Black Widow Encounter at Sukkot

I'm not especially excited about sharing this experience, but when I was searching for information at a critical moment, I had a hard time finding anything very useful. I found page after page of corporate-owned, pharmaceutical-sponsored boilerplate that looked like they were all copied from each other. Some real life stories about the effects, treatment, and aftermath of black widow bites would have been helpful. I was aware that being bitten by a black widow is almost never fatal, but I would like to have had more details on what to expect.

According to various reports, between 2000-3000 people are bitten by black widows in the United States each year, so why is it so hard to find first person accounts? Probably due to search engines giving too much weight to "official" websites, but the more accounts that are published, the more they will show up in searches.

Keep in mind--of course--that I'm not a healthcare professional of any kind. This is an account of actual events as clearly as I can remember them, not medical advice.

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Regeneration, Volume One by J.D. King

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I just finished reading the first of three volumes of J.D. King's Regeneration, a history of divine healing in the Christian Church. Volume One surveys faith healing from the first century to the first few decades of the twentieth. I was surprised at just how much evidence there is for healing throughout the Middle Ages, but documentation is sparse for obvious reasons. Until the invention of the printing press, there was no easy way for a commoner to tell us how his dysentery vanished when traveling missionary prayed for him. In the nineteenth century, printing became much more accessible; a ministry could pay to have books or periodicals printed and distributed around the world. King understandably uses a lot more of his own ink discussing the faith healing movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

This history of divine healing is both encouraging and discouraging. Every era of Christian history has had miracles and dramatic healings, but they come in waves. A new faith healing movement arises, sets the world on fire, and then burns out in controversy and scandal or fades away into institutionalized religion.

With so much evidence, it's hard to argue that miraculous healings don't happen, but it also leaves the reader with some serious questions. Why then and not now? Why him and not me? When God uses such imperfect people to perform miracles, how do we tell charlatans from legitimate people of faith? Should we expect miracles all the time or are they temporary measures that God uses to advance a cause or make a point, like wilderness experiences designed to move his people from here to there?

I'm looking forward to reading Volume Two, but Volume One wasn't light reading. It took me a couple of years and I expect the sequel to take as long.

Witch Doctors and Faith Healers

Sometimes I get the feeling that people discussing divine healing are like shamans discussing cancer. A shaman might stumble on an effective treatment and invent a theory as to why it worked, plausible sounding, perhaps, but not even remotely accurate. When it doesn't work for someone else, he can blame it on curses or interference from a strange rock formation near where an herb was found, or on a planetary alignment.

Likewise, a faith healer might lay hands on one person who is healed and blame a lack of faith or a familial curse when another person isn't, and be just as wrong as the shaman. Every explanation I've heard about why healing doesn't happen the same way every time just sounds like so much hand waving to me.

Why aren't people healed when they ask for healing? Did they use the wrong tone of voice? Should they have commanded instead of asking? It doesn't seem to make any difference as far as I can tell. I believe God can heal. I believe he does heal. So why doesn't he heal every time or at least more often? I wish I knew.

Miraculous Healing in the Gospels

A list of Gospel passages dealing with sickness and healing...

•    Matthew 4:23-24
•    Matthew 8:2-4
•    Matthew 8:5-13
•    Matthew 8:14-15
•    Matthew 8:16-17
•    Matthew 8:28-32
•    Matthew 9:1-8
•    Matthew 9:18-25
•    Matthew 9:27-31
•    Matthew 9:32-33
•    Matthew 9:35
•    Matthew 10:8
•    Matthew 11:4-6
•    Matthew 11:28-30
•    Matthew 12:9-13
•    Matthew 12:15
•    Matthew 12:22
•    Matthew 12:43-45
•    Matthew 13:57-58
•    Matthew 14:14
•    Matthew 14:34-36
•    Matthew 15:22-28
•    Matthew 15:29-31
•    Matthew 17:14-21
•    Matthew 18:18-20
•    Matthew 19:1-2
•    Matthew 20:30-34
•    Matthew 21:12-14
•    Matthew 21:19-22

•    Mark 1:23-27
•    Mark 1:29-31
•    Mark 1:32
•    Mark 1:33-34
•    Mark 1:39
•    Mark 1:40-42
•    Mark 2:1-12
•    Mark 3:1-5
•    Mark 3:7-10
•    Mark 3:11-12
•    Mark 3:14-15
•    Mark 5:1-13
•    Mark 5:22-42
•    Mark 6:2-5
•    Mark 6:7-13
•    Mark 6:54-56
•    Mark 7:25-30
•    Mark 7:32-37
•    Mark 8:22-26
•    Mark 9:14-29
•    Mark 9:37-41
•    Mark 10:46-52
•    Mark 11:19-26
•    Mark 16:17-18
•    Mark 16:20

•    Luke 1:5-25, 36-37
•    Luke 1:57-66
•    Luke 4:24-28
•    Luke 4:33-36
•    Luke 4:38-39
•    Luke 4:40-41
•    Luke 5:12-14
•    Luke 5:17-25
•    Luke 6:6-10
•    Luke 6:17-19
•    Luke 6:27-38
•    Luke 7:2-10
•    Luke 7:11-16
•    Luke 7:20-23
•    Luke 8:2-3
•    Luke 8:27-33
•    Luke 8:41-56
•    Luke 9:11
•    Luke 9:38-42
•    Luke 9:49-50
•    Luke 10:9
•    Luke 10:17-24
•    Luke 11:5-13
•    Luke 11:14
•    Luke 11:15-23
•    Luke 11:24-26
•    Luke 13:10-13
•    Luke 13:14-16
•    Luke 14:1-6
•    Luke 14:11-14
•    Luke 17:11-19
•    Luke 18:1-8
•    Luke 18:9-14
•    Luke 18:27
•    Luke 18:35-43
•    Luke 22:50-51

•    John 4:46-54
•    John 5:2-14
•    John 6:2
•    John 9:1-41
•    John 10:41
•    John 11:1-45
•    John 12:10-11
•    John 12:24-26

•    Acts 3:1-16, 4:7-21
•    Acts 5:1-11
•    Acts 5:14-16
•    Acts 9:1-18
•    Acts 9:32-35
•    Acts 9:36-42
•    Acts 12:21-23
•    Acts 13:6-12
•    Acts 14:8-11
•    Acts 16:16-18
•    Acts 19:11-12
•    Acts 19:13-17
•    Acts 20:8-12
•    Acts 23:2-3
•    Acts 28:3-6
•    Acts 28:8-10

Licensed Drug Pushers

 We imprison people who push politically incorrect drugs, even the ones that help extend the lives of very sick people. We reward people who push politically correct drugs, even the ones that destroy the lives of otherwise healthy people. Soma, hydrocodone, xanax, alprazolam, oxycodone, vicodin, gabitril, methocarbamol, topamax, ambien…You name it, and your doctor will probably prescribe it with no questions asked. Say you need more, and he'll probably give it to you. Tell him you're addicted, and he'll give you even more, or else he'll prescribe some other addictive chemical so maybe you won't mind the first one so much. Maybe he'll refer you to someone else. Maybe he'll just kick you out of his office so he doesn't get in trouble with the alphabet soup. When your husband or wife or child expresses concern about your steady diet of pretty colored pills and gel caps, your doctor will nod knowingly, promise to talk about weaning you off of something, and then prescribe something new. And all the old stuff too.

I know that there are a lot of doctors out there who really care about their patients. However, in my experience, far too many of them care more about their bottom line than about your health. They'll prescribe all the Ambien you want, because it will keep you coming back and your insurance company paying the bills. They almost certainly won't tell you about the voices, the hallucinations, the terrible nightmares, the blackouts, and the miserable lives of the people who try to love you.

The miracles of modern medicine. Ain't it grand?