In God We Trust....right?

I've been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between an all-encompassing, all-powerful God and….science.   

Cue dramatic music here.

It’s a show stopper, right?

Maybe not.

Science and religion, or a belief in an omnipotent God, are often portrayed as going head to head in this earthly battlefield for the hearts and minds of humanity.  But I don't believe they have to be.  Instead, I believe that science and faith are complementary.

We serve a complex God, and yet the Bible tells us that God cast us in his own image. Given we are intelligent, we can then imagine that we share this with a God who made us in “His own image”.  He gave us free will and a brain and He intended for us to use both.  Science is a natural offshoot of that gift, and without it—without the quest to understand the world around us using our God-given gifts of free will and intelligence—we could only ever operate at the whim of God.  But that’s not how God made us, and that's not what He wanted.  He didn’t mean for us to be mindless followers.  Instead, he gave us the ability to question, to explore and to learn.  In our humanity, God have us the free will we would need in order to choose to follow Him.  In our individual weakness God bestowed upon each of us incredible gifts that He intended we use to further His kingdom.  I believe it is through these spiritual gifts that we come to understand the connection between God and science. 

Even so, I am well aware that there are many believers in the world today with great faith who believe that science, and more specifically, the use of modern medicine, goes against the Divine plan for humanity.  While we know that God is the Great Healer,  does that mean that we should rely on divine healing to the exclusion of any other medical treatments?

If you believe that, then I have the following question for you:  If divine healing is ours as followers of Jesus Christ, why is it that some people, despite their great faith, do not get healed?

Let me use the example of little David Hickman, who was born two months early at his grandmother’s home and then died less than nine hours later when he had trouble breathing.  He was born with a bacterial infection and underveloped lungs.  His parents, rather than seek medical care, prayed and rubbed olive oil on their sick infant.  Despite their fervent prayers for his healing, David died. 

Medical experts have since testified that the baby had a 99 percent chance of survival had his parents sought medical care.

No matter what your (or my) opinion is of these parents’ actions, I believe one thing is very clear:  David's parents did not lack the faith to see their son healed.   They prayed.  They called their family and church elders to pray over the tiny baby.  I'm sure they loved him.   

So why wasn’t he healed?  Was it God’s will that the little boy should die?

This example begs two wider questions:

Does the Bible promise physical healing?

Isaiah 53 is an often quoted passage when it comes to divine healing. Verses 4 - 5 in particular read:

“Surely he took up 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.

These verses are sometimes used as a reference to our spiritual, rather than physical, healing. And I can see that.  But if we look at these verses in conjunction with Matthew 8:17, where Isaiah is quoted in direct reference to the physical healings that Jesus fulfilled, I think a new picture is painted of physical healing:

“When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases." (Isa 53:4)

Furthermore, writing about 30 years after the death of Jesus, James reiterated.

Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. (James 5:14-15 NIV)

Clearly, the Bible teaches that God is still in the healing business. Physical healing from sickness and disease is part of what Jesus accomplished for us by his life, death and resurrection.

So, let’s move on. 

Does seeking medical treatment or taking medicine contradict my belief in divine healing?

I am fully aware that there are some Christians who understand the taking of medical treatment as a demonstration of disbelief in God's word. After all, Jesus never sent anyone to the doctor, right?

In my opinion, this over looks the fact that doctors in those days were very primitive. We do, however, know that doctors did exist because Luke, the writer of the Gospel of Luke, was a doctor himself (Colossians 4:14).

Truly, medical treatment has come a long way since the days of Jesus. But even in the early church not all sickness benefited from divine intervention. Paul left someone sick at Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20) and Timothy was advised to take a little wine for medical purposes (1 Timothy 5:23). Epaphroditus, a co-worker with Paul, fell sick and nearly died (Phil 2:25-28). None of these hindered Paul from believing in divine healing.

Paul had a respectable record of praying for the sick and witnessing many of them receive their healing from the Lord. Just read the following accounts in Acts (14:8-18; 16:16-18; 19:11-12; 20:7-12; 28:1-9). Even today, despite the many false and exaggerated claims to divine healing, genuine cases do exist. 

The truth of the matter is that Paul had a healthy understanding of the different ways in which God can intervene to restore us to health.

It’s important as followers of Christ to understand that the gift of healing is not the only gift available and promised to us. There is also the gift of wisdom (1 Corinthians 12:1-11). As followers of Christ, we are entrusted with the wisdom to address problems that arise in this life.  We can get ourselves into serious trouble when we put God in a box and expect him to heal us in only one particular way.  Let us not forget that God is the inventor of modern medicine.  Can God choose to heal through divinity?  Absolutely.  But God may also choose to heal through the use of science, and that’s no less miraculous. 

So in answer to my own question; no, I don't believe that seeking medical care contradicts my belief in a God of miracles.  Rather, I believe it is an act of faith and obedience.   As a follower of Christ, my greatest charge is to make decisions for my family that pair the gift of wisdom with my understanding and faith in my God as the Great Healer.  God works in mysterious ways, but it's not up to me to define what that looks like.