Why doesn’t God heal amputees?
This is a question made popular by YouTube videos, which dismiss the existence of God as they claim He doesn’t heal amputees. Their logic is as follows:
1) The Bible says God heals
2) Amputees don’t get healed
3) Therefore the Bible isn’t true
In my opening I would like to make it very clear that I believe God does heal amputees. In fact, there is even a man in the Bible that Jesus heals after his ear has been chopped off. (Matt 26:51-54)
As to why God does not heal everyone in this life, including obviously some amputees is a different question. Christians believe that they are in a stage between the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus (2000 years ago) and his returning again to bring his work into completion, to make the earth and all that is in it renewed.
This means that God has given Christians the privilege to pray in Jesus’ name with the power of the Holy Spirit for healing, which God will often do, but we are still not yet in a perfect world and will not be until Jesus returns. As a natural consequence not all people are healed and this is most obviously shown in the ultimate ‘illness’ which comes to everyone: death. Death is something no one can avoid and is what the Bible refers to as ‘the last enemy’ to be overcome. However, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, he has conquered death and enables those who trust in Him completely to live eternally.
Christians also believe that, after they die, they will receive renewed perfect bodies without any faults and which will last forever. Amputees will be a thing of the past!
Another question often linked with the one asked is that of ‘Don’t you need faith to get healed? Maybe amputees don’t have enough faith…’.
We are in no place to judge who has more faith than another. Only God can see the heart of someone and so I could never say with confidence that anyone has enough faith for healing except for those in which healing has occurred. The faith in question is mentioned in the Bible, in Matt 21:22. Many people assume that this is simply having a very strong will to be healed or the belief that God can heal them, but instead it is intrinsically linked with God’s will. I believe that the faith mentioned in the passage is the knowledge that it is God’s will to heal them; true faith, true depth of understanding about the will of God. This is something that I definitely do not claim to have.
My challenge to the questioner would be as follows: Is this really a question you personally struggle with or is it a sort of smoke screen/challenge and if God healed an amputee in front of you or if it was proven that God does heal amputees beyond reasonable doubt would you then trust in Him and follow Him, trusting Him with your life and choices or instead would you find another question to challenge him and the Christian?