I found these questions and answers on another site I stumbled on. I think John Oakes is a fundamentalist. I haven’t read his entire site but just zeroed in on some of the questions pertaining to our discussion.
I think he has some good explanations on this topic. He specifically addresses amputees but I think his reply to the question about “Why is the Holy Spirit Not Active Today As During the Old and New Testaments?” answers this topic even better than the question where he addresses the question about amputees.
<<<<<<< Why is the Holy Spirit not active today as during the Old and New Testaments?
Question:
The Holy Spirit was pretty active during the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Seems the Holy Spirit has not been very active in past 2000 years. Your thoughts on this? Am I wrong in thinking this?
Answer:
The Holy Spirit has been extremely busy the past two thousand years–convicting people of sin, guiding them into the truth (John 16:7-10, John 14:15-18), interceding for us when we pray (Romans 8:26-27) and many other things. I think what you are saying is that for the past 1900 years or so, the Holy Spirit has not been working through public, physical miracles, as He did during the ministry of Jesus and in the very early church. If that is what you are saying, then you are correct. But please do not think that the main work of the Holy Spirit is in the form of the miraculous.
If you look at the Old and the New Testament you will discover that throughout most of the history of God’s people, there were few miracles. Pretty much the only time when significant miracles are recorded is in times when God was giving new revelation. The miraculous is recorded principally during the ministry of Moses and Joshua, as well as during the ministry of Elijah and Elishah. Otherwise, the miraculous was rare in the Old Testament. Miracles are not used by God to convince people to become a Christian, but to validate that the message is from God. This is what Jesus said during his ministry (John 10:25, 32, 38). The writer of Hebrews tells us that the purpose of miracles (or at least one of the purposes) is to testify to and confirm the message (Hebrews 2:4). The reason the miraculous gifts were given to the early church (or at least one of the reasons) was to testify to the validity of the message taught by the apostles and other inspired teachers at a time when the New Testament was not yet complete.
The Holy Spirit is very active today. He works in many ways in the lives of Christians as well as working to convict those who are not saved. However, because we have the completed Words of God, the Spirit does not normally work through physical miracles today.
I hope this helps.
John Oakes
Why does God not heal amputees?
Answer:
God can and even has healed people with disfigured limbs. There are a number of examples in the gospels of Jesus healing a man who had been unable to walk for 38 years (John 5:1-15), a crippled man who was let down through a roof to where Jesus taught (Mark 2:1-11) and others. The question is not whether God can heal amputees or any other physical disability for that matter. The question is whether he will do so in any particular case.
From God’s perspective, our problem is not physical disability. It is spiritual disability. Illness, pain and even death are not what concerns God. His concern is our spiritual health. Jesus makes this clear in John 9. Here he heals a man born blind. He does this, not so much out of pity for the man’s blindness, although obviously God cares about our physical suffering as well. He healed the man so that it might bring glory to God (John 9:4). After the healing, Jesus said to the man who had been healed, “I came into the world for judgment, in order that thowe who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.” Some of the Pharisees wo were wit hhim head these things and asked Him, “We aren’t blind too, are we?” “If you were blind,” Jesus said, “you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say ‘We see’–your sin remains.” (John 9:39-41). In other words, these hypocrites who are able to see physically are blind spiritually to their own sin problem. Because they claim they can see, they remain blind. Jesus’ concern is always for us to be cured of spiritual blindness. Jesus is not terrifically concerned if we are unable to walk physically, but whether we can walk with God spiritually.
It is not that Jesus did not care (and God does not care still today) about physical ailments. God cares about this, but he will not work a miracle just to impress people. Paul had a physical impairment of some kind. He asked God several times to remove the physical problem, but God said no. He said “My power is made perfect is weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). God did not see a physical limitation as a spiritual limitation for Paul and therefore he did not heal him, despite being asked in tears. Jesus said that it would be better for us to go to heaven crippled than to enter Hell having had a perfectly healthy body (Mark 9:42-48). I believe Jesus was quite serious about this.
So, God can heal amputees if he so chooses. However, that is apparently not his usual way of working apparently. I had a friend in college who had been an outstanding athlethe. He had an accident which resulted in his loss of the use of his legs. He told me that if not for this accident he would most likely never have woken up spiritually and been saved. He felt that although he was very sad for the loss of the use of his legs, it was worth it if it lead to his salvation.
By the way, I have a book published about the miracles of Jesus which goes into this question in more detail. It is called. "
That You May Believe." It is available at
www.ipibooks.com.
John >>>>>>>>>
I’ve been nothing but polite to you, so, bye.