A Bible Study On Health

It brings me great delight in going over the very important bible topic of health. We will be referencing a multitude of bible verses so this will be a pretty long study so go ahead and strap yourself in. Please note if your looking for some physical habits that you can do to improve your health please refer to my health post category on the side bar. In order to not get attacked by the pharma/medical industry let me just say that I'm not a doctor so according to them I'm not "qualified" give medical advice. Therefore follow my advice on this post at your own discretion.

The Lord Is Our Healer 

The first and most important thing a christian must realize is that it is the Lord that heals us. (Exo 15:26, Psa 103:3). This is reiterated in Exo 23:25 when God says that he will take sickness from the midst of them (the children of Israel). One biblical principle that we see in the OT is that sickness and disease is the result of disobedience to God (Lev 26:15-16, Deu 28:22, Deu 28:27-28, Deu 28:60-61), whereas health including fertility was a result of following him (Deu 7:12-15). Which reminds me of the time God closes up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah (Gen 20:18).

Psa 107:17-20 is a lovely passage about the Lord saving foolish people who were afflicted because of their transgression when they cry out to him. This passage can also be relatable for people with anorexia because it speaks of them loathing all manner of meat and drawing nigh to the gates of death.We see from Pro 10:27 that if you hope to live a long life you should fear the Lord.

There is a division among christians regarding Isa 53:4-5 as to whether Jesus' atonement provided our physical healing too or just our spiritual healing. The greek word for griefs in this passage (Khol-ee') appears as disease in 2Kin 1:2 &  2 Chr 16:12. Meaning by his stripes we are healed could very well mean our physical healing also, especially because Mat 8:16-17 references this verse when Jesus healed the people's physical diseases. Matthew himself tells us to interpret it that way.

There are so many times that Jesus healed people in the gospels that to keep this post from being to long I will just mention some of them here. Jesus healing all manner of sickness/disease (Mat 4:23), leprosy (Mat 8:3, Mar 1:40-42, Luk 5:12-13), fever (Mat 8:14-15, Mar 1:30-31), withered hand (Mat 12:13, Mar 3:5, Luk 6:10), lunatick (17:15-18), blind (Mat 20:34, Luk 18:42-43, Joh 9:7), raises the dead (Mar 5:41-42, Luk 7:14-15, Joh 11:43-44), Deaf (Mar 7:32-35), palsy (Luk 5:18-26), and a spirit of infirmity/bowed together (Luk 13:11-13).

Jesus also healed people after he ascended, like the lame man who sat at the gate called beautiful by having faith in his name (Act 3:16). It is true also that God gives people the spiritual gift of healing (1 Cor 12:9), in order to cure those that were sick. However some believers believe that this specific gift has ceased. We will not be addressing that particular issue today however.

To conclude this segment I will just remind the reader of Jas 5:14-16, which shows us that prayer is a powerful tool in the healing of others.

See also: Exo 32:35, Psa 67:2, 2Ti 3:5

Why Christian's Should Avoid Pharmaceutical Drugs

One thing that concerns me regarding this topic is the amount of people in the USA that are on prescription and non prescription "meds". One thing the bible warns us about is to not to be spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men and rudiments of the world (Col 2:8). The tradition many people are taught from a young age is if you are sick go to the hospital or take a pill, instead of taking it to God. I think it's time to look at a few facts regarding the medical profession.

A.) Back in ancient times there was no such thing as an "hospital". In fact there was nothing like that until the arrival of the cult of Asclepius or the temples of healing. According to Greek myth Asclepius was the son Apollo, a pagan deity. He's affiliated with the physician staff, y'know the one with a snake wrapped around it; this is the symbol of the medical profession. Back in the old days the patient would spent the night at the local temple, he would then be visited by the "god" in a dream. After this the priest would interpret dream and prescribe the treatment for his ailment or malady.

As a personal side note the serpent on the pole was also symbolic of Jesus on the cross, who we look to for our healing (Num 21:8-9, Joh 3:14-15).

B.) What follows is a couple of quotes/or information derived from the below link in regards to the RX symbols of the pharmaceutical industry.

"Rx is not, as is frequently supposed, an abbreviation of a Latin word meaning recipe or compound, but is an invocation to Jupiter, a prayer for his aid to make the treatment effective . . . sometimes in old medical manuscripts all the R's occurring in the text were crossed."

The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins came to the rescue, however, with what is certainly the correct answer:

quote:
“The Latin ‘recipe,’ take,’ provides the R in the symbol Rx used by pharmacists for centuries, while the slant across the R’s leg is the sign of the Roman god Jupiter, patron of medicine.”

The letters xP [chi-rho], which originally predated Messiah and used to identify "Crestos", the savior/healing principle may also be interpolated and offset... px creating the famous px Pharmekeia symbol!

When symbols are reversed they generally indicate that the meaning is also reversed. If anciently the Greek letters Chi-rho [XP] later came to refer to the Christ, reversing the letters PX may indicate the return to the "crestos", or possible a reference to the "antichrist"

I know that there are many people today that suffer from the affects of many serious diseases but I say the following in love pharmaceutical drugs DO NOT cure diseases, they temporarily alleviate the symptoms of your disease. However as everybody knows taking drugs can be dangerous and cause side effects that are even more serious that the disease itself. Besides the physical dangers of drugs there is the spiritual dangerous as well. Most people don't even consider that the word pharmacy is derived from the greek word Pharmakeia which is defined below.

C.) Definitions- "1. the use or administering of drugs 2. poisoning
3. sorcery,magical arts often found in connection with Idolatry and fostered by it. 4. metaph. the deceptions and seduction of Idolatry." 

Now I address sorcery and witchcraft in a separate post so I won't be going over too many bible verses on them now. I'd rather just go over some verses that I believe are most relevant to taking pharmaceutical drugs.

In the first chapter of the book of 2 Kings we have King Ahaziah becoming sick after falling down a lattice but he died as a result of not seeking the Lord concerning this matter and instead wanting to inquire of Baalzebub.

We see in 2Ch 16:12-13 that another King (Asa) died about two years after he became diseased in his feet, he sought the physicians instead of the Lord, coincidence? The bible teaches that vain is the help of man and that those that trust in man are cursed (Psa 60:11, Psa 108:12, Jer 17:5).You know when someone has a terminal illness and the doctor says they have only so long to live. Well that's called prognostication and it doesn't seem too well favored in scripture (Isa 47:12-13).

Although Dan 8:25 may not be talking about the pharma industry I still think it's a kinda relevant verse because of it speaking of causing the craft to prosper and by peace destroying many. This is because I believe the pharma industry is deceptively killing people! I recall the instances in the gospel of the woman who spent all her living on physicians but instead of getting better she got worse (Mar 5:26, Luk 8:43), thankfully she got healed by putting her faith in Jesus.

If pharmaceuticals is indeed sorcery then christians should definitely be wary of taking them because scripture is clear that we cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of devils (1Co 10:21).
  

To conclude this segment I just want to mention Rev 18:23 which might just be referring to the pharma industry or at least is relevant to the topic. Just think about it great men of the earth, who is more highly esteemed than doctors? They also sell/prescribe sorcery (drugs) that deceive people that they are getting better.

Understanding Proper Medicine

Now don't get me wrong, I don't want the reader to think that I'm against taking medicine altogether. The problem lies in what the general american audience thinks is medicine. To say that taking real medicine is a sin would be a gross error as verses such as Pro 17:22 which shows us that medicine does indeed do good, and the leaf of the tree being used for medicine in Eze 47:12.

Nor do I condemn everyone who seeks professional help for their their sickness as we see in Eze 34:4 that the Lord expected the shepherds of Israel to help those that were sick, and Jesus even told us that those that are sick need a physician (Mat 9:12). It's just that I would recommend something like a naturopathic physician instead of a conventional doctor.

So what are some things that the people in the bible used for medicine?
Although they put a lump of figs on King Hezekiah's boil we mustn't discount the fact that he prayed to the Lord first in 2Ki 20:1-7. Isa 1:6 shows us of wounds, bruises, and sores that weren't mollified with ointment. Does this mean that ointment was usually used to treat such things?

We see from Jer 8:22 and Jer 51:8 that balm was used for the treatment of pain or to help the process of healing. There's the popular story of the good samaritan who used wine and oil to treat the injured man (Luk 10:31-34). We have Paul telling Timothy to take which for his stomach issues in 1Ti 5:23. Although it may not be meaning it literally Rev 3:18 does mention eye-salve.

Other Things the Bible Says About Health

We also see good hygiene practices in Lev 14:8 as lepers who were to be cleansed would wash in water. One example of a wicked king suffering a sore disease is Jehoram, he received a letter from the prophet Elijah telling him that he would have a disease in his bowels until they would eventually fall out (2Ch 21:12-19).

Job 15:20  tells us that the wicked man travaileth in pain all his days. This doesn't mean however if your in pain that your not saved because the Lord might just be chastising you because your his child and your in sin (Heb 12:6-8).

Don't be fooled if someone tells you that people are living longer today because of modern "medicine" than ever before because that's a lie. People's average life expectancy is in the 70's. It's been like that for thousands of years (Psa 90:10).

As noted earlier there seems to be a strong correlation between avoiding sin and good health. We see this in proverbs 3 where it teaches that keeping the commandments will add long life to you and departing from evil will be health to your navel and marrow to your bones (Pro 3:1-2, Pro 3:7-8). A similar verse in the NT is Rom 6:23 which tells us that the wages of sin is death.

To me Isa 33:20-24 seems to parallel Rev 21:1-4 a bit, in that in addition to sickness or pain being taken away there also will be no galley with oars pass thereby or as in Revelation no more sea.

Another important principle is found in Jer 46:11, it shows us that you can be taking medicine in vain. You must wait on God's timing to be healed or there might be another reason you are sick such as sin. Although there are some good examples of God provided our healing in scripture, 3Jn 1:2 isn't the best one. This is simply John greeting/desiring that who he is writing to would be in good health. 

In conclusion we should always go to God first for our healing, avoid drugs which are physically and spiritually dangerous, and if the Lord is leading you to visit a naturopathic doctor or take natural treatments (healthy foods, vitamins/minerals, etc.) for you sicknesses.

Other Relevant Verses 

2Ki 8:29, Job 13:4, Psa 31:10, Ecc 3:3, Jer 30:12 -13, Eze 30:21, Col 4:14

References
A.) http://www.historywiz.com/didyouknow/asclepius.htm
B.) http://kahalyahweh.net/Articles/chirho.htm

C.) https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=nkjv&strongs=g5331

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