IN THE vision given me December 25, 1865, I saw . . . that Seventh-day Adventists should have a home for the sick where they could be treated for their diseases and also learn how to take care of themselves so as to prevent sickness."— Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 553. Twenty years later the word was given: "There are many ways of practicing the healing art, but there is only one way that Heaven approves. God's remedies are the simple agencies of nature that will not tax or debilitate the system through their powerful properties."—Ibid., vol. 5, p. 443.
As we follow this instruction some of us will be practicing the healing art. Such work will inevitably require a decision on whether or not to use drugs, and which ones can properly be used, if any. Therefore, we may be certain that the Lord has made it possible for us to learn His answer to the drug question. Heaven would not give us a task and withhold knowledge of the only acceptable way to do it.
God is both the Author of science and the Source of revelation. During the past decade developments within the sciences that relate to medical practice make it much easier to understand what the Spirit of Prophecy says about drugs, medicine, rational therapy, natural remedies, and herbs.
Correctly Understood, God's Methods Are Never Outdated
First we need to define a few essential terms. A review of the history of scientific medicine as it has evolved since the time of Mrs. White's ministry will show that God's messages regarding the cause and treatment of disease anticipated the changes that have occurred. Correctly understood, God's methods adapt perfectly to any time and every circumstance.
Definition of Drug and Medicine
On a recent trip down the Pacific Coast I consulted ten professors of pharmacology, men whose lives have been devoted to a study of drugs. They all agree that the words medicine and drug have not changed materially in meaning during the past one hundred years. In West Coast university libraries visited on this trip I found a number of old, nineteenth-century dictionaries. They indicate that these two words—drug and medicine—have been defined in about the same way for more than one hundred years. A drug is any substance used as a medicine. A medicine is any sub stance used in treating disease. Aspirin is both a drug and a medicine. Empirin Compound is a common medicine made up from three drugs—aspirin, phenacetin, and caffeine.
Rational Therapy
The most essential concept in this connection is that of rational, or reasonable, therapy. This is the method of therapy recommended by the Lord. It is also the type of treatment being urged by the leaders in medical education to day.
In order to plan rational therapy three things must be clearly understood: Precisely what is wrong with the patient, what caused his sickness, and what the proposed remedy will do to the sick person and to the cause or causes of his disease.
The secret of rational treatment is that it aims to remove, counteract, or otherwise modify the cause of the illness being treated. Often, however, it is impossible to get closer to the cause than working on its result.
Take peptic ulcer as an illustration. One of its basic causes is an inability to handle stress. This maladaptation to stress causes the production of too much gastric acid which "eats a hole" in the lining of the stomach. To remove the stress would be ideal. Even to modify it as much as possible, and make it more bearable, would be worth while. To give frequent feedings and anti-acid medication that will counteract the high gastric acid would also help nature heal the ulcer.
Likewise, the attempt to remove a cancer may not entirely succeed. But possibly X-ray treatments may so modify any remaining portion of the tumor that it will greatly aid nature and benefit the patient.
Separate Problems, the Disease and Its Symptoms
A person who needs treatment has two closely related, but distinct, problems. His disease must be distinguished from the symptoms it produces. Rational therapy will attack the cause of the illness; when the cause is eliminated the symptoms disappear along with the disease.
Apparent or Fundamental Cause?
Two aspects of the cause must be distinguished: The immediate or apparent cause, and the basic underlying or fundamental cause. In order to understand this distinction consider a man with a severe streptococcus infection. Everyone has many streptococci living on the surface of his skin and mucous membranes. Infection occurs only when germs are able to invade the deeper tissues and multiply there. The apparent cause of the pain and fever is the invading bacteria. The most common fundamental cause of lowered resistance to infection is unwise habits of living.
Give Temporary Relief, but Remember the Fundamental Cause
In such a case rational therapy is possible because the foundation upon which it must rest is present. There are two essential points: The physician actually knows what is wrong with his patient, and he understands the action of his remedies.
The remedies will be acting in three different areas. For the treatment to be rational all three areas must be covered. The doctor will prescribe an antibiotic which, as it circulates in the blood stream, will kill many of the germs infecting his patient. The application of heat to the inflamed part will draw increased amounts of blood and antibiotic to the place where the bacteria are multiplying. This will be curative treatment for the apparent cause,the multiplying bacteria. If the sufferer still has pain preventing restful recovery the administration of medicine to relieve the pain would be rational symptomatic treatment. It is usually appropriate to try to treat the apparent cause and provide relief of the symptoms before curative treatment for the fundamental cause is begun.
Correct Wrong Habits
Some time ago a friend of mine learned that he had an especially dangerous kind of cancer. His physicians advised heavy surgery and a highly toxic drug. He wanted to get well, but he didn't like the sound of the treatment.
Being a well-indoctrinated Seventh-day Adventist Christian, he knew that God's plan for treating disease emphasizes correcting the causes of illness. And these causes are most likely to be found among one's own bad habits.
Some people do seem to get better while continuing to practice wrong habits, but in God's terms a sick person has not fully recovered until wisdom prompts him to stop cultivating the causes of his trouble. On page 127 of The Ministry of Healing is a basic list of nature's blessings. Violation of the laws that govern these areas is the usual starting point for illness.
Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power— these are the true remedies. Every person should have a knowledge of ... how to apply them.
Commenting on the source of most illness, Mrs. White states:
Thousands need to be educated patiently, kindly, tenderly, but decidedly, that nine tenths of their complaints are created by their own course of action.—Medical Ministry, p. 225.
If the sick and suffering will do only as well as they know in regard to living out the principles of health reform perseveringly, then they will in nine cases out of ten recover.—Ibid., p. 224.
Jesus Christ is the Great Healer, but He desires that by living in conformity with His laws, we may cooperate with Him in the recovery and maintenance of health.—Ibid., p. 13.
Remember the Source of Healing
It seems very simple and it is, because the Creator designed all living things with a capacity for self-repair. This self-healing works by God's power and is directed by His laws of physiology. God's laws of physiology govern our bodies in all of their functions. These laws teach us what we can do to make the function of our bodies most efficient. The things we can do in caring for our body temples make up the principles of healthful living. These principles teach us how to use the true remedies to either maintain or regain health.
The laws of health indicate how to use the true remedies either to maintain or regain health. The laws of physiology, the laws of health, the principles of healthful living, and health reform are actually all the same thing. "Health reform is the Lord's means for lessening suffering in our world."—Counsels on Health, p. 443.
Encourage the Patient to Cooperate With Himself
An antibiotic may kill germs, but it was a weakness in the body's defenses that permitted the bacteria to invade and multiply in the first place. This weakness is the real problem, and it was caused by violation of the laws of health.
All sickness is the result of transgression. Many are suffering in consequence of the transgression of their parents. They cannot be censured for their parents' sin; but it is nevertheless their duty to . . . place themselves by correct habits in a better relation to health.—Ibid., p. 37.
My Troubled Friend
The friend who faced this choice regarding what treatment to accept for his serious illness had been trying carefully to follow the principles of healthful living. His cancer resulted from malignant degeneration of a lesion that had been present at the time of his birth. So he seemed to be in that small group of sick people for whom improved health habits do not promise to be adequate therapy for their ailment, or even contribute to a cure.
Naturally, he thought about prayer for healing. He had read from Selected Messages, book 2, page 286, that "God does not heal the sick without the aid of the means of healing which lie within the reach of man." Also he had studied Counsels on Health, pages 381, 382, which says that persons for whom healing prayer is to be offered "are not to take the position that methods of restoration to health in accordance with nature's laws are to be neglected." They "should cooperate with the divine power, using every facility, taking advantage of everything that, according to his intelligence, is beneficial, working in harmony with natural laws."
To my friend's intelligence it seemed that since he had studied and was following the health-promoting system outlined in the Spirit of Prophecy, no change in his habits was indicated. And it hardly seemed reasonable to expect such simple remedies as diet and physical therapy to cure his malignant tumor. So he asked himself the question: Could drugs and surgery be means within my reach that would be rational and beneficial and working in harmony with natural laws?
He knew, of course, that each statement from the Spirit of Prophecy must be studied with reference to its context, but what about such a simple statement as this one written in 1908? "We have been instructed that in our treatment of the sick we should discard the use of drugs." —Selected Messages, book 2, p. 288.
There Are Exceptions
In the Index to the Writings of Ellen G. White there are more than two hundred entries under drugs, drug medications, and medicines. Basically this represents excellent cross-referencing of sixty or seventy statements. A chronological listing of sixty statements about drugs that I was able to find shows that in a number of instances the qualifying adjective "poisonous" is used with the words drugs and medicines. Often Seventh-day Adventists are counseled to establish institutions where they follow "His [the Lord's] method of healing without drugs" (Medical Ministry, p. 325).
At least seven times in this list of statements Mrs. White intimates that drugs should be entirely discarded, but elsewhere she suggests "discarding almost entirely the use of drugs" (Selected Messages, book 2, p. 283) and recommends that we "avoid drugs in almost every form."—Ibid., p. 282. These references explain other messages as, "Medicines . . . will most generally hinder nature in her efforts" (Ibid., pp. 452, 453), and, "Drug medication, as it is generally practiced, is a curse."—Counsels on Health, p. 261. Other statements indicate that "drugs and mixtures . . . kill hundreds where they benefit one" (Selected Messages, book 2, p. 454), and "drugs need seldom be used."—Counsels on Health, p. 261. Such concepts harmonize with Medical Ministry, page 222, where it states that there can be made "a necessity for the use of drugs."
Do the Best You Can!
In 1903 God led Ellen White to pen this mes sage: "It would have been better if, from the first, all drugs had been kept out of our sanitariums. . . . These [simple remedies] would be just as efficacious as the drugs."—Selected Messages, book 2, p. 291. Between 1865 and 1905 repeated testimonies described these simple, good-habit remedies as more effective or better than medicines, indicating that part of the reason for rejecting drugs was that in those days they were not likely to do as much good as simple, natural therapy alone.
Drugs were rejected for reasons such as being harmful, ineffective, or unnecessary. Comparing their effectiveness, or efficacy, with that of the simple remedies is not outlawing drugs. Medicines, as such,' never cure disease. God's power working through the capacity for self-repair that He has built into our bodies heals every injury or illness from which a patient recovers. Drugs usually hindered this process a century ago. That rated them poisonous in one sense of the word. But, if even once in a hundred cases medicine can be found that will aid nature's effort at self-repair, then in that one instance it is helping, not poisoning, the patient.
No Contradiction
"We have been instructed that in our treatment of the sick we should discard the use of drugs."—Ibid., p. 288 (written in 1908). This is not a contradiction but a general statement regarding the use of drugs. It fails to mention the then unlikely possibility of medicines being useful, since the author had indicated in other places in her writings that occasional benefit does result from using drugs. Such statements were made as early as 1865. Knowing the history of drug use at that time, we can under stand that this occasional benefit was more likely due to chance than to any such rational methods as might be available in the 1970's.
How Did Mrs. White Apply the Messages on Rational Therapy?
Mrs. White's own example indicates how she understood the messages she received on this subject. She submitted to treatment by other than simple or natural remedies. She took twenty-three X-ray treatments (see Selected Messages, p. 303), even after she had "been instructed that the X-ray is not the great blessing that some suppose it to be. If used unwisely ... may do much harm."—Published in Medical Evangelism Library, No. 5, pp. 18-20, 1906. (See also Medical Science and the Spirit of Prophecy, p. 39.) She used tea on a few occasions as a remedy (Selected Messages, book 2, p. 302), but she wrote in Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 425, that "tea and coffee drinking is a sin." On rare occasions she used as a remedy things that were potentially harmful, and even substances which when used other than as remedies would be sinful.
Acceptable Use of Very Toxic Anesthetic Drugs
Our first Health Institute, when it opened in Battle Creek in 1866, was able to provide only medical care. In 1887 Mrs. White was shown in vision "that we should have a hospital in Battle Creek. The hospital was erected, and was soon full of patients."—Review and Herald, April 14, 1903, p. 19. In this hospital God "put His hand on Dr. Kellogg's hand as he operated" (Ibid.). The patients that God helped Dr. Kellogg operate on were under the influence of anesthetic drugs as poisonous as any known, according to one definition of the word. But here they were being used rationally. The anesthetic caused the patient some stress. But the operation produced a relatively much greater benefit, so that the whole procedure was helpful and possibly indispensable to nature's efforts at self-repair.
Correctly Understood, God's Methods Adapt to Every Circumstance
During Mrs. White's lifetime no one under stood the true nature of enough disease or the action of enough drugs upon the systems of the body to use medicine rationally very often. In those days the rational therapy possible was largely limited to the simple agencies of nature. Anesthetics were a notable exception. In order not to rule out benefits from such things as surgery, exceptions were made, even a hundred years ago. No forecast was given of a time when more medicines could be used rationally. But exceptions to discarding entirely drugs are sufficiently numerous to accommodate the possibility that such a time might come in the future.
(To be continued)
