COMPASSIONATE JESUS
Rethinking the Christian’s approach to modern
medicine
By Christopher W. Bogosh
Reformation Heritage Books. 150 pages. £8.55
ISBN 978 1 601 782 281
The author is an experienced medical technician, critical and palliative care nurse who later trained for the pastoral ministry.
He currently combines work for a hospice organisation with preaching and teaching at his church in Georgia, USA. Although this book is written from the perspective of the US healthcare system and refers to it primarily, the principles it discusses have universal application. The pursuit of health as the ultimate good in life and the reliance on the promises of modern medicine for its attainment are becoming as unquestioned in modern Britain as in the US. The danger of making the pursuit of health and the prolongation of life at any cost our ultimate goal is real. It constitutes a form of idolatry to which Christians are as exposed as anybody else.
Only a material being?
Modern medicine is defined in the book as the worldview that underpins the application of medical science to offer hope of healing and life in the here and now. This secular philosophy is based on the premise that man is only a material being and there is no such thing as an eternal soul animating him. Parallels are drawn with the pagan cult of Aesculap, the god of healing whose famous temple in Pergamum was possibly referred to in Revelation 2.13 as ‘where Satan’s throne is’. Its false promises of healing and wholeness can lead Christians to put their faith in them, rather than the gospel hope of total healing and everlasting wholeness that Jesus Christ came to give.
The central part of the book is the four chapters that explore: 1) a Christian view of medical science based on compassion; 2) the blessings and challenges of advances in medical science; 3) the biblical use of medical science while engaging with modern medicine; 4) prayer in the Spirit as God’s medicine when facing illness, disease and death. Are we truly able to say with Paul that ‘to live is Christ and to die is gain’? Are we prepared to live for Christ even in the midst of a medical crisis? Do we really see our death as a great gain as we look in hope to Christ?
The advances of medical science can create ethical dilemmas that the Christian needs to address from a framework of biblical understanding, rather than being guided by the secular principles of modern medicine. This book attempts to lay down such a framework and challenges us to thoughtfully study the biblical principles that apply to human life, health, illness and death.
