“Alternative health” hasn’t always been alternative.  In fact, throughout most of history it was the norm.  In many other cultures, it’s still the norm — which brings us to today’s topic of discussion.

Alternative Health Can Be Pagan; That Doesn’t Mean it Must Be Pagan

A lot of Christians consider alternative medicine to be Taoist or Hindu or New Age, or inherently flavored with some other religious practice.  We see certain cultures employing particular health practices and also carrying out certain religious practices, and we assume the two are inherently part of each other.

But truth is truth is truth…and oftentimes what has really happened is that we’ve lost sight of legitimate, true health practices, while other cultures have not.  And because, as humans, our beliefs are a big part of who we are, these cultures have integrated their health and their religion.  That doesn’t necessarily mean the two cannot legitimately be separated!

What Appears Appropriately Spiritual is Really Just Inconsistent

We throw the baby out with the proverbial bath water, completely blind to the fact that what we’re really rejecting is the unfamiliar, not the association with false religion.  Why do I say that?  Because we’re guilty of the same thing.

Our medical system is tangled up in religion, too — secular humanism.  We have a system that’s built on doing what’s right in man’s eyes; on “improving on God” (or so we think); on systematically, intentionally circumventing His design.  We have a system that idolizes doctors and (as a system) scoffs at prayer.  A system that actively seeks to separate healing from the only One able to heal.

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And yet somehow we think we’re Godly for rejecting time-tested truths passed down through the centuries because the only people who bothered to preserve those truths happen to also be ignorant of who that One True God is.  That makes about as much sense as ditching the idea of modesty because the Muslims embrace it, and considering ourselves spiritual as a result.

We do have to be careful not to adopt false beliefs along with real physical truths.  To continue the metaphor, I believe it honors God far less for us to let the baby drown in dirty bathwater than to put forth the effort to rescue and clean up the baby!  It doesn’t honor God for His people to languish in poor health because we’re too proud to restore truths at risk of being lost from among their pagan entanglements.

And just because we don’t understand something completely doesn’t make it untrue!  As our abilities to observe, record, and test things grow, science is beginning more and more to prove true those concepts traditional cultures have believed all along.

Satan comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.  Don’t let the devil steal our health and healing because we can’t — or won’t — separate it from religious lies.