“The Nature of a Religious Revival” in The Revival of Religion. Addresses by Scottish Evangelical Leaders Delivered in Glasgow in 1840
If a physician were so little acquainted with the true nature of the human frame, and the diseases to which it is liable, as constantly to mistake secondary symptoms for primary maladies, and regulate his treatment of patients accordingly, every intelligent person would certainly regard him as (ignorant), and would place no confidence in his opinions and directions.
Closing editorial in the first issue of "The Banner of Truth", September 1955 by Iain Murray and Sidney Norton
A great part of knowledge lies in the knowledge of causes; the true cause of a disease found out goes far to the reaching of the cure.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Truth Unchanged, Unchanging
It is a poor physician who treats the symptoms and complications only and ignores the disease.
Preaching and Preachers
The preacher does not need to know these particular detailed facts about the people because he knows that there is this common general need...He know that all the people in front of him are suffering from the same disease which is sin - every one of them.
The primary task of the church is not to educate man, is not to heal him physically or psychologically. It is not to make him happy. I will go further; it is not even to make him good. It is rather to put man into the right relationship with God, to reconcile man to God.
Healing and Medicine, p. 114
It is dangerous to eliminate symptoms before the diagnosis has been assured...The Christian faith must not allow itself to be used as a mere palliative. It may otherwise hide from the patient his real condition and prevent his arriving at a deeper understanding of his ultimate need.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years by Iain Murray
p. 80
We [physicians] spend most of our time rendering people fit to go back to their sin...I saw that I was helping these men to sin and I decided that I would do no more of it. I want to heal souls. If a man has a diseased body and his soul is all right, he is all right to the end; but a man with a healthy body and a diseased soul is all right for sixty years or so and then he has to face an eternity of hell.
p. 86 in an address at the Pontypridd Conference of the Union of Welsh Societies, April 1924
If a man goes to a doctor with a bad liver as the result of constant drinking of alcoholic beverages and the doctor says to him, “Well, of course, you are not well. I will give you some medicine and then perhaps you will be well.”, is that man likely to get well? Of course not, because he has not been told the cause of his trouble. The only thing to do with that man is to tell him plainly that his troubles are all due to the drink and that if he persists in drinking there is no hope for him. Keep on telling him until you make him think, then he will realise the truth.
p. 94
If bodily suffering justifies care for people, what kind of concern is warranted for those who are shut out from the presence of God? However much sickness can be alleviated, men must still die, and die deserving hell, unless they be first reconciled to God through Christ.
p. 96 regarding the Temperance Movement
Men and women needed to become ‘temperate’, not only with respect to alcohol, but in all matters and the only way to do that is to make them Christians. It was not ‘the pledge’ but the knowledge of Christ which was needed.
“Diagnosing the Human Soul”
As a doctor, it didn’t take long for Lloyd-Jones to notice his patients getting worse despite his prescriptions. The failure of some treatments was not the fault of his medical expertise. Rather, he realized that medicine failed when the root problems of his patients’ ailments were wrongly diagnosed. Some were not merely medical issues in the first place. Lloyd-Jones realized that beneath a person’s physical well-being was a deeper reality, a spiritual one that could not be healed by a pill or scalpel. Therefore, to help his patients comprehensively, he needed to become something more than a master in the medical field. He needed to become a master at diagnosing the human soul.
The Plight of Man and the Power of God
The Gospel works - it is "the power of God unto salvation'. (Romans 1:16) It changes and transforms everything. It brings peace and rest to the soul and victory in live. The Gospel alone faces and exposes, and really deals with, the fundamental problem of man and his needs (cleansing and forgiveness of sin, restoration of our relationship with our Creator Father, power over sin, Satan, the world and self)...it alone has the correct diagnosis and remedy. The Gospel works for everyone, for anyone, for all...it centres on (what all men) share in common - sin and rebellion against God, failure in our lives, and a sense of shame. It demolishes all distinctions by placing us all together before God.
https://www.mlj.org.uk/biography/
His style was that of sharp clinical diagnosis, analysing the worldly view, showing its futility in dealing with the power and persistence of evil, and contrasting the Christian view, its logic, its realism and its power.
Baptised With Heavenly Power, " Theology of Preaching", p. 243, referencing Preaching and Preachers, p. 125-133
Unlike the physician who needs to enquire carefully about a patient's symptoms and his medical history before examining him further, the preacher does not need to know all the personal facts about his congregation. He knows that all of them are suffering from the same disease - sin. The preacher is not primarily dealing with symptoms but with the disease itself.
Healing and the Scriptures, from lectures delivered by Lloyd-Jones to the Christian Medical Fellowship and British Medical Association 1953-1974
http://hcf-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Healing-and-the-Scriptures-Dr-Martyn-Lloyd-Jones.pdf
Rev. Drew Hause M.D.
It is critical for both physicians of the body and physicians of the soul to differentiate between the primary disease (the root causes of illness) and secondary symptoms arising from the primary condition. The underlying disease must be accurately diagnosed in order to effectively treat the patient’s problem. Medical doctors treat diseases, not symptoms, and to do otherwise is dangerous; narcotics could be given to relieve a headache, while the brain tumor remains undiagnosed.
Physicians of the soul must start with the underlying problem – sin and separation from God – not the complications/manifestations of sin. And then prescribe the appropriate Biblical therapy for sin in general (reconciliation with God through repentance and surrender to Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior), and for the specific sin.
Interview 2025 with The Christian Heritage Center, "The Influence Of Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones On A Medical Doctor"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o6RDvc0bFA
https://christianheritagecenter.us/
https://www.youtube.com/@christianheritagecenter
CAUTION
Richard Greenham Grave Counsels, Godly Observations, & Divine Aphorisms
(There is danger that) the bodily physician will look no further than the body; while the spiritual physician will totally disregard the body, and look only at the mind.