Closing the Portal to Disease & Death

Reader beware, this article is going to be offensive to some. It argues superior medicine is scaffolded by a Christian worldview. That does not mean that Christians are superior. The Bible makes clear that Christians are helpless wretches, miraculously transformed by God's power. We are not intrinsically superior. It does mean that our God is like no other; He is superior. 

The Portal to Disease and Death

In order to fully understand disease and death, we have to revisit the first humans. God put the first man and woman in a perfect garden, with perfect bodies, and perfect consciences. They were the beloved children of God and regularly fellowshipped with him. He cherished them above everything else that he created, giving them his own image. He gave them one rule: Do. Not. Eat. That. Fruit. (of the knowledge of good and evil). Death was promised to them if they disobeyed. One frightful day, a serpent entered the garden and lied, claiming that God was holding out on them. They fell for it. Immediately, they recognized their nakedness. They felt fear, shame and guilt. When they met with God again, they hid, and God promised that they would die for their sin. 

That curse devastated all of God's beloved creation. From that day forward, a demonic portal for disease and death entered the world. All human beings and creation itself was subjected to disease that begets death. The spiritual caused necrosis of the physical. Humanity has long since attempted to slow the physical devastation of sin through medicine. Thankfully, modern medicine has made major headway in that process. Surgeons can replace knees, deliver newborns, separate conjoined twins, replace heart valves, replace hearts. Physicians can prescribe antibiotics, deliver life-saving vaccines, assess and address complex multi-organ-involved infirmities. These marvels do not stop physical death. They merely delay physical death, allowing the beneficiaries a bit more time to prepare for inevitable physical death. In this age, physical death will always be. Thankfully, spiritual death can be reversed. 

Contingent on the Author of Life 

Human beings have been pursuing healing knowledge since sin, but significant gains in the field of medicine were futile until Christians bedrocked the field. This is because Christianity holds a high regard for truth, and empirical exploration is impossible without truth. Christianity also finds bribery and extortion abhorrent (Ecclesiastes 7:7).  This is why Christian-founded university systems have the credence that they enjoy today. It was not because the students and faculty who established Oxford, Harvard and Cambridge were intrinsically superior to the intellectuals from other parts of the world. Their success hinged on Dominus illuminatio mea (The Lord is My Light, from Psalm 27, the University of Oxford's motto). 

Compassionate Christians were the first to establish universities and hospitals. They believed in absolutes that provided the necessary foundation for exploration. Fear in their Creator gave them both the boundaries and the courage for exploration. In health sciences, test subjects were more than matter. They were image bearers of God himself. If a scientist were to exploit another human being by neglect, mutilation, coercion, or force, that scientist was liable to God himself. 

Historically, consistent scientific method without the fear of God has led to disastrous consequences for human beings. Josef Mengele, MD, PhD,  executed controlled experiments and sought to explore the human genome without fear of his Creator. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments, supported by the CDC in collaboration with a historically black college, provided placebo treatment to black men to observe the effects of untreated syphilis. Today, it is more than rumored that babies and other vulnerable populations are being sold for organ harvesting. 

As humanity's technological access increases so does our capacity for harm. 

Even though times have changed, the Author of Life has not. We are still operating on His globe, breathing His air, grounded by His natural Law. Without collaboration and honor of the Author of Life, human experimentation widens the margins of the Portal to disease, not narrowing it. 

The Worst Consequences Yet 

Ultimately, the worst consequence of human sin is not physical death. The worst is eternal death in hell. Healing occurs only when the blood of Christ washes your sin away and reverses the course of your eternal destiny. Christ Jesus' blood has the power to completely close the portal of spiritual death through faith and repentance. Physical healing matters, but spiritual healing matters more. Physical healing only buys you a little more time to experience faith and repentance. The really good news is that when you confess your sin and believe in Christ, your eternal death is utterly abolished through Christ’s death and resurrection. 

A Call for Medical Reformation and Missional Healthcare

Currently, medicine is almost entirely run by non-Christian entities. Missional hospitals that were established by the sacrificial donations of Christians a few decades ago are now performing procedures that are in direct rebellion of God's wonderful design. This is not a buffering against disease and death, but a headlong plunge into disease and death as those who practice this way are knowingly or unknowingly collaborating with the serpent.  

Here is a good example. At Wake Forest Baptist Health, they are exploring ways to test the premature rupture of membranes in pregnancy. They state that if you are a male, female, transgender male or transgender female, you can participate in this study. Males cannot be pregnant. Most 4 year olds have a superior reality of biology. How can their scientific method be trusted if they are in denial of pre-kindergarten biology? How can we trust them to make objective medical conclusions if they believe males can possibly be pregnant? 

Also, consider:

• the development and racketeering of fentanyl 

• trafficking children through IVF surrogacy, sperm and egg donation 

• denying medical treatment to someone based on their parents' vaccination status

• manipulating the human genome to accept a pig heart

• dismembering pre-born babies and packaging it to mothers as healthcare 

• validating the necessity of hormonal intervention to children experiencing gender dysphoria

• mutilating healthy anatomy of individuals with gender dysphoria

• experimenting with virus to increase its gain of function 

I believe that the credence of modern medicine is quickly eroding as people are able to see that many at the top of government and private health entities are primarily political scientists rather than health scientists. The world has believed that "free healthcare" was a moral good without realizing that it comes attached with a lot of strings. Socialized medicine is not free, but opportunistic. State lead recommendations (lockdowns, chronic masking) that operate against our design cannot produce healing. Socialized medicine has largely usurped the church’s medical ministry. I believe it is proving to be a poor counterfeit. 

I hope that Christians re-establish preaching and healing hospitals as an alternative to State and corporate administered healthcare. I also hope that Christian institutions publish empirical, medical literature as the beacons of truth. A dying and wounded world needs to see the contrast. Missional hospitals and clinics should work with the Designer of our bodies and souls, not in rebellion of Him. Their patients should have the most confidence that truth guides clinical recommendations and that they have dignity as an image bearer of God. Ultimately, no hospital will close the portal to imminent physical death, but missional hospitals can absolutely close the portal to eternally tormented death through the Good News of Christ Jesus. 

Healing is the Lord's. It does not matter how advanced the world's technology is. If our technology works in mockery of God's design, He will mock the technologists. He gets the last laugh.