MAKING SENSE OF MEDICINE
Hippocrates (460 – 357 BC), the Father of Medicine, said,
“Life is short, but the art so long to learn.”
But what is the art of medicine? Is it just scientific and technical knowledge, the type that can be gleaned from books? It is clearly more than this. Those who have only learnt their medicine in the lecture theatre and from books will be very poor clinically. Even the word ‘clinical’ alludes to this. ‘Clinical’ is derived from the Greek word ‘cline’ which means ‘bed’. Clinical medicine is the art learnt under supervision at the bedside of patients. The art of medicine must be the art of helping people cope with all of life’s difficulties, as there is such an overlap between the social, psychological, and spiritual.
The Danger of Superspecialisation
In 1997, Sir Kenneth Calman, then Chief Medical Officer, gave his annual report entitled, ‘On the State of Public Health’. He emphasised that ‘concern for the individual’ should be our prime concern and explained this as,
“. . . holistic aspects to cover physical, social, psychological and spiritual aspects of life.”
This could make the training of medical students extremely long indeed. So we restrict the areas of expertise that we expect students to know about. Yet these restrictions may be too limiting.
A group of medical students were taken on a ward round by their consultant. They were introduced to a patient, who was examined. Afterwards they withdrew to the seminar room. The consultant said,
“This patient will probably choke on his food and die within six months. Can you explain to him the purpose of life?”
Surely this consultant was right to expand the limits of the thinking of his students to include spiritual questions. Having answers to such questions has great bearing on other aspects of care. This is holistic medical care. How often do surgeons and physicians on their ward rounds walk by the end of the bed of terminal patients with a cursory nod or an inane comment. Such behaviour is usually a cover for the doctor’s inadequacies. A vital aspect of human working has not been understood. What is the purpose of our being on this earth? This is not to say that everyone must be a specialist in all aspects of life but if we deal with people we need a basic understanding. Thus a surgeon does need to have some grasp of psychology and the spiritual side of life.
All too often medicine can be practised primarily for the practitioner’s benefit. The practice of medical science can take over doctors’ lives pathologically. Medicine becomes the purpose or god of their lives. Such people try to find a satisfaction through their busy-ness, instead of making it their business to find real satisfaction. When such people retire they are at risk of an early death. Others escape into the subspecialty of medical science which itself can become the ‘Holy Grail’. The Russian author Tolstoy answered such people well.
“Science is meaningless because it gives no answer to our question, the only question important to us, what shall we do and how shall we do it.”
The majority of doctors still have high human ideals and values even though they may not be sure of their origin or even whether they are valid. ‘The Who’ made a record called ‘The Seeker’, which included the lines,
“I’ve got values, but I don’t know how or why.”
Many of the problems that we are facing in the west could be answered if we recognised the spiritual dimension. Dying is not a tragedy if there is a heaven with a Saviour waiting for us there. Fraud and cheating, both at work and in relationships would be markedly reduced if we were sure that a Holy God is going to judge everything people think or do. The advantages are clear, yet how few understand that this is an essential area of study. Many try to hide behind the label, ‘agnostic’ as if that has an aura of respectability. This word has the same route meaning as ‘ignorant’. Could anyone successfully hide behind the label ‘ignorant’ in any other aspect of life when answers are there to be investigated?
Jane was a patient of mine who developed breast cancer in her twenties. She had surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. She did not come from a religious background but this illness gave her a transient interest in thinking about spiritual matters – for a few months at least. Unfortunately several years later her disease recurred and there was only a limited response to treatment. She knew she was dying and the spiritual questions returned. Her GP asked if I would go to see her on a domiciliary visit. Over coffee we discussed what was going to happen to her.
“What’s it like to die?” she asked, and we discussed this.
Then she added,
“I’m not ready to die.”
“What is it that really bothers you?” I asked, thinking that it would be a concern for her two young children that she was caring for single-handedly.
“I’m not ready to meet God,” she exclaimed, “I’ve done so much wrong in my life.”
What a privilege it was to explain to her how that dilemma has been overcome by Jesus, God come in the flesh, who had died to take the penalty for all our sin on himself. If she would turn back to God and accept Jesus as her Lord and Saviour she could be forgiven and have a secure future.
“That’s what I need,” she said.
There and then she asked the Lord Jesus to forgive her sin, take over her life and come and help change her. Two weeks later I heard from someone living in her village of the difference this decision had made in her life. She had previously been rather bitter but now she faced her future with calmness. She joined a church of Christians in the village who came to love her very much. She died six months later, but she died well.
“That is all very nice”, someone may say, “it may have helped her, but is it evidence based?” I am very sympathetic to such a view. We all know of placebo functions - could the Christian faith be put into that category? What a disaster it would be for someone to commit his or her life to following a lie. On the other hand, if the Christian gospel is not true, what answers can we have?
The Consequences of the ‘Death of God’
We live in a society that thinks ‘God is dead’. Some still accept him in theory but in practice he is largely irrelevant. The strange thing is that many who think like this still think life should be lived on Christian principles – at least publicly. This is especially true for doctors and nurses; the ethos of much of modern medicine is still based on a Christian ethic.
One hundred years ago the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche foretold that within a century God would ‘be dead’ in society. He rightly scorned those who acknowledged this in their thinking but kept the old morality and duties. George Eliot, the author who wrote ‘Middlemarch’ and ‘Mill on the Floss’ was such a person. She wrote,
“God is inconceivable and immortality unbelievable but duty is nevertheless peremptory and absolute.”
Nietzsche derided such people as “odious windbags of progressive optimism, who think it is possible to have Christian morality without Christian faith.” In “Twilight of the Idols” he wrote,
“They are rid of the Christian God, and now believe all the more firmly that they must cling to Christian morality . . . when one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality from under one’s feet.”
As fewer individuals do what is right before God, in the belief that He will ultimately be their judge, standards of behaviour and personal integrity will inevitably diminish, both in individuals and in society. It is perhaps significant that few recognise the opposite of integrity. It is dis-integrity or disintegration. When an individual looses the determination to do what is right before God, then first his personal life, then his family life, then his societies’ life and ultimately his nations’ life will tend to disintegrate. This is what Gibbon thought was the cause of the ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ and isn’t it what we are beginning to see in this country?
The novelist William Golding, who wrote ‘Lord of the Flies’ said,
“If God is dead, if man is the highest, good and evil are decided by majority vote.”
Adolf Hitler appreciated this.
I was discussing with some hospital consultants the question,
“What is truth?”
The reply came,
“It must be consensus.”
If truth is only the majority opinion it is very fickle indeed and is wide open to ‘spin’. Some modern governments today seem to think like this! So when integrity diminishes, external state control or totalitarianism increases with all its associated problems. Kafka’s book, ‘The Castle’, describes a world with problems similar to those we are beginning to see today. It describes a world where there is overwhelming bureaucratic power and authority. The telephone exchanges produce more muddles than connections. Bureaucracy drowns human beings in a deluge of files and forms. A stifling hierarchy makes it impossible to get through to any senior responsible people. Kafka says,
“The conveyor belt of life carries you on, no-one knows where. One is more of an object, a thing, than a living creature.”
The use of the word ‘creature’ is significant. A ‘creature’ has been formed by a ‘creator’. The existentialist writer, Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote a book called ‘No Exit’, saying that he can see no exit from the human dilemma.
A French perfume manufacturer sold its fragrances to the English with the catch phrase,
“Life is to be played by your own script.”
This reflects other current phrases such as,
“Just do it.”
“Just be.”
“Follow your dream.”
Yet Sartre’s logic and conclusions are right only if you start with his atheistic presumptions.
Horace gave some advice to would-be playwrights,
“Do not bring a God onto the stage – unless there is a problem that needs a God to solve it.”
Here is such a problem. If there is a God who has created mankind as a reflection of himself then many problems disappear. I am then no longer the only person that matters in a meaningless world. Truth can be searched for as it is absolute - a concept compatible with God.
The root problem we have as individuals and therefore in society, is that we are determined to turn our backs on God. We do not want God to be our Lord. That problem is called ‘sIn’, with a big ‘I’ in the middle! Archbishop Temple said,
“My original sin is that I put myself in the centre of the picture. But I don’t belong there – God does.”
Why are we so afraid of God being God? A reporter from the American magazine, ‘Vanity Fair’, interviewed Tony Blair. He was asked a question about his Christian beliefs. At this point the Prime Minister’s Director of Strategy and Communications, Alastair Campbell, an atheist, interrupted,
“I’m sorry, we don’t ‘do God’.”
Yet we are now facing problems that only God can solve. Without God there can be no truth, purpose or basis for personal integrity.
Andrei Bitov, the Russian novelist, grew up in an atheistic Communist regime. God got his attention one dreary day. He recalls,
“In my twenty seventh year, while riding the metro in Leningrad, I was overcome with a despair so great that life seemed to stop at once, pre-empting the future entirely, let alone any meaning. Suddenly all by itself a phrase appeared, “Without God, life makes no sense.” Repeating it in astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving staircase, got out of the metro and walked into God’s light.”
The Solution that is Evidence Based
Into this modern desperate world, full of selfishness and ‘spin’ steps Jesus. Read how he is introduced in John’s gospel.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” John 3 v. 16-19
This is a summary of the Christian gospel or ‘good news’. It starts by saying that God has such a love for the world – the people in it – that he gave his Son, his one and only Son to solve our problems, to be our Saviour. This person was to be the one and only way back to God. The response God expects from us is a total commitment to his Son.
“Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
If someone asks me to explain the Christian gospel in 20 seconds I base my answer on this passage. I lift up my left hand and say,
“God made the world and everyone in it. He made it through Jesus and put him in control.”
Then putting my right hand much lower I say,
“Our problem is that we do not want God to have a say in how we live. We want to be independent and go our own way. The good news is that God treats anyone who returns to Jesus, to live under his authority, as if they have never rebelled. His death on that cross, to take away sin, will then cover their sin. They become members of God’s family. However if we refuse to return to Jesus and his control, we will remain separated from God for eternity."
So the gospel is that God sent his Son to save the world through him. The stakes are very high indeed. Our eternal destiny depends on our decision about Jesus. God says,
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
The belief talked about here is not just an intellectual assent to a belief system, it is a total commitment to Jesus as a person. This commitment is called in the Bible, ‘repentance’. It is a massive concept, with even greater consequences than marriage.
Such teaching is tough – but it is Jesus talking. The consequences of rejecting Jesus are clearly very serious indeed. The reason is made clear, if we reject God’s one and only, then we have rejected God himself.
Jesus offers each of us,
pardon for past sins
power to overcome present temptations
purpose for the future.
Verse 19 describes Jesus’ coming in this way,
“Light has come into the world.”
Jesus represents everything good that we value. ‘Forgiveness’ for everything we have done wrong or failed to do right can be ours. We will be given a power to live God’s way with ‘Love’, ‘Honesty’, ‘Integrity’, ‘Courage’, and ‘Selflessness’, which are Godly characteristics. Jesus empowers his people to live God’s way by giving each Christian a very special gift. This gift is of the very nature of God, given to us in the form of his ‘Holy Spirit’.
‘Busy-ness’ and science cannot give us a real purpose that can stand when all around us is crumbling. Suffering and death reveal many false answers. The purpose of life becomes clear for those in Christ – it is to live with and for God, both now and in eternity.
So why on earth do people want to live their lives independently of God? John has the answer,
“. . . but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” v. 19
The awful verdict of God is that we prefer to live our way with its cheating, selfishness and sin rather that live God’s way. We just don’t want God to be our God. His promise of eternal life, which should be understood in terms of quality as much as longevity are ignored. John’s gospel reminds us again of the high stakes involved at the end of this chapter.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3 v. 36
Unfortunately we do not have time to look at all the evidence for Jesus being God’s Son but it is very strong. Some of this evidence has been summarised in the book ‘Cure for Life’, which can be obtained from the Christian Medical Fellowship. This evidence is very compelling indeed.
Sheldon Van Auken has described how he came to believe in Jesus when he was a scholar at Oxford University. (His supervisor was C.S.Lewis, who helped him to find answers to his spiritual questions. C.S.Lewis had himself been helped to become a Christian through discussions with his friend J.R.Tolkien who was then a professor at Oxford.) Sheldon described his search for faith like going on stepping-stones across a fast flowing stream. Each of those stones could represent areas of evidence for the Christian faith.
Jesus’ statements about himself
Jesus’ miracles, especially his resurrection
Old Testament prophecies about God’s Messiah – all 330 of them
The disciples, who were clearly convinced and died for their beliefs
Non Christian writers who tell about Jesus and his early followers.
Archaeological evidence that supports what the Bible teaches
My need for forgiveness and purpose
Sheldon had become more or less convinced by the Christian answers to these, but still he was not a Christian - he could not take that last step to the other side.
“I continued to hang about on the edge of the gap . . . it was a question of whether I was going to accept him or reject him.”
He faced a real dilemma. There was no absolute, mathematical certainty that Jesus was God, although there was much evidence to support his claims. His present position was only one of transit. He couldn’t stay where he was either, on the stepping stones, as the water level would soon rise. What should he do? Then came realisation.
“My God, there is a gap behind me as well. Perhaps the leap to acceptance was a horrifying gamble, but what of the leap to rejection.”
He realised that the gap behind him was so much larger than that in front of him. If he were to reject Jesus he would have even greater problems. What was he to do with all this evidence of the stepping stones? Furthermore, to return to the side he had come from, with its darkness, its immorality, its lack of purpose and forgiveness was not acceptable either. With this perspective the evidence became overwhelming. Sheldon wrote,
“This was not to be born. I could not reject Jesus. There was only one thing to do once I had seen the gap behind me. I turned away from it, and flung myself over the gap towards Jesus.”
Jesus himself is the answer to the emptiness faced by Neitzsche, Kafka, Sartre and ourselves. He is God incarnate. He is the key to understanding life. He will take his people to eternal life.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3 v. 36
Everyone of us is somewhere on this journey – some are already moving across the steeping stones, but it is only when we take that final step of commitment to Jesus that the full realisation of the wonder of the gospel can be appreciated. A decision about Jesus is one we all have to make.
BVP June 2003
I am very grateful to Os Guinness for his excellent book ‘The Call’. Several of the ideas and illustrations in this paper have come from this book
