Top Posts of 2013

In case you missed them, here are our top posts of 2013:

1) Health and Holiness

2) Sin or Biochemistry

3) Obamacare: Problems and Hope (Guest Post)

4) A Seared Conscience

5) Narrow-Minded Empiricism

Celebrating His Descent

Therefore it says, "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men." (In saying, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) -- Ephesians 4:8-10

What is the descent? The incarnation. …We do not serve a god who worked his way up to godhood, as some other religions teach. He began on high. To ascend, He first had to descend. C.S. Lewis regarded the incarnation as perhaps more amazing even than the resurrection. We sing of this descent at Christmas.


Excerpt from "Notes on Ephesians"

Average Human Life Expectancy

Average human life expectancy is calculated by dividing the number of people in a given generation into all the years lived by that generation. Textbooks and journal articles today take as axiomatic that the unborn do not count when determining the divisor. They count all people born alive instead of all people conceived. When the fate of the unborn was unalterable, it was a reasonable and convenient shortcut to omit the unborn. Today it is a profound deceit. The tacit presupposition that the unborn are not persons has a marked effect upon what is “truth.” …The commonly held belief that life expectancy is increasing in the U.S. is rendered utterly false when the personhood of the unborn is considered.


Excerpt from "Average Life Expectancy, 'What Is Truth?'"

Orange Ideas

Got some of Dr. Terrell's oranges? Want to do something other than juicing them? Try several of these ideas:

Orange Extract: After juicing, don't throw those peels away! Slice them up and make homemade orange extract to use when oranges aren't in season.

Orange Soap: Grating some of the rind into the soap gives it a mild abrasive nature which makes it good for a kitchen hand soap. Smells great and makes a nice gift!

Orange Syrup: Martha Stewart has an easy recipe for orange syrup. Drizzle over french toast or a hot stack of pancakes!

Orange Walnut Bread: The orange flavor in this bread is subtle, and it's oh, so good!

Or just pile them in a pewter bowl and use them as a table centerpiece!

Let us know if you've found other ways you like to use the oranges!

Dr. Terrell's Citrus

If you remember Dr. Terrell, you remember his love for tropical plants. A tour through his yard would introduce you to the tung nut, avocado, olive tree, tea bush, a wide variety of palm trees, and a selection of citrus trees including, grapefruit, limequat and satsuma oranges. He challenged himself to grow plants outside of their natural zone, and while he didn't succeed with bananas and sugar cane, he saw great success with his citrus. About this time every year, his citrus trees are loaded with fruit. If you know whom to ask, they are available now!

Christian Charity

The Church of Jesus Christ has largely abandoned welfare to institutions inept, incapable, or uncommissioned to this great work. It is a part of Scripture. We must think as individuals, as families, as a Church how we may improve upon our charity.

Consider:
• how the early church cared for widows,
• the Good Samaritan parable,
• Ruth and Naomi,
• New Testament letters describing inter-church welfare "distributing to the necessities of the saints,"
• the origin of the diaconate in Acts,
• and Old Testament gleaning laws.

Wait Till It's Free Trailer

Wait Till It's Free (Teaser Trailer) from Wait Till It's Free on Vimeo.

Increasing Health or Increasing Control?

The tenth amendment says, clearly, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

Come now. I read English acceptably well, and so do you. As a generalist in medicine, it also immediately occurs, if one has the health of the population in view, that living in liberty secured by a constitutionally-limited republic has health benefits itself. It is even conceivable that these health benefits exceed anything that a Washington agency could provide, even if it functioned perfectly. In other words, does this effort [to develop practice guidelines] contain a lethal, genetic flaw? Ah, but to believe that there is a flaw is to presume that one knows to what environment these guidelines were adapted. If one presumes that they were adapted to improving the health of the population, and to lowering the cost, one might be mistaken. If they are in fact evolving to increase central control over our lives, then the genes may be perfectly adapted.


Excerpt from "Practice Guidelines"

The Importance of Theology

All of Scripture applies to all of life. Theology is not something to be held between our ears, but something that permeates our lives. There is no area of life to which Scripture does not speak (2 Tim. 3:15-17). The Christian reformation extended to every area of life. As we have retreated from the breadth of Scripture to a theology that is only personal, we have seen the forces of evil rise to pummel God's world. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. We need to have answers for those who ask what they suppose are rhetorical questions or unanswerable questions.

Noah

The Old Testament account of Noah and the great flood has become one of the great stumbling-blocks today, not so much for unbelievers as for Christians. The story of Noah is so fantastical, so at odds with common experience, and with scientific dogma, that it has been relegated to the category of “myth.”

As is the case with other New Testament references to the Old Testament, any attempt to hold the “difficult” passages in the Old Testament as “myth” will inevitably compromise the New Testament. Whereas the pagans generally don’t know and don’t care about the historicity of Jesus Christ, Christians who play carelessly with the historicity of the Old Testament generally refuse to do so with the New Testament.

We cannot have Jesus Christ as the bearer of truth to us and have Him a deluded person. Jesus Christ accepted the authority of the Pentateuch, which contains the accounts of Noah, quoting from it.

Luke 17:26-27, “And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” In this passage Jesus appealed to the example of Noah, among others in the Old Testament.


Excerpts from "Lessons from Noah"

Authority Comes from God

All human authority is derivative from God. He has chosen a plurality of repositories for the authority He dispenses to human beings. These are:

• self-governance (1 Thess. 4:11-12; Nov. 16:17; 19:16; Deut. 5:21; 1 Cor. 11:28; 2 Cor. 13:5).

• family governance (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 6:7-9; Eph. 6:1-4, 5:22-33; Col. 3:18-21; l Tim. 2:13; 3:4-5; Titus 2:5; 1 Peter 3:1-7).

• church governance (2 Thess. 4:11-12; Prov 16:17; 19:16; 1 Tim. 2:11-15; 3:1-13; 5; Titus 1:5-9; 3:9-11; Ex. 20:12).

• workplace governance (Eph. 6:5-9; Col. 3:22-4:1; 1 Tim. 6:1,2; Titus 2:9-10; 1 Peter 2:18-19).

• civil governance (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 17:14-20; Luke 20:25; Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17).

Analagous to the complementary spiritual gifts in the body of Christ, these deposits of authority from God are intended to work together. The tools available to each locus of government, and the extent of authority of each are different. The power of the death penalty belongs to the civil governor. Parents may not execute their children (Deut. 21:18-21). Corporal punishment belongs to the family (Prov. 23:13-14). To the Church belongs spiritual authority and discipline (2 Cor. 10:3-6). Confusion reigns when the various repositories raid each other's domain, usurping what is not theirs to have. The tortures, executions, and property seizures of the Inquisition in Europe are a blot against the Name of Christ, seizing civil authority. Through nepotism, family government has illegitimately usurped civil authority.

In our time however, it appears to be the civil state that is the chief usurper. Family governance, among other loci, is under heavy assault by the civil state. Voices abound which would allow minors to engage in sexual intercourse, even homosexual liaisons, freely, provided of course that they practice birth control or submit to abortion. Children already are tapped to become spies for the civil authorities within the sanctity of the home on the excuse that because some homes contain evil, all homes are thus legitimate targets for surveillance….

Christians need to be careful that we are not enlisted into the wrong army on these matters.


Excerpt from "Parental Authority in Medicine"

Exclusive: Dr Mike Vasovski Discusses Reasons For Going Off The “Insurance Grid”

Vasovski also said that the off grid system improves the doctor patient relationship.  “You do spend a little more time – not less time – you spend more time with them, and by design, you’re going to be a little bit more interested in satisfying them than if it’s just a checkmark on a sheet with the bill going to the insurance company.”

Read more: http://benswann.com/exclusive-dr-mike-vasovski-discusses-reasons-for-going-off-the-insurance-grid/#ixzz2iNwlw5K7

Canonizing Experience

A Church composed of "believers" who unwittingly canonize their own experiences should not be surprised at members who do not accept parts of the Scripture, or who "interpret" it in bizarre, erroneous ways.


Excerpt from "Presuppositions of Experience"

From the Bookshelf

With this book Dr. Nortin Hadler extends his strong arguments against medical practices that have grown far beyond reasonable scientific underpinning. His earlier book, The Last Well Person, overlaps somewhat with this volume.

Enticed by money and power, main- stream medicine in the United States is engaging in an expensive, dangerous, fruitless application of unproven remedies, Hadler writes. He is not trimming off some fringe practices. His chief weapon is an exposé of the trivial reductions in the absolute in risk of disease, and its inverse, the outrageously high “number needed to treat.”

Read more of Dr. Terrell's book review here.

Experientia Docet?

The position that experience is ultimately the best teacher is certainly a possible one, but it is not a necessary one. … While experience is crucial to our understanding, experience must begin with some presuppositions some axioms, a place from which to begin. A Christian would assert that the Bible is, by faith [i.e., presuppositionally], true. Our experience is thereafter interpreted by the Scripture. It is not the other way around. We do not interpret the Bible in the "light" of our experience. Experience may exemplify Scripture's truth, but it cannot "prove" or buttress it. If our individual experience proves Scripture, then we are implicitly presupposing that our experience is superior to Scripture in validity.


Excerpt from "Presuppositions of Experience"

Righteousness and Mercy

Psalm 37:25, 26. “I have been young, and now am old;

Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,

Nor his descendants begging bread.

He is ever merciful, and lends;

And his descendants are blessed.”

Here is a testimony to God’s normal moral order in which the righteous is usually adequately provided materially. Also, his children. Righteousness connects to mercy and mercy to lending. I have been remiss [as a doctor] in failing to recommend this kind of attitude and behavior as a “health maintenance” maneuver to people who can afford to do so. Of course, if the motive is to gain from God, the connection likely is severed.

Spiritual Medical Care

The fact that human beings are a folding together of body and spirit makes it important to consider the influence of the spirit upon illness and treatment. Medical care is intrinsically a spiritual activity. What one believes in one's spirit – about what is true, about the nature of the physical world, about how and why illness comes, and so on – will influence the choice of an approach to healing. The ill person, then, will want to select a practitioner whose spiritual orientation and beliefs are most in accord with his own, if possible.


Excerpt from "Freedom to Contract"

A Seared Conscience

It is a dreadful thing to violate your conscience, especially repeatedly. For a conscience can become insensitive like scar tissue – which neither sweats nor blanches nor flushes nor serves any other purpose but to keep the outside world at bay.


Excerpt from "Trusting God or Trusting Ourselves"

The Manual of Instruction

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). The word “test” serves as well as “temptation.” God provides ethical tests for us, and in them shows us Himself, the sufficiency of His Word, and shows us ourselves and our need of Him.

We are often lazy, and expect Him to show us some escape hatch experientially, as we read in accounts of people like Corrie ten Boom or others who have been sorely tested and delivered. Surely, He can do that. It is, though, His Word that is our manual of instruction.


Excerpt from "Trusting God or Trusting Ourselves"

Sin or Biochemistry?

Medical doctors and others are always incorrect when they state or infer that we are not responsible for our life, that we are morally victimized. When we are told that we are not responsible for our depression, that is usually not correct. Man is always responsible for how he manages his life, including management of a depression, and is usually responsible for the depression itself. Sometimes, however, it appears that an individual is not responsible for the occurrence of a depressed-feeling state. Some situations are just messy enough to preclude our ability to sort out precisely the contribution of faulty (sinful) life patterns and faulty biochemistry. A thorough counselor always can uncover sin in a counselee’s life. It does not follow that the depression is a specific result of that or any particular sin, nor that dealing with the sin will remove the depression…

Moreover, just because depression usually is related to sin, can we be sure that all depressions are and eschew biochemistry in principle?

The relationship of body and spirit is integral so that tracing the source of feelings and motivational states sometimes can be impossible. It is relatively easy for a physician to trace a depression to a medication being given for another problem. Stop administering the medicine and the depression remits. Experiences like this strongly encourage physicians to believe that chemicals are causative of depression and that the chemicals could be as easily produced by a defective body as introduced into the body by a defective treatment. Likewise, it may be relatively easy for a counselor to trace a depression to a specific pattern of sin and see the depression remit as the sin is handled biblically. An impression may be encouraged that depression is thus produced always. Since depression is not a biblical word, we must be cautious in adducing Scripture to address it. There certainly are passages in Scripture which seem to reflect clearly what we today term depression, but we are retrofitting modern terminology. Wherever He has provided it, God’s terminology is the best to use to describe our problems...

If I feel miserable, have lost my ‘get up and go,’ have little interest in socialization, have no appetite, and feel like weeping when there is no provocation to do so, someone is likely to suggest that I am depressed. Such a state could arise from the body, from sinful habits, or from both. In any case, I am responsible for how I manage this state. If I give in to my feelings and fail to meet my responsibilities because I don’t feel like it, I am managing my depression sinfully. If a counselor uncovers a pattern of sin that seems to relate to my situation, I should put off the pattern and put on God’s pattern. If a physician has good reason to believe that I am flawed biochemically, there is no necessary sin in trying chemicals to correct the putative flaw, provided I do not neglect the former avenues. The Christian counselor’s forte is to point out my duty to fulfill responsibilities irrespective of my feeling state and to detect sins that could have led to my depression. Physicians do foul up the situation by exclusively teaching biochemical causes of feeling state, leaving Christian counselors with some deprogramming to do.


An excerpt from "A Caution Against Overstating the Case"

On Debt

Prov. 3:27-28 “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,” when you have it with you.“

This is an odd application of these verses, which I had always thought had to do with charitable giving. “Those to whom it is due” however can be translated “its owners.” Charitable giving is an obligation laid on a person by God. It is not a claim on someone’s property held by someone in need. Therefore, the verses can indicate paying your debts off when you can, not pretending to be unable to pay.

Train Up a Child

Prov. 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Here is an injunction to train children pointing out its lifelong effects. Jay Adams makes much of the literal Hebrew wording, “... in his way...” to make a point that this could be a negative warning. If you train a child up according to his natural, sinful bent, he will be bent like that for life.

Eli’s children exemplify failure to raise children properly. David’s children, also.

Happy Pluralism?

A few native Americans include hallucinogens in their worship. Child sacrifice has frequently been a part of many religions. Temple prostitution is another frequent part, and may soon be making a comeback. Some believe in mercy-killing. Some polls (which are always suspect to me) indicate that a bare majority of Americans already believe in euthanasia. Birth control by any method, including abortifacient methods, is practiced by huge numbers. For the very few thoughtful ones in this group, the issue of abortion is often handled by religious concepts as to when the soul enters the developing human being, or when personhood begins.

We are awash in religious beliefs and the practices which stem from them. They are not at all compatible. Yet, we pretend that we can all live together in a happy pluralism. We cannot. It is absurd.


Excerpt from "Trusting God or Trusting Ourselves"

Parental Authority

Ephesians 6:1-4 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”

Parental authority is tied to the 10 commandments, though it is clear enough from Old Testament history that it is extant from the beginning. Parental authority leads to life – the first commandment with a promise.

“In the Lord” sets limits on parental authority. Children are not to disobey God in order to obey parents.

“Fathers (v. 4a)” sets the primary locus of responsibility on the Father. Responsibility does not mean that the father has all the power he wishes he had to bring about the ends he should. It means that he will be called to respond for the family.

“Do not provoke your children to wrath” sets responsibility on the father as to methodology. The authority is not cast as some kind of a contest (though children will maneuver from time to time to make it so) in which he pushes the children to the edge. A family is not a military boot camp run by a drill instructor who “breaks” recruits to his will. 

On Education

Deuteronomy 6:1-9:  Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

First, the parents must learn the commandments. Next, the parents must obey them. Then the parents teach sons and grandsons. Daughters are not omitted here, but are covered under the principle of federal headship. Teaching is embedded in life. It is a daily endeavor. Mnemonic devices are not eschewed, though here reference to them is symbolic. One of the benefits of education is prosperity (v. 3).

Fighting Infection

Being exposed to a microbe is clearly not all that is required to become infected. Being ready to receive the infection is the other side. Have you slept well? Have you eaten well? Are your relationships with other people in good condition? Have you done something needful for someone who cannot do for himself?

Psalm 41:1-3 says, “Blessed is he who considers the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, And he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.”


Excerpt from "Pharmacy and Medical Interventions"

Pragmatism

The Bible is neither impractical nor silent on the practice of medicine. What is truly impractical is a philosophy of pragmatism. What is true is not determined by observing that it serves our purposes over a span of a few years.


Excerpt from "Impractical Pragmatism"

Owe No Man

Rom. 13:8 “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

The debts here are not limited to financial ones, though clearly inclusive of them. The context indicates that we are to “pay” respect to those to whom it is due, honor to those to whom it is due, etc. “Owe no man” is not a moral commandment but, rather, a goal in service to wisdom. The Old Testament sets up rules of the relationship between debtors and creditors. These rules are not rules on how to sin properly, but how to manage indebtedness wisely and fairly.

Chiseling Out a Christian Culture

Culture is religion acted out, not merely an ethically neutral set of tastes in diet, dress, and dance.

If revival starts with the church, one thing we could do from our side would be to inculcate amongst ourselves an understanding of what Christian culture would look like. That way, we would be less apt to follow the pied pipers whose analyses of this or that problem are superficial at best, if not badly wrong. We might be able here and there to work out our salvation chipping away at the monstrous incubus on our land. Ultimately, only God can revive and deliver us, but I believe He expects us to have some knowledge in our head and a chisel in our hand.


Excerpt from a personal letter

The Church's Moral Authority

The church’s authority is moral. The church does not spank or issue fines or imprison. It disciplines, theoretically, by persuasion, by example, by compassionate action, by preaching and teaching, and by exclusion from fellowship and office. As much as conservative Christians have clucked about erosion of morality, it is odd that we have not ourselves heeded or developed the moral authority of the Church. Have you ever heard of a dispute being adjudicated by the church?


Excerpt from "Trusting God or Trusting Ourselves"

God's Law

The moral law of God is perpetual. It has not been overthrown by Christ, but fulfilled by Him. Though since the fall of our race into sin, we have never been able to keep the law, we remained accountable to it and Christ fulfilled it on our behalf as the second Adam.

Excerpt from "Spurgeon on the Law of God"

A Person, Not a "Risk"

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” Later in 1 Corinthians, we are reminded that we are “not [our] own” and that we are “bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). In the book of the Revelation, we are told that there is a judgment of all.

A managed care organization may regard its subscribers as a number, an account, or some other kind of cipher, but we know them as persons with faces, who have certain habits (like showing up drunk or two minutes before closing time, or trying to get one child's medicine on another child's Medicaid). To the insurer, they are simply “a risk” which can be managed by the averaging power of large numbers in a policy-holding group. No one in Insurance Command Central is answerable before God for the health of the insurance policyholders. Those of us who know the patient can remind the patients of their personal responsibility. When the occasion permits, which in these days is, I think, rather rare, we should remind our patients.


Excerpt from "Pharmacy and Medical Interventions"

Serving Individuals

The persons we serve are individuals. The story of Joseph in the Old Testament is not the story of Joseph of Arimathea in the New Testament. God does not deal with us by simple diagrammable rules. Though He is operating according to His immutable nature, in which we can discern principles, He is doing so by engagement with the rich, intimate details of our personality. Matthew is called from his tax extortion and Zacchaeus from a tree. Peter is called from fishing for fish to fishing for men. Paul, who thought he could see sin clearly, is called in blindness from a murderous trip and sent on missionary trips. There is a sameness in the call, but also wonderful differences in its particular administration.


Excerpt from "Pharmacy and Medical Interventions"

Medicine Serves People

Medical care has been misconstrued as the treatment of diseases by drugs, surgery, and other means. More properly, it is the treatment of persons who may have diseases, using available means. There is a huge difference.

The persons we serve have a spirit. That spirit is intimately connected to their body and the ailments of those bodies. Only personal contact by nurses, pharmacists, doctors, and others can effectively touch that spirit and its resources. We serve persons, and we use bags of chemicals as part of the means. We do not serve bags of chemicals.


Excerpts from "Pharmacy and Medical Interventions"

Pragmatic Paradigm

We have become pragmatists – a people who decide that what is right is what works. Pragmatism is an awful, unbiblical philosophy. A practical or pragmatic implementation of biblically-determined morality is fine! Philosophical pragmatism is not that. It is determining what is or is not right based upon what works.

That is the paradigm for modern technologic medicine. We choose to see only the physical, material, most atomistic aspect of our problems. The spiritual roots we don't choose to see.


Excerpt from talk given at Westminster Presbyterian Church

From the Bookshelf

In 1918, when medical science was unlocking the mysteries of killers like polio, malaria, and yellow fever, a deadly influenza attacked. The disease struck down millions worldwide while scientists frantically searched for answers. It was a terrifying disease for it killed the young with ferocity; there was no known cause, no known methods to avoid infection and no known cure.

The story, told by John Barry in his book The Great Influenza, is more than a story about the flu; it is a story about truth. Can science bring us absolute truth? Are man's powers of observation capable of discovering information that is an accurate picture of reality free from further doubt? As Barry wrote, "How do we know when we know?"

This is a great book that Dr. Terrell enjoyed, and one that draws attention to his ideas of truth in science. Read more of his thoughts on truth here.

Civil Loyalties

Acts 5:29 “But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

All spheres of governance are to serve God. When any otherwise legitimate governance does not obey God, a Christian is not bound to obey it. This verse has been most narrowly cast as an example of prohibition of preaching, as if preaching were the only area of Christian obedience. Actually, it is one of a large number of potential cases. A wife does not have to obey her husband if he demands of her sin. Ditto, a child his parents. Ditto, a church member. Given that a behavior commanded by an authority is not always immediately known to be disobedient to God, the one commanded has some leeway in decision. The clearer the issue, the clearer the mandate (not privilege) to disobey the human power. Disobedience may be open or covert, passive or active, with acceptance of consequences meted out by the authority or avoidance of them. 

Almost All Americans Lack Health Insurance

How many Americans have proper health insurance?

Most estimates in the news are that 50 million individuals -- 15 percent of Americans -- are without health insurance. But in fact, very few Americans have health insurance... because what people call health insurance really isn't insurance at all.

Read the rest of this Huffington Post article here.

And read Dr. Terrell's thoughts on medical insurance here.

One-third of the Cost

We need spend [on medicine] only at most about one-third what we now spend in order to enjoy about all that medical science can offer us. It is interesting to me that that is the amount we are already paying out of our pockets. From our charitably-informed pockets. If the church or charitable organizations, which once abounded in American, try to solve the problem by funding the same idolatrous game, we will only bankrupt the church or the charitable organizations or individuals.


Excerpt from talk given at Westminster Presbyterian Church

Making Insurance Better

The human body, as the temple of the Holy Spirit, is an important part of who and what we are. We are a complex folding together of a non-material part – the spirit – and a material part – the body. I Corinthians 3:16-17 says, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” Ecclesiastes 12:3 speaks of “the keepers of the house” meaning our hands, as they tend to our bodies, which is the “house.” There are many other like passages which make it clear to all Bible-believers that our bodies are important not only to us, but to God, and that we are charged with taking care of our bodies.

Self-care is what we largely do not have today. Of all payments made for medical care today in the U.S., only about a third come out of our own pocket directly. The remainder comes from the pockets of others, almost exclusively from the pockets of others who neither know us nor who give willingly – from insurance plans and taxes. Now, the third that we do pay is so formidable that we imagine that we cannot possibly pay more, and that basic medical insurance is somehow the only answer. Quite wrong. Basic medical insurance is incapable of being a workable proposition. Insurance is okay, but only for insurable risks.

Basic medical costs are not an insurable risk, and legislation cannot change that fact. One thing, then, that we would need, is for all insurance to be:

(1) bought by the recipient for himself/herself and dependents,

(2) paid only to the purchaser, not to hospitals or doctors. Individuals would then become shoppers, making risk to benefit decisions. If a person, for example, could find $1000 deductible insurance, he/she would find that the premiums are lower than for $250 deductible. If the person is willing and able to take the extra $750 risk, a savings can be achieved. If the person is willing to save the difference in premium, then, if the person "wins" on the risk (most will), the difference can be added to the money saved to handle the risk. It is a basic form of self-insurance, or money saved for a rainy day. (See Prov. 6:6 and 30:25 regarding the way the lowly ant makes provisions for times of want.) A few years of such return of savings on premium to a self-insurance pool and most families which are now insured through their employer might be able to achieve $5000 to $10,000 deductible insurance, which is very cheap indeed. After that, the money saved might be spent on true biblical charity or other goals of the church.


Excerpt from talk given at Westminster Presbyterian Church

Healthy Godliness

1 Timothy 4:7, 8 “But reject profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself rather to godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.”

Sometime in the early 1980's I was asked to teach a series to a special class on prevention. I was asked by some folks who were, by my definition of the time, fitness freaks. The clear expectation of me was that I would expound on the Scriptures as they relate to prevention of disease, as they relate to “health maintenance.” This passage from 1 Timothy was to be the key verse, of course, buttressed by the nutritional test that the “four Hebrew children” – Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego – proposed in Daniel 1. They were offered, you may recall the king's wine and delicacies, but preferred vegetables and water, and were found “ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers” who were in the kingdom.

Since that time, I have gone back to the 1 Timothy 4 passage and looked at it more carefully. The way this passage is used – in support of the modern concepts of physical exercise for Christians – is exactly the opposite of the Biblical emphasis. It is setting up a comparison in which bodily exercise comes off second best.

We live in a time of a tyranny of experts. My profession of medicine is, I am sad to say, tyrannizing the population in several ways. We have gradually come to believe in the U.S. that health is something that is in the power of medical experts. We scurry around watching our cholesterol, exercising, having prostate specific antigen blood tests done, Pap smears, and the like. The authorities, after all, have told us that these are the important things. They aren't really, in general, very important. The scientific evidence upon which such procedures as these stand as powerful for the  maintenance of life is tissue thin. Yet, we have in this nation sold ourselves into slavery as far as our health is concerned.

That which is more important for health, godliness, has been traded off for that which is not very powerful at all. The death rate is one apiece.


Excerpt from Westminster PCA talk

Life is Risk

Life is risk. Elimination of risk is called "death." Our job, therefore, is not to eliminate risk but to adjust risks to benefits. Since both "risk" and "benefit" are calculated idiosyncratically to the patient, the family physician is in a potentially good position to help the patient. For example, I will not ride in a car without a lap and chest belt in place, but I will travel far to sea in a small boat. Someone could calculate the risks of either relatively independent of me, but not the benefits. Even the risks involve experience, judgment, sobriety, equipment, etc.


Excerpt from "Not Exposed, Sick"

On Borrowing and Lending

Isaiah 24:2 “And it shall be:
As with the people, so with the priest;
As with the servant, so with his master;
As with the maid, so with her mistress;
As with the buyer, so with the seller;
As with the lender, so with the borrower;
As with the creditor, so with the debtor.”

Part of an enigmatic prophetic passage which seems to point to a future judgment of God which entails a leveling of previously important distinctions. Perhaps part of the burden of this is to put lending and indebtedness into a greater perspective lest either borrowing or lending achieve too much prominence in our thinking.

Confusing Data with Wisdom

[One way] Americans deal with the different standards dilemma is to confuse data with wisdom. We heap up information. Computers help. Estimates are that there are six million articles annually published in English alone which relate to medicine. We do computer searches. We find out how much it costs. What the risks are. What the various treatments are. These are statements of what is. We will return to them, for they are important in making ethical decisions. However, ethics is about what ought to be, or what ought not to be. Data is about what is, or what is not. Even stacked exceedingly high and heated, a pile of “is” statements will not convert to an “ought” statement. Empirical statements do not transform under pressure and heat to normative statements.


Excerpt from "Counseling Persons with Questions on Medical Ethics"

Narrow-Minded Empiricism

Now, one of my “oughts.” We ought to pay more attention to the empiric data than we do. As I have tried to do this, I have discovered that the empiric data is often thin, subject to various interpretations, and varying. The consensus as to the proper treatment of peptic ulcer disease, of acute myocardial infarction, and many other things have changed drastically since I entered medicine. We call these changes “advances” but sometimes you get to see the indicator needle swing not 180 degrees, but 360 degrees. What is more, our empiric information, even when it is accurate, sometimes expresses a narrow-minded or one-sided view of reality. The way we think of the causes of diseases in medicine betrays that we are very prone to be materialistic reductionists. We seek those causes which are tangible and visible and which are reduced to their smallest elements, such as biochemistry.

As example, what causes gonorrhea? We are taught in medical school that gonorrhea is caused by Neisseria gonorrhea, a gram negative coccus. The answer is only partial and, if allowed to stand in that form, leads into a narrowness. Most commonly, sexual intercourse is also involved. More than that, it is normally required that the sexual intercourse be that in which at least one of the partners has had intercourse with one or more others who had the germ. The coccus is a sine qua non for the disease, but other features are also required: (1) Sexual intercourse. (2) Sexual partners in that intercourse who have had intercourse with others. In fact, though the germ appears to be rather readily infectious, for the disease to continue its propagation among humans requires that sexual intercourse be considerably afield from monogamy.

Without these additional causal features, gonorrhea might actually disappear even without treatment as the infected persons died out without passing it on. Throughout my lifetime – I am about as old as penicillin – there has never been a time when we did not have a chemotherapeutic agent effective against Neisseria gonorrhea. Throughout my lifetime, however, the prevalence of Neisseria gonorrhea has varied and often has been much higher than when I was a child. Thus, the view that Neisseria gonorrhea causes the disease is incomplete. It doesn't work by itself. It is, dare I say it, narrow-minded. In addition to the bacterium is also required that sufficient numbers of the population believe that it is appropriate to engage frequently in non-monogamous sexual intercourse, and who act on that belief.

Medical ethics has been bound down by an inflexible, narrow-minded habit of viewing problems in their most materialistic terms. We feel comfortable dealing with bacteria in our patients' genital tracts, but not with the belief systems in their minds. Excuses are offered, such as, “You don't really think that people are going to suddenly become monogamous, do you? That's impractical.”

Though that is supposed to be an unanswerable rhetorical question, I submit that it is eminently answerable. First of all, it misrepresents the broader viewpoint. No, people won't “suddenly” do much of anything, as a whole. Secondly, if antibiotics have failed to perfectly eradicate gonorrhea, certainly parallel efforts working on the belief system needn't be expected to produce perfect results. Finally, I remember when the belief systems made a difference. In regard, therefore, to causes of disease, consider what causes heart disease, emphysema, AIDS, alcoholism, trauma. Do we think of the causes narrowly? Do we think of fried foods, cigarettes, the HIV particle, ethanol, or motor vehicles and firearms? If so, why? Even if we do not regard ourselves in medicine as capable of making a difference in the larger conceptualizations, do we obstruct others in society who are willing to take that approach?


Excerpt from "Counseling Persons with Questions on Medical Ethics"

Teasing Out Relevant Medical Information

One of the matters we need to know in counseling persons with medical ethical questions is the relevant medical information. This information is our unique contribution in helping people make ethical decisions. At some risk to being caught up in the example, I will proceed to illustrate this with an example. The example I chose is screening for prostate cancer, a hot topic in medicine now. I mentioned earlier as an ethical matter what to do when a 75 year old man without urinary symptoms asks about screening for prostate disease as he heard on the radio. I chose the example because I have faced the question often enough. This is not a baboon liver sort of issue. Further, it is one in which the relevant medical information is key.

I happen to be convinced that screening for prostate cancer in asymptomatic 75 year old men with current tools of PSA, digital rectal exam, ultrasound, and biopsy, or any combination thereof, ought not to be done. There are perhaps urologists or others who want to argue. I love to argue, but I do not wish to let one example capture the whole. I grant that there is another view of the data. The point is that this is an ethical question because it seeks an “ought” answer. The patient asks, “Ought I to have the screening?” And the doctor asks, “Ought I to recommend and do the screening?” Of course, there are additional implied “oughts” in the question: “I ought to seek to extend my life and my health if I can” is one of these. If the doctor and the patient are agreed on this implied “ought” about life and health, then the ethical matter hinges on the empiric information. Does screening of asymptomatic American men aged 75 years improve their health or longevity?

I suggest to you that a number of the conundrums of medical ethics, particularly those that are grouped under “distributive justice” – who gets what when resources are limited – can be reduced in size by attention to the empirical information – physicians, doctors, insurance, hospitals, drugs, nursing, and so forth. Many articles and talks today agonize over how to distribute “scarce medical resources.” I am repeatedly drawn to inquire as to the actual effectiveness of the resources. Medicine is not as solidly based in unequivocal scientific empiricism as we like to think. Much is done by consensus – we think so, we hope so, it seems so, we've usually done it this way, it is considered good practice to...


Excerpt from "Counseling Persons with Questions on Medical Ethics"

Prioritizing Risks and Benefits

As finite beings who do not know everything, we need to help our patients know relative risks. Life is risk. Health care decisions are often decisions of prioritization. No path is risk-free. We should not so focus upon the most fearful risk and back away from it without looking behind us to see what risks we are backing into. For a Christian, good stewardship means making the most of the resources we have to further the kingdom of God. That means making risk/benefit estimates.


Excerpt from "Counseling Persons with Questions on Medical Ethics"

Mechanisms vs. Empirical Information

We have a tendency to substitute the mechanisms we have learned for outcome data. Pharmaceutical detail people major in mechanisms.

Pharmaceutical rep.: “This new medicine – Lipid-lo – scours atheromas at their base, substituting a slick, non-stick Teflon layer while the displaced lipids are carried by the ultra low density lipoproteins to the liver, where they are recycled along with aluminum cans into bone matrix that reduces osteoporosis.”

Doctor: “If my patients take Lipid-lo, is there evidence that their all-cause mortality or morbidity will fall?”

Pharmaceutical rep.: “This study in Stockholm last year, where they've used Lipid-lo for 1000 years, shows that middle-aged men had 22% fewer cardiac events than a control group that did not take the drug.”

Doctor: “I said all-cause. Did the Lipid-lo group have more hepatitis, or cataracts, or renal stones, or such?”

Pharmaceutical rep.: “I have another study here from Ohio in which the cardiac output during acute M.I.'s fell 33% less in the treated group than in the untreated group.”

Doctor: “Wonderful! But, did the treated group on the whole live better or live longer than the untreated group?”

Pharmaceutical rep: “It comes in convenient dose form shaped like a pretzel. See, you can break it in several points to get the right dose without having to switch to a new prescription.”

It's as if we were talking past each other. Mechanism is offered in place of evidence of outcome. Mechanisms are wonderful mnemonic devices, but things that stand to reason do not always stand to evidence.

What has this to do with making ethical decisions? When communicating with our patients, adding our unique input, we should as often as possible speak in terms of net outcome as based upon evidence. In medicine we are prone to focus on numerators.


Excerpt from "Counseling Persons with Questions on Medical Ethics"

Numerator Medicine: Putting Back the Denominators

The infant who comes to the ER badly damaged by being shaken hard by a relative weighs in so heavily with us that we give scant thought to the actual risk. Our state has a program against shaken baby syndrome that is, I believe, ethically ill-conceived.

Now, I am not in favor of shaking babies! But the zeal of those who are out to reduce the damage from this practice has led them to publish a brochure recommending, among other things, that small children not be dandled on an adult's knee! Perhaps somewhere there is a case report or two of a child who had brain damage accurately traced to dandling. I doubt it. But, anything can be dangerous! Children drown in toilets. They fall down back steps. They pick up copperheads in the back yard. What is the net effect of dandling? Are there no good effects from the interaction between toddler and adult? I'm guilty. I've done it with our own children. I plan to be guilty if we have grandchildren. Are there no downside effects from further eroding the confidence of parents to take care of, provide for, to nurture their own children? What is the net effect? To know that you have to slide a denominator beneath the numerator. All children injured by dandling over all children dandled. The fraction must be infinitesimally small. Further, from this small fraction must be subtracted whatever diffuse but definite benefits there are in dandling.

When we are trying to provide medical information to our patients so that they can make an ethical decision, we need to be mindful of the skew our own viewpoint sometimes takes. We don't think normally, sometimes, especially when we are estimating very small numbers – the risk that a given 60 year old woman has a cervical cancer, that a breast lump in a 14 year old girl is a cancer, that an intraocular pressure of 24 represents glaucoma in a 55 year old man. And so on. Are we merchants of fear?

As finite beings who do not know everything, we need to help our patients know relative risks. Life is risk. Health care decisions are often decisions of prioritization. No path is risk-free. We should not so focus upon the most fearful risk and back away from it without looking behind us to see what risks we are backing into. For a Christian, good stewardship means making the most of the resources we have to further the kingdom of God. That means making risk/benefit estimates.


Excerpt from "Counseling Persons with Questions on Medical Ethics"

Consider the Natural History

What do we know of the natural history of disease? We are committed in the United States to doing something. We get paid for doing things. We get praise for doing things. We get a net increase in malpractice protection for doing something. We get credit for all recoveries when we do something, whether the patient got well because of or in spite of our intervention. As a consequence, we become less aware of the course that a disease may take if left alone.

In the population at large, nearly every new symptom, if ignored, will abate without lasting harm. When we get ourselves exercised about “access to care” in the United States, a feature of “distributive justice,” we seem to forget this natural history of commonplace symptoms. In a Medicaid system, created to reduce access barriers, the patients may come into the medical system without regard to the severity, significance, or treatability of their symptoms. The lethal is admixed with copious quantities of the trivial. Since every diagnostic pathway has an error rate, if we increase the proportion of the trivial, we can reach a point where the harm that comes to those who are treated as though their complaint is serious exceeds the benefit of treating those who do have a serious problem. The ethical problems of access are, therefore, not necessarily solved by removing all barriers.

Reasoning from empirical information, we can compare to the biblical ethical standard of good stewardship and achieve ethical advice about “access to care.” Knowing the natural history allows us to put “doing nothing,” or nothing curative, in among the choices for treatments for a patient to consider. Sometimes knowing the natural history or considering more widely what a “cause” is of a disease, allows us to put in a choice that doesn't look very “medical.”

A few years ago I treated a family that had two small boys. Both parents worked, the mother at a job that had health insurance, the father's job did not. The boys had repeated infections – diarrhea, ear aches, pharyngitis, coughs. The mother was grateful for the medical insurance, especially since one of the boys had some high expenses relating to complications from ENT surgery. Of course, the boys stayed in group day care while their parents worked. Finally, I summoned the courage to introduce the possibility – probability – that the boys were picking these things up in day care. The mother had long lamented that she would prefer to stay home with the boys, but was worried how she could manage such bills without health insurance. She quit her job. The infections subsided. Maybe coincidence. It is also possible that she was inadvertently keeping them in a situation that led to illness in order to have money to pay for the illnesses. Chasing your tail.

How is this ethics? If you have ever tried to suggest to some American parents, especially mothers, that they should consider staying home you have risked the very gates of Hell. You risk a clash of beliefs. Beliefs as to which is more important, the benefits from the second family income, or of having a parent at home. One of our major roles as physicians in medical ethics is to provide empirical information. The natural history of disease is one important piece. What is likely to happen if no treatment is provided? In various places in medicine the general answer differs, but in primary care the most likely answer is that the patient will recover rather promptly with no sequelae. Empirical information that bears on the points we are asked about is not really all that easy to come by. When it comes to our contribution in medical ethical decisions, however, it is our unique contribution: we need to know the natural history. We need to know treatment alternatives and how they compare. We need to know costs. We need to know risks of treatment. We need to know the prevalence of diseases. Knowing these things is not easy.


Excerpt from "Counseling Persons with Questions on Medical Ethics"

'Obamacare' ALREADY forcing doctors to close practices - Washington Times

"If I do open another practice, it's going to be me, the patient and ... no insurance," Dr. Rosenwasser said. "I'm going to treat my patients how I know they should be treated."

'Obamacare' health care reform ALREADY forcing doctors to close practices - Washington Times

Our Brother's Brother

Despite years of sermons to the contrary, we are not our brother’s keeper, in the sense of being a zookeeper. We are to seek our brother’s best interests, and in that sense we are his keeper, but, when he disagrees with us about what is best, we are not generally to try as individuals to coerce him into our way of behaving. We are our brother’s brother (or sister).


Excerpt from "Trusting God or Trusting Ourselves"

In Memory

On the 4th anniversary of Dr. Terrell's death, we share one of the many letters his wife received in the months after his death.


Dear Mrs. Terrell,

I wanted you to know what a precious influence Dr. Terrell had in my life and that of my family. As you may remember, I completed the McLeod Family Medicine residency [program]. Dr. Terrell's faith in Christ was such a part of his practice, he became my role model in my effort to integrate my faith and medicine.

The Bible studies we shared as residents with him in your home were particularly meaningful. I treasure and have kept to this day the complete set of his Journal of Biblical Medical Ethics. Dr. Terrell taught me that if we are not careful, much of what we do as physicians is temporary and fleeting, and often inconsequential. He inspired me to try to slow down and think about what I was doing and why I was doing it -- and to remember that my patients were eternal beings: mind, body, and spirit.

He showed me how to take a stand for what I believed in and to be bold in my faith even when it was uncomfortable -- to address the spiritual dimension with patients if they were open to this and to make an an eternal difference. That is the kind of doctor he was and the kind of teacher he was.

And he cared deeply. I will never forget a tender moment with him when he found out I had been named as a defendant in a medical malpractice case. I was still in my first year of residency at McLeod, brand new to the world of medicine. As I discussed my dilemma with him, I noticed his eyes moisten with perhaps some compassion for me -- no words were necessary -- I knew then how much he cared.

His influence endured into the next generation in our home. Let me share with you how much my 15 year-old daughter enjoyed her classes with Dr. Terrell at [our local Christian school]. He truly was her favorite teacher. He was a bit unconventional, and she really loved that. He taught her so much more than Biology. What a special gift to have him as her teacher!

I wish I could turn back the hands of time. Hilton called my wife one day, asking to come visit us during that year he was teaching [our daughter]. We were busy and the house was a mess -- we wanted to straighten up before he came. So, we put it off and let time go by... I wanted to show him my vegetable garden and fruit trees -- you know that he and I shared that interest in growing things. I wish we had him over with a messy house...

He meant a lot to our family -- I just wanted you to know.

Evolution is Bad for Health

Evolutionary teaching undermines the authority of scripture by means of the interpretive contortions imposed on scripture to make it fit the scientific dogma of the day. Having undone Moses and, hence, Jesus who cited him as speaking God's word authoritatively, similar contortions are invited elsewhere in scripture. It also damages the doctrine that man uniquely bears the image of God. It is intrinsically friendly to abortion, euthanasia and experimentation with human embryos. … [E]volutionary teaching can lay claim to being part of the single most damaging health practices in our nation.


Excerpt from "How Would God Have Us Practice Preventive Medicine?"

Health and Holiness

It is time to alert all that the medical profession does not hold a monopoly on preventive medicine. Far more important are the beliefs of the population, for it is these which give rise to fruitful or disastrous economic systems, to governments, to customs, to healthy or unhealthy practices, to family strength, etc. Biblical teaching in its fulness has more potential influence on physical health than modern narrowly-conceived "medical" ministry. Although the two approaches are actually complementary, we have allowed medicine to become a materialistic discipline which has supplanted godliness as a health measure. Personal holiness of Christian practitioners is no substitute for God's rule in medical practice. Relegating health maintenance to the medical profession is not a biblical option of the pastorate.


Excerpt from "How Would God Have Us Practice Preventive Medicine?"

Health as an Idol?

We require balance in our priorities, which sometimes must come by the admonition of those under whose authority we live. I recently met a retired stockbroker who devoted most of his waking hours to a program to extend his life. He followed a complex diet and exercise regimen diligently. He had it all on computer and thereby kept exact record of every morsel he ate and each calorie expended. Some evidence exists to suggest that being slightly underfed, minimizing fats and meats, etc., are efficacious to extend life. If this is true, does God require such a preoccupation as his? Not at all! Such a consuming pursuit of physical life makes an idol of it.

Though our physical lives are precious and may be too lightly esteemed by our society and by ourselves, we should remember that the even the best physical life we enjoy is distorted; it is abnormal due to original sin. Paul reminds us that "outwardly [physically] we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day ... So we fix our eyes not on what is seen [our bodies, for example], but on what is unseen. For what is seems temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Cor. 4:16b, 18) Neither medical nor non-medical methods of preventive medicine, therefore, should anticipate being able to do more than slow down the natural deterioration that is our lot since Eden.


Excerpt from "How Would God Have Us Practice Preventive Medicine?"

Limits on Preventive Medicine

Unlike Paul (cf. 2 Cor. 5:6-10), Americans prefer not to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Instead, we make it our goal to be at home in the body here as long as possible, at whatever cost. We might even take the unduplicated body parts of others, while at an advanced age ourselves, in order to be at home in the body a while longer.

As horrific as it may sound, Paul indicated a godly form of utility. “For I know that this will turn out for my salvation through prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith." (Phil. 1:19-25).

Paul knew he was expendable in God's service.

Pro-life people are rightly afraid of any utilitarian ethic. The intrinsic value of human beings may be replaced by devaluation of the deformed, old, ill, or mentally retarded. The fact that we have utility in God's service does not open to us an ethical means to waste our life or someone else's. We are not privy to God's overall plan. We cannot always know what He is using us to accomplish. An utterly helpless person may be the instrument by which God is teaching others love, gentleness, patience, kindness, sharing or many other virtues. However, if we recall that we are being used by Him, it will help us guard against fencing ourselves with too much preventive effort.

It is inconsistent to sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" while seeking the safety of the rear ranks. We can get hurt up front, but heading for the rear is not the right kind of health maintenance. Whereas God is indeed pro-life, He is most assuredly not pro-life above all other requirements. For example, He does not forbid capital punishment or just wars, though some who have made pro-life their central value oppose these in an effort to be consistent.

The apostle Paul took into account his utility in spreading the gospel. "We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you." (2 Cor. 4:10-12)

Risking death that others might receive the second birth unto eternal life implied risk of illness due, among other things, to malnutrition and exposure. He recounts some of his sufferings in 2 Cor. 6:4 and 1 Cor. 4:10, 11. He utilized his physical body in the calling he had received. He used it up, not accounting his intrinsic value as something to be placed above the use of it in God's service. (1 Cor. 9:27) As he admonished Timothy to endure hardship in his work of evangelism, he clearly portrays this attitude of utility: "For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Tim. 4:6, 7)


Excerpt from "How Would God Have Us Practice Preventive Medicine?"

ORIENT: Fighting back against Obamacare - Washington Times

ORIENT: Fighting back against Obamacare - Washington Times