It's time for "StanDupp" to "sit down." (Sorry... Couldn't resist.)More Christians have been disillusioned by this issue than any other. There are parents who have stood by the bed of a sick child and in all sincerity and faith prayed and still lost that child. I don't know why God calls some people home. I lost my aunt to cancer that 43 yrs of age. We prayed and believed, but God still chose to take her home. And I have to leave that up to God's wisdom and in His hands.
I think part of the error in thinking like his- and I may be mistaken in this- is that he views terminal illness or disabling illness always as punishment of sin and the pay of the somehow equal-to-God, omnipresent devil when in reality Jesus tells us we will have trials and tribulations (John 16:33) and crosses to bear; the interesting thing about being called home by God is that you are going home. You know, home where everything is finally perfect and there is no more death or disease or tears? In other words, a place infinitely better than here? Of course, death by itself is a bad thing because it is the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23) and suffering without God is purely hopeless. But suffering under God is not only an eventual requirement of a life of faith, but also a gracious gift that lets us learn more about God's character and know him more intimately, as gold is refined in the fire and the vinedresser prunes his good vines (John 15:1-2, Job 23:10 among many others). Suffering is a mark that God loves us and is getting to know us better, even though in the moment it by all means is very painful. Not saying that all suffering is from God- sins still have consequences. But we know that some of it is. And when it is sent by God, we can rejoice (James 1:2).
A view like Stan's, I think, betrays his heart: he believes illnesses are results of your own sin. What do illnesses do for a Christian but A. Bring you closer to home B. Bring you closer to God and C. Make life in this world harder? Only an unbeliever or a Christian who has never considered this before would see only C, because their minds are set on circumstances of the flesh and not on the spirit (Romans 5:8). And he has external "righteousness" to gain by pinning diseases and such to your own sins, as evidently God has not given him the gift of those sufferings, so by his logic he has not been punished and is therefore righteous and therefore "better" than all of us hopeless sinful wretches who have been punished>sinned (suffered).