Erwin Lutzer
This past week up at Camp of the Woods, I had the opportunity to hear Erwin Lutzer give one talk. He spoke on the topic of ‘disappointment with God’. Here are his four points:
- Faith sometimes changes our circumstances – prayers for healing, deliverance, protection, etc. are answered see Heb. 11:23-34
- Faith sometimes does not change our circumstances – prayers are not answered see Heb. 11:35-38
- Faith never judges god by circumstances
- Faith always leads to ultimate victory
Lutzer is a polished speaker and it was nice to finally put a live face with a voice that i’ve heard on the radio before. I spent some time trying to figure out what one of Lutzer’s motivations for speaking on this topic. From his recent book titles, it seems that he talks to popular misconceptions in the evangelical church. This time round he went after the prosperity gospel types and faith healers. He posed the question, “is it okay with you if God treats people differently?” He started with points one & two in Hebrews 11 which mentions lots of people who loved God. Some were blessed beyond measure, some were bailed out of huge problems, but some were not, some were sawn in two. He then gave lots of contemporary examples of people who were very sick, were prayed for and died or people who were horribly wronged/violated somehow even though they loved Jesus. I think that he was trying to push (forcefully) against the notion that God always wants to bless you in material ways and always wants to heal you of all sickness/disease, etc. This line of thinking continues that if you don’t receive help, then you’ve done something wrong or whatever. Lutzer argued for finding lessons that can be learned about God and yourself in the midst of suffering instead of just trying to get rid of the predicament.
I agree that it is always important to find out what you can learn along the way (about God and yourself) of whatever circumstances come your way. however in pushing so hard against seeking out healing/deliverance, i think he completely missed an opportunity to talk about instances when God did bring healing or deliverance which themselves served to increase faith and demonstrate the power of God. Seeking God’s face in times of trouble is normative behavior. Accepting God’s answer whether that is what is sought for or whether it is silence is the next healthy step. Sometimes this next step takes time to complete but that’s okay.
Ten years ago I was introduced to the work of Jackie Pullinger. She talked about how God brought healing to people addicted to heroin in Hong Kong. With intense prayer drug addicts were freed of dependence to heroin without recourse to methodone. These miraculous works were not sensationalized and were always attributed to God and not to individual people. After an addict was released from their addiction many were offered an opportunity to rebuild their lives in community with other ex-addicts and learn basic life skills and job training that were missed along the way. The approach was holistic, motivated by love and fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit. One great irony though is that even with the hundreds of healings seen in their community, Jackie’s own husband who was very sick was not healed despite repeated intercession and died. This experience reinforces that healing/deliverance is always at God’s pleasure. We ought to seek him in times of plenty and times of want. Regardless of what happens, God is still who he is, though I may experience disappointment with God.
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