Introduction⤒🔗

What is the relationship between medical science and divine healing, or to put it in a different way: how is the position of a doctor as a physician (lower case) related to the position of our heavenly Father as Physician (upper case)? Are we sometimes healed through the successful treatment of a surgeon (unfortunately, not all the time), or is the return of our health always a gift of God? And when you respond spontaneously and in faith you say “yes” to the latter, then how does God’s gift of healing relate to the use of means that are derived from modern medical science?

This question may be recognized as focusing on the relationship between faith and science, in this case, the relationship between our faith in God the Father, the Almighty, the Creator and Maintainer of our life and the role which modern medical science plays in our life.

Science -Reduction←⤒🔗

When we speak about medical science in our Western culture we are identifying with the results of rational scientific thinking applied to the human body and the processes that play a role in this.

The method and mindset of modern science can be described briefly as follows: our surrounding reality is broken down into a number of different aspects or parts of that reality. The individual parts are isolated from their relationship to one another and are being observed and studied in order to come to an understanding and comprehension of this partial reality. Such understanding will lead to the discovery of natural laws, i.e., to the possibility to represent observable realities quantitatively and qualitatively. For this it is important that the observer or researcher looks at his reality from an objective perspective; he takes a step back and looks at it objectively. In this way he reduces or simplifies the reality in such a way that he will focus only on signals and data that are measurable.

This reduction is carried to such an extreme that many aspects of reality are being ignored. Aspects such as beauty, pain or emotions are being eliminated. In any case, the relationship to God is disregarded. Those are matters that cannot be measured based on the fact that they are unique and immeasurable. They do not play a role and are not incorporated. C.J. Dippel formulated it like this: “In science we work with a filtrate of reality, an extract that passes through the strainer of our knowledge.”

I want to leave aside whether this science leads to discoveries or whether it only leads to a (re-)construction of reality. The German scientist C.F. von Weizsäcker speaks in his book “Zum Weltbild der Physik” (The World View of Physics) about a self-made image of reality.

This method of thinking and observation has drastically changed our worldview. Not only did knowledge increase, but also the ability to influence reality. Knowledge proved to be power (Bacon)!

This progress of the explosion of knowledge resulted in the fact that our society has changed from an agricultural society to a technical society, followed by a technological society and ultimately resulting in a biogenetically manipulatable society.

The same method appeared to be applicable also to the human body, and it has led to our modern medical science. In this effort man has been reduced to a body, and the body to a set of different organs. These organs consist of millions of cells and within those cells biochemical processes are taking place that can be described as chemical reactions. Such chemical processes are known in their smallest details. Illness has been reduced to a disruption of the normal bodily processes.

Medical Science and Human Euphoria←⤒🔗

It will be difficult to deny that these insights into the processes of the human body have led to fantastic and impressive results. Just consider for instance the treatment of diabetes with biogenetically produced human insulin, or the matter of heart transplantations and heart/lung surgeries. Think about remedies against headaches, or pharmaceutical preparations to influence our psychological functioning.

The success of this method has led to an excessive expectation of medical science. A kind of euphoria was created with the hope that each step forward would mean real progress on the way to Paradise: no more cancer, no more illness, everyone enjoying good health.

Such a happy anticipation can be fully noticed in our culture. When heaven disappears out of view, then this temporal life is all there is. Then you will be healthy every day, along the lines and in the trend of a godless poem by Van Lodestein, “Down here all is well, as long as you’re healthy.”

This explains why modern man attaches great and absolute value to his health, and in doing so he is asking too much from medical science. The overestimation of this earthly temporary existence leads to an extremely high consumption of all types of possibilities for health care. In all of this medical science, as the apex of human ingenuity, has become the enabler of human happiness.

A consequence is also the fact that the increasing demand for healthcare has led to almost insurmountable problems considering the limited availability of financial means.

A Closed Worldview←⤒🔗

In spite of the successes achieved on the basis of rational insights into the human body, that same method appears to fall short more and more. Ever more it appears that medical science cannot offer help. I will mention two examples to illustrate how it falls short.

The reduction of a person simply to a somatic body can lead to the fact that disease processes that have to do with the interaction of our soul and our body are difficult to treat. We are seeing ever more clinical syndromes where current medical science does not offer any means or solutions.

A second example is the rise of alternative means of treatment. These have always been there, however the scope and availability of these methods make it clear that the rational scientific approach is past its peak. We see in our culture a transition from a rational culture to a postmodern society where the primacy of the ratio is disappearing. A closed worldview, where everything is within the realm of the feasible, appears to be outdated.

Now when I repeat the question: is the doctor the physician or is God the Physician, then it may be clear that the answer depends on the understanding we have about reality.

In a closed scientific worldview there is a causal correlation between the discrepancy (= illness) and the recovery of this sickness through a rationally chosen means. The surgeon reduces the patient to his physical suffering, for example, a cancerous tumour. He removes it and the patient may improve and get well again. The internist concludes a metabolic deviation, prescribes a suitable medication, and the patient recovers.

It cannot be denied that in our secularized culture many people share this idea. Life no longer has any surprises and no longer points to God as the Creator. In such a view, health is no longer a gift, and illness has nothing to do with God.

Insight of Faith←⤒🔗

We should not be too quick in saying that this way of life is foreign to us. On the contrary, we are children of our time and of this culture. We share in the temptations of this closed worldview and to a large extent we share the fruit of the interaction between science and technology. In a practical sense we experience this, because often with the approach of a disease and the question about our health our first reaction is usually motivated by rational considerations.

It is my firm conviction that there is only one way to distance ourselves from this closed and horizontal type of thinking, namely by allowing ourselves to be addressed by the Word of God. This Revelation of God tells us that we as human beings are carrying a secret in ourselves: we are more than our bodies!

“Not all things have a secret, every human life knows a secret.” This is a free translation of the title of a book by Van den Beukel. The secret lies hidden in the fact that we are God’s creation. In this creatureliness we are more than the sum of our bodies. We are creatures in the unity of body, soul and spirit.

This confession also means that in matters of sickness and health we have to do with God. In that context we have to deal with poignant questions about the relationship between health and sickness, illness and the brokenness of our existence, sickness and punishment for sin. This can often be recognized in people who are ill. Then it is not the illness that is in the foreground, but instead the question about the sense and meaning of it. When we confess that our life unfolds within the direction of God, our Father, then these are questions of faith. Other chapters deal more in-depth with this topic.

A Means in the Hands of God←⤒🔗

The question remains about the place of the means or the method of healing, within the overall scope of God’s guidance and direction. Why does God not heal solely on the basis of prayer, but why does he also want for us to use means, sometimes even means from the arsenal of modern medical science?

I am convinced that this is a given from the Word of God, from the Bible itself. Both in the Old as well as in the New Testament we read of recoveries where means are used, which under God’s blessing, leads to healing. However, we need to read carefully. The means never replace God’s acting, but are always a means in God’s hands.

A consequence of this is that there is a restriction of the means we may use in case of illness. Only those means may be used of which we may confess and say that God our Father may and can use them. Methods and means that would bring us into an anti-godly, heathen way of life are not permitted. Especially from the realm of alternative means of healing, methods and means are presented that in my opinion should not be permissible for Christians to use.

No Recovery?←⤒🔗

In what I have written thus far I have generally been speaking of means for healing. Actually this is not correct. It concerns ways of treatment in the hope and expectation that the treatment will lead to recovery. But often we must conclude that this is not the case. Then we are dealing with a treatment all right, but it does not lead to restored health.

In other chapters attention is given in a pastoral way to those profound questions of life, for instance of knowing that God controls your life and yet not seeing any recovery. Yes, there can be constant prayer of healing and restoration of health, yet we see no progress and experience no improvement.

And yet it remains true that God is the Physician, the One who heals our lives. To people who struggle with such questions I extend the wish that it may be their experience that in the abysmal nature of those questions they may yet know and experience that God’s care and help are close.

Our Lives are in God’s Hands←⤒🔗

I return to the central question: the doctor, or God as the Physician. May God prevent us from the thought that we live by the rationality of our thinking as if our health would depend fully on medical science. From the perspective of a believer I may say that our lives are in God’s hands, in sickness and in health. It is not about the means only, or about praying only. But then we may pray that the treatment may be a way of healing.