There is a theory in virology that grants great intelligence and autonomy to your creator-designed body. Terrain theory is it’s name.

Terrain Theory describes the human body as either a healthy or unhealthy landscape. An unhealthy body either recognizes it’s need to “clean up” or is directed by God to “clean up”. The body utilizes one of the many options in the world around us to accomplish that goal. This theory makes sense to many because we can see that there are some who are healthy and don’t get sick. Or at least they appear to not get sick as often or as severely as others. We can also see that there are some who seem to get sick all the time. In addition, scientists that study air quality have informed us that viruses, bacteria, fungi and other potentially disease causing substances are present in the air around us all of the time. Specifically, there are around 1,000,000 virus particles in every single cubic meter of air. (1) Since each adult breathes about 2 cubic meters of air per hour (2), that’s somewhere around two million virus particles going in and out of your body every hour of every day.

So we are surrounded by viruses. Via Terrain Theory we get sick when the body needs a good cleaning.

Perhaps the body of Christ needs a good cleaning too. Like our creator-designed human bodies, the body of Christ, that is The Church, is surrounded by sin. Sin comes in many forms. We’re human, we can pretty much make just about anything into a sin, we’re gifted that way. You might say that the body of Christ breathes 2 million sins per hour. It’s actually probably more than that.

Germ Theory however, states that if you encounter a virus, it will force you to be sick. If we apply this to the body of Christ we would say that you are forced to participate in every sin. Satan would really like that plan.

Whether you ascribe Germ Theory or Terrain Theory, to the body of Christ, we should decide who we think is in charge. Is God in charge, like in Terrain Theory? Is God using the circumstances around us to cleanse the church? Or is Satan in charge, like in Germ Theory? Is it Satan who is directing our world to divide and weaken the body of Christ? Either way, it’s us. It’s our sin, our failure to follow God, that is making the body of Christ sick.

(For a connection between sin and sickness read Mark 2:1-12)

(1) https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.5b00050
(2) https://iqpowertools.com/air-how-much-do-i-breathe/