Taking Countermeasures Against Swine Flu

Governments around the world are scrambling to take countermeasures against the spread of Swine Flu. These measures include restricting travel, distributing vaccines, and alerting the public.

What countermeasures can individuals take to protect the health of ourselves and society?

Jesus gave us many proofs that we can rely on the spiritual power that God bestows on man to defend ourselves and others from diseases of all kinds. The Gospels tell us of one instance when a father asked Jesus to heal his son that appeared to be suffering from what today might have been diagnosed as epilepsy. The Bible tells us that Jesus “rebuked” the evil and the boy was cured. A rebuke is a sharp reprimand or censure. Jesus was telling the disease that it had no place in or power over the man of God’s creating.

Mary Baker Eddy, a Christian healer, found that we too can bring healing by following Jesus’ example of firmly rebuking what has no legitimate part of God’s creation. She wrote in her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Insist vehemently on the great fact which covers the whole ground, that God, Spirit, is all, and that there is none beside Him”. Speaking of disease as “error” she wrote “When error confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or the explanation which destroys error.”

This insistence or rebuke is not mere human will or wishful thinking. Our insistence is based on the truth presented in the Bible that God “created man in his own likeness”, gave man “dominion over all the earth”, and saw that everything that He made was “very good” (Genesis). This insistent rebuke is also based on the assurance given us by God through Moses in the Commandment that we need have “no other gods”. We also know that God wouldn’t purposely inflict disease on His creation, because the Bible tells us that “God is love” (John).

We can’t simply go through the motions of rebuking swine flu or other diseases. Eddy makes it clear that we have to understand what we’re talking about. She stated “be thoroughly persuaded in your own mind concerning the truth which you think or speak, and you will be the victor”. We can gain this understanding by studying the truth about man as presented in the Bible (if you don't know how to study the Bible, click here for a good tool). Eddy’s book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is also a good tool for understanding these Bible truths about man.

Every time we hear a news report about the threat of contagious disease, let’s do our part as citizens of the world to control and eliminate this threat by consciously rebuking the claim that there is a power besides God and insisting vehemently on the truth that God is lovingly caring for His creation.