{"id":40751,"date":"2016-03-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/physician-warns-of-spiritual-autoimmune-disease\/"},"modified":"2016-03-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T00:00:00","slug":"physician-warns-of-spiritual-autoimmune-disease","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/physician-warns-of-spiritual-autoimmune-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Physician Warns of Spiritual Autoimmune Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Physician Horace Smith warns that in the church &quot;we must guard against &#39;spiritual autoimmune disease,&#39; in which spiritual white cells see normal cells within the body as enemies and try to destroy them&quot; Dr. Smith adds:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Is it possible for a human body to &quot;bite and devour&quot; healthy cells, destroying life? Absolutely. Sometimes white blood cells mistakenly attack healthy cells in the blood, causing disastrous results. The immune system fails to recognize components of the body as normal. It then creates autoantibodies that attack its own cells, tissues, or organs. This causes inflammation and damage, and it leads to autoimmune disorders. For example, autoimmune hemolytic anemia is a group of disorders that attack red blood cells as if they were substances foreign to the body. Like other cases of anemia, the person may experience shortness of breath, tiredness, and jaundice. When the destruction of healthy red cells persists for a long period of time, the spleen may enlarge, resulting in a sense of abdominal fullness and pain<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>God intends for his body to be healthy, nourish each other, protect each other, and carry harmful waste away.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3368,3435,3506,3511,3601,3644,3666,3667,3811,3822,3929,3982,3989,4120,4889,5087,5127,5213],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-40751","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-acceptance","tax_ctp_tags-arguments","tax_ctp_tags-blood","tax_ctp_tags-body-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-church","tax_ctp_tags-community","tax_ctp_tags-conflict","tax_ctp_tags-conflict-in-church","tax_ctp_tags-disunity","tax_ctp_tags-division","tax_ctp_tags-factions","tax_ctp_tags-fellowship","tax_ctp_tags-fighting","tax_ctp_tags-harmony","tax_ctp_tags-schism","tax_ctp_tags-strife","tax_ctp_tags-teamwork","tax_ctp_tags-unity"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Physician Warns of Spiritual Autoimmune Disease - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/physician-warns-of-spiritual-autoimmune-disease\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Physician Warns of Spiritual Autoimmune Disease - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Physician Horace Smith warns that in the church &quot;we must guard against &#039;spiritual autoimmune disease,&#039; in which spiritual white cells see normal cells within the body as enemies and try to destroy them&quot; Dr. Smith adds: Is it possible for a human body to &quot;bite and devour&quot; healthy cells, destroying life? Absolutely. 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