Someone emailed recently, “I'd love to hear your opinion on using Traditional Chinese Medicine. I was once a big fan, but now question if it's ok to do. I know that it's a very old and effective discipline (including their herbal medicine), but is it perhaps pagan?”
Let's unpack its pieces.
Herbs/supplements
If God made all the herbs that are found in nature, then it stands to reason that He would intend for us to discover their healing powers (just like with essential oils). In His future millennial kingdom leaves will be used for the healing of the nations (not for the Bride of Christ, who is already in her 1,000-year eternal body at that point and can't be sick or injured), but for those of the saved/redeemed Jewish nation and Gentile believers who survive the Tribulation and the Judgment of the Nations (the Sheep and Goat's judgement) who walk across into the new earth.
I think where Chinese medicine gets off is when they have you taking supplements of things that God never intended to put into our bodies – possibly like ingredients from wasp's nests, ground oyster shells, etc. —one of which a natural healthcare provider had me take decades ago and I thought I'd die, until I read the ingredients and stopped taking it.
Yin/yang
I think there is no basis for the “yin and yang” concepts of dualism and complementarity in Chinese philosophy, cosmology, traditional medicine, etc., opposing “yin” (for lunar, feminine, passive, cool) with “yang” (for solar, masculine, active, warm). The ideas of “fire, heat, coolness” zones, etc. must be pandered to in specific diet recommendations, teas, etc. There is only one spirit in the believer's body: the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the rest of those theories is manmade (perhaps originally propagated by Confucius and his ilk). Who made them experts on the body, and why isn’t there a raft of scientific studies from all manner of places verifying its legitimacy? Where are the laboratory tested mechanisms to prove that such living dynamics operate within the body? Infra-red healing light, magnets and ion production are all healing modalities one can employ from outside the body, that influence the entire body, not imagined floating, undulating systems within the body. Circulation? Yes. Lymph? Yes. Hormones? Yes. But are there really the “fire/cool” “yin-yang” dynamics and all the other names they’ve given it?
Acupuncture
This is third modality that is typical of Eastern natural medicine. Perhaps there is something to it? (My “court” is still out on that one.) It makes sense to re-trigger an old injury to wake up the brain to reapply itself to that region, but having needles stuck into your body seems rather brutal. I wouldn't consider it a sin (much like banging your head against a wall isn't a sin, if it takes your mind off your lesser pain in your ankle; or having a painful operation to remove a permanently diseased part of one’s body). Perhaps the use of a Rife frequency generator machine, and other technologies for applying electrical current to the body from the outside would tend to be better options, and might accomplish the same thing, better, since that stimulates all the body's cells, blood, etc. (Disclaimer: it is always a good recommendation before using any of these healing modalities to do one’s own personal study and seek medical advice.) When a person is in excruciating chronic pain, our sympathy goes out to them to do whatever they can in the hopes of mitigating it.
Essential oils
The targeted use of a great variety of plant-based essential oils is a fourth common modality nowadays, often used with excellent results. I believe God put healing properties in them and I use them almost daily, but I draw the line when an essential oils company has extraterrestrial goals to tap into the spiritual realm by adding spiritual nuances to the naming of them – labeling them things like abundance, attraction, gratefulness and passion. I regard all that as part of an advertising strategy to re-package and market plain old essential oils in new combinations, with a profit motive.
Further reading for wellness for you and your family
One modality we would highly recommend to anyone is to investigate shifting you and your family to eating plant-based whole foods. We have spent hundreds of hours researching, studying and compiling what we think may be the best single short compendium of tips for giving your family Turbo-Charged Nutrition for Peak Performance Kids and we think you will be glad to have purchased that title, now available in a handy 132-page paperback book, a 71-page e-Book, and a Kindle reader book. It includes over 80 simple, easily made, great-tasting recipes and the results of many nutritional experts’ examination of thousands of clinical studies of millions of people around the globe.
