M.D. (Medical Deity)

We struggle today, as a culture, to get over the idea that M.D. really stands for "Medical Deity" (rather than "medical doctor"), because most doctors believe they are a god, having the power of life or death over others.

Robert Mendelsohn, M.D., in his book, "Confessions of a Medical Heretic," stated that in Israel in 1973 the doctors went on strike. They reduced their daily patient contact from 65,000 to 7,000. During that month long strike, the death rate dropped 50%. Similar results occurred during a strike 20 years before. The same results were observed in Bogota, Columbia when the doctors struck in 1976 for 52 days and the death rate dropped 35%. And finally, in L.A. County, California, in the same year, the doctors went on a work slowdown to protest their outrage at soaring malpractice insurance rates, and the death rate dropped 18%. "When the strike ended and the medical machines started grinding again, the death rate went back to where it had been before the strike. ("Iatrogenic Disease, The Hidden Cost of Medicine," Koren publications, 1991).

2 Chronicles 16:12-13, "And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign."

Job 13:4, "But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value."

Jeremiah 8:22, "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?"

Mark 5:25-26, "And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,"

Luke 8:43, "And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,"

Pharmacies and Drugs

Revelation 18:23, "...for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived."

The word that "sorceries" is translated from is Greek word #5331 pharmakeia, which means:

1. the use or the administering of drugs
2. poisoning.

This is from Greek word #5332 pharmakeus, which is from the Greek word pharmakon (a drug, i.e. spell-giving potion). These Greek words are where we get our present day word "Pharmacy."

Everyone looks to man for their healing, when God is our only Healer.

Exodus 15:26, "...if thou wilt indeed hear the voice of the LORD thy God, and do things pleasing before him, and will hearken to his commands, and keep all his ordinances, no disease...shall I bring upon thee, for I am the LORD thy God that heals thee."

Exodus 23:25, "And thou shalt serve the LORD thy God, and I will bless thy bread and thy wine and thy water, and I will turn away sickness from you."

Deuteronomy 7:12,15, "And it shall come to pass when ye shall have heard these ordinances, and shall have kept and done them, that...the LORD thy God shall remove from thee all sickness."

Psalm 103:2-4 (Psalm 102:2-4 - LXX), "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His praises. Who forgives all thy transgressions, who heals all thy diseases; He redeems thy life from corruption; who crowns thee with mercy and compassion."

Jeremiah 30:17 (Jeremiah 37:17 - LXX), "For I will bring about thy healing, I will heal thee of thy grievous wound, saith the LORD."

They look to man for their salvation, just like king Asa did and was rebuked by God when "he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians" (2 Chronicles 16:12).

The Medical Parable

Once upon a time there was a large and rich country where people kept falling over a steep cliff. They'd fall to the bottom and be injured, sometimes quite seriously, and many of them died. The nation's medical establishment responded to the situation by positioning, at the base of the cliff, the most sophisticated and expensive ambulance fleet ever developed, which would immediately rush those who had fallen to modern hospitals that were equipped with the latest technological wizardry. No expense was too great, they said, when people's health was at stake.

Now it happened that it occurred to certain people that another possibility would be to erect a fence at the top of the cliff. When they voiced the idea, however, they found themselves ignored. The ambulance drivers were not particularly keen on the idea, nor were the people who manufactured the ambulances, nor those who made their living and enjoyed prestige in the hospital industry. The medical authorities explained patiently that the problem was far more complex than people realized, that while building a fence might seem like an interesting idea it was actually far from practical, and that health was too important to be left in the hands of people who were not experts. Leave it to us, they said, for with enough money we will soon be able to genetically engineer people who do not bruise or become injured from such falls.

So no fences were built, and as time passed this nation found itself spending an ever increasing amount of its financial resources on ambulances, hospitals, and high-tech medical equipment. In fact, it came to spend far more money on medical services than any nation had ever done in the history of the world. Money that could have gone to community services, decent housing, education, and good food was not available to the people, for it was being spent on ambulances and hospitals. As the costs of treating people kept rising, growing numbers of people could not afford medical care. There were increasing numbers of homeless, and ever more hungry people and families torn apart by the stress. As a result of these and similar misallocations of national energy and resources, violence, gangs, and inner city riots would well up as outlets for the frustration and despair people felt.

When a few families who had lost loved ones tried to erect warning signs at the top of the cliff, they were arrested for trespassing. When some of the more enlightened physicians began to say that the medical authorities should publicly warn people that falling off the cliff was dangerous, representatives from powerful industries denounced them as "health police." A fierce battle ensued, and finally, after many compromises, the medical establishment did issue warnings. Anyone, they said, who had already broken both arms and both legs in previous falls should exercise utmost caution when falling.