Love You
Posted in fabric on 10/02/2010 01:54 am by admin| Account limit of 2000 requests per hour exceeded. |
What do you do if someone you love gets cancer and will refuse medical treatment?
My boyfriend told me he would decline medical treatment if he had cancer because he doesn't believe in doctors. He told me that if it was God's will, God would save him... if not then obviously he is suppose to die. He thinks medical treatment for cancer is no guarantee, and I know that, but I believe it does increase your chance of survival ALONG with faith. How can my boyfriend say that he will just let God help him and eat right? What if God created chemotherapy and radiation for the purpose of treating cancer and possibly prolonging life?
While I understand where he's coming from, you should tell him that if God didn't want us to develop treatments for cancer, he wouldn't of given us chemotherapy and other treatments. I would tell him that he should seek medical attention first, and if the doctors say they can't do anything, then that's when he should ask God if he's to live or die.
Kind of reminds me of that church a few years ago that would let their members get bitten by poisonous snakes, because in the Bible Jesus said that those who believe will not be harmed by snake poison. And then in the book of Acts, Paul was bitten by a snake while lighting a fire. The natives interpreted it as him being an evil person, and that if the sea didn't kill him, the snake would. But nothing happened to Paul.
The moral of this story is that you can trust in God, but you should also trust in the things God has given us, such as healthcare. It was once said that if God intended for man to fly, he would've given us wings. Yet planes have played a crucial role in our life and society as a whole. And you shouldn't "test" God like that (keep in mind that Paul didn't deliberately provoke the snake into biting him, while those church people who got bit did do it on purpose, which is testing God).
Try telling him that all these advances in medical science and what not aren't defying God, rather, God is giving us this stuff slowly, so that we can better understand life and the universe, and how wonderful His creation is. I personally like to see how the universe works, and with these advances, the more I know about it, the more amazed I am at God. Here we are, just a small speck in the universe, yet we're important enough to God that He's given us this planet which is chock full of life (while every other planet doesn't have any).
If your boyfriend refuses the treatment, then he's probably being selfish and maybe God wants him to live, but only if he'll get the treatment that was provided to us through the research and hard work that God allowed scientists and doctors to do. I dont' wan tot get much more complex than that, but see if he can see it that way. Maybe God has something for him in mind, and your boyfriend needs to see that he could do more for God alive than he could dead (which the cancer will most certainly do).
If, after taking the medical treatments, it doesn't seem to help, and the doctors doom him to die, then that's when you should ask for God to intervene and help, so that through your boyfriend he can show the works and miracles of God. And if God destined him to die then, at least his last few months won't have gone to waste.
In other words, I don't think God would've given us all the technology we have today if He didn't intend for us to use it (kind of like the people in Genesis that tried to build a large tower to reach the heavens, and God didn't want that to happen at that time). I'm sure that in the future we'll "develop" technology that will allow us to travel to distant stars reliably (which will probably be God giving us that information slowly over time). And then maybe we can marvel more at the universe God created, and give Him the praise for allowing us to do that stuff.