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AIDS: How a Killer Plague Can
Be Stopped
by Melvin Rhodes
http://www.ucgstp.org/lit/gn/gn031/aids.html
The AIDS epidemic,
increasingly compared to the dreaded black death of the 1300s,
has taken millions of lives and promises to take millions more.
Yet, tragically, we ignore the only real solution to this deadly
plague.
he facts about AIDS are overwhelming. The disease is spreading
rapidly from country to country. Morgues are working round the
clock to keep up with the demand. Millions of orphans are left
behind by their dead parents. Cemeteries are filled and
overflowing. Coffin makers are running out of wood. Ignorance,
superstition and fear abound. Governments are paralyzed by the
sheer enormity of the death toll. Medical services are swamped
and unable to cope.
And the
problem is growing worse. Much worse.
We've seen the images on television and
heard the news reports from countries devastated by AIDS. But
they don't begin to do justice to the magnitude of the problem.
How bad is it? The president of one country
in southern Africa told the recent international AIDS conference
in Durban, South Africa, that in 10 years his country will
not exist. With a third of its citizens infected with the
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), it's only a matter of time
before virtually his entire country is wiped out by this modern
plague.
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The president of one
country in southern Africa told the recent international
AIDS conference in Durban, South Africa, that in 10
years his country will not exist. |
This is not the first plague the world has
experienced. Although the opening paragraph of this article
describes the situation in Africa, it is also a vivid
description of the black death, the plague that devastated many
European countries in the
middle of the 14th century.
England's population was six million when
the plague arrived in 1348. By 1500 it had plummeted to 1.6
million. Because that decline occurred over seven generations,
it involved far more than 4.4 million deaths. Depression,
pessimism, a loss of faith in religious institutions, change in
land tenure and major alterations in trade and commerce ensued
as a result of the massive die-off.
Now we see a similar pattern threaten-ing
not just one but at least several nations. History has a way of
repeating itself.
Remarkably, both the black death and AIDS
easily could have been prevented. Measures that would
have prevented the widespread suffering and death from both
plagues were written down thousands of years ago-in the pages of
the world's best-selling book, the Bible.
The
black death strikes
In 1346 the Mongol army besieged the
Genoese trading center at Caffa, now Feodosia, on the Crimean
peninsula. The Mongols were forced to withdraw because of heavy
losses. Their losses, surprisingly, were not attributable to
fighting but to a mysterious and devastating malady that became
known as the plague. The disease was spread by fleas that lived
on the backs of the Asiatic black rat. When the rats died of
plague, the fleas would find a new home-often the closest human
being.
At the time no one knew how the deadly
disease was transmitted. They were in the dark as to its cause
or how to prevent its spread.
The Mongols fled, but not before the
disease had spread into the city of Caffa. From there it rode
aboard ships through the Black Sea out into the Eastern
Mediterranean and to Sicily, then on to the Italian mainland and
the countries beyond.
Within two years it had reached England.
Horrible, inexplicable deaths ensued within a year for about a
fourth of the population. Commerce and travel slowed, then
ground to a halt.
In the ignorance and superstition of the
late Middle Ages, many people thought the disease was spread
through the air. There was some logic in this assumption. The
plague would arrive in a community suddenly and without warning,
then depart a few days later as mysteriously as it had come,
leaving death and a few stunned, shaken survivors in its wake.
To protect themselves from what they
supposed was contaminated air, people would lock themselves in
latrines and breathe the foul-smelling air into their lungs to
keep from breathing the air outside.
Some people looked for scapegoats, blaming
others for their misfortune and killing them by the thousands
even as they sought to be spared from the deadly invader. Many
grew suspicious of Jews, who to a large extent had gone
unscathed by the plague. Made scapegoats for the horrendous
suffering, many Jews who had escaped the plague died at the
hands of their neighbors. Ironically, plague victims could have
learned much from the Jews that could have spared many of them
from the disease. (Later we will consider in greater depth why
Jews didn't contract this disease in the same numbers as
others.)
A
preventable plague
Perhaps this background helps us better
understand the ignorance and superstition that contributes to
the spread of AIDS in less-developed parts of the world.
The black death was a disease of filth. If
people had followed simple biblical laws of hygiene, many could
have avoided infection and death. But people didn't make the
connection. The plague finally came to an end only when the
more-aggressive European brown
rat drove out the plague-infested black rat.
Today's plague, AIDS, is also a disease of
filth-the filth of the mind that dominates contemporary culture
and leads to rampant sexual immorality. Like the black death
before it, the solution to the modern plague is revealed in
Scriptures.
AIDS: A
plague begins
No one knows for sure how or when AIDS
started. The many theories come down to the fact that the
African green monkey carries the HIV naturally in its
bloodstream. Somehow, several decades ago, the virus in the
blood of the green monkey was transmitted to people, probably
when hunters killed and butchered HIV-carrying monkeys or
consumed meat from infected monkeys. Once in the human
bloodstream, the virus proved to be a deadly killer.
It could have ended there, in the jungles
of tropical Africa. But it didn't. Once the virus made the jump
to man, it spread quickly around the world. Whereas trade in the
Middle Ages was slow, modern transportation is fast. The result
was that people all over
the world were dying from AIDS before the disease even had a
name.
In fact, the name reflects the mystery and
sudden urgency of the disease. AIDS is an acronym for
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, reflecting the reality
of a disease that came from nowhere and resulted in the deaths
of thousands of people whose immune systems suddenly failed to
work. Death itself for AIDS victims is attributed to various
causes, but they all come back to the fact that the immune
system has failed to act normally.
In the United States the problem was first
seen among homosexuals. It was soon established that certain
homosexual practices were particularly effective means of
spreading the disease.
However, it would be wrong to describe the
disease as only a "gay plague." Well more than half the people
with AIDS are in Africa, where it is a heterosexually
transmitted disease.
For many years it was thought that
education would help stop the spread of AIDS. The experts
advised people not to practice "unprotected sex" and that if
they used condoms they would reduce the risk of contamination.
In the last few years, however, people have been increasingly
inclined not to bother protecting themselves because new drugs
have become available that help those infected with HIV live
longer.
However, it is important to understand that
these drugs are not a cure. They can only delay and
alleviate the symptoms, and some have severe side effects. The
sad fact remains that there is no cure; there are only
steps we can take to prevent the disease from spreading in the
hope that science can find a cure or that it may eventually die
out.
God's
definition of high risk
Some reports on the recent AIDS conference
in Africa noted that people in "high-risk groups" were engaging
in unprotected sex again. Of itself that is not surprising.
Shocking is how "high-risk" was defined-as having sex
with six or more partners per year.
Six or more partners per year? The Bible
defines "high risk" as having any partners, even one,
outside of marriage-either before or after committing to a
partner for life.
Statements like this show us just how far
man has drifted from God. They also illustrate that man cannot
find a solution to the AIDS problem without God.
Three thousand years ago King Solomon
wrote: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs
1:7). His inspired proverbs were intended "to give
prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and
discretion" (verse
4).
Solomon, like millions today, was not
inexperienced in sexual matters. He had "seven hundred wives,
princesses, and three hundred concubines" (1Kings
11:3). Toward the end of his life his mistakes led
him to conclude: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole
matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's
all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including
every secret thing, whether good or evil" (Ecclesiastes
12:13-14). We would do well to heed Solomon's words.
A plague
of broken laws
When we get to the root of the problem, we
find that AIDS is the natural consequence of breaking God's
laws. When HIV infections first jumped from monkeys to man, they
could not have spread like they did, and taken millions of
lives, without the gross immorality that brought the worldwide
plague we see today.
At the beginning, when God created the
first man and woman, He knew they needed instruction. They did
not know right from wrong. They could not learn everything
themselves. In
Genesis 2:16-17 we
find God instructing Adam on what he could eat and what he
should avoid eating.
Later in the same chapter we read that God
created Eve as a companion for Adam. We then find words that
were intended for future generations. They talked of the cycle
of life as it was to be: "Therefore a man shall leave his father
and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one
flesh" (verse
24).
Here God instituted marriage. The marriage
covenant between a husband and wife is not a humanly devised
arrangement. It goes back to God in the Garden of Eden.
Succeeding generations were to follow this instruction. The
institution of marriage did not pertain only to Adam and Eve.
A man and woman were to "become one flesh"
permanently. Only death was to have ended the relationship.
Sexual
laws revealed in the Bible
In the next chapter we find that Adam and
Eve disobeyed God. Men and women have been rejecting God's
instructions and paying a high price for it ever since. Part of
the price includes both AIDS and the black death-along with many
other plagues throughout history that have devastated mankind.
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The AIDS quilt, here on
display in Washington, D.C., bears the names of more
than 80,000 AIDS victims.The 50-ton traveling memorial
is a sobering reminder of the deadly epidemic.
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Thousands of years later, when He brought
the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, God revealed to
them the foundation of His laws, the Ten Commandments (Exodus
20). Given time, they might have come up with some of
them on their own, since almost everyone recognizes that such
acts as murder and stealing are wrong.
But some of the laws He revealed they would
not have realized on their own. They are divine laws
given by a loving God to His people, laws that were intended to
govern their nation for all time. God's revelation, above and
beyond mere human intuition and understanding, was needed for
the Israelites to learn to live happy and healthy lives.
Why did
God give His laws?
In the book of Leviticus we see God
instructing the Israelites concerning which animals were
suitable to eat. Without this instruction they could have eaten
creatures that would have endangered their health.
As noted earlier, HIV apparently spread
from animals to humans when African hunters killed monkeys for
food and came in contact with their infected blood. Eating the
flesh of monkeys and apes is forbidden in
Leviticus 11, where
God says: "Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses
you shall not touch. They are unclean to you" (verse
8).
Leviticus gives many other laws that relate
to health.
Chapter 20 lists a
series of laws governing sexual activity. These relate to
adultery, incest, homosexual practices and other acts. Without
instruction the people could have committed such acts in
ignorance of the consequences until it was too late and the
damage had been done.
On the surface some of these acts may seem
harmless. But God repeatedly told Israel the laws He had given
them were for their good (Deuteronomy
6:17-25;
10:12-13;
12:28;
28:1-15;
30:15-16). Many
centuries would pass before medical researchers would
demonstrate the benefits of these laws-that promiscuous
relationships are the prime conduit for dozens of debilitating
and fatal venereal diseases and that the offspring of sexual
unions between close relatives are much more prone to have
genetic defects and other physical and mental handicaps.
As with the forbidden fruit in
Genesis 3:6, such
acts might feel good. God had to clearly tell His people that
sex-any sex-outside of the union between husband and wife
was wrong. And it still is. God and His eternal law do not
change (Malachi
3:6). Read the strong warning against immorality He
gave to Israel in
Leviticus 18:24-30.
His laws still apply whether we choose to heed them or not.
Obeying the laws God gave regarding
marriage and sex would mean AIDS would die out with our present
generation. There would be no danger of repeating the experience
of the black death, which affected Europe in wave after wave of
indescribable suffering and countless fatalities for more than
300 years. In England it wasn't until the Great Fire of London
in 1666 that the plague ended-more than 300 years after it
began.
Laws
governing hygiene and health
The Bible shows how that plague, too, could
have been avoided. Then, as now, most people were not familiar
with the Word of God and did not live by it.
"Dirt and malnutrition were the two great
allies of the plague," wrote Philip Ziegler in The Black
Death (1971, p. 57). "... The state of public hygiene
was deplorable. Constantly reiterated laws against rearing pigs
and goats in the street, tanning skins in mid-city and throwing
refuse out of windows" proved ineffective (ibid.).
"Woe to those who join house to house ...
till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst
of the land," warned the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah
5:8).
Houses in medieval towns were so close
together that they were a major health hazard, allowing rapid
spread of disease. The practice of not burying waste matter was
another contributing factor. Rats thrived in such conditions.
In
Deuteronomy 23:12-13
God had instructed the Israelites to deposit human waste outside
their living areas, being careful to bury it. Not until recent
centuries did scientists learn that many diseases are spread
through contact with human waste-yet God had revealed this
preventive measure some 3,500 years ago. Jews who obeyed these
godly instructions during the time of the black plague were not
affected in the same way as others. Their obedience to God gave
them a degree of immunity in a way no one at the time
understood.
Malnutrition was yet another problem in the
Middle Ages, caused in part by the inequitable distribution of
land. But this problem, too, could have been resolved by the
introduction of the biblical Jubilee, the year of liberation in
ancient Israel (Leviticus
25:10), which would have ended the oppressive feudal
system and returned land to its original owners for the benefit
of all.
Biblical
laws: Arbitrary or for all time?
Does this all sound too simple? That's only
because man has had to devise convoluted responses to deal with
the effects of his actions rather than dealing with the
original cause. God's ancient answers to our modern,
seemingly complex problems are straightforward-with the added
benefit that they do not require massive budgets, bureaucracies
and government intervention. God's solutions deal with
underlying behaviors that create the problems in the
first place.
The AIDS crisis threatens to virtually wipe
out several African nations within the next two decades. Other
countries will likely follow.
In the prosperous Western world the problem
will require increasing amounts of money, raised by higher taxes
and ever-increasing insurance premiums, as more and more people
grow sick and succumb to the disease. A medical cure remains
elusive, made difficult by constant mutations of the virus. No
matter how much money is spent on research, no one can guarantee
that science can find a cure or develop a successful vaccine.
AIDS remains an always-fatal disease.
The only solution that will work for
certain is prescribed in the Bible. It's time for people to hear
that the solution is already known and that the only way forward
is for people to obey the moral laws of God He revealed
thousands of years ago.
GN
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