Ch. 1: The Curse of Disease. WHY? (God’s Temple – Overcoming Disease)

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Many when dealing with disease address symptoms only, and this is an incomplete approach. No disease is without cause, and once the cause is removed, the disease itself is often eradicated. Disease is produced by a departure from the natural design of the human body. As you read this book, you will recognize that the basis of a given disease is often very simple, and that in order to be healed of disease, we merely need to understand how we have been designed.

Proverbs 26:2 “The curse causeless shall not come.”

In other words, if you are suffering with a disease or malady, that curse has a cause. But there is hope. The truth in the matter is this: the true Physician, “the LORD that healeth thee” (Exo 15:26) has the CURE.

God Blessed Man – No Curse

In the beginning “God created man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). Man was created perfect. There was no sin and no curse. Instead we read that:

Genesis 1:28 God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

A blessing was upon man—the opposite of a curse. All things were perfectly suited for the health and happiness of man, and he was the king of the world.

Some have the idea that all suffering is attributable to God. Imagine if I gave you a brand new Lamborghini, and the first thing you

it wasn't created that way creation evolution God's temple healthy eating
It wasn’t designed this way.

do is smash it into a brick wall. Then you come back to me saying, “Look at this piece of junk you gave me.” But I didn’t give you the car that way. I gave you the car brand new. “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) And that’s how God gave us the earth. It was in good condition.

“It was very good.” So what happened? Let’s examine that.

The Perfect Diet

God gave man a perfect diet in the beginning:

Genesis 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Is this verse implying that in the beginning, everyone was a meat eater? No. There was no death. Therefore there were no animals to eat. Actually, the Bible uses the word “meat” a little differently than we do today. The word “meat” in this verse refers to food, which in the beginning consisted of fruits, nuts, and grains. This was the original diet of man. And in the beginning, man lived a very long life. In fact Adam would have never died had he not sinned, since the fruit on one of the trees of the garden would make man live forever.

Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever…

The fruit from this tree was extremely healthy—nutrient dense. All the minerals and vitamins and other elements needed for life were found in the fruit of this tree, so that those who ate it would never die.

Man’s Dominion

When God gave man dominion, He wanted man to subdue the earth; to be its ruler. Not to rule in a tyrannical manner, but to extend the same freedom that God had extended to man.

God could have created man as a robot without free will, who could do nothing but praise Him. He could have created a mindless slave without feeling, emotion, knowledge or understanding. But God wanted man to be like Himself in character, dignity and intellect. “In the image of God created He them.” (Gen 1:26) He intended man to be His companion, His friend; to be a king of his God-given dominion; to do God’s bidding by intelligent choice.

In fact, God still wants us to be kings and rule with Him today:

Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Revelation 5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

That is, we have a promise that this is going to come to pass. Not only will we get to heaven, but we will be kings and joint heirs “of the world” (Romans 4:13). All we need to do is accept His promises and believe His word.

Why is there a Curse?

Genesis 2:15-17 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

It’s as though I told you, don’t stick your hand in the fire or it will get burned. Or, don’t sacrifice your child on the fire, the child will die. Very simple and trustworthy advice. In the same way that you could trust this simple and logical advice, you can trust God, because He knows what He is talking about. His counsels are given for a very good purpose. Now, if I gave you good advice, you could always go against my word. You could disobey me and do the very thing I warned against, but obviously the consequence that I warned you about is inevitable.

This very thing happened in the Garden of Eden. God told man not to eat of the forbidden tree, and man chose to disregard the good advice of his Creator, which was also a commandment. Thus he sinned against God and misused his dominion, and all was lost.

Innocent children have done nothing to deserve to suffer; but that’s how much God meant it when He gave man dominion. God gave man dominion even over his children. So now each and every one of us has been born into this sinful world under Adam. And in Adam, each one of us must die, for Adam after the fall could never give his children anything more than what he had: a sinful fallen nature, and a mortal body that eventually dies.

God didn’t have to allow mankind the opportunity to be redeemed from the results of sin. Justice could have been served by allowing Adam to perish, with the earth and everything else under his dominion at that very instant. But God loved and pitied Adam, and didn’t want him to receive the stern justice he deserved. So He provided a means whereby Adam and all his children might not perish: a Saviour.

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

How many question God today for allowing so much bloodshed and death to exist? Yet God did not have to allow it. If stern justice had been enacted, the beasts, birds, fish, plants and earth wouldn’t have had to suffer. Yet it is because of God’s great mercy that we are here today.

So, returning to our original question: why does all creation have to suffer? The earth hasn’t brought ruin upon itself, nor the birds, fish, or beasts. The innocent children have done nothing to come into this world and suffer with debilitating diseases and lack of food and clean water. Then why does the earth and its innocent creatures suffer? Your answer is, because God gave man dominion, responsibility, and accountability: true freedom. Man misused his authority and dominion, and the inevitable consequence followed.

Bad Food equals Bad Health

Now some things were not created to be eaten. Some things look like food, but are not food; including the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Some things look very appealing to the eyes, and to the stomach, for that matter, but are not to be eaten, according to God’s word. Some things people drink are not meant to be put into our body.

Now where exactly does the curse come from?

Job 23:12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

Now the devil hates God’s word. In the courts of heaven, the devil found issue with the government of God, and he began to go around heaven teaching the other angels that God’s word and law were arbitrary. He used deception and lies to deceive many into sharing his fate. (For more see Isaiah 14:12-14, Rev 12:7-9).

Eve had been warned of this foe by the heavenly angels. She was cautioned not to leave her husband’s side. The devil carefully observed his prey as she disregarded these precautions and drew near to the forbidden tree. He used the medium of a serpent, and began to speak to her out of the tree. This was the only place on the earth that God allowed the devil access to mankind.

Genesis 3:1 “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

Why did the serpent frame his temptation in the form of a question? Because a question would suggest doubtful thoughts in the

bad food bad health god's temple holy
Looks good to the eyes for food. But is it really food?

mind of Eve, such as, “Is God’s word really true?” The goal of this conversation was to place doubt in God’s word. Did God’s word really say it was unhealthy for you to eat that food? The serpent uses this same strategy today.

Genesis 3:2-3 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

If anything, the fruit of this tree does not sound like part of a healthy diet, and Eve knew it. Eve was as yet alive while avoiding the forbidden fruit, and after all, this fruit was not food. A Twinkie looks good to the eye for food, and many Christians pray over it, asking God to bless it. But the problem is that they are asking God to bless something that isn’t food.

Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

The serpent just called God a liar. He is telling the woman, in definite terms, not to trust the word of God. But it is written “that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.” (Deu 8:3)

Certainly doubt in God’s word would not be life in this situation. God had already clearly laid out the way of life. The blessing was already theirs. True health is to eat the true bread of life: the word of God.

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life…

Eve knew God’s word quite well. She knew what it said. Likewise, Christians today profess to know what the word of God says. Then why do Christians have the same diseases and same problems as the world? Because, like Eve, they doubt and disobey the word of God.

Exodus 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Satan wants us to believe that God is evil, that He is arbitrary, and that He makes rules for the sake of His own supremacy. Thus he accuses God of the very traits that Satan himself possesses. If we don’t know God or His word very well it is easy to be deceived by this falsehood. Satan said:

Genesis 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Satan wanted Eve to question the government of God. He wanted her to believe that she didn’t need the knowledge and wisdom of God, that she might know better than God, and that her own personal government and laws might be better than God’s. This idea appealed to Eve, and she was led to cast off the authority of the only true God, and to view herself as her own god.

Satanist Aleister Crowley once wrote, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” And that very philosophy, that your own desires are your only law, is pretty common in modern Christianity today.

Eve knew she wasn’t supposed to eat the fruit. She knew her life depended on it. She knew the word of God. But her senses said otherwise:

Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

And herein lies the problem with most people today, including Christians. They look at food and say, “Wow, that bacon double cheeseburger, with a large fries and Coke looks really good to my eyes. I’m hungry, let’s eat.” And so they allow impulse to govern their definition of “good food.” And what does that bring? It brings disease, and a curse.

At these times the devil is in your ear, questioning, “hath God really said that I should not eat a bacon double cheeseburger, French fries and a coke?” Yeah, He has. Even the early Christians were told to “abstain…from blood” (Acts 15:29, Leviticus 3:17). That includes bloody hamburgers.

Leviticus 3:17 It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.

There go the greasy fries as well. And who knows what is in that Coke. Some will say, “That was the old law.” We’ll take a look at

abstain from blood, bloody meats biblical health food steak
Blood and Fat, Dead flesh. The bible says that this is harmful to health. (Lev 3:17, Acts 15:21)

this claim as we continue. But if we were to abide by this one statute alone, it would disqualify all meat from the supermarket from being good for food.

Some of my readers might be thinking, “I don’t need to make any changes. I’m healthy.” If this is the case, take a look around. Do you see people in your life that are unhealthy, or that can use help? People who are overweight, suffering with skin inflammations, cancer, diabetes, etc.? The curse does not come without a cause.

Genesis 3:17-19 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

God cursed the ground for our sake, that the sufferings and toils of life might teach us important character lessons. And that curse keeps getting worse and worse. Now we are all suffering from it more than ever. The ground does not yield its strength, the soil is eroded and depleted of life-giving elements, and man is constantly searching for ways to cause the ground to bring forth good food. We now feel the need to spray pesticides and other chemicals on the crops to improve their growth and keep them from being destroyed by insects, weeds and other ailments. But that’s not the way things were created, nor does it produce food that is healthy for the human body. In fact, the more man intervenes, the more our food degrades in quality. And the more sin, the more curse. The results of the curse can be seen everywhere: people are overweight, sick, and starving for nutrients. Everyone seems to be addicted to eating garbage.

God Extends His Mercy

In order to maintain perfect freedom for humanity, God could not step in and put an end to sin, for freedom includes the ability to choose to do either right or wrong. Therefore, God cannot simply stop the suffering and consequences of sin. God would not step in and stop you from offering your innocent child on an altar to Moloch, should you choose to do so. If He stopped you from exercising free will to do evil, this would impede your freedom; it would be the use of force, and God does not use force. God is a God of free will.

However, God does not have to prevent the results of sin, and the just result of Adam’s sin would have been destruction of the race. Therefore it is only by the mercy of God, through the sacrifice of Christ, that we have been preserved to exercise our free will.

God has not only given you the ability to exist and exercise free will, but has offered you the opportunity to be free indeed; not

china study plant based study western diet unhealthy meat eating created
A well known study
Of the population in China concludes that a plant based diet is the optimal diet for humanity. And that the western diet today is the cause of much suffering.

only free to sin, but free from sin. In order to set man free from sin, the Father had to give His beloved Son, for there was no other way that the power of sin could be broken. Christ was willing to be made in our likeness, even lower than the angels who worshipped Him; and to take the curse of sin upon Himself, and suffer death for every man. Christ did not suffer and die for the guilt of sin so that we could continue to sin and suffer its results; but so that sin and death might be destroyed from our lives and from the entire world.

Do you wish to be free from the dominion of death, the dominion of Satan, and to be truly free, happy and healthy, under the dominion of Christ? He is a good King who is always thinking of the happiness of His subjects, and He is soon coming to gather those who will be subjects of the true kingdom, who want no part in death and the curse. He has promised not only that you will be part of His Kingdom, but He promises that you will sit on His throne, with Himself and His Father, and rule with Them. That’s the dominion I want to be under. We need to know Him and appreciate Him more. Father forgive us.

The LORD wants to heal you. But in order to be healed, we need to acknowledge Him for who He is.

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