My salvation/faith journey continues another year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you who have made this year such a blessing to me. After preaching at Gateway Community Church for approximately 35 years, I retired this year. I have turned over that part of my life to my son, Angelo. The church gave him a 100% confidence vote (better than what I got when I started). I still have a passion to share God’s goodness, so I started a whole new chapter in my life. In June, I started blogging. It started small with a handful of page views per week, but thanks to all of you, the blog is averaging over 1,000 page views per day from over 40 countries including Russia, China, India, Sweden, and Israel. Since my passion is to share the goodness of God, and the word of God, this blog has surpassed my wildest dreams. Thank you, thank you, all of you! Since you have all played a part in this, as the year draws to an end and we look forward to a new year and new adventures with God, I thought I would share with you where it all started for me.
At the ripe old age of sixteen, I found myself forced to contemplate the deep questions of life. My cousin Gary had just died in the war in Vietnam and I was confronted with the stark reality of death, up close, for the first time in my short life. After getting the news, I remember lying on my back in bed staring at the ceiling thinking about my own life and wondering what would happen to me if I died. Where would I go? Would I just cease to exist? The thought of it went deep and frightened me. I had made some attempts to be “good”; don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal, don’t use God’s name as a curse word, but I always seemed to fail. If I died and had to stand before God and give an account for my life, I was in trouble. If there was no God and I was going to just cease to exist when I died…well that scared me just as much. I don’t think I slept all night. But life goes on and I got busy with other things and just didn’t think about it much.
This is a family photo with my grandparents in the middle. I’m the cute one, front row far right, my cousin Gary is seated next to me.
The summer, between my junior and senior year in high school, I was sent by the local Kiwanis Club to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp. The camp was in Ashland, Oregon, at the Southern Oregon College campus. The Kiwanis Club presumably sent me because I was a good athlete, and I was regularly in trouble. Since this camp was staffed with professional football players, Olympic gymnasts, etc. who were Christians, I guess the idea was that I would come back a better football player and a better member of society. I had no idea what Christian Athletes were, I had never heard of them, I had no idea that this was anything but a place for me to improve my athletic skills. OK, I was a clueless teenager! So, it should be no surprise that with my false expectations, I was more than disappointed when I got few tips on being a better football player, but had to sit through sermon after sermon and small group discussion after small group discussion that I didn’t want to hear, especially since I wasn’t fond of sitting in the first place.
One afternoon during a break, a water fight broke out in the dorm rooms. Before it was over we had grabbed anything that could possibly be used to get our opponents wet; cups, wastepaper baskets and fire hoses. Well… when they finally stopped us, we were taken out to the football field, I assumed, to wait for our punishment. Did I mention that there were hundreds of us? It seemed like it took forever. Did I mention I didn’t like to sit? While waiting, I prepared myself for the inevitable. I was used to being in trouble; they would scold and lecture us forever, and then tell us what the punishment was going to be. We would either be sent home or our parents would be contacted and told how much we disappointed them and how much it was going to cost and that we should pay for the damages. I was used to being in trouble, most Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) boys are. I was determined that I could take whatever they could throw at me. After years of constantly being in trouble, I had become tough; I wasn’t going to let them get to me.
Southern Oregon College football field.FCA Athlete-staff praying for our salvation .
Finally, the director showed up, he said that the college estimated that we had done about $5,000 worth of damage to the dorms. He said that all the leader-athletes had been praying, which is why it had taken so long, and that God had told them that they should pay for the damages and that we could go back to our rooms. That was it, nothing more was said.
OK, I was in shock, no lecture, and no punishment. They had taken our punishment for us and it was over. My first thought was “these people are different.” That night when one of the athletes spoke about salvation, about Jesus taking our punishment on the cross, I saw it for the first time. The speaker led me and some of the other boys in a simple salvation prayer. It was an incredible experience for me. The prayer went something like this…
“God, I confess that I have lied, taken your name as a cuss word, I’ve ignored you and broken your laws. I thank you that you sent your son Jesus to be punished for my sins, so I could go free. I receive what Jesus did on the cross and believe you raised him from the dead because He was sinless. I believe that because of what he did, I can go to be with you when I die. I have made a mess of my life; I want you to be the Lord of my life. So, take my life and make me what you want me to be!”
When I got done praying I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off me. I was happier than I had ever been in my entire life. To this day, I still mess up, and God still forgives me every time I ask him. He is an awesome God and an awesome father!
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
1 John 5:11-14
11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
John 1:12
12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
God promises us salvation, eternal life with him, if we believe in Jesus the savior and we receive him, That is, we receive everything he stands for, we receive him as our lord, savoir and friend.
My wife Shary’s salvation story, is similar to mine, except she went to a Young Life summer camp and received Jesus as her savior.
Younglife, Woodleaf, Summer Camp.
If you have never prayed a prayer like the one I prayed at that Christian Athletes camp. you can do it right now. If you have never received God’s love, forgiveness and salvation, and like me, have made a mess of your life, you can pray this prayer. God is waiting to be set free from your past if you are ready to let God take control of your life. Receiving Jesus will change everything. Go back to the prayer I prayed: put it in your own words, God is listening and he will respond.
Whether you prayed that prayer a long time ago or just prayed the salvation prayer for the first time, I hope this new year, you fall deeper in love with Jesus. It is also my hope and prayer that you and yours find his word to be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. His word is the truth, his word is his gift to us, his word is life.
Our purpose for writing each week is to obey Matthew 5:19, providing you with biblical advice on the care and feeding of your body. We do it because this advice is so rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians who have received salvation, but whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God, the Law of God, had to say about health and wellness.
If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.
If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books.
Wholewheat and whole grains are necessary for healthy living. Many people couldn’t care less about whole grains, some even think that all grains are to be avoided like the plague. There is even a group who spend their time and energies to promote grain free living, they claim they feel better.[2] So what is the truth about grains in our diets? Wheat, barley, oats, spelt, etc. Are they all bad for you, or, are they necessary for a long, healthy life? Which is it?
Wheat can help you get to 100 with some fire left.
Don Pellmann at 100 years old, recently broke the world record (for centenarians) in the 100m dash by 3 seconds, he also broke records in the long-jump, shot-put, discus and high-jump. Before the day was over Pellmann had broken 5 world records. All of this, mind you, at a track meet in San Diego, where the temperature was approaching 100 degrees.[1]
Don Pellman shot-put record at 100 years old.
Don Pellmann is an amazing individual. He is still pole-vaulting at the age of 100. His advice to everyone who wants to be like Don, is to, “Eat sensibly and exercise every time you get a chance.”
Don Pellman flying over the pole vault bar at 100 years of age.
Somebody is going to be healthy past 100, might as well be you!
Don says to “eat sensibly”; Don shared with one reporter that he eats “normal things”, like meat and potatoes, soup and salad, fruit and vegetables. Don does not smoke and says he does not drink the “bad fluids” (presumably soft drinks and alcohol). He does have a beer occasionally.[3] Most everybody has their own version of what eating sensibly would mean. When I was growing up my parents believed they were eating sensibly and they thought they were feeding us sensibly as well.
Normal isn’t always good.
When I was growing up, I ate a lot of refined white sugar and refined white flour. I lived the life of a typical “healthy” American boy, I played sports, ate pretty much whatever I wanted and got a lot of fresh air. I had regular physical checkups, and was very physically active. Actually, I was a little over active. For some reason, my mom was always telling me to go play outside. I suffered from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder). Maybe that’s why she wanted my friends and me to play outside all the time. Anyway, I broke my arm wrestling when I was in grade school. I suffered from frequent colds, flu, runny noses, bloody noses, pulled muscles, cramps, aches and pains, vomiting, chicken pox and mumps. While I had the mumps, I was told that if I got out of bed I might not be able to “have children.” I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about, I wasn’t that worried about it, so I got up when no one was watching. When I looked in the mirror and saw the huge lump on my neck, I hoped that it wasn’t permanent.
I suffered from tonsillitis, so my tonsils were removed. I had cavities and other tooth problems so some of my permanent teeth were removed. My eyesight was poor which affected my reading so I was prescribed bifocals. I had chronic hemorrhoids and pulled muscles. While going to school at Oregon State University, I tried out for the football team. But during that time, I was sick for a number of weeks, couldn’t get over it, and I ended up turning myself into the infirmary. They gave me codeine and I slept for a day or so. When I was 21, I almost died from a ruptured appendix. I still remember my mom calling me that morning. I hurt so bad that I had to crawl to the phone on my hands and knees and when I answered it, my mom, without me saying anything except hello, said, “You get yourself to the hospital.” Somehow moms just know when their kids are in trouble. I still do not remember anything after that phone call. I ended up in the hospital and spend months recuperating.
Shary and I in our prime, shortly after I almost died of a ruptured appendix.
I say all that to make a point. I was not abnormal; I wasn’t unusually healthy nor did anyone consider me sickly. Most of my friends have similar stories as mine, which is the crux of my point. Most people are spending way too much time being sick. Since we changed our health care philosophy and started living biblically, we have eliminated almost all the above health problems, including broken bones. Most of our children never saw a doctor.
One of the first changes we made was to eliminate as much processed food from our diets as possible; especially white sugar and white flour. We replaced them with honey, raisins and wholewheat and other whole grains.
There are people who believe they are pleasing God by avoiding all meat, but the Bible tells us what meat we should eat and what meat not to eat.[5,6] There are people who tell us to avoid all grains but the Bible tells us that grains are a blessing. Jesus ate the meat the Bible recommends, Jesus ate bread made from grains the Bible recommends. Since we started following God’s advice by eating red meat and whole grains our health has been phenomenal. Shary is sixty-four and has given birth to 13 healthy kids. She can still out work most twenty year old girls. I turned sixty-five today, I have eliminated all the above physical problems I had when I was in my prime. I can do over fifty pushups without stopping and can do 150 with a few rests in between. I couldn’t do that when I was eating junk foods at the age of 18. I couldn’t do that when I was exercising and playing sports all the time. I can do it now that I eat wholewheat and avoid refined flours.
So what kind of wholewheat bread do we eat?
We started by buying store bought, “wholewheat bread”, but soon found that it wasn’t always wholewheat. Some of it was just white flour with food coloring. Some was wholewheat, but also had sugar, preservatives, dangerous food coloring, carcinogenic oils and chemicals. So, we decided to make our own bread. It was so good, that for a while, Shary was selling it to restaurants.
When most of the kids were still living at home, we used to make a batch of wholewheat bread once a week. A batch was 18, one and a half pound loaves. Our kids made toast and sandwiches out of that bread and sometimes just ate it plain.
So, what has God said about wholewheat and whole grains, verses refined flour?
Proverbs 23:1-2 “When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Do not crave his delicacies for that food is deceptive.”
A) Note what is before you.
B) Do not crave a ruler’s delicacies (dainties)
C) That food is deceptive
D) It’s worse if you are given to gluttony (overeating, or uncontrolled eating)
E) If you eat it, you might as well cut your own throat.
In the past, only kings and government rulers could afford to eat refined foods. They were far too expensive for common people. Wealthy people could afford to purchase a delicacy called white flour. White flour was produced by laboriously breaking off the dark wheat germ part of the wheat cornel, leaving only the white part of the wheat, then grinding what was left into a finer more delicate flour. Pellagra used to be called the kings disease because it seemed that only kings and wealthy people came down with it. But when machines made it easy to mill out the wheat germ, and virtually everyone could afford white flour (flour without the dark wheat germ), pellagra became an epidemic among all people.
Pellagra has been halted because it is virtually impossible to get white flour that is not enriched with vitamins and minerals; the vitamins and minerals that were removed from the wheat in the milling process. Though pellagra has been halted, there are many other diseases that can be attributed to eating refined foods. Loma Linda College put out a filmstrip called the Great Grain Robbery. Their premise was that if someone took a twenty-dollar bill from you and gave you back $6, you wouldn’t call yourself enriched. When wheat is refined, over twenty nutrients are removed and enriched flour only replaces six. That food is deceptive. It looks good, it tastes good, it smells good but it is going to shorten your life and make you susceptible to a wide variety of diseases. To remove 20+ nutrients and replace them with 6 and then call that enriched flour, is a flat out lie. Whole wheat flour is far more enriched with vitamins and minerals and will give you and your family a fighting chance at living disease free like our family. Whole wheat will increase your odds of being as strong at 100 as Don Pellmann.
Wholewheat is better for you than white flower.
The farther you get from the way God packaged our food, the worse it is. In an article published by Readers Digest, in August 2007, respected Harvard obesity researcher David Ludwig, stated that, “Whole foods…digest slowly and release nutrients into the body in a slow and sustained fashion. They include non-starchy vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and grain products in their least processed state.” In one study it was found that “obese young adults that secrete insulin rapidly and who were placed on a low-glycemic diet (whole foods), lost five times more weight than the other group and kept all the weight off throughout the 18 months of the study.” That is… the obese young adults that did not eat whole foods, but instead ate refined foods (white flour, refined sugars etc…), lost five times less weight and did not keep it off.[4]
There is a new health craze that believes gluten to be our biggest enemy. If you are gluten intolerant it may be that you are missing some other vital cofactors. If you eat all the foods the Bible suggests, and take the vitamins and minerals you are showing deficiency symptoms for (read Let’s Play Doctor), you may find you are no longer gluten intolerant. For people who love the Bible, and have been opposed to eating wholewheat, here are just a few scriptures that would suggest God is in favor of us eating wheat and other grains.
Wholewheat bread, is one of Gods best gifts to his children.
Luke 11:11-13 (NKJV) 11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
This is Jesus talking, and he is calling bread, fish and eggs, good gifts. Of all the things God could have chosen as an example of a good gift, he chose bread. It must be something special. But what kind of bread was Jesus talking about?
What kind of Bread does God approve of?
Psalm 81:16 (NKJV) 16 He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat;
And with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you.”
Ezra 6:9 (NKJV) 9 And whatever they need—young bulls, rams, and lambs for the burnt offerings of the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the request of the priests who are in Jerusalem—let it be given them day by day without fail,
Isaiah 28:25 (NKJV) When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow the black cummin
And scatter the cummin, plant the wheat in rows,
The barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?
God specifically asks for wheat, honey, salt, olive oil, barley, cummin and spelt. He not only accepted these as offerings but a portion of the offerings were the food of the Levite clan and the priests. This is what God wanted them to eat. Aaron the first priest, lived on red meat and the bread made from these ingredients. Aaron live to the ripe old age of one hundred and twenty-three. Evidently this bread did not hurt him.
If you want to live long and strong you will need to eliminate refined foods and start eating bread made with wholewheat and these other ingredients. Some people have avoided these grains, because they have been bred for disease resistance and maximum yield, etc. They have been told that hybrid wheat is bad for them. We have not found that to be true. We have simply bought bulk, soft red wheat and hard red wheat, and we have eaten a lot of it.
Just eliminating processed flour and sugar and eating readily available wheat, has turned out to be a game changer for our family’s health. Below you will find Shary’s bread recipe. Shary and I used this recipe for years, this is what our kids practically lived on. We did freshly grind our own wheat before we made bread. This recipe makes 13 loaves of wholewheat bread, which our family could consume in approximately one week. Below there is also a two-loaf recipe for those of you who don’t need that much bread.
13 loaf recipe for our 20 quart, commercial mixer.
4 quarts of very warm water or milk.
½ cup of salt.
3+ cups of honey.
½ cup of yeast.
You should have 8 quarts of wholewheat flour ready. You will not use all of it, but add it till you get the proper consistency. Slowly add fresh ground wheat till the dough cleans the inside of the mixing bowl. The dough should be tacky but not sticky.
on the kitchen counter is some finished wholewheat bread. In the cupboard is our built in, 20 quart, commercial mixer with a dough hook.
Above is a picture of our world WWI mixer. It was a real miracle the way we acquired it. We had been looking at mixers that size, which cost thousands, which we couldn’t afford. We saw this one at a Fort Stevens auction. We were going to bid on it and were prepared to go as high at a few hundred dollars, but a fire broke out in our neighborhood and we left the auction before it went up for bid. Later we found out it sold for scrap metal. We contacted the scrap man and he offered it to us for fifteen dollars. We made the dough hook, cleaned it up and have been using it for over thirty years.
Two loaf recipe for our 5 quart, Kitchenaid mixer.
This batch can be done without a mixer, by kneading the dough with your hands, but it is a lot of back breaking work.
1 ¾ cups of very warm water or milk
1 tablespoon of salt
1/3 cup of honey
1 tablespoon of yeast
Have 10 cups of wholewheat flour ready, you will probably not use all of it.
Detailed instructions on making wholewheat bread.
Mix warm water, yeast, and 1/3 cup honey, in kitchen aid mixer. Add 2 cups whole wheat flour, and mix, let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.
Mix in salt. Mix in 4 cups whole wheat flour until tacky but not real sticky. This may take an additional 2 to 4 cups of whole wheat flour. Add flour slower and slower till the flour cleans the inside of the bowl. Let it sit till it doubles.
Mix till the dough is knocked back down to normal size, then remove from the mixer. Divide into 2 – 1 ½ pound loaves. Knead and fold into loaf shape, finish with the smooth side up. Place in greased (use butter) 4×8 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch. This needs to be in a warm 72+ room with a towel over the pans to keep in the heat. Or, I preheat the oven to 100 degrees and then let them rise in the oven.
Remove the pans from the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. When the oven is up to temperature put the loaves in for 25 to 30 minutes; do not overbake. Bake until the bottoms sound hollow when thumped.
Lightly brush the tops of the wholewheat loaves with 2 tablespoons melted butter when done to prevent from getting hard. Cool completely before bagging.
Our wholewheat grinder and Kitchenaid 5 quart mixer. The mixer is equipped with a dough hook.
Hope you enjoy God’s whole wheat bread as much as we have. During this Christmas holiday we also hope you enjoy the celebration of Jesus’ birth, which is God’s best gift to us.
If you have a different experience with wheat or other grains, please comment. Or if you have some supporting information or a testimony that would encourage us, we would love to hear from you. We love a good comment.
Our purpose for writing each week is to provide you with biblical advice on the care and feeding of your body. We do it because this advice is so rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians, whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God and the Law of God had to say about health and wellness.
Biblical keys to health and longevity.
GOD CREATED MAN. GOD CREATED FOOD. GOD KNOWS WHAT FOOD HE CREATED FOR MAN TO ENJOY, GOD KNOWS WHAT FOOD WAS NOT FOR MAN TO ENJOY, AND… HE IS NOT TRYING TO KEEP IT A SECRET.
If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.
If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books.
Pain has a God given purpose, drugs often undermine that purpose.
Drugs often short-circuit our body’s system for alerting and identifying problems in our diets or lifestyle. Drugs and chemicals have been sold as a cure, in pill form, when what we really need is to analyze our food or lifestyle to see what the origin for our sickness is.
People who avoid drugs tend to live longer and healthier lives.
Jack LaLanne has been called the founder of the modern fitness movement. He is one of the most famous health and fitness gurus of our time. He was the first to produce a fitness television program, the first to open a fitness club. The jumping jack is named after him. When Jack was 54, 20 year old Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had just become Mr. Universe, challenged Jack to a contest of strength. Arnold called Jack an animal after Jack beat him soundly. Jack LaLanne lived to be 96 years old. At 96 he did not have Alzheimer’s and was still doing two hour workouts each day, which included: walking, swimming, weights and calisthenics. Jack LaLanne did not believe in the use of drugs to improve your health. Instead, Jack LaLanne exercised regularly. He ate red meat three times a day and eggs too. Red meat, eggs and exercise are all recommended by God’s word, the Bible.
Jack LaLanne at 70. Handcuffed, shackled pulling 70 boats one mile.
1984 (age 70) – handcuffed, shackled, and fighting strong winds and currents, he towed 70 rowboats, one with several guests, from the Queen’s Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary, one mile away.[1]
Jack LaLanne at 95 with wife and TV interviewer
Jack LaLanne is quoted as saying, “many of our aches and pains come from lack of physical activity.” “We look for crutches such as sleeping pills, pep pills, alcohol, cigarettes, and so on.”
LaLanne often stressed that drugs and processed foods, like sugar, contributed to making people mentally and physically ill.
In the fifties and sixties Science was king, doctors were gods and people turned to science and drugs, believing that pills could solve all their problems. Instead, drugs have increasingly become one of our biggest problems.
Drugs Cause deaths!
Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the US, with 55,403 lethal drug overdoses in 2015. Opioid addiction is driving this epidemic, with 20,101 overdose deaths related to prescription pain relievers, and 12,990 overdose deaths related to heroin. [4] According to government data, deaths from heroin have surpassed the number of gun homicides.[2]
Death by drugs rises each year!
The drug related death rate continues to rise at an alarming rate; in 2015 heroin alone killed almost 13,000 people in the U.S.[4]
It is no surprise that the word of God is so adamantly opposed to the use of drugs, potions, and medications. The bible calls this, Pharmakeia. This Greek word is why we call the place we purchase legal drugs, a pharmacy.
Galatians 5:19-21 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity debauchery; 20 idolatry and (Pharmakeia); hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The key to this problem is the ability of drugs to bypass God’s safety alarm system. Think about this; God created our bodies with the ability to experience pain. Why would he do that? Because pain has a divine purpose.
Pain has a Divine purpose! Drugs postpone pain.
One of the biggest problems with the Biblical disease of leprosy, was that it left the person without normal feeling of pain in their extremities, (nose, fingers, toes); therefore, people afflicted with leprosy often lost their fingers and toes because they could not feel pain when they were damaging those parts of their bodies. Pain was created by God to protect our bodies from harm.
When you get a headache, your body is trying to tell you something. Maybe you ate something that was not good for you. Maybe you haven’t had enough sleep and your body is trying to tell you to rest. Maybe you are too stressed out and need to either slow down or change your thinking patterns. Maybe your cartilage is wearing down to the point that your bones are actually rubbing against each other, which is causing the pain we call Arthritis. By taking aspirin or other more powerful pain relievers you can reduce the pain and keep grinding away at your joints. Taking it easier on your joints or giving your body the materials necessary to rebuild cartilage would be a much better and longer-lasting solution. [6] God promised that if you would obey His commandments, He would, “take away sickness from among you.” Exodus 23:20-25
Using painkillers as our first response to pain is like someone driving down the road in a Cadillac Escalade and seeing the oil or water light come on. Instead of pulling the car over to the side of the road and adding more oil or water, they simply take a piece of masking tape and place it over the light so they aren’t bothered by the flashing red light anymore. The short-term result would be that they could continue on their journey, the long-term result would be a ruined engine. Trust me, several of my children have kept driving and I can tell you from first-hand experience, it’s more expensive than pulling over and adding water or oil.
Using drugs to mute our bodies alarm system.
Christians, every day by the millions, are traveling through life in a vehicle made by God (their body). When the red light of pain comes on, they simply put the tape of aspirin or some stronger painkiller over it and drive on. God put the pain there so that we would know that something was wrong. There have always been forms of pain relievers. Alcohol is probably the oldest and most widely used, but there have always been artificial ways to stop the pain without finding out what the purpose of that pain was and what changes need to be made. The consequences of not tuning into our bodies and not making appropriate changes are always the same; a shortened life. However, ultimately (and ironically), we eventually experience that pain regardless.
When Shary and I started having babies and subsequently teaching childbirth classes, we learned that painkillers were not always necessary and could actually be harmful to God’s natural plan for mothers, babies and birth. In a childbirth seminar at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Oregon, we heard a pharmacist explain that painkillers do not kill pain at all, but only postpone it. They only provide a dam for the pain. Eventually, when the medication wears off, the pain is still experienced. Now, am I advocating that you never use pain medications? No! I am advocating that we don’t use pain medications or any drug as a substitute for making God-directed changes in our lifestyle.
At the age of Ten, I broke my arm wrestling at a youth activity night. I didn’t know what I had done initially, I only knew it hurt. The adult supervisor thought it was only a bruise so he swung my arm around a few times just to loosen it up. When I got home, my mom took one look at me, and rushed me to the hospital. The doctor tried to set it in place without medication, but soon found that that would be impossible. He didn’t want to be killed by a ten year old. I was very thankful for the medication. Thankfully the pain had already done its job…
It immobilized me, so I wouldn’t do any more damage.
It motivated me to find out what the problem was and get it fixed.
And it made me a little bit more careful with the body God gave me.
What I suggest, is that we let pain accomplish those three things, before we turn to a lifestyle of pain postponers!
1 Corinthians 6:15 “Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.”
God is serious about how he wants us to take care of the body he has given us. He has placed mechanisms in our body to protect it from abuse. Without drugs, it is virtually impossible to force ourselves to walk on a broken leg. We can only push ourselves to do it if we use something to block the pain, but should we?
Proverbs 23:19-33 “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. “They hit me”, you will say, “but I am not hurt! They beat me, but I don’t feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?”
Three teen girls overdose on drugs at school.
Pain killers have been shown to stunt emotional growth. [7]
Alcohol and drugs are just pain postponers that allow us to keep going when pain would have normally made us stop and fix the problem. It is widely known that people who use alcohol and drugs (legal drugs included) on a regular basis, are halted in their emotional maturity at the point that they started using. For instance, if a young woman began using alcohol or drugs at the age of 14, whether it was for emotional pain or physical pain, it makes no difference. When she stopped using at the age of 29, she would still have the maturity of a 14 year-old. Pain is part of the maturing process. When we eliminate pain through drugs or alcohol, we do not take the appropriate steps or make the appropriate changes that bring about maturity. According to 1 Peter 4:1b…
“whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.”
If we always turn to pain medications to eliminate suffering, we will never grow into mature Christians. I am not advocating that we cause ourselves pain, or like some faiths, do pennants which are self-inflicted suffering, that is not what Christ came to promote. We don’t need to create suffering for ourselves, there is plenty of pain in life without adding to it. But in Hebrews chapter 12 we are told to treat all suffering as discipline. If we treat it like discipline, analyzing our pain, and respond by altering our behavior, it will create in us Godly maturity.
If you have a headache, it is better to sit, relax and try to figure out what caused it. Was it the caffeine you drank? Is it some stress in your life, have you not had sufficient sleep lately? The headache is there to get you to stop and analyze the cause. Most medicines only treat the symptoms instead of the cause. If you do not find out what caused the pain it will continue, and eventually lower your immune system’s ability to fight diseases, shortening your life. If you have knee pain, instead of getting cortisone shots you need to find out what you are doing that is causing your knees to wear out. Or you need to eat food or take supplements that will rebuild the cartilage in your knees.[5] One man in his fifties, went to the doctor, his right knee was badly swollen. After it was examined, he asked the doctor what was causing his right knee to hurt so much. The doctor told him it was just getting old. After a short pause the man said, “doctor I’m pretty sure my left knee is the same age. It is not how old you are, it is what are you are doing to your knee, or what vitamins and minerals are you missing. Jack LaLanne was still a physical specimen in his nineties because he ate the foods God said to eat, he avoided the foods God said to avoid and he got adequate exercise.
Jack LaLanne in his 90’s, happy and strong, says drugs are a crutch.
If you want to grow old, like Jack LaLanne, with health and strength, you will have to avoid drugs and depend more on your body’s ability to signal problems that need addressing. About 40 years ago I stopped taking aspirin, I started figuring out what was causing my headaches, consequently, I haven’t had a headache in years. If you want to live life without headaches, without disease, if you want to be strong at 90, then join us. Somebody is going to be headache free, might as well be you! Somebody is going to be happy and strong at 90, might as well be you!
Pharmacia (Drugs) Are Not Your Savior,
Doctors Are Not Gods.
You Must Take Responsibility For Your Own Health!
Our purpose for writing each week is to providing you with biblical advice on the care and feeding of your body. We do it because this advice is so rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians, whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God and the Law of God had to say about health and wellness.
If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.
If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books.
Picture of teen overdosed at school http://theaddictsattic.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2015 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released December, 2016. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2015, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/ucdicd10.html..
Drugs; God’s word is not silent when it comes to the use of drugs, vaccinations and doctors!
Vaccine lines of the 60s
My wife Shary and I grew up in homes where the doctor’s word was fact, and there was a pill or surgery for every ailment. We grew up in the fifties and sixties, when science was king, and drugs were going to eradicate all disease. We grew up in a culture where there were mass immunizations. We were all lined up at schools like lemmings, to receive our sugar cube vaccinations. Later they found that some children received mild crippling from those vaccinations, Shary was one of those children. Shary had to wear leg braces after being vaccinated. [11] To this day, the effects from that vaccine, mean that shary has to buy two different sizes of shoes, to get one pair that fits. Because of the vaccine, one foot is a size bigger than the other. Another side effect of the vaccine is that Shary has one leg that is longer than the other. There are no magic pills without harmful side effects. Today, polio vaccinations are the #1 cause of polio.[10] So what does God have to say about vaccines, drugs, and medications???
Sugar cube vaccine.
Our English word Pharmacy, is derived from the Greek word “Pharmakeus.”
According to Strong’s Greek Dictionary…
Pharmakeus can be translated…druggist, pharmacist, sorcerer or poisoner. Pharmakeia can be translated…medication, magic, sorcery or witchcraft.
When the Bible uses the word Pharmakeia, it is referring to medications or drugs. When the Bible uses the word Pharmakeus,it is referring to a person who makes, distributes or uses drugs. The following passages are Bible verses that contain the Greek words Pharmakeus and Pharmakeia. We have left the Greek word, untranslated, in each passage so you can get an idea how God views the use of drugs and the giving and making of drugs.
Galatians 5:19-21 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity debauchery; 20 idolatry and (Pharmakeia); hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Revelation 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver bronze stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their (Pharmakeia) their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Revelation 18:23 “…By your(Pharmakeia)all the nations were ledastray.”
Revelation 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice(Pharmakeus,) the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Revelations 22:15 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice (Pharmakeus), the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
God puts the use of drugs, (Pharmakeus) in the same category, as drunkenness, sexually immorality and vile murderers. He says that those who practice, (continually commit) these sins will have their place in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. These passages from the Bible make no distinction between legal and illegal drugs, and just as importantly, your body does not know the difference either.
In Nahum 3:3-4 “Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number people stumbling over the corpses—all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.”
In the book of Nahum we are warned that sorceries, (making and using potions and drugs) would allure people and then kill many. In last week’s blog we learned that approximately 180,000 people are killed by doctor prescribed medications each year.[1] According to the Centers for Disease Control, 47,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2014, this was called an epidemic by the U.S. government.[2] It is interesting that Allopathic Doctors, killed 133,000 more people with legal drugs, than the drug pushers kill with illegal drugs. So how is it that allopathic drug deaths are not an epidemic? Why don’t we have anyone declaring a war on doctor prescribed drugs. Add to that, four out of five drug addicts got hooked on doctor prescribed drugs before they turned to illegal drugs.[12][13] Doctor prescribed drug deaths, dwarf the death rate from illegal drug overdosing. How did we get here, how did things get this out of hand?
First of all, we have placed too much responsibility on men, mere humans.
We have said, “You fix me, you heal me, you take away my pain, give me a magic pill so I don’t have to change my lifestyle.” We have demanded of them what they could not produce. We have tried to put our responsibility on them. God will not hold them responsible for how we treated our bodies. He will hold us responsible.
Secondly, the system has ruined the doctor’s lives.
How is that you say? We have asked doctors to sacrifice their sleep, their peace of mind, their families and even their lives, in exchange for high salaries. (Remember doctors live shorter lives than the average American.)[3] We have offered them our fortunes if they will just produce for us, the magic pill. In the impossible struggle to find something that doesn’t exist; and cannot be produced, they have lost their way. God’s health laws are as absolute as the laws of physics. Whatever we sow, that is what we will reap. People, who do not take care of their bodies the way God intended, cannot expect a miracle cure. Doctors who think that they can come up with a miracle cure, without life shortening side effects, have found it an exercise in futility.
The AMA (American, (Allopathic) medical association) has lost its bearings.
Here is how it happened. Most doctors didn’t go to medical school just to win high salaries; many went into the medical profession to help people. But the system became a trap and the trap closed on them till there is virtually no escape, except to do the unthinkable: blow the whistle and expose the rampant failures, which I’ll expand on in a bit. The few who have tried to blow the whistle have succumbed to the inevitable consequence, they were, figuratively speaking, crucified. Just like the Pharisees of Jesus day, the AMA has created a trap, and fallen into it themselves. (Proverbs 26:27) “If you set a trap for others, you will get caught in it yourself.”
The trap starts in medical school, where potential doctors are required to study and work ungodly hours.[14] The only way to survive is to use some artificial means of staying awake and getting to sleep; (caffeine, alcohol, uppers, downers, etc…) Then after spending an ungodly amount of money on their education they are trapped into continuing the workaholic madness, in order to pay back their school loans. Harvard Medical School did a study revealing that… 70% of all doctors use illegal drugs, on themselves, every week. [4] Just let that sink in for a moment. 70% of the allopathic physicians who are prescribing drugs and performing surgeries, are high on drugs.
This has provided the answer to why mistakes have risen to an all-time high. Remember the study done by Ralf Nadar, who asserted that doctors kill 150,000 to 300,000 people each year because of medical mistakes. The AMA’s own publication JAMA produced an article that tried to say the problem was not as bad as Nadar asserted, they put the number killed by mistakes at only 98,000.[5][6][7] That is almost 2,000 in each state each year.
My wife Shary has a friend who is a doctor; This doctor called Shary late one night in tears. She was frustrated and angry at what was going on in the hospital where she worked, and, she felt powerless to stop it. Someone’s child had been killed by a doctor’s mistake and it was being covered up. It would be one thing to make an honest mistake, it’s quite another if the mistake was due to a lack of sleep or the use of drugs. This is exactly what is happening. This doctor had seen other doctors fired or blackballed if they informed the families. She also said it was the same doctors who continued to make mistakes over and over again. Yet they were allowed to continue to practice medicine and endanger others.
If a truck driver kills someone because of a lack of sleep or the use of drugs, the legal term is manslaughter. That’s why truck drivers must keep logs of the number of hours they drive so authorities can monitor how much rest they get. Most truck drivers must also submit to random drug testing. We have doctors bragging about the number of hours they have been in surgery, just like we used to have truck drivers bragging about the number of hours they could drive without sleep. It is no wonder doctors are making so many fatal mistakes. If we won’t let a man or woman behind the wheel of a truck without a reasonable amount of sleep, why would we allow doctors to perform intricate life threatening surgery or prescribe powerful drugs without the proper amount of rest?
Where is the leadership in the AMA? They are killing people at an astronomical rate and they still won’t govern their own members. If we won’t let truck drivers on the road without random drug testing why do we allow medical doctors to practice medicine without random drug testing, especially after finding out that 70% of doctors are diagnosing diseases, prescribing drugs and performing surgery while high on drugs? Dr. Joel Wallach asserts, and rightly so, that if any other profession made that many mistakes that cost that many people their lives, there would be a national outcry. This situation is at its worst, evil and at best unbelievably foolish! If the airlines, automakers or the food industry made that many fatal mistakes the nation would be in an uproar.
Doctors infect millions with life threatening diseases.
The Harvard Medical School did another study in response to a radically rising infection rate in surgery across the U.S. They eventually placed cameras in hospital bathrooms and found that 72% of the doctors were not washing their hands after going to the bathroom and prior to surgery. According to USA Today, which reported in 1998, a Centers for Disease Control study indicated that doctors who didn’t wash their hands before surgery infected two million Americans each year. Readers Digest, in it’s February 2003 addition reported, “An investigation by The Chicago Tribune, based on federal and state records, internal hospital files and court records…estimated 103,000 deaths linked to hospital infections in 2000. The centers for Disease Control, extrapolating from a recent study… estimated 90,000 deaths that year. 75,000 of them were preventable, the result of unsanitary facilities, germ-laden instruments, unwashed hands and other lapses.” The article went on to say that deaths linked to hospital germs represent the fourth leading cause of mortality among Americans. Allopathic doctors kill more people each year than motor-vehicle accidents, fires and drowning combined.”[8][9]
Doctors infect two million americans each year.
Approximately 4000 years ago, God prescribed to Moses, (Exodus 30:17-21) the need for hand washing and procedures for stopping the transmission of bacteria. If doctors followed God’s advice today, they could prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths each year.
If you want optimal health, you will need to depend on God’s advice instead of getting prescription after prescription from your Allopathic Physician. People who live long, tend to avoid hospitals and prescription drugs. Disease is best fought by strengthening your God given immune system. The way to do that, is to follow God’s advice about rest, food, exercise and how to live at peace with God and men. (check out all The wellnessgospel blogs for details) All these things strengthen your immune system. That is the only way to live disease free. I’ll say this one more time, if I get in a car accident, and my body is all broken up, take me to the emergency room, give me drugs so the allopathic physician can sew me back together. But it has been my families experience, that avoiding Allopathic doctors for all other ailments is the safest plan of action. Even immunizations? Yes, we have not given our children immunizations, we have also not had any kids diagnosed with autisms. Immunizations have been linked to autism and many other ailments. That one disease alone has risen with the increase in immunizations to one in 84. God made our bodies to function properly without drugs and chemicals, if we simply follow his guidelines for living.
Our children and grandchildren are living proof, that God’s way is better. It is hard to believe, but many of our children are more radical about following Biblical guidelines for living healthy than we are, and their level of healthfulness is impressive.
Chris and Shary Schauerman with all their children and many of their grandchildren.
Would I rule out any and all surgeries and any and all medications? No! If anyone I love is in a serious car accident or any other serious accident, the first thing I would do is get him or her to the emergency room to be put back together. American hospitals are, I believe, the best equipped and trained emergency medical facilities in the history of mankind. If I had a broken arm, the first thing I would do is go to an American hospital to have it set. If someone has a serious cut and you can’t get the bleeding to stop, get to a doctor. There is nothing in the scriptures that would oppose that kind of medical help. But under non-emergency circumstances, God has made each of us responsible for our health. He has given us advice on how to get and stay healthy. Every “magic” pill that allows us to bypass God’s advice has a dark side. God’s advice has no dark side.
Doctors Are Not Gods.
Science Is Not King. Man’s Wisdom Is Foolishness to God.
Pharmacia (Drugs) Are Not Your Savior,
You Must Take Responsibility For Your Own Health!
Our purpose for writing each week is to obey Matthew 5:19, providing you with biblical advice on the care and feeding of your body. We do it because this advice is so rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians, whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God and the Law of God had to say about health and wellness.
If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.
If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books.
“None of These Diseases” S. I. McMillen, M.D. & David Stern M.D. http://tinyurl.com/hh7ezs2
“Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallach http://tinyurl.com/j8ybt8r
“God’s Guide To Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris & Shary Schauermann http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau
Which doctor would God Choose for me and my family?
There are many types of doctors, and many different medical philosophies. Which philosophies are supported by the Bible, and does God oppose any medical philosophies? Does God even care what medicines we use and what doctors we see? We would like to suggest that God has not been silent on this very important subject. But let me first share one of our first experiences in actively choosing a doctor.
Shary and I were very fortunate to live a few blocks from Forest Grove Community Hospital. This hospital had osteopathic doctors who functioned under an osteopathic philosophy of medicine. So, without any in-depth decision making, we chose our doctor and hospital because they were close. When we started having children, Forest Grove had a mandatory class for mothers and fathers who wanted to give birth at their facility. When Shary told me that I had to attend classes so I could be at the birth, I said I didn’t need to be at the birth. I would be happy to wait in the lobby. The reason for my reaction, was that up to this point in my life, the only experience I had with birth was downright scary.
During college I had worked as a janitor for Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis, Oregon. My few trips to do cleaning in the birthing wing were not pleasant. I have vivid memories of young women screaming in agony as I mopped and polished floors.
So, back to my dilemma, Shary told me that the class was called “Husband Coached Childbirth”, and all the other dads would be taking the class and that if I didn’t go she would be the only mother who was alone. Talk about a guilt trip, wow, what could I do? Just give in and join her? Nope, I am not that good, I decided to go to the first class, and then get busy so I couldn’t make it to the rest. But wouldn’t you know it, in the first class we were shown a movie called, “Childbirth for the Joy of it.”? In the movie five women were having their first babies without medication and seemed to be enjoying the experience. We were hooked, after having two children at Forest Grove, Shary got certified and became one of their teachers. We taught Husband Coached Childbirth together for years.
When we moved to Astoria, we interviewed a number of doctors, trying to find someone who would let us give birth without medication. We did not find any who would do it. One doctor told us, “If that is what you want, you can go hang from a tree and give birth like your ancestors.” I was about to let him know that he was the only monkey in the room, but Shary could see I was getting angry and wouldn’t let me speak. We ended up driving ninety miles back over the coast range to have our son Nathan at Forest Grove Community Hospital. Not all doctors are created equal. It matters who you go to for your medical care. That one difference, is why we have thirteen awesome children instead of two.
So What Does The Bible Have To Say About Doctors?
“She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.” Mark 5:26
“In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians. Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his fathers.” 2 Chronicles 16:12-13
“Go up to Gilead and get balm, (a compound for healing) O Virgin Daughter of Egypt. But you multiply remedies in vain: there is no healing for you.” Jeremiah 46:11
Even though these passages from the Bible are well over 2000 years old, they could be written about millions of people today. We often remark what a better health care system we have today than in the past…but… do we really have better health care? Think about it, the people of the United States have the most expensive health care in the world; we spend more money on doctors and medicine than any other nation in the world (17.6% of our gross national product). That is almost double the amount that Norway spends and Norway is the second highest spender. We have the most scientifically advanced health care in the history of mankind, so why did we rank 17th in overall healthfulness out of 33 industrialized nations, 23rd in the percent of live births and 32nd out of 33 in birth defects?
Why are drugs so expensive?
I believe the reason our healthcare is costing us more and giving us less, is found in this…. we are getting farther and farther away from a Biblical philosophy of health care and the statistics seem to bear witness to that fact.
So what is the USA’s philosophy of health care? What is the basic belief system that most Americans are following? In order to answer that question, we need to analyze our options.
Medical doctors, all over the world, function out of a variety of belief systems. The five most widely followed belief systems are; Allopathy, Homeopathy, Osteopathy, Naturopathy and Chiropractic. The following definitions are taken from The Random House Dictionary of the English Language College Edition.
Allopathy is “The method of treating disease by the use of agents (drugs and chemicals), producing effects different from those of the disease treated (opposed to Homeopathy).”
Homeopathy is “The method of treating disease by drugs, given in minute doses that would produce in a healthy person symptoms similar to those of the disease (opposed to Allopathy).”
Osteopathy is “A therapeutic system based upon the premise that restoring or preserving health can best be accomplished by manipulation of the skeleton and muscles.”
Naturopathy is “A method of treating disease, using food, exercise, heat, etc., to assist the natural healing processes.”
Chiropractic is “A therapeutic system based upon the premise that disease is caused by interference with nerve function, the method being to restore normal condition by adjusting the segments of the spinal column.”
Allopathy, the use of drugs and chemicals to produce effects different than the disease, is the primary belief system of the American Medical Association.[1] The American Medical Association is the primary health care provider for the United States. Judging by our terrible health care record, 17th out of 33 in healthfulness and 32nd out of 33 in birth defects, could it be that we have chosen the wrong belief system?
If we are talking about medical assistance for accidents; car accidents, sports accidents, work accidents, then the American Medical association has the best track record in the world. They can sew you up, set broken bones and reduce trauma and put you back together better than any doctors in the history of mankind. The American emergency room is where I want to go if I am injured. Allopathy is my first choice if I am in a car accident. But……. if we are talking about disease, and preventative medicine, then Allopathy and its infatuation with drugs and chemicals, quickly drops to the bottom of the list.
When it comes to disease, we need to stop looking to allopathic doctors and scientists for a new miracle drug, pill or cure. God used the prophetJeremiah to rebuke the Daughters of Egypt for “multiplying remedies”, for searching the world for the latest “balm.” If God rebuked them through Jeremiah, what is God saying to us today?
The pharmaceutical business is a multibillion-dollar business in the U.S. There are balms, drugs and remedies that promise you everything from virility to weight loss and all without pain or a change in lifestyle. But… have you ever spent the time to read the contraindications or the harmful side effects of these miracle drugs? Every drug, by law, is supposed to have warnings in or on the box. Yes, there is a reason these warnings are in small print. There is a reason they read the harmful side effects on TV and radio ads so fast that you can’t quite catch what they are saying. If we comprehended all of the ramifications of taking these medications, we would never touch them. For example, anti-depressants can cause depression and in some cases suicide.[2][3] Is that crazy or what?
Here are a few in the pain reliever category…
Aspirin causes gastric bleeding and can in rare cases cause death.
Tylenol causes 50,000 cases of kidney failure each year.
Ibuprofen can cause liver damage, which can lead to a liver transplant.
What about drugs used for other things besides pain relief? Here are a few with their corresponding side effects. All this information was taken from the manufactures own small print.
Concerta (for ADHD) can cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness, nervousness, tics and psychosis (abnormal thinking and hallucinations).
Nexium (for heartburn) can cause enlarged abdomen, headache, chest pain, back pain, confusion and aggravated depression.
Relpax (for migraines) can cause dizziness, nausea, tiredness, pain in the throat or chest and heart attacks.
Lunesta (for insomnia) can cause amnesia, worsening of depression, aggressive behavior and it is addictive to the point that it’s makers said users, “may find that they have to keep taking the medicine either at the prescribed dose or at increasing doses just to avoid withdrawal symptoms.”
We are told that one of the biggest killers of medical patients comes from unexpected drug reactions, that is, people were told that a particular drug would be beneficial but it actually killed them. According to a 2005 article in JAMA ( Journal of the American Medical Association), adverse reactions to medicine, causes 98,000 deaths each year.[5] In a study by Ralf Nader the number was between 150,000 and 300,000 deaths.[6] Harvard Medical School wanted to challenge those findings so they hired the Rand Corporation to do an independent study. The study was published in the November 5, 1996 addition of USA Today. That article stated that doctors kill 180,000 people each year in US hospitals alone as a result of medical negligence.[7]
Those who did the study wanted to know why the American people weren’t up in arms about this. If any other profession killed that many people, there would be a huge outcry. What they found was shocking, only 1.5% of the families of those killed, were ever informed that it was because of the doctor’s negligence, that their loved one died.
Allopathic Death Toll
My mother was in the hospital a number of years ago. During her stay she began to lose weight at an alarming rate. She could not keep any food in her body, the situation became life threatening. If it had continued much longer, they would have lost her. Fortunately, my dad took charge and got a different doctor to give him a second opinion. As soon as the second doctor examined my mom, he halted the prescription drug she was taking and she immediately recovered. The medication would have killed her if my dad had not intervened.
You might conclude that the problem is only with improperly prescribed medication. But according to Marianne J. Legato, MD, professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New Your City, “Americans have somehow come to believe they should get the best medical care with the latest remedies with no side effects. Well, guess what? There is no drug that doesn’t have side effects.” (April 2005 Readers Digest) A “side effect” is an unwanted, harmful reaction to a particular drug.
What Dr. Legato was trying to get across to us is that we are living in a fantasy world if we think that we can solve our problems with drugs, because every, may I repeat, every drug has an unwanted side effect. That is…there is no drug that doesn’t have a dangerous and or life threatening or life shortening side effect! Some are just quicker and more noticeable than others.
All drugs have harmful side effects. You may get some short term benefit, but you will pay for it in the end, with a harmful side effect. God, on the contrary, does not work that way. Solomon said it this way, “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it.” (Proverbs 10:22)
God’s solutions to disease are without harmful side effects. When we try to find answers outside of the Word of God we forfeit a lot of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 2:3 teaches that, In Jesus Christ ”are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
When you remove Jesus Christ and His Word, you remove a vast resource of wisdom and knowledge. A lot of what we call American medicine, is just foolishness. God loves us and has great plans for us and he has given us all that we need to live out those plans healthfully.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD. Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
Our family has almost eliminated the need for Allopathic doctors, and has eliminated the need for health insurance. One of the most expensive accidents we have had was when our daughter Leah received a broken arm after getting bucked off a horse, and the bill was less than one month’s insurance payment. The savings of time, money and unnecessary pain that we have received by following God’s advice are way beyond any benefit we could have ever thought or imagined.
Jesus is the great physician, He created our bodies and He2 created our food. He also wrote the owner’s manual for how much rest and exercise we should get. He has instructed us in how we are to treat each other and how that effects our health. Jesus is, “The Word’ that instructs us in how we are to treat this incredibly complex machine we call our bodies. His advice can be trusted. He has no ulterior motives, no financial gain; he is motivated only by love.
Though my wife came from a family with a history of miscarriages, she never miscarried. She gave birth to thirteen healthy children, most of them never saw a doctor. We did take our daughter Leah to the hospital after she fell off a runaway horse. We believe Allopathic doctors are the best at dealing with injuries of that nature. But, if you want optimal health, we do not believe that drugs are the answer. In next week’s blog, we will discuss further what the word says specifically about drugs.
Biblical Concepts
Doctors Are Not Gods.
Pharmacia (Drugs) Are Not Your Savior,
If you listen carefully to God’s advice, he has promised to remove all sickness from you.
If you have a doctor who’s first reaction is to write you a prescription for medication, we would suggest you find one who’s first reaction is to find out what is making your immune system weak, and who suggests changes in your lifestyle rather than drugs.
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:18-19
Our purpose for writing each week is to obey Matthew 5:19, providing you with biblical advice on the care and feeding of your body. We do it because this advice is so rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians, whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God and the Law of God had to say about health and wellness. We have also seen Christians who have been taught what God says about health and wellness thrive.
Chris and Shary with kids and grandkids
Chris and Shary at a wedding with kids and grandkids.
If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.
If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books.
“None of These Diseases” by S. I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, M.D. http://tinyurl.com/hh7ezs2
“Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallach http://tinyurl.com/j8ybt8r
“God’s Guide To Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris & Shary Schauermann http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau
