Archive for August, 2009
This is sort of a follow-on from my last post about occultic symbols. Sometimes people ask me about alternative medicine and what should be the Christian response. It seems to be one of those areas that polarizes people – some embrace it wholeheartedly, whilst others want nothing to do with it because they see it all as being “New Age.”
Like so much New Age stuff, alternative medicine is very much a mixed bag. Some alternative therapies are totally legitimate, whilst others are demonically backed. So how do you tell the difference? Things like the use of herbs and plants for healing are fine – God placed those things in the world for our benefit – but what about things like aromatherapy, reiki and hypnosis. How can we know what is safe and what is not?
My personal practice is to start by asking the simple question, Is there any kind of scientific backing for this? Some therapies, even though not generally accepted by traditional medicine, do have a scientific basis. One that springs to mind is aromatherapy. Studies have shown that aromas do certainly influence the mental/emotional wellbeing of patients, and may also influence their physical wellbeing.
Others have absolutely no scientific backing at all, but rely on drawing on some unseen power. In Reiki, for instance, the practitioner supposedly “heals” by channeling his/her inner healing power to the patient. The reality, however, is that human beings do not have any innate healing ability, and the power these people are channeling is actually demonic. In fact, it is exactly the same thing as I used to do before I was saved when, as a spiritualist, I operated as a healing medium. Unfortunately, the results are also the same – the patient may get “healed”, but he/she also gets a bunch of demons.
If any therapy does not have some scientific basis, avoid it. Maybe in time it will be proven to be scientific, but it is far better to risk missing out than to take a chance on it being ok only to learn too late that it is demonic.
Just to make life more complicated, some therapies do have an apparently scientific basis, but are still spiritually dangerous. I am thinking particularly of hypnosis. Certainly, hypnosis works, and there are studies which show how and why it works. Hypnotists also argue that nobody will do under hypnosis anything that they would normally consider morally wrong. However, that is very easy to work around. If a woman under hypnosis can be made to believe that the onion she is biting into is a sweet, juicy apple, they why could she not be made to believe that the man kissing her is her husband? She might have moral standards that would never allow her to kiss a man who was not her husband, but if she believes he is, then those standards are over-ridden. Even worse, hypnosis places people in a spiritually vulnerable position where they can be attacked by demons without even recognizing that an attack is taking place. Don’t ever fall into the trap of thinking, “Because it works it must be ok.”
Some Christians say we should not worry about such things. They quote the Scripture that “greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world” and insist that we are safe to do anything because of the power of God. However, God never promises to protect us from willful stupidity. If you step off the top of a building, God is not going to send an angel to hold you up; and if you deliberately get involved in things that are demonic in their origin, He is not going to shelter you from the consequences. He gave us intelligence and will, and He means us to use them.
Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater – some alternative therapies are ok, and very helpful. Pray and ask the Lord to give you wisdom, consider whether a particular therapy has any real scientific basis, and also consider what the results could be. If there is any doubt, it is far better to err on the side of caution.
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This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.
There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:51 Timothy 2:5
English: World English Bible - WEB
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
WP-Bible plugin)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9Colossians 2:9
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9 For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
WP-Bible plugin)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11Philippians 2:9-11
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9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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