Ever since Eden we human beings have found it more to our liking to substitute some offering we think quite superior for simply following divine directions. Cain thought his fruit superior and was much put out when God didn't. Often we think our way better than God's when it comes to health.
The instruction manual for care and maintenance of the machinery that is ours outlines a way of life that appears simple but is amazingly designed to promote and maintain the best possible function of every part of the machine. It is concerned with all of life, including prenatal existence, childhood, selection of a life companion and a home, prevention of illness and care of the sick, old age, and adaptation to occupation, climate, and geography, and provides for spiritual and mental, as well as physical, optimum health.
Let's look at the table of contents, and thumb through the pages of the manual. There is a fair-sized introductory chapter built around the fact that this equipment has been constructed and operates within the function of certain relationships called laws, which are invested with sacredness and thus require attention, respect, and cooperation from the operators. There is a section covering relationships between operators and Manufacturer, with instruction regarding the instant two-way communication system, and how to keep it in best running order. Some readers are shocked to see how much of the manual is devoted to the care of the physical equipment necessary to maintain this aspect.
There is another significant section dealing with the computer that maintains integrity of individuality, personality, and thought, that man ages energy utilization, fuel consumption, byproduct disposal, delivery systems, and the other diverse subroutines of the machine. One that should have a lot more attention is devoted to standards of purity and soundness, both personal and with respect to other operators.
Another large section has several chapters that discuss repair of the equipment when there is evidence of malfunction or breakdown.
Of course, working conditions and environment, such as air-pollution control, noise, rural environment, lighting, cleaning, and such details, are dealt with.
There's a section, often ignored by many operators, that specifies the quality and design of the protective covering suggested. The Designer seems to consider this section very important.
Another good-sized section is concerned with such things as how much the machinery should be run without periods of rest, and the kinds of physical activity recommended—and those not recommended. A quick glance at the sub heads indicates that it was designed for useful, pleasant but taxing work that involves all its parts rather than competitive activities or those that provide intense use for only one part while the others are idle.
Perhaps the largest and most popular section, or at least one that is talked about and quoted the most, is the one on fuel. For a better comprehension of the scope and instruction, see the following list of subject headings:
We may have missed a few, or lumped some that should stand alone, but you get the picture. And each of the chapters and sections of the manual is similarly filled with minute valuable "how to's" so necessary and valued by operators who care.
A few moments' study makes it strikingly evident that this machinery is very special and its care cannot be conventional. Designed for space travel, it cannot negotiate that destiny on fuel, maintenance, and control good enough for furnaces, cars, or even jetliners. The manual that will enable operators to prepare for the ultimate journey is titled "health reform."
Grand principles and detailed applications all have their part in the total plan. Considered, presented, and lived as a whole, it presents a most beautiful, glorious, and appealing vista. But how many times just one section, or just one chapter, or just one sentence is presented and overemphasized in the name of "health reform." Too often, in fact, health reform is equated with prohibition and presented negatively rather than presenting the "something better" the manual's Author had in mind. The manual deals fairly specifically with all of living—emotional, mental, spiritual, social, as well as physical.
Which brings us to the most important point of all. What is the purpose of health reform, anyway? The same as the purpose of the Seventh-day Adventist people as a movement, called into being by divine in tent, to do in these latter days the work that was done by Elijah and by John the Baptist in their days to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:17). Our practice of health reform should make us easier, not harder, to live with (see Evangelism, p. 303).
Aid in sanctification
An absolutely essential part of that preparation is that of the body, "in which the soul tabernacles" (Testimonies to Ministers, p. 456), for "He who cherishes the light which God has given him upon health reform, has an important aid in the work of becoming sanctified through the truth, and fitted for immortality. But if he disregards that light, and lives in violation of natural law, he must pay the penalty; his spiritual powers are benumbed, and how can he perfect holiness in the fear of God?" —Counsels on Health, p. 22. Our following the manual, then, will make it easier for the Holy Spirit to sanctify us.
"The health reform, I was shown, is a part of the third angel's message and is just as closely connected with it as are the arm and hand with the human body. I saw that we as a people must make an advance move in this great work. Ministers and people must act in concert. God's people are not prepared for the loud cry of the third angel. They have a work do to for themselves which they should not leave for God to do for them." —Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 486.
Obviously, then, health reform as an end in itself, or as a means of recommending ourselves to God as a reason why we should be saved, is as valueless as any other form of works. No amount of whole-wheat bread, plant protein, walking, sun light, pure air, or all of these combined, will save us, valuable as they are. Only when we perceive, live, and teach health reform in its con text of preparing the people of God for translation, and preparing people of the world to receive spiritual truth, can it be effective.
People not of our faith may not be aware of this objective, but "those who are willing to inform themselves concerning the effect which sinful indulgence has upon the health, and who begin the work of reform, even from selfish motives, may in so doing place themselves where the truth of God can reach their hearts." —Counsels on Health, p. 22.
A word of caution
We need to place our emphasis in the same places as does the De signer, and not make issues where He does not.
We will try to present the total picture of health reform in its beauty and persuasive attractiveness, ever keeping the grand purpose in mind. And most important, we will endeavor, by His grace, to live what we teach, that our health reform may be to us and to our hearers and observers not a stumbling block but a steppingstone.
Anciently, when a king was expected to visit an outlying province of his dominion, there were those who went before him to make travel over his highway as expeditious as possible. This work is familiarly but thrillingly delineated in Isaiah 40:3- 5: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high way for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." And Isaiah 62:10, "Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people."
This is our work (see Testimonies, vol. 8, p. 9). Our high privilege as ministers, medical workers, and health reformers is to lop off peaks of personal preferences, elevate low places of personal neglect, fill in swamps of selfishness, soften rough places of tactlessness, straighten crooked places of hypocrisy. When we do, the glory of the Lord will be revealed.
