Essential oils - God's work or the devil's contribution?

Reading time 10 minutes

Updated - March 1, 2025

What a question: essential oils - God's work or the devil's contribution? Well, there is nothing here on earth that God has created where the devil has not had a hand in it. There are two sides to every coin, where there is light there is also shadow - and the line between the two is usually only a narrow one. A tightrope walk between good and evil.

Friedrich Schiller's ballad "Die Bürgschaft" quotes a prisoner who was carrying a dagger and was asked "What did you want with the dagger, speak?" This was an attempt to revolt against the tyrant Dionys.

This saying is often quoted today as "What do you want with the dagger, speak?" - "Cut cheese, that's all I want". This was certainly granted without hesitation. The reply "Assassinate you, you scoundrel!", on the other hand, would understandably meet with little understanding or even approval.

The quintessence of the story: the person wielding the dagger determines whether it is used for harmless cheese cutting or for killing, contrary to both human and divine commandments.

The question that arises from this is: is the dagger to be defined as divine or satanic, or is man's action to be judged in this way?
Presumably, people will tend to see man as not being led by God, but rather possessed by the devil. The dagger, on the other hand, will be classified as either a kitchen utensil or a weapon.

Man and mind

God's gifts, as mentioned at the beginning, are always given to man for his benefit. Man is given the intellect to use these gifts according to God's will.

Here we have the sore point: man and his mind. Not that one might think that man does not use his intellect appropriately. It's just that what is appropriate for one person may seem presumptuous or inappropriate for another.

Some people grow angel's trumpets in their gardens, watering them properly so that they grow large and produce magnificent flowers, just as some people may be inclined to grow the largest pumpkin in the area.
The other is less interested in the splendor of the flowers and much more in the intoxicating substances that he smokes as part of his deliberate relaxation ceremony.

Should the angel's trumpet be banned from every garden because it could be misused as an intoxicant? People will be reluctant to agree to this.

Last but not least, essential oils can also be misused by dripping them onto dried herbs and burning them as incense for deities far removed from Christianity.
Would it not be logical to ban all plants, as well as all coniferous or citrus trees, including the frankincense tree, from which essential oils can be extracted, in order to prevent such activity and save Christianity from the demonic activity of the devil?

The ridge

Dear reader, as you can see, there is a fine line. And it is not uncommon for church members to be frightened, even panicked, by church leaders, preachers, pastors, etc. who are, from a theological point of view, quite well-meaning, by proclaiming exactly what is described as throwing the baby out with the bathwater, namely: destroy all oils, it's all the devil's work. In God alone you will find salvation, you don't need a doctor, no medicine, just prayer (original quote "God works healing - no doctor, no medicine, no plant and no oil!".

The only correct thing about this sentence is that God works healing. God has given mankind all those plants with their active ingredients so that man can (responsibly) make use of them. Luke (the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament) was a physician. Medicines were already used in ancient times, e.g. willow bark for pain, honey for disinfection.

If someone suffers from insulin-dependent diabetes and, based on the above-mentioned background, is advised to stop taking insulin and instead read the Bible, pray, ask the church elders for intercession and, of course, ask God for healing, this would be tantamount to negligent homicide if he were to die of his diabetes as a result.

This inappropriate action corresponds to the inappropriate use of medicines in the same way as essential oils.
Equating the onset of illness with a person's lived sin can also lead to a mismatch between Christian faith and the need for treatment.
Anyone suffering from an impending rupture of the appendix would do well to go to hospital immediately for an emergency operation instead of waiting for the rupture because they have been told that God has sent him the disease for educational reasons. He should therefore reflect on his sinful life and confess the sins he has committed to God so that He can then allow him to recover.

Of course, nothing is impossible for God, but we should not challenge him either, but pray and act with heart, mind and understanding.

Now you might think that this is really a bit far-fetched, but it is precisely in churches that take God's word seriously and whose members are genuinely interested in living up to the word with their thoughts and actions that the authorities proclaiming the word are regarded as just that.
Their word is considered (almost) infallible and almost as binding as divine law. It is (very rarely only) questioned. In the eyes of the members of the congregation, they are often regarded as God's representative. Consequently, their word carries more weight than it is and should be justified according to the Bible.

Role model

Personally, I have often had to experience in my life that people are rarely suitable as role models in the sense of God. People like to beat their fellow human beings to death with God's word - and drive them away with it. Their outward appearance does not correspond to their words and deeds, nor to the word of God. A hospital director who is known as a Christian and only pays a bill after threatening to send a reminder is a bad role model for someone who is searching in the sense of faith.
Role models should rather be those people who are mentioned and described in God's Word. God's Word gives abundant examples of people and appropriate behavior to provide us with helpful role models as points of reference and orientation in all situations in life.

Unfortunately, the above-mentioned "authorities" are not always happy about questions from members of the congregation, the less so the more they run counter to the content of the lecture or sermon.
To the theologians' credit, in their zeal they like to overshoot the mark and are unable to tolerate, let alone accept, anything to the right or left of (their) path. If we assume, at best, that they don't mean anything "bad", it would be (more) helpful for the members of the congregation if they didn't demonize something dogmatically, but instead offered concrete help to solve the problem.

Knowledge instead of demonization

Of course, this requires an investment of time. You would have to deal more intensively with the matter in question in order to actually be able to "have a say". Half-knowledge is always dangerous and, when generalized ("everyone" does it this way ..., "everything" is esoteric), inevitably leads to excessively wrong decisions by everyone involved.
Anyone who claims that essential oils can be obtained more cheaply from online portals instead of from renowned but more expensive manufacturers fails to recognize the dangers (of which they themselves warn) associated with the use of oils of unknown origin and equally unknown concentrations of active ingredients, as well as questionable differentiation according to chemotype. If you know that different chemo types of a plant can have almost opposite effects, it should quickly become clear what dangers this can entail.

Anyone who has informed themselves about the influence of growing conditions, weather, time of harvest, etc. on the active ingredient content, the effort required for the continuous support of the farmers, how unacceptably high temperatures and increased pressures during distillation, often for profit, can change the active ingredients to the point of ineffectiveness, what analysis is required to guarantee the purity of the oils and what quality assurance measures must be taken to detect undesirable components, will quickly realize that such oils must have their price.

An example of rose oil, only concerning the harvesting process, may give a faint idea: 10,000(!) freshly picked Blossoms of 'Rosa damascena' must be harvested by hand in the early hours of the morning, before the blossom unfolds, and the leaves carefully removed from the blossom one by one in order to extract just 5 ml of rose oil from them by steam distillation on the same day.

Essential oils in the Bible

John 12:3 says "Then Mary took a pound of genuine, delicious anointing oil, anointed Jesus' feet and dried his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the smell of the anointing oil."

Nard oil is extracted from nard, a valerian plant. It has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, calming, anxiolytic and muscle-relaxing properties, promotes inner peace and sleep, balances the mood, reduces nervousness and nourishes the skin.
The topical application of the oil to Jesus' feet was therefore able to unfold its full spectrum of effects on Jesus' body. All the more so as the active ingredients reach the site of action via the soles of the feet in the second fastest way (they are absorbed olfactorily - via the sense of smell - the fastest, within around 22 seconds) -> "... the house was filled with the smell of the anointing oil.".

Let us return to the question mentioned at the beginning Essential oils - God's work or the devil's contribution? Jesus would have known how to resist Mary's act of anointing with essential oil if he had seen it as a satanic act!

Essential oils are not a modern fad, nor esoteric, but of divine origin. However, humans determine their use and are responsible for it.

Temples and merchants

Just as Jesus vehemently chased the merchants out of the temple, the house of God, the church and the premises there are to be regarded as the temple of God. They are not a market hall. Consequently, it is understandable and to be affirmed when theologians are a thorn in the side of any kind of business initiation within the church and prohibit it with the same vehemence as Jesus.

Outside the congregation, however, everyone's personal rights apply. Here, anyone can recommend the best pizza in town, hand a cough-ridden member of the congregation a sample of a helpful essential oil or answer questions about which oil is recommended for this or that.

Promise of salvation

Promise of salvation - the word can be interpreted ambiguously: That (biblical) salvation is promised, but also that (medical) healing is promised. The following considerations apply to the latter interpretation.

Even if it is more or less known that no one, except doctors and alternative practitioners, can use so-called. Promises of salvation some oil enthusiasts tend to euphorically promise the blue sky and praise essential oils as a panacea.

Apart from the fact that neither doctors nor alternative practitioners promise a cure, but can only prescribe medication that is "approved" for the treatment of this or that clinical picture.
This means that the dosage, effect and side effects are ultimately specified, certified and ultimately recommended or prescribed by the doctor or alternative practitioner on the basis of experience from research and practice.

The situation is similar with essential oils, which are also ultimately determined for therapeutic use on the basis of research and practical experience.
Just how important essential oils are can be seen from the fact that highly effective oils, which are considered to be natural cortisone or highly effective painkillers, for example, have been banned in Europe. They presumably pose too great a threat to the pharmaceutical industry's high-volume drugs.

Scientifically proven effect of essential oils

Over the last few decades, countless studies have proven the effect of essential oils on a wide variety of clinical pictures, including Pubmed, Elsevier/ScienceDirect.

Nevertheless, manufacturers are forced by law to manipulate such confirmed effects in the interests of "wellness".

In direct comparison to the drug Paracetamol (1000 mg) is the effect of Peppermint essential oil (10% diluted) is identical, as can be seen from the article Effectiveness of oleum menthae piperitae and paracetamol in the treatment of tension-type headachepublished by Springer Nature link.

However, in this example of peppermint, the manufacturer of essential oils may only claim "refreshing, vitalizing, invigorating, calming, cooling", pleasantly packaged in marketing-oriented wellness formulations.

In the position paper published by thieme-connect Scientifically based applications of essential oils quality and safety, as well as effectiveness, are presented in ten concise points.

Also published there is the article Aromatherapy: when can essential oils be used medicinally?which provides an overview of the possibilities of the therapeutic-medical application of aromatherapy.

A Bachelor thesis from 2022 Essential oils to support mental health in childhood by Alina Hillebrand (Evangelische Hochschule Nürnberg) describes the active support of the psychological immune system of children through essential oils.

As early as 11.11.2014, springerpflege.de published the article - only accessible to authorized persons - in the PflegeKolleg Complementary care of the articles Essential oils as life companions - Ancient knowledge rediscovered by Janine Ratai, pediatric nurse specializing in oncology and palliative care, coordinator of the outpatient children's hospice service Familienhafen e.V..
She summarizes the conclusion for nursing care accordingly:

• Not a playground for amateurs
• Handling, selection, preparation and application must be expert and appropriate
• Proven very good effect on mood disorders such as sleep problems, dementia, depression
• Ideally suited accompanying support in all areas of care for the elderly, (children's) sick, hospice and palliative care, facilities for physically/mentally disabled people
• Holistic effect, strengthening of the psyche

A Master's thesis by Sonja Wiesmann, FH Campus Vienna, from 07.2020 with the title Stress prophylaxis with essential oils in hospitals comes to the conclusion that stress prophylaxis with essential oils has been shown to be recommendable and that further studies on this would be helpful for a more targeted application in medical facilities.

Everyday life

For understandable reasons, theologians want their congregants to spend as much time as possible studying God's word, praying, etc. However, what is everyday life for them, as professional theologians, is completely different for most members of the congregation. Sleep is an absolute necessity for everyone. Household chores, bringing up children and work take up almost all of the rest of the day. Leisure time is often recognized as a foreign word rather than an integral part of everyday life, and vacations are often more of a luxury than affordable for everyone. At best, God's word is only heard every morning, a short prayer at mealtimes and then the church service on Sundays.

Surely we all agree that if we were God and saw ourselves with this "attention" from the children of men, we would probably say "Do what you want, you know everything better anyway and besides, you can do everything on your own, goodbye!" God's generosity, long-suffering and - undeserved - grace towards us cannot be paid for with anything, we cannot do justice to Him if Jesus had not given His life for us on the cross for our shortcomings and sins in order to make us just in God's eyes.

If we let this melt in our mouths, then it would be more than appropriate for us to spend far more time with God's Word.
Everyday life takes up the lion's share of our time. Our jobs usually require us to work 8.5 hours, often with travel times of 2 - 4 hours, i.e. around half of the 24-hour day.
Self-employed people often work even longer and even manage 16-hour working days.

Profession

Anyone who sees essential oils as their job, who has completed training, learned the basics, as well as application possibilities and types, and has dealt extensively with the chemistry of the oils, ingredients, modes of action, etc., is quickly targeted by those theologians who criticize the time spent here and advise that it is better to spend time with God's word rather than with such things. On the other hand, they also complain about the lack of education in dealing with such oils. Would they also give this advice to prospective doctors or pharmacists?

The doctor or pharmacist should explain the effects AND side effects of medication. But, let's be honest, when has a patient ever read a patient information leaflet in full and had it explained by a doctor or pharmacist?

The dangers of improperly prescribed or ingested medications, such as essential oils, should always be of importance and therefore of fundamental significance. It is therefore just as essential that those who recommend medicines or essential oils are properly trained as those who use them. The latter in particular is just as lacking in the case of purchases made on online platforms as it is in the case of all online purchases, which lack any advice that is necessarily individualized in the health sector.

Unfortunately, there are black sheep in every industry, including among doctors, alternative practitioners and aromatherapists, to stay on topic.

Those who see their profession as a calling will put their heart and soul into it and put in a great deal of time and effort (disproportionate in economic terms) in order to be able to respond to the individual needs of those seeking advice. Meetings lasting up to two hours are not uncommon, neither for aromatherapists nor alternative practitioners. They reflect the complexity of the human being, the psyche, physical health and therapeutic possibilities.
If we look at the statistical average time that a doctor has available for a patient consultation, we are amazed when, for example, we end up with around 1.5 minutes for a dermatologist and 7.5 minutes for a general practitioner.

In addition, training and further education, the acquisition and study of specialist literature, studies in online portals, mostly in English, the attention and time invested in the patient or person seeking help have a financial and time-related impact.

Conclusion

The church has always exerted great influence, often abusively. The victims have been the (good) believers in financial, human and faith-related areas. The alleged authority of theology should never be understood as doctrine, but should always be measured and validated against the biblical word of God.

Achieving this requires open ears on both sides, the willingness to engage in a largely objective exchange with each other and to invest time in order to gain the knowledge required for mutual understanding and to be able to develop and offer solutions on an equal footing.

If this is persistently rejected, thwarted or denied by theology, healthy skepticism should question the "doctrine". Those who sincerely and truly stand in the Word of God will neither anonymously nor over the heads of believers try to impose something that is not compatible with God's will.

Let us use our God-given intellect for the sensible and appropriate use of the plants also given to us by God and the essential oils obtained from them for their intended purpose, in order to care for the body that He has perfectly designed for us and to keep it healthy - in accordance with His Word, for His glory and for our blessing.