"Why won't God heal amputees? Try to avoid the eleven rationalizations offered at http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/god5.htm in your answer, or at least explain why they are legitimate arguments."
To the asker: the answer I will give you might actually surprise you. The immediate thought God gave me as a response is also not from that list. Thus, my answer should give you some new information to think about as well.
I would respond to this question by saying nowhere does God claim to heal amputees. If you examine Scripture closely, God always heals people of diseases--not amputations. Therefore it follows that the answer to your question is that God doesn't heal them because He never said He would. I have several reasons for believing this.
Scripture
All the Scriptural data on Jesus’ healing work in the New Testament or on God’s healing work in the Old Testament is always referring to the healing of disease. Consider a sampling of these passages:
1 Chronicles 16:12Deuteronomy 7:15Psalm 103:2-4Isaiah 53:4-5Matthew 4:23-24Matthew 8:1-13Matthew 8:14-15Matthew 8:16-17Matthew 9:19-24Matthew 9:35Matthew 14:35-36Mark 1:29-31Mark 1:33-34Luke 4:40Luke 6:17-18John 6:1-2
Every reference here only shows God healing people of disease. Missing an arm or leg is not a disease you are infected with, therefore God is not refusing to perform something by not healing amputees, He is merely doing what He’s always done—heal disease.
Also, Jesus only gave the power to cast out demons and heal disease to His disciples (see Matthew 10:1, Luke 9:1-2, Acts 19:11-12, Acts 28:8-10). So again we see God’s healing focus being on diseases, not on restoring a lost limb (which again is not a disease).
Science
Somewhat of an odd point, but I would also argue that science lines up with Scripture in asserting that God does not promise to heal amputations. This comes from the fact our body is designed not to regenerate an entire limb. However, our body does possess the ability to fight disease and infection.
I’m sure you can already see the parallel I’m going to draw. Your body, which was created and designed by God (see Genesis 1:26-28, Genesis 2:7, Colossians 1:16-17), possess the ability to heal itself. Jesus could very well have been energizing your immune system to go beyond its natural limits to heal those who were sick that He healed. In short, God very possibly worked through the system He had already designed to heal people.
Amputations on the other hand, show a different story. Your body is not designed to replenish lost limbs. A good example of this is our system of nerves. Nerves are specifically designed not to replenish. If you kill one of your nerves, it’s gone forever. That’s why you hear of people who kill one of their nerves and “Now I don’t have any feels up my leg.” Why is that? It’s because the dead nerve is not replaced by the body. From this we can see that the body is not designed to replace certain lost parts-including entire limbs. Thus I would say God’s design of the human body also lends credibility to the assertion that God doesn’t choose to heal amputees.
The Sovereignty of God/The Character of God
What I just argued does nothing to attack the ability of God to restore a lost limb or God’s willingness to restore a lost limb. God is sovereign (Psalm 103:19) and just because He has not chosen to heal amputees does not show any lack of His power. God could move all of the stars in the universe to say “I am God.”—but He doesn’t. God could wipe out the entire Earth right now because of sin—but He doesn’t. God could make every Christian everywhere start healing every disease—but He hasn’t (we even see this with the disciples of Jesus Christ, see Mark 9:14-30). There are many things God has the power to do, but chooses not to do. Amputations appear to be one of them. If you can point to an example of where an amputation was healed then all that proves is that God does have the willingness to heal amputations—and the answer to your question becomes “God does heal amputations!”
Also, God not healing amputations even though He has the ability to does not reflect negatively on His character. It is not “wrong” that God doesn’t heal amputees. We’ve seen two reasons for this so far: God never claimed He will heal amputations (and thus is not breaking any sort of promise to do so) and God chooses not to do all the things His power allows Him to do (see the reasoning in the previous paragraph).
In addition, think about the Christian amputee. They have the hope of spending eternity in Heaven where they will be a Spiritual being that has no need of a body (1 Corinthians 15:35-57). Thus the impact of being an amputee—that you’re maimed for life—is insignificant when considering eternity. For the Christian, they will be in Heaven and transformed into Christ’s likeness (Philippians 3:20-21). For the unbeliever, it will mean an eternity away from God. Thus the unbelieving amputee actually has life better off right now than they will in the life to come. Again, the overall point of this is that in the light of greater eternity a short 70-100 years without a leg or arm is insignificant.
Conclusion
Great question! I enjoyed responding to it.
God bless,
Robert A. Rowlett