Objection: As Many Doctors Can Tell You, Many People Make Themselves Sick – It Has Nothing to Do with the Devil
This is true, but it does not negate the fact that the devil is still the ultimate author of sickness. I knew a Christian smoker who died of cancer. If you violate certain natural laws, you will make yourself sick and have yourself to thank for your condition. If you do not keep your flesh under (i.e., you let your temple of the Holy Ghost turn into a cathedral of the Holy Ghost), you can suffer natural consequences from being obese. You can make yourself sick. Many Christians do unhealthy things. But this does not negate the fact that healing is available to everyone. In some cases, there may be physical things you need to change (such as your diet) to stop the problems from recurring. You are warned in Proverbs not to eat too many sweets so that you don’t make yourself sick (Proverbs 25:16). Believing in healing can coexist with believing in common sense. You don’t leave your brains at the altar when you get saved! But there is mercy for everyone in God’s kingdom. You can bet that Jesus laid hands on more than a few obese people in the crowds and healed them even if their illnesses were self-inflicted (Psalm 107:17-20).
Other sicknesses are caused by sins that are not explicitly physical, like worrying. Yes, worry is a sin because God says not to do it. This is true even though worry is a socially acceptable sin. Preachers who commit adultery make the tabloids, but preachers who worry don’t. (When was the last time you saw a headline, “Famous Evangelist’s Dirty Secret Out: He Worries about His Finances?”) Yet worry is just as much a sin as adultery is, and you can get sick from either one!
It is not the devil’s fault if you make yourself sick by worrying or harboring bitterness or jealousy. It is your fault. Sin is always your fault because it is your choice. The Bible does teach that you can make yourself sick. For example, jealousy causes rottenness of the bones (Proverbs 14:30).
On the other hand, plenty of sicknesses are not caused by poor stewardship of your body or moral failure. Colds do not indicate moral weaknesses! Job was righteous, but the devil made him sick. Jesus said that a woman whom Satan had bound for 18 years ought to be healed (Luke 13:16). Jesus healed all who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38). Because the New Testament describes sickness as bondage to the devil and oppression of the devil (literally, being under the power of the devil – see Notes on Acts 10:38), we should agree with that.
If I were to put a rock on the accelerator of my car and let it crash into your house, I’ll bet you wouldn’t say this: “I’m not mad at Steve for ruining my house, because it was the car that did it. I’m mad at the car, not Steve.” Yet that is exactly what you are doing when you say, “I don’t blame the devil for my sickness. It’s just a virus that’s going around.” Yes, the virus may be the immediate cause, but that virus was invented by the devil to make people sick. It was not part of God’s original creation, which He declared good. (There’s another objection reply devoted to that topic, in case you have any doubts about that.)
Power over sickness and disease in the New Testament has always gone along with power over the devil. We shall cast out demons and lay hands on the sick. Jesus gave His disciples power over all sickness and over all demons (Matthew 10:1, Mark 3:14-15, Luke 9:1-2, Luke 10:19). This power is over two different aspects of the work of the same devil, who is out to steal, kill and destroy.
In conclusion, the New Testament is quite clear that sickness is the work of the devil. To say otherwise, you would have to question the authority of Scripture, which is beyond this book’s scope. (I am happy to answer any objections on Scriptural grounds, but you will have to argue with someone else if you do not believe that the Bible is true.)