That the ministry of a physician is spiritual as well as physical has long been recognized. In A.D. 374 or A.D. 375, Basil, the great, wrote a letter to Eustathius, the physician, in which he said:
"Humanity is the regular business of all who practice as physicians. ... In your own case medicine is seen as it were with two right hands. You enlarge the accepted limits of philosophy by not confining the application of your skill to men's bodies but by attending also to the cure of the diseases of their souls. I am moved by the personal experience which I have had on many occasions and to a remarkable degree at the present time, in the midst of the unspeakable wickedness of our enemies, which has flooded our life like a noxious torrent. You have most skillfully dispersed it and by pouring in your soothing words have allayed the inflammation of my heart."
Naturally a physician is a man of science, and many scientists feel that religion is not in their sphere. However, true analysis reveals that a medical man cannot ignore things spiritual.
All conclusions made regarding scientific facts are dependent upon the philosophy brought to the observation of those facts. Believing that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, including man, and that in Him we live and move and have our being, in the study of science we cannot ignore the God of science and be consistent.
"The mechanism of the human body cannot be fully understood; it presents mysteries that baffle the most intelligent. It is not as the result of a mechanism, which, once set in motion, continues its work, that the pulse beats and breath follows breath. In God we live and move and have our being. Every breath, every throb of the heart is a continual evidence of the power of an ever-present God." Testimonies, vol. 8, p. 260.
In dealing with the human body, then, the physician is in touch with the vital force of the universe in its highest physical manifestation. Every time he listens to the heart beat with a stethoscope he listens to the throbbing, pulsating power of God in a human life. As he checks the nervous system and follows the electric currents of energy through the body, he follows nothing more or less than the path of the power and life of God. As he deals with that system and with the organs of sight and hearing, he deals with the avenues to the soul, the only means by which God communicates with man.
Every time the obstetrician ushers into the world a newborn babe he ushers in another manifestation of creation, the mystery of a new life. The physician, then, who ignores the spiritual is only a physio-psycho-mechanic who tinkers with wires and fixtures without any main contact. But the physician who appreciates things spiritual can walk with God as few others can.
A spiritual ministry is called for on the part of the physician not only in the nature of true science but also in the nature of man. When God created man, He formed him "of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Gen. 2:7. Man became a living soul. He did not receive one. Souls and bodies are not separate entities.
To be understood, man must be studied as a dynamic whole. One cannot understand the whole by simply analyzing parts, because the whole is more than, and something different from, the sum of its parts. There are a number of sciences related to the study of man physiology, psychology, sociology, anthropology which deal with artificially separated single aspects of the human organism. But the person as a whole has attributes which are neither the sum of the attributes of the parts nor deductible from the attributes of the parts. Therefore, we can never understand the total person from segmental study.
Since religion deals with meanings, values, and relationships, and these definitely deal with the emotions, and the emotions play an important part in the physiology of man, it is obvious that the nature of man calls for an understanding of things spiritual.
The very nature and objectives of the practice of medicine call for a spiritual ministry. All who have experienced the futility of the best medical skill to bring healing to patients with ulcers of the stomach, ulcerative colitis, arthritis, etc., without dealing with their emotions and their philosophy of life, can testify to the truth of the fact that the physician must be a spiritual minister.
Then, too, we have the example of Jesus Christ the Great Physician. He made every instance of healing an occasion for implanting divine principles in the mind and soul.
A spiritual ministry on the part of a physician, then, is called for in the nature of true science, in the nature of man, in the very nature and objectives of the medical profession, in the example of Jesus Christ, the Master Physician, and in God's plan of work for today.
"Physical healing is bound up with the gospel commission. In the work of the gospel, teaching and healing are never to be separated." —Ministry of Healing, p. 141.
