Editorial October 27, 1962 Issue

"Whom Satan hath bound"

Ralph E. Wagers

Why do many followers of Christ Jesus balk at following his command to heal sin and disease as he did? It is not by choice. Every one of them would gladly heal through spiritual means if he knew how. But they feel unequal to the task because they consider the work of the Master to be miraculous, and they will continue to feel so as long as they believe that he had supernatural power which they do not and cannot possess.

Most people associate disease with processes of nature. That is why their healing efforts are confined to material means. But there is nothing in the Master's teachings and practice to indicate that he associated disease with matter. Take, for instance, the woman who "was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself" (Luke 13:11). Jesus healed her immediately, and in answer to the criticism of the ruler of the synagogue of his healing on the Sabbath day he said, "Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?"

"Whom Satan hath bound." What did he mean? From the standpoint of scholastic theology, Satan is the suppositional source of evil. The Revelator made this enlightening reference to Satan (Rev. 12:9): "The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." Recognizing Satan to be the deceiver, Jesus no doubt dealt with the woman's affliction as deception, a false mental state appearing to material sense as a physical condition, a phenomenon of nature.

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