meat

Health Nugget – It’s Not “Slaughter”

by

“To slaughter or process meat? That was the question put to New South Wales (Australia) Farmers’ delegates at its annual conference when they made the decision to change the use of the word slaughter when referring to the livestock industry.

“In the interest of community engagement and public image, farmers passed the motion that all relevant parties in livestock industries use the term processing in lieu of, and to the complete exclusion of the term slaughter.

“The word slaughter is not appropriate for our industry as we are processing animals through the various stages that end up for food. It’s not a mass murder,”1 states the livestock industry.

Large animals in the United States are also no longer slaughtered. They’re now disassembled. And chickens are harvested.

While Adventist Christians have focused on the health benefits of the vegetarian diet, the young generation of today has focused on a far worse problem with meat consumption – animal cruelty on a scale unimaginable to previous generations.

The science has demonstrated in the past few decades that animals have emotional lives. They feel not only physical, but also emotional pain. They have social behaviors and community structures. For example, cows and many other animals are known to babysit for each other. Animals mourn the loss of their loved ones.

The paradox of the situation is that while we know more than ever about the emotional lives of animals, we treat them worse than at any previous time in history.

Someone could say that this is not true. Our pets are treated better than ever. We spend jaw-dropping amounts of money on their toys, organic food, cosmetics, healthcare, to name a few. What about farm animals? Not only are they not afforded the same luxuries as our pets, but they are not even treated as living beings. They are just industrial objects destined for later “disassembly.” They’re kept in such appalling conditions that they have to be fed antibiotics their whole lives to prevent the spread of disease. Male piglets have their testicles ripped out without anesthetics. Calves are removed from their mothers almost immediately because we need the cow’s milk. Male calves are killed within a few days, as the dairy industry has no need for them and they’re not the right breed for meat. Cows mourn the loss of their babies with tears in their eyes for weeks until many are driven to insanity. One would wonder what effect this milk has on the health of those consuming dairy products.

So what’s the difference between a dog that we treat as a family member and a cow or sheep which we don’t even treat as a living being? The science now has a term for it – carnism. It is a belief system supported by cultural conditioning where one animal can be afforded a human-like status, while another is a worthless object that can be tortured for profit. Dogs, for example, are animals destined for human consumption in some countries, while cows are treated as divine, afforded the best welfare, and hurting one bears a prison sentence in other countries. We all know which animals fit each category in the western world. The western society is guilty of carnism more than any other culture.

It is now not socially acceptable to raise certain animals for fur. According to some activists, it’s not okay to train animals for circus performances, while the most massive abuse and torture of animals destined for meat production goes unnoticed.

We have to acknowledge that we have consumed meat for thousands of years. Often it was a matter of survival of the human race. The Biblical story of Noah tells us that when Noah’s ark landed on dry land, there were no edible plants after the flood, therefore God permitted people to consume animals. One of the consequences was a sharp decline in human longevity.

Today, we no longer have any justification for meat consumption, especially if the science has proven that meat consumption causes diseases and shortens our lifespan. Yet, so many are unwilling to give up this practice.

It is also true that generations as recent as our parents and grandparents considered meat eating normal. Yet, farm animals were still treated as living beings with respect, care, and love during those times. Animals were given happy lives in their natural outdoor surroundings. Their meat was not tainted by the excessive use of drugs and hormones. Perhaps the following quote wasn’t clear to our parents, but this prediction has been fulfilled in our generation and secular sources confirm it: “There is no safety in eating of the flesh of dead animals, and in a short time the milk of the cows will also be excluded from the diet of God’s commandment-keeping people. In a short time it will not be safe to use anything that comes from the animal creation.” Unpublished Testimony, July 26, 1898. {PUR November 7, 1901, Art. B, par. 1}

Jesus said: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12 NIV). How can we possibly extend love to each other and treat animals with the harshest cruelty? It is not a coincidence that people who are cruel to animals have often experienced violence as children and also are not kind to others.

We have animal welfare laws designed to protect animals, but get this: farm animals are exempt! “It is estimated that nine billion land animals are raised and killed for food every year in the U.S. We don’t even have an estimate for how many aquatic animals are killed in the U.S. every year, because the statistics kept are in tonnages, not individual beings. Many of these animals are subjected to near-unimaginable cruelty – much of which is perfectly legal, under current law.”2

Abuses on commercial farms and in slaughterhouses are so horrific, most of us couldn’t bear to witness them. “Animals can have their testicles, tails, horns, beaks, or toes removed without anesthesia. Male chicks are ground up alive, and piglets are killed by slamming their heads on the ground.”3 Yet, we feel completely comfortable to purchase parts of these animals in the grocery store. Every consumer partaking in the system is guilty of cruelty. Farmed animals are every bit as capable of feeling pain and pleasure as the animals who live with us as family members.

If such treatment of animals is the industry standard, why are not people protesting in the streets? The reason is simple: The meat industry has developed a system concealing the reality from the public eye. Commercial farms have heavy security; no one can come near them. If a private vehicle pulls on a side of a public road anywhere within sight of these farms, security personnel will arrive within minutes. No photos are allowed even from a distance. Where are the 9 billion animals slaughtered annually in the United States? Why is it we never see them? They’re transported to their deaths on the interstates while we sleep. Transport of animals to slaughterhouses is often seen after dark.

Most of these crimes against animals are happening in the so-called civilized west. It is very easy for the media in non-Christian countries to portray western Christians as barbaric, cruel, and evil. And it is only our own fault.

As the meat industry pushes to exclude the term slaughter, we have further redefined living beings into just “things.” Unlike our previous generations, we are not even willing to acknowledge that death is a part of our diet. Unlike our supposedly barbaric ancestors, we don’t even want to acknowledge that animals are living beings. We have lost compassion. Unlike our parents and grandparents, we teach our children we are not slaughtering animals, we are just processing them. No! It is slaughter! More barbaric than the world has ever seen. As Christians, we can’t look the other way.

1   www.theland.com.au/story/6291345/farmers-ditch-slaughter-for-public-image/

2, 3 https://aldf.org/article/student-animal-legal-defense-fund-saldf-program-guides/2018-2020-farmed-animals-the-law/

Not One in One Thousand

by

After working in the health field and observing people over many years, I have come to the conclusion that not one in one thousand Seventh-day Adventists are following the complete health reform information that has been given to us as a people in the Scriptures and the writings of Ellen White. We are counseled in Ephesians 6 to put on the whole armor of God so we can resist the devil (verse 13). Numerous times throughout the writings of Ellen White we have been told that the health reform message is the right arm of the gospel. My question for many years has been, How does one put on a suit of armor with one arm? IMPOSSIBLE! Yet that is the condition of the vast majority of Seventh-day Adventists. Since not one in one thousand carefully and prayerfully observe the total health message, not one in one thousand has both arms available to put on the “whole armor of God”.

Although we have more than 2,500 pages written by God’s last day prophet on health and lifestyle, the majority continue to seek guidance from secular sources.

We are told in the book, Medical Ministry, on page “x” in the preface to the second edition that “The promulgation of the health message was for fifty years a topic of major concern to Ellen White. She wrote more in the field of health than on any other single topic of counsel.” Yet still the vast majority of Adventists, especially pastors, continue to believe that diet and lifestyle have nothing to do with one’s salvation. The question was posed by the pastor of my local church to the congregation, “Is diet and lifestyle a salvational issue?” The overwhelming response from the congregation was a resounding, NO!

How blind, deceived and ignorant can we as a people be? We have all heard or read the statement from Christ’s Object Lessons, page 69, “When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” Then there is the statement in Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 22, “It is impossible for those who indulge the appetite to attain to Christian perfection.” So I ask the question, “If we must have Christ’s perfect character before He can come to receive us to Himself at the second coming and it is impossible to have that character when we are not fully practicing the total health reform message, then how do we expect to be ready for His coming?” IMPOSSIBLE!

We need to take a long hard look at just exactly what comprises the total health message. Top of the list is the consumption of the flesh of animals. Notice this quote:

“Meat should not be placed before our children. Its influence is to excite and strengthen the lower passions, and has a tendency to deaden the moral powers. Grains and fruits prepared free from grease, and in as natural a condition as possible, should be the food for the tables of all who claim to be preparing for translation to heaven.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 352.

Many Adventists look at Leviticus, chapter 11, which discusses clean and unclean meats when it comes to what is acceptable to eat. However, there is much more recorded in the rest of the book regarding meat consumption.

If someone in the camp of Israel ate something that was unclean he was to leave the camp, wash his clothes and himself, wait until sundown, and only then could he return to the camp and to his family. (See Leviticus chapter 22.)

But if someone ate some meat, even clean meat that contained the fat and/or the blood, it says in at least three places in Leviticus, in chapters 7, 17, and 18, that such an individual would be “cut off’ from among his people.

The Hebrew word for cut off used here is karath, the same word that is used in Daniel 9:26, where it says that in the middle of the week Messiah would be “cut off.” We all know what happened to Jesus in the middle of the 70th prophetic week of Daniel 9. He was crucified and suffered the second death. I am pretty sure that a McDonald’s hamburger has not had the fat and blood removed nor has the steak that you buy at the local meat market been ritually slaughtered so as to remove all fat and blood.

When God gave Noah and his family permission to eat animal flesh, it was due to the fact that all plant life had been destroyed in the great flood. The use of animal flesh for food was to only have been for one, maybe two years, until the plant kingdom had reestablished itself on this earth. I would also surmise that as intelligent as the antediluvians were, Noah took quite a large quantity as well as selection of seeds onto the ark so that he could reestablish his vegetable garden after the flood. After that, mankind was supposed to return to the original diet given by God to man.

Let’s consider next animal products other than meat. Top of the list is dairy.

True, dairy in the form of milk and soft cheeses are mentioned in the Scriptures. However, animals were kept by the owners and ate natural foods which had been designated for them from the beginning. As we near the end of time we are told that animals will become more and more diseased as sin increases and that the time will come that it will be unsafe for health to use these products.

“Let the diet reform be progressive. Let the people be taught how to prepare food without the use of milk or butter. Tell them that the time will come when there will be no safety in using eggs, milk, cream, or butter, because disease in animals is increasing in proportion to the increase of wickedness among men.” Testimonies, vol. 7, 135.

I was a child during the Second World War. During that time, if my mother needed something from the grocery store, we would walk a few blocks to a local “mom & pop” store. There was no such thing then as Walmart or any other supermarket. Milk was delivered by a local dairy to your doorstep in glass bottles. Eggs were produced by a local egg farmer. All vegetables and fruits were grown by local farmers, mostly without pesticides.

Shortly after the war ended in 1945, the first supermarket that I ever saw opened in Denver. The big food conglomerates began to appear, which for most people saw the end of pure food grown locally. Now only 4 or 5 mega-conglomerates control the production of almost all foods, animal and plant.

From the very beginning all the way through to your table every aspect of whatever food is being produced is controlled, and most of the time not for your health benefits. The food is to be produced as rapidly and as cheaply as possible—the dollar is paramount, not your health. That is why foods, for the most part, particularly foods of animal origin, are now unsafe for human consumption.

Milk contains at least 57 bioactive hormones. These hormones are mostly female hormones since a cow is female. During the last 100 years, the age when a girl reaches the menarche has dropped from an average of 17 years to 9.5 years, all due to female hormones that cause little girls to develop years before they should. Boys don’t fare much better since one of the most active of these hormones has the designation of IGF-1. This hormone is a growth hormone that is 200 times more potent than natural human growth hormone.

When I was in high school in the 1950s, a big boy might be 6’ tall and weigh 180 pounds. Today it is not unusual to find high school boys that are 6’4” and weigh in excess of 250 pounds, all due to this growth hormone. This is not natural and has proven to be very harmful. In fact, this hormone has been found in the tissue of every one of the nearly 200 different kinds of malignancies known to affect humans. After all, it makes tumors grow fast as well.

Saturated fat and only cholesterol are found in animal products. These substances lead to the most common diseases that affect humans: cancer, heart attacks, strokes, osteoarthritis, diabetes, hypertension, macular degeneration, hearing loss, and a host of others.

These fatty substances not only promote these diseases, but are primary in the need for hearing aids and joint replacement. How? In the eye, ear and joints of one’s body are very tiny capillaries that provide the nourishment for these structures. When they get plugged up with these fatty substances, they cease to work. In every joint of one’s body there is cartilage that makes the joint work smoothly. Surrounding the joint is a sack known as a bursa, composed of a tough sack lined with a synovial membrane that secretes synovial fluid which provides nourishment, oxygen and removes metabolic wastes. The cartilage in the joint has no blood vessels, but is living tissue supplied by the synovial membrane. When the capillaries in the synovial membrane become plugged by fats, the cartilage dies and gradually wears away until one has nothing but bone on bone. That is painful and requires a joint replacement.

Many people think that because they use unsaturated oils that they are safe. Sorry! There have been at least 6 recent studies on the use of olive oil which show that cardiovascular disease (the plugging up of capillaries with fat) progresses at the same rate as it would with the use of solid animal fat. Many have swallowed the advertising campaign of the food companies instead of looking to inspired writings and/or scientific studies. Popular in recent years has been what is called “The Mediterranean Diet,” which is supposed to prevent cardiovascular disease.

Just what is a Mediterranean Diet? Let’s take a little trip around the Mediterranean Sea, starting with Morocco in North Africa. We will travel around the sea in a counter clockwise direction. Next we come to Algeria, then Tunisia, then Libya, then Egypt, then Israel, then Lebanon, then Syria, then Turkey, then Greece, then Albania, then Bosnia/Herzegovina, then Croatia, then Trieste, then Italy, then France, then Spain. Within the Sea we find Cyprus, then Crete, then Sicily, then Malta, then Sardinia, then Corsica, then the Balearic Islands. Now the diet of which of these countries are you going to choose? All are Mediterranean.

In the writings of Ellen White on health and diet, you will find the following statement with slight variations 114 times. It is basically this: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts (sparingly) prepared in as simple a manner as possible, free from grease of all kinds, constitute the best diet for mankind.

Notice that this diet is not a fat free diet, as some who obviously can’t read and correctly assimilate what has been written assume. It is the preparation of the food that is to be grease and oil free. After all nuts, seeds, and many vegetables and fruits have oils and fats in them—for example: avocados, olives, as well as seeds and nuts. Ellen White mentions the benefits of olive oil three times, each time she states that olive oil as taken in the olive is beneficial to the digestive tract—not poured out of a bottle.

Now to the two items of diet that are killing more Seventh-day Adventists than any other thing—cheese and ice cream. It takes about 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese or ice cream. All of the harmful substances found in dairy are now concentrated by a factor of 10 times. It was no wonder Ellen White said: “Cheese should never enter the stomach” and “Cheese is wholly unfit for food.” These statements are found in The Ministry of Healing, 302, and in Counsels on Diet and Foods, 368. I now ask the question, “What part of never don’t you understand?” Cheese also has three times the acid producing properties of a steak and is a main cause of osteoporosis, since the body has to pull calcium from the bones to neutralize the acid produced. Eggs are also very high on the list to cause acid production in the body and they are loaded with cholesterol.

The dessert table at an Adventist gathering is next. George Vandeman, of “It Is Written,” wrote me a letter years ago which I still have. In it he said that the dessert table at most Adventist potlucks would put to shame the table of ‘delicacies’ set before Daniel and his friends by Nebuchadnezzar.

Sugar is one of the most detrimental items in anyone’s diet. Numerous studies have been done which show that even a small amount of sugar inactivates one’s white cells, the body’s first line of defense against invading organisms. How much does it take to damage one’s immune system?

An average adult has about 5 liters (5000 ml) of blood. A normal blood sugar has 1 mg of sugar in each ml of blood. So one’s total blood sugar in 5000 ml would be 5000 mg of sugar which amounts to one rounded teaspoon. That is all. A single glazed donut has 6 teaspoons of sugar. A serving of chocolate cake with a scoop of ice cream has 12-15 teaspoons of sugar. A banana split has 25 teaspoons of sugar. Now you can see how sugar has the potential to do damage to one’s immune system. And people wonder why they catch a cold or the flu. It is because they pursued it until they caught it.

Chocolate is actually worse for one than coffee. I have had many ask me, “If it is worse than coffee, then why didn’t Ellen White write about it”? She very clearly states that coffee, tea, alcohol, and tobacco use is a sin. There are many things she never mentioned such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, as well as many other harmful substances. There is a very logical reason why she said nothing about chocolate. It wasn’t until 1904 that Hershey started making chocolate products in Hershey, Pennsylvania. By the time of her death in 1915 chocolate still was not as common as it is today.

Chocolate contains at least 10 substances that are harmful. They are: Sugar (chocolate in its natural state is very bitter and requires a lot of sugar to make it palatable), Caffeine (chocolate has about 1/3 the amount of caffeine that coffee contains), Theobromine (theobromine is a methylxanthine and is a first cousin to caffeine. Chocolate contains more of this substance than any other source), Cocoa Butter (this is a saturated fat which plugs arteries), Phenylethylamine (this chemical is a neuro-excitotoxin and has the same effect as an antidepressant that a psychiatrist might prescribe for a depressed patient), Oxalic Acid (this substance binds calcium and forms calcium oxalate which is insoluble and precipitates out in the kidneys, contributing to kidney failure), Purines (these substances are also found in red meats and are the excitotoxins and stimulants), Tyramine (this is also an excitotoxin that has, in some people, been known to cause dramatic rises in blood pressure), Tannic Acid (this harmful substance is what is used to tan leather. It is very irritating to the stomach lining), Bugs (due to the way that chocolate is harvested, all chocolate averages from 10%-15% insect parts, rat and mouse droppings, bird droppings, dead bugs and worms).

The principle that should govern our lives is not whether the Scriptures or the Spirit of Prophecy say anything about something, but whether or not it is harmful. Also remember the verse in 1 Corinthians 10:31 which says, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Notice that specifically mentioned here is “eating and drinking” and then everything else that one might do in his life is listed under “whatsoever.” Only “eating and drinking” are specifically mentioned; so this must have been important to God.

Most people are very lax when it comes to the time for eating, with many who are constantly snacking. I have often asked people to name a healthful snack. The correct response is that there are NONE. Anything eaten between meals as a snack is harmful though many think nothing of having some “light refreshments’’ at any number of gatherings and at any time of the day or night. There are dozens of statements by Ellen White as to the harmfulness of eating between meals, after meals, or before going to bed. She says that not even an apple should be eaten between meals. Eating between meals is particularly harmful to growing children.

All meals should be at a specific time and this time should vary by no more than one-half hour. The human body functions best when it has developed certain rhythms known as circadian rhythms. When these activities vary by more than one­-half hour the body suffers to the point that the immune system is affected.

Studies have been done in this area and have shown that when someone eats breakfast and then snacks an hour or two later that digestion stops completely until the new item eaten has been assimilated by what is already in the stomach. Then and only then does digestion begin again. Most have put something else into their stomach before that can occur and thus endoscopically identifiable foods are still in the stomach as much as 14 hours after ingestion. This leads to putrification and fermentation.  Sleep is also disturbed when there is digestion going on during the nighttime hours.

All of the above reasons and more are why I say that not 1 in 1000 Seventh-day Adventists observe the counsel that we have been given on health reform. That is also why, when we have availability to this information in the volumes written under inspiration, that most Adventists will not be ready for the second coming. Remember, “it is impossible to develop a Christ-like character while indulging in unhealthful practices.”

‘’Sanctification—how many understand its full meaning? The mind is befogged by sensual malaria. The thoughts need purifying. What might not men and women have been had they realized that the treatment of the body has everything to do with the vigor and purity of mind and heart.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 909.

Gene Swanson was an Adventist pediatric anesthesiologist in a large pediatric hospital. He retired in Montrose, Colorado, before he passed away.

Health – Are World Pandemics Inevitable?

by

The year 2020 will be recorded in history books as the year of the global Coronavirus pandemic. It is not the first pandemic the world has experienced, but consequences of pandemics are more disastrous today because of easy global travel.

Are such pandemics inevitable? While we may never find the exact origin of the 2020 pandemic, most pandemics in recent decades, if not centuries, seem to have a common denominator – they are zoonotic infections, i.e., viruses transmitted from animals to humans. The origins are not from just any animals, they are from the kind that we shouldn’t handle in the first place, let alone kill them for food. These pandemics happen as a result of direct violation of dietary and hygienic principles laid out in Leviticus 11.

When reading the book of Leviticus, one is in awe of the knowledge people had thousands of years ago. Yet here we are in the 21st century and we violate the basic rules of health left and right.

People point to some Asian countries with wet markets, which are breeding grounds for diseases of all kinds. True, the torture and slaughter of animals we shouldn’t even touch are happening there on a large scale. May these horrific places be a warning for our own violations of biblical health principles.

The Bible is very specific on how to avoid animal-borne diseases:

Land Animals

The beginning of Leviticus 11 clearly states which animals God allowed to be consumed: “You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud” (Leviticus 11:3 NIV). The following verses clarify that both of these requirements are to be met, not just one. There are animals that have split hooves such as the pig, but it does not chew cud. And vice versa; there are animals that do chew cud, but do not have split hooves such as rabbit. Animals who do not meet these two requirements are declared unclean and unfit for human consumption. Their carcasses are not to be touched.

Water Animals

“Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams you may eat any that have fins and scales” (Leviticus 11:9 NIV). The same rules apply as in land animals: creatures that do not meet both requirements are not to be consumed and their carcasses not to be handled.

Birds

Consumption of all vulture birds is forbidden. Eagles, kites, gulls, ravens, owls, bats – all these are specifically named in the Bible as unclean (verses 13–19).

Insects

We are forbidden to consume all flying and crawling insects. Some may be surprised that consumption of some insects is permitted. The rule: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground, such as the grasshopper (verses 20–23).

Biblical Rules on Handling Animals
There may be situations when people have to remove or handle a carcass of a dead animal. Whether the animal meets the definition of clean or unclean, in such case the person is to wash himself and his clothes and should quarantine himself for the rest of the day. This hygienic rule is not taken from any modern brochure on hygiene. It was recorded thousands of years ago in Leviticus 11:24.
Should any live animal categorized as unclean touch any object that people use, such object is to be thoroughly washed and is not to be used until the next day. The book of Leviticus specifically mentions rats and snakes. The biblical counsel goes to such details as clay pots. These can’t be properly cleaned because of their porous nature. Such pots are to be destroyed if any unclean animal touches them. Any food that has come into contact with such a pot or animal is to be discarded (verses 29–35).

What more to add? These rules are so simple, yet most world inhabitants ignore them despite the fact that we have had this knowledge for millennia. We could have avoided the majority of diseases and pandemics if we stuck to these principles. Further chapters of Leviticus 12–15 provide simple principles on how to prevent contamination and infecting others if someone does get sick. These are very simple rules, yet we prefer to ignore them as well.

Most Christians eat creatures that the Bible explicitly forbids to consume. Just to name a few: pigs, shellfish, rabbits, lobsters, crabs, and all kinds of unclean fish (Leviticus 11;5–11). Nothing is off limit, depending on the particular culture of a country.

Christendom had to invent excuses why these principles are no longer binding. A common excuse is that these rules were only for the Jews. If these rules are for our health protection, does the Jewish population have a weaker immune system or perhaps some superior digestive system? It’s simple biology, not religion. All races of people are biologically prone to the same infections and diseases.

These unclean animals have a very important role in nature. They keep the environment clean, which prevents the spread of infections and viruses. While doing this dirty job, these animals carry all kinds of viruses for which they’re equipped. Subsequently these viruses don’t hurt them. By God’s design, these animals are not to come into direct contact with humans, let alone butchered and consumed! Once we violate this God-given principle, we can expect to be afflicted with diseases that our body is not designed to handle.

On land we often think of vultures as the cleaning crew. Think also about the seas. How does the ocean maintain its sparkling-clean water if large animals die and pollute it with digestive waste? Most oceans aren’t sparking clean anymore because we humans have dumped thousands of tons of garbage there. But the ocean is equipped with a self-cleaning mechanism to clean up its own carcasses and animal waste. There are creatures on the bottom of the ocean floor cleaning up everything that falls down. These cleaning crews can be animals as large as sharks or as tiny as shellfish. These animals are not to be consumed because they’re toxic. Shellfish are particularly very toxic. Even people who are used to consuming them often get sick. All restaurants in the United States have a mandatory warning on their menus: “Consuming raw seafood may increase the risk of food-borne illness.” These animals are clearly categorized as unclean in the Bible and unfit for human consumption. If we violate these Biblical dietary guidelines, disease will prevail.

Many people have in-home pets such as dogs or cats. These animals are categorized as unclean in the Bible. Despite thousands of years of domestication, they maintain their original nature and can carry dangerous pathogens. Therefore, we immunize and treat them for all kinds of infestations. We also don’t consume them in the western culture. Yet still, not everyone can keep a cat or dog at home. Some people develop health complications if in close proximity to them.

Especially in third world countries, large populations have parasites. How does it happen? They consume home-grown pigs who have been raised without drugs. The locals proudly say that their pork is better because it’s organic. Little do they know that such meat is far more dangerous for human consumption than pork from commercial farms. These naturally grown pigs are full of pathogens and parasites that easily transfer to humans via pork consumption. Entire villages are malnourished, not for lack of food, but because of the presence of parasites in their systems. Many people die once these parasites get into their brain. Entire populations in many sophisticated Latin-American cities are encouraged to de-parasite themselves on a regular basis. These are often wealthy, educated people, yet somehow consuming pork seems natural to them, even while being aware of the risks and being prescribed regular de-parasitation.

Despite being chemically treated, the domesticated pig still maintains its nature and easily consumes its own waste! No matter the chemical treatment, pork has to be cooked at high temperature to prevent health problems in humans. It is dangerous to consume pork, especially when undercooked. Yet most people think nothing of consuming pork chops, pork loin, bacon, or pork ribs.

It should be obvious that God gave these health laws to His people to keep them healthy, not just in their wilderness wanderings, but for all time. Note that these laws were given long before God’s people were called Jews. They were simply His chosen people.

Those who claim to be modern Israel today are “His people” in a special sense. As such, these health laws apply to them as well.

The question is, Are we observing them as God intended? If not, we must suffer the consequences.

Food for Life – Discard Flesh Meats

by

“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22. How grateful we should all be that God has ordained the seasons, and even though we cannot always understand the workings of Providence, we can rest assured that He will never fail us or forsake us!

We continue this month from Ministry of Healing, 305–307: “Another serious evil is eating at improper times, as after violent or excessive exercise, when one is much exhausted or heated. Immediately after eating there is a strong draft upon the nervous energies; and when mind or body is heavily taxed just before or just after eating, digestion is hindered. When one is excited, anxious, or hurried, it is better not to eat until rest or relief is found.

“The stomach is closely related to the brain; and when the stomach is diseased, the nerve power is called from the brain to the aid of the weakened digestive organs. When these demands are too frequent, the brain becomes congested. When the brain is constantly taxed, and there is lack of physical exercise, even plain food should be eaten sparingly. At mealtime cast off care and anxious thought; do not feel hurried, but eat slowly and with cheerfulness, with your heart filled with gratitude to God for all His blessings.

“Many who discard flesh meats and other gross and injurious articles think that because their food is simple and wholesome they may indulge appetite without restraint, and they eat to excess, sometimes to gluttony. This is an error. The digestive organs should not be burdened with a quantity or quality of food which it will tax the system to appropriate.

“Custom has decreed that the food shall be placed upon the table in courses. Not knowing what is coming next, one may eat a sufficiency of food which perhaps is not the best suited to him. When the last course is brought on, he often ventures to overstep the bounds, and take the tempting dessert, which, however, proves anything but good for him. If all the food intended for a meal is placed on the table at the beginning, one has opportunity to make the best choice.

“Sometimes the result of overeating is felt at once. In other cases there is no sensation of pain; but the digestive organs lose their vital force, and the foundation of physical strength is undermined.

“The surplus food burdens the system and produces morbid, feverish conditions. It calls an undue amount of blood to the stomach, causing the limbs and extremities to chill quickly. It lays a heavy tax on the digestive organs, and when these organs have accomplished their task, there is a feeling of faintness or languor. Some who are continually overeating call this all-gone feeling hunger; but it is caused by the over-worked condition of the digestive organs. At times there is numbness of the brain, with disinclination to mental or physical effort.”

To us as a people preparing to meet our God so soon, this is extremely important! You may be used or called of God to bring this last day message of health reform to God’s people, whom Satan has ensnared. It is vital and we need it now, as never before, to prepare us for the end of all things. There will be no gluttons in Heaven! Let me quote from the Lord’s own words: “One of the highest attainments in the Christian life is to control appetite . . .without this victory, all hope of Heaven is vain.” Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 206. This is a very serious statement by our Father in Heaven, and remember, God never makes a misstatement! Think it over seriously, and pledge today that you will keep the word of the Lord with all diligence. May He help you and keep you is my earnest prayer for this new year!

Food for Life – Diet in the Beginning

by

“Among the changing months, May stands confessed the sweetest, and the fairest colors dressed.” James Thomson What a lovely month this is, so full of promise, and so colorful! Just think what Heaven will be like; eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, the things our God has prepared for us who are faithful in this life!

This month we will be studying from Ministry of Healing, 311–313.

“The diet appointed man in the beginning did not include animal food. Not till after the Flood, when every green thing on the earth had been destroyed, did man receive permission to eat flesh.

“In choosing man’s food in Eden, the Lord showed what was the best diet; in the choice made for Israel He taught the same lesson. He brought the Israelites out of Egypt and undertook their training, that they might be a people for His own possession. Through them He desired to bless and teach the world. He provided them with the food best adapted for this purpose, not flesh, but manna, ‘the bread of heaven.’ It was only because of their discontent and their murmuring for the fleshpots of Egypt that animal food was granted them, and this only for a short time. Its use brought disease and death to thousands. Yet the restriction to a nonflesh diet was never heartily accepted. It continued to be the cause of discontent and murmuring, open or secret, and it was not made permanent.

” Upon their settlement in Canaan, the Israelites were permitted the use of animal food, but under careful restrictions which tended to lessen the evil results.

The use of swine’s flesh was prohibited, as also of other animals and of birds and fish whose flesh was pronounced unclean. Of the meats permitted, the eating of the fat and the blood was strictly forbidden.

“Only such animals could be used for food as were in good condition. No creature that was torn, that had died of itself, or from which the blood had not been carefully drained, could be used as food. “By departing from the plan divinely appointed for their diet, the Israelites suffered great loss. They desired a flesh diet, and they reaped its results. They did not reach God’s ideal of character or fulfill His purpose. The Lord ‘gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.’ Psalm 106:15. They valued the earthly above the spiritual, and the sacred preeminence which was His purpose for them they did not attain.

“Those who eat flesh are but eating grains and vegetables at second hand; for the animal receives from these things the nutrition that produces growth. The life that was in the grains and vegetables passes into the eater. We receive it by eating the flesh of the animal. How much better to get it direct, by eating the food that God provided for our use!

“Flesh was never the best food; but its use is now doubly objectionable, since disease in animals is so rapidly increasing. Those who use flesh foods little know what they are eating.

Often if they could see the animals when living and know the quality of the meat they eat, they would turn from it with loathing. People are continually eating flesh that is filled with tuberculous and cancerous germs. Tuberculosis, cancer, and other fatal diseases are thus communicated.”

Food for Life – Flesh Food

by

What a spring, and now officially it is summer! How very eager we all are to see what this brings forth! Out here in the sunny west it has proved very strange indeed. No rain when it should have stormed and then buckets full when everyone was relaxed and thought that all we had to do was look forward to water rationing! So for all of you wherever you are in this old world, we wish you well, and hope with all our hearts that you are looking for Jesus’ soon return when we can say goodbye to all these unpredictable seasons.

This month we will be looking at a passage from Ministry of Healing, 315–317.

“The moral evils of a flesh diet are not less marked than are the physical ills. Flesh food is injurious to health, and whatever affects the body has a corresponding effect on the mind and the soul. Think of the cruelty to animals that meat eating involves, and its effect on those who inflict and those who behold it. How it destroys the tenderness with which we should regard these creatures of God!

“The intelligence displayed by many dumb animals approaches so closely to human intelligence that it is a mystery. The animals see and hear and love and fear and suffer. They use their organs far more faithfully than many human beings use theirs. They manifest sympathy and tenderness toward their companions in suffering. Many animals show an affection for those who have charge of them, far superior to the affection shown by some of the human race. They form attachments for man which are not broken without great suffering to them.

“What man with a human heart, who has ever cared for domestic animals, could look into their eyes, so full of confidence and affection, and willingly give them over to the butcher’s knife? How could he devour their flesh as a sweet morsel?

“It is a mistake to suppose that muscular strength depends on the use of animal food. The needs of the system can be better supplied, and more vigorous health can be enjoyed, without its use. The grains, with fruits, nuts, and vegetables, contain all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood. These elements are not so well or so fully supplied by a flesh diet. Had the use of flesh been essential to health and strength, animal food would have been included in the diet appointed man in the beginning.

“When the use of flesh food is discontinued, there is often a sense of weakness, a lack of vigor. Many urge this as evidence that flesh food is essential; but it is because foods of this class are stimulating, because they fever the blood and excite the nerves, that they are so missed. Some will find it as difficult to leave off flesh eating as it is for the drunkard to give up his dram; but they will be the better for the change.

“When flesh food is discarded, its place should be supplied with a variety of grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruits that will be both nourishing and appetizing. This is especially necessary in the case of those who are weak or who are taxed with continuous labor. In some countries where poverty abounds, flesh is the cheapest food. Under these circumstances the change will be made with greater difficulty; but it can be effected.”

Food For Life – Supplying the Place of Meat

by

The place of meat should be supplied with wholesome foods that are inexpensive. In this matter very much depends on the cook. With care and skill, dishes may be prepared that will be both nutritious and appetizing, and will, to a great degree, take the place of flesh food.

“In all cases educate the conscience, enlist the will, supply good, wholesome food, and the change will be readily made, and the demand for flesh will soon cease.

“Is it not time that all should aim to dispense with flesh foods? How can those who are seeking to become pure, refined, and holy, that they may have the companionship of heavenly angels, continue to use as food anything that has so harmful an effect on soul and body? How can they take the life of God’s creatures that they may consume the flesh as a luxury? Let them, rather, return to the wholesome and delicious food given to man in the beginning, and themselves practice, and teach their children to practice, mercy toward the dumb creatures that God has made and has placed under our dominion.

“Not all who profess to believe in dietetic reform are really reformers. With many persons the reform consists merely in discarding certain unwholesome foods. They do not understand clearly the principles of health, and their tables, still loaded with harmful dainties, are far from being an example of Christian temperance and moderation.

“Another class, in their desire to set a right example, go to the opposite extreme. Some are unable to obtain the most desirable foods, and, instead of using such things as would best supply the lack, they adopt an impoverished diet. Their food does not supply the elements needed to make good blood. Their health suffers, their usefulness is impaired, and their example tells against, rather than in favor of, reform in diet.

“Others think that since health requires a simple diet, there need be little care in the selection or the preparation of food. Some restrict themselves to a very meager diet, not having sufficient variety to supply the needs of the system, and they suffer in consequence.

“Those who have but a partial understanding of the principles of reform are often the most rigid, not only in carrying out their views themselves, but in urging them on their families and their neighbors. The effect of their mistaken reforms, as seen in their own ill-health, and their efforts to force their views upon others, give many a false idea of dietetic reform, and lead them to reject it altogether.

“Those who understand the laws of health and who are governed by principle, will shun the extremes, both of indulgence and of restriction. Their diet is chosen, not for the mere gratification of appetite, but for the upbuilding of the body. They seek to preserve every power in the best condition for highest service to God and man. The appetite is under the control of reason and conscience, and they are rewarded with health of body and mind. While they do not urge their views offensively upon others, their example is a testimony in favor of right principles. These persons have a wide influence for good.” The Ministry of Healing, 317–319.

What About Health Reform?

by

Our habits of eating and drinking show whether we are of the world or among the number whom the Lord by His mighty cleaver of truth has separated from the world.” Testimonies, vol. 6, 372.

“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.” Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 10.

“He who is thoroughly converted will abandon every injurious habit and appetite. By total abstinence he will overcome his desire for health-destroying indulgences.” Testimonies, vol. 9, 113.

Adopting Health Reform

“We want to act like men and women that are to be brought into judgment. And when we adopt the health reform we should adopt it from a sense of duty, not because somebody else has adopted it. I have not changed my course a particle since I adopted the health reform. I have not taken one step back since the light from heaven upon this subject first shone upon my pathway. I broke away from everything at once,—from meat and butter, and from three meals,—and that while engaged in exhaustive brain labor, writing from early morning till sundown. I came down to two meals a day without changing my labor.” Ibid., vol. 2, 371.

“Many do not feel that this [health reform] is a matter of duty, hence they do not try to prepare food properly. This can be done in a simple, healthful, and easy manner, without the use of lard, butter, or flesh meats. Skill must be united with simplicity. To do this, women must read, and then patiently reduce what they read to practice.” Ibid., vol. 1, 681.

“Many take a wrong view of the health reform and adopt too poor a diet. They subsist upon a cheap, poor quality of food, prepared without care or reference to the nourishment of the system. It is important that the food should be prepared with care, that the appetite, when not perverted, can relish it. Because we from principle discard the use of meat, butter, mince pies, spices, lard, and that which irritates the stomach and destroys health, the idea should never be given that it is of but little consequence what we eat.” Ibid., vol. 2, 367.

Avoid These

“We bear positive testimony against tobacco, spirituous liquors, snuff, tea, coffee, flesh meats, butter, spices, rich cakes, mince pies, a large amount of salt, and all exciting substances used as articles of food.” Ibid., vol. 3, 21.

“Tea and coffee do not nourish the system. Their effect is produced before there has been time for digestion and assimilation, and what seems to be strength is only nervous excitement. When the influence of the stimulant is gone, the unnatural force abates, and the result is a corresponding degree of languor and debility.

“The continued use of these nerve irritants is followed by headache, wakefulness, palpitation of the heart, indigestion, trembling, and many other evils; for they wear away the life forces. Tired nerves need rest and quiet instead of stimulation and overwork.” The Ministry of Healing, 326, 327.

“No butter or flesh meats of any kind come on my table. Cake is seldom found there. I generally have an ample supply of fruits, good bread, and vegetables.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 487.

“It is impossible for those who make free use of flesh meats to have an unclouded brain and an active intellect.” Ibid., 62

“Flesh meat is not necessary for health or strength. If used it is because a depraved appetite craves it. Its use excites the animal propensities to increased activity and strengthens the animal passions. When the animal propensities are increased, the intellectual and moral powers are decreased. The use of the flesh of animals tends to cause a grossness of body and benumbs the fine sensibilities of the mind.” Ibid., 63.

“Flesh meats will depreciate the blood. Cook meat with spices, and eat it with rich cakes and pies, and you have a bad quality of blood. The system is too heavily taxed in disposing of this kind of food. The mince pies and the pickles, which should never find a place in any human stomach, will give a miserable quality of blood. And a poor quality of food, cooked in an improper manner, and insufficient in quantity, cannot make good blood. Flesh meats and rich food, and an impoverished diet, will produce the same results.” Ibid., 368.

Teach the Children

“You should be teaching your children. You should be instructing them how to shun the vices and corruptions of this age. Instead of this, many are studying how to get something good to eat. You place upon your tables butter, eggs, and meat, and your children partake of them. They are fed with the very things that will excite their animal passions.” Ibid., 362.

“The moral sensibilities of your children cannot be easily aroused, unless you are careful in the selection of their food. Many a mother sets a table that is a snare to her family. Flesh-meats, butter, cheese, rich pastry, spiced foods, and condiments are freely partaken of by both old and young. These things do their work in deranging the stomach, exciting the nerves, and enfeebling the intellect. The blood-making organs cannot convert such things into good blood.” Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 46, 47.

“If ever there was a time when the diet should be of the most simple kind, it is now. Meat should not be placed before our children. Its influence is to excite and strengthen the lower passions, and has a tendency to deaden the moral powers.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 352.

Foods to Relish

“Olives may be so prepared as to be eaten with good results at every meal. The advantages sought by the use of butter may be obtained by the eating of properly prepared olives. The oil in the olives relieves constipation; and for consumptives, and for those who have inflamed, irritated stomachs, it is better than any drug. As a food it is better than any oil coming secondhand from animals.” Ibid., vol. 7, 134.

“Grains and fruits prepared free from grease, and in as natural a condition as possible, should be the food for the tables of all who claim to be preparing for translation to heaven. The less feverish the diet, the more easily can the passions be controlled. Gratification of taste should not be consulted irrespective of physical, intellectual, or moral health.” Ibid., vol. 2, 352.

“Advise the people to give up sweet puddings or custards made with eggs and milk and sugar, and to eat the best home-made bread, both graham and white, with dried or green fruits, and let that be the only course for one meal; then let the next meal be of nicely prepared vegetables.” Unpublished Testimonies, October 29, 1894.

“Nuts and nut foods are coming largely into use to take the place of flesh meats. With nuts may be combined grains, fruits, and some roots, to make foods that are healthful and nourishing. Care should be taken, however, not to use too large a proportion of nuts.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 363.

“Simple grains, fruits, and vegetables have all the nutrient properties necessary to make good blood. This a flesh diet cannot do.” Healthful Living, 63.

“In grains, fruits, and vegetables, and nuts, are to be found all the food elements that we need. If we will come to the Lord in simplicity of mind, He will teach us how to prepare wholesome food free from the taint of flesh-meat.” Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods, 65.

“How can anyone desire to live on the flesh of dead animals, when he has the privilege of using the fruit, grains, vegetables, and nuts that God has given us in such abundance?” Peter’s Counsel to Parents, 26.

“God has furnished man with abundant means for the gratification of natural appetite. He has spread before him, in the products of the earth, a bountiful variety of food that is palatable to the taste and nutritious to the system. Of these our benevolent heavenly Father says that we may ‘freely eat.’ We may enjoy the fruits, the vegetables, the grains, without doing violence to the laws of our being. These articles, prepared in the most simple and natural manner, will nourish the body, and preserve its natural vigor without the use of flesh meats.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 50.

Wilt Thou be Made Whole? Part II

by

Recently someone asked me about a book which promotes that the ability of our body to absorb different foods and handle stress is dependent on our blood type. For instance, the book says things like if your blood type is “B” you cannot be a vegetarian because you have to have beef. People actually buy into that stuff!

The Lord’s messenger, Ellen White, wrote: “While we do not make the use of flesh-meat a test, while we do not want to force anyone to give up its use, . . . if in the face of the light God has given concerning the effect of meat eating on the system, you will still continue to eat meat, you must bear the consequences. . . . The Lord is calling for reform.” Medical Ministry, 279.

She also counseled that “The system must be nourished. Yet we do not hesitate to say that flesh-meat is not necessary for health or strength. If used it is because a depraved appetite craves it. Its use excites the animal propensities to increased activity, and strengthens the animal passions. When the animal propensities are increased, the intellectual and moral powers are decreased. The use of the flesh of animals tends to cause a grossness of body and benumbs the fine sensibilities of the mind. . . . The intellectual, the moral, and the physical powers are depreciated by the habitual use of flesh-meats. Meat-eating deranges the system, beclouds the intellect, and blunts the moral sensibilities. We say to you, dear brother and sister, your safest course is to let meat alone.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 63, 64.

Then people read another book, Fit for Life (Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, Mass Market Paperback, February 1987), that says you do not need to eat breakfast, you can just drink fruit juice. But the Spirit of Prophecy says that we need to eat breakfast: “It is the custom and order of society to take a slight breakfast. But this is not the best way to treat the stomach. At breakfast time the stomach is in a better condition to take care of more food than at the second or third meal of the day. The habit of eating a sparing breakfast and a large dinner is wrong. Make your breakfast correspond more nearly to the heartiest meal of the day.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 173.

People believe the secular writers, so they add barley green (which is good) in the juice in the morning, eat a salad for lunch, and ingest a heavy meal in the evening, because that is what some nutritionists and doctors say to do.

Use the Manual

Many people on a juice diet have told me they will be on it for life. They may be diabetic, have cancer, or suffer from another malady. I could give case after case, testimony after testimony, contradicting such a diet, but what does the Word say? We must have a barometer to interpret everything we read. I have hundreds of books, but I know what is right because of the Bible—to the law and to the testimony. If you have never read the law and the testimony, you will buy into everything.

I challenge every medical missionary to go back to the Manual [the Bible]. I deal with Adventists who are off into all kinds of modalities such as acupuncture, reflexology, crystals, and iridology. They claim these things work. The devil believes also; he works and performs miracles too. “Satan is working with everyone who is not under the control of the Spirit of God. It is the lying wonders of the devil that will take the world captive . . . . He is to work miracles; and this wonderful, miracle-working power is to sweep in the whole world. It is now just beginning.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 51.

How are you going to know what is what unless you know the Word of God? Show me iridology in the Bible . . . it is not there. Be straight, be plain. Anything that is mysterious is not of God. God’s Plan is simple. He takes the simple things to confound the wisdom of the world. One rock felled Goliath; eleven unlearned men turned the world upside down.

Faith is Vital

Jesus says, “And He entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.” Matthew 9:1, 2, 6. Jesus first said, “Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven.” Then He said, “Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thine house.” As Jesus healed, He included the three aspects of mental, spiritual, and physical.

Notice in verse 2 it says, “Seeing their faith.” Whose faith?—when Jesus saw the faith of those who had brought him! Ellen White tells us that we should speak of such faith to those in our care: “You can speak often to the sick of the Great Physician who can heal the diseases of the body as verily as He heals the sickness of the soul. Pray with the sick, and try to lead them to see in Christ their Healer. Tell them that if they will look to Him in faith, He will say to them, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee.’ It means very much to the sick to learn this lesson.” Medical Ministry, 196, 197. [Emphasis supplied.]

The story is repeated in Mark 2 with more details: Jesus was in a place where there was no room for a sick man to get to Him. This man had four friends who knew that Jesus was the Chief Physician, but they could not get their friend near Jesus. What did they do? They climbed up on the roof and tore open a hole! They actually removed the roof to let their sick friend down into the room where Jesus was. The roof was separating the Saviour from them. Are there any roofs in your life that are separating you from the Saviour? If so, you need to tear them out!

When Jesus saw the young man with palsy, and He saw their faith, He said, “Son, thy sins are forgiven thee.” (Verse 5.) What do those words mean to you and me? Does it mean that we can bear someone up in the arms of our faith to give Christ access to their hearts? Yes, it does. We can bear our children up; we can bear our spouses up; we can bear the church up; and we can bear souls up in our faith! That is why we must be sure that our faith is not spotted with the world. We want to be sure that when we pray to our heavenly Father that our prayers do not go up to the ceiling and drop back down. That is why we do not want to regard any iniquity in our hearts. “If we regard iniquity in our hearts the Lord will not hear us. He can do what He will with His own. He will glorify Himself by working in and through them who wholly follow Him so that it shall be known that it is the Lord, and that their works are wrought in God.” Counsels on Health, 378. “If we regard iniquity in our hearts, if we cling to any known sin, the Lord will not hear us; but the prayer of the penitent, contrite soul is always accepted. When all known wrongs are righted, we may believe that God will answer our petitions.” Steps to Christ, 95.

That is why I want to walk the talk. I deal with too many suffering people, and I want God to hear my prayer in behalf of those souls. I want God to access their lives through my faith.

If you have faith, God can touch someone’s life. That is what these Scripture passages are telling us. They also show us that mental healing precedes physical healing.

Be of Good Cheer

As soon as we are diagnosed with a dreaded disease, such as cancer, the mind begins to go through depression. It shuts down. But Christ repeatedly exhorts us to be of good cheer: “Be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” Matthew 9:2. “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.” Matthew 14:27; Mark 6:50. “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. The opposite of good cheer is fear. Fear occurs when false evidence appears real. Some of us handle problems by faith, with good cheer. Others handle problems with fear. God says that perfect love casts out that fear. When we can rise above the fear, we can live. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18.

The Bible goes on to tell us that in Him we can have peace. John 16:33 says, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” We must come to the conclusion, as a Christian, that we are going to have trouble. Once we resolve that we are going to have trouble, we do not have to focus on it anymore. Man is born into trouble. Do not worry; do not dwell on it; do not look for it; know it is there—it is going to come. We might have financial trouble, children problems, sickness problems, but do not worry about them, because God says, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome.” Ibid.

Ellen White wrote that “there are many who desire to love and serve God, and yet when affliction comes upon them, they do not discern the love of God in it, but the hand of the enemy. They mourn and murmur and complain; but this is not the fruit of love to God in the soul. If we have perfect love, we shall know that God is not seeking to injure us, but that in the midst of trials, and griefs, and pains, He is seeking to make us perfect, and to test the quality of our faith. When we cease to worry about the future, and begin to believe that God loves us, and means to do us good, we shall trust Him as a child trusts a loving parent. Then our troubles and torments will disappear, and our will will be swallowed up in the will of God.” Sons and Daughters of God, 193.

Shift Your Focus

Once we shift our focus from the trouble to the solution, then we can go on to live the Christian life.

The biggest challenge in dealing with sick people is to help them shift their focus from their sickness to the Healer. If a person wants to lose weight, all they do is focus on losing weight. Stop dwelling on losing weight, dwell on being healthy. Stop dwelling on gaining weight, dwell on being healthy. Stop dwelling on diabetes, dwell on being healthy. Stop dwelling on the problem! If we will do that, watch the endorphins start kicking in; watch the immune system boost up. Our biggest challenge is to stop dwelling on the negative circumstances.

“The mind will strengthen by dwelling upon elevating subjects. If trained to run in the channel of purity and holiness, it will become healthy and vigorous. If trained to dwell upon spiritual themes, it will naturally take that turn. But this attraction of the thoughts to heavenly things cannot be gained without the exercise of faith in God and an earnest, humble reliance upon Him for that strength and grace which will be sufficient for every emergency.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 408. We should understand “how closely body and mind are related and show the need of keeping both in the very best condition.” Medical Ministry, 263.

Body and Mind Relationship

“The relation that exists between the mind and the body is very intimate. When one is affected, the other sympathizes. The condition of the mind affects the health to a far greater degree than many realize.” The Ministry of Healing, 241. Have you ever gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, without a light on, and stubbed your big toe on an object? The brain begins to tell the mouth to say, Ouch! The brain says, Hand, grab that toe. Have you ever had that experience? The reaction is automatic! When one is affected the other sympathizes. Therefore, we find that the condition of the mind affects the health to a far greater degree than many realize. “Many of the diseases from which men suffer are the result of mental depression.” Ibid.

When we were in Thailand, we had one stop on our way to another meeting, and I picked up a newspaper to take on the plane with me. An article in this paper stated that 50 percent of the people in Bangkok suffer from mental depression. If we add together the populations of New York City and Los Angeles and multiply that number by 1,000, we would have the population of Bangkok. The reasons they are mentally depressed are the traffic, the noise, the pollution, and the economics. Fifty percent! One out of every five Americans are suffering from depression. Even those of God’s professed people suffer from depression.

Inspiration continues, “Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life forces and to invite decay and death.” Ibid. “Doubt, perplexity, and excessive grief often sap the vital forces and induce nervous diseases of a most debilitating and distressing character.” Healthful Living, 48. God did not say it is a sin to go through these emotions, but He does say that if we continue under their burden it is going to wipe out our vital force. Such a thing could happen even to someone like Elijah, a mighty prophet of God. “In the desert, in loneliness and discouragement [after his mountaintop experience on Mt. Carmel], Elijah had said that he had had enough of life and had prayed that he might die. But the Lord in His mercy had not taken him at his word. There was yet a great work for Elijah to do.” Prophets and Kings, 228. Was he depressed? Yes, he was. But God had not forsaken him; He said, What doest thou here? What are you doing under this depression? Instead of being under the circumstances, you need to be master of the circumstances. Elijah’s “petulance was silenced, his spirit softened and subdued. He now knew that a quiet trust, a firm reliance on God, would ever find for him a present help in time of need.” Review and Herald, October 23, 1913.

Jesus was not a depressed man, but depression shrouded Him in Gethsemane—so much so that He sweat great drops of blood. (Luke 22:44.) But Jesus looked through that depressed moment and saw the glory of His Father.

Grief, emotional suffering, disaster, unfortunate outcomes, anxiety, if any of these are chronically part of your life, wearing out your mental, spiritual, and physical vital force, look to Jesus. You cannot get physically well unless you hear Him say, “Be of good cheer.” God’s grace is sufficient.

These mental states can affect the whole body, but God wants us to be on top of the circumstances. He does not want us to carry the world on our shoulders—the whole world is in His hands. The mind has a definite affect upon the body. God has given us the mechanism—the biological and physiological mechanism—to deal with emergency situations short term. Heart rate accelerates, breathing increases, blood vessels constrict, fats are dumped off into the body—this gives us the fight or flight syndrome. That is all right in an emergency. But if it continues two days, three days, weeks, months, and years, it would have a devastating impact upon us.

Attitude of Gratitude

Emotional distresses can cause any disease, but God has the whole world in His hands. Courage, hope, faith, sympathy, and love promote a long life. A contented, cheerful spirit is health to the body and strength to the soul. “A merry heart doeth good [like] a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” Proverbs 17:22. So if a merry heart does good like a medicine and a broken spirit dries the bones, that means that when we have an attitude of gratitude the immune system is strengthened. Every time we praise God, every time we count our blessings it has a physiological effect on us. Let us praise God! Let us think of His goodness.

One day take a sheet of paper; draw a straight line down the middle, and on one side list all of your blessings and on the other all of your curses. I will guarantee that your blessings will out-weigh your curses. God is good.

“How often those who are in health forget the wonderful mercies that are continued to them day by day, year after year. They render no tribute of praise to God for all His benefits. But when sickness comes, God is remembered. The strong desire for recovery leads to earnest prayer, and this is right. God is our refuge in sickness as in health. But many do not leave their cases with Him; they encourage weakness and disease by worrying about themselves. If they would cease repining and rise above depression and gloom, their recovery would be more sure. They should remember with gratitude how long they enjoyed the blessing of health; and should this precious boon be restored to them, they should not forget that they are under renewed obligations to their Creator. When the ten lepers were healed, only one returned to find Jesus and give Him glory. Let us not be like the unthinking nine whose hearts were untouched by the mercy of God.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 315.

Wilt thou be made whole? Physical healing follows mental and spiritual healing. I pray that God gives you this healing; and may you shift your focus from your problems to the solutions and connect with Jesus. Do not just get theoretical knowledge, but obtain an understanding of how to apply the grace of God to your life so you can enjoy true health and happiness.

Thomas Jackson is a health evangelist and Director of Missionary Education and Evangelistic Training (M.E.E.T.) Ministry in Huntingdon, Tennessee. He may be contacted by e-mail at: godsplan@meetministry.org or by telephone at: 731-986-3518.

Restoring the Temple – Why Not Meat?

by

While you might be a vegetarian or a vegan, you probably know many people that are not. Do you know what to tell them when they ask, “Why not meat?” The following information will help you answer that question, and you are encouraged to do research on your own so that you are armed with knowledge—not only to help others but also to strengthen your own convictions.

So what is so wrong with meat, anyway? Is meat that comes from an organic farm healthy to consume? These are common questions, and there are clear and proven answers as to why vegetarians choose to avoid meat and why vegans avoid all animal products. For the purposes of this article, meat is defined as any non-dairy part of any animal, such as cattle, pigs, poultry, and fish.

Chemicals

Non-organic meats are laden with chemicals that are harmful to the human body. Not enough research has been done in order to determine the effects, both short- and long-term, on humans. These chemicals include pesticide residue from the feed, antibiotics used both to keep the animals alive longer and to stimulate rapid growth, and growth hormones. Of all the antibiotics manufactured, 40 percent is used on animal agriculture, and 80 percent of that is used to promote growth.

So what if the package of meat claims it is organic? Under the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule, meat labeled certified organic must not have been given antibiotics or growth hormones and must have been fed an exclusively organic diet. Note that the label certified organic is regulated to a point, but many companies label their products organic and natural or make claims that the animals were not given antibiotics. These claims are not regulated and are essentially meaningless. Even with certified organic meat, the system is far from perfect. The United States Department of Agriculture’s organic meat regulations state, for instance, that livestock must have been continuously organic from the last third trimester of gestation and poultry can start being organically managed at the second day of life. Breeder stock can be non-organic, meaning the mother can be given whatever and pass on disease to the fetus, but the baby animal can still be considered organic. The regulations also state that farmers “must not administer synthetic parasiticides on a routine basis,” so administering these drugs occasionally must be considered acceptable. Also, livestock can be given drugs if ill—and it does not appear there is any ruling against slaughtering for meat livestock with known cancer. There are also no regulations that attempt to make organic meat less contaminated with microbes than non-organic meat.

Contamination

For the sake of argument, let us say that the meat you just bought is truly organic. There are no antibiotic, pesticide, or growth hormone residues present. So now what is wrong with it? Contamination. The vast majority of food poisonings is due to contaminated meat products. There are two types of contamination: intrinsic and extrinsic. Diseases affecting the animal before it died and that is in the meat cause intrinsic contamination. This includes the particle that causes Mad Cow Disease, bovine immunodeficiency virus (cause of bovine AIDS), leukemia, brucellosis, and cancer—all of which are potentially transmittable to humans.

Why do you think that there are so many precautions for handling meat but not so many for plant foods? Microbes on the meat (not just on the surface) that got there during processing and packaging cause extrinsic contamination. There are many types of microbes that live and thrive on meat, many of which are harmful to humans. There are microbes on plant foods, but the truly harmful microbes thrive wildly on meat. While cold storage does decrease the generation time of bacteria (how long it takes for one bacterium to become two), it does not kill them. Bacteria still grow in the freezer. This contamination causes illnesses such as food poisoning and can be deadly to the very young, to the old, and to people whose immune systems are not functioning properly.

Human Anatomy

You may have heard the argument that we are supposed to eat meat or that we have evolved to be omnivorous, which means that we eat everything—plants and animals. However, basic anatomical differences between humans and carnivorous or omnivorous animals tell a different story. The meat-eating animals’ teeth are designed to tear apart raw meat. Humans, even omnivorous ones, do not eat cows straight out of the field by gnawing them with their teeth! Not only do people not have a desire to do this carnivorous behavior, they are dentally unable. Predators have claws that rip flesh. Humans have hands ideal for gathering and picking. Human saliva contains alpha-amylase, an enzyme that starts the digestion of carbohydrates in the mouth. The saliva of carnivores does not contain alpha-amylase, since meat contains zero carbohydrates. The high amount of protein in meat is difficult to digest; therefore, carnivores have a lot of hydrochloric acid in their stomachs. Herbivores (including humans) have ten times less. Finally, meat putrefies quickly due to the high amount of microbes that colonize it. Putrefaction produces chemicals that are toxic. To take care of this problem, carnivores’ intestines are about eight feet long so the feces exit the body quickly. The intestinal tract of herbivores is about 25 feet long, which is ideal for digesting the complex carbohydrates found in plant foods but a very inefficient design for digesting meat.

Causes Disease

Health care costs in the United States related to meat consumption are estimated to be $60–$120 billion annually. Meat consumption causes disease for all the aforementioned reasons and more.

The most popular argument against a vegetarian diet is protein intake. Do vegetarians have to struggle to get enough protein, or do meat-eaters get too much? Almost all plant foods, with the exception of fruits, contain between 10 and 40 percent protein. We need only 8 to 15 percent of our daily intake to be protein. Omnivorous diets contain twice this amount.

So what? Protein breaks down into amino acids. Animal and plant proteins contain all the same amino acids. However, animal proteins can contain too much of the sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cysteine. The breakdown of these two amino acids causes the blood and urine to become acidic. The body then dumps calcium from its bones to neutralize the acid, and the excess blood calcium is then excreted through the kidney into the urine (leading to osteoporosis). Further, methionine is metabolized into homocysteine, which is a risk factor for heart disease.

You may have heard that obesity has surpassed cigarette smoking as the United States’ major cause of disease and death. An animal-food diet contributes to obesity. Meat-eaters are generally 10 percent heavier than vegetarians and 20 percent heavier than vegans. This is because animal-food diets are calorie dense and generally high fat. High- fat diets may:

  • make it difficult to meet nutrient needs.
  • lead to obesity.
  • increase risk for chronic diseases such as cancer.
  • result in a rise in free radical reactions and oxidative damage to body tissues, thus increasing the risk for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, age-related health problems, and neurological disorders.

The brain, kidneys, and heart are also at risk. Animal protein damages the kidneys, while plant protein does not. Animal protein raises blood cholesterol levels, while plant protein lowers it. Animal protein comes with an ugly package deal: it is always combined with saturated fat and cholesterol, which cause many chronic diseases, especially heart disease.

Cancer has already been mentioned. Studies have shown that ingesting cancerous tissue can cause cancer. But even non-cancerous meat has been shown to cause cancer and is number one on the list of foods that cause cancer.

You now know that high protein diets cause osteoporosis, but meat consumption causes other nutrient imbalances. For instance:

  • Vitamins E and C protect the heart and brain, but omnivores get less Vitamins E and C than vegetarians (since meat and dairy products contain almost no Vitamin C).
  • Folate protects the heart—omnivores consume less folate than vegetarians do.
  • Fiber protects the heart and reduces the incidence of breast cancer, colon cancer, and diabetes—there is zero fiber in animal foods. The recommended daily intake of fiber is 20 to 35 grams/day—omnivores get 10 to 12 grams. Vegetarians get two or more times the amount of fiber than meat-eaters.

The scientific data makes it clear. Not only do we not need to eat meat to be healthy, but eating meat leads to illness. We are born to be herbivores—plant-eaters—which is how we were designed by the Creator.

Sheryle Beaudry, a certified teletriage nurse, writes from Estacada, Oregon, where she lives with her husband and twin daughters. She may be contacted by e-mail at: sbeaudryrn@hotmail.com.