The Healing Power of the Christian Mind: How Biblical Truth Can Keep You Healthy

I am currently fighting cancer. Someone handed me this book and it has been great in helping me keep my focus on Jesus Christ the one who has my life in His hands and the one who is calling me to LIVE LIFE, even as I battle with this cancer. The book has been a tremendous help to me and I have been passing it on to other fellow cancer strugglers. Praise God for he shows us life and the miracles in them each day that He gives us! Thanks so much for writting this book Dr. Backus!

This book provides a biblical and balanced approach to an otherwise misunderstood and controversial topic: the healing power of the human mind. Dr. Backus is aware of the misunderstandings, especially among Christians, that cloud the issue so he renders due cautions and clarifications during his exposition. Although he believes that miracles and instant healings through prayer do happen today, he distinguishes between a supernatural healing (a miracle) which is entirely an act of God and the natural process of healing which involves our cooperating with God to create a healthy inner life based upon truth, especially and ultimately God's truth revealed in the Bible. He disagrees with those Christians who think that God always wills the healing of our bodies here on earth and think that healing always happens if the person praying has "enough faith" (pg. 110). These same Christians usually "see God's promise to preserve the health of his people, as recorded in Exodus and Deuteronomy, as a pledge to perform miracles routinely" and "think that by 'claiming' these promises they can unleash miracle-power as if by magic from heaven" (pg. 51). Instead, Dr. Backus believes that "the Exodus and Deuteronomy promises assume that God's people will live in a relaxed state of trust - a state of inner peace and rest and obedience" (pgs. 51 - 52). Dr. Backus also distinguishes between spiritually unhealthy false religions (including New Age and Mind Science cults) and the scientific (and Biblical!) fact that "your health and your healing can be made better or worse by what you do with your mind" (pg. 63). Regarding "positive thinking," he asserts: "If you must choose between a positive thought and a true thought, always choose what is true." He adds: "Sometimes truth has a negative effect - angering us, causing grief, frightening us. But the whole truth transforms those negatives into positives, because God turns evil into good. When you tell yourself the whole truth you don't deny pain or illness, you defeat it" (pg. 129). He gives examples of "illicit positive thinking" that deny reality and also gives examples of confronting negative reality with positive culmination (the "whole" biblical truth) that brings hope and can contribute to one's physical healing. Dr. Backus clearly points out that "most diseases do not result from a single causal factor" and that "even so-called 'terminal' illnesses are not, in themselves, sufficient to cause death. Nutrition, exercise, and rest make a significant difference, as does a sense of belonging to a group of other people" (pg. 53). Also, renewing our minds with Christian truth as taught in the Bible promotes healing; hence, the (revised) title of the book: The Healing Power of a CHRISTIAN Mind. Although many of the health principles expounded in this book are natural and supported by scripture, Dr. Backus also promotes prayer and the possibility of supernatural healing from God. I highly recommend this bo