Is Satan Directly Involved In All Cases of Brain and Body Illness? Do We Have Authority As Christians to Rebuke All Illnesses Away From Us?
Now that we know mental malfunction and illness exists because people are physical beings with a physical brain, let’s ask the next logical question in the progression of this conversation: “What causes mental illness? Just because it’s physical doesn’t mean Satan isn’t behind it. Are people who are experiencing mental illness actually demon-possessed or demon-oppressed?” What is causing their physical biochemistry to malfunction? I bring this up because many Christians do believe Satan is directly causing all physical and mental illnesses, and there are enough people who believe this that this question needs to be addressed.
It’s also important that as Christians we understand from the Bible how illness and death came into the world, and what God’s plan and process is for eradicating both of these things forever. Then we can do our part to cooperate with that plan, and we can spot false doctrine that is not in accordance with that plan and step away from it and guard ourselves against it.
It’s become increasingly common, especially in charismatic churches and circles, for everything to be seen as demons. It can get quite extreme. If you cough, you’re supposed to rebuke Satan away and your cold is supposed to leave you. I know people who actually believe this and I’ve spoken to many others who also do. There’s also a number of people who are extremely confused and don’t necessarily buy into the idea that everything is demons, but this-view point being so widespread and seeping into sermons everywhere in part or in full, has lead to huge amounts of confusion.
I know people with bipolar disorder who experience psychosis as a symptom, who have been told by their pastors to get off their medication because taking it is a lack of faith, and that they should be rebuking the illness directly or in some cases they say they should be rebuking the demons behind the illness and exerting their God-given authority over Satan or the illness. These people are in compromised mental states and it’s often hard for them to distinguish between Bible truth and error. Some of these people have listened to him and gone off their medication and had a complete psychotic break where they spent their whole savings, moved to another state and started a new life due to delusions that their husband wasn’t really their husband and was in fact a demon, wrecked their life, and almost lost their lives because they were a danger to themselves and others in that state.
You can see how inaccurate information surrounding this topic can be dangerous.
It turns out this view-point and this situation where pastors rebuke church members for taking medication rather than claiming their God-given authority over sickness and Satan is not an uncommon occurrence. Yes, that’s really the truth. It happens often as it’s a commonly-held belief in Pentecostal circles and in circles where the prosperity gospel and Word of Faith movement is preached.
I believe it happens because of an inaccurate understanding of the timeline of how the gospel brings an end to all sickness, poverty, and death. This doctrine isn’t false because it claims God will heal all sickness. Again and again in the scriptures the gospel is linked with and always has these core components of forgiveness of sin, freedom from death, poverty eliminated and prosperity given, and sickness being healed. In the passages in the Old Testament, God promised all these things to Israel if they would be faithful to Him. Jesus began his ministry by healing the sick and calling people to repentance and faith in His atoning sacrifice that He would give to the world. These things were all linked and connected with the ministry of Christ. It’s about the timing. It is definitely true that the gospel ends all sickness forever. But does it do it now? Well, the gospel doesn’t accomplish everything it’s promised to in this life, otherwise no Christian would ever die. So it’s clear there are some things the gospel brings about that don’t happen in this world.
Is recovery from sickness one of those things that the gospel accomplishes for us in the next life, or in this life?
Let’s dig into the scriptures. What does the Bible really say about this subject? What is the correct relationship between Satan and sickness? Does he directly cause illness every time, or is he sometimes directly involved and other times indirectly involved? Or is no sickness caused by demons and all sickness occurs naturally on its own as a result of a fallen and broken world that now has dysfunction that results in dangerous pathogens and cells mutating giving conditions like cancer?
We know that at least in one sense every sickness or illness, anything destructive, and death itself was caused by Satan. When He rebelled against God and His law Satan brought all these things into existence. When man fell due to Satan’s temptation in the garden, all of these things became a part of the human experience and existence in this world.
But is Satan directly causing all sickness today? And do Christians have authority from God to rebuke Satan and all the sicknesses he causes?
Let’s start at the beginning to get our answers.
There was no death in all of God’s created universe before sin. Not only this, but there was also no malfunction or disease. There was no break-down at all in any way in the whole of creation. Adam, though he had a finite brain that had limitations and wasn’t all-knowing like God’s mind, had a brain that functioned perfectly for a human being. The scriptures tell us Jesus though His Word holds all things together. (Hebrews 1:3) All of creation cannot function or exist in its own power. The laws of physics themselves, along with everything else, is held together by Jesus’ almighty power.
So Adam’s brain and body were held together and kept in a perfect state of functioning by that almighty Word of Christ.
It was sin – moral evil – that brought death – natural evil – into the world. Just to be clear here I want to point out that natural evil isn’t actually evil. Only a being with moral agency can be and do evil. Tornados and cancer do not have a motive or intelligence. The word “evil” is sometimes used to describe natural disasters and natural dysfunction like illness, even these are an entirely different concept than moral evil. But the word “evil” when referring to natural evil, is fitting in a sort of way because these natural things kill human beings, and it’s a great loss and an evil thing when people die – the result is seen as evil or wrong. God never intended for people to die and it was never supposed to happen.
Before sin Adam was not under the power of death. We need Bible evidence for this, so let’s look at some verses. The Bible speaks of this fact in many places. Paul says in Galatians 3:12 that he who keeps the law shall live by keeping it. Perfect obedience to God’s law – what Adam had in Eden before sin – results in eternal life through the God whom you are obeying. The laws are life-producing by their very nature. However, in Romans 7:10 Paul tell us that the law that was intended to bring life now brings death. After sin a person incurs God’s wrath and falls under the penalty of death. The law then has no power to forgive or redeem the person or give them a new heart. They law which is good, has no power to redeem the sinner, and is powerless to do anything about our lost state, which is why Christ came and died. (Romans 8:3-4)
This is a very key point to the discussion and I don’t want you to miss this. The law itself is life-producing. Its principles if kept perfectly cause a person to through God live forever. It brings no sadness, sickness, destruction of any kind to keep the law; in fact it does the opposite.
It’s the keeping of the law, which keeps a perfect sinless being connected with God in a covenant relationship with Him (what Adam would have had had he never sinned, and what the loyal angels have), that prosperity of each type – health, eternal life, wisdom, riches/zero poverty, abundant knowledge – is secured and flows as a natural result of that relationship with God.
These things have always resulted from a relationship with God. Solomon puts it this way speaking of wisdom which is a reference to Christ Himself in Proverbs 3:16 “Long life (he means eternal life here) is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.”
These things do go together. Eternal life does go with riches and honor. This is what Adam had before sin when he was the king of this world, and under God, was very prosperous, and also possessed eternal life. This is what the loyal angels have too as royalty in heaven as sons of God.
The Bible says “love does no harm to its neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” Romans 13:10
Thus it’s these very principles of right-doing that kept the creation in a state of harmlessness and health and prosperity before sin.
Imagine if no one ever told a lie. Imagine if no one ever verbally abused another person, never hit or killed another person. Imagine if there was only good-will one towards another through the whole earth, only actions of thoughtfulness and love. Imagine if there was no adultery or rape. Imagine if no one littered or polluted or misused the earth and its resources.
I think you can see clearly how there would not be psychological distress, STDs, and the like in such a world.
So you can get a glimpse of how the breaking of each of these laws brings in death and malfunction of the emotions, psyche, and physical body.
While it’s true that verbal abuse tears down a person’s psyche at the physical level, and murder outright destroys their body physically, it’s also true that breaking the commandments against God also brings in death and disease.
Let’s keep studying this out and I’ll show you how it works.
Adam was told that by God if he ate from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, that he would “surely die.” Genesis 2:17. God was telling Adam the same thing Paul says in Romans, that the law produces life, and that the breaking of it produces death. As Romans 6:23 states “The wages of sin is death.” The snake’s lie was that he would not surely die after all, and that he would in fact live in a higher state of existence as a god if he ate the fruit.
This command from God centered around his right to be worshipped and obeyed as God. Would Adam accept God’s authority in his life? The serpent’s lie challenged that authority, insinuating that Adam should disobey God and break away from His rule, because God was a selfish tyrant who hoarded good things for Himself arbitrarily. The lie painted God as unloving, as less than 100% righteousness and benevolence, and was an accusation against His character.
Eve chose to eat the fruit, doubt God’s character and come out from under His loving rule. After being tempted by Eve, Adam chose to do the same.
There were a couple other themes besides God’s authority and character…the third theme and message was that it wasn’t sinful to disobey God. This follows naturally from the serpent’s insinuation that God was selfish and evil Himself. If God is a stingy monster, with arbitrary rules just to control you and takes good things for himself and deprive you of them, then the right thing to do is to disobey Him. It can’t be wrong to disobey an arbitrary ruler and the laws of such a ruler, who is not grounded in goodness and truth and is just oppressing his subjects. These themes were implied by the serpent’s claims. Reading between the lines you can see them clearly. They also come up again and again in the scriptures as God breaks down for us who Satan is and how he is an accuser of God and the brethren.
God’s claim of course was that He is a Ruler of perfect goodness who had a right to Adam’s love and allegiance, and His intent in asking Adam to not eat from the Tree was so that Adam would not sin. God with His authority, truthfully declared that disobedience to His Word was sin.
And the fourth theme in the “Tree Test” was that of death. God’s claim wasn’t that God would arbitrarily sentence Adam with death if he ate the fruit, but that “the wages of sin is death.” Thus in intending to keep Adam from sin, God’s objective was to keep Adam from the penalty of sin, which is death.
The devil well knew that those who sin incur the death penalty. It was the devil who didn’t love or care about Adam and was trying to bring him under the power of death and destroy him.
Sadly, we of course know that Adam ate from the fruit, fell under the power of death, and only Jesus’ pledge to die in his place brought a period of mercy to the human race, where we all have time to live in this world and decide whether to believe in Christ or not and be saved. If we choose to reject Christ, judgment will fall on us on Judgment Day. This judgment is delayed so all can choose salvation (2 Peter 3:9, 2 Peter 3:15). Adam and Eve would have been instantly judged with death, and in them the potential for other human beings to be created and exist would have died out with them, had Jesus not pledged to die for the human race, as the whole human race existed in Adam.
We know that the whole human race existed in Adam – meaning God couldn’t create another two humans and start up the human race again if Adam sinned – because the Bible tells us “In Adam all die” 1 Corinthians 15:22, and in Romans 5:12 it says “Therefore just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed to all men because all sinned.” Then Adam is described as a “pattern of the One to come” Romans 5:14.
What the Bible is saying here is that Adam had a special role and authority as the first man that affected the whole human race. His sin brought death to us all, and captivity to Satan for the whole human race. We were no longer under God’s banner. The human race belonged to Satan and was estranged from God, and had God judged Adam with death right after his sin, God would not have the rights to make new human beings. God no longer owned our species.
By saying that Adam was a pattern of the one to come, we see the parallels involved in the role of Adam as the first man, and the role of Christ as the “Second Adam.” In Adam all die, in Christ winning back the rights to the world, the human race, and each individual person, we are made alive if we choose Him. 1 Corinthians 15:21-22
Thus we see here that the pattern referred to is this fact that Adam brought death to all and the whole human race died in Adam, thus God could not have created new human beings had God destroyed Adam for his sin, and the race not been redeemed.
Adam was a physical being, under the laws of physics. Thus for Adam to be able to die, God had to change the laws of physics themselves. And when that happened, death and malfunction entered the whole world. Plant life, animal life, even single-celled organisms and bacteria and viruses could now mutate to cause disease.
In the Bible God as the Sovereign Lawgiver and Judge of the universe, pronounces a curse on Adam and on Eve, and He also pronounces a curse on the earth as punishment for Adam’s sin.
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
Something changed with the laws of physics and our bodies to cause work of all kinds – even mental labor – to tax us and wear us out and break down our bodies. There is fatigue and pain in labor of all kinds, and it is difficult hard work.
However, there is still the original blessing in labor, for work itself was given before the fall of man and is good for our health.
So here we see a mixed bag of joy and blessing resulting from hard work, and we also see fatigue and pain happening in this world due to the curse of sin.
It’s interesting that the curse for the serpent to slither on its belly, the curse on the woman to feel pain in childbirth, the curse on Adam to experience painful toil in labor, and the curse on the earth to produce thorns and thistles all involved changes to the laws of physics themselves.
The curse on the human race and on the earth encompassed the whole worldly creation, including the laws of physics that operate life and movement and scientific processes in this world, as they apply to this planet.
Not only was death now possible and a part of life in this world, but decay and malfunction were too. Decay and malfunction are part of the death process.
The Bible makes this very clear in Romans 8:21 that there is decay in our world caused by Adam’s sin.
“the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”
Romans 8:21
This decay and malfunction is part of the curse. This is how mental and physical illness became possible, and entered our experience.
Thus you can see that according to the Bible, it’s not possible that all illnesses are directly caused by demons. The curse rests on the whole earth and everything in it, and brings malfunction and decay to people and animals and plants and organisms. Thus mental illness from purely biological sources with no demons involved is possible and happens.
It’s not possible that every illness is caused by demons. This is an impossibility.
However, this doesn’t mean that no mental or physical illnesses are directly caused by demons. (More on how demons can cause illness coming up soon in this article.)
What Was and Is The Devil’s Role in All of This?
So, let’s think about this whole process of how this happened, with the devil’s role in mind. What was the devil’s role in all of this, and what is our role when it comes to the devil as children of God?
In studying out his role and our relation to him, we can then see whether rebuking demons in order to recover from illness is biblical.
We will also be able to see whether rebuking illness directly is biblical too.
We know from what we’ve studied so far that it was Adam’s sin that actually brought death, and illness into this world.
The breaking of God’s law is inherently life-destroying, and the keeping of His law is inherently life-producing.
This means that it is the breaking of God’s law that brought the curse of illnesses into this world, not the devil.
It’s sin that brought diseases and health conditions. This is key, and very important to understand.
The devil’s role was that of a tempter to Adam.
However, once Adam actually sinned, the whole human race came under the ownership of Satan. So he then had the role of slave master. So he’s not just a tempter now, he’s the slave master of everyone who has ever lived long enough to sin, and who hasn’t yet accepted Christ as their Savior.
Jesus came and died to buy us all back. He didn’t just buy each of us as individuals. He also died to redeem the world from its bondage to decay and death. And He died to win back the rulership of the world from Satan. The crown of thorns that Christ wore on the cross was a reference to how Jesus was defeating the curse that rested on the world due to Adam’s sin.
At the end of time, God will engulf the world in fire, to cleanse it, and he will destroy this heavens (meaning the atmosphere) and this Earth, and create brand new ones.
In this new world, the laws of physics will go back to how they were before Adam’s sin. There will be no death or malfunction or decay of any kind. No “natural evil.” No hurricanes, no psychosis, or depression, or symptoms of mental illnesses and conditions.
This same fire will also destroy the devil and the wicked.
‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4
No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.
Revelation 22:3
The Bible says death will be destroyed. In fact, it was to destroy death, as well as sin and the devil, that Jesus came into this world.
“Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil…”
Hebrews 2:14
“Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.”
Revelation 20:14
“And now He has revealed this grace through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the gospel…”
1 Timothy 1:10
“The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
1 Corinthians 15:26
Death will not be possible in heaven and in the new world, because no one will sin and bring upon themselves the penalty of sin which is death. The cross of Christ fully defeats Satan and death for all time. This is how powerful the cross is!
What They Got Right
Those who believe that physical healing is a core part of the gospel, are not wrong in connecting these two things.
They are understanding Jesus’ role correctly, that He came to abolish all illness, to forgive all sin (of those who repent), and to destroy the devil…also to buy back the world and abolish death itself.
This is a whole and complete picture of what Jesus’ work did and does.
They are right to see that the Bible verses about healing apply to the gospel, Jesus’ work.
They are only getting the timing wrong.
Notice how the Bible says “the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” This is significant. The last piece of the puzzle is to destroy death, meaning the curse that rests upon this world, and bring in a new world in which there is no death.
We know this to be true as Christians. God is active in our lives. He helps us with each day with the difficulties of life, giving wisdom and aid. He forgives us of our daily sins, and gives us moral strength to resist temptation. He teaches us from His Word. He gives His church power to take His gospel to the world and we see new people baptized into the faith and start relationships with Him.
God answers many prayers and provides much help. But if we were to pray for our 100 year old grandmother that she would never die, that prayer would not be answered in the affirmative. Likewise if we were to pray for ourselves that we would never die, the answer would be no. We watch as everyone around us gets older, and the signs of age show. We see older folks passing away and the new generation taking their place.
None of this negates Jesus’ power or His promises. He has promised forgiveness for sin right here in this world, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It’s here that we are adopted into His family, rescued from our slave master Satan, and given a new heart that can love and know God.
But it’s not here in this world that we’re promised death will be destroyed. It’s in the next life. The curse still rests on the world right now.
And this means also that there is going to be sickness and disease in this world too, as long as the curse exists. Because the same curse that brings death also brings malfunction and dysfunction to the physical world. They are part of the same dynamic and root cause. This means that there will be harmful viruses and bacteria in our world that can cause physical and mental symptoms. There will be cells that morph and turn cancerous.
I don’t want you to misunderstand me here. I’m not saying God doesn’t ever answer prayers for healing, even sometimes giving a person complete health – at least as complete as health can look in this world. He does heal people. I’m very much involved in helping people heal and I have a health ministry. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe God’s Word tells us that it’s often the case that God wants to heal people. But to make the blanket conclusion that God will always heal every sick Christian, is to bypass and negate the effects of the curse itself.
We live in a world under the curse, and the curse universally will not be removed until the end of time, well it happens at the resurrection for the righteous. To say that God will grant every Christian healing is to say the curse has now been abolished for Christians by Christ’s death, and this just doesn’t fit the Bible’s timeline of when the curse will be removed.
Notice the language here in Paul’s writing:
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;
1 Corinthians 15:42
The body we have now can perish. But the body we will be given at the resurrection will not be under the curse and will not be perishable.
Some translations say corruptible and incorruptible. Our body will not be able to die.
But right now that is not the case. Right now we have perishable or corruptible bodies. These bodies that can perish, can also malfunction and decay.
Thus those of us with mental and physical health conditions, have a constant reminder in our flesh of our need for the next life and for glorification, which is when we are raised with that glorified body in perfect health.
We need that new body and that new world and to be in the Presence of God. This life is not enough, it is defective, it is painful, we aren’t what we need to be.
The Bible speaks of groaning for our new bodies and of groaning for the day when are characters are 100% in alignment with His will and there’s no more selfishness in us.
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”
Romans 8:23
As someone who has come out of psychosis with treatment, and who has taken brain supplements to really enhance my cognition, I can tell you that we don’t realize how much our brain, cognition, and perception are affected by the fall. It would not be enough to have a healthy working brain and body in this world. We need a higher level of intelligence. If we were much smarter, with brains that worked perfectly, we would see rich truths in the scriptures about the character of God that we couldn’t see in the same way with the kind of cognition we have now.
This happened to me after treatment. I could see so many wonderful things in God’s Word that increased my quality of life and joy in ways I’d never before experienced. I didn’t know this level of happiness was possible in this world until I treated my brain. I didn’t know this level of Bible understanding was possible until I treated my brain.
My brain had so many glitches in its processing that took away my ability to see Bible truths in their beauty.
So many of us have these kinds of symptoms. Even those without mental illness have brains affected by the fall. We don’t have the mind Adam had in Eden.
Now imagine how much more happiness would be possible if we were many times more intelligent than we are now, and our brain worked in a way that it made zero errors and was perfect in functioning.
If we could see the level of understanding and cognition that it’s possible to have with such a brain, we would spend all our time focused on furthering God’s work in our hearts and in the world around us, so Jesus could come soon and we could go home to heaven.
We would not become so fixated on wanting this world’s version of perfect health, to the point of making health an idol, even if it’s not God’s will here for us to be in health.
Satan paints life in this world as capable of meeting our deep needs and desires if we just work hard at setting goals and achieving them, but this world does not have the happiness we crave. We need the next world and the next life.
Promises to Israel
We see in God’s promises to Israel, a direct parallel to the promises in Eden before sin. Just as obedience to God’s law before sin resulted in health, life, and happiness, so God told the Israelites that if they obeyed His laws, that He would not bring on them the diseases of the Egyptians.
“11 Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.
12 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. 13 He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers…15 The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you.”
Deuteronomy 7
Here, as in Eden, it’s clear that breaking God’s laws produces illness, and keeping them produces health.
In the case of Israel God actually did promise them that there would not be a sick one among them if they lived in obedience to Him, and the promise was fulfilled. Among something like a million people there was not even one sick person among them.
He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.
Psalm 105:37
Importance of Teaching obedience to God’s Law
It’s very important that God’s church teaches and promotes law-keeping through Christ, to our members, and that we preach these things to the world at large, as an important component of the gospel.
Due to Adam’s sin, we are now powerless to keep God’s law in our own strength, but the good news of the gospel is that Jesus both forgives us of our sins, and gives us a new heart that can walk in His ways. Through the righteousness of Christ, we can now begin to walk in obedience to God’s law, by the new way of faith.
This is the power of the gospel. When it’s lived out in the character and life of the forgiven one, to produce good works of love, we see the transformative power of what Christ’s death and life accomplishes in a wretch, a lost person, corrupted by sin. They are set free from the power of sin, and enabled to walk in the new law of the Spirit. The definition of love according to the Bible is law-keeping. Not keeping it outwardly in behavior only, but keeping it with the love and spirit of Christ. This is what fruit or good works are. They are works of keeping God’s law of love.
And law-keeping is not possible for someone who is unconverted. Thus when good acts that keep the law and are in accordance with its principles are done by us, we reveal the power of Christ, because such acts of love are not possible in the humanist, in the person who does not have Christ.
Thus it’s fitting and right that God’s church ought not to only point out sin and our need for a Savior, and teach that we can be forgiven by Christ, but also emphasize that we can now through Christ keep His law imperfectly, and that this is a solemn duty and great privilege.
And educate people on what that looks like. Including God’s health laws, and how the keeping of these laws produces better health and a more sound and strong mind, enabling us to see rich truths in God’s Word that we can’t see when our brain is fuzzy or our perception is distorted by mental symptoms.
Coming Under the Power of the Devil
Now we know that our bodies themselves after the Fall are corruptible, or perishable, capable of malfunction and dysfunction by their very nature, and thus physical and mental illness can result from purely natural causes like pathogens in our body, or by things like birth defects, or even just aging, let’s ask the question “Is it possible to come under the devil’s power and experience illness as a result of demon involvement?”
The answer here is “yes.” In fact we are all before conversion slaves of Satan. So people are naturally under his power to a degree, but God sets in motion forces to bring the gospel to that person and give them the option of salvation through Him.
Everyone is given this option of salvation. While unconverted people are under Satan’s power and owned by him, he can’t keep them from being convicted by God’s Holy Spirit each and every day to come to God. He can’t keep them from salvation if they reach out to God. His power has definite limits, and the sacrifice of Christ buys for each of us the opportunity and power to choose to be saved if we will.
The Bible doesn’t tell us how much power Satan has over unconverted people or the exact limitations of that power. We do know that he holds them in bondage and that Christ alone can set them free.
Can Satan give an unconverted person an illness such as cancer or schizophrenia? The Bible doesn’t explain all the details of this.
What it does explain and show though is that if one yields themselves to Satan through immorality, the more they yield to him, the more power he gains over them.
The Bible wants us to understand this principle that it is through sin that Satan gained ownership of the human race, and it is through choosing to sin to greater and greater degrees that we come more and more under his power.
It’s never safe to live a lifestyle of unrepentant sin, and to go deeper and deeper into sin.
While Jesus was careful to explain to the disciples that when someone was physically blind it wasn’t always due to sin, in all the accounts of Jesus driving out demons, there was always sin involved. To illustrate this concept Jesus made statements such as the following:
43 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”
Matthew 12:43-45
Notice how Jesus specifically says this generation is wicked, and this is the reason given for why this condition of possession by 7 times as many demons will happen to them. Even though Jesus was among them living and working to cast demons out of people and draw them to Himself, if they didn’t continue to walk in the light He’d given them, and they rejected Him and practiced wickedness, they would again become possessed by demons.
Paul speaks of this same concept, echoing Jesus:
“If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first.”
2 Peter 2:20
Notice that again it is the corruption – or immorality – that causes a person to have a final condition that is worse than they used to be even before their conversion.
So the answer is yes, it is possible for Satan to gain power over a person, and that happens when a person rejects truth and lives a life of immorality.
We briefly talked about natural evil earlier in this chapter. Demon possession is not a natural evil that can come over someone without their involvement, like a sudden hurricane or a car accident. Demon possession can only occur due to moral evil – due to rejecting Christ and embracing a life of immorality. So someone who is stealing money, or sleeping around, harboring hate or jealousy in their heart until it builds and becomes great – things like this.
Many of these demons that Jesus cast out of people were afflicting them with physical illness, or muteness, or mental symptoms.
In the gospels we see Jesus rebuking sickness and physical infirmities that were caused by demons. When he cast the demon out of the mute man, the person was able to speak. Matthew 9:32-33
In Matthew 17:14-18 Jesus casts a demon out of an epileptic boy who had been falling into fire and water (probably the demon’s attempts to kill him) and the epilepsy leaves him when the demon does.
We also see Jesus rebuking illnesses directly, that were not caused by any demons that needed to be cast out, and the illness leaves them. Peter’s mother-in-law suffered from a high fever, until Jesus rebuked it and it left her and she began to wait on them. Luke 4:39 We see Jesus rebuke the storm at sea and even the wind and the waves obey Him. Matthew 8:27 It’s interesting to note that in none of these cases where demons were not directly involved in a person’s sickness or in the waves at sea, did Jesus rebuke demons. Even though Satan is the cause of all these evil things coming into the world, Jesus didn’t rebuke Satan every time someone became sick, rather he rebuked the illness itself, unless demons were directly involved as in cases of demon-possession.
Jesus gave His church the authority to heal the sick, and to cast out devils.
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases,
Luke 9:1
And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Matthew 10:1
“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.”
Matthew 10:8
This shows us that it is the role of the church both to heal diseases and to cast out devils. Some diseases are caused directly by demons, others are not attached to demons, but in either case the disciples healed people. Regardless of the underlying cause, the church has been given a mission to help in both cases.
However, there’s nothing in the scriptures that say in every case God will always heal us, and such a belief is dangerous on a number of fronts. We have examples where people prayed for healing and were denied by God the healing they sought. Elisha, a man of great faith, died of a prolonged illness.
Paul shows us the right attitude to have in praying for healing.
“because of the extraordinary character of the revelations. Therefore,[g] so that I would not become arrogant, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to trouble[h] me—so that I would not become arrogant.[i] 8 I asked the Lord three times about this, that it would depart from me. 9 But[j] he said to me, “My grace is enough[k] for you, for my[l] power is made perfect[m] in weakness.” So then, I will boast most gladly[n] about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in[o] me. 10 Therefore I am content with[p] weaknesses, with insults, with troubles, with persecutions and difficulties[q] for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12: 7-10
A humble, submissive attitude that acknowledges God’s omniscience and His authority is the only truly Christian attitude. If we are trying to command God to always heal us – rather than submitting to His will – we’re making self our god and we’ve left the Christian faith.
Paul explains that in our weaknesses God can often best be glorified and this would include things like mental and physical illness. Only God knows for sure which is best – to allow the person to remain ill or to heal them – and he will bring a blessing out of even the worst situations if He allows them to happen. I can personally testify of having a renewed appreciation for Christ and his sufferings on the cross after going into complete psychosis and feeling shut off from God and his conviction and then coming back to sanity with the aid of lithium.
Indeed we need sufferings. (more on this later)
The same Bible that testifies of the power to drive out demons and heal sickness being given to God’s church also makes us aware of our responsibility in caring for our physical temple, calling the acts of doing so our “reasonable worship.”
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
Romans 12:1
This means that if we’re not doing everything we can to be in the best health possible and we’re mistreating our bodies, eating junk food, or willfully engaging in other types of health-destroying practices, then we’re doing the opposite of worship. We have a Christian duty to study and implement health and make it a major part of our lifestyle for the rest of our lives. And the church should be teaching and instructing people in how to eat and live healthy lives. We can have cooking schools, and nutrition classes, and mental health lectures and fulfill our health mandate this way. Indeed in instructing people there are many blessings that happen that do not happen from miraculous healings, because the person learns to worship God through healthy living and leave behind sins of unhealthy living. In teaching and instructing in this area, we aid people in surrendering their character and will to God and come out of sinful practices, and this is the most important work of all: our sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6
It is therefore not faith to mistreat our body and then ask God to heal us. It’s disobedience. Of course, as fallen human beings (even after conversion), we’re prone to disobedience and this is a constant struggle. It takes surrender to Christ and power from Him to do the right thing when it goes against our fleshly desires, and we must commit to this battle. God’s ultimate goal is reaching the heart. He wants to heal the body fully and will give us new glorified bodies at His coming, but the big work that we need to be engaging in in this world is the heart change. We need new characters and through the sanctification process God will change us. We need to have a character that isn’t ok with mistreating our body and delights in treating it as valuable since Christ died for us.
If you’re thinking it’s not easy to deny the flesh and live as healthy as possible, to delight in the science of how our bodies work and commit to on-going learning and implementing what you learn as a way of life, when you may really want to pursue your own goals, and not take the time out to consistently study health, and especially if you’re bad at science, which I was when I first set out on this journey and it’s a real struggle for you to understand scientific concepts, you’re right. The truth is it’s not easy for anyone. But once we surrender to God’s molding we will develop a love for health and science that will add great joy and meaning to our lives. And the reason it’s not easy is because we are sinful and we need to change. We want health but we don’t want to have to put in the work and commitment it takes to be healthier. God will change you if you will let Him and submit to this process. The truth is most of us need to repent and change course in this area and we need to do so today and not wait. Counting the cost is important though. Definitely count the cost before you engage.
The Bible supports purely psychological causes of mental illness.
There are laws of right-doing and right-thinking that react on our physical being. The knowledge of doing and even speaking right, truthful words, has a healing reaction on our physical body, including our mood and mind.
The Bible teaches this truth that how we use our physical brain – what might be called purely mental things, or the closest thing to it, the thoughts we think, and whether we choose to cherish faith and hope in Christ or doubt and rebellion in our heart – influences our body and our physical brain. Hope and faith and truthfulness build up the physical brain and the physical body and create a balanced state of health. Doubt and guilt and sin and hate break us down both mentally and physically. How we use our physical brain with our agency and free to think and to will, affects us physically. The truth that the mind reacts on the body is Biblical truth, not just one doctors are becoming aware of and it did not originate with the scientific and medical professions, but with the law of cause and effect in our actual world. The scientific and medical worlds are merely discovering this same truth that God’s Word has taught His people for thousands of years.
A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!
Proverbs 15:23
A truthful and good answer actually produces joy in the heart of the person who gave it. I’ve experienced this writing this book, which has been a positive influence on my health. Conversely lying words or hateful words have a negative impact on a person’s health. Not just the one being verbally abused by the words, but also the one saying the words.
From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things, and the work of their hands brings them reward. Proverbs 12:14
From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled; with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied.
Proverbs 18:20
Both the work of our hands and the fruit of our lips bring reward and health to the body.
We also see from the scriptures that refusing to repent and remain in poor standing with God results in misery.
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
The immoral person who hasn’t repented and put their faith in Christ is not just immoral and selfish – this state of their heart and these choices they make result in misery and mental unhappiness. And then things often go even further and the state of their heart not only makes them feel mental depression but affects their physical body and their health often breaks down, or they develop fatigue issues, aches and pains and things like this. Sometimes even more severe symptoms like cancer or heart disease or autoimmune disease.
Recently I spent some time in a medical library and researched trauma, and it’s very well known in the medical community that not only does physical trauma bring on mental illness, but purely psychological trauma can bring on mental illness. I read about how men who had gone to war and experienced the trauma of war – it wasn’t necessary that they be physically injured for this to happen – would sometimes snap and start friendly firing at their fellow soldiers even when they’d gotten back from the battlefield and were safe. It reminded me of school shootings. Like the school shooters, this was a rare, but well-known phenomenon. It’s also known that grief can cause mental illness.
The Bible supports this concept as well.
So, while all mental illness has physical affects on the brain, this does not mean that the origin of the mental illness is physical. Purely psychological causes can be behind mental illness.
The good news is that we have some control over this. We can choose to repent and be saved and experience peace in Christ. We can choose to think hopeful thoughts that have their foundation in God’s goodness and his many promises to us. We can choose to be convicted and moved by His Holy Spirit to do justice and mercy in the world, to speak elevating truthful words, and the true and helpful words we speak will lift our mood and react on us in physically healthy ways.
There may be things outside of our control too. If we’re a child with an abusive parent, we may not be able to do anything about that. (Though society needs to crack down on abuse and develop better ways of determining that it is occurring – I think questionnaires at school and appointments with a school therapist would help abused kids open up about what is going on at home and then the school can get CPS involved). We can’t always control everything. The early church was persecuted and many of them were killed. In cases where we can’t control the situation and we’re suffering, we can know that God will bring good from bad. He will use the experience to grow our faith and help us understand more of His love and what he went through on Calvary for our salvation.
It is a sin to doubt God. Why is this? Because God is good. He is perfect goodness, and our lives in this world testify to that fact. He causes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on both the just and the unjust, He has infinite and impartial love, dying for us while we were still enemies with God in order to forgive us and reconcile us to Himself. Hypothetically (because this scenario does not exist in real life) If God were not good, then it would not be a sin to doubt Him. It’s certainly not a sin to doubt people who have let us down such as abusers and selfish people in our lives. It’s not wrong to call people’s actions what they are, evil, if the person has done wrong and evil in their lives (but also to be aware of our own sins and not use their sin as a way to feel we are righteous on our own without Christ). So the reason these attitudes of doubt or hate or indifference towards God are wrong is because He is so just and merciful and good.
Our attitude towards God and our choices involving Him, such as not choosing to repent of sin and believe in Him and instead serving self, carrying the guilt of our past sins, can lead to mental depression, anxiety, mood swings, and even physical illnesses like cancer, heart disease, or autoimmune disorders and symptoms. How we use our mind, a concept known as mental stewardship, or management of our thought life, can bring on not only feelings of guilt and discontent and dissatisfaction, but even full mental illnesses like depression, or generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, etc. This is known in the medical world now. That the mind is very strong in its ability to affect the body. One condition that really highlights just how powerfully the mind can affect the body is something called placebo effect. Placebo affect is the reason scientific studies need to be double blind studies and have two groups of people – those who are given the medication and those who are given sugar pills- and no one is told which group they are in. The mind is so powerful that if someone thinks they have started a medication that is going to help them, their body can mimic the healing effects of the medication and make the symptoms of their illness or underlying condition lessen or disappear entirely, and this happens frequently enough that this effect has to be factored into all scientific studies or the data will be wrong and distorted if it isn’t taken into account.
There’s even a condition, pseudocyesis, where a woman perceives herself to be pregnant, and develops many or all of the signs of pregnancy, short of having an actual baby in her, but she actually isn’t pregnant. Her belief that she is pregnant causes her body to go through real physical changes that closely mimic the actual bodily changes of pregnancy.
Mrs. White speaks of this concept and says the thoughts we think send electrical signals through the whole system, and if these thoughts are negative and imbalanced, it can bring on a state of inflammation and disease to the whole system. Sometimes it’s poor mental stewardship that brings on illness, but other times the damaging effects of lies that we don’t know are lies can bring on illness, in innocent people. Mrs. White speaks of people losing their sanity because they believed hell burned people forever. These were good Christian people, but lies are damaging, especially ones about God’s character, and have very real negative effects.
A very real challenge that mentally ill Christians who are following God run into is that they may get blamed by other Christians for giving themselves depression or anxiety disorders. One big reason for this is that it’s just not as widely known that poor thought stewardship – harboring doubt and other negative attitudes – cause things like heart disease, and cancer, and autoimmune illness, as it is known that poor thought stewardship causes mental symptoms like depression and anxiety and psychological unrest.
It’s far more common for a Christian to accuse another Christian of lack of faith who has depression or anxiety than it is for that same Christian to accuse someone with diabetes of harboring doubt and disbelief in God. The diabetic is generally thought to be innocent and there’s a higher percentage of Christians who may see the person with chronic depression as guilty. But in reality doubt or rebellion against God can cause both of these conditions. And both of these conditions can also be caused by purely physical causes also. And then some people have both things going on – harboring an attitude of doubt or rebellion, and also perhaps they have a poor diet that weakens immunity, or maybe they were abused growing up which weakened their immune system and brought on sickness, or perhaps they were bit by a tick and contracted Lyme disease which tanked their immune system and brought on depression or disease. There can be multiple factors that bring on a state of mental or physical illness, some may be in the person’s control and others may not be.
The mind can react on the body and the body can react on the mind. It goes both ways. And we should never accuse anyone – this is the work of Satan and people he tempts to engage in his work. As Christians it’s important we seek God for strength to not share in Satan’s work. However, not everyone who brings up this issue is accusatory. There are many concerned Christians who endeavor to encourage one another to harbor faith and trust in God, and their counsel comes from a good place. They can still sometimes be wrong about an individual and may need to get informed about the power of the body to affect the mind, which is not as well known as the power of the thoughts to affect the mental state. They may not realize depression isn’t always purely mental in nature. It’s common for those with Lyme disease – a purely physical infection brought on by a tick bite – to have mental depression. Mrs. White is very helpful in explaining that anything that makes the blood sluggish can bring on a state of mental depression, and that even over-eating for a meal or two can push the person into a temporary depression that is relieved once they learn and practice healthier eating habits. Even things like not going outside often enough to get fresh air, and not having ones limbs adequately clothed can bring on a state of sluggish movement in the blood and bring on a state of mental depression.
It’s important we don’t make the mistake the disciples made when they asked Jesus who had sinned, the blind man, or his parents, that resulted in his blindness, the same mistake Job’s friends made when they jumped to the conclusion that Job had sinned when they saw he fell on hard times in every way, including losing his physical health. In both these cases sin wasn’t the cause of the blindness or Job’s chronic illness.
So sin may not be behind it, and jumping to conclusions based on whether the person is mentally ill, without asking them about their physical and mental health history can lead to errors. However, since we’re all prone to sinning in lifestyle habits, it is actually far more often that we do have some sin behind why we’re sick and even if we haven’t lost our health there’s usually some health-destroying lifestyle errors we’re all making that are keeping us from better health. I don’t believe we’ll be perfect in our lifestyle practices until our character is perfect, and so learning to be healthier and healthier and overcome more and more sin in the area of lifestyle and diet is a part of the sanctification process. So it’s ok to talk to people about areas they may need to improve if you are a health coach or just encouraging someone from church. Remember to include yourself too. There’s things you’re doing wrong you can improve on. Don’t let the person get the idea that you think you’re perfect and perfectly sanctified and that you have an air of self-righteousness rather than humility. You both need Christ and for Him to sanctify both of you.
What’s not ok though is to try to manage their health or their lives for them. We are to be encouragers and supporters, but not micromanagers. At the end of the day whether this person needs to make certain changes in their thought life or eating habits is between them and God, and not knowing their hearts we really can’t accurately diagnose their condition from a spiritual perspective and it’s not our place to do this. We may think we see sin in them and be wrong. God won’t tell us everything about them. He will however convict that person about their sin. So there’s huge gaps in our understanding about them, things that are known to them and God alone, and it’s important to respect those boundaries and that personal relationship they hold with God.
It’s not right for someone from church to repeatedly accuse someone of sin, and refuse to back off and let them be their own person and managers of their own lives. You can certainly share your concern with them if you think you see them doing something dangerous such as doubting God, or engaging in a health destroying lifestyle practice, but once you’ve expressed your concern and endeavored to give them support and help, it’s not your place to bring up this subject over and over again and lord things over them. After you have mentioned your concern several times, at that point it’s their choice what to do, and God respects their free will. Even God will not force them and so it’s important we don’t do it either. Force is a principle of Satan’s kingdom, not God’s. Back off at that point and witness by example. Endeavor to learn health practices yourself and abide by them and let the person see the benefits of health and getting right with God in your own life. Win them over without words by your godly witness as Paul says wives are to do with husbands who aren’t open to hearing about Christianity verbally.