Broken Bodies: 8 Biblical Reasons for Why We Get Sick

By Davis McGuirt and Heather Geisel

If God is good, why do we get sick? When God created the world, He declared: "It is good." But then came the Fall, and with it sickness and death. In this heart-tugging monograph, Dr. Davis McGuirt draws from both his training in theology and the personal agony of watching his father die from cancer to provide a variety of biblical rea

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Ridge Books
• Release date: Jun 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9780998748139

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Copyright © 2017 by Davis McGuirt, MDiv, DVM, and Heather Geisel

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version® Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

McGuirt, Davis.

Broken Bodies: 8 Biblical Reasons for Why We Get Sick / by Davis McGuirt and Heather Geisel

ISBN 978-0-9987481-1-5

About the cover

Jesus holding Jarius’ daughter (Mark 5:21-43).

Contact Information

The author can be reached at [e-mail].

Contents

Introduction

1      Sick Because of Sin’s Entrance

2      Sick Because of Specific sins

3      Sick Because of the Devil and Demons

4      Sick Because of Church Discipline

5      Sick to Enter the Kingdom of God

6      Sick to Fulfill Prophecies or Curses

7      Sick Because of National or Corporate sins

8      Sick for the Glory of God

9      Self-Inventory

10      Help

Epilogue

When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them.

Luke 4:40

Introduction

…Joseph was told, Indeed your father is sick.

Genesis 48:1

I turned out of the hospital parking garage and merged into the city traffic. I had some difficulty seeing through the tears welling up in my eyes. The warm night air felt good against my arm and face, urging me to forget that moments earlier I had stood in the hospital’s surgical ward. I had been listening but barely comprehending the two doctors as they explained that my Dad had inoperable cancer.

It was supposed to be a simple procedure. He had undergone surgery to remove a kidney, which – they thought – was the cause of his vomiting. When they saw the cancer and how extensive it was they stopped the surgery and just closed him up.

It fell on me to tell Dad about it when he awoke from the anesthesia. Learning that my dad had terminal cancer took me and my family completely by surprise, and now all I could manage was a heart-felt cry toward heaven. Help, I said. Help us, Jesus.

The next weeks and months took me along a journey of exploration in search of an explanation. I was hungry for answers, even as my dad got sicker and was put on an unwilling fast. Shortly after graduating seminary, in 1996, I had jotted down reasons I had seen from the Word of God about why people get sick. Over the next several years I thought about those reasons as I pastored a church and served the Lord in various churches, but when my dad got sick, things I had pondered theoretically for years suddenly took on new meaning. I needed to make sense of his illness, and his sickness did help clarify my thoughts on human disease and suffering. In 2014, the Lord provided help for me (in Heather Geisel) to put those thoughts on paper. You are holding the result in your hands.

I believe that our Lord wants us to understand as much as possible about disease, sickness, and dying. With that understanding our trust and faith in Him will grow. What follows are several biblical explanations for why people get sick.

BROKEN BODIES

1

SICK BECAUSE OF SIN’S ENTRANCE

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Romans 5:12

The first couple to get sick on the earth, Adam and Eve, had been placed in a perfect sin-free Garden. They had been warned not to eat of a certain tree of the knowledge of good and evil because "the day you eat of it