Life is Fair; All Suffer and Die
Suffering, sickness, pain, and death are not planned by God to punish people for their sins. Afflictions of the flesh and spirit are inherent to life and are not punishments for sins. But our sins psychosomatically interfere with the possibility for healing. Modern medicine recognizes that psychosomatic disturbances can cause illness.12 But medicine fails to accept that psychosomatic well-being can both prevent disease and cause healing for many problems.13
Faith and calling on the power of Jesus' name will not banish every disease and affliction. Modern medicine relying mostly on miracle drugs and treatments to manage problems is also far from effective. God gave us both to deal with human derangements. Relying entirely on one or the other is not what He seems to intend. And we also know that God's plan includes "...man is destined to die once" (Heb 10:27). Human "wisdom" sometimes thinks that it can discover how man need not be destined to die.
Faith and calling on the power of Jesus' name will not banish every disease and affliction. Modern medicine relying mostly on miracle drugs and treatments to manage problems is also far from effective. God gave us both to deal with human derangements. Relying entirely on one or the other is not what He seems to intend. And we also know that God's plan includes "...man is destined to die once" (Heb 10:27). Human "wisdom" sometimes thinks that it can discover how man need not be destined to die.
Management of Diseases
Many human medical problems have psychosomatic foundations represented by self-destructive behavior and attitudes. Patients with these problems usually prefer management with pharmaceuticals rather than making changes in their behavior and attitudes. For example, some forms of diabetes mellitus require insulin therapy while other forms can be managed by different eating habits. Few people with the latter form choose to change eating habits, but instead elect drug treatment to control their diabetes. Greater faith is placed on drugs than on the God-created ability of their bodies to maintain health. Physicians fail when they do not spend time to convince patients of the importance for making changes in how they live.14 Writing a prescription for drugs requires less work and time.
Creation's Divine Promise
God promises to care for His creation, especially for His temple represented in each one's creation. Paul writes: "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple" (1Co3:16-17). Although God protects His temples, we must pray for our needs. At times of need we must pray for the healing He promises. We are discouraged from praying for healing by anyone who does not believe that each one of us is God's temple. We are not ready to pray when we respond to illness by first running to the doctor; our trust in God's healing lacks conviction and we respond more like practical secularists than believing Christians living with great faith. Empty faith defiles the temple and leaves one depressed, discouraged, frustrated, confused, anxious and bitter. Prayers from the unbelieving heart offer little hope for faith healing.
Hearts enslaved to unforgiveness and bitterness must be cleansed before great faith is possible. Christ died to bring us forgiveness and eternal life. We cannot truly accept His gift of unconditional grace when bitterness controls our spirit. Bitterness destroys us mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually; healing cannot follow. Bitterness controls people worshiping false gods; bitter people cannot belong to and follow Jesus Christ. Bitterness is spiritual control over the physical to cause psychosomatic disease. Faith in God is strength over the physical for psychosomatic healing. When Satan's power to control one's life is not destroyed, we cannot love our brother; Satan rejoices in humans' bitterness to insure hatred of our brothers. Faith defeats control by bitterness: "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed" (Jas 5:16).
Bitterness blames human afflictions on God's punishment, injustice or unfairness. Bitter hearts renounce God for removing His love and abandoning the afflicted. The bitter complain that God cannot love us when He allows us to suffer. Humans readily stumble and become bitter but Ps 119:165 tells us "Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble." We do not stumble and become bitter when we follow the Lord. Bitterness is the ultimate debasement of the crown of God's creation. There can be no faith that heals when sin separates one from God. Bitter and despairing people do not heal well.
Hearts enslaved to unforgiveness and bitterness must be cleansed before great faith is possible. Christ died to bring us forgiveness and eternal life. We cannot truly accept His gift of unconditional grace when bitterness controls our spirit. Bitterness destroys us mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually; healing cannot follow. Bitterness controls people worshiping false gods; bitter people cannot belong to and follow Jesus Christ. Bitterness is spiritual control over the physical to cause psychosomatic disease. Faith in God is strength over the physical for psychosomatic healing. When Satan's power to control one's life is not destroyed, we cannot love our brother; Satan rejoices in humans' bitterness to insure hatred of our brothers. Faith defeats control by bitterness: "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed" (Jas 5:16).
Bitterness blames human afflictions on God's punishment, injustice or unfairness. Bitter hearts renounce God for removing His love and abandoning the afflicted. The bitter complain that God cannot love us when He allows us to suffer. Humans readily stumble and become bitter but Ps 119:165 tells us "Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble." We do not stumble and become bitter when we follow the Lord. Bitterness is the ultimate debasement of the crown of God's creation. There can be no faith that heals when sin separates one from God. Bitter and despairing people do not heal well.
...people who adopt a despairing, pleading stance toward God, who see God as punishing and vengeful, or who reframe their health problems as demonic manifestations experience greater disability... also some nontraditional "spiritual beliefs" may be related to worse physical health outcomes...15
God's promise is found within every creation, most importantly in human beings, and assures a means of healing for all of us.
Ancient New Human Problems
Many of Jesus' healings were for mental problems. Western Society's most common problems continue to be mental. One third of Americans surveyed tell of mental woes threatening a nervous breakdown related to anxiety, depression and stress.16 The incidence of worldwide depression is increasing dramatically leading to an assessment that is alarming: "Spirit of the age: Malignant sadness is the world's hidden burden..."16
Anxiety is normal and expected with anticipation of a potential threat. But it may not be considered normal now. Prolonged worry and anxiety can justify a diagnosis of the "disease" generalized anxiety disorderwhich allows individuals to be treated with costs paid by health insurance. The medical profession is unsure whether this is a disease.17 One view is: "It seems unreasonable to define as a disease (and accept as reasonable the advertising of drugs to treat it) a person's legitimate difficulty adapting to a stressful set of life challenges."17 If the medical profession believes in God telling us to cast all our anxiety on Him because He cares for us (1Pe 5:7), it is usually a last resort that reflects a foxhole religion.
Relief from protracted and debilitating depression is often sought by using alcohol or drugs rather than by using Jesus' promised healing powers.18 People without any religious affiliation are at greatest risk for depression.19 Individuals involved in religion for reasons of self-interest or extrinsic gain are not less likely to suffer depression, however. Biblical leaders suffered from depression when they struggled with God's use of their lives. At one point Moses wanted to die (Ex 32:32), Job cursed the day he was born (Job 3:1) and Elijah asked God to end his life (1Ki 19:4); both Jonah (Jnh 4:3) and Jeremiah (Jer 20:18) expressed similar thoughts. They all suffered depression when their faith in God weakened; their trust in Him wavered and they did not rely utterly on the sufficiency of God.
Psychotherapy is used to treat depression but is no more effective than religious involvement for improving depression.20 Moreover, religion more effectively deters suicide, the ultimate expression of depression. Psychiatrists may claim greater success only because they invariably manage depression with drugs besides counseling. Other physicians also rely on drugs to manage depression. The medical profession believes in giving people what they want. No one should suffer when drug therapy can make them feel better.
Anxiety is normal and expected with anticipation of a potential threat. But it may not be considered normal now. Prolonged worry and anxiety can justify a diagnosis of the "disease" generalized anxiety disorderwhich allows individuals to be treated with costs paid by health insurance. The medical profession is unsure whether this is a disease.17 One view is: "It seems unreasonable to define as a disease (and accept as reasonable the advertising of drugs to treat it) a person's legitimate difficulty adapting to a stressful set of life challenges."17 If the medical profession believes in God telling us to cast all our anxiety on Him because He cares for us (1Pe 5:7), it is usually a last resort that reflects a foxhole religion.
Relief from protracted and debilitating depression is often sought by using alcohol or drugs rather than by using Jesus' promised healing powers.18 People without any religious affiliation are at greatest risk for depression.19 Individuals involved in religion for reasons of self-interest or extrinsic gain are not less likely to suffer depression, however. Biblical leaders suffered from depression when they struggled with God's use of their lives. At one point Moses wanted to die (Ex 32:32), Job cursed the day he was born (Job 3:1) and Elijah asked God to end his life (1Ki 19:4); both Jonah (Jnh 4:3) and Jeremiah (Jer 20:18) expressed similar thoughts. They all suffered depression when their faith in God weakened; their trust in Him wavered and they did not rely utterly on the sufficiency of God.
Psychotherapy is used to treat depression but is no more effective than religious involvement for improving depression.20 Moreover, religion more effectively deters suicide, the ultimate expression of depression. Psychiatrists may claim greater success only because they invariably manage depression with drugs besides counseling. Other physicians also rely on drugs to manage depression. The medical profession believes in giving people what they want. No one should suffer when drug therapy can make them feel better.
Developing Drug Dependencies
Dependence on mind altering drugs begins with their use to control "self-destructive" behavior in young children. Preschool children are given drugs, i.e., Ritalin, to control problem behavior. Up to 20 percent of school children are also given this kind of medication. Treatment is recommended for children who are merely inattentive as well as children with signs of "impulsive aggressive behavior traits" all of whom are diagnosed as suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In some schools drugging of ADHD school children may be mandatory with expulsion of those not taking Ritalin. Children with behavioral disorders are increasingly subjected to quick and inexpensive pharmacologic fixes although there is no empirical evidence to support benefits for psychotropic drug treatment in very young children.21
Medications used to treat depression and anxiety disorders are not labeled for use in children, but doctors prescribing them have established a booming business. Drugging children is not an answer for resolving problems from living in a family and attending school. Society must seek to understand the fractures in children's lives that produce these problems. More troublesome is that Ritalin is a "gateway" for widespread use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs during adulthood; medicating children does not solve their problems it merely delays their serious manifestations and perpetuates drug dependency.22
Many people cannot cope with life without an antidepressant drug. One such drug, Prozac, has become a metaphor for society's obsession with a quick fix to life's problems. Users justify their antidepressants because they are taught that depression is a biological problem and is not caused by a flawed character or difficult childhood. Users find that Prozac alters their personality by bringing social confidence to the timid, making the sensitive brash, and giving introverted individuals the social skills of a salesman.
Medications used to treat depression and anxiety disorders are not labeled for use in children, but doctors prescribing them have established a booming business. Drugging children is not an answer for resolving problems from living in a family and attending school. Society must seek to understand the fractures in children's lives that produce these problems. More troublesome is that Ritalin is a "gateway" for widespread use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs during adulthood; medicating children does not solve their problems it merely delays their serious manifestations and perpetuates drug dependency.22
Many people cannot cope with life without an antidepressant drug. One such drug, Prozac, has become a metaphor for society's obsession with a quick fix to life's problems. Users justify their antidepressants because they are taught that depression is a biological problem and is not caused by a flawed character or difficult childhood. Users find that Prozac alters their personality by bringing social confidence to the timid, making the sensitive brash, and giving introverted individuals the social skills of a salesman.
Prozac Spirituality
Prozac can lead one to claim new gifts of the Spirit, gifts that God did not give. Drug dependency for spirituality is not new. Native Americans have used peyote for more than 400 years as a religious sacrament to experience spirituality.23 This drug is taken to provide "awareness" of God. Peyote is not harmful to the user but its use is regarded by some as a sacrilege when taken for nonreligious purposes. Peyote is an illegal drug except in some states where it can be used for religious purposes. What kind of relationship can one have with God when it is dependent on a mind-altering drug?
Prozac spirituality can lead some to become "comfortable with their sinfulness."24 The drug provides a new feeling of freedom, to live by worldly concepts of reality and truth, where one no longer needs to belong to and follow the Lord. If following Jesus is merely for making people feel good, Prozac can replace religion. But God does not draw us to Him so that we will feel good. Prozac may bring happiness in letting us feel good but it can't bring joy which comes only from belonging to and following Jesus. Prozac cannot show people the ultimate reality revealed only by religion.25
Prozac spirituality can lead some to become "comfortable with their sinfulness."24 The drug provides a new feeling of freedom, to live by worldly concepts of reality and truth, where one no longer needs to belong to and follow the Lord. If following Jesus is merely for making people feel good, Prozac can replace religion. But God does not draw us to Him so that we will feel good. Prozac may bring happiness in letting us feel good but it can't bring joy which comes only from belonging to and following Jesus. Prozac cannot show people the ultimate reality revealed only by religion.25
Spiritual Growth
Jesus came as the man of sorrows who suffered depression to know us and lead us back to the Father. If Jesus took Prozac to remove His sorrow and depression, He could have easily forgotten about giving us any commands. God allowed Jesus and allows us to live through trials. However, He does not allow us to be tested, tempted and suffer more than any one of us can handle (1Co 10:13). Suffering is fire purifying us to Christian maturity through discipleship that is long, narrow and difficult. Spiritual growth is an illusion when sought by use of any kind of drug, legal or illegal. "Indeed, spiritual growth cannot happen independent of character development and discipline, which are regularly forged in the crucible of pain."24(Figure 3) Doctors, however, are happy to prescribe anything that will remove people from the crucible of suffering, and people feel they have the right to not feel bad.(Figure 4) More disturbing is that clergy working with people's problems do not disagree with doctors who freely prescribe antidepressant drugs. The use of mind-altering drugs has become permissible but as Paul said: not all things are profitable (1Co 10:23). Is it profitable for us to believe that we can know God and grow our spirituality with the comfort of mind-altering drugs or must we bear costs for our discipleship?
Cheap Grace
God sustains His creation with healing and He offers to redeem us with salvation. The richness of God's grace works to save us. His grace is offered voluntarily and lovingly; we can do nothing to work for and earn it. Without God's grace no one is redeemed. Although we cannot work for and earn grace, it does not come without a price.
The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be, if it were not cheap?...
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate...
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.
This cheap grace has been no less disastrous to our own spiritual lives. Instead of calling us to follow Christ, it has hardened us in our disobedience. . . Having laid hold on cheap grace, they were barred forever from knowledge of costly grace. Deceived and weakened, men felt that they were strong now that they were in possession of this cheap grace — whereas they had in fact lost the power to live the life of discipleship and obedience. The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works.26
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate...
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.
This cheap grace has been no less disastrous to our own spiritual lives. Instead of calling us to follow Christ, it has hardened us in our disobedience. . . Having laid hold on cheap grace, they were barred forever from knowledge of costly grace. Deceived and weakened, men felt that they were strong now that they were in possession of this cheap grace — whereas they had in fact lost the power to live the life of discipleship and obedience. The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works.26
Cheap grace permits one to do little, to not follow Jesus, but the individual may be uncomfortable with the Holy Spirit's prodding that this is not enough. Mind-altering drugs make it easy to be comfortable with a life of cheap grace; the prodding can be easily ignored. The cost of discipleship no longer troubles one. Peyote, Prozac and like drugs give people the comfort of a "spirituality" that requires no costly discipleship. Prozac for "healing the spirit" does not destroy Satan's power (evil); it makes it easier for him to remain in one's life and healing is not possible. No matter how comfortable these drugs make one with their sin, they cannot free one from sin that separates a person from the Lord.
A believer cannot have strong faith and be satisfied with cheap grace. One can be satisfied with "sufficient" faith when on mind-altering drugs that provide one with a sense of greater "spirituality." But that faith is not sufficient for one to give the Holy Spirit full attention and obedience. Medication that removes sharing in Christ's sorrow and depression may give one a sense of "peace and joy" but true peace and joy come only to those belonging to and following Jesus. Grace means that which causes joy. Cheap grace offers little joy. Drugs provide a way to be satisfied with cheap grace; our Christianity becomes hollow because the joy coming with God's grace requires the cost of discipleship, but we want no burdens.
Jesus Christ teaches that some believers will stop following Him; some will "believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away" (Lk 8:13). Paul was also concerned that some "are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel" (Gal 1:6). Different gospels, not of Christ, offer cheap grace to gain salvation. The author of Hebrews exhorts believers to hold fast and not cast away their confidence, their faith in Christ and His grace (Heb 3:6; 10:23, 35).
Teaching that sanctions cheap grace promises indestructible faith and peace. Doubts and unorthodoxy develop, however, unless believers cultivate faith by prayer, fellowship, Bible study, witnessing, and a life of wholehearted obedience. The world will always doubt Jesus' message. Faith has no room for doubt or cheap grace.
A believer cannot have strong faith and be satisfied with cheap grace. One can be satisfied with "sufficient" faith when on mind-altering drugs that provide one with a sense of greater "spirituality." But that faith is not sufficient for one to give the Holy Spirit full attention and obedience. Medication that removes sharing in Christ's sorrow and depression may give one a sense of "peace and joy" but true peace and joy come only to those belonging to and following Jesus. Grace means that which causes joy. Cheap grace offers little joy. Drugs provide a way to be satisfied with cheap grace; our Christianity becomes hollow because the joy coming with God's grace requires the cost of discipleship, but we want no burdens.
Jesus Christ teaches that some believers will stop following Him; some will "believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away" (Lk 8:13). Paul was also concerned that some "are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel" (Gal 1:6). Different gospels, not of Christ, offer cheap grace to gain salvation. The author of Hebrews exhorts believers to hold fast and not cast away their confidence, their faith in Christ and His grace (Heb 3:6; 10:23, 35).
Teaching that sanctions cheap grace promises indestructible faith and peace. Doubts and unorthodoxy develop, however, unless believers cultivate faith by prayer, fellowship, Bible study, witnessing, and a life of wholehearted obedience. The world will always doubt Jesus' message. Faith has no room for doubt or cheap grace.
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