...the Bible
tells me so:
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2nd & Wallace
church of Christ

201 W. Wallace
P.O. Box 501
San Saba, TX  76877

Articles by

Rocky Whitely

 

“The Sealy [TX] News” August 30, 2002

...the Bible tells me so:

“Unclean! Unclean!”

Rocky Whitely, preacher

Warning: the following article may
be too explicit for some readers.

Matthew described the marvelous ministry of Jesus, simply,

“News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and He healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed Him.” (Matthew 4:24-25 NIV)

The very first healing story in Matthew’s Gospel comes after the “Sermon on the Mount.” “A man with leprosy came and knelt before Him and said, ‘Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean’” (8:2).

Two amazing facts stand out in this story. First, how did the leper know that Jesus could heal him? After all, from what Matthew said, leprosy was not in the list of miraculous healings that Jesus did. Second, Leviticus 13 makes very clear where lepers stood, literally, in relation to the rest of Israel. In fact, every leper was commanded to do as Moses said,

“The person with such an infectious disease [that is, leprosy] must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.” (Leviticus 13:45-46)

How many of you are saying, “How humiliating! Such discrimination!”?

Matthew concluded the healing in this way,

“Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ He said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, ‘See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’” (Matthew 8:3-4; see Leviticus 14:1-32)

In 1963, S. I. McMillen, a medical doctor, wrote “None of These Diseases,” a title based on Exodus 15:26 and Deuteronomy 7:15. He explored the rationale behind so many of the commands of God for ritual cleanness and purity.

What he discovered was phenomenal! Ancient Israel, while not knowing the medicinal value of personal hygiene and quarantine, benefited from those practices. It took four thousand years for the medical community to catch up. Read Leviticus 11-15 and 17-19.

How did Moses know, unless God told him? Even though leprosy in ancient Israel was a generic term for any contagious or fatal skin condition, the obedience of God’s people stopped the spread of infectious diseases. Only a few hundred years ago did medical doctors discover that quarantining the sick stayed plagues. When they began doing something as simple as washing their hands, mothers giving birth lived to raise their newborns.

In the first half of the twentieth century, quarantine was standard practice for such contagious diseases as small pox and tuberculosis. Even today, families isolate their children who come down with chicken pox.

However, “Unclean! Unclean!” is politically incorrect in the face of two epidemics threatening to destroy America: HIV (with its full-blown counterpart, AIDS) and herpes. HIV is treated as a political issue; herpes, as a social issue. Many consider quarantining such infected people as humiliating and discriminatory.

While our country is spending billions of tax dollars to find a cure and a vaccine for HIV, it is not enough. The non-straight community clamors for more, including public acceptance of their ungodly lifestyle (see Genesis 19:1-11).

How long would it take to end HIV in the world, if our homosexual friends would practice abstinence and if every HIV-positive individual were quarantined? To suggest quarantine brings out screams of discrimination. Yet, if we had treated HIV as a public health issue instead of a political issue, we would have stopped the threatened epidemic immediately.

We discriminate all the time. Our constitution promotes age discrimination. No one under the age of thirty-five may serve as President of the United States. The framers of the Constitution were very wise.

Consider alcohol and tobacco laws, and driver’s license laws, they discriminate. However, they are treated as public health issues.

Blood and organ donation policies discriminate. No one with a blood disorder, cancer or a contagious disease may donate. As a recipient of blood products, I personally thank God for that! It is a matter of public health.

The floodgates are about to open. You will soon learn about criminal charges filed and civil lawsuits against HIV-positive people who neglect to tell their partners of their deadly condition. They, then, are one more kind of sexual predator, indiscriminately infecting unsuspecting victims. And, there is no cure.

I was shocked to learn what the Federal Government’s “Center for Disease Control: Division of Sexually Transmitted Diseases [STDs]” web-site contains. It states that forty-five million Americans over the age of twelve have herpes simplex virus type 2. That is one out of every five adolescents and adults. Only two of the seven causes listed have anything to do with the spread of herpes. They are “illicit drug use” and the very euphemistic “living in communities with a high prevalence of STDs.”

I am very sorry that you had to “live with” a President of the United States who said that oral sex is not sex. I am very sorry that many of you now live with the consequences of herpes. There is no cure. Maybe you should send the former president your medical bills for reimbursement or as a “thank you” for his great moral stature.

Should he be in prison now? I don’t know, although he “raped” the youth of America by proudly trafficking the Presidential Seal for a thong. “Boxers or briefs,” who really cares anymore? History has recorded his legacy.

Boys and girls, if you never want to contract herpes, either orally or otherwise, keep your clothes on and your private parts private. Recognize that virginity is a virtue and that monogamous marriage is God’s way for satisfying sexual desires. I know that this is radical, even for Sealy, Texas.

Someone once said, “The Bible is irrelevant, out-dated, and behind the times.” How many of our children must die in the throes of modernism? Instead, we can live a long, long time. Of God’s wisdom, Solomon wrote, “For through me your days will be many, and years will be added to your life” (Proverbs 9:11; see 3:2; 4:10).

Doctor-assisted suicide will be a moot point soon enough. We are slowly killing ourselves with sensual pleasure. I am very sad.

 

...the Bible
tells me so:
Index

2nd & Wallace
church of Christ

201 W. Wallace
P.O. Box 501
San Saba, TX  76877

Articles by

Rocky Whitely