To Your Health

“All the powers of the world cannot take away my life, until God permits. All the physicians of earth cannot preserve it when God calls me away.”   

So proclaimed English bishop, J.C. Ryle, and in case there is any doubt about what the good reverend meant. It is this: human life is solely and fully within God’s control. 

Not science. 
Not the pharmaceutical industry. 
Not the medical profession. 
Solely and fully under God’s control. 

In other words, you, human, you die when God says you die. Only then, and not until then. And in the precise way that he says, and only in the way that he says. This was true for Uzzah, who merely touched God’s sacred Ark and died on the spot. It was true for Ananias and Sapphira, also killed on the spot for lying about money. It was true for an entire army of Egyptians, too, drowned en masse in the Red Sea for pursuing the Jews, and even for Pharoah’s son, and all the firstborn Egyptians. Of course, autopsy and modern medicine would present clinical reasons for the deaths, and none would be attributed to God. 

Nevertheless, humans die when God says they die, which isn’t just a rule of a created world, but a pretty strong health flex by God, too. Nothing says I control your health more clearly than I can take your life whenever I want. Example upon example found within the Bible, the instances of God’s direct and indirect control of human health are too plenteous to list. As brief examples of direct control, he plagued the people of Ashdod and the surrounding coastal areas with emerods, or hemorrhoids—imagine it: a whole region of people waddling around like they just had the latex glove exam, faces pinched, grimacing. Head to toes, he allowed Job to be stricken with painful boils over his entire body, too. One of the clearest examples of direct health control is King Hezekiah. Sick and dying in his bed, the king petitioned God for his life. God not only healed the king of his terminal illness but gave him 15 more years of healthful living. 

In clear language, Moses crystalizes the point. Speaking to the Jews about their obedience to God post-the Egyptian exodus, he issued a strong, unambiguous warning about disobedience. A warning not just for the Jews, but for the whole of humankind. From Deuteronomy: 

“[God] will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt … also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed [or rather, dead].” 

Earlier in the book, Moses had said, “The Lord will smite thee with the botch [an inflammatory sore] of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst be healed.” Note the terms “diseases” and “sickness” and “plague,” and especially this: “whereof thou canst be healed.” God’s control of human health is readily apparent and incontestable. But if further convincing is necessary, there is one remaining and prime example: his son, Jesus.  

Few knew Jesus more intimately than the disciple Luke, a physician, incidentally. Luke was not only eyewitness to Jesus’ daily life and deeds. He remarked about them in his signature gospel. In one instance, people were gathered for a glimpse of Jesus, this extraordinary prophet everyone was talking about. Among them were emissaries of John the Baptist who had been sent to ask Jesus if he was the promised messenger from God. The emissaries inquired and, per Luke, Jesus responded thus: 

“In that same hour [Jesus] cured many of [the people’s] infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits, and unto many that were blind he also gave sight.”  

Afterwards, Jesus told John’s emissaries to return and tell John what they had witnessed, which was people being miraculously healed of all their many and variable health issues by the controller of human health’s beloved son.  

Or in other words, Yes, I am he. 

So, there can be no doubt that God controls human health and the subsequent lives of humans. On this point, let’s be crystal clear: if God wants an individual to have heart trouble, they have it. Cancer, they have it. Deafness and blindness, they are deaf and blind. Leprosy—so many stories in the Bible about this disease, they obviously have that, too. Pick an illness known to humankind, any illness. If God wants a particular human to be afflicted with it, they are afflicted. If he wants them cured, they are cured. Why? 

Because human life and health are solely in God’s control. 

It isn’t just the major, life-threatening ailments, either. Kidney stones, gall stones, allergies, eczema, dandruff, and even baldness. Baldness, you say? Try Amos 8:10. There are clinical explanations for all these minor afflictions, of course. People consuming the wrong foods and inviting kidney stones. Genetic and environmental factors encouraging allergies. Chronic stress and nutritional deficiencies rendering the scalp’s hair follicles weak and vulnerable. Scientists and physicians advise us that all these conclusions define and explain these human ailments.  

And yet, there is Jesus: healing humans of all their health problems. 

All this diagnosis doctrine from humans concerning illness and disease, and there sits God—chin in palm, half-eyed and annoyed. Is it any wonder that he mocks the so-called wisdom of humans? Here he is the controller of human health, lays that out chapter and verse in crystal clear, unmistakable biblical terms. Then, on his behalf, his son roams the region healing humans of every ailment known to humankind. Yet it is the clinical diagnoses and dogma that humans revere and trust. 

It seems an opportune time for this point: God isn’t a religion. He is the creator and controller of all life. Christianity isn’t a religion, either. It is an acknowledgment of the creator of all life’s supremacy and authority, and a humble expression of respect and fealty. And to this inescapable truth, every human being is subject. 

Point made, the Bible is filled with implications like this: if Jesus is curing every human health issue, restoring people’s sight and hearing, stanching their blood issues, healing their leprosy, and even bringing people long dead back to the living. Then doesn’t that mean God controls human health, and that he is the final arbiter in not only death but disease? The gospels are replete with stories of incredible human healing at Jesus’ command, and has the reader ever heard this implication drawn between God and the reader’s personal health?  

Perhaps it is one of those things that is just a little too obvious. 

Maybe we should focus less on theology and Jesus loving people, and more on the scriptures’ practical implications.   

Obviously, because he issued clear warnings to prevent both, God doesn’t want death or suffering either one for human beings. But humans are willful, defiant, and disobedient. So what does God do when he has plans for people, as he has for every human being, and when people refuse to respect his power and authority, or to even acknowledge him? Death isn’t beneficial to the cause, obviously. So, what can God do to get a person’s attention and redirect them?  

Well, it isn’t the only option, but it is certainly one of primacy: he leverages health. As he did with the Apostle Paul, for example, on the road to Damascus.  

In healthful arrogance, Paul was traveling a local dirt road when a bright light suddenly enshrouded him. After a brief conversation with Jesus within, Paul emerged from the experience blind. One minute he was confidently making his own way, oblivious to the power of Almighty God over his health and life. The next he is clutching an aide’s elbow and being led around, not like a blind person, but as one. Paul’s health had taken an abrupt and severe turn.  

Denouncing Jesus, the manifest Son of Almighty God, and persecuting Jesus’ followers savagely and unmercifully, Paul undoubtedly deserved to die, by God’s standards, anyway. Yet, God had other plans. He leveraged Paul’s health to accomplish his objectives, instead. Paul devoting his life to God and authoring most of the Bible’s New Testament, the strategy succeeded, too. This is important to point out because sometimes the strategy fails, and people become even worse versions of themselves—embittered, mean, spiteful, hateful. But Paul’s was a positive transformation, wherein he went from being an abusive persecutor of Christians and the emerging Christian movement, to a loyal servant prepared to be abused himself, and to even die for his creator. The value that Paul, that his transformation, brought to the modern Christian faith is incalculable. Despite his disobedience and blasphemy, God, with a little health-afflicting persuasion, used him anyway.   

So, in sum, the evidence suggests we have been looking at this human health issue all wrong. Modern humans can’t watch television or listen to the radio or read literature without being reminded of the frailty of their health, and of just how vulnerable they are to disease, suffering, and death. Open a simple internet tab and surfers are met with: “Experts say these are the worst foods for your kidneys,” and other such doctrinal health warnings that capture and unnerve people.  

Globally, for example,1 in 5 people develop cancer in their lifetime, or so the data reports. Every year there are 20 million new cases diagnosed worldwide. In the US alone, there are over 2 million cases diagnosed annually, which translates into roughly 5,500 new cases every day. And if it isn’t cancer, then it is Multiple Sclerosis, or Alzheimer’s, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, or Autism, or myocardial infarction, or one of a million other unsettling or frightening ailments people are destined to contract and suffer. And if we aren’t contracting them, then we should feel guilty for not getting them, when others do. And if we don’t feel empathetic and guilty, then we are inviting “karma” to make sure we are next.  

How can human beings ever expect to carry on happy and contented lives under such an assault—the ammunition being supplied by the world’s health “experts,” no less? 

The fix for all this fear and hysteria, of course, is these “experts,” modern science and medicine, and people adhering to all the doctrine of these industries. Don’t eat this. Consume more of that. Do more of this, and less of that. The inference is they, the science and medical industries, have all the answers to human health. Do what they prescribe, and these dreaded diseases and all the worry that surrounds them can be virtually eliminated. Google How do I avoid getting cancer and note the search results. I found a piece from a renowned medical institution entitled: Seven Tips to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer. “Take charge” of your health, the subtitle read. Then the article listed all the remedies that can ameliorate your fears and make life worth living: don’t smoke tobacco, eat a balanced diet, take regular exercise, be vigilant for the warning signs.  

Modern science and medicine are saving your life! 

Only, as the evidence makes clear, and as Bishop Ryle would surely ask: are they? 

If we are following the evidence and logic here, it seems the person humans need to worry about and please regarding their health is God. Science and the medical industry are good as far as they go. But the best guarantee of human health, it would seem, is good relations with the person who can both afflict and heal. Or for greater efficacy, perhaps the more extreme: the person who kills people and can raise them from the dead.  

Getting involved with that person seems rather, um, salubrious. 

Personally, I like my doctors, who are not only top-shelf physicians but terrific human beings. Extremely knowledgeable and experienced in their respective fields, I trust their guidance regarding my health decisions. But while they offer smart, common sense preventative measures and treat the illnesses I have. God is responsible for my afflictions and in total control of my health …  

and everyone else’s on the planet. 

How can an 85-year-old man smoke all his life and die in his bed of old age, and a 35-year-old man who never smoked at all develop lung cancer? Science and medicine can’t explain the scenario, which no less contradicts their conclusions and prescriptions. Like so many examples of this contradictory, usurping nature, it is an outcome that, I believe, God allows and presents just to demonstrate who is boss in this human experience deal. A person that should never have cancer, gets it. A person that should die for the terminal diagnosis, lives on.  

Simply, it is the real authority in it all illustrating and proving his supremacy.  

One would think all the astounding health-related miracles of Christ would be proof enough of this dominion. But modern humans, all anxious and concerned, worshiping at the altars of Healthcare and Health Insurance and diving headlong into the next well-marketed tub of health powder, scooping and mixing and drinking. The Veganism, The organic lifestyles. The spiritual journeys into self-healing. All in the insatiable, endless quest to fortify oneself against disease and suffering and fear. Well, all that miraculous healing of Christ is about as meaningful as solar-powered lights in a coal mine.  

Modernly, it falls on deaf ears to say early humans in the Bible lived hundreds of years, 900-plus in one case. Gee, how did humans manage so long without the gods of modern science and medicine? Especially with people consuming all that red meat and having no hand-sanitizer at the ready?   

“Did you sanitize your hands, Methuselah?” 
“Yes, dear.” 
A pleased grin. “Good. I’ll pick up another bottle at Walmart.” 

And all that solar radiation from the giant orb of death in the sky. How did early humans survive that for 900 years sans dermatologists and sunscreen?  

The truth is we have become much better at managing disease and treating people after all these years, but we have yet failed to recognize and acknowledge who oversees, who dictates, human life and health. Speak to all those people Jesus healed and raised from the dead, and they would tell you who dictates human life and health. You could wisely bet that some of them were meat-eaters with cholesterol problems and sun worshipers with skin disease, too. 

The point, if it isn’t obvious, is that modern science and medicine serve God, not the other way around. Having observed Jesus in miraculous action, the physician Luke would no doubt agree. Hence, people don’t have to live all nervous and apprehensive and afraid regarding their health. They should practice healthful living, certainly, which is just a fundamental matter of self-respect and excellence. But they should also put their faith in God, the commander and controller of not just human life, but health. Because healthwise, whatever befalls humans is up to him.  

Life, health, suffering, death—they are all up to him. 

The good news is that he is open to requests, to pleas for health and healing. If one knows God, then one has hope. Otherwise, good luck with the health powders and spiritual journeys. And the angst. Good luck with the lifelong health angst, which is no way to live.  

Before washing his hands of responsibility for Jesus’ crucifixion, Pilate glared at his unresponsive prisoner. “Don’t you know I have the power to spare your life,” he boasted. To which Christ responded, “You could have no power at all over me, except it were given you by God.”  

In terms of human wellness, well, that pretty well sums it up. 

To your health.

©JMW 5/2026
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