Could your Definition of Disease be Too Narrow?

By Brian Lowther

When defining disease, many people naturally think of a microbiological explanation, such as: an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. But the concept of disease is broader than the microscopic world. Disease can also be social (cultural injustice); it can be structural (political oppression); it can be personal (relational breakdown); it can be spiritual (demonic activity). A response to disease can be specifically microbiological. But that response might be greatly augmented if it grew out of a larger frame of understanding. Perhaps the best way to define disease is to define its opposite: health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health in their constitution as: “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Their definition is a good one, given the WHO’s secular constraints. But perhaps something could be added to acknowledge the spiritual dimension of our existence. Dr. Dan Fountain may have said it best in his book From Health, the Bible and the Church (Wheaton, IL, EMIS/Billy Graham Center 1989):

In the Bible, health signifies a functional wholeness which includes the person, the full spectrum of social relationships involving the person, and how the person relates to God and to the physical environment. The goal of healing is to restore strength and function to all dimensions of this wholeness.

Eradication through the Eyes of a Christian Microbiologist

An Interview with retired microbiologist Jeffrey Havenner 

By Brian Lowther

Jeffrey Havenner. Photo by A. Valloza

Jeff Havenner has Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in microbiology from the University of Maryland, College Park. He worked at the Frederick Cancer Research Center at Fort Detrick, Maryland in oncogenic virology. Following that he was directly commissioned in the US Army and worked at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Department of Rickettsial Diseases. Recently he contacted us through our website. Since then we've had a number of discussions. Below are some of the highlights. 

Brian Lowther: Tell me a little about your background.

Jeffrey Havenner: I became a Christian when I was in undergraduate college through the ministry of Campus Crusade. While almost everyone I knew eventually went on staff with them, I went to graduate school and got a masters in microbiology. I have also worked a lot in adult christian education at our church so I've spent quite a few years teaching out of the Bible.  

Brian Lowther: Given that all your friends went into campus ministry, what motivated you to pursue microbiology?

Jeffrey Havenner: I actually thought seriously about joining Campus Crusade and took steps to explore taking that route. It became evident that was not the path God wanted me to take. The rest is history as they say. I was very much attracted to the life of Louis Pasteur growing up and saw microbiology potentially as a way to serve mankind by addressing problems of disease. I actually miss working in the field. My wife's brother-in-law is active in aspects of environmental microbiology. He and I have discussions when we get together. This has helped keep me involved in some of what is going on.

Brian Lowther: How did you become acquainted with the Roberta Winter Institute?

Jeffrey Havenner: I just completed the Perspectives Course. That's how I ended up coming across the RWI site. 

Brian Lowther: What caught your interest?

Jeffrey Havenner: Dr. Winter raised the question of whether pathogenic microbes such as viruses, bacteria and protozoa constitute a malevolent form of intelligent design. The question becomes are they "of the Devil?" 

One consideration could be that the Devil, as an outcome of the curse upon mankind, could have been allowed by God to tamper with microorganisms but I don't think that happened. I think that this gives the Devil too much credit. 

Brian Lowther: What's your take?

Jeffrey Havenner: In part the answer to the question is that the Devil corrupts but does not create. One consideration could be that the Devil, as an outcome of the curse upon mankind, could have been allowed by God to tamper with microorganisms but I don't think that happened. I think that this gives the Devil too much credit. Instead I think that over all our genetics have deteriorated as a result of the curse and our susceptibilities to infection have increased evidenced in part from the declining longevities over the generations in Genesis. More likely microorganisms have been able to adapt positively to those changes at our expense.

Brian Lowther: One of my colleagues––a public health consultant in South Korea––thinks almost identically to you in regards to not giving the devil too much credit.  Our group is very much a mix of different views compromising around an agreed goal of fighting disease for the glory of God, and we all agree that the devil corrupts but does not create.

Jeffrey Havenner: There are two sides to disease.

1. The invasiveness of the pathogen.
2. The susceptibility of the host.

What I am suggesting therefore is that the microbes themselves were opportunistic and man became susceptible via the curse that removed nature's cooperation with man.

It is quite possible that since the original disobedience of man in the garden we have become more susceptible to the microbes of God's creation and that is what has become the greater factor in the disease process. What I am suggesting therefore is that the microbes themselves were opportunistic and man became susceptible via the curse that removed nature's cooperation with man.

The Book of the Revelation seems to show us the relationship of increased susceptibility to disease when at the breaking of the fourth seal.   "... I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth" (Rev. 6:8 ESV). War and famine weaken populations leaving the more susceptible to plagues and the vectors that carry them. This was quite evident in the influenza pandemic following World War I.

Brian Lowther: I have been debating in my own mind lately the point you suggest about original sin causing our susceptibility to the microbes of God's creation, i.e., perhaps the microbes that make us sick were always there, but weren't harmful to human beings until Adam sinned.

Jeffrey Havenner: Opportunism seems to be much more of what the Devil is about. Therefore resisting diseases seems more to be about decreasing human susceptibility than to look for eradication of the disease-causing organisms. Only smallpox has been eradicated of the major epidemic diseases.

Electron microscope image of smallpox virus (Poxvirus). Used in accordance with Creative Commons. Sourced via Flickr.

Smallpox: dead or alive? 

Brian Lowther: It seems to me that the eradication of smallpox occurred through the smallpox vaccine, not by destroying the smallpox virus. Is that correct? So, smallpox was eradicated by decreasing human susceptibility, as you suggest. However, I do know that vials of the smallpox virus still exist in the U.S. and Russia. Does that mean that the disease causing organisms were destroyed (other than the two stocks in the U.S. and Russia)?

Jeffrey Havenner: You are right in saying that smallpox was eradicated by vaccination. There appears to be an open question of whether Variola is actually gone from the wild or whether it is merely dormant in attenuated forms and still lurking in the human population. In doing further reading it appears that smallpox vaccine is still being produced and administered. The US Military apparently is still vaccinating its personnel. The feeling seems to be that the virus is out there somewhere.

Actually I have to correct my response to you. As I have continued to read up on Small Pox I find that giving the vaccine has been discontinued from general administration and is no longer required for public health workers because the risk is now considered to outweigh the potential benefit. The source for this is this review from the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. I still think the Army may still be giving the vaccine from what appears on their sites.

Four reasons why the body of Christ should play a role in disease eradication

Brian Lowther: Other than prayer and funding, in what way do you think the body of Christ could play a role in eradication? Can you envision an organization like One World Health being established by a group of believers with eradication of a specific disease as their goal? Or is this an impossible dream?

Jeffrey Havenner: As far as research on diseases goes, much of that effort is associated with academia which is NOT welcoming to overt Christian participation. Most efforts to do research on disease seem to be based on humanitarian desires to do good and give back. I do believe that a lot of our drive to embrace causes of this kind arises from what might be called memories from Eden that seem to be hard wired into our brains. These appear to go back to God's design of and subsequent command to Adam and Eve to have dominion and to replenish the earth.

A Christian organization dedicated to fighting disease in God's name is definitely not impossible.

Science and theology have been at some odds since the Age of Reason dawned in the 18th Century. Scientists and science students who are motivated by faith in God have faced and continue to face a deep bias against them in academia in favor of humanism. A single mention of creation or "intelligent design" even casually is enough to get one blackballed from many scientific institutes. Thus Christians in the halls of academia tend to be as private about their faith as a convert to Christianity would have to be in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan.

A Christian organization dedicated to fighting disease in God's name is definitely not impossible. Initially it might resemble the Institute for Creation Research which does actual science but gets no respect or acknowledgement from the secular scientific community.

1. Unlike Creation Research which might seem esoteric to the average person, an overtly Christian organization in the fight against diseases that threaten humanity has the potential to have a direct impact on human well being. 
2. Research that actually contributes to finding cures for dread diseases like cancer or AIDS/HIV will draw attention and funding if it can document promising results. 
3. In fact such an organization might approach the issues in a more honest way, rather than from a dogmatic fashion that presumes the answers it wants. 
4. I tend to believe that God might well bless an effort to glorify Him through such research as He blessed Joseph in a national effort to avert famine in Egypt.

One thing disease eradication workers desperately need

Brian Lowther: One of the goals we've considered is trying to fill a need within the public health industry by helping workers integrate their work with their faith, i.e., demonstrate to them how their work glorifies God and brings his will on earth as it is in heaven. Does this seem like a legitimate goal to you? Is this needed? In other words, is an organization needed that would network and encourage believers at work in public health/disease eradication? Or is there already someone doing this?

Jeffrey Havenner: That does seem like a worthy goal. Scientists are under intense pressure to compartmentalize faith in God if they have it and keep it out of scientific practice on pain of exile from the profession if they do not. When I was in graduate school, I was blessed to have a fellow graduate student in the next lab who was also a Christian. We spent quite a bit of time discussing theology as well as science and attended an off campus Bible study together. He was eventually the best man at my wedding. We still keep in touch. I don't know if public health people feel the same degree of pressure.  I have another friend in the US Public Health Service that I will be getting together with in a few weeks. I will ask his impression of pressure to compartmentalize faith in that discipline. I will ask him if he is aware of a Christian fellowship of Public Health workers. I believe this gets to your last question as well. I asked my friend who works at NIH about a Christian association of public health workers and he said he was not aware of one.

Scientists are under intense pressure to compartmentalize faith in God if they have it and keep it out of scientific practice on pain of exile from the profession if they do not.

The integration of our faith in God with our work so that God is honored by what we do and by how we interact with people we work with is of great importance. It is easy for people to feel defeated in their walk with God because they feel compromised in the way they are forced to separate work from faith to avoid trouble especially in government settings. Freedom of Religion in America has morphed into the right of freedom from religion.

The Devil, Disease, and Deliverance: Origins of Illness in New Testament Thought

The Devil, Disease, and Deliverance: Origins of Illness in New Testament Thought by John Christopher Thomas (Cleveland, TN: CPT Press 2011) – This book is a scholarly exploration of the relationship between "the Devil and disease, sickness and sin, healing and forgiveness, and exorcism and deliverance." It’s an essential read for anyone seeking to build a Biblically-sound view of disease and, more importantly, develop a proactive faith-based response to it.

Do you have another book you’d recommend? Contact us.

The Eradication of Infectious Diseases

The Eradication of Infectious Diseases by Author Donald Hopkins and Editor W. R. Dowdle (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley 1998) – What are the practitioners of the young and immature field of disease eradication saying? There are few sources that will tell you, but this book is one of them. Get up to speed on disease eradication by wading through this account of the proceedings of a workshop hosted by the International Task Force for Disease Eradication. Despite the somewhat dense prose, you will gain a bird’s-eye-view of the state of the movement. Unfortunately, the price tag ($350) is not for the faint of heart. Hint: look for a used copy.

What Does the Problem of Evil have to do with Missions? Part I

By Ralph D. Winter
Originally written in the U.S. Center for World Mission Prayer Log on Sunday, June 26, 2005

Editorial Note: One question that seems to come up again and again to us in the Roberta Winter Institute is, “What does the problem of evil have to do with missions?”  We understand why this question comes up so frequently. It is most likely because our founder’s most notable contribution was in renewing and strengthening evangelical interest in missions. It also may be because our main audience up to this point has been people in mission circles. Below are some of Ralph Winter's thoughts related to this question. Tomorrow's post (What does the Problem of Evil have to do with Missions? Part II) will be a response to these thoughts.

Help me, anyone, please, to sort out my mixed reaction to the events of the morning today at Lake Avenue Church. Here I came into the service from a week in which I hear Elsie Purnell is failing fast. Chris, a Wycliffe father of four in England, finally dies of a sudden cancer flare up. The morning service is given over to the interview of three different people who have contributed to the beauty in the world through their artistic giftings.

I have often discussed with Barbara the thought that during a calendar year Lake Avenue ought in their services at least once speak specifically about the intricate marvels of God’s creation not merely the marvels of human artistry. Concerts after concerts but no science!

Now, however, I am thinking one notch further. It is not just God’s creation we need to keep an eye on. We need to note, more specifically, the rampant ongoing “damage” to His creation (Elsie, Chris, etc.) and what would seem clearly to be a biblical mandate to fight against those destructive forces which tear down His glory.

What most startled me about this morning’s service was the interview of Julian Revie, the Caltech student who plays the organ. The pastor said there were three of his contributions that deserved mentioning. First, he has been invited to create some music and go and play at an AD 1366 chapel at Cambridge University. Second he has been invited to do something similar in Australia. Third, at the very moment I am writing this he will be in Ventura finishing up a marathon 22-hour presentation of all of Bach by something like 30 participating organists.

How is it that Sunday after Sunday all these good people ... hear all about God’s love and forgiveness, ... etc. and do not face up to the will of God that we should fight against the things which mar and scar both the people of God, the saints of God, and the creation of God. 

What is my problem? Julian is a microbiologist [who holds degrees in biochemistry and molecular biophysics]. That is a crucial area of research in which are secreted away the answers to Elsie’s suffering and Chris’s death. How is it that Sunday after Sunday all these good people at Lake Avenue Church hear all about God’s love and forgiveness, the blood of Christ that has paid for our sins, the abundant Christian life, etc. and do not face up to the will of God that we should fight against the things which mar and scar both the people of God, the saints of God, and the creation of God. Why are we saved? Just to get to heaven when we die, just to make sure others get there?

In our Sunday School class this morning (an older group) we were urged to face the fact that we “are all wasting away,” all of us, but that we need to “rejoice in the Lord” nevertheless. I don’t mind “wasting away” except that we older people, almost every person in that room, are being assailed by pathogens that are artificially and often very painfully speeding that process up. Meanwhile, are we simply to rejoice in the Lord and not fight back against those forces that are tearing down His Creation?

Isn’t that strange? What is this, a diabolical delusion? Any suggestions from anyone will be very welcome.

How attractive is our invitation to people to return to and yield to their Father in Heaven if they continue to believe he is the one who contrives for most everyone to die in suffering?

I forgot one thing. The reason I am so concerned to identify evil and become known as a believer in Jesus Christ who is fighting it, is because a great deal of evil in this world is blamed on God. How attractive is our invitation to people to return to and yield to their Father in Heaven if they continue to believe he is the one who contrives for most everyone to die in suffering? Unless Satan is in the picture and we are known to be fighting his deadly works we are allowing God’s glory to be marred and torn down. Doesn’t that make sense?

The Worm Must Die, the Cobra Must Go

By Ralph D. Winter

From his Editorial Comment originally published in the January 1998 Issue of Mission Frontiers.

Snake Charmers Cobra in Jaipur, India

To ignore the alarming connection between human (and/or satanic) responsibility and the evil that permeates this world is to plunge headlong into a type of Hindu fatalism.

But not to be too hard on the Hindus. Take the case of a devout Christian woman in the Middle Ages who considered a worm growing in her forehead something God had “sent” to her to keep her humble. One day, leaning over, she noticed that the “God-sent” worm fell out on the floor. She hurriedly restored it to the open sore in her forehead—not wishing to frustrate the purposes of God.

Is this not similar to a Hindu family grieving over the death of a child from the fangs of a cobra well-known to have made its abode in a clump of bamboo in the backyard? Even after the boy’s tragic and much mourned death the cobra continues on unassailed since the family earnestly seeks to “consent” to God’s will. God obviously placed that cobra in the clump of bamboo? Thus, the family feels it is not their place to eliminate that evil. Is this the best way to look at what is going on?

Or, finally, if you are ready for this, my wife and I hear from all kinds of wonderful loving people who are willing to pray for my wife whose cancer is steadily eating its way throughout all her bones. We deeply value and appreciate those prayers. We devoutly hope they help. But we think that there comes a time when the worm must die, and the cobra must go.

See, no one that I know of has suggested that we, the Evangelical world, have a responsibility to get up and “kill the worm” or “kill the cobra” when it comes to malaria or cancer. That is, no one has suggested that either I or Evangelicals in general set out resolutely with the millions of dollars at our disposal to combat the source of malaria or cancer.