We welcome Brian Lowther, Director of the Roberta Winter Institute, as our guest blogger for the next three posts. The Roberta Winter Institute is dedicated to investigating and discussing evidence of an intelligent evil having a destructive influence on God’s good creation and the implications that notion would have on disease eradication efforts. Disease is a major cause of underdevelopment in many countries around the world, and so this discussion is extremely pertinent to the WCIDJ.
Thank God for the many earnest believers who are working to overcome poverty, illiteracy, political corruption, spiritual darkness and other works of the devil. Down through history believers have displayed a remarkable willingness to tackle the great world problems of the day. This is especially true in the case of disease.
Following Christ’s example, believers have devoted tremendous efforts and genuine compassion to treating and caring for the sick. Think of the many hospitals established by believers since the time of Constantine, or the health clinics and medical missionaries spread all over the globe today. Believers are even involved in disease prevention work, as in the case of the many groups who distribute anti-malarial bed nets,1 or denominations that have produced educational materials addressing HIV-AIDS.2
But there is a relatively new reality in the fight against disease and it is the conviction of the Roberta Winter Institute that believers can play a significant role.
When the late Ralph D. Winter’s first wife, Roberta, contracted multiple myeloma, he began a frantic pursuit for more information about the disease. In his research he discovered a fact that wowed him: in comparison to the truly enormous amount of money and human resources that are devoted to disease treatment, very few resources go toward disease eradication.
Or course, this fact is understandable. As Winter pointed out, “the load of healing the sick is such a burden there is no time or energy left over to delve into the eradication of disease pathogens.”3 It’s a case of being so busy mopping up the floor that we can’t turn off the spigot.
Now, you may think I am trying to raise awareness about nutrition, exercise or avoiding stress. While these preventative lifestyle principles are essential, Winter considered them defensive measures. He often used the following analogy:
It’s like walking through a sniper’s alley with a bulletproof vest on. The vest (prevention) will protect you from the sniper, but only so much. If a bullet hits you where your vest doesn’t cover, you’ve got to get the medic to remove the bullet and stitch you up (treatment/cure). But the most crucial objective is to eliminate the sniper (eradication).
“All of these are important, but the third is the most urgent and crucial.” Winter explained. “You can fumble the ball in treating the wounded and dodging bullets, but you can’t win the war without the offensive.”4
Winter decided that if believers could summon the necessary resources and resolve to mount an offensive counter attack against eradicable disease, not only would it be dramatically helpful in alleviating suffering, it could also “radically add power and beauty to the very concept of the God we preach, and thus become a new and vital means of glorifying God among the nations.” 5
The eradication of smallpox in 1979 has been called “one of the greatest accomplishments undertaken and performed for the benefit of mankind anywhere or at any time.”6 Just consider all the suffering that immediately stopped the moment smallpox entered the archives of human disease. Think of the truly enormous amounts of money and human resources that are no longer necessary to treat it. What would be said and believed about Jesus if his followers teamed-up to eradicate other diseases? How much more would God be glorified if it were clear that it was done for that very reason? To demonstrate, consider the passages where healing revealed God’s character or resulted in people glorifying him: Mt 15:30-31, Mk 2:12, Lk 5:26; 17:11-16;18:43, Jn 20:30-31.
As Richard Stearns, President of World Vision said about believers combating massive world problems like disease in his book The Hole in Our Gospel:
[it] would be on the lips of every citizen in the world and in the pages of every newspaper—in a good way. The world would see the whole gospel—the good news of the kingdom of God—not just spoken but demonstrated, by people whose faith is not devoid of deeds but defined by love and backed up with action. His kingdom come, His will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. This was the whole gospel that Jesus proclaimed in Luke 4, and if we would embrace it, it would literally change everything. 7
Endnotes
1 On-line. Available from http://www.christianpost.com/news/malaria-spurs-christians-to-trade-lunch-for-mosquito-net-27073/, accessed 18 August 2011.
2 Alex, Mwangi, 2005. “Orthodox Church Launches An AIDS Eradication Strategy.” On-line. Available from http://ke.christiantoday.com/article/orthodox-church-launches-an-aids-eradication-strategy/4548.htm, accessed 31 May 2011.
3 Winter, Ralph D. 2005 “Editorial Comment.” Mission Frontiers, July-August 2005.
4 Ibid
5 Winter, Ralph D. 2008 Frontiers in Mission: Discovering and Surmounting Barriers to the Missio Dei. Pasadena: WCIU Press, 221
6 Oldstone, Michael B. A. 2010. Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present and Future. New York, Oxford University Press, 84.
7 Stearns, Richard, 2009. The Hole in Our Gospel. Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 219
Comments
Nov 21, 2011
Brian:
I’ve always liked Ralph Winter’s bulletproof vest metaphor for explaining the difference between prevention and eradication of disease. However, sometimes prevention IS part of eradication, as with guinea worm, where preventing people from ingesting the parasite from contaminated water broke the life cycle and led to villages free of the disease.
Nov 29, 2011
It is so true that most money goes to cure problems after they arise! I love the idea of working to PREVENT disease! Keep up the good work Mr. Lowther!
Nov 29, 2011
This is one of the reasons I am a big fan of the Rotary Club and their work in eradicating polio.
Nov 29, 2011
From 1978 to 1980 my family and I lived and worked in Kenya, East Africa in a small village near the Ethiopian border. During those three years I had the privilege of working with a Danish pediatrician who, as a Believer herself, worked very hard to work with new Somali mothers in eradicating blood poisoning of newborns. The midwives were cutting the umbilical cords with rusty razor blades and the babies were not surviving. She taught them the importance of using sterilized instruments, and helped to prevent a lot of babies from dying. We also worked with the mothers encouraging them to breastfeed instead of buying milk formulas because they were mixing dirty river water with the formula and many babies were dying from dysentery. I believe that people who are followers of Christ can work where they are planted and bear fruit in loving service even in the smallest ways. Eradicating disease through prevention is all part of the process of sharing God’s unconditional love for all His people.
Nov 29, 2011
Interesting!
Nov 29, 2011
Teresa:
Thank you for these examples of how a serious “disease” or health problem can be eradicated by education and prevention. While Brian’s and Ralph Winter’s point that prevention is different from eradication, as you say, prevention can be PART of eradication.
Dec 04, 2011
As far as I know, treatment and eradication is just the same. What’s the difference between the two?
Dec 06, 2011
My understanding is that if a disease is eradicated, it no longer exists, thus, no treatment is necessary.
Dec 14, 2011
I have no doubt that it is biblical to heal the sick because shalom is God’s will in restoring the world before human’s fall to sin and death. Therefore, we do not only heal the sick, but participate in eradicating sicknesses with shalom of God’s creation in mind. However, as it is written in Romans 8:20-25, the creation will be subjected to corruption until we who believe in Christ are even redeemed physically. Sicknesses, physical suffering and death are the result of the fall of the human race, we know that this fight in eradicating disease must be conducted parallel to the fight of working for social justice and the fight of sins collectively in societies, in cultures and in individuals. Therefore, while we await prayerfully for that day of God’s Kingdom to come in total glory, we are in this tension of healing the sick, researching for new ways to eradicate certain diseases, advocating for the disadvantaged people who are exposed to diseases vulnerably.
But yet, we know that diseases will be around us until the end. Just like Romans 8:24-25 says, we persevere and actively hope. We strive to see the world become closer and closer to how it should be in the Kingdom of God where there is no more sickness, tear, suffering and death. We must approach the redemption of human kind holistically while we clearly know that the Kingdom of God must start from restoring human’s hearts to God’s character and to his holiness. We need medical researchers, the medical doctors and educators, community nurses, pharmacists and all kinds of community development resources and personnel along with those who preach the good news that Christ died for our sins and the Holy Spirit empowers us to have eternal life. In conclusion, the eradication of sicknesses must go hand in hand in the eradication of sins. The ultimate purpose of disease eradication is to restore the creation and the human race to God’s sovereignty, love and fellowship. I pray that more believers will take the responsibility of disease eradication seriously as part of the Great Commission of Christ.
Jan 12, 2012
I am, what some may call, a fundamentalist Christian & believe that God created polio, parasites, malaria & all the other things we don’t like for a purpose. I don’t know the purpose but He does. Therefore, it is wrong to eradicate any of His creations like what we are trying to do with polio at the moment.
Jan 12, 2012
Norma, sadly, represents the views of some fundamentalist Christians. However, conservative Muslims share similar views. Maulana Fazlullah, a conservative religious leader in the Swat district of NWFP, warned his local community in one of his Friday sermons to stay away from foreign-funded polio vaccination. He said “I must tell my brothers and sisters that finding a cure for an epidemic before its outbreak is not allowed in Sharia [Islamic law]. According to Sharia, one should avoid going to areas where an epidemic has broken out, but those who do go to such areas and get killed during an outbreak are martyrs”.
Jan 12, 2012
Norma:
One of the things to consider is the entrance of the evil one into the course of history. A lot of things happen that do not reflect the character and purposes of God. One of the results of my research on the topic of “the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), is the finding that in the Bible and in the understanding of people at the time Jesus lived on the earth, the works of the devil were considered to be anything to do with death.
While the devil’s works can be summarized as bringing death—both physical (disease and deformity, social chaos, mental chaos) and spiritual (unbelief, hatred), the Son of God appeared to give life (1 John 4:9). The appearing of the Son of God is seen to result in works and characteristics that are the opposite of those associated with the sin of the devil, thus nullifying or destroying them.
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