My first thought regarding why God has never promised such a
thing as "the immediate curing of every case of cancer in the world",
is actually a pretty simple one. I believe the request to be far too corporate
in scope. The God most Christians worship is a personal God; a God we must each
search for, and find, on our own, or in relatively small groups. Never in the
Bible, but three times, are there given accounts of God dealing with the entire
human population of the world at one time. I refer, of course, to the “Tower
of Babel”, the story of “The
Flood”, and the future events surrounding the end times that are recounted in
"The Revelation". It is interesting to note that on all of those
occasions, God dealt with the vast majority of the world “in judgement”, having
“mercy” on only 8 individuals (see Genesis 6-8 and Genesis 11:1-9) in one of
the cases now past, and those who make up the body of Christ, to be saved in
the future. There are also, in addition to that already mentioned above,
various prophecies scattered
throughout the Bible[1]
which deal at a wide-scale level. Many of these prophecies also regard
judgements yet to come. It would seem
that judgement is quite often a national process as opposed to mercy which is
far more personal and intimate.
So while I cannot
believe that the request for the curing of every case of cancer in the world,
is in itself a valid request of God, I would have no such reservations if the
request were made by an individual, or small group, with one or more specific
cases of cancer in mind. I believe prayers of that nature are indeed offered up
to God each and every day by those who believe, with any results manifested by
such prayers constrained to each of the individual cases. Personal replies from
a personal God. And it must be remembered that any such reply, will at times,
for reasons most likely known only to God Himself, be “No”, or “Not at this
time”.
One of the reasons I believe that God allows for the existence
of cancer in this world is one of those same reasons that prompted my earlier
apology for anything I might have to include by way of argument while looking
at the nature of this “prayer”. Anything but simply put, cancer, as is the case
with so much of the suffering that exists in this world, can be a very effective
means of bringing one to the point of a believing faith, and reliance upon God.
Remember John 3:16.
“For God so loved the world that He
gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes[2] in Him shall not perish
but have eternal life.”
And God, as a great and loving Father
to us all, will use whatever means are necessary to insure that we acquire the
eternal life that He desires for us. Are there any among us who passed through
their entire childhood without their earthly parents disciplining them at some time.
That discipline was quite likely administered with the good intention of
helping us to obtain some goal in our life that was good and noble. However,
as good and noble as it may have been,
it could never be compared to the goal
God has in mind for us; “life eternal in paradise”. So if we suffer now, it may
help, at least a little, to remember Paul’s words as recorded in the Book of
Romans:
“Now if we are children, then we are
heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.
I consider that our present
sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
Romans
8:17-18 (Emphasis mine.)
So am I saying that cancer is a good
thing? No, I am not. Am I saying that anyone who suffers from cancer is being
punished for one particular sin or another? Again, no, I am not. What I am
suggesting is that cancer, as well as all suffering, could very possibly be
considered to be one or more of the consequences we face every day because we
live in a world that is in a “fallen” state . It might perhaps be seen as a
result of the same evil and corruption that is now at work in this world, that
God, by His mercy and grace, seeks to save us from. So important does God
consider this mission to be, that He sacrificed His own Son, that He might
provide for us a means of escape.
As a believer, I am certain that God
will cut no corners in accomplishing that which He has set out to do. If He can
use an individual’s existing pain, or suffering, as a means of bringing that
individual to salvation, then I believe He will surely do so. What I don’t
believe is that He punishes anyone by causing
their individual pain. We are, at present, enjoying a period of God’s mercy and
grace; a period of time designed to foster reconciliation, and peace with God.
Inflicting pain upon those whom He desires reconciliation with strikes me as
being somewhat self-defeating. The pain
with which we must contend on a daily basis is far more likely the result of
this fallen environment within which we presently exist, or the consequences of
living our personal lives in partial, or complete, opposition to the ways in
which we have been instructed to live by the very One who created us, thus,
bringing much of our discomfort upon ourselves. If you find yourself having
difficulty in getting your head around that statement, then try this; can you,
as a non-believer, show me any proof that the pain and suffering that we do
experience throughout our lives, would not be even greatly magnified if God’s
grace and mercy were in fact to be withdrawn? Thus, we have no way of knowing
just how much more suffering we are being spared at any given time through the
agency of a merciful, and compassionate Creator.
Nevertheless, these are but two
possible reasons which have occurred to me, and there are probably many more
reasons, perhaps all better than these, which are plainly beyond my ability to
discuss at this time. So let us move on to the next point in Bunyan’s argument,
that prayer should be “for the good of
the Church[3]”.
This particular stipulation might, on
the surface, appear selfish, or even arrogant. After all, why should only the
church benefit from any good that results from a prayer offered to God?
Precisely, because it is only to those in the church (the body of Christ) that
the promises of God were given, and it is only the believers among us, who, by
the help of the Spirit, can offer up effective prayer. Since the promises of
God were given to believers, and since true prayer should always be concerned
with the things God has promised, it then stands to reason that if one is not
praying for the betterment of the church, or the advancement of God’s plan (God
is also a believer), then they are praying with wrong motives, for they are not
praying for “such as God has promised”. We can verify this quite easily, and
that is where we will pick up tomorrow.
TO BE CONTINUED......
[1]See the books of Ezekiel,
Daniel, and The Revelation just for starters.
[2] It should be noted that
the most important word in this Scripture is not “whoever” as so many atheists
like to claim, but “believes”, which effectively limits the scope of the
statement.
[3] “Prayer”, John Bunyan,
Puritan Paperbacks, Banner of Truth Trust, 1965, pp.21-22
