Is Our Healthcare System Of God Or Something Else?

Merck  Measles Vaccine Fraud Lawsuit
http://healthimpactnews.com/2014/judge-lawsuit-against-mercks-mmr-vaccine-fraud-to-continue/

Class Says Merck Lied About Mumps Vaccine
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/06/27/47851.htm

Court Document
http://probeinternational.org/library/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/chatom-v-merck.pdf

Court Document
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/06/27/MerckUnsealed.pdf

Antitrust, FCA Claims On Merck Mumps Vaccine To Advance

So here is a dilemma then.  It is more than probable that most people in the Western world use some form of man-made medication whether over the counter or from a pharmacy.  But how can something that has so many problems be of God, and why are we so bound to medicine?   I think the answer is; deception.  Part of our dilemma is in the fact that outside of God's original intention for man, not taking some form of medication could also be a disaster.  In leaving God out, man has created these disasters-in-waiting for himself.

Oh by the way, an article came out on February 5th, 2018 that CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald had resigned from her post when it was found she had purchased tobacco stocks and invested in Merck and other companies after her appointment to this post in 2017.  The January 30, 2018 Politco article said,

After assuming the CDC leadership on July 7, Fitzgerald bought tens of thousands of dollars in new stock holdings in at least a dozen companies later that month as well as in August and September, according to records obtained under the Stock Act, which requires disclosures of transactions over $1,000. Purchases included between $1,001 and $15,000 of Japan Tobacco, one of the largest such companies in the world, which sells four tobacco brands in the U.S. through a subsidiary....

...The purchases also include between $1,001 and $15,000 each in Merck & Co., Bayer and health insurance company Humana, as well as between $15,001 and $50,000 in US Food Holding Co., according to financial disclosure documents.

Source:"Trump's top health official traded tobacco stock while leading anti-smoking efforts", politico.com/story/2018/01/30/cdc-director-tobacco-stocks-after-appointment-316245

Talk about a conflict of interest and the potential to being manipulated by healthcare companies and the tobacco industry; this is what it looks like.  It reduces the trust level in what both healthcare / pharmaceutical companies and what corrupt government officials tell us.

China:  The Source For Pharmaceuticals / Components / Health Equipment Parts

I have inserted this here (March 18, 2020) because, to the surprise of most, as an outcome of the Coronavirus, it came to light that China, the source of the virus, is also the source of a lot of drugs, drug components, and other health related products and parts our country depends upon.  In a world without God, if they cut this off from the U.S. or other countries, there will not be a lot of drugs.  Another reason to not look to man, and also shows the lack of God in this system.  The pharmaceutical industry is part of world politics too. 

Abortion Considered Part Of The "Healthcare" System

An article in The Atlantic says in part,

"And at a basic level, the argument for abortion is also framed in scientific terms: The procedures are “gynecological services, and they’re health-care services,” Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, says."  Source: Science Is Giving The Pro-Life Movement A Boost, January 18, 2018, theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/pro-life-pro-science/549308/

So whether it be a morning after pill that kills a fetus before it has a chance to develop, or the legal murder of an infant up to, and even right after delivery, Planned Parenthood considers killing just a part of "health-care services".  Just another part of the "dualities of life"; sacrifice one for the benefit of another.  The legal ability to murder a living being, even after delivery, came to light in the recent comments by the Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam.  He is a supporter of a bill that was introduced in Virginia concerning late term abortions.

Northam is also a Pediatric Physician.  While being interviewed by WTOP radio about this bill he said in part as seen in a CNN article,

"[Third trimester abortions are] done in cases where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that's nonviable. So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen," Northam, a pediatric neurosurgeon, told Washington radio station WTOP. "The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother."   Source:  cnn.com/2019/01/31/politics/ralph-northam-third-trimester-abortion/index.html

So what this means is that if so desired, a delivered baby can be killed.  And this from a Physician.  What does God think about this! It is demonic. Just asking for the destruction of a nation.  Israel's sacrificing their children to the demon god Molech was part of the reason God allowed them to be destroyed.

Leviticus 18 says

²¹ And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.

But they, like the world today, did not listen.  Jeremiah 32 says,

³⁵ And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

In the "dualities of life" concept, as a "healthcare" person, Northam is the administrator of what is perceived good for the health of an infant, and that which is evil in the administering of an acceptable killing.  It is bad enough that we have birth defects that are the result of sin coming into the world.  But now we add to it by killing an infant because he or she might not be "viable".

Healthcare System Integrating Witchcraft With Patient Care And Schools

Source: Kaiser-Permanente website Children in "lotus" sitting position and hand symbols of the gods

One full very large healthcare company / system called Kaiser-Permanente, has adopted the occult practice of visualization / guided imagery used in Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism.  It is part of their "mental health" program.  They have also been promoting this program in schools and call it "Thriving Schools" (See left photo).  The more popular and deceptive name for this occult practice is called "Mindfulness".  They are also teaching children Yoga under this same name.  This company, as well as many churches now, are using "Neuroscience" to validate it.  Pastors and churches need stay away from this; it is a deception. (see "Visualization and Contemplative Meditation: Sorcery In The Church")

While it has the outward look of being helpful and beneficial, it is incredibly detrimental to the well being of people.  While promoting these types of things, even the U.S. Department of Health has warnings about what other mental problems it can cause as seen in the above linked to article.

Medical Errors

There is another issue that made me wonder about medicine being of God.  A February 2018 CNBC article titled, "The third-leading cause of death in US most doctors don't want you to know about", pointed out that there are between 250,000 and 440,000 people who die every year from medical errors.  It also pointed out that medical errors rank 3^rd only behind heart failure and cancer as leading causes of death.  Source: cnbc.com/2018/02/22/medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-america.html

Hospital environments are not faring too well either.  One recent study showed that what the medical field calls "Healthcare associated infections" (HAIs) are very common in hospitals today.  The study said that about 1 in 25 persons obtain an HAI while in the hospital from some specific procedures.  In part an article on this said,

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a common and complicating — yet largely preventable — factor for hospitalized patients. Each day, around one out of 25 patients in U.S. hospitals contracts an HAI.  These infections can significantly delay recovery, increase the expense of a hospital stay, and even result in death. Of the approximately two million American patients who acquire an HAI annually, an estimated 90,000 will die.  Yet studies have shown that selected HAIs can be reduced by as much as 70% with the help of the proper patient-safety interventions.

The cost of a single case can range from just under $1,000 to nearly $50,000, depending upon the type of infection — with the direct cost of HAIs to hospitals estimated at between $28 billion and $45 billion. These costs are passed along to insurers and employers, as well as to patients themselves in the form of higher out-of-pocket costs.   Source: leapfroggroup.org/sites/default/files/Files/Leapfrog-Castlight%202018%20HAI%20Report.pdf

Cool.  Does God make errors?  No.  Is he part of something impure that brings infection, rises medical costs, and delays healing or kills?  No; not in his desire to bring his mercy to people.  What is disturbing is that some of these new infections and diseases have no man made cure for them.  Revelation 9 alone reveals that one third of the world population will die from plagues during the Tribulation period.  There will be no medicine to stop it.

So to me, just from some of the things I have observed, it did not appear that the medicine / health methods of the past 2000 years and back, are of God.  Verses depicting God's character came to mind as I pondered these things.  Again from Proverbs;

The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.  Proverbs 10:22

If these medical things are of God there would be no side effects, no chance of injury or additions, or death.  Is perhaps God trying to show us something that is only revealed in his word?

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.  Isaiah 55:1-3

Psalm 81:10 says, "I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. "

The idea here is that the things of God are without price.  God doesn't charge for his blessings; but man does.  Why do we spend money for something that may or may not help?  There are no sorrows that are attached to the blessings of God.  Note that Jesus tells us to come to the waters that he has.  This will come up later.

On the subject of no cost for the waters of Jesus, there is one incident in the Bible where a servant of the prophet Elisha took money by deception for a healing by God that the servant was not even responsible for.

In 2 Kings 5, the Syrian General Naaman went to Elisha asking Elisha to heal him of leprosy.  Elisha would not not see him but by a servant, directed Naaman to go wash seven times in the Jordan River.  Naaman thought the rivers of Syria were better than that of the Jordan; God's water.  When Naaman finally consented to this, and obeyed, God healed him.  Naaman returned to Elisha to thank him and offer him money.  Elisha refused the money.  However one of his servants saw this as an opportunity and went after Naaman and said his Master had changed his mind and would take the money.  Elisha knew his servant had done this and the servant ended getting leprosy.

In the New Testament in Acts 8 there was Simon the Sorcerer who saw the miracles that the Apostles were doing by the Holy Spirit and offered to pay for the power.  That did not end well either.  Yet apart from man's healthcare we have the Healing Rooms today in which people pay to be taught how to heal.  After they pay and learn, then they are to receive the Holy Spirit. Source: https://healingrooms.com/?src=training

So again, I thought that God is not a respecter of persons, nor of those who would have more money for obtaining healthcare or medicines that many times others have to use most of their money on just to live.  We cannot buy healing nor the power to heal.  Nor is there any indication that God would require money to obtain it.  In fact, we are told that healing is a gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:9).  As we will see later, we cannot get rid of disease with medications or procedures, or anything by some spirit, other than God.  Disease and illness are much more a part of something bigger.

However, at the same time I am observing these corruptions, I am not seeing the Biblical side of the grace and mercy of the promises, despite prayers for myself and others.  I did not see, nor was experiencing any of the merciful promises of God or answered prayer concerning healing as seen in James 5.  Yet, because of all its problems, Medicine was not appearing to be something that came from God.  No help from God was frustrating.  Dilemma here.  Is God's word trustable, I thought? (More revelations later)

I had to discount the false faith healers of yesterday and today such as John G. Lake, associated "Healing Rooms", Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and the other signs and wonders, name it and claim it ministries and persons and others associated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).  Nor did I want my thinking to fall into the category of those who refuse to take their children to the doctor for treatment that results in the death or parents being charged with neglect.  I also had to discount the outright occult practices and so called alternative health / medicine.

My thoughts were confused. There were the thoughts that the things written may not be true (doubt). There is the thought that either something is wrong with me in that there is a wrong understanding of what I believed.  Then there is the possibility that something is wrong with me and the church that has to do with our relationship with God, because the promises and tokens for those who believe were not as the word said they would manifest because we are not as close to God as we may think.  The bottom line is, God can't be wrong, so it must be me, or us.  I will get into this thought in the article; it got worse.  But there was still more in this balance to weigh as I researched this.  I wanted God to open my eyes why my own misery (which was just starting) continued using doctors and why my years of prayer were not answered.

Not all Doctors Rely on God, but themselves

A few years ago there was an interesting survey done that involved about 1100 responding physicians that concerned their religious beliefs being part of their vocation.   It is called, "Religious Characteristics of U.S. Physicians: A National Survey.  It involved 427 Protestants, 244 Catholics, 181 Jewish, 117 Atheists / Agnostics / none, 53 Hindu, 33 Muslim, 22 Orthodox, 17 Mormons, 13 Buddhist, and 18 Other.  It contains several charts showing the data.

Understand while the survey uses the term "God" in the physician and patient reliance upon an entity, it is inclusive of the "gods" of all of the listed denominations and religions of those involved in the study.  The quote below sums up all groups reliance on a god, or God in their practices as seen on a U.S. government website.

"Finally, our data suggest that patients and physicians are likely to differ in their reliance upon God as a means of coping and making decisions in the context of major illness. While most patients will “look to God for strength, support, and guidance,” most physicians will instead try to “make sense of the situation and decide what to do without relying on God.” How such differences shape the clinical encounter is unknown."  Source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1490160/

Well that doesn't say much about God being involved in medicine either.  It sounds like man is relying upon his own wisdom and understanding or that of something else he is not aware of.  Perhaps this is one example / reason why I was misdiagnosed, and why healing by God was not an option offered to me on several occasions.

Having observed and experienced these things over a lifetime as both non-believer and believer, I really had to get a clear understanding if the field of health / medicine was of God or some other source.  Just in what I shared previously, I was becoming convinced that medicine / health industries were probably not of God.  However I still did not trust my own deductions.

The first thing I wanted to know was where these medical and healthcare things originated.   So I started to look into the history of medicine.  The following is what I found.

Part 2: The History / Origin of Medicine is Religious; Just Not Christian

While trying to use information from scholars in this history of medicine, I am not going to get into a scholarly detailed writing in this.  Trying to put 6,000 years of information in a few pages is not easy.  Hopefully there will be enough historical and factual information to show the sources of medicine here.  I tried to use the most reliable sources for the information I am presenting.  Concerning the information in the Word of God, this is the reader's responsibility to check out.

The Greek Origin Of Medicine

In the Western world the practice of medicine can be traced back to a man by the name of Hippocrates.  Hippocrates was born in 460 BC on the island of Kos in Greece.  He was called, "Hippocrates Asclepiads", (descendant of [the doctor-god] Asclepius).  In other words, Hippocrates was considered as one of Asclepius' healing god / goddesses children; part of this god's family, his seed.  (See photo at the beginning of this article.)  If we are born again, we can compare this concept to us being a seed of Jesus through faith (Galatians 3:29, 1 Peter 1:23) . We will look at the seed line back in time of this other god, Asclepius.

Hippocrates, along with being called a seed of Asclepius, is also referred to as "The Father of modern medicine".  His general system was based upon the belief that disease was caused by natural actions, not from gods or spirits.  Thus the body had to be restored to a balance of nature. Sources: notablebiographies.com/He-Ho/Hippocrates.html, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19567383

But what is the base of his knowledge, and his religious associations?  His title alone gives this away in that he is referred to as a descendant of the Greek healing god, Asclepius.  Asclepius is usually depicted  holding a rod with a snake coiled on it (Left photo below).  In the ancient writings, the healing god Asclepius had other children who were also gods of healing.  The second photo from the left below shows Asclepius with his dwarf son, Telesphorus.  Telesphorus is referred to as the "accomplisher" of health / recovery. He is also called a "daemon".  Daemons were supposed to be people transformed into nature spirits by Zeus for benevolent purposes.  Thus, a demon.  Medicine is getting off to a bad start just here.

Of interest is the headless photo of a sculpture of Hygeia on the right and Asclepius on the left.  Note that that Asclepius has a hybrid god feature in that he has the hind quarter of what appears to be a goat hind and foot.  The most well known hybrid goat/man gods are Pan and Phanes.  Both are associated with Satan.   I found the below sculpture photo with the goat hind as part of a display at The Regional Archaeological Museum, Plovdiv, Bulgary website.  It is supposed to be a Roman sculpture with a "dedication from Claudius Spartokos; the sanctuary of Asclepius Zemidrenetius near the village of Batkun, the Pazardzhik district, III c."  Source:http://www.archaeologicalmuseumplovdiv.org/_m1713/Roman-Art

There were other god children of Asclepius.

Hygeia (noted above) was also one of the children of Asclepius (Right photo below).  She was the goddess of health and is associated with pharmacies today. While supposed to be a daughter of Asclepius, she is also portrayed as his wife at times.  She is usually depicted holding a snake who is drinking out of a cup. Asclepius' actual wife was Epitome, another healing goddess.  Symbols representing both Asclepius and Hygeia are commonplace today as we will see. 

Asclepius	Asclepius with Telesphorus (left) Asclipus & Hygeia with hind goat feet (right)	Hygeia

Hippocrates was also alleged to be one of Asclepius' students and attended his education in what is called an Asclepeion.  These were healing temples of the god and his father, Apollo. (photos below)

Remains of Asklepion temple in Pergamum (Bergama, Turkey)		Flower of life between snakes at this temple

In the Anatolian tradition (ancient Pergamum area of Turkey), Asclepius was imaged at times as just a serpent on what was called "the Sacred Tree" with Telesphorus as shown on the Roman coin on the left. That's not looking too good.  This brings back images of the serpent in Eden and about what God said of this serpent who would have his own seeds (Genesis 3:15).  So Hippocrates was considered one of the children, or "seed" of this serpent associated god Asclepius.   Let's follow this "seed line" backward in time and relatives, starting with Asclepius.

So who is Asclepius?

Aside from being a god of healing/medicine, Asclepius is the son of the Sun God, Apollo.  Apollo is also considered a god of healing.  According to ancient writings, Asclepius was taught the art of healing by Apollo and Apollo's foster son, Chiron.  Chiron is a half horse half man being.  One source said this of Asclepius;

“Asclepius often used the art of divination to obtain responses from his father Apollo through oracles. From these auguries he learned much about the natures of many drugs and herbs, and how to use them in treating disease. This knowledge he passed on to his sons, and to his students." Source: greekmedicine.net/mythology/asclepius.html

So again, the Western source of medicine is not off to a good start here.  If we follow this we can see that Asclepius also used divination to get information on what we call "pharmaceuticals" from his own father, Apollo.  The results of this divination was then passed onto Hippocrates and others who learned his methods up through today.   So now here we see one possible source of medicine if we are to follow the trail back to Hippocrates.  That source is divination used to obtain information from a false god.  As we will see, the followers of Asclepius and other healing gods, did the same.  As we are supposed to know, God prohibits divination and having other gods and reliance on them.

Now then, who is Apollo?

Apollo, the Sun god is also known as the god of healing, music, poetry, art, oracles, archery, plague, medicine, sun, light and knowledge.  He is called "the Shining One".  He is also the son of the major god, Zeus.  Zeus is also known as the Roman god, Jupiter.  Apollo is usually shown with a serpent and holding a lyre. The lyre was given to him by his half brother god, Hermes / Mercury.  Apollo is also known as a destroyer god and is shown at times with a bow and arrow.  The arrows would bring plague.

He was associated with the Hittite and Egyptian god Resheph.  In the Bible he was known as the Assyrian god Nergal (2 Kings 17:30).  For sources see: jewishvirtuallibrary.org/resheph.  He was used by God to bring about plagues in descriptive words that are not readily seeable.   For instance in Habakkuk 3:5 we see God moving and in the King James it says,

^"Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. "

Pestilence is the Hebrew word "Deber" which is an ancient god.  Burning coals, is the word "Resheph" which is this ancient god and means, arrow, burning, flame, firebolt (Strong's Concordance)

Reseph and Deber are also used in Psalm 78:48 in one of the plagues that was sent upon Egypt.  It says,

"He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts" (Respeph).

"He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them."

"He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; (Deber)

Resphep is referred to as far back as Job where he is associated with having sons and bringing affliction.  It says in Job 5:6-7

"Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;  Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks (sons of Resheph) fly upward (exalted, proud)." Strong's Concordance

Below are different forms of Apollo / Reseph from the different cultures.

Resheph - Canaanite	Reseph - Egyptian	Nergal - Assyrian

As noted before, Apollo was also a son of Zeus.  Being the son of Zeus is not a good thing as we see that Zeus / Jupiter is a type of anti-Christ / Satan as seen in the book of Daniel where Antiochus Epiphanes put an image of him (Jupiter) in the Jewish Temple.  God called it the "abomination that brings desolation" (Matthew 24:15, Daniel 11:31)  Also in the Word of God, Lucifer is also called the shining one in Isaiah 14:12. However, this is where the seed of healing practices is traced back to in the Western cultures via Hippocrates.

This giving honor and credit to these gods is also seen in the original Hippocratic Oath that doctors took.  It said in the original,

"I swear by Apollo the physician, and Asclepius, and Hygeia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses as my witnesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this contract.." Source: nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/greek_oath.html

This is like making a covenant with Satan.

It should be seen that Hippocrates had nothing to do with the true God. So we see Hippocrates, our Father of modern medicine, started his oath to the false gods near the top of the family tree of gods with Apollo.  Then he goes down the line of descendants (seeds) of Apollo.  Hippocrates has no issue with revealing they are gods and goddesses his oath is swearing allegiance to.  Now of course this part of the oath was changed to edit out its intent to give an oath to medicine's originating gods and goddesses.  There is no mention of the true God in this, now is there?  While the Christian is supposed to have a covenant with Jesus, Hippocrates is making one with an anti-Christ.

There is additional reference to Apollo being the source of Hippocrates' medicine.  According to a number of writings, Hippocrates also based his knowledge on the belief system of an ancient and well known person by the name of Pythagoras. Pythagoras is well known for his mathematical theories as well as being a cult leader worshiped as a god.  He, like Hippocrates, believed that the body had to be restored to the harmony and balance of nature  He also believed in reincarnation. Sources: plato.stanford.edu/entries/pythagoras/ , ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19567383

It is further said of Pythagoras;

"Aristotle reports that the people of Croton called Pythagoras the “Hyperborean Apollo” and Iamblichus’ report (VP 140) that a priest from the land of the Hyperboreans, Abaris, visited Pythagoras and presented him with his arrow, a token of power, may well also go back to Aristotle (Burkert 1972a, 143). Kingsley argues that the visit of Abaris is the key to understanding the identity and significance of Pythagoras. Abaris was a shaman from Mongolia (part of what the Greeks called Hyperborea), who recognized Pythagoras as an incarnation of Apollo."  Source: plato.stanford.edu/entries/pythagoras/

The arrow presented to Pythagoras belonged to Apollo as Apollo is also frequently depicted with a bow and arrow as are other ancient Mesopotamian gods.  This also connects him to Reseph.

What is Hyperborea? One source says,

"HYPERBOREA was a fabulous realm of eternal spring located in the far north beyond the home of the north wind. Its people were a blessed, long-lived race untouched by war, hard toil and the ravages of old age and disease…  Hyperborea was a theocracy ruled by three priests of the god Apollon. These gigantic kings, known as the Boreades, were sons of Boreas (the North Wind)." Source: theoi.com/Phylos/Hyperborea.html

Healing giants and wind gods come up in Bible verses later in this article. 

Some other verses that came to mind concerning Apollon / Apollo being the god of this northern Hyperborea are in Isaiah 14 and refer to Satan.

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer (shining one, light bearer), son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, (assembly of the gods) in the sides (remote places) of the north:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High".  Isaiah 14:12-14

It is interesting that among the names of Apollo as noted previously, he is called "the shining one" like Lucifer, as well has being associated with the northern realm of Hyperborea.

So again via Pythagoras, we find Apollo referenced as being a source of Western medicine.  I find it interesting that during the Tribulation period there is a demonic prince who is called "Abaddon" (destroyer) in Hebrew and "Apollyon" (destroying king of demons) in Greek.  His horde of demons is released from the Abyss and brings plagues upon man at that time. (Revelation 9).  In addition to being a god of healing, Apollo is also the god of plagues.  But lets continue with Apollo's son, Asclepius.

As noted previously, there were numerous temples built to Asclepius called Asclepions.  They were types of hospitals and learning centers.  The sick would go to these temples which had healing pools and healing "incubation" rooms for overnight stays.  The idea here was that the sick would have visions of the god Asclepius, or one of his children would appear to them and give them diagnosis of their disease and cures.  They would then pass this information on to the priests of the temple who were the physicians.  Again we see the use of divination and calling upon spirits of a dead god.  Sometimes they would allow snakes to crawl over them to facilitate healing.

The priests / physicians of these temples were called Therapeutae (Latin) or Therapeutae (Greek).  The term means "one who is attendant to the gods".  In this case the god is Asclepius and other times associated with another Hellenistic god, Serapis.  Serapis is a serpent god with the head of a man and the body of a serpent.  He is also depicted as a Zeus like figure.  He is supposed to be the Greek version of the Egyptian Apis Bull god who represents Osiris or Ptah who existed before him.  Aaron introduced this god as the golden calf as the deliverer of Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 32:4-5) as did Jeroboam who repeated it with two calves (1 Kings 12:25:33).  Both Aaron and Jeroboam told the people that these were the gods that delivered them.

The photo on the left is a relief of the family of these Hellenistic gods which is a combination of Egyptian and Greek.  Here we have the Egyptian goddess, Isis (left) the god Osiris / Serapis (right) and their savior son, Horus (center).

As we will see later, these same gods and the Asclepions existed during the time of Jesus.

The priests / physicians of Asclepius were the "Therapeutae" of this god.   The New Testament gives a similar term and work to Jesus and his apostles as servants / worshippers to the true God of healing.  (see Strongs G2323 – therapeuō Therapeuō θεραπεύω therapeúō, ther-ap-yoo'-o; from the same as G2324; to wait upon menially, i.e. (figuratively) to adore (God), or (specially) to relieve (of disease):—cure, heal, worship.)

So the Therapeutae of Asclepius were the physicians during the time of Jesus and were actually in opposition to Jesus and his apostles who were the servants and used as healing agents of the true God.  Nothing had changed since the writings and times of the Scriptures. You have the Therapeutae being attendant to the god Asclepius in the realm of healing but you also have the Therapeutae associated to Jesus as seen in the disciples and apostles.  Again to note; there are two different seed lines here.  One of Satan, and one of Jesus (Genesis 3:15), and they oppose each other.

To see how Asclepius, the forefather god of medicine, opposes Jehovah, let's look at one of the more important and well known Asclepions that was in Pergamum.  Pergamum is now called Bergama, Turkey. It was also called something else by Jesus in the book of Revelation.

Jesus said;

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword: I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth." (Revelation 2:12-13)

Jesus refers to this city as being basically the throne of Satan because in it there were temples to Zeus, his son Apollo, and grandson Asclepius.  This family of gods were worshiped and sought there by the Greeks and Romans and a sect of Therapeutae Jews.  One account of the Therapeutae of Asclepius in Pergamum said,

"Aelius Aristides in the later 2nd century writes: "We Asclepius therapeutae must agree with the god that Pergamum is the best of his sanctuaries." - Sacred Tales (39.5)

Not a good picture for the source and symbols of our Western medicine nor for Christians. It is like saying the best of healing comes from the throne of Satan.  Yet there were some in this church who did not go along with it and did not deny the teachings of Jesus and faith in him.  We need to see this.

There was also another main temple to Asclepius at Epidaurus in Greece. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The UNESCO website says this about the Asclepian temple there;

"The Sanctuary is the earliest organized sanatorium and is significant for its association with the history of medicine, providing evidence of the transition from belief in divine healing to the science of medicine. Initially, in the 2nd millennium BCE it was a site of ceremonial healing practices with curative associations that were later enriched through the cults of Apollo Maleatas in the 8th century BCE and then by Asklepios in the 6th century BCE. The Sanctuary of the two gods was developed into the single most important therapeutic center of the ancient world. These practices were subsequently spread to the rest of the Greco-Roman world and the Sanctuary thus became the cradle of medicine."  Source whc.unesco.org/en/list/491

So according to this, the Asclepions , one being occupied by Apollo and Asclepius, were the beginning of the transition from believing in divine healing to believing in the science of medicine.  Yet still, the visions of this family of gods were sought for diagnosis and healing instructions.

Other researchers state this about the two temples in a book called "Magic And Rationality In Ancient Near Eastern And Graeco-roman Medicine", edited by Herman F. J. Horstmanshoff, Marten Stol, C. R. Van Tilburg, Brill Academic Publishers, 2004

What comes out if we compare the two eases? At first sight the reader is struck by one considerable difference: at Epidaurus the god operates directly. He performs surgery while the patient is dreaming; he heals without intermediaries. In Aclius Aristides’ dreams, however, the god gives insight and advice, as well as a feeling of a special relationship between god and man. Yet. he does not personally act as a healer, let alone as a surgeon. He heals in fact, however, in Pergamon in the second century AD no less than lie did at Epidaurus in the fourth century BC.

A second difference seems to be related to this first one. Whereas in Epidaurus doctors are not mentioned and do not seem to practise within the temple precincts, in Aristides' Pergamon the god acts only indirectly, in dreams and visions, which consequently are interpreted with the help of skilled doctors, friends with medical knowledge and members of the temple staff. The god appears ‘to have learned medicine’, as Ludwig Kdclstcin called it. i.e. acquired a medical education.'’ Pg 330

So far it would seem that physicians and medicine came about as the result of being disobedient to God.  What could I find about physicians and medicine in the Old Testament?  Actually there is very little written on these things in the Old Testament in a positive way.

Initially, after leaving Egypt, Israel had no physicians, no healing temples.  They had God who had promised them health and healing providing they followed him alone.  As opposed to the priests of the pagan religions, the priests of Israel were not physicians.  The Law of Moses did not contain any provision for physicians, nor instructions for medications like those that came from the pagan gods.

What the Law did contain were God's instructions on sustaining health and preventing illness via the dietary and sanitation practices.  The Priests' job in health was to either confirm something or a person that was unclean or unclean.  For instance in the case of Leprosy, an incurable disease by man, the Law gave the priests information as what it looked like.  When a person had it, they were unclean and could not associate with others  Then, if a person was healed by God, the Priest would have to confirm it before the person could be restored to the community.  There would be cleansing ritual sacrifices to symbolically remove the disease.  And there were other such cleansing rituals with clothing and even houses.  When Jesus healed the ten lepers he told them to show themselves to the priests, not to any "physicians".

Thus from the Biblical writings, there were no God authorized Jewish physicians seen in it.  From what I have read, there were no indications of Jewish physicians until the writing of the Babylonian Talmud.  The Babylonian Talmud is one of two Jewish writings of civil and ceremonial law.  It was not until this was written after the destruction of the Temple during the Roman occupation that there is any reference to Jewish physicians. This use of "physicians" would have been after their captivity due to their apostasy.  Sources: jewishvirtuallibrary.org/medicine; Jewish Bioethics: Rabbinic Law and Theology in their Social and Historical Contexts, Yechiel Michael Barilan, Cambridge University Press, 2014.

So it would appear that any contact Israel may have had with "physicians" would have to have been those of the pagan nations they were supposed to dispose (but did not), or those of Egypt that they would end up having alliances with at times.  Instead of being a distinct people separated unto God, after entering Canaan and over a period of time, they joined with the pagans.   We can see an example again of this in Ahaziah, the son of King Ahab and Jezebel.  He followed in the footsteps of his parents in apostasy.

In 2 Kings 1:2 we see that Ahaziah fell through a lattice in his house and was injured.  Instead of going to the true God, he sends a servant to the Philistine city of Ekron to inquire of the false god Baalzebub if he would recover or not.  His messengers were interrupted by some messengers of Elijah that had a message from God to them.  He said, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?  In other words, Ahazia was choosing a false god over the true God.  Ahaziah did not like the answer from the true God that came from Elijah: he was going to die.  Knowing this answer came from Elijah, the enemy of his father and mother, Ahaziah sent his soldiers to kill the prophet.  It did not work out that way.  Instead, fire from heaven came down and killed the soldiers; on two separate occasions.  Ahaziah then died.

You see, God had been there (but not now), but Ahaziah preferred the pagan healer god instead of humbling himself.   In this case it was the pagan healing god of the Philistines, (Baalzebub – lord of the flies or demons) that Ahaziah wanted to go for his prognosis.  It could very well be that this god was Dagon aka Ea.  Baalzebub was considered the "prince of the demons" and Jesus referred to him in the gospels as Satan (Matthew 12:25-28 and others)

The "wand of Hermes" (called a "caduceus"), while a major symbol of healthcare, as noted before, symbolizes the god Hermes to the Greeks, and the planet Mercury to the Romans.  This son of Zeus is like the false prophet to the anti-Christ in Revelation. Hermes is called the "interpreter of the gods", "messenger of the gods", and other characteristics.  In the word of God he is referred to as "Nebo" (Nabu), a god of the Babylonians around the time of Nebuchadnezzar.  (Source:  Strong's Concordance and others).  In fact our government gives him honor on a door of the Library of Congress (John Adams Building) as seen below.  According to the history of this and other doors showing ancient gods, Nabu contributed to the history of written word (Source: si.edu/object/siris_ari_22445)

Caduceus = Hermes	Hermes / Mercury =  Nabu	Nabu (Nebo)

While we unwittingly accept this image of a pagan god as benevolent, as did Israel in it's earlier form as Nabu (Nebo), it was supposed to have been destroyed along with it's images, not utilized.  God said,

Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.

They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.

Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb:

And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.

To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?  Isaiah 46:1-4

But instead of destroying the images along with their gods, ways, and understanding that they cannot deliver, we honor the images and the medicine they are behind.  We don't see it though.  We just accept and do as our forefathers did, just like Israel.

But as it was, in both Israel and Judah, God was eventually substituted with the medicine of the pagan nations and their gods.  That did not work well for them.  For instance we see only three times in the King James Version where the word "physicians" (plural) is used in the Old Testament.

Since the book of Job may be the oldest book in the Bible, I will use it as the first time we see the word "physicians" (Rapha).  In this use, Job is telling his three friends that they are "forgers of lies" and "physicians of no value".  In this account, God allowed Satan to bring disease upon Job, but the friends had their own ideas of why Job was sick.  No matter of diagnosis, medicine, or other remedy of man could heal Job; only God.   And this did not happen until some wrong theology in the minds of Job and his friends was corrected by God.  Could this be us today too?

The second use of "physicians" (Rapha) is in Egypt when Joseph commanded the "physicians" to embalm his father (Genesis 50:2).  In this case it shows us that in Egypt the physicians were also those who prepared the dead for burial.  They are depicted in the art of the tombs in Egypt has men with the head of a Jackal, the god Anibus (Left photo)

The third time is way later when Israel was in Canaan.  In this case we see in 2 Chronicles 16 that King Asa had some sort of disease in his feet.  The account tells us "yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians" (Rapha).  He died.

So there were not any positive things concerning "physicians" in the plural sense.

In Jeremiah 8:22  God is lamenting about the apostate state of Israel and telling them he is sending judgment for which there are no remedies.  God asks the questions, "Is there no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician (Rapha) there?  Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?"

Sometimes this verse in Jeremiah is used to justify physicians and medicine today.  However, Matthew Henry said of this in his commentary that shows something contrary.  He said,

"The blood of Christ is balm in Gilead, his Spirit is the physician there, both sufficient, all-sufficient, so that they might have been healed, but would not."

This is a simple statement that could have a profound meaning.  Christ himself is both balm and physician.

It is interesting that we see in Genesis 37:25 that the Ishmaelites were the merchants of this balm of Gilead and they were on their way to Egypt to sell it when the brothers of Joseph sold him to these descendants of Ishmael.  This actual balm had no attachment to God as a medicine just as the Ishmaelites did not have part of the covenant between God and Abraham through Isaac.

Yet this word "Rapha" is also used numerous times referring to God in healing, but  also referring to other beings too.

Who Are The Rapha?

While doing research into the subject of physicians in the Old Testament, I came upon this interesting word that intrigued me that may give an indication of what was going on in the pagan world of medicine in Canaan.  That word is "Rapha".  It comes up three times in Strong's Concordance with the English spelling "Rapha".  However each word is shown a little different in Hebrew symbols, but still has the root that refers to healing or physician.   I have shown them below.

"Rapha"(Strong's 7495) as it is spelled in English, is a root word רָפָא  that initially means "physician", "healed" or "repaired".  The first time it is used is in Genesis 20:17 when God "healed" Abimelech after Abraham prayed for him.

One key verse that uses this root word is Exodus 15:26 when God said to Israel, "I am the Lord that healeth thee" (Jehovah-Rapha)

Yet it is the same root word used when Asa did not go to the Lord for healing but went to the "physicians" in 2 Chronicles 16:12  So there were healers of a different persuasion back then?  Yes, just not of God.  Like the word "therapeutae" could mean the followers of Jesus or Asclepius, "Rapha" has different associations.

"Rapha" (Strong's 7496) as it is spelled in English, is derived from the root of 7495 but is רָפָא and means "shades" or "departed spirits of the dead".  It is also used in association with "Rephaim" (giants).  In other sources these Rephaim are also referred to as "divine ones" or gods. Source: jewishvirtuallibrary.org/rephaim.  Recall that the spirits of the dead were used in the temples of Asclepius.

"Rapha" (Strong's 7497) as it is spelled in English is also derived from 7495 but is רָפָא and refers to the Rephaim, the giants of Canaan.  There are numerous verses that refer to these giants.  Their existence is brought up in Genesis 14 during the time of Abraham.  Genesis 14 shows the expanse of their territory including even into Egypt (Ham).

So is there a connection with healing between these three words?  It would seem so.

According to a few commentaries on these three words, some scholars have a hard time connecting the spirits of the dead and the giants, to the root of Rapha which has to do with healing.  I think a logical explanation can be seen in part of the pagan methodology of medicine which is to contact the spirits of the "gods" to obtain diagnosis and cures.  This could also fit the Rephaim (Giants) being referred to as "divine ones" as being a source of medicine back then.  It could also give association to the Hyperborean who were not only giants, but healers.

As seen below, in the images of ancient times, the gods are sometimes depicted as giants.

Hittite King before giant god Tarhunza (Zeus).  Note the giant grapes Tarhunza holds. The Israeli spies that went into Canaan said, "a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff...And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, who come of the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”  Numbers 13:23,33	People sacrificing bull to giant gods Asclepius and Hygeia

When you research the Hebrew and Greek words for, "sick", illness", "disease", "medicine", "heal", "healing", and "healed", there are no indications that anyone other than God was, or is involved in the removal of disease / illness in man.  Yet he is not given the glory in healing today in our modern medicine: perhaps because he is not in it when we look at the source as previously seen.  Let's look again at just a few of many examples of this below as seen in the use of the names of these gods in some of today's medical businesses.

I want to bring attention to a large pharmaceutical company that is the leading producer of Diabetes medicine today.  I mentioned I would show a company that had a pagan god logo that understood there are "dualities in life" and states so when explaining their logo.  The company is Novo Nordisk.  Their logo is the Egyptian Apis Bull.  As previously noted, this image also represents the Egyptian god Ptah, the father of Imhotep.  This is what the company says about their logo

"The Novo Nordisk logo identifies our company instantly and represents the sum of all our values in one symbol. The Apis bull has been Novo's logo since the year after the foundation of Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium in 1925. The choice of the logo follows a European chemist tradition of identifying pharmacies through an animal symbol. The logo is a stylised reproduction of an Egyptian statuette dating from circa 664–323 BC. It is richly ornamented with symbols representing among other things, the eternal dualities of life, day and night, life and death. The Apis bull was worshipped as the incarnation of Ptah, creator of the universe, city god of Memphis and the patron deity of craftsmen."  Source:  Novo norodisk website.

So, the sum of all their values is seen in the demonic idol of Ptah whom they acknowledge in their values, as the creator of the universe.  Again recall that the true God overthrew this and the other gods of Egypt.  As previously noted, Israel tried to revive it in the making of the golden calf at the bottom of Sinai to replace the true God of Israel while they thought Moses delayed in his coming down from the mountain and later on in Canaan.  Like the Apis, the golden calf represent more than one entity.  God said of it,

"They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Exodus 32:8

They too gave the credit of their deliverance and healing to other gods; even after seeing God destroy them.  The results?

^"And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made."  Exodus 32:35

Israel later did this again by making two calves as seen in 2 Kings 10

"²⁸ Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.

²⁹ Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan."

The values of this company also include the "dualities of life", the opposites, like the tree in the garden.  That makes it acceptable to have both good and bad components to their medicines, just like the FDA authorizes; benefits outweigh risks. Prior to Satan's deception in the garden with his tree of dualities (knowledge of good and evil, there were no dualities, only good, including day and night (Genesis 1:31).

Physicians In The New Testament

One of the larger justifications for the Christian's acceptance for medicine and physicians today is seen by most in the New Testament.  But again I found this very sketchy as it is in the Old Testament.  And when it is addressed, it does not seem to be in a positive sense.  Let me explain what I see.

The Greek word for physician is "iaomai" (Strong's G2390).  It is used in three contexts in the New Testament.  The first was used by Jesus as seen in Matthew 9.  In this account the tax collector Matthew and other "sinners" had gathered to listen to him.  Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees for this association.  Jesus had a response to them,

But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.  Matthew 9:12

Jesus was referring to himself as the person who could make those who realized they needed forgiveness to be made whole.  He referred to himself as that only physician.  The Pharisees had not seen this, being blind.

The next use by Jesus is in Luke 4.  Jesus is addressing an unbelieving people as he is teaching.  He said,

And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;

But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,"  Luke 4:23-28

Jesus said that since Israel (His own people) had turned from following the true God, He went to a pagan gentile nation and attended to just two believers there.  It angered them when Jesus said this. This crowd mocked Jesus as the Physician even though they saw his healings.  Jesus noted the time would come when they would taunt him to heal himself at his crucifixion.  They were filled with unbelief that he was and is, the ultimate Physician.  The unbelief was even in his own city (and his own church today).  He made this well known to them by telling them that there were hardly any healings during the time of Elijah because of the unbelief of the people in Israel.  God had shut up the heavens for three and a half years.

Jesus noted that God sent Elijah into the pagan city of Sidon, (location of the healing god Eshmun and home of the evil Jezebel) to just minister to one woman during a famine.  God provided her with her food, water, and healing for her son; disposing of Eshmun or any form of this god.

Of all the lepers in Israel at that time, none were healed because of their unbelief.  Yet, as we saw earlier, some pagan Syrian General by the name of Naaman went to Elijah in his misery and was healed by the true God, not by the Syrian god, Rimmon.  (1 Kings 5:18).  Rimmon was their storm god, their equivalent of Zeus whom we can follow his seed down to Apollo, then Asclepius and Hippocrates.   As one scholar said,

"Naaman, the commander of the Aramaean army worshiped in the temple of this deity at Damascus (2 Kings 5:17-19; LXX ̔Ρεμμὰ̀ν). D. J. Wiseman concluded: “the temple (of Rimmon) was probably sited beneath the present Ummayid mosque in that city, which itself was built over an older temple dedicated to Zeus, whose symbol like that of Rimmon, Hadad and Baal, was a thunderbolt” (NBD, 1097)." Source: biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Rimmon

Zeus keeps on coming up, doesn't he?  Keep in mind that many of these gods are in reality just other and earlier forms and names of Zeus, Apollo, Asclepius, Hermes and the rest that seed line family of gods.

The next use of "physician" is seen in Mark 5 and Luke 8.  It is the account of the woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years.  I think it is significant that Luke wrote an account of this because the next use of "physician" refers to Luke himself by Paul in Colossians where Paul referred to Luke as "the beloved physician" in Colossians 4:14.  But, Luke 8 first.

In this account of the woman we see from Luke that he says,

"And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians,( iatros) neither could be healed (therapeuō) of any, came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.

And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue (dynamis- power) is gone out of me.

And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed (iaomai) immediately.

And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole (sōzō); go in peace. " Luke 8:43-48

Now understand that this is Luke, whom Paul referred to as the "beloved physician (iatros) " who is stating that for twelve years this woman went to many physicians (iatros)  and spent all of her money on them, but still had not been healed (therapeuō to do service to heal or restore) .   This phrase, "beloved physician" as referring to Luke, is used to justify the existence of physicians and medicine today. 

If Luke (Lucas) was a physician in the sense that we view physicians today, or are taught he was, since he was Greek he, could have been one of the "Therapeutae" of the Greek god Ascelpius prior to becoming a follower of Christ: one of "seeds" of Asclepius,  And perhaps now in this sense, was now instead, a beloved iatros of Jesus; now of his "seed" (born again)  In Philemon 1:12 he is listed among Paul's "fellow labourers" and twice in his gospel Luke states Jesus sent his disciples out to "heal the sick" in the manner of Jesus.  Yet this one verse referring to Luke as a "physician" turned into justification that our physicians and medicine today are of God.

Note the difference in the use of the word "healed" between that in the sense of the physicians the woman went to, and that of the healing of Jesus.  While in other verses the healings of Jesus are associated with the word "Therapeuo", the  physicians here were also associated with "healed" in the sense of "Therapeuo".  However, in this account the work of Jesus was associated with "iaomai" which means to make whole to free from errors and sins, to bring about (one's) salvation.  To take this further, Jesus told her that her faith had made her "whole" (zozo).  This word not only refers to restoring health, but to keep one safe from judgment.

Well if Luke was a physician in the sense of what we view one today, he had just reported that his own practice, that originated with Asclepius and Hippocrates, was a waste of money and time.  Not only that, Luke noted she got worse by going to them.  It is almost like many of the same scenarios today of which some I have previously shared.  I will share some of my own more current ones later.

Luke noted it was Jesus who is the healer.  It wasn't just a healing here though.  Jesus made her "whole" because now her faith was taken off that which was only therapeuō to that which was the true healing and salvation as seen in the words iaomai and zozo.  The physicians of man can't do this.  Disease is a result of sin of which man has no remedy for.  This one made her unclean and outside the temple until he made her whole and healed her.

It was like she had had an epiphany one day and knew there was only one remedy for her condition.  Even though because of her condition she was not allowed in the temple or in close proximity to anyone because she was unclean, perhaps she had heard some prophecy of this Messiah that said,

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.  Malachi 4:2

The Rabbinical shawl that Jesus wore had tassels that were called wings.  And for this suffering woman, perhaps, in her mind all she needed to do was get close to Jesus and touch a tassel.

There was no glory given to the medical field here, nor to its gods or Therapeutae.  Again, when you look at the word "healed" as it is used in the miracles of Jesus and his disciples, it is rendered, therapeuō .  It means, "to serve, do service, heal, cure, restore to health as associated to Jesus, not any Greek healing method or god.  There were, and are, two therapeuo; one who serves the true God, and one who serves the gods like Asclepius.  Both are from two different seed lines and oppose each other.

If we start from Noah we see that he had three sons; Shem, Ham, and Japeth.  It would be from the son Shem that Israel and thus Jesus came from.  But Ham, one of Noah's other sons had committed some sin against Noah.  Thus  Noah cursed the seed line of Ham by saying,

And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.  God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.  Genesis 9:24-27

It is through Ham and his evil seed we get the Egyptians and the Canaanites.  It is through Ham's son Cush that we got the evil Nimrod and the kingdom of Babylon.  It is through these nations we got the false gods of healing we see today.  But note that it would be these nations that would in the future, be the servants of Schem and Japeth. 

Like with other accounts of his healing, it appears that Jesus set this one up with the woman actually opposing these false gods and their "therapeutae" (those who do healing service to Asclepius).   This woman told her story (testimony) before Jesus and the others.  It was to show that it is God who has power over and above all the other so called gods.  Like Moses and Aaron displayed to all, the superiority of God over Pharaoh and all of his gods, Jesus was now acting in this same manner.  Like Moses demanded that Pharaoh set captive Israel free, Jesus had also come to set the captives free.  He set this woman free.  He was fulfilling prophecy.

After defeating Satan in the wilderness using God's word, we see in Luke 4:18-21 Jesus in the synagogue in his own city of Nazareth declaring this for that time in history as he read from Isaiah 61:1 and part of verse 2

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."

And so it was.  As Moses confronted the gods of Egypt, Jesus began showing the superiority of God over the ways of man and the false gods of Satan during that time.  It is my belief that one of the demonstrations of this occurred as Jesus and his disciples had just left multitudes of people and were crossing the Sea of Galilee in some sort of boat or ship.

The accounts in Matthew 8, Mark 4, and Luke 8 tell us that as they crossed the sea, or lake,

"But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.

And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.

And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him." Luke 8:23-25

The Greek words used to describe this event indicate it was an unusually violent storm and that the water trembled as an earthquake.  In Luke 8 the word for "wind" is "anemos".  It is used in the context of a very violent wind and of "the four cardinal winds".  "Anemos" is also the name of four Greek gods of wind of which their leader is the storm god, Zeus.  Source: theoi.com/Titan/Anemoi.html.  Zeus was the prevalent god of the Greeks at that time.  Recall that in Isaiah 14 Satan was described as taking his position in the sides of the north; the home of the storm gods.

Also during that time there existed the brother of Zeus.  His name is Poseidon. Poseidon was the high tempered god of the sea, fresh waters and earthquakes.  In the Roman pantheon of gods he was known as Neptune, the brother of Jupiter, the Roman equivalent of Zeus.  In the account in Matthew 8:24 it says that a great "tempest" (seismos- earthquake) arose in the sea.  This would coincide with the attribute of Neptune.

Now in the account we see it is said that Jesus "rebuked" both the wind and the sea.  We also see that his disciples said Jesus "commanded" them.  The word "rebuked" in this context is the Greek word, "epitassō" it means; to enjoin upon, order, command, charge.  It is used in the context of being directed to a person, a demon, and Satan.  It is the same word used for "commanded" that his disciples used to describe his actions.

One can only imagine the astonishment of the followers of Zeus / Jupiter of that time if they witnessed Jesus having power of their gods.  In ancient Egypt his equivalent was the god Amun.  Amun was a god of wind and was also referred to as "Amon- Ra", and "Zeus Ammon".  Just as Moses confronted these false gods of Egypt and God displayed his power over them, I believe that Jesus was doing this again to demonstrate his prophetical arrival and power over the false gods.

What is interesting is that many times he used healing to demonstrate this power over the healing gods as with the woman with the issue.  We can see this again in two more examples I earlier said I would show.

The first being the account in John 5 of Jesus walking into the area of the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. With this pool it is said that at certain times an "angel" came and "troubled" the waters.  It was at this time that the first person into the pool was supposed to have been healed.  Here Jesus went up to a man with some infirmity and asked him if he wanted to be made "whole".  This infirmed man did not give a direct answer to Jesus, nor did he even know who he was.  The man just told him what he was brought up to believe.  He said to Jesus,

"Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me."  John 5:7

Well the man is kind of like us; depending upon man and gods which were associated with the water.  If we understand the nature of the true God, we can very well see that this rolling of the dice, i.e., first in the pool gets the benefits, is not of God.

The word Jesus used for "whole" here is hygiēs.  Aside from being associated with the false healing goddess, Hygeia, it means to be restored in bodily health as well as true doctrine.  Now this is interesting because this pool was part of a temple that was not of God.   But it was an Asclepeion; a healing temple and pool of Asclepius and the Hellenistic Egyptian / Greek god, Serapis.  This man was about to get a lesson of true doctrine as Jesus again confronts Satan, even in his own temple.

Not too many years ago there were two plaques and a bowl (left photo) discovered at this ancient site that show this pool was dedicated to the Egyptian / Greek Hellenistic god Serapis, as well as to the Greek healing god Asclepius.  Jesus was again confronting the false gods of healing on their own ground.  Then in front of all those other lame and sick that were there, Jesus showed them and this man they were waiting on the wrong god for some chance healing in some dead, not living, waters.  While they were waiting of the waters of a pagan god to heal them the one who gives true "living water" showed up.

Jesus later sees this man in the temple and warns him to "sin no more" or even worse would come upon him.  It is like when God told Israel to stay away from Egyptian gods and those of the Canaanites or they would bring upon themselves worse diseases.  Jesus was saying the same thing.

Jesus makes him whole and at the same time shows this man and the others in this healing pool who the real God of healing is.  It was again to glorify God and bring their attention to the truth.  Jesus stepped on their gods again.

Another example is the blind man outside the temple in Jerusalem as seen in John 9.  John 8 ends with a confrontation Jesus had with the Pharisees.  In this encounter he told them that they were of their father the devil and indicated to them that he, Jesus, was in fact, God.  The chapter ends with them picking up stones to kill him.  However it says that Jesus "hid" himself and "passed by" them.  Chapter 9 begins here.

"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.  And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,

And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing."  John 9:1-7

Although in a general manner, sin did bring about disease into the world, Jesus pointed out the cause of this man's blindness was not as a result of a sin or disease being passed on because of the sins of his parents, nor his own sins.  However, as with Job, the reason he was in this condition was that God would be glorified and his truth displayed.  This is another account I believe Jesus confronts the false gods and wrongly used to justify pharmaceuticals.  I will explain.

Recall again that during this time there were the healing temples of Asclepius in the areas of the seven churches.  Aside from Pergamum, one such temple was in Laodicea.  It was in this city that the famous Pythagorean eye salve was made of a specific ground stone and oil.  In Revelation 3:14 we see Jesus warning this false church in Laodicea,

"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."

In keeping with his pattern of confronting the false gods, Jesus, in making his own "eyesalve" from the clay mixed with his spit, was showing the people that he is over these gods of healing and their medicine.  He was also showing them he would take the spiritual blindness away from the people.

As Naaman the leper was obedient to go wash in the Jordan River, this blind man was obedient to Jesus to go wash in a specific pool called Siloam.  Not only did this blind man have his physical eyes open, Jesus also took away his spiritual blindness by revealing himself to this man right in front of the Pharisees.

Like the church of Laodicea, the Pharisees thought they did not need anything, but were spiritually blind.  Jesus told them that because of this, their sin remained. 

In this and all of the miracles that Jesus did, he was fulfilling prophecies by which he could be identified, of which all gave glory to God and not man.  We see this in another example.

The disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus filled with some doubt as to who Jesus really is.  The account says,

"And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?

²⁰ When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?

²¹ And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight.

²² Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.

²³ And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." Luke 7:19-23

Jesus did not just answer their question at first with words; he demonstrated to them in person who he is.  Then he told them to go and tell John what they saw.  He was again fulfilling what he read in quoting Isaiah 61:1 and other prophecies.

It is interesting that Jesus would end his words to John's disciples saying "And blessed is he, whosoever not be offended (Strongs - skandalizō ,skandalon" - fig. applied to Jesus Christ, whose person and career were so contrary to the expectations of the Jews concerning the Messiah, that they rejected him and by their obstinacy made shipwreck of their salvation")

Jesus, his words and actions were a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the gentiles (1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Romans 9:32-33, Isaiah 8:14) .  They still are to them and even with some in the church.

The Ark in the temple had been missing since the time of the capture of Jerusalem by Babylon.  It was where the presence of God was and his glory.  Jesus offered that presence to them again.  But, they rejected him (again), wanting to keep their own traditions, false teachings and religiosity.  Jesus was a curse to some and a blessing to others.  How, being teachers of the Scriptures could the religious leadersnb not see it?  As prophesied, they were blinded until a future time still to come.  What would have happened if they had seen it?

Dagon, fish god of the Philistines.  Note the symbolism of the Wand of Hermes.

Perhaps a lesson can be seen again in the Old Testament.  During the reign of King Saul, Israel became apostate so God turned his face away from them.  In one battle, the Phlistines, who were previously defeated, now defeated Israel and took the Ark of the Covenant and placed in in the temple of their god, Dagon (1 Samuel 4, 5, and 6).  Dagon was the half man half fish god. Note in the photo how he is in the likeness of the Wand of Hermes. He was also known as Enki and Oannes.  But instead of submitting to the fact that perhaps there was something wrong with them; they argued with God.

But, this Ark, this presence of God, became a curse to the Philistines and Dagon.  The morning after they placed the Ark in the temple, Dagon was found knocked over.  They set this idol back up and the second morning he was found with his head and hands removed.  Further more, God afflicted them with a plague.  Yet instead of seeing that just perhaps this God of Israel was the true God and had power over them, they put the Ark on a cart and God directed cattle to take it back to Israel, which they also saw!  They also knew what God had done in Egypt and releasing Israel from their bondage. No matter to them; gonna keep their own god, get this scary one out!

But the people and Levites that saw the Ark, took it off the cart, looked inside the Ark (bad disobedience) and saw the gold idols of pestilence the Philistines made and sacrificed to, and they and 50,000 died.  So now they were afraid of this Ark and God.  So it stayed in a house in Kirjathjearim for 20 years, until King David decided to bring it back to Jerusalem after the people repented of their worship of Baalam.

But not much was different with this same attitude with King David for a short time, until he Got it.

His story begins in 1 Chronicles 13 and 2 Samuel 6.  He wants to bring the Ark back to Jerusalem because, as he said and admitted, "for we inquired not at it in the days of Saul." 2 Chronicles 3.  He an large entourage went to get it and, making the same mistake the Philistines did, put it on a cart (it was to be only carried by the Levite priests by poles on each side).  During the movement, a driver of the cart by the name of Uzza thought the Ark was going to tip off and put his hand on it to stabilize it.  We are told this angered God and that he killed Uzza.

This really upset David and he was now angry at God and afraid of him and asked how he could even bring this symbol of the presence of God to Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 13:12 and 2 Samuel 6).  So, he left the Ark in the house of a priest of Edom by the name of Obededom or (Obed-edom).  Funny thing is, Obededom had no problem with this.  And the word tells us that for the three months the entire house of Obededom was blessed!

The word went out that God had blessed Obededom, so David got it!  He went and brought back the presence of God, according to the Word of God (1 Chronicles 15" esp verse 2), AND "with gladness" (1 Chronicles 15:25, 2 Samuel 6:12).  In fact it said that God "helped" the Levites carry the Ark (1 Chronicles 15:26).

In 1 Chronicles 16 we see that David appointed "certain Levite Priests and their Psalm writing leader Asaph, to sing before the Lord.  It was here that David wrote his first Psalm.  In it he sounds like Jesus in his address to John's disciples.  To outline, he said; Give thanks to God, declare his wonderous works - make them known!, Glory in His Name, Seek Him, His Strength continually, Remember His Works, AND, His judgments, Be mindful of his Covenant!  Declare his glory to the non-believer.  Give to the Lord the glory due his name! Fear him.  And more great things.  Quite a lesson of God's mercy and greatness and instruction from the Old Testament.

The offense was actually a blessing, one to be declared!

Concerning the healing of the blind man, Jesus said something important to his disciples we again need to be aware of.  He told them,

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world" 

As long as the presence of Jesus is in the world (through now his Spirit) then his church must also do the works of the Father because, when the light is gone, no power for these things will exist.  There appears to be something lacking today in doing these works to glorify God.  Yet at the same time we must take care to separate the false signs and wonders.  This takes knowing the word and testing.

Paul pointed out to the Corinthians

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

As with Jesus, the purpose of these demonstrations of the Spirit and of power were to be as witnesses, confirmations of the words they spoke.

Paul spoke of Jesus publicly showing the difference between the physicians of the gods of men and Jesus when Paul said,

^"And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it."  Colossians 2:15

Moses did the same before Pharaoh and Israel.  There is a noticeable difference between the seed of Schem (Judah) and that seed of Ham (Egypt).

This brings up another question of today's theology that seems to be absent from God's word.  Is God glorified in infirmities and diseases that are not removed?  We are told this is the case.  But, are there examples in the word of God being glorified by infirmities and diseases remaining?  By this I am talking about those who are not healed and seem to handle well their diseases and infirmities and praise God for the grace to do so?  The accounts we see in the word, like the one of the man who was blind from birth show that it was God who was glorified through the healing of a person, not in the remaining of disease or infirmity. 

I can think of a number of persons who are not Christians who seem to handle, or have handled their infirmities or diseases well.  They were the focus of handling it well, not Jesus.  The attention was on them.   I just have not been able to see this theology in the word in the realm of diseases and healing in the Old or New Testaments.  However, it can be seen in suffering persecutions and physical beatings such and Paul and other Apostles and disciples suffered because of preaching the gospel.

Paul's "thorn in the flesh" from "the" messenger of Satan to "buffet" Paul as seen in 2 Corinthians 12:7 is used at times to justify disease not being healed.  But it appears to me this is wrongly used as an excuse for disease not healed after prayer, so we just bear it.  For instance, the word "buffet" is kolaphizō.  It means to "strike with the fist, to maltreat with violence".  It is used in the context of being beat up like both Jesus and Paul experienced.  While Paul had prayed three times for the messenger to depart from him, God did not remove the messenger from attacking him.  Paul noted that this thing was used by God to keep Paul humble.

And what is the meaning of the "thorn in the flesh".  In Numbers 33:55, and Judges 2:2-3 this connotes the nations that Israel was to drive out, but if they did not, they would be "thorns in their sides".  In 2 Samuel 23:6 "thorns" is used as a name for the sons of Satan and in other verses used for evil people.  Neither the phrase nor the word "thorn" is used in the context of illness or disease in the Old Testament or the New.

Healing is just more than being relieved of some physical disease or infirmity.  Is God glorified when a person is demonically possessed or oppressed by demons and that possession or oppression remains?  The lack of deliverance in these things depicts the power of evil over good, and not the grace of God in handling it.  Yet Jesus made those in this condition whole, just as he did those who were infirmed and diseased.  Like with Job, sometimes illness comes from Satan, but allowed by God that in God's timing, the person is restored.  Then God is glorified.

Consider the following example of the woman who had a demonic "spirit" of "infirmity" that bent her over.  It does not say she was possessed, but in bondage.

"And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.  And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.

¹² And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed (apolyō – released, set a liberty) from thine infirmity.

¹³ And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.  Luke 13:11-13

Again Jesus confronted Satan, but now it was inside one of the synagogues where he was teaching.  But the ruler of this synagogue neither understood who Jesus was nor grasped what he had just done.  This ruler's response to Jesus was as if Jesus was just some sort of physician who was violating the law by working on the Sabbath.  The office was supposed to be closed on Sunday.

And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed  (therapeuō – to do service, to cure) on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: (ergazomai- to labor, work, do business) in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.

The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?

And ought not this woman, being a daughter (thygatēr – a daughter, daughter of God, acceptable) of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?

And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.  Luke 13:14-17

I think we do not realize that part of healing is to release a person at times from the bondage of Satan who brings about disease.  Had this woman remained in her condition she would have been held in bondage by Satan.  Jesus pointed out she was a daughter of Abraham, a daughter of the covenant, a daughter of God, and was in the synagogue on the Sabbath.  Yet she was in this demon afflicted condition for eighteen years.  It does not tell us what brought it on, just that Satan had her body like he had Job's.  It was not until Jesus released her from it that God was glorified by her and all the people rejoiced.

Do people get sick?  Yes, including Christians.  However Jesus showed a way of becoming whole that man cannot accomplish with his wisdom, pills, nor that which originated from the ancient sources of healing.  I think we are not seeing some things today we should be seeing.

In Matthew 10:7-8 Jesus told his disciples when he initially sent them out;

But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Heal (therapeuō) the sick , cleanse (katharizō) the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give."

God gave his followers a free gift and they were in turn to freely give it to others.  In this God is glorified.

In Luke 10:17-19 we are told,

"And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you."

How interesting it is that we can see that serpents and scorpions were used as part of symbols of the gods of healing, even today.  Yet we are told that Jesus gave his disciples power over these gods to heal the sick and to cleanse the lepers and to literally trample these entities, not embrace them or their images.  Of cleansing lepers, no one could do this except by God.  The priests could only confirm it. Many times I wonder who is trampling on who.

In this account and in Luke 10, Jesus rebukes the people of specific cities in Israel for not accepting him.  He compares their judgment with that of the cities of Tyre and Sidon were to receive.  Recall these were the cities of Jezebel, Ahab and the false healing god Eshmun who is equated with Asclepius.

Yet even in Tyre and Sidon there were those who were healed of diseases after Jesus went there, preached the message of repentance and salvation, and showed his power over the false healing god, Eshmun.  In Luke 6 we see this in Jesus with his disciples ministering to a large crowd,

"And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed (iaomai- to heal, cure, make whole, to be free from errors and sin, to bring about salvation) of their diseases;

And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed (iaomai) And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed (iaomai) them all."  Luke 6:17-19

Here is another use of the word "healed".   It is used in the context of disease and possession, healing and forgiveness.  There seems to be a correlation between sin and disease here as in other accounts.  And there is and we need to grasp it.

Can The Result Of Sin Be Removed By Medicine?

Prior to man sinning in rebelling against God in exchange for the ways of Satan, there was no such thing as disease.  It was after this that disease came into the world.  If we really grasp this then we have to see that disease is a result of sin as is possession and oppression by Satan.  We were born with sin, thus we can get diseases.  Now we can also get specific diseases from committing specific sins, or we can obtain disease because they just happen to run in the family and are passed down.  But, none the less, disease in general came out of sin.

I know that the account of the disciples asking Jesus if the man born blind from birth was because of his sin or that of his parents is used to justify that infirmities are not caused by sin because Jesus answered "neither".  However, he did not say that sin did not cause disease or infirmities. 

Now man's problem right from the beginning was he thought he could hide his sin and cover it with his own ways.  Hence we saw Adam and Eve covering themselves with fig leaves.  What is interesting is that fig leaves are somewhat of a symbol of healing and are still used today.  However they can actually cause some real bad skin conditions. But God showed Adam, Eve and us that there was only one way to deal with sin and that was with the sacrifice of a lamb.  It would be this lambskin from God that would cover their nakedness, i.e., sin.

We can see examples of the sin problem in some accounts of Jesus' healings.

As with the infirmed man Jesus healed at the pagan Asclepeion associated healing pool of Bethesda was later told by Jesus,

"Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee."  John 5:14

God said the same to Israel after delivering them from the bondage of Egypt as we saw in prior verses.

A man who had some paralysis was brought to Jesus to be healed.  The account says;

And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.

And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?  For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.  And he arose, and departed to his house."  Matthew 9:3-7

David Guzick in his commentary on Matthew 9 said,

"Both healing and forgiveness are impossible with man. Yet only the promise of healing could be immediately proven, because though you can’t see someone’s sin being forgiven, you can see that they are healed.

i. “This appears to have been founded on Psalm 103:3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, and healeth all thy diseases. Here pardon precedes health.” (Clarke) "

Matthew Henry said in part,

"The God of truth would not set his seal to a lie.  [2.] It had a particular cogency in this case. The palsy was but a symptom of the disease of sin; now he made it to appear, that he could effectually cure the original disease, by the immediate removal of that symptom; so close a connection was there between the sin and the sickness. He that had power to remove the punishment, no doubt, had power to remit the sin.

The scribes stood much upon a legal righteousness, and placed their confidence in that, and made no great matter of the forgiveness of sin, the doctrine upon which Christ hereby designed to put honour, and to show that his great errand to the world was to save his people from their sins.

Since sin brought disease, how can man take away disease (the result of sin) with medicine?  He can't.  Can man remove or set a person free from the bondage of Satan with a pharmaceutical?  He can't.  We seem to be making wrong choices in how we deal with it though.   Could medicine then be part of the apostasy?  This pattern of sin, disease, and infirmity being removed only by God as a sign are major bookmarks in the Bible.  Let's take a look at some of them.

1.  God covering Adam and Eve's sin with the first sacrifice.  Man's use of the fig didn't work.

2.  God showing his power over the false gods of Egypt and protecting Israel from plagues.

3.  God providing a symbol Christ and of the forgiveness of sins by the blood of a lamb being put on the Israeli's door posts which saved the obedient from death

4.  God's promise to Israel that if they continued in obedience they would not be effected by disease.

5.  The people being killed by "fiery" serpents due to their sin of speaking against God and Moses.  When they realized their people were dying because of their sin, they confessed their sin and God provided a remedy for it which was symbolic of Christ.  Moses took a pole and made a "fiery serpent" of brass and placed this image on the pole.  The people were told that if they were bitten by a serpent, they were to look at this serpent on the pole and thus would be healed.

This serpent on a pole represents sin, evil, and the judgment of it.  It represents Jesus taking our sins upon himself. Jesus told Nicodemus

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."  John 3:14-17

Some 800 years after Moses made the brass serpent, the people of Judah had come to worship it so it was destroyed as an idol by King Hezekiah during his reforms.  Somehow the symbol of the serpent on the pole ended up attached to the false savior / healing gods of Eshmun, Asclepius, and others.  Today this symbol of sin and the false gods has wrongly been resurrected as a symbol of hope and healing apart from God, or deceptively trying to converge the two.

6.  Then Jesus came to give Israel another opportunity.  Forgiveness of sins, deliverance from disease, infirmities and demons were the major signs of prophecy that would accompany the preaching of the gospel.  Jesus passed this on to his followers.

Again as Jesus told his disciples,

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.  Luke 10:19

The serpent and scorpion were the forces of darkness that the followers of Jesus were to have power over.  In healing the sick and casting out demons from the power of God that was given to them, these followers were treading on the serpent, the very symbol(s) of healing we embrace today.  What blindness we seem to have.  What we see in Luke 10:19 parallels what God told Israel about not being affected by disease.  As with what he told Israel, there was an "IF" to this too that we will see later.

This very thing goes back to the fall of man in the garden because of the serpent (Satan) in the garden of Eden.  Genesis 3 God said

"And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

¹⁵ And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."  Genesis 3:14-15

The serpent is cursed.   The seed of the woman (Christ and his followers) were supposed to bruise its head, not utilize its seed that has come down in time to the gods Apollo,  Asclepius, and his seed of which Hippocrates was one.

In Isaiah 44:8 God said,
"Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any."

In John 10 Jesus made it clear about these other gods in the eons of time from the god Ea in ancient Mesopotamia to Asclepius of the Greeks and Romans when he said,

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.

And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.

Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep."  John 10:1-11

I am embarrassed before God.  What have we been doing these past 2000 years as a church?  Whose voice have we been listening to concerning healing?  Have we not tried to make the true God fit the culture in the realm of health like we have everything else?

Unlike what we have in medicine today, God does not steal our money in trade for health, nor keep healing from those who have no money.  God does not drain a family of their livelihood to pay for some outrageous cost for a pharmaceutical, procedure, or hospital stay.  His healing has no part in the hazards of medicine that can kill or destroy.  God's healing has no chance of keeping an abundant life from someone because of the hazards of medicine.  (Oh what I will see!)

God would not abandon the possessed to being medicated and left in jails or hospitals; but man has no solution.  Man cannot not heal what we would call the mentally ill, the oppressed with pills and psychotherapy.  But these are our ways today.  But Jesus is all inclusive; he makes us whole.

Like Jesus said, he is the true door who brings forgiveness of sins (salvation) and finding pasture.  None of these other false savior / healing gods that came before him ever gave their lives for God's people.

It was that lost health and illness that came as result of sin.  Health and healing then came as a result of obedience God and faith in him and in the work of his Son Jesus.  But then divine ways were replaced by the scientific and the occult.  Health became a business, something that must be purchased and it was forgotten there is no man made or demon derived solution to something that exists because of sin; other than God.

The word tells us two times;

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."  Isaiah 53:3-5

"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." 1 Peter 2:24

In 1 Peter 2:24 the word "healed" is iaomai.  As we saw prior, is used in the New Testament in the context of Jesus healing and making a person whole.  Healing is received via the beating he took and placing his own body on the tree in our place.  Isn't this what we acknowledge when taking communion?

In Isaiah 53:4 the word "griefs" is choliy.  It means "sickness".  He took our sicknesses upon himself and was wounded and bruised for these sicknesses.  The word for healed is rapha'.  It means; physician, healed, cured, repaired.  It is used 67 times in 62 verses in the Old Testament.

Even though all these things were plainly observable by the people back in his time, they "esteemed him not".  It hasn't changed today.  We will still prefer relying on the medicine and health practices that birthed out of the gods Imhotep, Apollo and Asclepius instead of relying on the work of Jesus.  Why?  It is what we know, what we grew up with.  Because in part we can see more results, good or bad, from medicine today than we see in the results of prayer.  This can be seen in the statistics alone of what physicians rely on most.  Or perhaps as the Bible tells us that one of the signs of the apostasy is that people will,

"Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."  2 Timothy 3:5

Yes, he was despised because he did not fit the mold of the secular culture, their religions, and gods of that time.  He was despised because he cost them their money.  When he healed the demon possessed Gadarene man he cast the demons into the pigs who drown themselves.  The people of the area did not marvel at the healing of this tortured man, but were angered that they lost their business in their herd of pigs, and were afraid of Jesus.  Pigs were an abomination and considered unclean and was a sign of their apostasy.

They demanded he leave their city.  He did.  But the man he delivered stayed and as a witness to the promised works of God, proclaimed Jesus to those in that area.

Solution? A Preliminary Assessment

So what then is the solution to walking in the realm of the health that God promised instead of  relying on the medical field and it's methods and medicines?  If everyone quit taking their medications right now they would most likely have some bad consequences.  And as I am writing this (2018) I am searching for possible reasons why I cannot get any relief through prayer of the allergies and results of taking the bad antibiotics a decade ago.  The itching and other skin issues are not even relieved with medications.  There is no solution but God's.  But will it manifest as he intended?  (As you will see soon, my condition was worse than some allergies.)

I see the issues and have made a choice that I do not want to be involved with the use of our medical system (Nice try).  But at the same time, God has not seen it fit to deliver me from the problems that torment me.  Certainly I want no association with the false teachers / faith healers of today.  So, I have no idea how to partake of his promises and his divine nature and this is probably a worse torment.  So I wait for his mercy and grace.  (After the verses below; the unexpected.)

Psalm 119 says;

⁶⁶ Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments.

⁶⁷ Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

⁶⁸ Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.

⁶⁹ The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.

⁷⁰ Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law.

⁷¹ It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

⁷² The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.

⁷³ Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.

⁷⁴ They that fear thee will be glad when they see me; because I have hoped in thy word.

⁷⁵ I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.

⁷⁶ Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant.

⁷⁷ Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.

⁷⁸ Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.

⁷⁹ Let those that fear thee turn unto me, and those that have known thy testimonies.

⁸⁰ Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed.

⁸¹ My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.

⁸² Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?

⁸³ For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes.

⁸⁴ How many are the days of thy servant? when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me?

⁸⁵ The proud have digged pits for me, which are not after thy law.

⁸⁶ All thy commandments are faithful: they persecute me wrongfully; help thou me.

⁸⁷ They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not thy precepts.

⁸⁸ Quicken me after thy lovingkindness; so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth.

⁸⁹ For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

⁹⁰ Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.

⁹¹ They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.

⁹² Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.

⁹³ I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.

⁹⁴ I am thine, save me: for I have sought thy precepts.

⁹⁵ The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies.

⁹⁶ I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.

⁹⁷ O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

⁹⁸ Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.

⁹⁹ I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

¹⁰⁰ I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.

¹⁰¹ I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.

¹⁰² I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me.

¹⁰³ How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

¹⁰⁴ Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.

¹⁰⁵ Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

¹⁰⁶ I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.

¹⁰⁷ I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O Lord, according unto thy word.

¹⁰⁸ Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me thy judgments.

¹⁰⁹ My soul is continually in my hand: yet do I not forget thy law.

¹¹⁰ The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts.

¹¹¹ Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart.

¹¹² I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end.

¹¹³ I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.

¹¹⁴ Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.

¹¹⁵ Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God.

¹¹⁶ Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope.

¹¹⁷ Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.

¹¹⁸ Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: for their deceit is falsehood.

¹¹⁹ Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love thy testimonies.

¹²⁰ My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.

¹²¹ I have done judgment and justice: leave me not to mine oppressors.

¹²² Be surety for thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me.

¹²³ Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness.

¹²⁴ Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes.

¹²⁵ I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.

¹²⁶ It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law.

¹²⁷ Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.

¹²⁸ Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.

¹²⁹ Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them.

¹³⁰ The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.

¹³¹ I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.

¹³² Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.

¹³³ Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

¹³⁴ Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.

¹³⁵ Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes.

¹³⁶ Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.

¹³⁷ Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments.

¹³⁸ Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.

¹³⁹ My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.

¹⁴⁰ Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.

¹⁴¹ I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts.

¹⁴² Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.

¹⁴³ Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.

¹⁴⁴ The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.

¹⁴⁵ I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord: I will keep thy statutes.

¹⁴⁶ I cried unto thee; save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.

¹⁴⁷ I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word.

¹⁴⁸ Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.

¹⁴⁹ Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness: O Lord, quicken me according to thy judgment.

¹⁵⁰ They draw nigh that follow after mischief: they are far from thy law.

¹⁵¹ Thou art near, O Lord; and all thy commandments are truth.

¹⁵² Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.

¹⁵³ Consider mine affliction, and deliver me: for I do not forget thy law.

¹⁵⁴ Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word.

¹⁵⁵ Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes.

¹⁵⁶ Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord: quicken me according to thy judgments.

¹⁵⁷ Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.

¹⁵⁸ I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.

¹⁵⁹ Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O Lord, according to thy lovingkindness.

¹⁶⁰ Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

¹⁶¹ Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.

¹⁶² I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.

¹⁶³ I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.

¹⁶⁴ Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.

¹⁶⁵ Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

¹⁶⁶ Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.

¹⁶⁷ My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.

¹⁶⁸ I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee.

¹⁶⁹ Let my cry come near before thee, O Lord: give me understanding according to thy word.

¹⁷⁰ Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word.

¹⁷¹ My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.

¹⁷² My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.

¹⁷³ Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.

¹⁷⁴ I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; and thy law is my delight.

¹⁷⁵ Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.

¹⁷⁶ I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.

 I finished the above part of this article around the first part of February, 2019.  Less than two weeks later I entered a different world: the world I hated, wanted nothing to do with, and just wrote about.  So, less than two weeks after completing over 30 years of wondering about these things, two years of researching the above and completing a draft of my findings, things drastically changed for me and my family.

Part 3:  Into The Fire

"For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came." Job 3:25

On February 14, 2019 (a pagan god observation day), I woke up at 3 am and could hardly breath.  I went into my office and started praying.  Nothing changed, it just got worse with my fear.  Why wasn't what I believed coming about?  I had so much confidence in God! Why is he not responding to my fearful cries to him?  Something more that just allergies was going on.

Over the weeks I was increasingly becoming short of breath.  While I attributed this to allergies, now it did not seem so.  Just the day before I was out with the snow blower blowing snow and taking walks in the nearby state park woods.  It was hard to start each and I had to stop and catch my breath sometimes.  But as I continued either walking or blowing, it became easier and the breathing problem subsided.  There was still that annoying really bad Chicken Pox like rash though.  But this morning was different.  It scared me.  What scared me more was that God had not, and was not helping me in this with an answer to my fearful prayers.

As I sat there and prayed I knew I had to make a decision.  Either remain as I was and maybe die, or do the very thing I wanted nothing to do with and previously said I would not do: go to a hospital (and still maybe die}.  I hadn't seen a doctor in ten years and never wanted to again because of my experiences with them.  And what I found in my research made the thought of it even worse.  Dying would be easy.  But I thought of my wife, children and grandchildren.  My thoughts were that since God had not even given me an indication of why he had been so silent with me, perhaps the only way for me was what I hated and feared; man's medicine and system.  I made my decision which contradicted my thoughts and declarations prior to this.

It was a grueling three hours for me but when my wife woke up at 6 am I told her my problem and said I needed to go to the hospital.  If I said that to her, she knew something serious was wrong because I usually rejected things like this.  ANY suggestion to go see a doctor would almost put me in a panic and would anger me.  But, this morning was different.  My wife said that she would get ready and take me.  I told her that would not work, that I needed an ambulance.

I know this made her worry even more and I hated that.  She called 911 and then my two daughters, who were worried about me anyway.  When the Fire Department came a few minutes later and took a reading of my oxygen level, they told me it was so low that I should not even have the ability to speak let alone joke with them.  So shortly after, it was off to the closest hospital by ambulance.  My wife and daughters were there in the emergency room already.  One of my daughters had worked at this hospital for a number of years and a few in the emergency room.  She knew some of the people who were working on me.  After an x-ray and an IV of something that had an adverse effect on me, I said something to the effect I was going to throw up and was going out.  My daughter who had worked in the emergency room was watching my vitals on the monitor.  They must have really dropped at this time so she told my younger daughter to leave the room, thinking something bad was about to happen. 

I suddenly became aware that the doctor was poking me in the chest with a finger and my wife was slapping me on my face trying to get me to respond.  They stopped the IV and what ever it did, stopped.  I remember coming around in being conscious and being irritated that I was being poked and slapped.

But they could not do anything for me there so it was another trip by ambulance to a hospital across town known for it's heart work.  All I could think of was how much the rides were going to cost and how this was scaring my family (and me).

When we got to the other hospital and I finally got into a room after the initial testing then and the next day,  I was told I did not have a heart attack but had heart and kidney failure.  After more testing they found I was blocked in three arteries and only 10% working in the fourth.  They said if I did not have surgery I would not be alive long.  In fact they said I was not supposed to be alive.  On top of that some other testing showed I had a form of bone cancer called multiple myeloma.  The Oncologist told me if I if had not been found and treatment started, I would not be around in the Spring.  I was told I was a complicated case because of the multiple issues.  Now it took four different fields of medical doctors to come up with a plan in which the procedure and medicines would not interfere with another and cause even more damage or kill me.  For some reason, none of this scared me although I could see the fear on my wife's and daughter's faces.  But I was so disappointed in God and even somewhat ashamed and disappointed in what I believed about the mercies of God in his Word .  I felt as the Psalmist said; rejected.

Was I wrong to believe what I had just written about just two weeks before?  I knew I was not wrong on the secular end, or the pagan god sources; but was it that what I believed is not true, was my understanding wrong, or was I just to supposed to experience all the things that I had just finished writing about?  Or, perhaps it was a discipline for something hidden I was not aware of.  I felt that the only thing to do now was to go along with the very thing I hated. 

I felt like in someway I had failed and somewhat hypocritical that I was involved in something I believed was not of God and tried to stay away from.  But then later on I saw an example in God's Word where he allowed things that were forbidden to get his point across and this took some of these confused feelings away.  Perhaps this is the way God planned it?

For instance in Ezekiel 4 God told Ezekiel to eat some specific foods and even human dung that were a sign of the coming siege on Jerusalem and their dispersion among other nations in which they would be eating forbidden unclean things.  Ezekiel protested that he had never allowed any unclean thing to "pollute" his mouth.  The only thing God did was change the human dung to that of an animal.  Ezekiel was to go against God's law to get a message to the people.  Perhaps this was what is going on with me?

There were some "God things" that happened on this first hospital stay (there were more).  A parade of doctors in their white coats and others came into my room on the second or third day.  I did not like this.  I think it was the heart surgeon, three heart specialists, and someone who was going to explain to me what they were going to do.  I did not want to hear the procedure that and told the woman it would just make it worse for me, but that she could tell my wife.  My pastor was there and I introduced him to the this team.  The head surgeon, a very scholarly looking and scholarly sounding person, explained that they are not gods, and only man, but that they had done many successful surgeries in the past.  He was not arrogant.

This surgeon asked my pastor what his last name was.  When my pastor told him, the surgeon said that he had been listening to my pastor's "lectures" he was teaching on the signs of the times prophetical update on the past year and was enjoying them.  He turned to the other doctors and told them they should also listen to my pastor's "lectures".  That must be scholarly terminology for "sermons".  This doctor was the only one that I felt a little comfortable with.  I also had visits from kidney specialists. I was in this hospital a week before I had my surgery, and another after.  My wife spent the entire first week with me, staying all night.  They even brought in a portable bed so she could spend the night.  Speaking of my wife, anyone who is in this situation and especially with cancer, knows it is a family situation and very hard on a spouse.  I could not have gone through the next months and year without her.  She is truly my help mate and became all of me that I could not do.  I went from self-reliance to total reliance on her.  The same can be said of reliance on our children and grandchildren and the medical, which bummed me.  So, perhaps this "disaster" was a God thing; so I tried to roll with it.

My oldest daughter told me that when they wheeled me away for a quadruple bypass,  I had a look of peace on my face.  My fear was not too bad and later I had no pain from the surgery except in my back because of ribs being moved.  During that stay I had some good nurses and a couple of them who had gone to the same church we went to.  So there were some God things in this two weeks.  There were other blessings on the family side.

In the two weeks I was gone, one of my son-in-laws and daughter came over daily and removed snow from the walks and driveway and my other daughter and family helped too.  It would have to be a week where it snowed every day.  There was a lot all of them did.  We were blessed in just this way alone.  It was the first time I was unable to take care of my house, let alone myself.  It got worse when I went home two weeks later, but God took care of it.

The first week I was in the hospital for the surgery we had a company come over and clean our air ducts.  It was an appointment we had made awhile back because we thought it would help my allergies.  One of my daughters stayed at our house while he cleaned the ducts.  What we did not know, nor did he, is that he unplugged a cord to our freezer in the basement.  We had recently purchased a quarter beef and all that meat and everything else was lost.  So was the freezer.  We did not know it until the day my wife took me home two weeks later.  The house smelled.  She found the liquid from the rotting meat all over the floor in the basement around the freezer.  I could not help here so she bagged every thing and one of my son-in-laws and grandsons came over and took out the freezer and hauled it to the dump.  The air duct company refused to take any responsibility, but later sent a small check.  But we lost over $1000 in meat and a freezer as well as paying for the duct cleaning.

Then the refrigerator when out a few days later and had to be replaced.  Then furnace went out too.  I could not do anything.  It was like, "Oh well".  I am not usually this way and get angry when these things happen, but there was absolutely nothing I could do for the first time in my life.  I felt like a helpless baby.  We could not afford a new refrigerator, but God took care of that.  My wife and one of my daughters had to do the shopping and find one.  We lived out of coolers for a week.  They were left outside so we did not have to get ice all the time.  It was still fairly cold in March.  I knew what might be wrong with the furnace so one of my son-in-laws came over and fixed it.

But in two more weeks I ended up back in the hospital for another week or two with blood clots in the lungs which we were told was caused by the Chemo medicine.   Then again in about a month, back in the hospital that could not help me the first time I went there.  I had a fever and was to weak to walk without being held up.  It took them over a week to find the problem which they thought was in my intestinal track.  This turned out to be the stay from hell.  It was bad.  At the emergency room they had two students that were trying to put an IV in me, but could not.  After 20 minutes I had had enough and told them to stop.  They were even irritating my daughter who had previously worked there.  The nurse finally did it.

The following day a resident hospital doctor came in and was looking at my chart on their computer.  Now understand that some of the hospitals and doctor's offices in my city have been purchased by a large company called "Providence" so they are all on the same system.  This includes the other hospital that did my surgery.  My history is there. As he was looking over my history I asked him if my Cardiologist knew I was at the hospital.  He said, no, and seemed rather indignant that I asked.  I was concerned about them not knowing the coordination between all the doctors and medications I was taking, which could be serious issue.  I simple question and something I feared.  He did not take it well and snapped back at me that he would call anyone I wanted him to call.  My wife was there at the time as well as at least one nice nurse that attended me.

I asked him if he was mad at me because his tone was an angry one.  He made the same reply.  At that time I felt I shouldn't be there.  I told him I needed some space and my wife suggested he leave and allow us to talk.  He left and we talked.  He came back in about 20 minutes and apologized and said he had just finished reading my history.  He gave my wife a hug, but the damage was done.  Buy that time it appeared that the whole floor heard about the exchange.  At one shift change I asked the new nurse something and she said that I was not the only patient she had and would be back later.  She just came in at the beginning of her shift and was reading my information on the computer.  I did not see her for a long time.

A Cardiologist ended up coming in a day or two later for a minute and told me that the hospital was aware that they had to be careful with my fluid intake amount because of my heart.  But this did not happen.  I was being given an IV to replace lost fluid and also a blood transfusion.  Later my feet swelled and I was having a hard time breathing.  It was late at night and I told my problem to the midnight shift nurse and asked if I could have some fluid reducing medication.  (Now I am actually asking for that which I wanted to stay away from; medicine, but God was not answering).  It was over an hour since I had heard anything from her and pushed the button to get her again.  She told me that she had asked the head nurse about it and it would be ordered.  It came about two hours later.  It took awhile before the breathing got better.

But in the meantime I was so miserable that I seriously thought about calling 911 to have an ambulance get me to the other hospital that did my surgery.  It was a night from hell.  It all felt demonic and like I was in a prison I could not get out of. There was more that happened that I will not get into.  But to me it looked like I was on "the list".  I told a new hospital doctor that came in about seven in the morning that I just wanted to go home.  I told her what had happened.  I called my wife and she came up and had a talk with this new doctor.  They brought in a bed an my wife spent the night and there was instructions to let us alone all night.  That did not go well either.  The whole thing was a bad experience and I was sent home a couple of days later with swollen feet, no medication and was told to "pee it out".  Didn't work and had to get more medicine.   I wondered where God was in this.  More confirmation of what I had been reading about.

Even the garbage cans were over flowing with things on the floor.  One day a guy from house cleaning came in and using a rag, cleaned the keyboard monitor the nurses and doctors used and then used the same rag to clean about a quarter of my food tray!  It was really appalling.  I never wanted to go to another hospital again; especially this one, that had turned us over to collections some thirty years before as I mentioned earlier.

I can't remember what stay it was in the other hospital, but everything was supposed to be sterile in my room because of my low immune system.  The first nurse I had in that stay told me it would be best if I kept the door shut because of people with communicable diseases on the floor (clean air).  She even brought in a blood pressure monitor that was supposed to be just for my room to lower the chance of it being contaminated by by another patient.  That lasted her shift and another nurse came in and took it.  It was used in other rooms, including in one where a woman in the room next to me had the flu.  I could hear here coughing all night.  No wonder people get sick at hospitals.  I mentioned to another nurse that I was supposed to be in a quarantine like setting and she brought in a designated machine.  My oh my!

But God is showing me things in this.  A few months into this I was taking more of the medications I distain. These would be the ones I see on the commercials that can cause harm and even death; like Fentnyl.  You know, the opioids being sold by the corrupt big pharma companies.  Why was I now on the pain medication? 

Well, I almost recovered my strength.  I say almost because I was getting stronger as time went on and even became involved in physical therapy a couple of time a week until sometime in June 2019.  This when when the Oncologist thought I was doing really well on the chemo pill dosage.  So he upped the dosage from 4mgs to 25mgs a day.   Also in June, my back broke near the end of my physical therapy.  I did not do anything to make this happen; I was just standing up out of a chair and one of my vertebrae broke.  The cancer I had was partially in my back and this vertebrae was weakened by it.  Back to the hospital again.  After telling me my back was broken, the doctor at the emergency room told me about a low invasive out patient procedure of cementing the vertebrae and said I needed to have it done in the following week (this was a Friday).  We called the surgeon's office that did this and could not even get in for a consultation for another three weeks.  You've got to be kidding!  In the mean time, the higher chemo dosage actually overdosed me and I was sick after the first two weeks of a three week on, one week off schedule.  So by the time we got the broken back appointment three weeks later, I was told that it would be another two weeks before they could do the surgery.  I told the consultant that if I could not get it in the next day or two, it was not going to happen because I was getting sick, and not to mention pain from the broken back.

So, they set it up for a few days from then.  Too late.  The overdose on the chemo made me so sick that nothing stayed in me.  I spent several days in bed and was very weak.  On the July 4th, 2019 I was still in bed all day and I told my wife I needed to go to the hospital.  Another ambulance trip to the hospital that did my surgery.  I spent the next two weeks there learning some more things about the medical profession.  God showed me that, along with the bad of it, there was a good humanity side of it too.  Only God could have set this one up for sure, especially since medicine was not going well with me.

How is it that in the span of two weeks and three shifts a day you would get nurses and NAC's, both male and female, that were like these particular compassionate caring persons.  I'm talking about having at least ten of these people in the two weeks.  While it was an incredibly humiliating stay for me, all of them were understanding, patient and extremely helpful.  When a new shift would come in, you wondered what it would be like, especially if the off going one was so good.  At least two of the nurses were admitted Christians.  We had some good conversations.  One of the male nurses, an Ethiopian, told me that they could not heal, it was only God, but they were there to be a help to me.  They were.  God made a bad thing somewhat tolerable.  The care of the doctors was the same.  They were trying to figure out what was preventing me from getting better and protecting me from any further damage.  Even the head Nutritionist would visit was well as a nurse who came back from days off and came in to see how I was doing, even when I was not his patient anymore.  I wrote an email to the head nurse of the floor and told her about the care I got and praised the doctors, nurses, NACs an other staff that helped.  She told me I was welcome to request her floor anytime I might have to come back.  But another setback came before I left the hospital.

One of the doctors figured out it was an antibiotic that the Oncologist prescribed that was preventing my recovery from the stomach issue I had.  Sometime during my second week he took me off it and I started getting better.  They were really concerned about my low blood pressure and it started getting stable.  So they scheduled the back procedure which is usually outpatient.  That didn't go well though.  I now understand that by this time I had this broken back five weeks.

I was wheeled to the surgery waiting room. I was told that I would be awake during the procedure but would not feel anything and would not remember it either.  Wrong on both counts.  My blood pressure started dropping so they reduced the anesthetic.    Without going into detail, I felt everything.  I screamed in pain twice for him to stop (it felt like he was hitting my vertebrae with a hammer and chisel) .  He kept going.  I am surprised my screams were not heard in the hallway.  The surgeon and anesthesiologist told my wife and daughters what happened and apologized.  And yes, I remembered it.  On a follow up I was told that the cemented vertebrae might cause the weaker ones under to break (nice).  I was asked if I wanted the procedure on those done if this happened.  I said, No.  Then I was told that many times these heal themselves; you are just shorter.  My gosh; where is God in all of this?  He allowed such pain in addition to the misery of the past five weeks.  What more is it trying to make me see?

It took about two months to even start to recover from the chemo overdose after I got out of the hospital.  After one month without chemo a lot of my skin was still red, I was flaking, and felt like I had been run over by a truck.  I told the doctor I wanted to wait another month before resuming "treatment".  It took about that long to even start feeling better.  The strength recovery was really slow this time.  I had to force myself to walk. It took about three months to get to where I was in June before the overdose.  As some of you may know, chemo medicines and treatments are bad anyway.  With the initial pills, even before the overdose, there were the sores in my mouth that made it hard to brush my teeth, which effected them in a negative way.  The lost of taste and the dislike of food in general.  The weakness it causes was just another issue.  Each time I had a setback I could not even walk ten feet without the help of my wife because of weakness and balance.  It would take weeks, and in this one case, months to be able to walk any significant distance.  I am still using a cane today (January 2020) in the event I get to weak to stand long at a store; and I do.

My back was another issue.  It took until mid December of 2019 (four months) for the pain to start going away. I had stopped using pain medication a couple months before.  It is bad stuff.  But God showed me another thing about these drugs.

In Revelation 9: 21 it says that during the Tribulation period that the people on the earth did not repent of the sorceries (drugs).  Let me tell you I can understand this to an extent.  If you are in pain you will almost beg for medication to stop it.  Sleep deprivation is another one that demands drugs.  But now I have an understanding of this I did not have before.  The problem is, these can also addict you and kill you. The medications, even the Oxy and Fentynl stuff did not take away the pain with me, but left me dopy all day.  The same thing applied to sleeping pills (could not sleep).  I was given several different ones.  They did not work.  One actually kept me awake.  I even had to be taken off of the heart medication a short time after surgery because it was making me sick.

I wondered for what purpose I was going through this still;  I had seen and experienced enough of the medical stuff from my point of view.  From my view, and I believe a Biblical view, all these medications were evil, just as the disease.  In my contemplation of just stopping all of it and mentioning these things to my Primary Physician, he said, "You have to choose your poison".  Rightly said.  The disease and the medicines are both poisons.  Again I could not see these things as being God's intended way.

Then there are the costs.  My normal Medicare and supplemental does not pay for my cancer pills which are a more than couple of thousand a month.  So, there are grants you can apply for to cover the cost of these pills.  (I find it interesting that we actually pay for things that make us sick and may, or may not heal us).  So I started out taking two separate pills and got two grants as well as two new chemo medicines that are not supposed to make you sick (radiation is radiation) and was put back on the lower dose of these two new replacements.  Got to use it one time for three weeks.  Then when we called to make sure it was coming again we were told the grants had run out and that we would have to pay for them.  Not possible.  But even this was taken care of at least in the short term if needed via some friends.

According to a website called "The Balance", global sales of just one of my first chemo pills (Revlimid) was 9.7 billion in 2018 at the top of the sales list as number 1.  Such a deal (if you are the big Pharma).

My wife found two more grants in November of 2019.  One would be for a year and the other for two months.  We would have to apply for the other one in January and hope we get it (I guess).  What bothered me is that my Oncologist did not even know I had not had any chemo for over six weeks on this one.  Talk about feeling like a product instead of a person.  What is interesting is that during both extended periods without it, my cancer numbers went down a couple of hundred points.  Understand that I hate taking it and even feel guilty about it.

While still on the subject of insurance, I just renewed my medical at this time and was told by the agent that if we did not live in the state we lived in that I would not be able to get insurance at all because of my age and having a pre-existing condition of cancer.  This was an Obama Care regulation that our state declined to follow.  Such a Godless system, I thought.

So as I start writing this in Part 3 it is mid December 2019, 10 months since I started on this medical experience in February of 2019.  My view of medicine in what I wrote in the first two parts has not changed; but confirmed: I cannot see it as being something God set up and I pray He will have mercy and take me out of it and into his original gracious plan.  However there are some changes in how I view these things: the human side, which I am also part of.  The changes in my view are with many of those people who are part of this system.  In the realm of people I have seen the not so good;  BUT, I have also seen the good too.  These are the ones who work in this system that really care for people.  It is not just a job for some, it is their heart.  But it is still a system that I still believe is something that God never intended for those who desire to follow him.  This includes Israel ( who were the third instance of rebellion and lose of the blessings) and then the "Church" who have over the past 2000 years drifted away from the reliance on the power of God, to the reliance on man and science that came from some pagan origin and we are told God is behind it.  And I have to say this is unwittingly with most.  We just accept it.  But, it is a Jesus said in Matthew 15,

⁷ Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,

⁸ This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

⁹ But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

I have also seen the human side of how easy it is to just rely on the medical field, even the poisonous drugs, over the promises of God for his people.  Humbling and disappointing for myself.  Oh to return to the reliance on God alone.  The Word says in Jeremiah 17;

⁵ Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.

⁶ For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

⁷ Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

⁸ For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

In all of these months of the illnesses and the additional problems caused by the medicines and practices,  there have been some blessings.  Family relations have become closer and stronger.  People we have not seen in years have shown up, and many others helped us in many different ways.  God showed us some good things in many different ways.

But I weary of being this way and using the very things I hate and know are not of God.  As I am writing this, I am tired and somewhat weak from the chemo pills.  We were told that the cancer I have is not curable, but "manageable" like Diabetes; always on medication that has bad side effects.  God heals disease; not manages it through medicine (Job 2:3-6   Job 42) I am also aware that most would not believe and see what I believe and what has been shown to me through my research, experiences, and God's word.  I understand that, but I cannot refute what I see.  My hope and trust must be in the power (arm) of God and not man.  It appears I have been placed in this to see and understand some things.

I thought of how Sennacherib, King of Assyria came up against Judah at Jerusalem and besieged it after destroying Israel and many cities in Judah (2 Kings 18-19).  The King, through his taunting messenger, tried to get Judah's King Hezekiah to give up and submit to his giving up and surrendering to Assyria.  The messenger told Hezekiah that it was obvious that no other nation or their gods were able to defeat Assyria.  "They could not beat us and you and your god can't either".  He lied and told Hezekiah that the true God had sent him to take Jerusalem.  It is true that God had used Sennacherib as a rod against Israel and part of Judah because of their gross apostasy from God; but this was not going to the be case with Jerusalem.  Sennacherib said that God was not going to help Hezekiah.  Sennacherib is like this cancer; no remedy according to his words, no one has been healed, and medicine is the only answer to manage it.  Submit to this belief and live (in bondage).

But Sennacherib mocked God and took his glory, and God did not take this well.  Hezekiah prayed to God about this and God listened and answered.  The very night that Hezekiah prayed and brought his problem before the prophet Isaiah, God sent an angel and destroyed 185,000 of the Assyrian army with pestilence that same night.  Even though Sennacherib saw the power of God he returned to Assyria and to the temple of his god Nisrosh, the eagle headed god with the body of a man.  There he was killed by two of his own sons.

Satan is that way with us.  He tries to scare us in believing there is no cure because man has not come up with one; thus, it cannot be defeated.  But, we should believe God and his words, not those of an unbelieving society.  But lets continue.

In January of 2020 I found out that the steroids (to prevent chemo nausea), and a bone strengthening infusions were actually destroying my teeth and jaw bone.  This news came from a dentist who said I needed two teeth pulled that had un-repairable cavities.  But because I take blood thinners because the chemo can cause clots, the dentist could not pull the teeth because of (1) bleeding, (2) the chemo lowers immunity and prevents healing.  Then, the two teeth could not be replaced with any implants because the bone medicine would not allow the jaw bone to grow around the teeth.  Great stuff, the things of man.  The dentist said there was nothing he could do, but that he would pray for me, and referred me to an oral surgeon who said the same about the teeth.

As I said previously, my own Primary physician said to me, "You have to choose your poison".  In other words, choose between the disease getting me, or the medication.  He is a Christian, yet he did not even mention God as a choice.

While there are most likely others who see this, I don't believe that God's word indicates any large move back to remembering and relying on his promises and power to deliver them.  God told Israel many times that they had forgotten his power and his signs and wonders that delivered them so many times (Psalm 106:6-48; Psalm 78,  and many more).  This is us today.  Who would want to give up their lively-hood in exchange for relying on God?  The medical industry is huge and powerful in the world today and has a great influence on business, government and religion.  It employs millions of people and I would not venture to say most would exchange this for the ways of God.  We have five hospitals in our city.  One alone employs over 4,000 people.

We can see the power of this industry in the world today in what has been happening with the Coronavirus also called COVID-19.  No one seen in media speaks of calling out to God.  On the contrary; the world, and the church, looks to the government, medical profession and pharmaceutical companies for answers, which right now is slowing down world economies for the time being and controlling the masses.  If you like Socialism, this control is part of it.  Just a precursor. The church wants to look to both the world and God.  There will be a time during the Tribulation Period that there will be plagues of which there will be no cures and billions will die from these, wars and famine. (Revelation)

God also said in Jeremiah 9

⁶ Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the Lord.

God told Israel that he would keep disease from them IF they obeyed His voice, but that if they did not they would get diseases that are incurable.  God told Israel that these disease were intended for his enemies, not his children, if they obeyed him.  They did not obey because of deceit and rebellion in following the rest of the world at that time.  Are Christians enemies of Israel?  Shouldn't be, but we get incurable diseases like they did that were promised for the enemies of God.  Have we been living in the midst of deceit too?  Yes.  Is there a remedy?  Yes.  We just can't seem to grasp or believe it.  It has been my hope for this as it was there to glorify God and a blessing to his children.  It was to be the same in the time of Jesus.

But back to my teeth.  So having found that the medicines were a source of destruction, I quit taking the chemo for two months.  I was one month into this when we told the cancer PA about it and asked how long without it she thought I could go without adverse effects (unless God intervened).  She did not want to go over a few more weeks.  So a month later when I went back in for blood tests, the main Oncologist and his nurse were surprised that the numbers were up (so here we go again).  They had not been told I had not had any chemo for two months.  My wife and I explained why; the teeth and jaw destruction which these cancer doctors failed to tell us about.

So, the Oncologist suggested a different non chemo treatment called "Immunotherapy", which I started in early March 2020.  It is done via weekly infusions which take a few hours.  Of course it comes with side effects too.  They told me about shortness of breath, nausea, and other stomach issues.  What they did not tell me about was severe back pain that could happen after the infusion started.  That is what I experienced.  It hurt bad and I told them to stop it.  They did and said to wait until the pain stopped and the next time they started it I should not have pain.  I didn't the next time they started.  But yet another thing I was not warned about, but the nurses in the chemo treatment room were aware of.  They said I was lucky I did not have the other side effects.  But there were others later.

A couple of days after the first week I had joint pain, weakness and felt weary.  The second week was back pain and weakness.  The third week really bad "restless leg syndrome" during the infusion.  A nurse told me that the Benadryl in the infusion was causing it.  I ended up having sensitive skin and pain in my outer thighs later in the week.  And that is where I am at when I am writing this section.  I continue to pray for deliverance from the evil of the disease and to be free from the bondage of these adverse medicines.

This morning I finished reading again about one of Israel's most apostate kings; Ahaziah.  I mentioned him earlier.  Ahaziah was the son of two of the most evil rulers of Israel; Ahab and his wife Jezebel.  He ruled only two years after Ahab died.  In 2 Kings 1 we see that Ahaziah was injured when he fell through a lattice in his own house.  His injury caused him to be ill.  But did he go to God?  No.  Neither he nor his family worshipped God, but Baal.  So Ahazaiah sends some messengers to the Philistine city of Ekron to have them inquire of the demon god Baal-zebub to ask if he would recover.  He did not go to the true God to humble himself and ask for healing, but to a false god to ask if his illness is too bad to recover from.  We do this, don't we.  Yes, you will see this.

God sends the prophet Elijah (an enemy of the house of Ahab) to stop the messengers before they can ask this false god anything.  In 2 Kings 1 it says,

³ But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?

⁴ Now therefore thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.

So, is it because he does not think that there is a true God in Israel that would heal him that he would inquire of that which is not God?  Actually at this time God had left Israel on their own because they had turned from him to other gods, some of whom we have seen in this article.

In his commentary on 2 Kings 1, Matthew Henry notes in part,

"(1.) The sin was bad enough, giving that honour to the devil which is due to God alone, which was done as much by their enquiries as by their sacrifices. Note, It is a very wicked thing, upon any occasion or pretence whatsoever, to consult with the devil. This wickedness reigned in the heathen world (Isa. 47:12, 13) and remains too much even in the Christian world, and the devil's kingdom is supported by it.

(2.) The construction which Elijah, in God's name, puts upon it, makes it much worse: "It is because you think not only that the God of Israel is not able to tell you, but that there is no God at all in Israel, else you would not send so far for a divine answer.' Note, A practical and constructive atheism is the cause and malignity of our departures from God. Surely we think there is no God in Israel when we live at large, make flesh our arm, and seek a portion in the things of this world."

A couple of months ago my cancer doctor said something that was not surprising to me considering the above scenario and the other things I found in my research.  On one visit my cancer numbers were down and my wife mentioned God's work.  The doctor said he had heard other patients mention God, but said he wished he would also be given credit.  WOW!  Another nurse had said something similar a few months before this.  But, they do not know God and what he says about himself.  Shouldn't we Christians know this?

God said in Isaiah 42

⁸ I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

Below are just some of the images associated with the ancient gods of medicine that are given homage and honor to as seen before.

Caduceus / Wand of Hermes / Mercury Medical symbol (left): He is the son of the anti-Christ associated God, Zeus.	Isis: Wife of Egyptian god Osiris, mother of Horus the Savior god of Egypt.  They are symbolized by the Apis Bull which was the image of the gold calves Israel made.	Eshmun: Savior god of medicine in ancient Sidon. A throne of Astarte (Ashtoreth) was found in his temple ruins.
Horus (Eye of Horus): Savior god, son of Osiris and Isis	Apollo: Sun god, son of Zeus, anti-Christ figure, father of Asclepius the god of healing (serpent on stick).  Apollo taught Asclepius medicine.  Asclepius is associated with Hippocrates, considered the Father of modern medicine via his teacher Asclepius.	Novo Nordisk: Makers of Diabetic drug. Egyptian Apis Bull represents Osiris, Isis, Horus.  The company says the Apis bull represents the "dualities of life", like life and death.  They understand the source.

Let us learn from what God warned Israel and remember this example when He told them in Leviticus 26

Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God.  ² Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

³ If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;  ⁴ Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

¹¹ And I set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.  ² And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

¹³ I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

Isn't this what we are told that Jesus did: tabernacled (dwelt) among us and walked among us? (John 1:14)

 But in Levitcus 26 God also gave Israel a warning which we need to heed too, but have not.  God continues;

¹⁴ But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;  ¹⁵ And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:  ¹⁶ I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

²¹ And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.

²² I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.  ²³ And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;  ²⁴ Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.  ²⁵ And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

But God gave them a way out, but even in this, in the end they did not listen.  Will we?  God's way out says,

⁴⁰ If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;  ⁴¹ And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:

⁴² Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

Can we realize that we have all these diseases because we have just blindly followed the ways of our own ancestors in the Church which has brought about these things and this apostasy.  Can we really see that God has been walking contrary to us because we walk contrary to him, realize it, and say to him; "we have sinned too" and understand the why it is this way.  Accept it is our doing.  Or are we just going to accept that God is among those many things we have just seen.  Israel did not even realize God had departed from them.

⁴⁴ And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God.

⁴⁵ But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.

This is the grace God has with Israel, who will eventually see their apostasy.

Have We Broken The Covenant Jesus Made In The New Testament?

Jesus spoke and showed us what His Church is supposed to look like in the Gospels, which are based upon the Old Testament Scriptures.  The letters of the Apostles, also based upon the teachings of Jesus and the Scriptures also show this.  Paul said that the Old Testament is for our instruction. We, like Israel, don't resemble much what God's separating them and us from the rest of the world is supposed to look like, so they could see God and his intended eternal future for them.

Paul said in Ephesians 4

⁴ There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; ⁵ One Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. ⁷ But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. ⁸ Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

Paul then goes on to tell what these particular gifts are in administration of the church

¹¹ And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;  ¹² For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:  ¹³ Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:  ¹⁴ That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

But Paul goes further in 1 Corinthians 12 to talk about the other needed gifts.  He says;

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.  ² Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.  ³ Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.  ⁴ Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  ⁵ And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.  ⁶ And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

⁷ But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.  ⁸ For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;  ⁹ To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;  ¹⁰ To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:  ¹¹ But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

Paul said he did not want the church to be ignorant of these gifts given to his church.  But we are, or seem to think they are not needed, or applicable today.  Paul lists these gifts as "manifestations" of the spirit.  He tells us that these gifts are given to "every man" to profit all.  In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul shows us another reason for gifts, and one in particular that would manifest to the unbeliever that a person speaking was truly of God.  He says;

²³ If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?  ²⁴ But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all:

²⁵ And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.

Paul also noted that while in Iconium in Acts 14;

³ Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

In Acts 4 we find Peter and John being threatened by the High Priests to stop preaching about Jesus.  Peter said this to God,

²⁹ And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,  ³⁰ By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.  ³¹ And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

³² And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.  ³³ And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

Paul also told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. ² For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. ³ And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

⁴ And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: ⁵ That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

God's word was demonstrated then and is needed just as much today in this unbelieving world (and church)

Romans 15:18-19 says it again.

The purpose of these gifts of the spirit, healing and miracles included; was to confirm and be a witness to the truth of the Word of God.  They were not great funny clever comedian pastors of cool and high educational prowess.  They relied totally on God's gifts to demonstrate what they were saying was truly of God.  They spoke the word of God against all odds, and the miracles of the gifts manifested to show they were speaking the truth.  But we don't seem to really believe this is the way it is anymore.  It is avoided and has been given over to the false teachers and signs and wonders churches and faith healers of this time like those of Bethel Church, Redding, CA, Benny Hinn, Rodney Howard-Browne, Kenneth Copeland and many more associated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).  We were warned about this, but we are not supposed to deny this power Jesus said he gave to this church and he expects use to partake in it and discern the truth from the false.  You can read about these and more in other articles on this site.

It all goes back to Jesus and believing and obeying what he said to his disciples and to us.  He and his word have not changed; we have.  Luke 9 says

Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.  ² And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

In Luke 19 Jesus noted those cities who refused him (and condemned them)  and said to his disciples of those who accepted his word,

⁹ And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

¹⁶ He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.

¹⁷ And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.  ¹⁸ And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.  ¹⁹ Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Serpents and scorpions were never symbols of God and good always symbols of sin and evil.

Below Isis is shown with the body of a scorpion and was said to have been protected by seven scorpions.  Yet a pharmacy is named after her.  Note the serpents and scorpions associated with Nergal, the healing / pestilance / sun god and his consort in the right photo.

Isis - Serket	Nergal and Ereškigal (Lady of the Earth) 2 Kings 17:30

This power that Jesus gave his disciples was supposed to be passed on to the church, not to be rejected as unbelievers did.  When Jesus was praying to God in the Garden of Gethsemane in John 17, Jesus said

⁸ For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

⁹ I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.  ¹⁰ And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

¹⁴ I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.  ¹⁷ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

¹⁸ As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.  ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

²⁰ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

What Jesus did on earth, his disciples were to continue and those who (us) believe through what we read.  It is his word, the belief in his truth that sanctifies, or separates us from the world.  A difference is seen.

Jesus confirmed this in Acts 1 as he was ascending to heaven before his disciples.  He said,

⁴ And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

⁵ For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

⁸ But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

And so was the beginning of the church.  But like God said in the beginning of the nation of Israel, there was, and is a condition in received the blessing of the receiving of the gifts and blessings of the Holy Spirit.  As God told Israel "IF", in Exodus 15, Deuteronomy 11, and Leviticus 26, Jesus also told his disciples, "IF".

We do not want to deny these things that Jesus said.  Paul said this to Timothy of those in the end times in 2 Timothy;

⁵ Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.  ⁶ For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,  ⁷ Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

⁸ Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.  ⁹ But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their's also was.

In Revelation 3 Jesus told the Philadelphia church, the one who escapes the Tribulation,

⁸ I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

What God told Israel in Exodus 23 and Deuteronomy 28,  (The "IF) Jesus said in John 14.  In John 14 Jesus said

¹⁵ If ye love me, keep my commandments.  ¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;  ¹⁷ Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

¹⁸ I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.  ¹⁹ Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

²⁰ At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.  ²¹ He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

And what is a commandment he may be speaking of?  Back to John 14 in what Jesus said previously to the above

¹⁰ Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

¹¹ Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

¹² Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.  ¹³ And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  ¹⁴ If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

It was a command and part of the covenant Jesus made.  It was all for the purpose of God being glorified!  Do we have a problem with believing these words that WE are supposed to being doing (in his name) these things also?  The big "IF" here is if we believe in and follow the words he said.  These are things the world, which we are supposed to be separated from, cannot see or receive; only those who obey and believe on him and not the world.  It was not to create a heaven on earth, but to bring people to God through Christ so that they could be brought to a saving knowledge whereas they can have eternal life.

Jesus also continued with this in John 15.  He told his disciples,

³ Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.  ⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

⁵ I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.  ⁶ If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

⁷ If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.  ⁸ Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. ⁹ As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

¹⁰ If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

¹¹ These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

¹² This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

The "IF" in the covenant of Old Testament is also in the covenant of the New Testament; Believe in the words of God and love as Jesus does.  Jesus has not changed from the time of Israel even to this day.  "IF" we listen, "THEN" the blessings come then we bear fruit so that we glorify God as Jesus is seen in us through the presence and manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

John the Baptist was in prison and down because of some lack of understanding concerning Jesus.  As noted previously, he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask Jesus if he was truly the messiah spoken of in the the Scriptures (Old Testament), or if they should wait for another.  He did not tell John's disciples the answer, Jesus showed them.  It says in Luke 7,

⁹ And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?    ²⁰ When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?

²¹ And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight.

²² Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.

²³ And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

But there is something that goes along with the Gifts of the Spirit which Jesus spoke of.  In speaking of these gifts Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 12:31 - 1 Corinthians 13,

³¹ But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.

1 Corinthians 13

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity (affection, brotherly love), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

⁴ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,  ⁵ Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;  ⁶ Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;  ⁷ Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.  ⁸ Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

Paul is speaking of "the fruit of the spirit".  It must also manifest.  Paul said also in Galatians 5

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, ²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

²⁴ And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. ²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Remember this warning that Jesus gave concerning these things as seen in Matthew 7

¹² Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. ¹³ Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: ¹⁴ Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

¹⁵ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. ¹⁶ Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

¹⁷ Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.  ¹⁹ Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

²⁰ Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

²¹ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  ²³ And then will I profess unto them, I never (not at any time) knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Prophecies, signs and wonders are not always from God but are sometimes used for testing us as seen in Deuteronomy 13:1-4 . We see these false workers of wonders doing things "in thy name"; in the name of Jesus and all his name covers.  Jesus said to beware of them.  But Jesus said he did not know them and called them workers of iniquity.  These are ones who had no relationship with him. These are those who display "fruits" of another spirit; fruits that originate from a corrupt tree.  There may be a power, but just because something works does not mean it is of God.

I will share one more example from the Old Testament concerning following the New Testament covenant of Jesus.

We see in the book of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles that by the end of these books, most of the Kings and thus the people of Israel and Judah "did evil in the sight of the Lord".  Prior to King Josiah (2 Kings 22-23 and 2 Chronicles 34-35), who "did right in the sight of the Lord", we see the example of King Manassah in 2 Kings 21,

² And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.

³ For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

⁴ And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.

⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.

⁶ And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

God further said,

⁹ But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.

There is more evil that they did not listed here, but our world and even the church has done the same.  While Israel and Judah were supposed to remove the evil nations and their idolatry and god, they not only incorporated them, but became more evil than the non-believers.  Churches like Bethel, Willow Creek, Saddleback and numerous others engage in witchcraft, enchantments, contact spririts and employ wizards to bring this about (see Visualization and Contemplative Meditation: Sorcery In The Church), through guided imagery, contemplative practices, yoga, "holy laughter", and many such things including validating these things by listening to the Neurosciences.

These gods of medicine also represent the planets, the "hosts of heaven".  Zeus is Jupiter, Apollo is the sun god, Hermes is Mercury, Asclepius is thought to be the constellation Ophiuchus, the "serpent bearer" who is said to have been placed their by Zeus.  Of course the "hosts of heaven" and their names were different during the Old Testament times in Egypt and Canaan.  How could they have placed alters to these gods in the Temple of God?  Perhaps we need to ask the same question of the Church; us.  We have the same hosts of heaven we rely on too; if we can see it.

And because of the sins Manasseh brought upon Judah, God said he would bring upon them, "such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle... and I will abandon the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies." 2 Kings 21:12, 14.  We see in Revelation and other prophetical books it will happen again because of an apostate world and an apostate church who also has not listened.  But even back then God provided a way out through Manasseh's grandson, King Josiah.  It should be a warning and example to us today.  "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."  Matthew 7:14

In 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34 we see Josiah actually seeking God, going the "straight" gate.

^"2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left.

³ For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images."

He did these things while not even knowing the full scope of the apostasy of Judah and what was to come.  Why?  He had not read the Word of God, the Scriptures.  They had forgotten the Word, AND, the covenant. We have the same problem today.  But as he was making his reforms and even while the priest was cleaning, repairing, and restoring the temple (we nee to with the church), the priest finds the "book of the law" in the temple.  The priest has the scribe take the book to Josiah so he could read it to him.  It really did not seem such a big deal to the scribe as he told Josiah the priest had found "a book" and proceeded to tell Josiah how well the remodeling was going (2 Chronicles 34:14-18)  Kind of like today; the physical project is more important than the spiritual; the word of God.

However, when the scribe read the ALL of the law, like Daniel had done after reading Jeremiah while in captivity after 70 years, Josiah had his eyes opened and saw the total depravity of the sins of Judah and the resulting judgment to come.  Listen to what his reaction was in 2 Chronicles 34.

^"9 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes.

²⁰ And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king's, saying,

²¹ Go, enquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this book.

²² And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college:) and they spake to her to that effect.

²³ And she answered them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to me,

²⁴ Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah:

²⁵ Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched.

But what of Josiah who saw their apostasy and repented?

²⁶ And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard;

²⁷ Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.

²⁸ Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again."

What a promise!  "Because"....  Perhaps a lesson for us? Yes.

So Josiah read the "Covenant" to ALL of Judah and made this covenant his, (again) and then removed all the false teachings - teachers, the images, the idols and the gods and ways of them.  We are told,

^"31 And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.

³² And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³ And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers."

It is seen in Matthew 22 that what Josiah did in in verse 31 above is the same thing that Jesus said to the Pharisees

^"34 When the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. ³⁵ And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test Him: ³⁶ “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”^[l]

³⁷ He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.^{[m] 38} This is the greatest and most important^[n] command. ³⁹ The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.^{[o] 40} All the Law and the Prophets depend^[p] on these two commands.”"

Nothing changed.  These commands were repeated nine times in Deuteronomy and in other book of the Old and New Testaments. Part of this covenant includes turning away from the idols, gods and other things we have brought into the church to substitute or "augment" God.   Each covenant  had blessings, IF you followed the commands of the covenant.  For the believer it is the promise of the Holy Spirit and His gifts and salvation.  With this covenant and these gifts was the command to use them and a promises with them.

But first, like with Josiah, we have to acknowledge what we have done.  I hope I have shown also through the word of God, where this medical pursuit came from. Then, like Josiah we need to ask God to forgive us for just following what we have been told from our "fathers" that the remedy for disease is pills and medical procedures rather than God.  Next is waiting on God's forgiveness and mercy, and his promise of the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out his commands so that he may be glorified

Jesus commanded  (not suggested) his disciples in Matthew 10

"Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." (These are gifts; received and given, not charged money for)

In Luke 10:9 and 19-20 Jesus said again and to declare it came from Him.

9"And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you."

¹⁸ And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

¹⁹ Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

²⁰ Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven."

But I am not so optimistic that most will see this covenant as they did back then.  The medical field will always exist in this world. Even then after Josiah died the people returned to their apostate way and the final judgments eventually came.  In the same manner, Jesus also warned, and we see, that an apostasy would come and with it the judgments.  But there was always a remnant, a small group who took the narrow way and did not follow the false ways.

What would be great is if those unselfish caring people in the medical field would become the "therapeuo" of Jesus in their positions of caring for the sick; using his gifts.  That is my prayer for those ten plus persons that took care of me that one two week period in the hospital.  In fact I told some I would pray that God would bless them.

So as I write this I still have cancer, my teeth are not good and the medication continues to cause other problems.  Many would mock this belief I cannot turn from in spite of my condition this moment.  Oh well.  But I cannot deny what I see in His Word and see there is no other way.  And with the Covid-19 aka Coronavirus, continuing at this time, dentist offices are closing, medical procedures are being cancelled, and their are shortages of medical supplies, and so on.  Eventually there will be no remedy for any future diseases and God will be (and is) the only remedy.  This should be our wakeup call. 

I have understood this for a long time and have asked God to forgive us, deliver me and us from the evilness of the diseases and medicines, and desiring to obey the commands of His Covenant and to freely give what has, by mercy, freely given; to his glory and because of his love and mercy.  Perhaps some serpents and scorpions will be trampled.  As I push the button to publish the article, that is my prayer.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2  Chronicles 7:14