Health Reform – What The Bible Teaches About Health - Blog

The original sin of Adam affected mankind in three ways — spiritually, morally, and physically. Christ came as Savior of the world to save humanity from these threefold effects of sin. Therefore, when we by faith receive Christ as our Savior, we are to surrender to His transforming grace in all these three areas.

While we will not experience total salvation from the effects of sin until the second coming of Christ, in this study we will consider what the Bible has to say about our bodies and how we should take care of them while we wait for His return. This, too, is part of Christian living. When Eloihim Placed Adam in the garden and made him the steward over all creation, he gave his “manager” specific instructions. From the beginning the “great deceiver” has tricked mankind in to thinking and teaching that GOD did not mean what he said, or his Word now means something else. When it comes to our health we love to “pimp the gospel”, using GOD’s Word as a justification to live an unhealthy lifestyle. We teach we can eat and drink whatever we like and as long as we pray over our food everything will be fine. We can put whatever we like into the Temple because God has blessed all things. Think about this. The diseases of today – including heart disease, cancer, arthritis and diabetes, can be linked to leading a unhealthy lifestyle. These diseases are becoming more wide spread as the world becomes more industrialized these diseases were not common when people stuck to a biblical diet. Eating GODs way would provide for more vitamins, minerals, protein and healthy fats and substances that came from plants called phytochemicals. In GOD’s plan there are no refined or processed carbohydrates and only a small amount of healthy sweeteners. Our modern diet promotes “Food” rich refined carbohydrates and are poor in nutritional value Many of us are familiar with the Hebrew word shalom, which means “peace.” This is more then just the absence of conflict, just as good health is not just the absence of disease. At it’s root shalom means completeness and wholeness physically, emotionally, spiritually and has a strong emphasis on ones relationship with GOD. This is true peace. The reason why Christians must take care of their bodies is twofold. In the first place, when we believers experience the new birth and are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, we become the temple of God (see 1 Corinthians 3:16). Therefore, we must treat our bodies as the house of God. The buildings where we as Christians choose to worship are not the temples and it is not GODs house. You are the temple; you are the house of the Holy Spirit. We teach that you should not curse or eat in the sanctuary, which is nothing more than a dead building, but then we pollute our bodies buy smoking and eating unhealthy food.

Secondly, as Christians we are ambassadors of Christ, called to witness Him to the world. In order that we may fully represent Christ and be used by His Spirit to glorify our Saviour, we must take good care of our bodies. The Holy Spirit can use us only in direct proportion to how healthy our bodies are. Based on these twofold reasons, the Bible gives counsel on healthful living. When Israel was a theocracy (totally under God’s ruling), God gave them all kinds of guidelines, not as a requirement for salvation but for their own good as His witnesses. Among these guidelines were many health principles or laws. Since we are made of the same material as the Jews, these health principles and laws are just as valid today as they were in ancient times. In this study we will consider some of the basic health principles and laws laid down by God in His Word as the fruits of salvation in Christ. A healthy lifestyle is holistic. You cannot look at just the physical side of healthy living and negate our responsibility to nurture the spiritual side, and vice versa. God created us as physical and spiritual beings. He created us as physical when He made us from the dust of the earth and gave us bodies, breathing life into us. He created us as mortal, finite beings – but He also created us as spiritual beings, to live or die eternally. So that is what this article is about – the physical side of healthy living, looking after our bodies. However please realize that although this is what I am focusing on, I am in no way ignoring the spiritual. Some time ago, I felt challenged to a healthy lifestyle. A scripture He gave me was Heb 3:4-10 “(For every house is built by someone; but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later. Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a Son, and we are His house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope. Principle 1: DO NOT STRIVE (v4) God is the builder, not us. He is the one who makes everything happen. Striving doesn’t help anyone – or anything – least of all you. Life, the ministry etc, doesn’t depend on us. God is more concerned about us than He is about the work. He has many vessels through which He can work. It is folly to think that we are the only person who can do the task. DO NOT STRIVE. IT DOES NOT DEPEND ON US. GOD IS THE BUILDER. Principle 2: WE ARE THE HOUSE OF GOD (v6) Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We need to take care of them. If we don’t we will not be good for anything because we will run ourselves into the ground. We need to respect God by taking care of the body He has given us by: - - Eating Healthy - Exercising Regularly - Getting Enough Rest Principle 3: A HARDENED HEART IS THE SAME AS REBELLION (v8, 9) We need to be good stewards of what God has given us – including our bodies. If we disregard this, we are hardening our hearts towards God, and what He has shown us, and that is the same as rebellion. If we test God in this, we will suffer. God has created a cause-and-effect world, establishments that He has put into place and He will not override them. If we do not look after our bodies, we will reap the effects of that, for example, sickness, burnout and disease. Principle 4: GOD HAS PROVIDED THE KNOW-HOW TO OBEY HIM (v10) God has given us the knowledge – through the Bible and science and, believe it or not, common sense – to know what we should and shouldn’t eat. We also know how regularly to exercise and we can definitely tell when we need to rest. All we have to do is listen to our bodies. I read this book “What the Bible Says About Healthy Living” by Rex Russell MD. He studied what the Bible says about food, what science says about food and what he has seen himself, for example when patients are told to follow a specific diet in order to get well again. His conclusion was simple: - Principle 1: Eat only what God intended us to eat Principle 2: Eat it only in the form he intended it to be eaten Principle 3: Fast regularly Amazingly, scientific research (independent of himself) gave evidence to support why God told the Israelites not to eat certain foods and why they should eat others. (I highly recommend this book. It can be bought on Amazon.) So we have no excuse. God has given us the knowledge we need, but it is our responsibility to put it into practice. Principle 5: REST God didn’t only intend for us to experience spiritual rest. He is a holistic God. He intended for us to experience rest physically, emotionally and spiritually. If we look after our bodies, and get the rest we need – however much that might be – we will be able to more fully enter the rest that God intended for us. We won’t get as sick as often, we won’t get as tired and we won’t get as stressed – the result – we will be much more rested and able to cope with the stresses of living life. We have a holistic God who is concerned with our physical and emotional being as well as the spiritual. He created all of us – and said, “It was good!” So work with Him on this. He didn’t create our bodies to be a hindrance to us. He created them for our enjoyment as well as for us to know what our limitations are so that we can more fully enjoy and experience a supernatural God. 1. According to Paul, how much of the believer does God want to sanctify? 1 Thessalonians 5:23 ______________________________________________ Note: Since sin has affected the total person, God also plans to rescue the total person from the sin problem — spirit, soul, and body. 2. How does this total redemption affect our Christian living in terms of eating and drinking? 1 Corinthians 10:31 ______________________________________________ Note: Before our conversion we ate and drank as we pleased, often abusing our bodies. But now that we belong to Christ and have become the temple of the Holy Spirit, God wants us to eat and drink for His glory. 3. As Christians, who do we belong to and live for? Romans 14:8 ______________________________________________ Note: Because Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us on the cross (see Galatians 3:13), we belong to Him — spirit, soul, and body. Out of a heartfelt appreciation for His redeeming grace, all our actions are motivated by this love relationship. 4. In what things does God want us to prosper, besides our souls? 3 John 2 ______________________________________________ Note: God is not only concerned about our spiritual well-being but also our health. A healthy body means a healthy mind. This, in turn, means we are better able to discern spiritual things. Since there is a close relation between spirit, soul, and body, what affects one affects the other. 5. What promise did God give the Jews of the Exodus if they would follow all His health instructions? Exodus 15:26 ______________________________________________ Note: All the health instructions God gave the Jews of the Exodus was for their own good and not a requirement for salvation. As His children, God wants us to experience and witness His saving grace in every way. The rules and regulations that God imposed upon the Jews was for this purpose. That is how we Christians must consider them. 6. What blessings did God say Israel would experience if they obeyed all that He had instructed them? Deuteronomy 7:14 ______________________________________________ Note: Even though the ancient Jews made the mistake of turning all the health rules and regulations God gave them into legalistic requirements for salvation, they still experienced physical blessings from obeying them. 7. As Christians, what kind of sacrifice does God want from us? Romans 12:1 ______________________________________________ 8. What must we do daily to experience this transformed life that is pleasing to God? Romans 12:2 ______________________________________________ Note: The battlefield in the Christian walk is the mind. On the one hand, the converted mind, that which Paul refers to as the new man (see Ephesians 4:22-24), wants to do the will of God. Yet, on the other hand, the mind of the flesh, our sinful nature, wants to do the very opposite. 9. What is the only way to gain victory over the desires of the flesh, our sinful natures, which contradict the desires of the converted mind? Galatians 5:16 ______________________________________________ Note: Only as we surrender our wills to the control of the Spirit can we gain the victory over the flesh. This is what it means to “walk in the Spirit.” To do this we must keep our minds focused on spiritual things (see Romans 8:4-6). 10. How should our relationship with fellow believers affect our eating habits? Romans 14:21 ______________________________________________ Note: To be a true Christian means we are dead to self and live unto the Lord. This affects every phase of our Christian living so that the two guiding principles that motivate all our actions are: (i) I do nothing that affects my right relationship with God; and (ii) I do nothing that weakens the faith of a fellow believer (see 1 Corinthians 10:31-33). 11. How should we consider ourselves as Christians? 1 Corinthians 3:16 ______________________________________________ 12. As temples of God, what does He not want us to do and why? 1 Corinthians 3:17 ______________________________________________ Note: As temples of God, we are to keep our bodies holy. The reason for this will be answered in the next question. 13. As His temple, what does God want to do in and through us? 2 Corinthians 6:16 ______________________________________________ Note: The whole purpose of the Christian life is to glorify the Saviour: “for me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21). The only way this can be done is to let the life of Christ shine through us. This is what sanctification is all about. That which motivates such a life is the love of God manifested in Christ crucified and not the fear of punishment or the desire for reward. 14. How does God fulfill the above through the New Covenant promise? Hebrews 8:10 ______________________________________________ Note: The New Covenant does not do away with the laws of God but puts them into our hearts. Under the Old Covenant, the laws were a series of rules — do’s and don’ts. Under the New Covenant, the same laws become the inner desires of the converted mind. This is how God writes His laws in our hearts and minds. This is the transforming grace of the gospel! 15. When it comes to healthful living, what was the original diet God gave mankind? Genesis 1:29 ______________________________________________ Note: Just as the car manufacturer entrusts us to use the best oil and gas for our cars, so God, the Creator, instructed our first parents regarding what are the best foods to eat — nuts, fruits, and grains. 16. What did God add to man’s diet after the flood? Genesis 9:3 ______________________________________________ 17. While God did add meat to man’s diet, after the flood, what two things did He prohibit? Genesis 9:4 (i) ______________________________________________ Leviticus 7:23 (ii) ______________________________________________ Note: God knew what He was doing when He forbade the Jews to eat the blood and fat of animals. Today, medical science has discovered and proved that both of these items are harmful to our health. 18. What further instruction did God give the Jews concerning meat eating? Read the whole chapter of Leviticus _____________________________________________ note: Even though God gave man permission to eat meat after the flood, He distinguished the clean (healthy) meats from the (unhealthy) meats in chapter 11 of Leviticus and elsewhere. These health regulations are still valid today, as long as we do not make them a requirement for salvation. 19. What warning does the wise man give regarding appetite? Proverbs 23:1-3 ______________________________________________ Note: Appetite is one of the great weapons of Satan. It was through food that Adam fell. Likewise, it was through tempting Christ to turn stones into bread that Satan tried to cause the downfall of Christ. In the same way, Satan uses our appetite to cause us Christians to stumble. Smoking, drugs, alcohol, and overindulgence in eating are some of his methods for preventing God’s purpose from being fulfilled in us or for destroying the Christian faith. 20. Of what must we constantly remind ourselves regarding our bodies? 1 Corinthians 6:19 ______________________________________________ Note: When we are tempted to indulge in wrong kinds of foods and drink, we need to remind ourselves that we are the temple of God and we are not our own. Therefore, as verse 20 reminds us, we must “glorify God in our body, and in our spirit, which are God’s.” This is true health reform.

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Why You Should Avoid White Flour Products Such as White Breads and Pastas In the manufacture of white flour, manufacturers first remove the wheat seed’s bran, its six outer layers, and the germ (or embryo) which contains 76% of the vitamins and minerals. 97% of the dietary fiber is also lost. What little is left is then bleached, preserved, and aged with chlorine dioxide. It is further whitened by adding chalk, alum, and ammonium carbonate to make it look and feel more improved and appealing to the consumer. An anti-salting agent called sorbitan mono-saturate is added in the final stage. A few synthetic nutrients are then added back into the white flour and it is then called “enriched.” In actuality, there has been no real “enrichment” of the original product. Laboratory rats usually die in a week to ten days when placed on a diet of white flour. All of the chemicals from white flour and other elements in our environment wreak havoc on the human body. Humans were not designed nor equipped to ingest cumulative chemicals. A strain is placed on the pancreas when it is forced to try to protect the body from chemicals. It cannot, at the same time, adequately perform its critical role of protecting the body from diseases. Whole wheat flour and other whole-grain flours retain their bran, germ, and nutrients, and the vitamin E present in whole-grain flours acts as a natural preservative that keeps it from turning rancid for several months, after which it can be refrigerated or frozen. Don’t be deceived by products that are advertised as whole grain. They may have some whole grains in them, but there may be a lot of other unnecessary and unhealthy ingredients. For example, if bread is soft, it is not primarily whole grain. It should be firm, heavy, and “grainy” with texture — not spongy

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