Why are some Christians concerned about Alternative Therapies? · 28 January 2006
This article is how I perceive Alternative Therapies from the Bible perspective and how I think they should be categorised.
Before I start I think that the term Spiritual needs definition. I believe ‘spiritual’ to mean using a spirit, that is, something that is not seen, not human. Some interpret ‘spiritual’ to mean their inner selves. Some interprete spiritual to mean a journey. However whatever interpretation is placed on the word ‘spiritual’ the same Bible interpretation applies.
If spiritual means a journey then it should be God’s spiritual aspect – His son Jesus Christ that should be helping with the journey.
If spiritual means your inner selves, the it should be God’s teachings through His son Jesus Christ that is your guide
If spiritual means a spirit then it should be the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ you are able to use when you become a Christian.
Jesus said: (John 14:6) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Bible believing Christians are concerned about alternative therapies because of this in a book in the Old Testament section of the Bible: Deuteronomy Chap 18 vs 9 – 12
9 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Jesus, and again Paul, reminds us of this in the New Testament as well. I John 2:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
What has this to do with Alternative therapies?
I believe Alternative Therapies fall into three categories:
Physical, Spiritual and Other.
I deem Physical therapies as: medicine/drugs, surgery, massage, herbs, oils, food, supplements, water, exercise, stretching.
And Spiritual therapies as: Faith healing, Reiki, bach flower remedies, homeopathy, crystals and some oriental and some ayurverdic therapies, hypnotherapy, visualisation techniques, regression and divination and psychotherapy.
And Other therapies as: Shiatsu massage, acupuncture, yoga, kinesiology.
Physical therapies are perhaps obvious in that something seen is applied and has some scientific effect in or on the body.
Spiritual therapies are all therapies where there isn’t a physical component. You may think that Homeopathy and Bach flower remedies are a physical therapy as they offer minerals of some description or essences from plants to cure. However, in both these therapies there is no evidence of the mineral or essence of the plant in the bottle or in the body after it has been taken. So it begs the question: What is doing the curing? I was told by one Homeopathist that it is spiritual see the comments section to this article. So there is a deception and the spiritual aspect should be listed on the bottle.
Other, is a heading where I have put therapies that seem to be physical but have had in their past spiritual undertones which are still being used.
It is the therapies in the Spiritual and Other categories that I have defined here that a Christian would be wary of.
Surely Spiritual is good? Don’t Christians receive a spirit when they become Christians?
I don’t believe that Spiritual equates with Good.
From the Bible perspective there are two types of Spirit – Good and Evil.
Jesus Christ is the only good spirit that we humans can receive and we can only receive this good spirit when we become Christians.
It says in the bible: I John 2:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Satan and his fallen angels are the evil spirits.
There are good Angels but they are for God’s purposes and they obey only Him. They are not for us to use. We know that Angels exist because God tells us in the Bible and He has used them time and again. Angels are not for our personal use, they are the messengers of God.
So when a therapist is using a spiritual therapy, what spirit is he/she using?
Quite. What indeed?
A Christian would name the spirit – The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, which can only be received when you become a Christian.
Spiritual therapists cannot name the spirit and if Jesus Christ is the only good spirit that you can only receive by becoming a Christian, what spirits are spiritual therapies using? They must be evil spirits.
But this doesn’t make sense. How can something that is evil do something that is good? Surely because it is good, that is to say someone has been healed, that must prove that what you say are evil spirits, are really good?
The worst part of evil is its deception, confusion and manipulation. Evil seeks to sow confusion by appearing as something good, shiny, new, lovely, healed, perfect. Satan can appear as an Angel of Light. Evil is confusion and seeks to cause disharmony and contention and not always something obviously wicked or cruel. That is what makes it evil – the confusion it seeks to sow. So something evil can appear to do something good. This is why in the Bible it says to try (test) the spirits. Yes test even Christians who appear to be Christian, test what they say, check it with the Bible and ask God about them. Test me, test what I have said here, check it out with the Bible.
A friend of mine takes comfort from a Medium who tells her about her dead husband? Is this spiritual?
Our loved ones when they die are dead. Their spiritual bodies are not even in heaven but they are peacefully asleep waiting for Jesus. Jesus will come to bring the dead back to heaven with him towards the end of time. It is a very difficult concept to come to terms with. My Mother died two years ago and I do like to think of her safe in heaven with the Lord. She is safe, she is at peace and waiting to go to to heaven. I can’t bear to go to the cementary to see her grave because the thought of her body in the cold earth leaves me shuddering. I just want to remember her when she died, she looked youthful, beautiful and so at peace. We have been so engrained in untruths about life after death that it is difficult to come to terms with death. We prefer to dismiss the thought until it happens to someone we are close to and then we panic. We seek mediums to reassure us. Seek God instead, ask Him.
If you say that our loved ones are dead, you mean not approachable, what is the Medium tapping into?
Hmm, well I wonder about this one, I don’t know, I wonder if it is a spirit knowing the person’s sadness and desires influencing the proceedings. Deception is their game plan. Anything to turn you away from trusting in God. Then I wonder if it is just discernment on the part of the medium sensing aspects about the relative from their client and seeking to reassure them. If that is the case, then why not say so and reassure their client about what really does happen in death and life-after-death and about forgiveness?
Why have you included hypnotherapy, visualisation and psychotherapy in your spiritual list?
I don’t believe there is a spirit at work with these therapies, but the action of putting you under, or relaxing you with your mind still active has the potential of allowing undue ‘outside of yourself’ influences that we don’t understand and that I know are not from God because He has told us not to have anything to do with these things. Psychotherapy is also worrying because in digging deep into the person’s psychology, painful aspects are brought to the surface of that person’s memory and they then have to live with the pain and anguish and are not helped with where to go with it. God is my psychotherapist and I know that He reminds me of aspects in my life that I need to deal with and leaves buried painful aspects that do not need resurrecting. When I became a Christian I became a new person and my old person died, so for Christians they do not need their psyche woken up, disturbed, re-routed. God teaches forgiveness and when we are ready He reminds of our difficult childhood or problem areas and shows us how we can forgive (ourselves or others) and move on.
I have to say that on the whole I do not understand all the various therapies and so perhaps it isn’t fair of me to try to categorise them. But I think that because I want to understand shows why a definition is required. I can’t be the only one who is confused about the status quo of Alternative Therapies.
I think that the Alternative Therapy world is confusing and it isn’t good enough to say that because it is ‘natural’ and doesn’t involve drugs, it must be good for you.
As a Christian I don’t want to involve myself in something that is against the teachings in the bible and this is the reason I am being cautious and trying to understand.
I haven’t mentioned every therapy. If you are worried about any therapies you practice or adhere to, go back to God and ask Him. Find out more about it and what it is based on. Listen to what make sense to you.
Make your own decisions.
I really would appreciate comments to this article as it has been controversial while writing as I have discussed various points with family and friends during its construction. There are two issues here, the Bible perspective and therapies, and categorising therapies. I look forward to hearing from you.
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I like the way you have handled this subject which is confusing to me sometimes, especially the jargon. The new doctor I am seeing is a “regular” doctor, but is also into “alternative” therapies. Mostly, I was just looking for a physicain who didn’t think American medicine had all the answers and one who was willing to look into nutrition, toxicity, etc. Most of the doctors I’ve been to just want to give you a antidepressant and don’t even ask you if you smoke! My husband’s sister is into meditation and the focus of the mediation doesn’t seem to be nearly as important as the technique. What does technique get you? She went down to N. O. and was doing the work of an evangelist getting people to meditate, but what good is it if she isn’t meditating on the One who came and died for our sins? I agree that we can open ourselves to some bad stuff. I did do some visualization techniques with my team when I was coaching. I had some parents ask me about it. I still don’t think it was bad though I’ve read more about it since then and having experienced some spiritual abuse am more conservative now to get into anything like that. My kids just went back to serve (volleyball) telling themselves—OH no! Not me! I’ll never get it in. I just wanted them to relax a bit and start giving themselves some positive self talk.
(My daughter called, now where was I?) One question about your theology—Doesn’t Jesus tell the other guy on the cross that, “Today you will be with me in Paradise”? I can’t say I’ve studied this topic thoroughly, but I guess I believe we will one day receive resurrected bodies, but that we do go to be with God when we die in spirit. I’ll have to go read up on that. Susan
— Susan Dittman Jan 31, 11:03 PM #
As to positive thinking about yourself well the best answer to that is God made You and when He made you He saw that you were good, so don’t disapprove His creation of you. However in the past I often told the children to imagine a sunny day and a beautiful garden when they had a bad dream. I became a Christian when I realised God’s hugeness and my minuteness. I am a big hairy bag of mistakes and all I can do with God’s help is dust myself off, pick myself up and start all over again. So if you have been involved with aspects that are not from God, don’t beat yourself up with a stick, just get rid of it! God forgives, so forgive yourself.
— Marianne Feb 1, 10:17 AM #