THE CAUSES OF DISEASE
Disease has been identified in three different categories — hereditary, communicative, and self-created (acquired). This being so, then there must be three kinds of sin, three laws to transgress. Two of these laws are found in the Decalogue (Ex. 20:3-17): The first prohibits sinning against God, and the second against our fellowmen. The Third, therefore, is the law of health, the law which forbids transgressing against our bodies (Lev. 11; Isa. 66:16, 17).
Plainly, then, sinning against God brings in its wake a hereditary curse, the kind that passes from father to son “unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me” (Ex. 20:5), saith the Lord. And sinning against our fellowmen brings communicative diseases, shown in the fact that when Miriam sinned against her brother, Moses, she was stricken with the contagious disease, leprosy (Num. 12). “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long….” Ex. 20:12. So “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Gal. 6:7. Thus it was that when Haman built the gallows upon which to hang Mordecai, he himself was hanged on them (Esther 7:9, 10). And when Daniel was unjustly cast into the lions’ den, his enemies were devoured by the hungry beasts, but Daniel was spared (Dan. 6:16, 22, 24). Moreover, when the three Hebrews were cast into the fiery furnace, those who carried them were consumed by the flames, but the Hebrews came out unharmed (Dan. 3:21-23). So also, “he that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.” Rev. 13:10.
It is therefore a never-failing fact that if one molests his neighbor, or intends to do so, the harm will fall on himself; and if he harms his neighbor’s children, his own children will suffer as a result. The diseases, though, which are not inherited, the sinner himself creates by sinning against his own body. Sinning against a neighbor or against oneself, nevertheless, is indirectly sinning against God also.
WHAT SHOULD EVERYONE KNOW?
If one is suffering from a hereditary disease, for which his parents, grandparents, or great grandparents alone are guilty, he is, of course, helpless to do much of anything in the line of complete recovery, be it by dieting or by using drugs. He may, however, be able to control the disease or even to overcome it by being strictly obedient to the laws of God, knowing that nothing in the world will effect a cure for such illness but prayer, if God’s wisdom so decrees.
On the other hand, if one is suffering from a disease which has been communicated to him or that is communicative, due to one’s sinning against his fellowmen, then to remove the disease once and forever, he must repent of his sin, practice the golden rule: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Matt. 7:12.
But if the disease be neither hereditary nor communicative, then it must be self-created, acquired by oneself, by violating the laws of health, by not living right in one respect or another.
The wise will, therefore, correct their habits of living — make sure that they do not sin against God or against their fellowmen, that they sleep, breathe, eat, drink, and work correctly and religiously, and if there is a cure at all, they will have it.
The cause of each type of disease having now been defined, the sufferer of any of the three kinds of diseases may without difficulty determine which one of the three laws he is transgressing and as a result paying the penalty it imposes. If he is afflicted with complications of diseases, though, he must be breaking all of God’s laws. Let him henceforth quit sinning in any line if he expects to recover and stay well, too.
Many diseases, of course, are wrongly classed as contagious. For example, tuberculosis is not actually communicable, for when one becomes infected with the disease, he can effect a cure if while it is yet in its early stages, he begins to live right. Obviously, then, if one always lives right, he need not fear of the disease ever getting a foothold in his body. So in the last analysis a number of diseases so-called contagious are not in reality such. Strictly speaking, they are infectious, brought on by oneself. And now, how fortunate should one consider himself to know that right living and right doing, with faith in God, actually do away with a multitude of sorrows!
SUMMARIZING THE CAUSES OF ALL DISEASES
Those who wonder what is the cause of this, of that, and of the other disease, may quickly test every case:
It is now fully understood that life and death are at war with each other as are the nations among themselves: One nation’s army may pour fire upon another, but not all of the soldiers receive the same kind of wound even though the whole army be under the same fire. In like manner, the bodies of men are the soldiers and the cause of disease the Enemy’s mighty weapon in the warfare between heaven and earth. Hence, though some suffer from headache, some from stomachache, some from diabetes, some from anemia, from heart disease gallstones, neuritis, or other ailments, yet all suffer for the same reason — simply because they have in one way or another moved away from their only fortress, the laws of God. This is the final diagnosis of all diseases. Stick close to Nature, and Nature will stick close to you.