Sermon Tone Analysis

!! Healing and Disease

(the affect of medicine on theology)

(Week 8 of SBTS 28960)

!!  

!! Questions of interest:

!! Does the Bible teach that disease is caused by demons (which belief some have argued delayed the development of modern medicine)?

Has the success of modern medicine demonstrated that there is no spiritual dimension to disease?

A.

According to the Bible

1.      disease can have a spiritual purpose, /e.g./:

a.       to judge~/chastise sin

A)    God promises that sin will bring increased disease (Ex.

15:26; Lev.

26:21-25; Num.

8:19; Deu.

7:12-15; 28:58-62; 29:18-29; II Chr.

7:12-14; Jer.

14:10-12; 19:3-8; 29:18-19; Eze.

5:11-17; 6:11; 14:12-21; I Cor.

11:29-30; Rev. 9:17-21; 22:18)

1)      Egyptians (Ex.

15:26; Deu.

7:15; 28:60)

2)      the Egyptian Pharoah for taking Abram’s wife Sarai (Gen.

12:17)

3)      Pharoah & Egypt at the time of Moses for pride against God (Ex.

9:13-17)

4)      Israelites for making a golden calf (Ex.

32:35)

5)      Israelites for complaining about manna and desiring meat (Num.

11:4-33)

6)      Israelites for rebelling against Moses & Aaron (Num.16:42-50)

7)      Israelites for marrying Moabites and worshipping Baal (Num.

25:1-9; Psa.

106:28-30)

8)      Israel for their sin and David’s sin in numbering them (II Sam.

24; I Chr.

21)

9)      Judah and Jehoram for following the sin of Ahab (II Chr.

21:5-19)

10)  Nations who oppose Israelites (Psa.

89:23; Jer.

49:17; 50:13; Zech.

14:12)

for the purpose of judgment (Num.

25:11; Eze.

5:13; 6:12) and chastisement (I Cor.

11:29-32).

b.      for our testing (/e.g./ Job 2:4-7)

c.       to demonstrate that God is supreme and worthy of worship (Ex.

9:13-16)

d.      for the glory that comes to God when the disease is healed (John 9:2-3)

e.       to bring people back to Him (/e.g./ II Chr.

7:12-14; Amos 4:10)

2.      disease can be caused by spiritual beings:

a.       Satan can cause disease symptoms (although Scripture does not clarify whether Satan causes these things directly or instead uses an intermediate physical cause)

A)    Satan brought boils to Job (Job 2:4-7)

B)     Satan was said to have ‘bound’ a woman with ‘spirit of infirmity’ for 18 years (Luke 13:11-16)

b.      Demons (or evil spirits or devils or Satan’s messenger) can cause disease symptoms [all of which /might/ be mental pathologies]:

A)    When Jesus cast out a legion of unclean spirits~/devils, the possessed was cured of being ‘out of his right mind’, living homelessly among tombs, not wearing clothes, constant wailing, and self-cutting himself (Mat.

8:28-33’ Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:27-39).

Unclean spirits caused self-destructive, wailing, homeless, nude, out-of-right-mind behavior in this man.

[Such behavioral symptoms could be entirely due to a mental pathology.]

B)     When Jesus healed a woman of a ‘spirit of infirmity’ (an evil spirit?) which had bowed a woman down, she ‘was made straight’ (Luke 13:11-16).

Although Scripture doesn’t explicitly state that the problem was due to an evil spirit, it may be that an evil spirit caused a person to be ‘bowed down’.

[Being ‘bowed down’ might refer to severe depression and thus could be entirely due to a mental pathology.]

C)    When Jesus cast a dumb~/unclean spirit~/devil out of a child, the child was cured of ‘lunacy’ and self-destructive behavior (/e.g./ repeatedly throwing himself into fire; repeatedly throwing himself into water; violently throwing himself onto the ground; foaming at the mouth and writhing) (Mat.

17:14-18; Mark 9:17-29; Luke 9:38-42).

A devil caused self-destructive lunatic behavior in this child.

[Such behavioral symptoms could be entirely due to a mental pathology.]

D)    Various people (Luke 6:18; Acts 5:16) were ‘vexed’ and a girl (Matt.

15:22-28; Mark 7:25-30) was ‘grievously vexed’ by an unclean spirits.

Some sort of physical symptoms [and probably behavioral~/mental symptoms] were caused by unclean spirits.

E)     Jesus healed the blindness and muteness of a devil-possessed man (Mat.

12:22).

Although Scripture doesn’t explicitly claim that the devil caused the blindness and muteness, what is implied is that a devil caused blindness and muteness in this man.

[Muteness and blindness can be entirely due to a mental pathology, where nothing physical is lacking or damaged.]

F)     When Jesus cast a devil out of a mute man, the man was able to speak (Mat.

9:32-33; Luke 11:14).

Although Scripture doesn’t explicitly claim the devil caused the muteness, what is implied is that a devil caused muteness in this man.

[Muteness can be entirely due to a mental pathology, where nothing physical is lacking or damaged.]

G)    A ‘messenger of Satan’ caused a ‘thorn in the flesh’ for Paul (II Cor.

12:7).

Although the ‘thorn in the flesh’ is not identified more specifically [and thus could be a behavioral~/mental problem], it would seem that a fallen angel caused some physical challenge to Paul.

c.       unfallen angels can cause sin (Rev.

9:17-21)

d.      God can bring disease (Gen.

12:17; Ex. 9:13-16; 15:26; 32:35; Lev.

26:21-5; Num.

11:4-33; 25:1-9; Deu.

7:15; 16:42-50; 28:58-62; 29:18-29; II Sa. 24; I Chr.

21; II Chr.

7:12-14; 21:5-19; Psa.

89:23; Jer.

14:12; 19:8-9; 29:18-19; Eze.

5:11-17; 6:11-12; 14:19-21; Amos 4:10; Zech.

14:12; Rev. 22:19).

3.      disease can have physical causes (as implied in Scripture):

a.       Contact was allowed with a person having a non-leprous skin disease only after cleaning of body and clothes (/e.g./ Lev.

13:2-6)

b.      Contact was not allowed with a person having leprosy (/e.g./ Lev.

13:45-6) and his clothes are to be burnt (Lev.

13:52), and even the house of a sick person is a matter of concern (/e.g./ Lev.

14:35ff)

c.       Every object and person touched (or spit upon) by a person with an oozing boil is to be cleaned (Lev.

15:1-15)

d.

Every object and person touched by sperm or menstrual fluid by a person with disease is to be cleaned (Lev.

15:16-33)

e.       Touching ‘unclean’ things made one unclean

A)    the carcass of a dead animal (Lev.

5:2; 11:8, 24, 39; 17:15; Num.

19:11-19; Deu.

14:8) and of that which touches it,

B)     clothes, wood, skin, or sack is to be washed (Lev.

11:25, 32, 40; 17:15)

C)    a clay pot is to be destroyed (Lev.

11:33)

D)    food or drink is not to be consumed (Lev.

11:34)

E)     an unclean man (Lev.