Study – Grow – Know

Biblical Health is Not Just Spiritual

January 31, 2023 at 10:43 AM 4 comments

I’ve talked previously about my own particular health journey over the past 6+ years and how much better life has become because of it. I’ve also stated that I understand that perfect health doesn’t really happen in this life, at least not over the long haul, and that of course, is due simply to our inherent sin nature and the curse that God placed on this world.

Decay is the name of the game. From the moment we are born, we begin to decay or deteriorate. The choices we make in life work either for or against our health and when I say health, I’m referring to our physical, mental and physiological health. All of these together can and do affect our spiritual health.

Right now, I know some folks who are simply “tired.” They are a bit older than I am and suffer from numerous ailments. Having gone through CV for the past two years, with lock-downs, mask mandates, vax roll-outs and the rest has not helped their situation. They tend to feel overwhelmed with what they are struggling with in life as they watch their health deteriorate. In effect, death appears to be wrapping it’s cold fingers around them now, pulling them into the grave.

However, the way we treat our bodies can make all the difference in the world. Most of us do not treat our bodies as though they are really the temples of the Holy Spirit, do we? We eat and drink what we want, when we want and don’t tend to notice the food and drink we ate or drank, while it felt good in our stomachs and was satisfying, the truth may be that it does more harm than good.

The Bible appears to indicate throughout that God wants us to be healthy (Exodus 15:26, Proverbs 3:1-2, 8). Generations ago, more people farmed and because of it, they labored hard in their fields and with their animals in order to bring in a harvest so that they would have food during winter months when growing food was difficult if not impossible, depending upon where they lived. Being fat was not a normal thing for the average person. People walked a lot. They rode horses. They walked behind a plow pulled by horse or oxen in field after field. It was difficult for those folks to become unhealthy, though of course, people did get sick and die. But imagine how bad they would have been if they had not been in the habit of working their bodies?

Today, farming is for a select small percentage of people in the world and even there, modern machinery and equipment has made farming much easier. Driving a tractor over field after field is not the same as walking behind a horse-drawn plow. Yet, today’s farming can still offer a certain of amount of labor-intensive work. Farming is not for the lazy person.

But something else changed over the years through modernization that, while creating benefits and ease, also introduced other things into society that works against the health of our bodies. Heavily processed foods and “cheap” (fast) foods that have had all their natural vitamins and minerals removed in the processing and then added “enriched” back into those foods at the end. One can only wonder though if these added vitamins and minerals offer the same benefit as foods that are more natural and organic, never having gone through the high processing that occurs with most of the food being sold today.

I get it, the fact that in order for food to last, preservatives are used to keep the foods from going bad. With preservatives, they will last for weeks or even months on the store shelves or in our pantries. Canning and fermenting foods avoids those preservatives, because they are sealed in airtight containers. They will last for quite a while until opened.

But let’s say that everything we eat or drink is great; fully organic and free of preservatives like nitrites, nitrates or many other things that are used to make our foods last, but may or may not be good for us because many people may have a difficult time breaking these things down and because of that, bad side effects can occur, creating numerous negative symptoms that folks may never realize is due to what they eat or drink. I’ve talked about the problems with high fructose corn syrup for me. I’ve talked about how gluten negatively impacts me. My sister had Celiac Disease and while I do not, my specialist recommended I avoid all gluten, so I do.

But probably a larger problem that affects all people one way or another is in the area of oxidation. You’ve probably heard the term “oxidative stress,” which right away tells you that it’s not good because of the word “stress.”

Oxidative stress is a phenomenon caused by an imbalance between production and accumulation of oxygen reactive species (ROS) in cells and tissues and the ability of a biological system to detoxify these reactive products. [1]

As we walk through life, our bodies and brains are bombarded with things that cause oxidation of our cells or oxidative stress on our bodies.

The tiny particles of the universe are held together by the electrons that surround them. Any action that results in the change of the electrons that hold matter together is considered oxidation. You may have thought that oxidation is somehow adding oxygen to what is being oxidized, but not so. Basically, oxidation either removes or changes the position of electrons that hold things together. This either completely destroys the substances or changes them into something else. [2]

Oxidation is not a good thing as it wears down and destroys our bodies and brains. However, most of us don’t even realize that’s taking place.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the only oxidation we experienced was to the pathogens that harm our bodies? Unfortunately, this is not the case. The pathogens that enter into our systems tend to build up over time and take over unless they are killed and expelled. Medicine has ways of dealing with these pathogens with medicine, but a better way might be to avoid eating garbage and learn to treat your body as His temple.

Scripture reveals to us that His Laws given to Moses and ultimately to the people of Israel, was done for the Israelites’ health, both physical and spiritual. We tend to see the Law as being ineffective for saving people (regarding salvation), and it was because it merely pointed to the perfection of Jesus and His sacrifice on Calvary’s cross. The Israelites were unaware that the Law given to them was essentially to show that following it to the letter and from the heart was impossible and it pointed to a better sacrifice (read the entire book of Hebrews).

But aside from this, inherent within the Mosaic Law were many dietary restrictions that may have seemed annoying to the Israelites, but were done for their health and safety. Who knew that eating pork if not cooked properly would cause issues? God could’ve said, “Here’s how you cook pork so that it is safe to eat,” but instead simply said, “Pork is off-limits to Israel.”

The Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia tells us that the laws given by God to Moses contain remarkable rules pertaining to public health which concerns us even today: water and food contamination, sewage disposal, infectious diseases, and health education. These issues were all dealt with in the Mosaic health laws. [3]

Amazing isn’t it? God wasn’t simply telling people “avoid this, don’t do that, drink this but not that” kind of thing because He was capricious (He’s not). He said those things and gave them rules to live by so that they would actually live in good health all the days of their lives.

The Bible seems to indicate that my days are numbered (Ecclesiastes 3:2, Psalm 139:16, Job 14:5). Yet, our death may have some wiggle room. By that I mean that God sees and knows all, so He sets or knows when I will die. Can I do things in this life that will shorten or lengthen my life? Yes, and maybe the Bible’s point is that God, who sees and knows everything, knows the exact day of our death because He knows the future for each person. Therefore, He has “set” death’s date.

Looking back over the past 6 years or so, I can see how I might’ve died had I continued the way I was going – overweight, eating all kinds of preservative-laden foods that harmed rather than built up. The same with what I drank. Having changed that tremendously, I am benefiting from the way we eat, drink and live now. But in the end, we cannot get away from things in this world that cause oxidative stress on our bodies.

I think this is why many folks spend time “detoxing” and there are many ways to do it, yet often those folks are laughed at and ridiculed. During Moses’ day, if the Israelites followed God’s rules to a “t” the chances of ill health would be minimal or non-existent. However, when they went off script and ignored God’s rules and laws, the effects were often detrimental. We tend to think of these detrimental effects as being the result of “sin” in their lives (ignoring God’s laws), and that is certainly true. But a more immediate effect of ignoring God’s rules may have come to the fore in poor health.

My encouragement to all is to do several things to help gain and maintain their health. I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist, so please don’t take my words as if I have that authority. I’m simply offering suggestions that may be beneficial for everyone based on my own personal study and activity.

I believe God wants us to be physically healthy. If we are physically healthy, our brains benefit as well, allowing us to think clearly. If our brains are thinking more clearly, I also believe this can and does impact our spiritual lives. If you feel like warmed over garbage all the time, you tend to focus on your aches, your pains, and your discomfort, don’t you? I did when I was ill. Getting beyond that provides a healthier and more truthful outlook on life.

So for what it’s worth, many in the medical and homeopathic community suggest the following:

1. eat right; foods that are high-quality and preferably organic
2. avoid sugary foods and drinks as much as possible
3. avoid highly-processed foods
4. avoid fast-foods
5. some exercise daily is good – get up and move!
6. try various forms of detoxing recommended by professionals to rid our bodies of oxidative stress

I believe the above things are really the basic foundation upon which good health (physical, mental and spiritual), are built. Whether or not all of this extends our life is debatable. I really don’t know. I do believe and know that doing these things will provide a greater quality of life as we move toward the end of our lives.

My wife and sit in amazement sometimes at how poorly people eat. We know because I used to eat like that and saw firsthand what it created in me. People eat with no thought of what they’re putting into their systems and then do not understand why they feel poorly, develop cancers or other conditions that weaken and destroy their bodies. It happens many times because of what people eat that have negative effects on their systems.

While you are pursuing God spiritually, please do not ignore the fact that your body also needs care and concern. May He open our eyes to understand this, to reach for it, and to change and even eliminate the things in our lives that not only do us no good, but actually work against us.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5551541/

[2] MMS Health Recovery Guidebook, (c) 2019, pg. 15

[3] https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-health.html

Entry filed under: agenda 2030, christianity, Healthy Living, Religious - Christian - Prophecy.