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| Why does God allow... |
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| One of the questions that has recently hit me that I can't seem to find an answer for is, why does God allow people to be mentally handicapped? This is something that just bugs me now because, in my perspective, they did nothing to deserve not being fully functional humans. They didn't sin while in their mothers womb or anything, So why would God allow a person to be mentally handicapped when, besides the fact of not being a fully functional human, they get jeered at and made fun of. If anyone can lead me in any direction as to God purpose in it, then please fill me in. |
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In my perspective God didn't permit this to happen. God doesn't bring sickness and disease on us. That's satans job.
True, they didn't sin in their mothers womb, but they were born sinners. We all were. Sometimes that sin manifests itself at birth and at other times it may take years before it rears it's ugly head.
God gave man dominion over this earthly realm and we gave that authority over to satan in the garden. All humans from that point on have the sin nature within then until they become born again.
My heart goes out to those who have been born with this curse. But Jesus came to free of from the curse of sickness, disease and death.
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Kathy |
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November 04, 2007 at 6:01pm |
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| Josh, I don't pretend to know all the difficult answers, but I will say that in my few experiences with downs syndrome (I don't know if this is what you had in mind), they seemed to have a special interaction with God that the rest of us can't get to. They fit less in our world, but possibly more in God's. I agree MIchael, however, that I don't believe God generally plans such "handicaps," although He can use them in some very special ways. |
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Hey Josh,
All of creation was affected by Adam's sin. We are subjected to a corrupted creation (including a corrupted gene pool), which only continues to decay and degenerate until such time as the Creator renders a new heaven/earth.
If you wanted to blame someone, you shouldn't blame God, but rather Adam (through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners). But God is still the righteous Judge and certainly his judgments should be trusted. Look at it this way. If his judgments aren't fair, then there's no such thing as fairness. IMHO :-)
~mike |
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That's a great point Kathy. "They fit less in our world". Wow. That's great insight. One of the most powerful testimonies I have ever seen was a very handicapped man in a wheelchair singing "I can only imagine". The love that man had for Jesus despite his physical condition was overwhelming.
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Kimmy |
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November 04, 2007 at 6:40pm |
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| I think MichaelATL... said it best. His answer is my thoughts exactly. God is not the author of sickness and disease. All sickness and disease is a result of the fall of man in the garden of Eden. |
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terri |
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November 04, 2007 at 7:00pm |
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| God is sovereign and allows difficult things to happen in this world so that we may know Him more. All things ought to draw us closer to Him. My favorite aunt was mentally retarded and i know her life here was difficult. She didn't always understand but she did know Jesus and was always the first to say He loves you. As Kathy mentioned in her post she had a special insight into God that I don't have. As far as people who are mean, rude and abusive to people (anybody really) who are mentally handicapped they are part of our fallen world and are able to choose their own behaviour. The prayer is that one day they would choose Jesus. My aunt is currently residing in heaven; whole and complete, living and loving the Lord. I hope she is one of the first people I see when I get there. |
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"sin was already in the man before he ate of the tree" ??
This scenario seems unlikely to me. Can you provide scripture?
Everything God made was "good", sinful man would not be "good" (Psalm 14). There isn't any evidence that Adam committed any sin before he ate of the tree with Eve. Sin entered the world at the fall, through Adam's disobedience, not when Adam was created.
The point of my post was not to assign blame, but merely to deflect it from the One who is blameless. Praise God that he's sovereign! ~mike |
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God is not to blame for the sad things that happen in the world. We have a good and loving God, who watches over His children. Mentally challenged people are God's children, just as physically handicapped people are God's children.
I cannot accept finger pointing. I accept God as sovereign, and give thanks to Him every day for loving us so much that He gave His Only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins.
That is love. Unconditional love. |
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After God made man, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." (Gen 1:31)
There is a difference between something being "created for Good" and something actually being "good". Adam was pronounced "good" by God. i.e. no sin present, no evil present. Evil and sin were introduced later into creation. I would agree with you however that God used this evil to bring about ultimate good. :-) |
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Shellie |
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November 05, 2007 at 10:59am |
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Josh,
Do you remember little Tommy from Calvary? We can look at him and see that he cannot speak or walk. He appears to not be a "fully functioning human".
When he was first born, I was called to the hospital to pray for a healing for him. He was not expected to live to go home. He lived and he did not die.
That little boy has brought more people to the Lord than most of us ever will.
What measuring rod do we use to say what is "normal". He loves, he laughs, he cries, he feels pain, he has all the feeling and emotions that we have. He cannot run, he cannot speak verbally and he cannot take care of his basic needs. To God, he is perfect. To his family, he is loved and a joy to them. We are all different. God has a purpose for everyone's life. The virus he caught at the hospital at birth caused his "handicaps" but God has turned what appears to be unfair and cruel to be used for His glory.
God showed me in the veteran's home & nursing homes. Look into a person's eyes and you will hear volumes. Even when a person cannot speak or move, they still speak if you look close enough.
Hope this has helped.
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Here's the two cents of a parent of a child with down syndrome. God does not see handicap. WE DO. He created them to serve a great purpose. They do not have Dis-abilities, they have special abilities. My son has a deep sense of spiritual things and is not hindered by insecurity or what other people think of him. If you ask him he doesn't have a problem. Everyone else who thinks he is abnormal, slow, useless for society and certainly for God are the ones with the real problems. God uses people with mental handicaps to fulfill His glory as much as anybody. I heard a story from a mother. Her son has down syndrome as well. One day he felt led to pray for this woman in church. His mother couldn't convince him it wasn't appropriate. He prayed for her in a language that nobody else could understand. That lady didn't tell anyone that she had cancer. But when she went back to the doctor it was gone. She came back the next week and shared that it was this man being obedient to God that cured her cancer.
Something to consider. I know we live in a sinful world that all leads back to Adam. But I refuse to believe the best for my so-called normal sons and see my oldest as nothing but a mental handicap. |
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| Another thing-it is not a disease. Let's stop calling it that. It is a genetic disorder. The reason that we do not know a lot about these people is that 95% of them get aborted before they have a chance to be born. They have no gentic test for autism. That's why that is far more accepted and well-known. Doctors will test a pregnant woman's genes and let them know the likelihood of a person to be born with down syndrome. Studies show that 95% of them get aborted. |
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JessIAm |
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November 05, 2007 at 1:03pm |
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Howdy Josh, I have a mentally retarded (Down syndrome) relative. He's got one of the biggest hearts I've ever encountered. Just because someones mental faculties don't approach or exceed average doesn't mean the can't glorify God. He's a very happy person. Here's some thing that helps me for any bad circumstance. If you look at the room your in, imagine the length of the room is the distance between walls. The length of our physical life is the depth of paint on the wall. Having said that: "they get jeered at and made fun of." I can't see how that's God's responsibility at all. BTW, I have ADHD. I love being creative. In the past, I've gotten so frustrated at my inability to organize myself that I yelled at God for a while. He's big, though, He can take it. I think most of the "God's not fair" viewpoints (and I have and have had many), stem from two ideas: 1) that we are all innocent and therefore deserve the best treatment; 2) that anything that doesn't match our view of acceptable cannot be good. Let's take both of these to the Cross. When Jesus died for my sins, He was allowing me to abuse Him, to give me a chance to experience Him, and live with Him forever. Jesus was innocent and deserved the best treatment, but voluntarily sought out my punishment. Nothing that I brought to Him was acceptable, to Him or to me, but He took me anyway. I haven't found any viewpoint that makes suffering acceptable to me, but I've never found a counter argument to God's goodness and love. I can trust Him more than I distrust the circumstance. Frankly, that's all I have to go on. Have you asked God what He thinks? I'm sure He's available for comment - especially to a son who puts Him first in his life. God Bless |
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| Wow, some impressive comments here. Jess, love how you dealt with the two "God's not fair" viewpoints. Brad, those could be your best comments ever! Wow Shellie, amazing testimony. Good question Josh, and great blog. ~mike |
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JessIAm |
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November 05, 2007 at 1:20pm |
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| Thanks Mike. I haven't had a "fair" life. God and I have had some conversations, let me tell you! He's always convinced me that He's worth following, though. |
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| I usually save my rants for my own blogs, but this one needed dealt with. Josh, thanks for bringing it up. |
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JoshMo |
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November 05, 2007 at 3:40pm |
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Wow...thank you for your input and testimonies everyone. I guess my original viewpoint was ignorantly pointing at God for people who are mentally handicapped instead of man themselves. I need to say something though. I did read a lot about people who have to deal with this helping other people by just the circumstance that befell them, but what about the actual person themselves? Say, (as as example) they were born with some disability, were only able to live till they were around...ten years old, then died, without ever being able to experience all of the wonderful things that God has allowed us to enjoy but they cannot? I know man sinned and became a sinner, but God does have everything in his plans right? So He knows when such and such a person will come into the world and leave the world.
I'm not even playing around but a verse just hit me as I wrote this and I am just going to put it up here. Proverbs 16: 4y “The Lord works out everything for his own ends." Well that pretty much settles it. I’m not trying to make a stunt or anything but that is a verse that I picked out for my mission trip presentation at my school this Wednesday. God is funny... |
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Lourdes |
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November 07, 2007 at 1:13pm |
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JoshMo,
Go to Brett Eastburn's webpage and you'll see somebody who's made something awesome out of his life.
Brett Eastburn was born with no arms and no legs, but more importantly, he truly believes that he was also born with no handicaps! Brett believes you're a success only if you choose to be. He also believes you are handicapped only if you allow yourself to be. Brett considers his body a very special gift to be used to inspire others to be the best they can be!
Lourdes ;-) |
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Gene |
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November 07, 2007 at 4:00pm |
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JoshMo,
Great blog.
There isn't much that I can add that hasn't already been mentioned above. Mike's original point is well said - it isn't about what God "makes" happen. Although all things are within His purview and control, we don't need divine intervention for the flame when we strike a match. that is the way things work. When the match breaks, that's also one of the ways that things work. God gets blamed for too much and Satan gets credit for too much.
Life isn't about what happens to us - its about how we react to what happens. |
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There are many things that he will never do
He will never be normal like me and you
But in the eyes of GOD he is a giant of a man
As he functions fully within the Father's plan
He lives his life daily with a humble, contrite heart
Touching the lives of each person his life is a part
GOD makes "mistakes" but He is never wrong
Often He uses the weak to overcome the strong
We use many strategies to find the secret place
But this innocent one talks to GOD face to face
.....peace.....
As I have thought on how to respond the picture in my mind is that these special ones have "light" souls. Us normal people have much darker souls. In kingdom reality (realty) us "normal" ones may be the ones lacking.
And GOD doesn't make mistakes. He does make eagles and butterflies.
Eagles and Butterflies
She wanted to be an eagle but was born a butterfly
Often in prayer she would ask GOD why
But GOD never answered why she was what she was
GOD seldom explains why he does what he does
Unable to cope with life's pressures and strife
Butterfly questioned the value of her christian life
Tears stream down her face as she watches eagles soar
Bitterly disappointed that she herself could not do more
She flutters from flower to flower drinking in their nectar
Quietly pollinating as they are felt and touched by her
But in her tortured mind she thinks that she only takes
Never seeing what a difference to others her life makes
Eagles are strong and powerful this is very true
But eagles cannot minister in the way that you do
.....peace..... |
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| its not Gods doing. we are all born into sin (meaning imperfection) and none of us will be made perfect until the coming of the lord. i believe we are all this way for a reason i was born with soft bones and have been in a wheel chair all my life. i have never asked god why or asked him to heal me because i know when the time comes we will all be healed. we have to go through certain things in order to prepare us for the coming of the lord. if we cant live this life with pain and suffering with out losing our faith and love of god then we don't deserve the reward in the next life. there is a whole lot of things that are worse then having soft bones that break easy i could be in a 3rd world country starving to death with a condition worse then this. so i may not have much but im thankful for what i do have. and i have met plenty of people in my life time with mental conditions, you have to look these people dont know any thing else. they have a mind of a child. and whats wrong with seeing things through a childs eyes the world looks a lot better to them then it does to us. and almost every one of them i have know has had a heart big as the world filled with nothing but love. dont feel sorry for them but love them like you would a child. |
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"And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? (Exo. 4:11, KJV)"
Dr. W. |
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"As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him." (John 9:2-4, NASB)
Dr. W. |
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| Because, God has decided to use that condition for his glory. That illness is the one that will cause an outcome in someone's life that God wants. God knows our reactions, he know us better than ourselves and he will be glorified. His plans are graeter than our plans. We don't see the whole picture, but he does. In him everything is possible and if no one wants to, it does not matter..,.because at the end is always God's will. |
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