How To Resolve 7 Deadly Stresses: A Health Manual for All Nations. Oak Brook, Illinois: Institute in Basic Life Principles, 2008.
Carefully reading and then applying the principles in this book would prevent a great deal of disease and even bring healing to those already afflicted with major illnesses.
The inside title page adds, and Discover Five Causes off all Diseases, which might seem to be an arrogant claim, but is supported by a great deal of evidence, both from science and from the Bible. Though the author is not named, Bill Gothard’s fingerprints appear on almost every page.
The book begins with a definition of “total health”” not perfect health, but “the ability to fulfill the purposes for which God created you.” We are told that “total health involves a restored relationship with God and the accompanying signs of joy, freedom, and inward peace.”
Next comes a series of chapters on the five factors that determine health, which are: what we think; what we say; what we do; what we eat; what we inherit. Each of these then receives detailed treatment, with a description of how they affect our physical health and how they can be adjusted to foster physical and mental well-being.
“The disease crisis of modern medicine” is that we rely too much on drugs, all of which have toxic side effects. Covering symptoms with unnecessary pharmaceutical intake, we set ourselves up on a “course of increasing drugs and diseases.”
After an explanation of the harmful effects of stress on the body, we read in the body of the work how to “resolve” the seven major stressors in life: anger, guilt, sexual lust, bitterness, greed, fear, and envy.
More specifically, the writers claim that anger affects the cardiovascular system; guilt affects the nervous system; lust affects the endocrine system; bitterness the digestive system, greed the immune system, fear the respiratory system, and envy the musculoskeletal system.
Extensive references to medical literature back these diagnoses, which were apparently contributed by C. Stephen Paine Jr., M.D., who is thanked for his extensive role in the production of book.
Fundamentally, however, the starting point for each analysis is the Bible, which turns out to contain far more specific references to the relationship of mind and body than most of us would think.
At the beginning of each chapter on the various stressors, we learn how we try to hide or deny their presence in our lives. “I am not bitter… I am just deeply hurt.” On the other side of the page are ways in which we reveal express what would otherwise remain hidden. Bitterness, for example, may come out as “harsh, vitriolic speech, being very easily offended, being extremely judgmental, hard facial features,” and other manifestations of a festering wound.
After diagnosis comes a prescription for healing, based on the Bible and illustrated by vignettes of people who have found freedom by carrying out biblical instructions.
I was amazed at just how intensely practical information was packed into this slender volume, and how much wisdom is contained in a very brief compass. The reader will find step-by-step guidelines on how to “have a courageous conversation” and “how to transform lust into the dynamic of genuine love,” for example.
Some of the aphorisms bear careful pondering:
“To love someone is to understand him.” “One of the greatest gifts we can give a neighbor is a listening heart.” “It is not wrong to desire greatness. It is wrong to strive for it in our own way.” “The truest test of being a servant is how we respond when we are treated like one!” “Love is not an emotion but a choice we make based on God’s will. “Love can always wait to give. However, lust can never wait to get.”
Because of my profound admiration for the value of this beautifully-produced, lavishly-illustrated guidebook to health, I hesitate to make any criticisms. No human production is perfect, however, and How to Resolve 7 Deadly Stresses has a few that should be mentioned.
Though in general I found the interpretation of the Bible adequate, a few sections seemed to stretch the original intent of the biblical passage quoted. “Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) probably means that we are to evince kindness to all sorts of people, even those who are unlovely. Instead, it is somehow made to support the otherwise helpful concept that we should be sincere and enthusiastic in the way we greet people!
Indeed, one of the main criticisms leveled against Gothard over the past several decades has been his propensity for forced interpretations of the Bible. Perhaps he would benefit from more input from biblical scholars.
Some will be turned off by another of Gothard’s trademarks: A “simple recipe” approach to resolving complex and sometimes chronic problems. One could get the impression that it’s just a matter of going through a checklist of recommended activities, and everything will be fine. For some reason, this doesn’t bother me, perhaps because I think there is the principles are so true, and most of the application of them so helpful, that a great deal of benefit really would come from following the author’s advice.
More difficult for me to understand were the ways in which a biblical principle is linked with a “resulting quality.” “Go the Second Mile” will produce deference; “Observe Communion” (the Lord’s Supper) will result in thoroughness. And so forth. I found this to be the only really jarring feature of an what is basically an extremely helpful treatise on total health.
Overall, however, I would strongly recommend How to Resolve 7 Deadly Stresses. It deserves repeated and thoughtful reading, and forms a good complement to my The Lord’s Healing Words, available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and AuthorHouse.
You may obtain this book from the Institute of Basic Life Principles http://store.iblp.org/products/rsds/.
G. Wright Doyle
August 24, 2008 at 3:29 am |
Dear Wright,
I was extremely impressed with your review of the book, How to Resolve Seven Deadly Stresses and I was challenged by your comments about the original intent of the passage, “be ye perfect even as your heavenly father is perfect.” You are correct in noting that we are to “evince kindness to all sorts of people, even to those who are unlovely.” However, Jesus focuses on the greeting as a practical beginning to communicate such kindness.
When I understood the meaning of this application, it transformed my approach to other people and has opened amazing doors to share the gospel. So here is my further commentary on this interpretation.
Through Christ Our Lord,
Bill Gothard
Why do People Reject Us?
Have you ever met someone for the first time and sensed their immediate rejection of you? It is a painful experience. Then when we try to share with them the Gospel, they want nothing to do with us or with what we have to say with them. The answer to this problem is very clear and simple. They rejected us because we first rejected them!
But we may ask, when did we reject them? The answer is the instant that we made eye contact with them. When a person first sees us looking at them, they will have an immediate perception of our attitude toward them. If they see no smile but only a blank stare, they will assume that we are looking down on them and rejecting them.
The problem is compounded because most people reject themselves, and therefore they just assume that we people also reject them. The only answer is to have a bright, warm, enthusiastic smile of acceptance toward everyone with whom we make eye contact.
Think for a moment of how you respond when you happen to meet a close friend that you have not seen for a long time. Your eyes brighten up, you give them a big loving smile, and your spirit of joy is instantly communicated to them.
Jesus declares that if we only give this kind of greeting to our friend, we are no better than the self righteous publicans of His day, because they did the same thing. If we want to be “perfect” like our Heavenly Father, then we must greet everyone we meet with the same warm enthusiastic greeting because, God “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45,48)
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:44-48)
The Greek word that Jesus uses in this command to salute others is aspazomai. It literally means to “enfold another person in the arms of our heart”. It has deep roots of genuine love and affections. Paul told the believers in Rome to “Salute one another with an holy kiss.” (Romans 16:16) This is customary in some cultures, but whether or not it is in your culture, we must all be ready to carry out a loving greeting from our heart.
This command has many applications of doing good deeds to our enemy but it singles out the matter of greeting as a starting point. Imagine the response if every believer embraced everyone they met with a loving joyful and enthusiastic smile. It would revolutionize our lives and the lives of all those whom we salute! We would not have to design clever ways to attract their interest in the Gospel. Instead, they would ask us a reason for the hope that we have within us.
August 24, 2008 at 7:11 pm |
Dear Mr. Gothard,
Thank you for your thoughtful and gracious response to my review of your superb book, How to Resolve 7 Deadly Stresses.
I have posted your comment because I think it will help people understand what you were trying to say and correct the impression I may have given that “greeting” has nothing to do with the original context of the passage. You are absolutely right to make greeting part of the application of Jesus’s teaching.
I attended your Institute in Basic Youth conflicts in Philadelphia in 1975, just before going overseas as a missionary for the first time. Your teachings revolutionized my life, and I have been applying them and sharing them with others ever since. I remain very grateful for your worldwide ministry.
Wright