Health

I love to talk about health. My wife suffers from bad kidneys and often says that if she had health she would have everything. Jesus once said something very insightful, “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” That is so profound. And we can easily modify this, “What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own health? What shall a man give in exchange for his health?” So many of the world’s wealthy and powerful people suffer horribly at the end of their life, despite having great affluence and the world’s best health care.

Today’s health care system is not interested in our health. It is interested in maintaining itself. We keep hearing in the news about how the government needs to do something to pump billions of dollars into our health care system or it will collapse. Why feed a bottomless pit that cannot sustain itself? Today’s medical profession is not interested in disease prevention. They prefer disease cure rather than prevention because that keeps money flowing into the coffers and wallets of well paid professionals. Disease prevention would upset the whole thing.

God’s method to health vastly differs from this world’s. Our “health care system” if truth in advertising can really allow us to call it that, with its concoctions and elixirs and surgeries, are all founded on ancient Egyptian practices; except that Egyptian elixirs were of a little different materials, i.e. bat wings, horse dung, etc. But all that man comes up with to fix his problems, rather than going to the God of Israel, is solidly based on the goal of exalting man and his great genius, and much to Satan’s glee, blotting our Creator completely out of our thoughts and needs. All will result in partial healing and dependence on man instead of our loving Father in heaven.

If we would learn and use the natural remedies God has put in His creation, we would find that disease would be healed one cell at a time, slowly bringing health and vitality back, disease removed without a scar, and totally gone without remission. “And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” Is. 2:11. God is exalted because He created the healing properties in nature. Man was simply the recipient, and nothing more—a hard pill for the philosophical sinner to swallow.

The Bible gives examples of the use of natural remedies. Isaiah was counseled to take a lump of figs for king Hezekiah’s lethal boil (Is. 38:21); Moses was commanded to throw a branch into undrinkable water in the desert and it healed the poisonous water (Ex. 15:23); Christ, who often healed by His word alone, at one time spat onto the ground and made clay for a blind man’s eyes to teach about natural healing (Jn. 9:6); Elijah, Elisha, and Paul laid on the body of dead or close to death children to bring them back to health. (1Ki.17:21;2Ki. 4:34;Acts 20:9,10). No doubt, these practices require much faith, but nothing is impossible for God if we have faith in Him and His natural and simple remedies.

Some people say that Christ did away with God’s plan for our health. They say that the laws of health were nailed to the cross. Thus the dietary laws of Leviticus 11 were abrogated and useless because now we can do whatever we want, as Christians, and God will bless us! They take Bible verses out of context and definitely out of the context of the whole Bible, and claim them as promises from God, which He never intended. This is such foolery!

Grace doesn’t destroy law, it aids its accomplishment. When Paul preached of God’s grace to us, he never intended us to discard God’s laws. Its true that God’s mercy is more than enough to cover our past guilt and sinfulness and His love endures all that our obstreperous rebellion can bring against His will. This is the cornerstone of the church of God. No other foundation can be laid to sufficiently answer all our uncertainty with God and all the accusations of the tempter.

We have a Friend in the heavens. The mighty argument of the cross will forever answer all our doubts about how far love will go to bring about our reconciliation and restoration. But let us be reminded that our reconciliation to God also reconciles us to His will and His character and to His law which is the transcript of His character.

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Rom 5:10. So our reconciliation to God through Christ is just the beginning. It’s the beginning of a new life reconciled to God and to His genuine laws. Christ declared His Father’s mercy and strong desire to heal the people of all their diseases and sorrows, all the while He ever maintained reverence for the truth His Father had inspired in all the law and the prophets.

This is what gave His ministry so much power and authority. The people first trusted in His beneficence toward them in their suffering, and then they saw His faithfulness to uphold a law that was higher than what they had ever been taught. This led some to trust in Him so implicitly that they never veered from their faith in Him, even in His claim to be the Son of God. To them the words came with a thrill to their hearts, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” But He had to clarify what He meant, “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees ye shall in no case inter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:17-20.

It was Satan’s intention to destroy the authority of God’s genuine, original law on earth and he used the religious leaders to affect his plans. They professed scrupulous reverence to the law, yet destroyed it by destroying the spirit of it (Matt. 23:23;Mk. 12:24; Lk.11:46). They weren’t reconciled to God, therefore they weren’t reconciled to His law and they rejected His Son who came redefining the true spirit and true letter of His Father’s Law. After centuries of inching farther and farther from the true principles of God’s law, substituting human definitions of God’s will, the Jewish leaders ended up wholly ignorant of God’s character. So by the time the Messiah came it could be said again, “I have written to him (Israel) the great things of My law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” Hos. 8:12.

Yet the waves of Christ’s love continued to beat against the quay walls those religious leaders had constructed in their hearts. Jesus used every method possible, sending every healed leper for the priest’s inspection and approval. Many rejected every loving word and gesture and look from Christ in His reproofs toward them. But some began to warm up. Slowly He entreated them back from the precipice which the unbelieving Sanhedrin was pulling them over. Later these recovered priests cast their lot with the apostles of the newborn church. With converted hearts, they received new insight and saw the true relation of God’s law and His grace. Their vision now revealed the dangers of presumption, and the Spirit of God fortified them to redeem lost time and rectify their life.

Paul writes that the law is good if it is used lawfully. But many who wanted to teach the law were using it unlawfully. Because they didn’t know God’s grace, they had a destructive one-sided view of God’s will and character and law. But Paul, who had reconciled with God through Jesus found the result of the work of God’s commandments to be love from a pure heart and a good conscience and unpretended trust in God. “From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling.” 1Tim. 1:5-8. Sound doctrine cries out that we be obedient to law. God’s laws are nothing to afraid of. His standards are high, but they are only for our good, and He has our best interests in mind by making them known to our understanding.

His laws encompass every facet of our life and claim kingship over our total being. This includes the spiritual, intellectual, and physical components that make us a living soul (Gen. 2:7). Since all three faculties are so intimately intertwined, the Lord cannot ignore any of the three. Our bodies are the temple of our minds, our minds the temple of our conscience, our conscience the temple of the Holy Spirit; thus, overall, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. But for those who have not surrendered to the love of God, the body is largely the temple of Satan and is subject to his will.

The laws of health given in the scripture are current. Man’s body has not changed since creation, except to get weaker; human nature hasn’t improved over the millennia; God certainly hasn’t changed in any way (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8); and lastly Satan has not changed his desire to destroy us and to tempt us to disobey God. Thus the Old Testament dietary laws are still valid and thus disobedience will have decided repercussions. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Gal. 6:7. (An noteworthy warning from Paul in his epistle on law and grace.)

This does not contradict his counsel to Timothy, “In the latter times some shall depart from the faith…commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused,…for it is sanctified by the Word.” 1Tim. 4:1-5. That Word of Scripture Paul referred to was Leviticus chapter 11 which delineates what animals we could and could not eat. He also directly refers to Deuteronomy, “Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which He hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck and as of the hart.” Deut. 12:15. Realize that although Moses said they could eat any flesh they lusted after, it was assumed that they lust after only those prescribed in Leviticus 11.This same assumption was in Paul’s mind, as well as the early church, “…sanctified by the Word.” This does not eliminate the warning against apostate, extremist or legalistic religion which became and continues to be such a scourge against faith and dependence on Jesus. But faith and obedience work together. Without obedience faith isn't faith. It transforms into presumption, and there is no true love for God while presuming on His love for us. This was the very temptation Satan brought against Christ in the wilderness—to expect God to do for us what we can do and He has showed us how to do for ourselves. Presumption tempts God, it does not love Him or abide in His love for us.

The following “8 doctors” will prevent and cure all diseases: 1) Our diet has everything to do with whether or not we will be healthy; whole grain, whole food products is the goal we must strive for. Lose the refined food diet and refined sugar, as quickly as possible! 2) Plenty of pure water, inside the body and outside, is also a must. For this, a good rule to follow is to take your body weight in pounds, divide it in half and drink that much water in fluid ounces, daily. Water will help our bodies remove toxins which build up and become the cause of cancer. 3) Physical exercise in some form is necessary, i.e. a minimum of 20 minutes of aerobic exercise, 3 times a week. Manual labor works for this. But remember to breathe! 4) 15 minutes of sunlight each day. 5) Remember to abstain from harmful substances and moderate the consumption of the things that are good. 6) Plenty of rest is such an overlooked part of the standard American lifestyle. 7) Lots of fresh air, taking deep drafts of clean, fresh air, and throwing open your bedroom windows at night. And lastly, 8) trust in divine power; to concentrate on all the previous necessities for health but to neglect trust in God, is to allow stress to continue and to undo all the benefits of the first seven principles.

Thank you for reading about the importance of maintaining your health. It’s only in love for us that God commands us to “keep under our body, and bring it into subjection.” (1Cor. 9:27).