WHY is it, that you as a minister and theologian are so involved in the promotion of physical fitness? Is not this area rather far removed from theology?"
These questions were asked of a professor from Union Theological Seminary on a recent popular television program. I listened with deep interest to the interview, because this is an area concerning which there exists widespread and often profound misunderstanding. It was really a typical situation —representatives of the public wondering why a minister of religion dabbled in questions of physical welfare!
The reactions of these men to the preacher's active inter est in health did not come as a surprise to me. A pronounced segregation exists between health and religion, in spite of several formal attempts on the part of representatives from both groups to overcome it.
It seems unfortunate that even among our own people, who have been commissioned by God to announce the final mes sage of salvation, this segregation persists to an amazing degree in spite of the fact that we have done much to clarify the unity of the person.
We are thankful to God for the progress that has been made by our people toward this end. But because of the added information granted us by Heaven, our responsibility lies in the full and complete implementation of Heaven's principles.
As Seventh-day Adventists we know that right will eventually triumph over wrong, righteousness over sin. This triumph, how ever, must be achieved in the human personality, in his body., as well as in his mind. In fact, without mastery over the body, there is little or no hope for righteousness. Physical stamina will accompany stamina in righteousness. Vigor of body will characterize God's last-day people. This vigor is not a mere by-product of obedience to God's laws. It is the direct result. And it is more. High-level physical fitness is a must for those who will experience the imminent grueling test of faith. God's remnant people will possess the ability to sustain fatigue, prolonged hunger, and relentless pressure. Let us not indulge in the fanciful dream that this stamina is imparted simply by faith. If God gave it then He will also give it now. But our Creator gives added strength only to those who meet the conditions daily discipline and close adherence to the rules of health. No doubt, God will add His strength to those weakened through no fault of their own. But the ability to survive the hard ships that will come upon God's people will depend on their present preparation. The responsibility for this preparation falls upon the shepherds of the flocks. It is our task under God, first, to train ourselves sufficiently in technical know-how, and second, to teach our people the essential knowledge of preventive medicine and to inspire them to apply this knowledge in their private lives.
Increase Your Faith—Through Healthful Living
When we have done our best in this vital area of physical development, then, to be sure, righteousness is still a matter of pure faith. But surely none of us can conceive of a pure and living faith that deliberately or through sheer carelessness omits a constant program of self-improvement and self-discipline. Health, with its resultant growth in hope, mental alertness, and determination to understand God's requirements, makes faith more effective.
The maintenance of health, we already know, is a sacred duty. But again, and more explicitly, why? Because it supplants faith in the acquisition of righteousness? Never! The remnant church does not believe in righteousness through health "re form," any more than through Sabbath observance. But is it not true that righteousness may be effectually lost through a willful neglect of either?
Sabbath observance and healthful living are not merely products of our faith in God. They are that. But they are more. They are also means. Spiritual Sabbath observance is a delightful means, an efficient tool, placed in our hands to kindle and to maintain the all-essential faith. So is also whatever knowledge of hygiene and physiology we may acquire.
I may, of course, as hosts of non-Christians do, promote good health and teach preventive medicine merely to increase my self-reliance and to boost my efforts at spiritual self-help. Christians have a nobler reason. They remember God's commands to ancient Israel. The prospects placed be fore them were grand and glorious. Through good health the Lord sought to elevate them above the other nations. God's heartfelt purpose was to make them peculiar in every pleasant and impressive sense. He knew that as long as a creature serves his own pleasures selfishly and uses his body carelessly there is no way of lifting him out of sin. Had Israel of the past followed all God's rules out of genuine love they would have been the wonder of the world.
God's thrilling purposes still stand. They are for everyone who joins himself to modern Israel. Are we going to be as disobedient as were the ancients? Or will we so relate ourselves to the principles of preventive medicine as to permit God to use us in His closing demonstration to the world? God knows our helplessness in sin. He understands our total inability to re store ourselves. But He has also given us the tools of cooperation. Whatever faith does in relation to God (and this we should understand), healthful living is of the essence if we would maintain the proper relationship.
Is Indifference Postponing the Loud Cry?
Healthful living, even if done persistently, will not of itself usher in the final loud cry of our messengers. But make no mistake, indifference and neglect can very effectively postpone it. Health, to be sure, is only a means, but an indispensable one. Purity and vigor of body and mind is God's means to restore His image in us. We do not advocate health as a work to gain merit before God. Righteousness is obtained by trust alone. But man must do his very utmost to exercise that trust. He must cooperate with the Almighty.
Has not the time fully come for us as ministers, under God, to open a new and final chapter in the proclamation of the message that is to prepare a people for the coming of Jesus? And a part of that message calls for an emphasis on prevention of sickness among God's people. Cure, restoration to health, is a costly process both in terms of equipment and personnel. Recovery from illness by means of medical equipment will of course remain a part of our program till the end. But have we really begun to place priority upon prevention? Although physicians, nurses, and other professional people in our institutions are inserting bits of information here and there on how to avoid relapses and recurrences, prevention of disease as a characteristic phenomenon among God's remnant people can be achieved only when our ministers, who are most intimately related to their members, will assume their role in imparting necessary instruction on these lines.
Cutting Down on Apostasies
We bemoan our numerous apostasies, and rightly so. Would we not agree that an astonishingly large number would not have occurred if these individuals had been sufficiently instructed in the sanctity of body-mind relationships and been given adequate information regarding bodily functions? Have we honestly faced all the implications of the complete unity of the human personality?
Let us bring the training and the work of the Adventist ministry up to date in keeping with Spirit of Prophecy counsels. Science is today emphasizing this direction. In fact, Paul Harvey, news commentator, in his TV broadcast of March 18, 1969, predicted that within twenty years most of the work in the field of medicine would be in the area of prevention rather than cure.
Before its time, however, prophetic counsel has urged us on in this matter. We have repeated slogans long enough. Let us now busy ourselves with studying sufficiently about the laws of our bodies that we may stand before our people as true Adventist ministers, who preach a complete message of deliverance from sinful practices in both body and mind.
The Divine Counsel
Listen again to God's own counsel:
In teaching health principles, keep before the mind the great object of reform that its purpose is to secure the highest development of body and mind and soul. Show that the laws of nature, being the laws of God, are designed for our good; that obedience to them promotes happiness in this life, and aids in the preparation for the life to come.
Lead the people to study the manifestation of God's love and wisdom in the works of nature. Lead them to study that marvelous organism, the human system, and the laws by which it is governed. Those who perceive the evidences of God's love, who understand something of the wisdom and beneficence of His laws, and the results of obedience, will come to regard their duties and obligations from an altogether different point of view. Instead of looking upon an observance of the laws of health as a matter of sacrifice or self-denial, they will regard it, as it really is, as an inestimable blessing.
Every gospel worker should feel that the giving of instruction in the principles of healthful living is a part of his appointed work. Of this work there is great need, and the world is open for it. The Ministry of Healing, pp. 146, 147. (Italics supplied.)
Let us not only pray but work with determination that the counsels given here and elsewhere in the inspired writings on the necessity of teaching the gospel of health and prevention of disease in our churches will soon be implemented both in the curriculum of our schools and in the continual practice of our workers for God everywhere.
