100 Pounds Ago...I Started Learning How to Love Myself More Than the Pleasure of Food by Charles A. Postma - HTML preview

Chapter 8

Fasting and Religion

The Holy Bible has a lot to say about fasting. Fasting from food is mentioned over sixty times. The Bible tells us how to fast, how long to fast, when to fast, that fasting cures diseases, and makes the Theory of Evolution look ridiculous. Let me explain.

I read about the euphoric fourth day of a water-only fast from several sources and then experienced it myself on the fourth day of my first five day fast. It was obvious to me from that time on why fasting and religion have walked hand-in-hand for thousands of years. I am not going to frustrate myself searching for the right words to describe it. You will have to discover it for yourself. I do not think it happens to everyone, and it did not happen every time on the fourth day for me, but when it did, it was a very profound experience. Maybe the mind, body, and soul need to be in a special alignment of some kind.

All the major religions of the world include fasting as a tenant of faith. As a Christian, I have studied it from that perspective and found that we too have an expectation of fasting from Jesus. Christians the world over practice fasting except American Christians overwhelmingly ignore it. The Cliff Notes version of what it means to be a Christian can be found in the famous Sermon on the Mount in the Book of Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. One paragraph of it was devoted to fasting and here it is in the New International Version:

Matthew 6:16-19

16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

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The word “when “ is used twice. It is worthy to note that it does not say “If” you fast. Clearly there is an expectation that followers of Jesus will fast.

Then again quoting Jesus himself in Mark 2:19-20:

Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

Again, He said “will” instead of “might” fast. Clearly these examples stop short of being a command, but if you profess to live more like Jesus in your daily life, I do not know how you could look at fasting as an optional activity.

The protestant branch of Christianity came about with the Reformation in 1517 with the publication of Martin Luthor’s 95 Theses. The formal principle of that reformation was “Scripture Alone” meaning that the Bible says what it says and means what it means, and followers are not at liberty to add or subtract from it to suit contemporary whims.

Matthew 8:17 quotes the prophet Isaiah as follows: This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

If the Bible means what it says, why would Isaiah use the word “took” when he walked the earth 700

years before Christ. Why didn’t he say, “He will take up”?

Also from the Bible, we know that Christ was with God the Father at our creation.

Colossians 1:15-16

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

Clearly, for believers, the gift of autophagy, the supernatural healing ability contained within us, came from Jesus. The fact that this supernatural healing ability is available to everyone and anyone whether you believe God exists, love him or hate him, shows that he truly loves everyone.

Fasting in the scriptures was often used to request deliverance of God’s people from dire situations that they found themselves in. People who pray for deliverance from their chronic pain and health issues without fasting remind me of the iconic saying, “Do not lean on a shovel and pray to God to dig a hole”.

1 Corinthians 6:19

19 “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.”

This reminds me of the punch line: “I gave you one job...”

Christians are told that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are required to take good care of it, are we not?

I can only imagine how happy the devil is when someone curses God for his health issues when he did it to himself with his dietary choices. To accomplish our gradual health decline, I think the devil gave us sugar in all its insidious forms.

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I feared that my fasting was not for a Godly purpose. I felt that it was selfish of me to use this spiritual discipline for the purpose of weight loss and healing my autoimmune issues. The prophet Isaiah changed my mind. In chapter 58 of that book, God through Isaiah, chastises the Israelites for abusing fasting and then explains what fasting should be used for. The NIV scripture on this is found in Isaiah 58:3-6

3 Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed? Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.

4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

If you consider being 100 pounds overweight, suffering from autoimmune issues, and experiencing chronic pain a “yoke” to be broken, then yes, fasting to rid myself of these issues was indeed scripturally justified. In verse 8 of that same chapter we see “…where your healing will quickly appear.” This may be a reference to the healing power of autophagy as a result of fasting.

I am over 6 years into an intermittent fasting lifestyle and the honeymoon is over. My diseases have been arrested; my extra person is no longer under my skin. I have no incentive except disease prevention to continue to fast. Not long ago I was in my daily devotions praying for the recovery of a man I knew who had been in a motorcycle accident and really felt that I needed to do something more, something in addition to prayer. Fast for his recovery! So this led me to a whole new level of fasting incentive and devotion. It is one of the several Christian disciplines that I am supposed to be doing anyway so, duh!

What does the Bible say about health and nutrition?

With man’s flawed and feeble health advice pulling us in so many directions, frequently in completely opposite directions, I asked myself, ”What Does God Say About Health and Nutrition?”

Genesis 1:29 (NIV) Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

Genesis 9:2-3 (NIV) “The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”

This would mean that diets that avoid meat or vegetables or fruit are not Bible based. And if meat is bad for us why is God literally telling us to consume it. These scriptures tell us exactly what to eat. Wild-caught seafood, pastured animal products, and fresh fruits and vegetables. If my food doesn’t look like it came from the Garden of Eden, I do not put it into my mouth. However, we must remember seasonal availability. We were designed to eat sweet fruit in season, not year-round. Honey was only rarely available and the punishment for its harvest tells me frequent consumption of it was scorned by the Almighty. Even King Solomon warns us about too much honey in the Book of Proverbs. Research supporting this wisdom is available to anyone who cares enough about their health to look for it. High-quality randomized controlled trials with large cohorts of humans is proving God’s wisdom is far superior than man’s wisdom as we are finding that a diet high in nutritionally empty carbohydrates is responsible 31

for the health crisis we find ourselves in. I can’t help but think that the devil is pleased when someone curses God for their health issues when the destruction of their personal temple for the Holy Spirit was caused by what they choose to put into their mouth. Sugar, that sweet white poison so many of us are addicted to, to me, is of unholy origin. People laugh at the “addiction” to sugar possibility. I have encouraged several people to go one day from the time they get up to the time they go to bed and not eat anything with added sugar all day. So far no one has made it.

Science is finally telling us that exposure to sunshine is essential for good health. It says that exposure to sunlight for our quality of life is as important to us as it is to plants. What does the Bible say about that?

Genesis 2:15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” This says to me that we were created to work outdoors in the sun all day long. How many decades have we followed man’s flawed and feeble wisdom and become afraid of the wonderful sun and the nutrition its full spectrum light gives us. In so doing we find ourselves in the midst of a health crisis. It occurred to me that since Genesis makes no mention of God putting a gymnasium in the Garden of Eden that strenuous exercise may not be as required for optimal health as we have been told by people who would love to sell us things we don’t really need. Maybe all we need are garden-like chores to help us stay healthy while we are outside in the sun.

Man’s wisdom tells us to stay away from dietary animal fat. I was surprised to see that God really likes fat. The Bible mentions it over 80 times in the context of food and diet. Three times it is mentioned that burning it on an alter creates an “aroma pleasing to the Lord.” Even God loves the aroma of meat on the grill! Who doesn’t! At least three times it is mentioned that for special events they slaughtered “the fatted calf.” They fattened up livestock with grain then, just as they do today. That should tell us something about eating too much grain. Again, man’s wisdom leading us right into our current health crisis. And now we find that the famous studies that became and still are medical dogma that linked cholesterol to heart disease were just correlational studies. Unlike randomized controlled trials, correlation and relational studies cannot prove causation. These cheap low-quality studies are prone to cherry-picking data, and researcher bias to produce favorable results for marketing products. In the case of cholesterol to protect the enormous ego of Ancel Keyes who could not admit he was wrong about cholesterol. In fact, when his research was re-evaluated, and his cherry-picking of countries was set right, it showed that saturated fat protects the circulatory system. Just the opposite of what he published! How many tens of millions of people have filled an early grave thinking it was saturated fat that put them there when in fact it was sugar! God would never suggest consumption of something that would harm his creation.

Again, high quality research has proven that man’s flawed and feeble wisdom regarding salt helped create the health crisis we find ourselves in. The recommendation now is to salt our food to taste. If the body needs more salt it actually asks for it by making food seem bland to our taste buds. Our bodies do just the opposite for when it has enough. It’s automatic! We don’t have to think about it. Salt is mentioned 36 times in the Bible. Leviticus 2:13 “Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.” Job 6:6 “Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the sap of the mallow?” Salt is mentioned several times to be used to clean and purify. Salt was used then and now to preserve food after harvest. Today we know that bacteria harmful to humans cannot survive in the salt brine used in fermented foods.

However, good bacteria for optimal gut health thrive. Even the theory about salt causing high blood pressure has been proven wrong for most people including myself.

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The NIV Bible mentions bread 255 times. The word is used to describe what is eaten as well as metaphorically as in “the bread of life”. However, the bread and other grain products consumed then bear little resemblance to what fill bags and boxes at the supermarket today. We have learned from research into paleolithic diets that all cultures who relied on grain for a large portion of their daily sustenance, experienced declining general health. We know that grain products today are “fortified”

with synthetic vitamins, of which 80% are manufactured in China. Non-GMO, non-fortified, organic flour is essentially what was consumed in Paleolithic times resulting in declining general health wherever hunter-gatherers transitioned to being farmers. I love to bake bread, but I can never let it be more than an occasional break from my otherwise Garden of Eden diet. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”, but not very much bread.