“Health and wholeness have meaning only within the perspective of God’s eternal person and is not an end in itself.

“Doctors should strike to provide optimal conditions for the patient’s spiritual growth at every stage in the life cycle. This means curing disease; but it also means, particularly in terminal cases, easing pain and distress by any appropriate means in order to allow the patient, through prayer, confession and communion, to surrender him/herself into the hands of God.”

Dr. Gass said, “God is absolutely sovereign over every aspect of human existence, from conception to the grave and beyond.”

He added, “It is precisely this authority that requires Christians to reject taking life (and death) into our hands… Doctors have the duty to obey God and the God-given right not to violate their own conscience and be forced to be a party to an unrighteous act, even if the patient desires it.

“This is the case in matters of euthanasia or abortion where the life of the mother is not at risk.

“In Christian ethics we are never forced to choose between ‘wrong,’ but we must sometimes between alternatives that are all unpleasant.

“This is why we need Gold’s Word to illumine our conscience and the Spirit of God, the council of spiritually mature believers, to help us make wise, God-honoring decision.”

Dr. Gass concluded by saying, “It is a Christian vision of healing offered up as an expression of worship to the glory of God, motivated out of love for your neighbor that gives medicine its fullest value and highest meaning.

“This Christian ethic can restore and protect our essential humanity in a ‘post-human’ and bring blessing to all.”

Christian Anti-Defamation League launched

Dr. Gass then announced the founding of the Christian Anti-Defamation League (CADL) of which Dr. D. James Kennedy said, “The time for letting the Christian bashing go on essentially unchallenged has come to and end…there is a great need for a Christian anti-defamation league.” For more information, go to www.christianadl.org.

“Spirituality and Medicine”

The theme of the 4th International Medical Conference is “Spirituality and Medicine” and it began on the Friday morning with a video message from Dr. Jaerock Lee, senior pastor of the 100,000 member-Manmin Joong-ang Church in Seoul, Korea, and founder of the WCDN, as well as remarks from Dr. Joonha Kwang, President of WCDN, and Dr. Armando Pineda-Velez, US Director of WCDN.

What was unique about the conference is that doctors attending all believe in “divine healing” delegates were given case studies by various doctors on miraculous healings that included: Malignant Melanoma (by Dr. Mark Miller), Spina Bifida by (Dr. Sanghun Yeo,) Spontaneous Pneumothorax (by Dr. Yoonseck Chae,) Pneumonia (by Dr. Junseong Kim) and two cases of the healing of Breast Cancer (presented by Dr. Pancheta Wilson.)
 

Korean worship group perform fan dance to worship music

It was unusual to see the medical doctors raising their hands in worship as various bands and performers made their God-honoring music. They included Pastor Joseph Toress and the House of worship Band and the Manmin Performance Team from Seoul with their famous fan dances and a marvelous contemporary electric violin set with the Koreans playing as former Argentine rock singer, Gustavo Lima, sang.

How it all began

Dr. Joonha Hwang, President of WCDN, and a South Korea physician, explained how the organization came into being.

“Two thirds of medical schools in the United States including Harvard and Johns Hopkins, either offer courses on spiritually and faith in their curriculums largely because patients are demanding more spiritual care,” he said.

“According to a Newsweek poll, 84 percent of Americans said that praying for others can have a positive effect on their recovery.

“Along this line of thought, a group of Christian medical doctors have started a movement called WCDN which intends to tackle the issues on spirituality, with its main intention, to influence and equip Christian doctors by sharing the goodness of Christ in the form of proclaiming the gospel principally through the healing ministry.”

Dr. Hwang added, “During the walk of Jesus here on earth, a major strategy He used to proclaim His Lordship was to heal the sick. It is our role as His expert witnesses to testify to the works of healing by the Power of God with verified medical data.”

For more information on the World Christian Doctors Network, go to www.wcdn.org.