THE Seventh-day Adventist Church in America has among its membership a relatively high ratio of physicians—about one in a hundred—seven times greater than in the country in general.
Physicians are a select group and constitute a highly educated segment of our church membership. What is the church doing to capitalize on their influence? What opportunity is being provided them to contribute to church objectives at their level of training and competence? What voice is given them in planning the church program? Are they being accorded their rightful place in contributing to the success of the church?
Even a cursory inspection of the wealth of instruction on medical missionary work in the writings of Ellen G. White impresses one that God's intention is that the Adventist physician is to play a meaningful role. There is no suggestion that they were to be trained merely for private practice or secular employment, but to be medical evangelists, or medical ministers. There was to be no separation between them and the gospel minister.
If you are a Christian and a competent physician, you are qualified to do tenfold more good as a missionary for God than if you were to go forth merely as a preacher of the word.—Counsels on Health, p. 504.
"The Christian physician has a high calling. With his fuller knowledge of the human system and its laws, he is in a position to preach the gospel of salvation with much efficiency and power." —Quoted in Review and Herald, Oct. 29, 1914, p. 5.
To a physician who contemplated entering private practice Ellen White wrote:
"You are not your own. You have been bought with a price. Your time, your talents, every jot of your influence, is the Lord's. You are His servant. Your part is to do His bidding, and learn daily of Him. You are not to set up in business for yourself. This is not the Lord's plan."—Medical Ministry, pp. 44, 45.
The medical missionary as a gospel minister is to be ordained and sustained from the tithe.
The work of the true medical missionary is largely a spiritual work. It includes prayer and the lading on of hands; he therefore should be as sacredly set apart for his work as is the minister of the gospel. Those who are selected to act the part of missionary physicians, are to he set apart as such. This will strengthen them against the temptation to withdraw from the sanitarium work to engage in private practice. No selfish motive should be allowed to draw the worker from his post of duty.—Evangelism, p. 546.
Sonic, who do not see the advantage of educating the youth to be physicians both of the mind and of the body, say that the tithe should not be used to support medical missionaries, who devote their time to treating the sick. In response to such statements as these, I am instructed to say that the mind must not become so narrowed down that it cannot take in the truth of the situation. A minister of the gospel, who is also a medical missionary, who can cure physical ailments, is a much more efficient worker than one who cannot do this. His work as a minister of the gospel is much more complete.—Medical Ministry, p. 245.
This statement is significant as the tithe is to be used only in support of the gospel ministry.
Set apart the tithe as a separate fund, to be sacredly the Lord's. This fund should not in any case be devoted to any other use; it is to be devoted solely to support the ministry of the gospel.—Counsels on Stewardship, p. 81.
What Is the Biblical Basis for an Adventist Physician Being a Minister?
The Scriptures indicate that the gospel ministry is broader than the traditional concept. It includes ministry to the physical as well as to the spiritual nature of man.
Christ stands before us as the pattern Man, the great Medical Missionary—an example for all who should come after. . . . We are to do the same work that the great Medical Missionary undertook in our behalf.—Medical Ministry, p. 20.
In reading the word of God, we see that Christ brought medical missionary work into His minis try. Cannot our eyes be opened to discern Christ's methods? Cannot we understand the commission He gave to His disciples and to us?—Ibid., p. 246.
The commission here referred to is re corded in Mark 3:14, 15: "And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils."
Too many consider the words of verse 14, which ends with a comma, as the complete commission and ignore the fifteenth verse which is an essential part. Preaching is very important but it is not all there is to ministerial responsibility. A minister who preaches only is not complete. Every preaching minister, to adequately fill his role, should have some medical training.
The minister will often be called upon to act the part of a physician. He should have a training that will enable him to administer the simpler remedies for the relief of suffering. Ministers and Bible workers should prepare themselves for this line of work; for in doing it, they are following the example of Christ. They should be well prepared by education and practice to combat disease of the body as they are to heal the sin-sick soul by pointing to the Great Physician. They are fulfilling the commission Christ gave to the twelve and after wards to the seventy.—Ibid., p. 253.
You will never be ministers after the gospel order till you show a decided interest in medical missionary work, the gospel of healing and blessing and strengthening.—General Conference Bulletin, April 12, 1901, p. 204.
This principle of a combined ministry is emphasized in Luke. The record of the first evangelistic campaign—the prototype —is in Luke 9:1, 2: "Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick."
That this twofold ministry was to continue after His ascension is indicated by Christ's last recorded words. "And he said unto them, . . . Lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven" (Mark 16:15-19).
The first Adventist medical school was named The American Medical Missionary College. Incorporated in Illinois in 1895, its purpose as stated in the first announcement was to give a thorough scientific medical education and train medical missionaries. As this college closed its doors in 1910, a successor, The College of Medical Evangelists, was opened in California. This name, chosen in consultation with Ellen G. White, signified that a graduate was to be a special kind of physician. He was to be a qualified, State-recognized Doctor of Medicine and also an evangelist—a gospel minister.
The original plan for training physicians at Loma Linda was thus stated:
First,—To plan for a five-year medical course, since it is manifestly impossible without over crowding the curriculum to give in four years all that is essential and necessary in the usual medical and scientific lines together with Bible, pastoral training, instruction in hydrotherapy and other physiologic means, dietetics, etc., and allow time for practical experience in medical and evangelistic work.—The Medical Evangelist, Fourth Quarter, 1909, p. 34.
Ellen G. White's words were quoted in the same issue:
"Loma Linda is to be not only a sanitarium, but an educational center. A school is to be established here for the training of gospel medical missionary evangelists."—Ibid., p. 2.
Not only was the Adventist physician— medical evangelist—to heal bodies but he was also to minister in preaching. A physician-preacher may, in certain circumstances, be more successful in public evangelism than others.
Too often so many things engage the minds of physicians that they are kept from the work that God would have them do as evangelists. Let the medical workers present the important truths of the third angel's message from the physician's viewpoint. Physicians of consecration and talent can secure a hearing in large cities at times when other men would fail. As physicians unite with ministers in proclaiming the gospel in the great cities of the land, their combined labors will result in influencing many minds in favor of the truth for this time. . . . The ordained ministers alone are not equal to the task.—Medical Ministry, p. 248.
Present the importance of present truth from the physician's standpoint. The Lord has declared that the educated physician will find entrance in our cities where other men cannot. Teach the message of health reform. This will have an influence with the people.—Ibid., p. 242.
When you make the people intelligent on the question of health reform, you have prepared the way for them to give attention to the present truth for these last days.—Counsels to Writers and Editors, p. 125.
The presenting of Bible principles by an intelligent physician will have great weight with many people. There is efficiency and power with one who can combine in his influence the work of a physician and of a gospel minister. His work com mends itself to the good judgment of the people.—Counsels on Health, p. 546.
Can the church continue to relegate this select and capable group to the sidelines? Is the Adventist physician to continue with the status of a layman, valued largely for his tithe-paying potential? Is his money worth more than his ministry? Is his expertise to be lost to the achieving of church objectives and instead to be used largely in building a fortune, or in serving the world? Is it not time to accord him the recognition and responsibility that is his God-given right?
Some suggestions with which to start:
1. Appoint physicians full time, as health department secretaries in the union and local conferences.
2. Create a local church position of minister of health, or similar title, and appoint a physician as a co-partner with the pastor.
3. Form full-time ministerial-medical evangelistic teams.
4. Form full-time physicians' evangelistic teams to work selected cities.
5. Establish a Department of Medical Evangelism at Andrews University and in other Seventh-day Adventist colleges with full-time physician teachers to provide essential medical-missionary training to theology students.
Not only should the Adventist physician be a "gospel minister" but every minister should be a "medical missionary."
