The Mold Epidemic and God’s Perfect Prescription

How far is eternity from here?  How long is your life?  The prayer of Moses, the man of God, is recorded in Psalms 90.  It reads in part in verses 9-12:

9  For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

10  The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

11  Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

12  So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Have you taken time to number your days?  The Moses who penned God’s Word in the above passage has been dead for around 3,500 years.  The Bible compares our lives to a vapor—now you see it; now you don’t.  The scriptures also direct us to be “redeeming the time” (Ephesians 5:16).  You can buy back time by becoming born-again and converting the rest of your days unto the Cross of Christ.  Would you like to have a brand-new life where all sin and shame has been erased?  Would you like to have a life filled with God’s grace and everlasting promise?  We have good news for you.  Today is your day of salvation.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for short, simple instructions to find entry into the Kingdom of God.  Do it now while you still have the opportunity.  Soon, all reading this message will “fly away”—as written by Moses.  Number your days.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Leviticus 14:33-53:

33  And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

34  When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession;

35  And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house:

36  Then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house:

37  And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow streaks, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall;

39  And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house;

40  Then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city:

41  And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place:

42  And they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house.

43  And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plastered;

44  Then the priest shall come and look, and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean.

45  And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.

46  Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even.

47  And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes.

48  And if the priest shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house was plastered: then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed.

49  And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:

50  And he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water:

51  And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times:

52  And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet:

53  But he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house: and it shall be clean.

MAN SAID:  According to toxicologist Dr. Ronald E. Gots, “There is no good science today that relates any mycotoxin-related disease to indoor environmental exposures to mold.”

Now THE RECORD.  GodSaidManSaid is committed to the defense of the inerrant Word of God found in the majority-text.  On this site, there are presently 386 subjects archived in text and streaming audio.  The number of subjects grows by one, God-willing, every Thursday eve.  They prove scholastically and pragmatically that God is, that He authored the scriptures, and that He will judge all men according to His Word at a very soon-coming judgment day.  These truths are marvelous to consider.  Thousands of years before modern science began to understand the truth on a given subject, God declares it with wisdom and insights that only the Creator could know.  It is proof after proof that God IS!

When God stresses a particular issue, you can rest assured that there is very good reason for it.  It was big news when Lord Carnarvon and 26 of his colleagues died mysterious deaths shortly after their opening of King Tut’s tomb.  Many attributed the deaths to the curse of the tomb.  However, it wasn’t until later that scientific studies showed that Tut’s tomb was infested with extremely toxic mold spores at the time of its opening.  All the men who entered breathed in the spores.  Identifying mold, and areas that produce mold, is vital in protecting oneself from the harmful effects.  A quick internet search of mold-related sicknesses will bring up personal stories in discussion forums of people suffering terrible afflictions.  These include awakening with bleeding, loss of eyesight, and even infant death—all as a result of living in a home infested with mold.  All the while, their landlords and doctors tell them that it’s “just some harmless mildew.” 

As in the Bible, today there are certified experts that identify and diagnose mold infestation.  Mold appears in patchy streaks or hollow strakes.  Depending on the type of mold and where it’s found, it is reddish, greenish or black, and will have varying levels of toxicity.

In the Bible, when mold or mildew was found in the house, and it could not be remedied, God commanded that the entire house be torn down and its rubble taken out of the camp, away from the people.  Today’s mainstream “experts” take a rather middle-of-the-road position in relation to mold.  Organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Institute of Medicine warn of the dangers of mold, but liken them to allergic reactions such as nasal stuffiness, eye irritation, wheezing, and skin irritation.  They claim to have no evidence of a link between chronic diseases and mold exposure.  God, on the other hand, took the issue very seriously.  He said that anyone who ate in the house or even entered the house was considered unclean.  We now know that mold spores float through the air and can be inhaled by anyone in the vicinity.  A little later on in the Bible, God stresses the importance of diligently taking heed to these commandments.  Deuteronomy 24:8:

Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so ye shall observe to do.

Do you think perhaps God was trying to warn them of something many experts still can’t figure out today?  According to the Department of Health and Human Services, seven out of 10 Americans who die each year, die as a result of a chronic illness.  The medical care of people with chronic diseases accounts for more than 75% of our nation’s $2-trillion overall medical care costs.  With all the political discussion about fixing the health care system in the U.S., a good start would be to figure out why so many Americans are suffering from chronic diseases. 

A proper definition of the word leprosy is in order.  Although today’s classification of leprosy is limited to Hansen’s disease, it is apparent that numerous bacterial and fungal infections were classified as leprosy in the Bible.  Here’s a quote from a biology professor at Liberty University, Dr. Alan Gillen:

In the Old Testament, the instances of leprosy most likely meant a variety of infectious skin diseases, and even mold and mildew on clothing and walls.  [End of quote]

Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker is a world-renowned expert and pioneer in the area of biotoxic illness.  He has written volumes on the subject.  The following excerpts are from his website, http://www.chronicneurotoxins.com/info/research.cfm:                                                                    

If you’re like many Americans today, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of people around you seem to be struggling with “chronic” ailments marked by a distinctive grouping of symptoms, including fatigue, headaches, muscle aches, pain in joints, abdominal cramps, sensitivity to bright light, blurred vision, difficulty concentrating and short‑term memory lapses.  As a family practice physician, I’ve been surprised to hear so many patients ticking off these same symptoms during the past few years . . . after telling me how they were recently diagnosed with such vague and difficult-to-pin-down diseases such as “chronic fatigue syndrome,” “chronic Lyme disease,” “sick‑building syndrome” and even “fibromyalgia” (a catch‑all term for an ailment that may not be a distinct entity).  When large numbers of patients first began showing up in my Maryland medical practice with these repeated complaints about five years ago, I was baffled as to the cause of their illness.  Some of these suffering and demoralized patients did, indeed, appear to be struggling with a form of Lyme disease that never went away . . . regardless of the number of antibiotics and other medications doctors prescribed for them.  But it was also true that many other patients with the Lyme‑like symptoms described above clearly were not infected with the bacterium (Borrelia) that causes Lyme disease.  What was going on here?

Scratching my head, I asked myself: Was there perhaps an invisible connection that linked these symptoms to a disease mechanism we didn’t understand?  Fascinated, I went to work.  It took me two years of steady research and hundreds of interviews with patients before I finally began to unravel the medical mystery at work behind all these endlessly repeating symptoms.  The invisible link was “biotoxins” – poisonous chemical compounds that travel with impunity through the human body.  These tiny molecules shuttle from nerve to muscle to brain to sinus to G.I. tract and other organs in a continual circuit, while triggering the symptoms we define as “biotoxin‑related illness.”  As recent research clearly demonstrates, the compounds are manufactured by a growing number of microorganisms that have begun thriving in our ecosystem.  While some are genetically altered products of the Chemical Age, others were spawned by changes in the human ecosystem, such as the recent expansion of the suburbs into the countryside, which brought increasing numbers of humans into contact with the deer ticks that spread Lyme disease.  Although the ecological dynamics responsible for the surge in biotoxin‑producing “bugs” are complex, the bottom‑line results can be easily understood.  They tell us, quite simply, that toxin‑forming microorganisms have brought a new kind of disease into our world—a pathology in which bacteria, fungi, algae and other tiny organisms have “learned” how to manufacture toxins that linger on in the human body, long after the organisms themselves are dead.  [End of quote]

As mentioned above, these biotoxins creep into our bodies through numerous sources, one of which is mold.  Schools, offices, and other buildings with mold infestations as a result of poor ventilation have resulted in a condition known as “sick-building syndrome.”  Entire groups of people who frequent these buildings become sick and suffer from the same symptoms.  OSHA estimates that 20 million American workers (or 15% of the workforce) and 10 million school children (out of 70 million total) may be affected by the SBS fungi.  The following story is from the UM Connection, the newspaper of the Baltimore-Washington conference of the United Methodist Church:                                                                                                                                                           

“We have been very sick,” reports Martha Knight, associate financial officer who is responsible for managing the conference center near downtown Columbia.  “I know it is hard for people to understand that such a little thing as mold can make you sick, but I’m here to tell you it can.”

As her symptoms grew worse in 2002, Knight said she was feeling numbness in the ends of her fingers.  She and others have experienced a wide range of symptoms, such as tingling in their feet and legs, all‑over body aches and breathing problems.

The Rev. Louis Shockley’s office was the epicenter of the mold outbreak.  He suffered eye irritations and massive headaches for up to two years, but visits to several doctors—including tests and medications—failed to yield a diagnosis or a remedy.

“I had been complaining about a variety of illnesses,” said Shockley, superintendent of the Baltimore West District.  “I had problems with feet swelling and legs swelling, and eventually, very difficult neurological problems that nobody seemed to be able to pinpoint.”

At that point, testing began around the building, Shockley said, because other people started to complain.  A long drought and heavy November rains led to the discovery of structural problems in his area.

“When they (inspectors) got to my office, they suddenly threw me out, and determined that the damage in the building had actually started in my office.  Much of what was going on with me¼was probably related to this.”

Shockley, at times, could barely move or control his body.  “There were times in public when I would have to shut down because I couldn’t get out of the chair,” he said.  “Several times, I’ve been driving a car and had to pull off (the road) for three or four hours at a time.  It was really becoming a major problem for me.”

Shockley was told to check and see if his health problems were related to the building problems.

By the time he visited a toxicologist, he was told he had lost one‑fourth of his cognitive abilities and a fourth of his nerve tendons.  “So, they started pumping the shots in my system,” he said, “and almost within three weeks after that, I started feeling much better.”  [End of quote]

The biotoxic problem in our society has become an epidemic.  Stories like the one above are far from rare.  Although sources for these biotoxins are numerous, the result is the same.  Many people go on for years with these debilitating symptoms and never discover the cause of the problem.  Often they are misdiagnosed as having depression or some other mental problem. 

Removing toxic mold from a building can be a difficult process.  Surface mold, according to the EPA, can be wiped clean, but when it is “in sight lower than the wall” (Leviticus 14:37), listen to the recommended procedure provided on OSHA’s website (and compare it to Leviticus 14:40-42):                                                           

The purpose of mold remediation is to correct the moisture problem and to remove moldy and contaminated materials to prevent human exposure and further damage to building materials and furnishings. Porous materials that are wet and have mold growing on them may have to be discarded because molds can infiltrate porous substances and grow on or fill in empty spaces or crevices. This mold can be difficult or impossible to remove completely.

As a general rule, simply killing the mold, for example, with biocide is not enough. The mold must be removed, since the chemicals and proteins, which can cause a reaction in humans, are present even in dead mold.  [End of quote]

Mold requires sufficient water moisture and ventilation to form.  In the Bible, after a mold problem was discovered, the house was to be shut up for seven days.  At the end of the seven days, it would be checked to see if the problem had worsened.  Now consider the technique used by some commercial mold assessment and remediation companies of today.  The following is from the mold-care company, Moldmart:

Also, use mold test kits to mold test the air of each room, attic, basement, crawl space, and the outward air flow [if electricity is on] from each heating/cooling duct register for the possible presence of elevated levels of airborne mold spores, in comparison to an outdoor mold control test.  You should repeat this testing of the air every 7 days so that you can determine if the mold situation is under control or out of control. You should also be photographing and testing any new mold growths.  [End of quote]

Unless a house has been very poorly neglected, or if it’s a product of bad design and placement, rarely is an entire house infested with mold.  But in rare cases where it does affect the whole house, it is scripturally defined as a “fretting leprosy” (fretting refers to corrosive damage done to the material by the mold).  In these situations it is necessary to completely tear the place down.  In the Bible, all of the material removed from the house was to be taken outside the camp and deposited in a designated unclean place away from the people.  The following information on mold is also from OSHA, under the title “Disposal of Damaged Materials:”

Building materials and furnishings contaminated with mold growth that are not salvageable should be placed in sealed impermeable bags or closed containers while in the remediation area.  These materials can usually be discarded as ordinary construction waste.  It is important to package mold‑contaminated materials in this fashion to minimize the dispersion of mold spores.  Large items with heavy mold growth should be covered with polyethylene sheeting and sealed with duct tape before being removed from the remediation area.  Some jobs may require the use of dust‑tight chutes to move large quantities of debris to a dumpster strategically placed outside a window in the remediation area.  [End of quote]

GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 24:8:

Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so ye shall observe to do.

MAN SAID:  According to toxicologist Dr. Ronald E. Gots, “There is no good science today that relates any mycotoxin-related disease to indoor environmental exposures to mold.”

Now you have THE RECORD.

References:

Authorized King James Version

www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n3/the-disease-that-shuns

www.chronicneurotoxins.com