A - Health
1. A Matter of
World Views
A. Your
training: The Naturalistic Worldview
Everyone who is trained as a healthcare
provider in a secular institution is trained through the lens of a naturalistic
worldview. Fundamental to this worldview is an attempt to deny the existence of
a personal God. Naturalists seek to explain the origins and maintenance of life
through physical processes and thus deny any spiritual component to existence.
Therefore, according to this worldview, there is no existence after death and
no higher meaning to life other than “survival of the fittest.” However, most
people in America, prompted by a fundamental need for meaning and purpose in
life, do not hold to such a stringent worldview and adopt a vague, general
belief in a higher power and a spiritual side of life but deny a personal
creator to whom they must be accountable.
B. The Biblical World view
The Biblical worldview stands in direct
contrast with the naturalistic worldview. Fundamental to the Biblical worldview
is a loving Creator. Genesis tells us that “In the beginning, God” existed. He
preexisted all creation, created everything, and will exist eternally. The
Bible explains further God’s motivation for creating us. God regarded each
stage of His creation as “good,” and He regarded His creation of man as “very
good” (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31).
John 3:16 tells us that God created people because He loved them.
C. Why does
this matter?
Your worldview affects more than you might
realize. It guides how you think, how you live, and how you react to your
circumstances. Most people’s worldviews are vague and poorly thought out. They
often contain inconsistencies and contradictions. Therefore, if you think about
it, you may find that you have a “Sunday” worldview that contradicts your
“everyday” worldview. We see this problem in business, when men or women who
seem Godly and loving at church are ruthless in the business world.
Unfortunately, we also see it in the medical field. Christian health care
professionals practice medicine from a naturalistic world view, yet outside
medicine they follow a Christian world view. Let me give some clinical
situations that will help you see if this problem exists in your life:
D. Clinical Scenarios
1. A patient develops a rare
cancer that is terminal. She asks you, “why did this happen to me?” What would
you say?
2. A patient presents with
depression. In explaining the diagnosis and treatment, what would you say?
3. A 16-year-old girl comes
to your office because she missed a period. When you determine that she is
pregnant, she tells you that she wants to get an abortion. How would you handle
the situation?
4. You have known an
86-year-old patient with inoperable prostate cancer for many years. It has
metastasized to the bones, and he is admitted to the hospital for intractable
pain. You have difficulty controlling the pain, and he repeatedly asks you to
give him an overdose of pain medicine so that he can die. What would you say
and do?
These are difficult questions for any health
care provider, Christian or non-Christian. But a provider who works from a
naturalistic worldview will probably answer them differently from one who
practices from a Biblical world view.
Our purpose in
this Bible study is to present a Biblical worldview for medicine that will
directly impact your practice of health care.
2. Biblical Health
A. Shalom
Though we tend to think of the definition of
this Hebrew word as “peace,” it means much more. Shalom has a variety of
meanings, such as “welfare, health, peace, completeness, safety, and
prosperity.” Overall, the word, in its most general sense, means “wholeness.”
As we study this word and other health-related words in the Bible, we come to
realize that the Biblical concept of health is based on a holistic approach
which includes physical, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects. It turns
out that the biopsychosociospiritual model of health care that has become
popular in the last 20 years is actually thousands of years old and what God
intended all along.
What do each
of these components of health include?
1. Bio: Physical health
2. Psycho: Mental health
3. Socio: Interaction with society, friends, and
family
4. Spiritual: Sense of purpose, faith, love,
forgiveness, prayer, worship, and stillness.
Fundamental to the concept of shalom
is a right relationship with God:
Ezekiel 37.26-27: I will make a covenant of peace (shalom) with them; it will be an
everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I
will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them;
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
B. Our design
I. In God’s Image: Gen. 1.26-27: Unlike the rest of creation, God created human beings
in His image. He made us relational. We are to have an intimate relationship
with Him above all else.
2. Unity in Diversity: Gen. 2:18-25: God also made us relational
with each other. God created Eve because “it is not good for the man to be
alone.” Thus an aspect of being created in the image of God is unity in
diversity. Through marriage a man and woman become one flesh, yet continue to
be two people, mirroring God’s existence as one God, yet three Persons: Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.
3. Spiritual and Physical: Gen. 2:7: God breathed life into Adam
and Eve, unlike the rest of creation which He simply created. In Hebrew,
“breath” also means “spirit.” This verse helps us to see that human beings,
unlike the rest of God’s creation, are spiritual as well as physical beings.
4. Eternal: Gen. 2:16-1 7: God designed human beings to live eternally. Death,
decay, and disease were not part of man’s original design, but only occurred as
a result of their disobedience.
5. Houses of God: John 14:24, Gal. 2.20: God designed our
spirits to house His Spirit. Only when He lives in us do we function properly,
spiritually alive and dependent on Him.
6. The Glory of God: I Cor. 10:31, 2 Cor. 3:18: God created
us to radiate His glory. His glory refers to His communicable attributes, the
fruit of the Spirit that Paul described in Gal. 5:22. We can only radiate His
glory when His Spirit lives within us and shines gloriously through us.
In
summary, God created Adam and Eve as the prototype for human beings’ intended
design. Therefore, true shalom involves
functioning as God intended us to function, in intimate relationship with Him, housing
His Spirit, radiating His glory, and unified with one another.
C. Our Fall
Adam and
Eve rebelled against God, resulting in the fall of creation. As a result, God
banished them from the Garden of Eden and sentenced them to death as He had
warned (Gen. 2:17, 3:16-24). Since then, human beings have been dysfunctional. Shalom has been lost. God’s intimate
relationship with human beings has been broken. Without God’s indwelling
Spirit, all have sinned and fallen short of His glory (Rom. 3:23). As a result,
all human beings are subject to disease, decay, and death. None are immune.
D. The promise
of Shalom Restored
The
concept of shalom is a common theme in the Old Testament. The Jews fully knew
what had been lost in the Garden of Eden, and they hoped and prayed that God
would one day restore it. Through the prophets, God revealed that shalom would be restored, that His
people would once again be whole. Some examples of such promises can be seen in
the following verses:
Ezekiel 37:26-27: I will make a covenant of peace (shalom with them; it will be an
everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and
will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be
with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.
Psalm 29:11: The Lord will give strength to is people; the Lord
will bless His people with peace (shalom).
Psalm 37:11: But the humble will inherit the land and will
delight themselves in abundant prosperity (shalom).
Isaiah 66:12: For thus says the Lord, “Behold, I extend
peace (shalom) to her (Jerusalem)
like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you
will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees.
E. Promise
Fulfilled
The writers of the New
Testament picked up on the theme of shalom, using Greek words with similar
meanings. However, there was one key difference. The New Testament authors
referred to it in the present tense, not the future tense. An amazing
transformation had occurred. Through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, a new era
had dawned. God revealed how this occurred through His prophet, Isaiah:
Isaiah 53:5: But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well being (shalom) fell upon Him, and by His
scourging we are healed (& I Pet. 2:24).
In order for our right
relationship with God to be restored, Christ had to be sacrificed on the cross
for our sins. God, in His holiness, cannot intimately associate with sinful
human beings. Only when Christ took our sins upon Himself on the cross could
God look upon us as holy and associate with those who trust in Him.
Col. 2:10: and in Him you have been
made complete. How are we complete?
1. Peace with God: Rom. 5:1: Therefore, having been
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. See John 14.27, Phil. 4:6-7.
2. Christ lives in us: Gal. 2:20: I have been crucified with
Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself up for me.
3. God gives us fruit: Gal. 5:22: But the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control; against such things there is no law.
4. Our responsibility: Eph. 4:22-24: You were taught, with
regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being
corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your
minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness
and holiness.
Through the establishment of a right
relationship with God through faith in Christ, we are made complete and whole:
spiritually, physically, psychologically, and socially.
Though this shalom will not be fully realized until we reach heaven, God wants
it to begin when we become Christians. He wants us to function according to His
intended design, dependent on Him and radiating His glory. Our new
functionality in Christ begins to heal us spiritually, psychologically,
socially, and sometimes even physically. Though our physical bodies are
destined to decay and die, we look forward to the day when God will give us new
spiritual bodies which will live eternally (1
Cor. 15:35-58).
3. Application
A. How do I
get this wholeness and peace?
It has already been freely given to you when
you became a Christian. God’s Spirit set up His home in you. You were
incomplete and dysfunctional, and now you are complete and functional. Your
life can be compared to an old car that was broken down. God, the Divine
Mechanic, has restored you to full working order.
B. But why do
I still feel fear, unrest, and discontentment?
1. You may not be taking hold of the gifts that
God has given you. Just because the old car has been restored and repaired does
not mean that it will run. The driver must get in, turn the key, and then know
how to drive it. Similarly, God tells us, in His strength, to take hold of the
gifts that He has given us and put on the new self (Eph 4:22-24, Col. 3:15, Rom. 12:18).
2. We tend to confuse God’s peace with the
world’s peace. In John 16:33, Jesus
tells us that the world will give us trouble and unrest, but Jesus will give us
a supernatural peace that overcomes any circumstance in which we might find
ourselves.
C. How can I
extend shalom to my patients?
We will be talking more about this in the
rest of this study, but to summarize, we can only give when we have been filled
(John 7.37-38). When we earnestly
seek God, He will bear fruit through us (Matt.
6:33, Gal. 5.22). Let God fill you with His richness, and you will overflow
with His love for others.