1990 issue 4 - the reconstruction of medicine - counsel of chalcedon

8/12/2019 1990 Issue 4 - The Reconstruction of Medicine - Counsel of Chalcedon

1/7

The

Reconstruction

of

edicine

by Joseph C. Morecraft, i l l

I THE CRISIS OF MODERN

MEDICINE

A.

The

Political Crisis

Our

federal government

continues to move closer and closer to

the complete socialization

of

America's

health care system with such plans as

Secretary Bowen's Catastrophic Health

Insurance

and

Senator Kennedy's

Mandatory Health Insurance.l It refuses

to recognize that socialized medicine is

the death

of

the practice

of

medicine

that is inexpensive, effective and

available to

all.

All nations with

socialized medicine, such as the USSR,

Great Britain,

and

Canada lack one

thing,

writes

Harry Schwartz: enough

money

t9 provide quality medical care

and

to

take full

advantage

of

modem

medical technology. 2 Health care

in

the USSR is a disaster. Britain's health

care system is in shambles,

and

Canada's is on its way down.

One or two generations

ago,

many

people dreamed that socialized medicine

would provide every citizen with all the

health care he needed or wanted. But

history

has

proved irrefutably that

s ~ i a l i z e ~ medicine is simply a means

of tmposmg Procrustean rationing on

the entire population. In other words

. .

some ctuzens receive care and live,

while others are denied care and are

permitted to die as quickly as

possible. 3 (Harry Schwartz, The

British Way

of

Withholding pg.

lOlf

in The Freeman

March, 1989).It

must be mentioned that socialism is

not

the

only eontrlbuting factor

to m

political crisis of medicine. The

unionization of medicine by the .

American Medical Association, with its

Leftist

orientatioJl.

is also a

contributing factor.

This political crisis is a religious crisis.

As

men

change their faith, their

politics, worldview

and

social order

change.

As

America's

faith

becomes

less and less Christian and more and

more

pagan, its politics,

worldView

(regarding medicine

as

well as

everything else) and its social order

become more and

more

dominated by

paganism's superstition, magic;

h ~ s m ~ s l a v e r y This shows up

Particularly

the

medical profession.

SoCialized

medicine; rooted in a retuni

to pagan religion, is already here

with

state

and

federal

licensW"e,

regulation , ,

and

~ n t r o l

which can protect

medicme and doctors, but the same

way that slavery protects s1ave8. There

are benefits, but the loss .is a Vitalone _

- modem

men

and modem doctors are

sta.te property. They may grumble at

bemg

sheared periodically, Or sacrificed

to suit the s t a ~ but, in essence, most

ate getting what they have asked for by :

their daily lives. They

are

statist in

faith. The slave may grumble a ~ o u t

his

working conditions, but he is simply

property,

and

he will be used as such. f

he

wants

a real change, he must work

for his

freedom."4

B. The

-

Legid

Crisis '

One needs only mention

words, medical rnalpractice.stiits, or be

Page

16

May

1990 The o u ~ s e l of h a l c e d ~ n

reminded o doctors'

insurance

costs

and it becomes all too painfully '

obvious that the legal crisis of medicine :

is out of control.

C The Medical Crisis

1.

1HE CRISIS

OF

A LOSS

OFFAI11I

a. The

Loss

of Faith in the

Doctors

Modem

doctors,

generally, have lost thek faith in the

One,.True.and Living God of

the

Bible.

They have replaced thek faith in God

with a fajth in

themselves and

in

medical/scienCe

research

and ~ h n o l o g y .

as g o d - ~ I I D d their gods are failing

them

One evtdence

o this change of

gods

in

doctors

iffid

its evil

resUlts

is

medicine's mechanical model" in

Western.

Culture,

Its roots are

also

in

ancientJ>aganiSm. This niechanical

model"

rejects the

biblical

truth that

man

and

woncin

are

made

in the image

of God and are physical-spiritual

beings

for pagan view that

the

physical

body Is

the sole concern of the doctor

and

is simply a mechanistic thing. '

When the fuel is

low in

a machine, we

add

more oil and gasoline. When

the

mechanical parts break or wear out, we

,add new parts. So with modem

medicine's approach to the patient This

~ e c h a n i ~ a l model produces not only a

distorted medical practice, but a

dangerous

one.

The

idea

of

man

being a

person

created

in the

image of

God is

by-paSsed. Life is no longer

seen

as a

religious f ~ t but a legal definition

writes Ru8hdoony

:

5

The unborn chnd is

merely a piece of tissue. Euthanasia is

p ~ a c t i c e d because

elderly

people are

vtewed as Qld, worn-out models , now

fit only for the junk

pile. "The

spare

parts idea is cultivated--aborted babies

are a source of raw

materials

and the

dying are cannibalized

for

spare

organs. 6

P a t i ~ t s

God

b. The Loss of

Faith in the

(1). The

Loss

of Faith in

In

recent decades

Americans in general have lost thek

faith

in

the triune

GQ


2/7

Christians seek salvation from God in

Christ This

is

nothing new.

In

ancient

Judah,

King

Asa became diseased in

his feet His disease was severe, yet

even in his

disease

he did not seek the

Lord, but the physicians,

II

Chron.

16:12.

(2). The Loss of Trust in

Doctors

Since all idols

disappoint their worshipers, more

and

more people have lost faith in

physicians. Their image has been so

badly

dama

ged

by

their humanism,

especially their willingness to murder

unborn babies, that the patients' trust in

doctors is weakening. The doctor once

had

an honored and loved status with

his patients because they were

convinced he was deeply religious and

deeply concerned for them. That picture

is rapidly changing due to the decline of

Christian faith

in

our culture.

John Naisbitt, in

his

best-selling

book,

Megatrends

points out that

America's loss of faith in the medical

establishment

gave

a strong symbolic

push to

the

paradigm shift from

institutional help to self-help. When we

entered the 1970's without the long

promised cure

for

cancer, people began

to question the omnipotence of

science.

(pg.

133)7

2. TilE CRISIS OF NEW AGE

HOLISTIC

MEDICINE

Accelerating this medical

crisis and this growing distrust in

orthodox medicine is the New Age

Movement

with

its emphasis on

holistic health and healing. In his

helpful book:, Unmasking theNew

Age Douglas Groothuis describes the

attitude that

moves

people toward

holistic New Age medicine: The

health professionals' mechanistic view

of people, rising malpractice suits,

dangerous

prescription drugs, iatrogenic

(doctor-caused) illnesses and soaring

costs have caused more and more people

to question modem medicine. Many

would agree with Voltaire's evaluation:

'Physicians pour drugs of which they

know little, to cure diseases of which

they know less, into humans of which

they know nothing.' Discontent with

establishment medicine coupled with a

gnawing feeling of helplessness in the

face of death and disease has brought

many to the ~ r t e healing fount of

holistic health.

Because of modem orthodox

medicine's loss of a Biblical worldview,

there

is some justification for t l J ~

criticism that all it knows to do is cut,

poison, and bum. There must be a

renewed understanding that patients

are

spiritual-physical beings; that

wellness, i.e., abundant life in

Christ is the goal of medicine, not

simply the absence of disease; that

people should take responsibility for

their own health; and that God made

available to

us

natural resources in

creation, such as certain plants,

minerals, vitamins, etc., that are

essential to our health

and

restoration.

Although holistic medicine

emphasizes its own version of some of

these points (mentioned above), much

of Holism is not holy, because

its

roots

and presuppositions are drawn from the

paganism of Eastern Religions.

Groothuis warns that while many

involved in holistic health may not

follow the idea that all is one and all is

god

this is

what is most often meant

by holistic. The emphasis

on

'universal

energy' betrays the worldview.

Although not all in the profession

would agree, one chiropractor makes his

views crystal clear: 'The chiropractor

believes that the innate intelligence that

runs the body

is

connected to universal

intelligence that runs the world,

so

each

person

is

plugged into the universal

intelligence through the nervous

system.' 9 Hence, the pantheism

of

the

New Age Movement .

Some

forms

of acupuncture, drawn

from Chinese Taoism, Shamanistic,

folk healing techniques, hypnosis, and

psychic and mediumistic healing, are

based on the pantheistic worldview of

the New Age Movement, and are

modem forms of old-fashioned

occultism. Groothuis continues: The

Christian cannot condone a vision of

health rooted in spiritual deception.

Whatever the efficacy of these various

practices, the Christian must be careful

to test the spirits to uncover unbiblical

ideas, I Jn. 4:11.

A host of rebellious

spirits and demons can masquerade as

agents of healing and health for the

purpose of diverting attention from the

Great Physician. -- Holistic health

sometimes falls prey to the great lie

that we are masters of our own destiny

and

lords of reality.

lO

Therefore,

it

can

be said, that New Age medicine is a

major contributor to the medical crisis

and decline of health care today.

3.

Til

CRISIS OF TIIE

ruDGMENT

OF

GOD ( NEW

DISEASES DISORDERS)

Medicine is undergoing a

crisis, precisely because our culture and

society is under the covenant curse

and

judgment of Almighty God for our

apostasy from him. But it shall come

about, if you will not obey the Lord

your God The Lord will make the

pestilence cling to you until he has

consumed you from the land. . . . The

Lord will smite you with consumption

and with fever and with blight and with

mildew, and they shall puisue you until

you perish, Deut 28:21f. This

explains the complete failure of modem

medicine to cure AIDS, and the whole

host of new viruses and diseases

entering the human blood

system.11

Modem medicine, with

its

humanistic

presuppositions

is

a pathetically

helpless dwarf in the face of the

gigantic monster, AIDS. When God

sends plagues

in

judgment upon a

people, there is

.

.

no

healing for your

sore, no recovery for you (Jer. 30:13),

without repentance.

D. The Moral Crisis

Christians are all too painfully

aware of the moral crisis of the medical

profession.12 It hurts even to mention

the

problem: The holocaust of abortion;

Infanticide; Euthanasia; Disregard for

the sanctity of human life;

Psychotherapy; Freudianism;

Relativism; Darwinianism; The abuses

of

brain death; Sex therapy; The abuses

of birth control; Artificial

insemination; Genetic engineering; In

vitro fertilization; Surrogate

motherhood; Sterilization, etc.

And,

in

a very real sense the political, legal and

medical crises of modem medicine are

also moral crises, just

as

they are all

religious crises. They reveal a long

standing, persistent rebellion against

The Counsel of Chalcedon May 1990 Page 17


3/7

God and His revealed

will

for hwnan

life, which, unless we

repent,

can only

bring down His severe and devastating

judgment.

l l

THE

RECONSTRUCTION

OF MODERN

MEDICINE

A. The Basis

of

Mediclne

The

God

of

the

Bible

and

his

covenant promise

are

the basis for the

practice and effectiveness o medical

treatment and health care. If you

will

give earnest heed to the voice of, he

Lord your God, and

do

what is right in

his

sight, and give

ear to

his

conunandments, and keep all his

statutes, I will pllt none of thediseases

on you which

I

have put on the

Egyptians; for I,

the

LORD, am your

Healer, Exodus15:26. Bless the Lord,

0 my soul; and all that is within

me

bless

his

holy name. Bless the Lord,

0

my soul, and forget none

of

his

benefits; who pardons all your

iniquities; who heals all your diseases;

who redeems your life from

the

pit;

who crowns you with lovingkindness

and compassion; who satisfies your

years with good things, so that your

youth is renewed like the eagle,

(Ps.

103:1-5.) And Jesus was going about

in all Galilee, teaching in their

synagogues, and proclaiming

the

gospel

of

the kingdom, and healing every kind

of disease and every kind of sickness

among the people. Matt. 4:23; 9:35.

The root

of

all disease and sickness

is sin, Rom. 6:23; 3:23. God covenants

with us in mercy and grace that he will

bring spiritual, physical, social and

cosmic health and restoration in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Normally, just as

God uses ministers and witnesses to

bring spiritual and cultural restoration,

so he uses physicians and medical

treatment for physical, .

(pneumosomatic), restotation and

health, James

5:14.

B. The Worldview of

Medkine

Dr.

Ed

Payne succinctly sets

forth the basics of a Christian/Biblical

worldview of medicine in

his

book,

Biblical/Medical Ethics

(pg.

94f):l3

Certain distinctives are essential for a

biblical concept of health. Biblical

anthropology tates that

man is

composed o body and spirit. Man is

not 'whole' until he

is

rightly related to

God through the atonement of

JeSus

Christ. Any wholistic approach without

the centrality of salvation is antithetical

to.biblical wholism. Following

salvation, wholistic health

is

dependent

upon the balanced Christian life

which

consists of four characteristics (certainty

of salvation, obedience, right attitude or

motive, and perseverance) and seven

activities (prayer, Bible study,

fellowship, physical health, putting off

.of

sin,

ministry and management of

daily essentials, {and-I might add,

worship}). The joy and peace

whiCh

result from characteristics and

activities are the most important

ingredients for pneumosomatic health.

Preventive measures are second in

importance. Coaelations between the

health benefits associated with the

balanced Quistian life and preventive

practices has been demonstrated

biblically and empirically.

The

practice

of medicine

is third.

In an attempt to make such

distinctives clear, the discussion can be

formulated into succinct statements:

1. Man is composed of two distinct

substances, the body and the spirit, yet

these exist and function as a unit

[pneumosomatic].

2.

Biblical

and

empirical evidence

correlate that health is positively

affected

by

the balanced Christian life,

preventive practices and modem

medicine.

3. Pneumosomatic health is not

possible for

the

unbeliever; although

preventive

and

medical practices will

improve and/or maintain health.

4. Pneumosomatic health is

possible

for

all believers; but its

implementation in an individual's life is

dependent upon God's sovereign will for

that life.

S

Perfect pneumosomatic

health

existed in the Garden of Eden

and

will

exist in

heaven.

6. Since unbelievers are not aware

of

man's

spirit or the rtecessity of

biblical concepts, only physicians who

are

Christians

are

able to practice

pneumosomatic medicine.

7. No final conflict exists between

Page 18

May

1990 The Counsel

o

Chalcedon

pneumosomatic health and empirical

evidence when

the latter is cOiltrolled

by

biblical principle.

8. The most common health

P'oblems in

the

U.S.

are

a result of

personal sin.

9. Sickness and death are not

'nonnal'

according to

the

biblical

account

of

creation.

10.

Many specific sins

result

in

specific

diseases.

For example,

syphillis is contracted through

extramarital sex.

11. Physical health primarily

involves individual responsibility and

- only secondarily is a responsibility of

the

medical

profession

(except for the

education of the patient).

12. Many

diseases

cannot effectively

be treated without simultaneous

application of biblical principles.

Sometimes, these will be

Jl10i'e

important

than the

medical treatment.

13. The effect of sin is

to

program

man's body

to

age and die with an

upper

limit to its longevity.

14. Biblical principles may not be

violated for medical reasons. For

example, a divorce designed to relieve

stress in a heart disease patient is a

violation of the sanctity of marriage.

15. Health resoilrce allocation

in

the

U.S. is reversed according

to

the

effectiveness of pneumosomatic,

preventive, and medical practices.

The biblical ethic for health is

distinct from

the

ethic of naturalistic

science and its ethical principles will

never be inconsistent

at

any point when

a thorough biblical approach is

realized. l4

C. The

Vocation

o

Medicine

R.J.

Rushdoony

has written in

his

book, Institutes o Biblical Law:

The

doctOr's

function

is

to

further

healing and to protect and further man's

life under God. 15 This vocation is

rooted

in the Law and in

the

Gospel.

First, it

is

rooted in

the

Law of

God.

Since the protection and nurture of

man's life under

God

is the positive

affumation of

the

sixth commandment,

[Thou shalt not commit murder], it

becomes apparent why, in Biblical

tradition, both

in

Israel and in Westeril

Civilization,

medicine has

been closely

linked

to religion. 16

Second, it is


4/7

rooted in the Gospel of Christ

According to the Bible, the physician

has a

priestly calling. His

very area of

concern, health, requires this. In the

Hebrew-Christian heritage, the doctor,

in origin a Levite, is concerned

with

health, and health is an aspect of

salvation. The Latin

word,

salve, carries

the same implication, and it is a fitting

fact, in

terms of

the Bible, that our

English word, salvation, has as its root

the word for

health. Salvation is total

health, spiritual

and

material; it

means

in its fmal form the resurrection of the

body, in its inception, regeneration,

and,

in between, growth in

terms

of the

principle

of

health,

God in

Christ

As

a

result, for Biblical

faith,

care of the

body

is

a religious concern, and health a

godly duty and blessing. The m n

who

ministers

to

the body has thus a

priestly calling, as does the man who

ministers

to

the

spirit

Both doctor and

pastor have a priestly calling or

ministry. 17 Both

aim

at

pneumosomatic health--the health of

the

whole person in Christ, James

5:14.

D. The Practice of Medicine

1. WHO SHOUlD PROVIDE

MEDICAL TREATMENT AND

HEAL1H CARE?

Health care and medical

treatment should be provided

by

three

sources, according to

the

Bible.

a. FAMILIES should know

how to provide some measure of. health

care for their members. The Laws of

Childbirth, Lev.

12:

1-8, the Laws

of

Circumcision

of

male infants on the

eighth day, Gen. 17:10f,

the

Laws of

skin-diseases and mildew, Lev. 13-14,

and

the Laws of Bodily Discharges in

men and women were oriented toward

family life m the covenant community,

and

presuppose some ability

to

recognize diseases and disorders

as

well

as

some knowledge of medical

treatment, preventatives, minor

surgeries, and health care m general.

b. PHYSICIANS should be

sought out for medical treatment

when

needed. Jesus clearly taught that those

who

are

genuinely ill need a physician,

Matt

9:12; :Mk. 2:17; Lk. 5:32. Paul

calls Luke his beloved physician ,

Col. 4:4. However, Christians should

be cared for

by

Christian physicians,

primarily, and i possible. Dr.

Ed

Payne

writes: Believers have indiscriminately

accepted

the

role of physicians in their

lives. Empirical and biblical evidence

has

been presented to demonstrate the

close link between sin and sickness.

Therefore,

i

almost all medical care is

practiced without consideration of, or is

opposed

to

spiritual realities, the most

important dimension in believer's lives

has been neglected,

I I

Cor. 4:16f; Rom.

8:18; I Tim. 4:7f. 18

c. The

OIUR H

should offer

some measure of health care for those

who need it, especially, but not

exclusively, those of

its own

membership. This can be offered in,

at

least, five ways:

(1). By nouthetically

counseling those who are sick, that

their cure could be found

in

repentance

and in obedience to the Law

of God -

Do not

be

wise in your

own

eyes; fear

the Lord and tum away from evil. It

will be healiDg to your body, and

refreshment

to

your bones, Prov. 3:7.

(2). By praying for those

who are sick-- ls anyone among

you

sick? Let him call for the elders of the

church, and let them pray over him,

anomting him with oil in the name of

the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith

will restore the one who is sick, and the

Lord will raise him up, and i he has

committed sins, they will be forgiven

him, James 5:14.

(3). By properly

administering the Sacrament of the

Lord's Supper-- For he who eats and

drinks, eats and drinks judgment to

himself,

i

he does not judge the body

rightly. For this reason many among

you are weak and sick, and a number

sleep, I Cor. 11:28f.

(4). By the ministty and

counsel

of the

diaconate, which is

responsible for the health and welfare

of

the membership of the church, Acts 6:1-

7. The New Testament deacons, like the

Old Testament Levites, mercifully

promoted

the general health and welfare

of God's people by encouraging them to

eat better food and practice better

hygiene and receive a better d u c a t i o n ~ -

while carefully monitoring their

infectious diseases and decontaminating

their housing and supervising their long-

range socio-economic practices,:

according to F. Nigel Lee.19 (His

scriptural support for the diaconate

fulfilling the pennanent social

functions of the Levites, as opposed to

their temporary, ceremonial functions

fulfilled in Christ, include Acts 6 : 1 ~ 7

especially verse 7; Lev. 11-15, 25-27;

Dt

2A:8; I

Sam. 21:1-6;

Ezra

8:24f.

See pages 7-11

in

his unpublished

paper, The Diaconate.

(5) By recommending,

nonprofessionally, proven methods of

treatment

of

physical disorders and

health care. The Apostle Paul did not

hesitate to suggest to Timothy that he

drink a little wine for his stomach

problems, I Tim. 5:23. The Book of

Proverbs is even more specific in its

reconunendations: Give strong drink to

him who is perishing, and wine to him

whose life is bitter. Let him

drink

and

forget his poverty, and remember his

trouble

no

more, Prov. 31:6-7. James

urges the one who is sick to call for

the elders of the church, and let them

pray over

him,

anointing him

with

oil

in the name of the Lord; and the prayer

offered in faith will restore the one who

is sick, and the Lord will raise him

up,

and i he has committed sins, they will

be forgiven him, James 5:14f. Here

the elders, not doctors, are encouraged,

not only to pray for the sick person

who calls for them, but

also

to anoint

him with oil. Only the Christian

church has a means for curing

hamartiagenic sickness, i.e., sin

engendered sicknesses. James offers

the means for a cure. The anointing

with oil mentioned here

is

not a

ceremonial or symbolic ritual.

Although the Old Testament speaks

of

anointmg with oil

as

one of the rites

of the Sanctuary, Jay Adams shows, in

his

book,

Competent to Counsel, that

James did not write about ceremonial

anomting at all. 111e Greek word

'anoint'

aleipho),

which James used,

does not mean ceremonial anointing.

The ordinary word for a ceremonial

anointing was chrio (a cognate

of

christos, Christ, the 'anointed one). The

word James used aleipho), in contrast

to the word chrio, 'to anoint,' usually

means 'to rub' or simply 'apply.' The

word aleipho was used to describe

the

The Counsel of Chalcedon May 1990 Page19


5/7

personal application

of

salves, lptions,

and

perfumes with an oil base. The

word is

allied

to /ipos 'grease.'- An

aleiptes was a 'trainer'

who rubbed

down

athletes in a gymnastic

school.

Aleipho

was used frequently in medical treatises.

And so i t turns out that what James

required by the use of oil waS the use of

the best medical means of the day.

James simply said to

rub

oil, often used

as

a base for mixtures

of

various

medicinal herbs, on the body, and pray.

What James advocated

was the use of

consecrated. dedicated medicine.

In this

passage he urged the treating of

sickness by medical means accompanied

by prayer.

(pg. 105-108)20

f the

patient was cherishing

unconfeSsed,

unrepented of sins, the medicine and

prayer would

be

ineffective

unless

he

confessed his sins and repented

of

them.

2. WHO SHOUlD

W1:

PROVIDE.MEDICAL lREATMENT

AND

HEAL1H

CARE?

The one social institution

that

is

not

given the power

and

authority by God to provide medical

treatment and health care

is

the civil

government, the state, whether federal

or local. In Old Testament and New

Testament alike the civil government

is

given the one function

of

the

administration

of

justice--

.

it is a

minister

of God, an

avenger

who

brings

wrath upon the one who practices

evil

,

Rom. 13 :1-7;

Deut

16:18-20; When

a

civil government usurps powers

and

responsibilities, such as health,

education and welfare, which God has

not assigned it, it not only fails to

execute

its

appointed purpose, it

also

begins to experience the effects of God's

judgment for its attempts to play

God

rather

than

being a minister

of

Goo.

a.

Harold

OJ

. Brown

reminds

us of

the point made by Nobel

Prize winner, Jean Bernard

of

Paris; in

his

book, The Grandeur

and

Temptations o Medicine that

it

is

physically and financially beyond the

capacity

of

a great

i n ~ s t r i l

nation

to

provide for all its citizens all the

medical services that our modern level

of

medical knowledge tells

us

will or

possibly could

be

helpful to them.n21

b. Governmental

bureaucracies with Orwell's Big

Brother mentality bungle

and ruin

the

practice of medicine, endangering the,

lives

of

the healthy andthe

sick.Dr

Jane Orient's rewriting

of

the parable

of

the Good Samaritan

c c o ~ g to

the

principles of socialism illustrates the

point:

A man

fell among antisocial

elements,

who

probably had a deprived

childhood. (In the absence of property

rightS,

there are of cOUISe.no thieves.)

A

priest and a Levite passed

by,

and

notified

the

proper agency in cbarge

of

prioritizing and providing for a victim's

right to medical care in

an

efficient and

fair manner. While the bleeding victim

was awaiting his turn, a Samaritan

came along. The Samaritan

w s

moved

by pity (a deplorable trait, since

tenderheartedness can lead to favoritism

and other evils). However, he had no oil

or

wine for pouring on the

man s

wounds,

no

beast,

and

no

denarius.

Because the business in which he

was

engaged did not serve the social good,

his property had

been

redistributed

to

those who needed

it

more.He was thus

unable to help the man. Eventually,

some member

of

the helping

professions brought the victim to

the

inn, where he was evaluated by

the

gatekeeper.

There was

a delay

because

the

man's identification card

had been

stolen, and

it

was difficult to

verify

his

eligibility. Also, the.gatekeeper needed

to confer with

a

utilizatiOn review

advisor, who was more expert

in

applying the criteria. The admission

criteria

had been

recently revised

by

a

committee

of

community-based

professional consultants, including the

priest and Levite. Once the gatekeeper

certified that the man

was

both eligible

and needy,

he

assigned

him, by now

in

a moribund state,

to

a preferred

innkeeper.

The

innkeeper's duty

was to

take care

of

the patient, for whatever

reimbursement sdCiety decided upon .

In

fonner times, he might have gotten a

denarius, but in the age of cost

efficiency, he would make do for

less,

without

any

decline in the quality

of

care. Otherwise, he would lose his

innkeeper's license, or face other

sanctions.

An innkeeper who

complained that HE had fallen

among

thieves would

be

accused of greed and

selfiShness.

f

he failed

to

cure the

Page 20 May 1990 The Counsel

of

Chalcedon

patient, the priest and

LeVite

could

accuse him of incompetence or

negligence, and

the

man or his heirs

could instigate a lawsuit,

with

the aid

of the

neighborly lawyer. The

innkeeper's

union,

in

turn,

could

complain that society had

not

provided

adequate resources

or

had allocated them

unfairly. They could also propose an

additional tax on the Samaritan for

programs

to

alleviate the conditions

that

lead

to roadside crime.

In

this

Utopia,

mere

love for one's neighbor

could be replaced by

concern

for all

humankind. The new code of social

responibility would supercede the

primitive, individualistic Oath of

Hippocrates, to the benefit of all,

especially priests, Levites,

lawyers and

thieves

.

The

obsolescent Good

Samaritan and the bankrupt private

innkeeper would go the

u n l ~ n t e d way

of

the dinosaur. 22

c. Socialized medicine

becomes

punitive medicine. This

has

been

amply documented in a recent book

entitled, Punitive Medicine by

Alexander Podrabinek, who is

now in

exile in Siberia. He carefully shows

how psychiatry

and

medical treatment

are

used brutally for political

purposes

in

the

U.S.

S.R.23

He reveals

how

leading opponents

to the

communist

totalitarian regime are discredited

by

being sent

to

mental institutions, where

they

are drugged and tortured into

submission.

In

his review of this

book,

Rushdoony makes

this

insightful

comment: The

most serious mistake

we can make is to treat punitive

medicine

as

a Soviet aberration.

We

should instead see it as the logical

conclrision of all socialized medicine.

The advocates

o

socialized medicine

believe that such astep would bring

more medical care

to

the poor

and

needy. The fact is that, at least in the

United States, the poor have

usually

had more medical services rendered to

them

than

any

other class. .

But

the

problem goes

deeper;

--

There

is

no reason t believe that

socialized medicine anywhere will serve

the people ahy better or

as

good s


6/7

private practice. On the contrary it will

serve the federal government Let

us

remember, after

all,

that the Sixteenth

Amendment (the income tax) was

voted

into the U.S. Constitution in the

name

of

helping the

poor

There is no reason

to suppose that a socialized and

federalized medicine will be any

more

benevolent

than

the Internal Revenue

Service.

Anyone who can think of

the

IRS as the people's friend today does

indeed have mental problems

Socialized medicine will be no better

than the

IRS,

and potentially worse.

Any

and everything which puts

us

into

contact with a powerful state and its

bureaucracy is dangerous,

and

socialized

medicine

will place us

in

a

very

close

relationship to that power-state: at

pregnancy and childbirth, in i l l health

and accidents, for a variety

of

required

medical examinations, and much more.

Also,

as

euthanasia becomes an

accepted practice like abortion, the more

the state knows abOut you, the less

safe

you are. "Thus, Alexander Podrapinek:'s

Punitive Medicine

gives

us merely the

avant

garde

aspect

of

the new medical

practice, socialized medicine. It is a

very logical development The state is a

punitive agency

or institution. Its

pUipOse is to punish or

to

vindicate. Its

basic and truest instruments are the

courts

, the police and the military.

Their purpose is punitive -- the state is

the

agency of coercion.

To place the

healing arm

of

society under the

coercive or punitive arm is the height

of

folly

and unreason. No realm taken

over by the state has escaped its

coercive and punitive nature. As a

result,

because no independent,

uncoerced, and

free

voice exists,

corruption prevails."24

3. WHO SHOUlD PAY FOR

MEDICAL TREATMENT AND

HEAL1H

CARE?

Virtually every institution in

human

society has some role to play in

the payment

of

medical treatment and

health care,

although the

role for some

institutions is narrow and highly

limited.

a. The individual who

receives the medical services is

primarily responsible for payment, i

possible. "For the Scripture says, 'You

shall not muzzle the ox while he is

threshing,' and

The

laborer is worthy

of

his hire,"' I Tim. 5:18. Jeremiah warns:

Woe to him who uses

his

neighbor's services without pay and

does not give him his wages,'' 22:

13.

In fact, according

to

the Bible,

oppression is the failure to give a just

return for services rendered to you.

Prompt payment of medical services

rendered is commanded

of

us in the

Bible. "You shall not oppress your

neighbor, nor rob him. The wages

of

a

hired man are not to remain with you

all night until

m()Jlling,"

Lev. 19:13.

Failure

to

pay, short-changing

payments, and delay in payment was

and is fraud

b. The family

of the

person

receiving the medical services is also

responsible for payment, when

necessary. Paul makes clear that we are

to

"honor widows who

are

widows

indeed; but i any widow has children or

grandchildren, let them

fli'St

learn to

practice piety in regard to their own

family, and to make some return to

their parents; for

this

is acceptable in

the sight

of God. But,

i

any

one does

not provide for his

own, and

especially

for those

of

his household, he has

denied the faith, and is worse than an

unbeliever,"

I

Tim. 5:3-8. The church

is to support needy widows, unless

those widows have

families of

their

own who can support them. In fact, the

family is to provide for the needs

of

all

the dependents in the family: widowed

mother, grandmother, wife, children,

orphaned nephews and nieces, and

servants. "Failure to care for members

of

one's family thus constitutes a

violation

of

the fifth commandment; it

is also a violation of the eighth, in that

it is a form of theft Those

who

do not

support their own

are

fmt

to be rebuked

and then excommunicated, (i.e., treated

as an unbeliever, Matt. 18:17),"

explains Rushdoony.25

c. The neighbors of the

person receiving the medical services

are also responsible before God for

payment, when their friend is in need.

They

may

either act individually or in

voluntary associations. The primary

example

of

this

is the Good Samaritan,

who found a victim

of

muggers lying

in a ditch. He had compassion on him,

cared for him, and took him to an inn ,

gave the innkeeper a denarius, and said,

"Take care of him, and whatever more

you

spend, when

I

return,

I

will repay

you,"

Luke

10:35

. Jesus himself taught

that the

second

greatest commandment

is the Old Testament Theocratic law so

essential

to

social order and so

illustrative

of

selfless love--"You shall

love your neighbor as yourself," Matt

5:43;

19:19;

Lev.

19:18.

d.

The employer of the

person receiving medical services for

injury received or sickness contracted in

the

service

of

the employer, and the

property owner

on

whose property one

is injured due to the owner's negligence,

are both responsible for payment of

required medical services. The Bible's

liability laws,

or

laws

of

damages,

Exodus 21:24,25, teach us that one

who injures or wrongs another has the

responsibility

to

make restitution. The

employer and the property owner

are

liable for

the time

lost from work and

for the medical expenses of the injured

party. They "shall cause him to be

thoroughly healed," Exodus

21:19.

"Laws

of

liability are thus laws

of

responsibility. They declare that a man

is responsible for

his

acts, his

possessions, and for

his

failures,

negligences and omissions. To be

responsible means literally

to

be

answerable to Him for what we do to

ourselves and to our fellow men, to our

neighbor, writes Rushdoony

26

That is

why Deuteronomy

22:8

says, "

When

you build a new house, you shall make

a parapet for your roof, that

you

may

not bring blood-guilt on your house if

anyone

falls from it"

e. The church through its

tithes and offerings is responsible

before God

to

assist

in

the payment of

medical services

of

the needy, when

possible and necessary. We have already

seen in I Tim. 5:3-8, that the church is

to provide for the needs of widows, i

they have no family to take care

of

them. Acts

6:1-3 clearly shows the

corporate and diaconal responsibility the

church has for the health and welfare

of

needy people, especially of its own

The Counsel

o

Chalcedon

May

199 Page

21


7/7

needy members. In

n

Corinthians 8 ~ 9 ,

Paul urges the Corinthian Church to

imitate the super-generous ch\Jrches of

Macedonia in coritributing

to

the

support

of

needy Cluistians. "For I

testify that according

to

their ability,

and beyond their ability they gave of

their own accord, begging

us

with

much entreaty for the favor

of

participation in the support of the

saints," 8:

3-4,

"for the ministry

of

this

service

is

notonly fully

Supplying

the

needs of the saints, but is also

overflowing through many

thariksgivings

to

God," 9:12.

f. 'The

state

also has a role,

although specific and limited. It does

not have the responsibilitY to provide

or to pay for medical

serviCes

far its

citizens. Using thebamH

of

a gun

tO

force money from one person in order

to

give

it to

another, whatever

the

need,

is armed robbery. When the state does

it

legally t s

legal plU tder.

In essence,

it

is the same

as

armed robbery. Our

modern fomiS of taXation, coupled with

our welfare state, decapitalize

Americans so that it becomes most

difficult to pay for our medical bills

properly, and then, only with much

strain and sacrifice.

The state's

only role in the payment

of

medical services is in the enforcirig :

of

biblical laws requiring restitution arid

fair compensation to the victim

of

a

crime to be paid by the convicted

criminal, Exod. 21:23-25. The "eye for

an eye" principle spelled out in these

verses is not retaliation but restitutiOn.

It simply means that ''compensation.

appropriate to the loss incurred must be

paid out.'' Wtinham.27 "The failure

of

a society to 'ground itself

on

restitution,

or its departure from this principle,

means a growing necessity for costly

protection by means

of

insurance.

Much insurance is, all

too

often, a

fonn

of

self-restitution,

in

that the buyer

pays for protection against ittesponsible

people who will not make restitution.

The

large insurance premiums paid by

responsible persons

and

COipOrations are

their self-protection against the failure

of the law

to

require restitution,'' writes

Rushdoony.28

E. The

l f ~ t u r e

o Medicine

Medicine, reconstructed by the

Word

and

Spirit of God, has a

bright .

and important future;

.

as the Kingdom

of Jesus Christ makes its way

triumphantly through this earth, I Cor.

15:2Af,

As

Christ's Kingdom

progresses over its enemies, the

promises

of God's CoVenant will be

more and more realized in the life of

Christ's.church on earth.

God

will

liberate.medicine from the restraints and

perversions

of

its humanistic

presuppositions and will then be used

of

God f improve

r e a . ~ y

the overall

health of God'speople, greatly

extending their longevity, physical

strength and productivity. The future

holds increasingly good health for God's

people; and increasingly poor health for

God's enemies.

''You shall lie blessed above all

.

peoples; there shall

be

no male or

female

ba en

among

you

or

among

your

cattle.

And

the

Lord

will remove

frr;Jm you

all

siclcness; and He will not

PU

on

you MY of

he harmful diseases

ofEgypt

which you have known, but

He

will

l y

them

on ail who hate you.''

(Detit 7.14-15)

"No longer will there be in

t

( e r ~ a l e m ) an

infant

whO

lives

buta

few

days,

or

an

old

man who does not

l ~ v e out his

days. For the

youth

will die

at the age .

of

one hundred

and

the one

who

does not.reach the age

of

one

.

hundred shall

be

thought accursed.

And

they shall build houses

and

inhabit

them: they shall.also

plant

vineyards

and

eat their fruit. -

They

shall not

labor in ~ a i n

or

bear children or

ca(cqnity;for

~ h e y

are the offspring.

of

those blessed

by

the Lord, and their

descendents with them." (Isa. 65:17-23;.

o ~ ~ 3:29>

Endnote$

L

Warren

Brookes,

"Mandatory Madness

on H e a l t h ~ " Washington Times

July

27

1989, .

r l .

' '

2. ~ a r r y

Schwartz, "The British

Way

of

Withholding

Healtll," The.FrifeU111 _

Vo[ 39,

~ S o c o . .3,

, pg

. 101fj .and Pierre Lemic' J.X,

~

Medicme< The Canadian

~ f e n c e The Freemtm, Vol 39, No

. .

3,

pg. .

3. Ibid. pg

.

101 . '

4. JU, -Rushdoony

_

"Doctors as State

~ i ; & / J t t ~ e d o n Medical Report, No. 5,

..

5. 1u.

Rushdoony, "Medicine's

M

273

chanical Model," Chaldedon

Report, No.

?

pg l6. '

o.

l;6id.

pg,

16f.

Page

22 May 1990

The

Counsel

of

Chalcadon

7. John Naisbitt, Megatrends, NY Warner

BooksJnc. 1 9 ~ 2 J . . t > & :

1 33

. '

8. uouglas uroothuis, Unmasking

the

~

Age.t

Downen .Grove, Ill., lnterVarsity

~ I 9 6 , p g , ~ 8 .

9. lbi4. pg.M .

10.

lb1d.

pg.

66 . .

11.

Gene-Antonio, The AIDS

Cover-Up

?

San

Francisco Ignatius

Press, 1986.

.. for four

excellent

.sources on a

Chnstian approach to medical

ethics see (a)

BiblicaUMed

ical Ethics,

by Frankllii E'

P ~ Y i l e . Jr;.o }d

.D., .

published by Mott M e d i a : ~

D

Milt:o.

M l b c h ~

9 . 8 ~ ;

(b).

Making Biblica

ec' 10ns, y rrailK1in: E. Payne, Jr., M;

D,,

Pllblished by Hosanna House

Escondido

Cal., 1989; { ~ ) . Medical Ethics: by John M:

Frame, puolished

by Presbvterian and

Reformed P u b l i s t r l n ~ Co. . :Phillipsburg

NJ., 1 9 8 8 ~ . Dr. Greg Bahnsen's tapea

lectures on

i fal

Efl1.icj ~ v e n atRet'oniled

Tlteological enupary m ckson, Miss. .

1 ~ .

. F r ~ m E. Payt e, Jr.,

Bibl caUMed1cal Ethifi

1

Milford Mich

Mott Media, 1985,

pg. ~ f . .

14. Ibid.

pg.

94f. '

15

.

RJ. Rushdoomo, Institutes

of

Biblical

Law, Nutley, NJ., The Craig Press. 1973

pg. 221. . ,

16

. Ibid.

pg.

221. ,

17. ,

RJ. Ruspdoony,

"The . Medical

Profession as a Priestly

Cailing,"

CliaJcedOn

M1fal

~ ~ k t ~

1,

VallecitO,

Cal, .

BibuealJMe Licai

E t h i c ~

M f u . ~

M i c ~

Mott Media, 1985 .

lOs. ' . .

19

F. Nigef

.

The. Dim:onate

unpublished, bUravailable thro\lghChalcedon

P r e s b ~ Church, Atlanta, etA.

7Q Jay E. Adams, C01JJPetent to Counsel

Phillipsburg,

NJ

.,

Pi'esbvterian

ami

Reformed l'ublishirig Co.,

1

970.pg 105-

108. . ' . '

21. Hiiroid

OJ.

Brown, The

Ret;onstructzon

.

of

the Republic . New

Rochelle, NY, Arlington House

Publishers

1977 p_g. 131. . . . '

L_it. r ~ Qrient, M.D.,.

A

S p e ~ { t

given

at

tru:

Assoc1atwn oJ A m e r ~ c a n PhysJCUliiS and

~ " g e o n s d

OcBanquet

43rd Annual Meeting,

.Denmi

a, ctobet 24, 1986; .

0

23. Alexlllldcr

.

Podrabinek, .Punitive

M e d i q ~ .

(1980: K.aroma PublisherS

Carolina .

House,

236

Forest

.

Park

Place:

Ottawa

11linois,

61350).

24.

liJ.

Rushdoony,

"Statist Medicine :

Chalcedon Medical Report,

No.

8, VallecitO

Cal. '

25. RJ. Rushdoogy,

Imtitules of

Biblical

Law" Nutley

, NJ., The

Craig Press 1973

pg. 111. ' . '

26 .

RJ

. R ~ h d o o n y l..4w and Society,

VaUCCito,

Calif., Ross House

Books,

1982

pg . 350. . '

2/

1

Gordon Wenham,

The Book

of

LevW

Ulcusk(fo ICOTI. Grand R a p i d s ~ . . . M i c h .

m

B. cerdmans

Publishing Co.,

u

Law

28

.

RJ.

Rushdoony, lnstztutes ofBiblical

, Nutley, NJ., The Craig Press, 1973, p

I

AM INTERESTED

IN

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1990 issue 4 - the reconstruction of medicine - counsel of chalcedon

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