Part Two: T h e W o r l d o f P a i n

The Basis for Spiritual Truths

Christ, the Master Teacher, found His greatest teaching resource in the world around Him. He constant­ly drew parallels between the natural and the spiritual realms in His parables and His conver­sations with His disciples. This technique allowed Him to relate di­rectly to his hearers because he talked about the things most familiar to them such as sheep herding, farming, house­keeping, and servan­thood. He first es­tablished a truth in the natural realm, and then applied it to the spiritual kingdom. The Apostle Paul makes this point in the book of Romans. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.” Romans 1:20.
 
The study of natural phenomena yields great insight into spiritual truth­s for us as well. In order to understand “Heal­ing Evan­gelism”, the reader must assume that the spiritual truths of sin and salvation have close parallels in the human condition of disease, injury and healing. Sin behaves like a disease; salvation behaves like heal­ing. The similarities are so close that nearly each point in the natural has a correspon­ding spiritual counterpart.

The Cau­ses of Phys­ical Pain

What is Pain?

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional exper­ience usually caused by an injury or threat of injury to the tissues of the body. Health care experts know that the behavior of a person in pain must be understood as a complex interac­tion of physiological, psycholog­ical and sociological factors. For example, an individual’s re­sponse to injury or pain varies from culture to culture, depending upon such factors as age, gender, and social expectations. The threshold of pain often differs widely from person to person, even within the same culture.

In the last few years, the medical field has stressed patient sensitivity, especially with regard to pain. Health care professionals insist that pain must be viewed from the patient’s perspective. Pain is whatever the patient says it is, and it occurs whenever the patient says it does. They recognize that it is ludicrous to tell patients that they do not feel pain when they say they do. The constant report of pain may frustrate the doctors or nurses, but the sensitivity must lie with the patients who are actually doing the suffering. Also, professionals know that the amount of obvious injury may not necessarily be equal to the amount of pain

Pain is often classified as either acute or chronic. Acute pain occurs suddenly, has limited duration, and is usually reversible. It gives a sharp, prickling, “electric” sensation. Chronic pain is deep in origin, may be either intermittent or persistent, and becomes increasingly intense over time. Sufferers often describe chronic pain as a burning, aching or throbbing sensation. Such descriptions aid the care provider in locating the cause of the pain. Thus, it is vital for the patient to communicate to the health care professional exactly how he/she feels. If this expression is discouraged or denied, the problem may be diagnosed improperly or incompletely.

Why did God create us with the capacity to feel pain? Pain performs a valuable function in minimizing the harm of accidental injury or minor disease. People who have no ability to feel pain live in danger of unrecognized injury or disease. On the other hand, some people can feel pain so severely that it triggers reflexes which affect breathing, heart function, and blood pressure, with potentially fatal consequen­ces. Prolonged pain which is not treated or which resists treatment may cause intense suffering and dis­couragement.

Injury and Disease

Most pain is caused by either injury or disease. Injuries are physical disruptions of an organism. A dis­ease is any condition that disturbs the nor­mal functioning of a living organism, wheth­er in whole or in separate organs or sys­tems. Injuries caused by external forces such as a fall, a blow, a cut or burn, are comparatively easy to assess because they usually have outward, visible symptoms. Many diseases, on the other hand, manifest similar or identical symptoms. Only extensive testing or observation identifies them. Some dis­eases may be impossible to know anything about, except by their symp­toms, given present technology.

The word disease itself simply means “dis-ease,” or lack of health and well being. At one time, only gross changes resulting from diseases were recognized as symptoms. Only in recent times have we understood the microbiological aspects of disease. This finding has enabled medical science to recognize the presence of a disease by taking blood samples, biopsies, x-rays, ultra­sounds, and other advanced methods of detection.

Every organism, without exception, is subject to diseases. Cataloged diseases, which affect humans, number in the thou­sands. While we do not know what causes some diseases, we know that many diseases are caused by agents, whether living or non-living, that invade or affect the body. These range from various environ­men­tal and psychological conditions, to hereditary factors.

Diseases may be grouped in a num­ber of different ways. Such external agents as bac­teria, viruses, parasites, chemicals or physi­cal agents cause infectious diseases. Hu­mans, animals, insects, or substances transmit them. He­reditary diseases are caused by genetic disorders of one or both parents. Degen­erative diseases occur as the result of the natural aging processes. Psychoso­matic disorders appear to be the result of emo­tional stress. All of them can either reduce the quality of life or prematurely end a person’s life.

Other Sources of Pain

Injury and disease present obvious reasons for pain. There are other sources of pain, however, that remain mysterious. Phantom pain often occurs to persons who have recently lost a limb due to am­putation. They actually feel the pain in the extremity that no longer exists. Evidently, the nerves which once transmitted the pain signals require an adjustment period to the loss. Referred pain results from a physical problem in one area of the body that affects another part. Heart ailments, for example, typically cause pain in the left arm and neck. Psychologically-based pain disrupts the lives of millions of people who suffer from mental or emotional problems. Stress, it has been found, contributes to much physical pain. The fast pace of life, pressure to succeed in finance and career, and the stress of urban living all work together to cause much suffering.

The association between pain and stress gives us insight into the spiritual aspect of pain. There are two interesting stories behind this discovery. In 1822, on Mackinaw Island, Michigan, a nineteen-year-old boy named Alexis St. Martin accidentally injured his stomach in a shotgun blast. He survived the injury, but the accident left a hole through which doctors could observe his stomach. In 1895, another boy named Tom, injured his esophagus in a fire. In order to save his life, doctors cut a hole in his stomach wall and poured food into it. Both of these accidents enabled doctors to see the stomach in operation. They discovered that the stomach acted strangely whenever emotional distress occurred. Excitement or nervous tension caused the stomach lining to turn bright red and become very active. The outcome was a landmark event for medical history. It could now be shown that emotional problems impact the body in real ways. Significantly, if sin brings about tension and stress, it causes real changes in the body. Pain is a logical result of sin.