| Each
month the editor welcomes a panel of experts to answer your questions
on subjects such as doctrine, theology, Christian living, and the
church. To submit questions to Holiness Today, click
here. |
| |
|
 |
If
we believe in and pray for divine healing, do we have an obligation
to seek available medical treatment? What does the church believe? |
| |
 |
On
July 21, 2003, Jesus went to the emergency room and the operating
room with me. Had I been conscious at the accident site, I would
have told anyone present to call 911 and pray for me. Both requests
would have been uttered in the same breath. I desperately needed
prayer and medical care.
Who of us has enough faith that we would not seek medical care for
disease or trauma? After I was hit by a car while riding my bike
that early Monday morning, I wanted expert medical care to treat
my multiple fractures, extensive soft tissue trauma, blood loss,
and head injury. I also desperately wanted effectual prayers from
every prayer chain in our community and friends around the world
seeking my full, speedy, and uneventful recovery. So far most of
those requests have been answered, except the plea for speed. I
needed a second operation, I still need crutches, and disabilities
linger.
The bottom line? As the 16th-century physician Ambroise Paré
said, “I
treated him; God cured him.”
All healing is of God. I could never set a bone, replace a hip,
or repair a knee ligament with success if God’s
healing power were not at work in all the cells of the body.
In my 35 years as a Christian surgeon, I have learned that
1. Faith-healing and medical care are both miracles of God. Science
(reason) and religion (faith) are not enemies. God’s
creative work continues in the world through medical scientists
and practitioners, and we are recipients of these gifts of God.
2. The abundant life in Christ results in wholeness of body, mind,
and spirit. I tell my friends and patients to find the best medical
care available and pray without ceasing. Medicine is the continuation
of Jesus’
healing ministry.
3. Evangelism and care of the sick cannot be separated.
4. I feel no less called to be a physician than my twin brother
and several of my children feel called to be ministers of the gospel.
Medical care and radical faith for healing are not mutually exclusive.
Use your mind and your heart when illness or trauma comes your way.
It is God’s
“one-two”
punch. The church confirms it to be so.—lh
|
|
|
God
has gifted us with wonderful knowledge and abilities to gain new understanding
about how the human body functions and how to treat many previously
untreatable conditions. According to accounts in the Bible, God used
different means and different people as His agents in performing miracles.
In the healing of Naaman, the leper, Elisha was God’s
agent, but Naaman was not healed until he dipped in the Jordan River
seven times. Jesus healed the blind man by making a poultice and applying
it to his eyes, but the man did not see until he went to wash it off.
We may reasonably suggest, therefore, that we have an obligation to
use all the means of healing that God has made available to us.
God gifts physicians with the skills to apply vast medical knowledge
in such a way that in many situations persons are healed and their
wholeness renewed. While the church strongly supports the laying on
of hands and anointing people for healing, it does not do so to the
exclusion of using other available means to seek healing.—pdw |
|
|
This
month’s
Editor’s Forum: |
 |
lh—Larry
Hull
is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in fitness and sports medicine
and is a frequent speaker at “Healthy
and Holy Living”
seminars.
pdw—Paul
D. Wardlaw
is a family physician in Olathe, Kansas, and serves on the World Mission
Department Medical Advisory Committee. |
To
read other recent questions and answers, click on
Archived
EF. |
|
