The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy
the devil’s work.
1John 3:8

Let’s be Realistic
Ralph D. Winter

Many honest souls, both on the mission field and also in our secularized world, are not dramatically impressed by a God that cannot be bothered to conquer and exterminate the evil bugs that cause disease, but can mainly only offer a ticket to heaven. Declaring war on disease may be the only way to restore the full power of true evangelism.

Why? It may readily be that young people on the mission field (and here at home) will grow up and ask the embarrassing question, “Why don’t Christians have a theology for attacking the very roots of disease?” Why merely give intravenous liquids to babies dying from dysentery without dealing with a contaminated water supply? Why deal with water contamination and not concern ourselves with eradicating the pathogens that constitute the contamination?

Why, NOW THAT WE KNOW WHAT TO DO are we not doing it, in the Name of Christ?

Oh God, when will we be as involved in glorifying Your Name as we are in attracting people to eternal life? How can we go on believing that all the pestilence and disease and suffering in the world “is exactly the way God wants it to be,” as some have told me. Is Your reputation at risk as long as Your people pay relatively little attention to “destroying the works of the devil” (I Jn 3:8)? Can we launch an even more powerful form of evangelism if we actively identify with Your concern for banishing diabolic pathogens?

Satan triumphs when there is a lack of awareness of his presence, of his deeds. His greatest achievement, according to my pastor, “is to cover his tracks.” He has apparently done that so successfully that, to my knowledge, no pastor, no TV evangelist, no theologian has ever spoken of the need for believers declaring a global war against Satanically devised disease pathogens. Missionaries have been outstanding in the conquest of leprosy—partly because the Bible happens to mention it by name. But malaria, which is ten thousand times worse?

I can’t, you can’t, no one can solve such problems overnight, or perhaps even before the return of Christ. But what if, in the meantime, God’s reputation is at stake in the absence of our publicly declaring His concern and identifying with that concern to conquer and actually eradicate evil parasites and bacteria and viruses in His Name?