Does "The Bible Cure" Have The Pathway to Your Healing? A Book Review Part 1: A Shaky Foundation

Posted on by Mischelle Sandowich

Screen Shot 2016-03-01 at 3.57.23 PMThe Claim.

Reginald Cherry, M.D. claims to have found the Bible’s hidden health secrets, the “pathway” for healing sickness of every kind. And He has written down his discoveries in The Bible Cure. The Foreword states, “Within the Bible’s holy writ are all the principles needed…to find healing for the body, soul, and spirit.”  Dr. Cherry shares how he made this great discovery: “God has revealed the principles of the Bible cure to me as a Christian medical doctor.” He is so confident that his discovery is from God, that he calls it “His [God’s] Bible cure.” In chapter 3, Cherry explains the Bible cure in a step-by-step plan (or pathway to healing).

The goal of this review is to evaluate Dr. Cherry’s “revelation” in view of Scripture — to see if he has indeed discovered the Bible’s pathway to healing. At Reformed Health, we make a similar bold claim: The Bible has the answers for health and healing (physical, spiritual, and emotional). We also provide a step-by-step plan for healing. Have we come to the same conclusions about what the Bible says about health?

Introductory Thoughts.

Before I evaluate Dr. Cherry’s revelation to see if it accords with God’s word and the principles  it sets forth, I need to share some thoughts. First, The Bible Cure was written in 1998 — so it is possible that God has further “revealed” truths to Dr. Cherry as science has caught up with the Scripture. Imbedded in that statement is the insinuation that Dr. Cherry has relied more upon science (and mysticism) than the Bible in his book. At Reformed Health, we believe science (real science) is good and important. We also believe, however, that if forced to choose between the Bible and science — we must trust the Bible. Science often changes course as new discoveries are made. The word of God, however, remains unchanged and fixed eternally in heaven.

Second: why would I want to review a book that is decades old?

  • I am compelled to write this review because this book is still sold on Amazon (and at other retailers).
  • In addition, The Bible Cure is a national best-seller and has sparked a series of books by the same title (written by Don Colbert, M.D.).
  • Combined, these books have sold over 3,000,000 copies.
  • This means The Bible Cure will fall into the hands of Christians who may believe it makes timeless claims (after all it is the Bible cure).
  • If the book contains error, it could lead the unlearned or novice health seeker to make harmful choices.
  •  And if that is not reason enough, I found a copy in my church library and want to make sure we are holding to purity of doctrine in all areas (I vowed to study its purity and peace).

For these reasons, it is vital to review The Bible Cure. So let’s begin.

What I Liked About The Bible Cure.

There are some positive elements in The Bible Cure. Dr. Cherry seems a sincere fellow. I appreciate his concern for sick patients and more importantly his fervor for God. He has taken an approach to medicine that more Christian M.D.s should consider. He combines faith with science, recognizing that all true healing comes from Christ. When Dr. Cherry sees a patient, he listens to their concerns, does a complete overview of their health, and seeks God through earnest prayer to find the answers they seek. This is commendable.

I am thankful Dr. Cherry appeals to the sacred text for clues to healing. He recognizes that God’s word has all things necessary for faith and life. He correctly identifies the fact that God desires His creatures to live healthy lives, seeing sin as the underlying cause of illness. He rightfully recognizes that food is an important part of Scripture, not an afterthought of God (or man). He understands that the God who made the human body is the same God who knows how to feed and care for it. This is why God provided a diet for man from the beginning, a life-giving diet. He uses this diet as a springboard for his Bible cure.

Dr. Cherry takes these principles and expounds them, coupling them with science, to identify specific healing regimes for various illnesses: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and the like. He does this without pigeon-holing his patients or his protocol, recognizing that each human is different and no protocol identical — even for the same “condition.” In chapter 4, he gives ten specific examples of patients who were “healed” (or not) using the “Bible Cure.”

Shaking Foundation Revealed.

This positive foundation, however, gets shaken off its sure footing (the Bible) when Dr. Cherry applies the principles that God has “revealed” to him. Before discussing his questionable applications, I must note that the theme of “revelation” runs heavily through The Bible Cure.

  • God “reveals” the Bible Cure to Dr. Cherry; therefore, Cherry calls it “His [God’s] Bible cure” (ix).
  • Dr. Cherry explains “how the Bible cure and present-day science reveal pathways of healing and health for us right now” (2).
  • On page 8 he says, “God reveals His Bible cure through our own personal pathway of healing.”
  • On page 13 he writes, “A SECOND AWESOME ‘revelation’ from the Bible cure for me was this: Healing anointing can flow through natural substances” (13).
  • Chapter 3 is titled: “God’s Principles That Reveal Your Pathway to Healing.”
  • There we discover that the Holy Spirit will reveal the steps to take in our own Bible cure (46).
  • Then his patients must stand firm in the “revelation” that God will heal them (48).
  • Chapter 4 records the stories of patients who were healed by applying their “revealed” Bible cure.

Dr. Cherry makes it clear that seeking divine revelation from God is part of his protocol for healing. In his chapter on testimonies of healing, there is not one patient who receives a cure without some sort of divine revelation. Of the diabetic he writes, “God gave us specific instructions…” (54). For the man suffering heart disease “God outlined a unique program for us to pursue….initiated by the Holy Spirit” (57). A woman with breast cancer “followed God’s specific instruction concerning the nutrition and supplements she was to take” (60). But sometimes the “revelation” is not as clear. The Holy Spirit revealed a course of chemotherapy to an ovarian cancer patient, then three sessions later revealed that the patient should stop chemotherapy and focus on the building up of the immune system. For a patient with stomach cancer, the Holy Spirit revealed to Dr. Cherry that his patient couldn’t be healed because she didn’t have a strong enough spirit to fight against the illness. That patient died 5 months later.

While God does work in mysterious ways with wonders to perform, using words like revelation, reveal, and revealed in the same sentence as God or Holy Spirit should be confined to the Scripture — especially when making truth claims (which Dr. Cherry does). To be fair, one of the methods of “revelation” that Dr. Cherry relies upon is peace from God. I believe this is a legitimate way that God works providentially in the Christian’s life to guide him or her in the way they should go. If this is how God is “revealing” His plan to the good doctor and his patients — Dr. Cherry should say so. Did the Holy Spirit want chemotherapy or not? Or did the patient agree to chemotherapy and then change their mind because they no longer had “peace” about it? Dr. Cherry claims that the Spirit was not in error — wishing the patient to have only three sessions of chemotherapy (which Dr. Cherry calls a poison on page 59).

With all these claims of revelation from God, we should hope that Dr. Cherry has a divinely inspired Bible cure. And this will be “revealed” in part two of this review. There we will see how Dr. Cherry’s revelations in The Bible Cure hold up against the truth of Scripture and current health theory.


Disclaimer:

Reformed Health exists so you can take control of your own health and be all that God has designed you to be. The information shared on Reformed Health is the sole opinion of the author and is not meant to diagnose or treat any illness. None or our claims have been evaluated by the FDA or any other government organization. We are not medical doctors, nor do we have any medical doctors on staff. If you are having a health emergency, please call 911, contact your doctor, or visit a local emergency room. Always consult your doctor before engaging in any new exercise regime.

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Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.


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