Miracles – Can God Heal a Severed Limb?"
ReplyDelete