You've probably heard some version of the joke about an anxious man on an airplane, afraid that he might die. His friend reassured him with the popular idea that, "if it's not your time to go, then you'll be okay." The anxious man replied, "Sure, but what if it's the pilot's time to go?"
Today's Sunday school lesson touched briefly on this idea. My brain started working overtime, but I didn't want to risk derailing the carefully-planned lesson, so I thought I'd send my question out into the ether.
The scripture reference is Doctrine and Covenants 42:48: "And again, it shall come to pass that he that hath afaith in me to be bhealed, and is not cappointed unto death, shall be dhealed."
Here's a scenario leading into my question. This story was related in the October 2008 General Conference - a young girl was hit by a bus. The wheels of the bus drove over her head, so she was in pretty bad shape. After a priesthood blessing and a significant amount of time in the hospital, she miraculously recovered and lived a long life. (I don't know if she still is living, but that's not the point).
My question is: what if no one had exercised faith for her to be healed? Would she have died anyway, even though she obviously was not "appointed unto death"?
8 comments:
She may not have died but she probably would not have been healed to the level that she was. Maybe she would have had serious problems. Maybe she would have died. There is no way to know for sure. On the flip side....my dad was given a priesthood blessing shortly before his surgery saying that he would recover fully and live a long life with his family. He recovered from his surgery but had other complications. My mom firmly believes (and I agree with her) that the faith of our ward, family and friends extended my dad's life past the time that was originally planned for him. However, he was in a coma so it didn't really do him (or us) much good. It wasn't until my mom was ready to let him go and asked for a blessing to release him that he passed away. Even then, the priesthood holder that gave him that blessing of release didn't really feel that it was his time to go. My mom knew better and was right. We can ask for whatever we want. If we have the faith, we'll get what we ask for, but eventually we will realize what Heavenly Father has in mind and accept his plan...even when it's not what we wanted the plan to be. Don't know if that answers your question at all but thought I'd share. :)
Mary
HEY! Everything is going great! I feels o good this time around. Luke is a crazy monster but so much fun. Adara looks so big I can't believe it. I am due mid April, You? Also WHAT ARE YOU HAVING?
Thanks for the personal experience, Cloudkicker. It's probably the closest thing I'm going to get to an actual answer to this question.
I'm going to have to disagree (respectfully) with Cloudkicker. If Heavenly Father had wanted the girl to be healed, He would have healed her, regardless of the level of faith of someone else. Remember, please, that I have lived most of my life without the benefit of Priesthood blessings, and I still got well. And other people who are not members of the church have had miraculous recoveries as well.
My personal feeling is that blessings can strengthen the faith of those that hear them, but they don't change things more than earnest prayers do. If blessings did, then we would never hear of people without the advantages of Priesthood holders around being healed.
I, personally, have a hard time with the folkdoctrine (so firmly entrenched in Mormon minds) that only blessings heal. If that were true, then it would mean that God loves men far more than women and keeps the latter subjugated and powerless by His own choice. And I think it is the wickedness of men, rather than the choice of God, that keeps women where they are.
As soon as I left your blog, I found this post that touches on a similar topic:
http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/?p=2335#more-2335
This anonymous commentor said things much better than I just did:
"Also, I’ve always wondered about how a prayer of faith differs from a blessing. People say it’s because with a blessing you are authorized to act in the name of God. To me, that sounds silly. So, just because you have the priesthood, God has pre-approved everything you say? You’re guaranteed to know the Lord’s will and only bless people with what the Lord wants? And, even if it did work that way and priesthood holders never messed up and promised things that weren’t going to happen, it’s still similar to a prayer in that:
1. Nothing is going to happen no matter what unless it’s God’s will.
2. You are asking God to bless her/him.
3. The power of your faith and the receiver’s faith may influence the result.
Basically, I don’t see what the priesthood adds except a way to keep women from seeking blessings for others without calling a man to come help. (Which reminds me a lot of the stuff in the temple thread about women having to go through a man to access God)."
Heavy stuff. I'll have to go back and study some for myself now. I still believe in priesthood, but "going through a man to get to God" or "subjugating women" is not something I believe in. I'll get back to this when I've done some more studying on it.
So I haven't studied any more since the last comment. But here are my initial thoughts. It helped for me to think first about consecrated oil.
I've formulated the question as: what's the difference between a prayer and a priesthood blessing. Or, what's the difference between consecrated oil and ordinary olive oil?
Believing that consecrated oil is in some way physically / chemically different than ordinary olive oil would feel a little too much like witchcraft or something. I don't know for sure what the differences are, but I think at least one important difference is in how each type of oil is used. Another important difference would be in how we interact with each.
The same could be applied to prayer vs. priesthood blessings. I think it is significant to set something apart for a special purpose.
Writer, I think you made this point, but for my own sake, I'm going to write it out again in my own words. A person's behavior is greatly influenced by the importance he or she places on the people and objects involved in an event. Greater faith is one way in which our behavior could be influenced by participating in a priesthood blessing rather than a prayer.
Does that mean that a person who chooses to offer a prayer for divine assistance, rather than calling on a priesthood leader to offer a blessing, would have less faith, or that the person receiving a blessing would have access to a greater pool of faith (from the priesthood holders participating in the blessing) than the person who was simply saying a prayer?
My attempt at an answer is "not necessarily." More important than the physical show of faith is our attitude. I can see why it would be difficult for people to invite a priesthood holder to administer to them. As for myself, I consider it a service that I am offering the priesthood holder: an opportunity for him to do something with God that God could do on His own.
That leads us back to the original question, which, in my mind, still has been unanswered. The common consensus is that, if it's not God's will, then it ain't go'n happen.
The question remains: is God's will a constant, or are there variables that can modify the outcome of the equation? I guess that's a little like asking whether a perfectly objective truth exists. In which case, perhaps it would be best if we just lay this discussion to rest. Sweet dreams everybody.
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