Some Thoughts on the Health Care Debate

There are numerous elements in the current health care debate that should be alarming to the American citizen.  They concern not only what is said, but what is not said.  Some ‘facts’ are disseminated that are challenged as downright lies.  Economic predictions are made that could be predicated on false ‘models.’  Most of the ‘data’ is open to varied interpretations.  Some vital studies are undoubtedly hidden from view if perceived to be unfavorable to one political side or the other.  The result is that the ‘Wages of Spin’ (to use Carl Trueman’s phrase) could be extremely costly.

The issue that most troubles  my soul  is the degree to which the debate is being waged from a philosophy of ‘secularism.’  Secularism is understood as the belief that this world is all there is.  This life ‘under the sun,’ to use Solomon’s phrase, is the only life that exists.  There is no other invisible, spiritual world, and then by inference, no window by which to see into that world.  When this worldview is adopted, “God is in none of their thoughts.”  Only what is seen with natural eyes is real.

 But it is not only God that is in none of their thoughts.  I would contend that man is also not in their thoughts.  Secularism is standing in opposition to the Christian revelation of man’s identity.  The Christian understands that there are two constituent elements in man – a perishable body and an immortal soul.  But to those who make decisions from the secularist viewpoint, the health of this bodily life is all that needs to be considered.  The soul, if it exists, will die with the body.  After all, no one can see a soul. 

The One Who was sent by God the Father - sent from that place that secularists refuse to acknowledge – and sent to this earth, this One taught that the body is only the temporary home of the soul which, although created, will never cease to exist.  In terms of intrinsic value, the worth of the soul greatly outweighs the worth of the body.  Yet we spend most of our care in this life giving honor and preferment to the outward house rather than its inward resident. 

The soul is immortal. The earthly body is temporary.  The soul will be able to sensibly feel stimulus for eternal eons.  Jesus asked with the plainest, inescapable logic “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?”  The answer, of course, is a tragic “nothing at all.  All would be lost.”   

Think for a moment.  Nothing can kill the human soul.  The combined arsenals of all this world’s armies do not have the power to put one human soul to death.  Death can not kill the soul.  God will not kill the soul.  Again we hear Jesus’ admonition, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mat 10:28).  Jesus’ point is “Fear God alone because of His right to assign the final disposition to your soul.” 

Don’t misunderstand.  I am not saying that the body is evil, that we should not be concerned for the physical needs of the suffering, or that the body should not be diligently cared for.  It is important enough that in God’s eternal plan at some future day every body will be changed at the final resurrection.  The bodies of men will be reunited with their souls to live together forever.   

But the health care debate would fade in significance if men were truly concerned about the condition of their souls more than the necessarily fading health of their bodies.  The body is only the body.  In its present form it is a temporary vessel which houses the human soul. 

Suppose the wager was presented to the secularist in these terms: “Which would present the greatest risk for loss,  

“To live as though the health of my physical human body is the only thing important (because there is no immortal soul) and then find out that my soul lives on, and its moral condition is really all that matters?”

 “Or, to live in a manner that, believing every person possesses an immortal soul, I have been concerned to care for its moral condition as the most important issue of life, only to find that I was mistaken because I ceased to exist when my physical body died?”

When Jesus asked His famous question, “What will it profit a man…?” He took for granted that every person inherently understands the necessity of health for his immortal soul. 

In America we have made an idol of physical health and beauty at the expense of neglecting the welfare of our souls.  When we engage in idolatry, God lets us experience the fruit of our false worship.  We have become like what we worship and live as though men and women are “soul-less” and not fully human.  Such a secular existence becomes empty – like a well insured house with no one home.