Those of us who have dedicated our lives to health education are thrilled with the emphasis of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on comprehensive health ministry. This broad term seeks to bring a wide array of services focused on some aspect of health (physical, mental, social, and spiritual) under one umbrella, with a particular emphasis on bridging a sometimes rather wide gap between the ministry of physicians and ministers.
For more than 150 years now, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has emphasized the importance of making healthy choices within the context of stewardship, i.e., the best management of the good gifts given to us by God. These choices extend to every aspect of our being. Scientific support for much of this message has been growing for many decades.
As I have the opportunity to visit many parts of the world, I am thrilled with the revival of interest and excitement in emphasizing the health ministry. Yet, I fear that the meaning and scope of this precious message is not fully understood by many. The lack of a clear understanding can lead to us into troubled waters.
There are five realities that I would like to suggest are pertinent to understanding what we often refer to as the health message:
- The health message is not just a set of scientifically established health practices that prolong and preserve life.
- The health message is profoundly more important than its component parts of balanced nutrition, exercise, rest, temperance, and so forth.
- The health message can do far more than modern science has discovered.
- The health message, when rightly understood and linked with Scripture and the God of Scripture, can restore the dead to life.
- If we confine any part of the health message merely to its scientifically validated facts, we have tragically shortchanged our audience of the eternal health benefits that only come from Jesus.
With these realities understood, we may ask, What is the health mission of the church? If the health message is, in any degree, separated from the gospel message, it loses its power. If people attend a health program in one of our churches and understand and apply the principles, they may have gained a few years of life. However, if they did not learn that the power to change comes from Jesus, the church has failed in its mission to the community. James said faith without works is dead (James 2:20). Science without Jesus is dead as well.
Too often we focus our programs only on the physical facts, leaving Jesus out of the picture, or only making veiled references to God’s power to change habits. We often do this because we do not want to offend those who do not believe as we do. Also, we avoid weaving Jesus and His power to change lives into the content of our programs.
We must offer people the help we know they need—whether or not they respond as we expect or wish—and we need to love and respect them regardless of the choices they make. We should be ever grateful that many of the health-promoting effects of this message have been confirmed by science, while recognizing that today’s most skillful and perceptive scientist cannot bring the dead to life. Jesus is the only Life-Giver, and He is the only health-Giver.
Scripture recounts thrilling examples of Jesus raising the dead to life along with performing many miracles of healing. We are privileged to be called to the same work today. Health education—health ministry—seeks to create new tastes and new motives in those who are spiritually dead.
“To arouse those spiritually dead, to create new tastes, new motives, requires as great an outlay of power as to raise one from physical death. It is indeed giving life to the dead to convert the sinner from the error of his ways; but our Deliverer is able to do this; for He came to destroy the works of the enemy.”*
As we participate in the work of true, comprehensive health ministry, we have the privilege of witnessing miracles—the miracle of seeing the dead raised to life today!
* Ellen G. White, “Lessons From the Christ-Life,” Review and Herald, March 12, 1901.
