Biblical Health Laws
At first one might think it strange that the Bible would have something to say about cardiovascular disease or arteriosclerosis -- but it does!
Modern researchers have pinpointed several contributing causes of heart disease including improper diet, overweight, smoking, lack of exercise and nervous stress. What does the Bible have to say about heart disease? Much more than you probably imagine!
First, the Bible clearly recommends a life of "moderation" in all things (compare Phil. 4-5). It condemns gluttony and over-eating (Prov. 23:20-21). The Bible also tells us we should exercise regularly, moderately, throughout our lives. I Timothy 4:8, correctly translated, shows that bodily exercise profits "for a little while." The Bible also admonishes us to avoid nervous stress, anxieties, and worries which can trigger heart attacks.
Perhaps the most interesting point of all, however, is the fact that medical science has proved there is a correlation between heart disease and diets high in animal fat. Fatal coronary heart disease has been caused by diets containing high levels of fat. Animal fats are high in cholesterol.
But what does this have to do with the Bible? Simply this: Dr. Paul Dudley White, the heart specialist who treated President Eisenhower while he was in the White House, once quoted Leviticus 7:23:
Dr. Paul Dudley White asserted, "It is conceivable that a few years from now we medical men may repeat to the citizens of the United States of America the advice that Moses was asked by God to present to the children of Israel 3,000 years ago."
Was Moses way ahead of his time? God told Israel to avoid eating animal fats -- diets high in animal fat -- a major cause of clogged arteries and coronary heart disease!
Here is further evidence that the Biblical health teachings "scooped" modern medical science by 3,400 years!
Proper diet is also important in the prevention of disease. In Leviticus 11 we read of important dietary laws which God gave His people. Among other things, he forbade them to eat the flesh of swine, rabbits, or shellfish (Lev. 11:6, 7, 9-12). Were these laws merely ceremonial, ritualistic? Not at all! Writes Dr. Louis Lasagna in The Doctors Dilemmas (page 85):
"Many of these make good medical sense . . . The prohibition of hare and swine as sources of food certainly must have diminished the incidence of disease, in view of the capacity of these animals to transmit tularemia and trichinosis, respectively. The transmission of gastrointestinal infections (including typhoid fever) via polluted shellfish or water also testifies to the apparent wisdom of the Hebrews in warning against such sea food and impure water".
Cancer, one of the most fearsome and excruciating diseases afflicting mankind today, would also be greatly reduced if all men and women obeyed the health laws of the Bible!
Consider: Every year in the United States alone over 300,000 people lose their lives from cancer. According to specialists, the overwhelming majority of the over 60,000 deaths due to lung cancer would be eliminated by the institution of one measure; Stop smoking cigarettes!
Although the Bible doesn't mention smoking cigarettes by name, many Biblical principles show that slavery to a "weed" is virtual idolatry and is contrary to God's will. Smoking cigarettes is a major source of "pollution," as scientific evidence shows. God says through the apostle Paul:
"What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (I Cor. 6:19-20).
The VALUE of Circumcision
Interestingly, cancer of the cervix -- which comprises about 25 percent of the cancer of women in general -- is very rare among Jewish women. Wrote Dr. Louis Lasagna,
"Since the beginning of the nineteenth century it has been known that, married or unmarried, Gentile women have two to three times as high an incidence of genital cancer (particularly cancer of the cervix) as do Jewish women. Wherever physicians have compiled statistics -- in New York and Vienna, Budapest and London, Leeds and Amsterdam -- this differential susceptibility to genital cancer has emerged" (ibid., p. 243).
This finding astounded the medical experts. Why are Jewish women comparatively free from this dreaded scourge?
Medical researchers have concluded that it is because the practice of circumcision, which God gave to Abraham and his descendants, enables men to keep the penis and foreskin clean and free from the bacteria which could otherwise become lodged beneath the foreskin.
In regard to circumcision, Lasagna writes: "...the practice almost guarantees against the development of cancer of the penis, and may be related to the lower incidence of cancer of the cervix in Jewish women" (The Doctors' Dilemmas, p. 85).
Another important law in the Old Testament which may be related to lower incidence of cancer of the cervix is the law against having sexual intercourse during a woman's menstrual period (Lev. 20: 1 8).
AIDS and Venereal Diseases
The fastest spreading contagious disease in the Western world today is venereal disease. In the United States alone, someone contacts venereal disease every 12 seconds! There are probably over five million new cases of venereal disease in the United States every year. Medical authorities frankly admit that venereal diseases, and especially the scourge of AIDS, are spread through promiscuous sexual contact. Homosexuals account for nearly all the cases of AIDS in the United States, and one-fifth of the reported cases of venereal disease! This no doubt is due to their extremely promiscuous life style and sexual practices. As long as there is promiscuity, free sex, and homosexuality, there is bound to be venereal disease. What is the solution to this rampant scourge of mankind?
As the apostle Paul wrote: "Shun immorality! Any other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body" (I Cor. 6:18, Moffatt Translation).
What does the Bible say will happen to those who devote themselves to sexual vice, who dishonor their own bodies? God inspired Paul to write to the church at Rome:
"...their women have exchanged the natural function of sex for what is unnatural, and in the same way the males have abandoned the natural use of women and flamed out in lust for one another, men perpetrating shameless acts with their own sex and getting in their own persons the due recompense of their perversity" (Rom. 1:26-27, Moffatt Translation).
The growing incidence of these horrible plagues speaks eloquently that the only workable solution is prevention. Thousands of years ago the Biblical standards of morality safeguarded against these plagues which blight the lives of as yet unborn generations. There is no safe, reliable "cure" for AIDS or VD or any similar disease -- except prevention. Why do millions insist on rejecting this self-evident truth?
When God created mankind, He said, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Gen. 2:24). If this one basic, Scriptural principle were obeyed today, the world would see the end of AIDS, and venereal diseases of all kinds.
Mental Illness and Depression
God warned 3,400 years ago that if men insisted upon breaking His laws and commandments, and living their own ways, the result would be disastrous. God said that if we broke His laws we would be smitten with mental illnesses:
"The Eternal will strike your minds with madness, blindness, and dismay, till you grope at noon like a blind man in the dark, and fall into disaster" (Deut. 28:28-29, Moffatt).
The original Hebrew word for "madness" in this verse is shiggaown and refers to mental insanity, craziness -- a raving maniac. Interesting, isn't it, that 25 percent of our hospital beds today are occupied by victims of schizophrenia?
Obedience to the laws of God is the key to mental health. "Great peace have they that love thy law," David wrote in the Psalms (Psa. 119:165).
At first one might think it strange that the Bible would have something to say about cardiovascular disease or arteriosclerosis -- but it does!
Modern researchers have pinpointed several contributing causes of heart disease including improper diet, overweight, smoking, lack of exercise and nervous stress. What does the Bible have to say about heart disease? Much more than you probably imagine!
First, the Bible clearly recommends a life of "moderation" in all things (compare Phil. 4-5). It condemns gluttony and over-eating (Prov. 23:20-21). The Bible also tells us we should exercise regularly, moderately, throughout our lives. I Timothy 4:8, correctly translated, shows that bodily exercise profits "for a little while." The Bible also admonishes us to avoid nervous stress, anxieties, and worries which can trigger heart attacks.
Perhaps the most interesting point of all, however, is the fact that medical science has proved there is a correlation between heart disease and diets high in animal fat. Fatal coronary heart disease has been caused by diets containing high levels of fat. Animal fats are high in cholesterol.
But what does this have to do with the Bible? Simply this: Dr. Paul Dudley White, the heart specialist who treated President Eisenhower while he was in the White House, once quoted Leviticus 7:23:
Dr. Paul Dudley White asserted, "It is conceivable that a few years from now we medical men may repeat to the citizens of the United States of America the advice that Moses was asked by God to present to the children of Israel 3,000 years ago."
Was Moses way ahead of his time? God told Israel to avoid eating animal fats -- diets high in animal fat -- a major cause of clogged arteries and coronary heart disease!
Here is further evidence that the Biblical health teachings "scooped" modern medical science by 3,400 years!
Proper diet is also important in the prevention of disease. In Leviticus 11 we read of important dietary laws which God gave His people. Among other things, he forbade them to eat the flesh of swine, rabbits, or shellfish (Lev. 11:6, 7, 9-12). Were these laws merely ceremonial, ritualistic? Not at all! Writes Dr. Louis Lasagna in The Doctors Dilemmas (page 85):
"Many of these make good medical sense . . . The prohibition of hare and swine as sources of food certainly must have diminished the incidence of disease, in view of the capacity of these animals to transmit tularemia and trichinosis, respectively. The transmission of gastrointestinal infections (including typhoid fever) via polluted shellfish or water also testifies to the apparent wisdom of the Hebrews in warning against such sea food and impure water".
Cancer, one of the most fearsome and excruciating diseases afflicting mankind today, would also be greatly reduced if all men and women obeyed the health laws of the Bible!
Consider: Every year in the United States alone over 300,000 people lose their lives from cancer. According to specialists, the overwhelming majority of the over 60,000 deaths due to lung cancer would be eliminated by the institution of one measure; Stop smoking cigarettes!
Although the Bible doesn't mention smoking cigarettes by name, many Biblical principles show that slavery to a "weed" is virtual idolatry and is contrary to God's will. Smoking cigarettes is a major source of "pollution," as scientific evidence shows. God says through the apostle Paul:
"What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (I Cor. 6:19-20).
The VALUE of Circumcision
Interestingly, cancer of the cervix -- which comprises about 25 percent of the cancer of women in general -- is very rare among Jewish women. Wrote Dr. Louis Lasagna,
"Since the beginning of the nineteenth century it has been known that, married or unmarried, Gentile women have two to three times as high an incidence of genital cancer (particularly cancer of the cervix) as do Jewish women. Wherever physicians have compiled statistics -- in New York and Vienna, Budapest and London, Leeds and Amsterdam -- this differential susceptibility to genital cancer has emerged" (ibid., p. 243).
This finding astounded the medical experts. Why are Jewish women comparatively free from this dreaded scourge?
Medical researchers have concluded that it is because the practice of circumcision, which God gave to Abraham and his descendants, enables men to keep the penis and foreskin clean and free from the bacteria which could otherwise become lodged beneath the foreskin.
In regard to circumcision, Lasagna writes: "...the practice almost guarantees against the development of cancer of the penis, and may be related to the lower incidence of cancer of the cervix in Jewish women" (The Doctors' Dilemmas, p. 85).
Another important law in the Old Testament which may be related to lower incidence of cancer of the cervix is the law against having sexual intercourse during a woman's menstrual period (Lev. 20: 1 8).
AIDS and Venereal Diseases
The fastest spreading contagious disease in the Western world today is venereal disease. In the United States alone, someone contacts venereal disease every 12 seconds! There are probably over five million new cases of venereal disease in the United States every year. Medical authorities frankly admit that venereal diseases, and especially the scourge of AIDS, are spread through promiscuous sexual contact. Homosexuals account for nearly all the cases of AIDS in the United States, and one-fifth of the reported cases of venereal disease! This no doubt is due to their extremely promiscuous life style and sexual practices. As long as there is promiscuity, free sex, and homosexuality, there is bound to be venereal disease. What is the solution to this rampant scourge of mankind?
As the apostle Paul wrote: "Shun immorality! Any other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body" (I Cor. 6:18, Moffatt Translation).
What does the Bible say will happen to those who devote themselves to sexual vice, who dishonor their own bodies? God inspired Paul to write to the church at Rome:
"...their women have exchanged the natural function of sex for what is unnatural, and in the same way the males have abandoned the natural use of women and flamed out in lust for one another, men perpetrating shameless acts with their own sex and getting in their own persons the due recompense of their perversity" (Rom. 1:26-27, Moffatt Translation).
The growing incidence of these horrible plagues speaks eloquently that the only workable solution is prevention. Thousands of years ago the Biblical standards of morality safeguarded against these plagues which blight the lives of as yet unborn generations. There is no safe, reliable "cure" for AIDS or VD or any similar disease -- except prevention. Why do millions insist on rejecting this self-evident truth?
When God created mankind, He said, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Gen. 2:24). If this one basic, Scriptural principle were obeyed today, the world would see the end of AIDS, and venereal diseases of all kinds.
Mental Illness and Depression
God warned 3,400 years ago that if men insisted upon breaking His laws and commandments, and living their own ways, the result would be disastrous. God said that if we broke His laws we would be smitten with mental illnesses:
"The Eternal will strike your minds with madness, blindness, and dismay, till you grope at noon like a blind man in the dark, and fall into disaster" (Deut. 28:28-29, Moffatt).
The original Hebrew word for "madness" in this verse is shiggaown and refers to mental insanity, craziness -- a raving maniac. Interesting, isn't it, that 25 percent of our hospital beds today are occupied by victims of schizophrenia?
Obedience to the laws of God is the key to mental health. "Great peace have they that love thy law," David wrote in the Psalms (Psa. 119:165).