The object of health reform to us as Seventh-day Adventists is not merely for health’s sake, but for making our minds capable of understanding the truth, to fit us for the coming of the Lord, and fit us for translation and immotality. “It should ever be kept prominent that the great object to be attained through this channel is not only health, but perfection, and the spirit of holiness, which cannot be attained with diseased bodies and minds” – EG White {1T 554.2}. As God is the author of both moral and health laws, violation of health laws lessens spiritual discernment, and in turn lead to correlating violation of God’s moral laws. We are told, “men and women cannot violate natural law in the indulgence of depraved appetite, and lustful passions, and not violate the law of God” – Ellen G White {HR October 1, 1872, Art. A, par. 1}.

One prominent reason why God gave us health reform, is because of the most close relationship between the violation of health laws and moral laws. God “permitted the light of health reform to shine upon us, that we may see our sin in violating the laws God has established in our being” {HR October 1, 1872, par. 1}. In rejecting health reform, “those who will not, after the light has come to them, eat and drink from principle, instead of being controlled by appetite, will not be tenacious in regard to being governed by principle in other things” {HR August 1, 1866, par. 6}. Violation in one is violation in all. “Whoever turns from the light in one instance hardens his heart to disregard the light in other matters. Whoever violates moral obligations in the matter of eating and dressing, prepares the way to violate the claims of God in regard to eternal interests” {RH May 18, 1886, par. 5}.

“If Seventh-day Adventists practiced what they profess to believe, if they were sincere health reformers, they would indeed be a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. And they would show a far greater zeal for the salvation of those who are ignorant of the truth” – Ellen G White {RH May 27, 1902, Art. A, par. 1}. Health reform, in the truest sense of the word, is opposed to use of drugs. “It is the Lord’s purpose that His method of healing without drugs shall be brought into prominence in every large city through our medical institutions” – Ellen G White {GCB June 3, 1909, page 292.1}. For both the prevention and cure of diseases: “Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in Divine power – these are the true remedies” – Ellen G White {MH 127.2}.

Health reform enables the mind to discern truth

It is impossible to discern scared truth if you slight health reform, for unhealthy habits render the mind incapable of understanding truth – EG White wrote:

“Ignorance now is no excuse for the transgression of law. The light shineth clearly, and none need to be ignorant; for the great God himself is man's instructor. All are bound by the most sacred obligations to God, to heed sound philosophy and genuine experience in reference to health reform, which he is now giving them.” “God designs that the great subject of health reform shall be agitated, and the public mind deeply stirred to investigate; for it is impossible for men and women, with all their sinful, health-destroying, brain-enervating habits, to discern sacred truth, through which they are to be sanctified, refined, elevated, and made fit for the society of heavenly angels in the kingdom of glory” (Health Reformer, 1 October 1872).

“The liability to take disease is increased tenfold by meat eating. 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” (EG White, Testimonies for the Church, 1885, p 63) {2T 63.3}.

“Priceless gems are to be found in the Word of God. Those who search this Word should keep the mind clear. Never should they indulge perverted appetite in eating and drinking. If they do this, the brain will be confused; they will be unable to bear the strain of digging deep to find out the meaning of those things which relate to the closing scenes of this earth’s history” {15LtMs, Lt 16, 1900, par. 8}.

“There are many who feel that they can not get along without flesh-meats; but if these would place themselves on the Lord's side, resolutely resolved to walk in the way of his guidance, they would receive strength and wisdom as did Daniel and his fellows. They would find that the Lord would give them sound judgment” {RH February 24, 1910, par. 15}.

“Those who indulge in meat eating, tea drinking, and gluttony are sowing seeds for a harvest of pain and death. The unhealthful food placed in the stomach strengthens the appetites that war against the soul, developing the lower propensities. A diet of flesh meat tends to develop animalism. A development of animalism lessens spirituality, rendering the mind incapable of understanding truth” – Ellen G White {RH May 27, 1902, par. 4}.

“The Word of God plainly warns us that unless we abstain from fleshly lusts, the physical nature will be brought into conflict with the spiritual nature. Lustful eating wars against health and peace. Thus a warfare is instituted between the higher and the lower attributes of the man. The lower propensities, strong and active, oppress the soul. The highest interests of the being are imperiled by the indulgence of appetites unsanctioned by Heaven” {RH May 27, 1902, par. 5}.

“Great care should be taken to form right habits of eating and drinking. The food eaten should be that which will make the best blood. The delicate organs of digestion should be respected. God requires us, by being temperate in all things, to act our part, toward keeping ourselves in health. He cannot enlighten the mind of a man who makes a cesspool of his stomach. He does not hear the prayers of those who are walking in the light of the sparks of their own kindling” {ibid, par. 6}. “Far better give up the name of Christian than make a profession and at the same time indulge appetites which strengthen unholy passions” {par 15}.

“Let not any of our ministers set an evil example in the eating of flesh meat. Let them and their families live up to the light of health reform. Let not our ministers animalize their own nature and the nature of their children. Children whose desires have not been restrained are tempted not only to indulge in the common habits of intemperance, but to give loose rein to their lower passions and to disregard purity and virtue. These are led on by Satan not only to corrupt their own bodies, but to whisper their evil communications to others. If parents are blinded by sin, they will often fail of discerning these things” – Ellen G White {17LtMs, Ms 133, 1902, par. 32}.

Health reform is given by God for our salvation

“The light God has given on health reform is for our salvation and the salvation of the world. Men and women should be informed in regard to the human habitation, fitted up by our Creator as His dwelling-place, and over which He desires us to be faithful stewards. “For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Our bodies are wonderfully made, and the Lord requires us to keep them in order. All are under obligation to Him to keep the human structure in a healthful, wholesome condition, that every muscle, every organ, may be used in the service of God. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” God, who formed the wonderful structure of the body, will take special care to keep it in order, if men co-operate, instead of working at cross-purposes with Him” {RH Nov 12, 1901, par. 14}.

“Ministers should be strictly temperate in their eating and drinking, lest they make crooked paths for their feet, turning the lame — those weak in the faith — out of the way. If while proclaiming the most solemn and important message God has ever given, men war against the truth by indulging wrong habits of eating and drinking, they take all the force from the message they bear” {RH May 27, 1902, par. 3}.

Health reform fits us for the Lord’s coming

Inspired writings tell us that health reform is to fit us for the Lord’s coming. Ellen G White wrote:

“December 10, 1871, I was again shown that the health reform is one branch of the great work to fit a people for the coming of the Lord. And it is as closely connected with the third angel's message as the hand is united to the body. The law of ten commandments has been lightly regarded by man. The Lord would not come to punish the transgressors of his law without first sending them a message of warning. The third angel proclaims the warning message. Had men ever been obedient to the law of ten commandments, carrying out in their lives the principles of these ten precepts, the curse of disease now flooding the world would not be” (EG White, The Health Reform and the Health Institute 1872, Phamplet 138, p1) {PH138 1.1}.

“Men and women cannot violate natural law in the indulgence of depraved appetite, and lustful passions, and not violate the law of God. Therefore God has permitted the light of health reform to shine upon us, that we may see our sin in violating the laws God has established in our being. All our enjoyments or sufferings may be traced to obedience or transgression of natural law. Our gracious Heavenly Father sees the deplorable condition of men while living in violation of the laws he has established. Many are doing this ignorantly, some knowingly. The Lord, in love and pity to the race, causes the light to shine upon health reform. He publishes his law, and the penalty that will follow the transgression of it, that all may learn, and be careful to live in harmony with natural law. He proclaims his law so distinct, and makes it so prominent, that it is like a city set on a hill. All accountable beings can understand his law if they will. Idiots will not be responsible” {PH138 1.2}.

“To make plain natural law, and urge the obedience of it, is the work that accompanies the third angel's message, to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord” {PH138 2.1}. “Adam and Eve fell, through intemperate appetite. Christ came and withstood the fiercest temptation of Satan, and, in behalf of the race, he overcame appetite, showing that man may overcome. As Adam fell, through appetite, and lost blissful Eden, the children of Adam may, through Christ, overcome appetite, and through temperance in all things regain Eden” – EG White {PH138 2.2}.

“The inhabitants of the Noachian world were destroyed, because they were corrupted through the indulgence of perverted appetite. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed through the gratification of unnatural appetite, which benumbed the intellect, and they could not discern the difference between the sacred claims of God and the clamor of appetite. The latter enslaved them, and they became so ferocious and bold in their detestable abominations, God would not tolerate them upon the earth. God ascribes the wickedness of Babylon to her gluttony and drunkenness” {PH138 3.2}. “The apostle exhorts the church, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Man, then, can make the body unholy by sinful indulgences. If unholy, they are unfitted to be spiritual worshipers, and are not worthy of Heaven. If man will cherish the light God in mercy gives him upon health reform, he may be sanctified through the truth, and fitted for immortality. If he disregards light, and lives in violation of natural law, he must pay the penalty” – Ellen G White {PH138 3.3}.

“Greater reforms should be seen among the people who claim to be looking for the soon appearing of Christ. Health reform is to do among our people a work which it has not yet done. There are those who ought to be awake to the danger of meat eating, who are still eating the flesh of animals, thus endangering the physical, mental, and spiritual health. Many who are now only half converted on the question of meat eating will go from God's people, to walk no more with them” – Ellen G White {RH May 27, 1902, par. 2}.

Health reform fits us for translation

We are giving the third angel’s message, warning people that whosoever accepts the mark of the beast, “the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God” (Revelation 14:10). When that message finishes, the seven last plagues will surely follow. Health reform is to prepare the people to not only pass through those plagues, but also be fitted for translation. The leading thing, the great thing, that God intends health reform to do, is to prepare His people for translation. But we must go through the seven last plagues before we are translated, and if a man’s blood is impure and full of gross material will he be able to pass through that time, when the air is sick with pestilence? He cannot.

The following inspired testimonies show that health reform is connected with the third angel’s message, and health reform is to fit the people for translation:

“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…” {1T 486.2}. “In order to be fitted for translation, the people of God must know themselves. They must understand in regard to their own physical frames that they may be able with the psalmist to exclaim: “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” They should ever have the appetite in subjection to the moral and intellectual organs. The body should be servant to the mind, and not the mind to the body” – Ellen G White {1T 486.3}.

Health reform is practiced with true remedies

What are the true remedies? “Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in Divine power – these are the true remedies” (EG White, Ministry of Healing, p 127).

An acronym for the eight true remedies is NEWSTART (Nutrition [proper diet], Exercise, Water, Sunlight, Temperance [Abstemiousness], Air, Rest, and Trust {in Divine power}). All the eight natural remedies were given by God in the first book of the Bible. To know more, read our booklets, Nutrition in the Bible; Natural Remedies. Below is a summary of these eight true remedies (eight laws of health).

Nutrition – God said, “I have given you every herb yielding seed, . . . and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food” (Genesis 1:29). Upon leaving Eden to gain his livelihood by tilling the earth under the curse of sin, man received permission to eat also “the herb of the field” (Genesis 3:18). As “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11), and we need good blood to heal disease, we are to eat only the original food, for “grains, with fruits, nuts, and vegetables, contain all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood” (Ellen G White, Ministry of Healing, p 316).

Sin has increased in the world and so have diseases in both man and animals. As a result of sin, “the whole creation groaneth” (Romans 8:22), “even we ourselves groan within ourselves” (Romans 8:23), and “the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings” (Romans 8:26). If God will have our full attention, we must return to plant-based diet for healthy brains. “Many who are now only half converted on the question of meat eating will go from God’s people, to walk no more with them” {RH May 27, 1902, Art. A, par. 2}.

A return to a plant-based diet is indispensable! But “as this reform restricts the lustful appetite, many will shrink. They have other gods before the Lord. Their taste, their appetite, is their god; and when the axe is laid at the root of the tree, and these who have indulged their depraved appetites at the expense of health are touched, and their sin pointed out, and their idols shown them, they do not wish to be convinced, and some will cling to hurtful things which they love, although God’s voice should speak directly to them, to put away those health-destroying indulgences. They seem joined to their idols, and God will soon say to His angels, Let them alone” (Ellen G White, Testimony 11, p 41); {T11 41.1}.

“Gluttony has been the prevailing sin of this age. Lustful appetite has made slaves of men and women, and has beclouded their intellects and stupefied their moral sensibilities to such a degree that the sacred, elevated, truths of God’s word have not been appreciated. The lower propensities have ruled men and women” – Ellen G White {T11 41.2}.

Exercise – “The Lord God put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15) – “Morning exercise, walking in the free, invigorating air of heaven, or cultivating flowers, small fruits, and vegetables, is the surest safeguard against colds, coughs, congestion of the brain, inflammation of the liver, the kidneys, and the lungs, and a hundred other diseases” (Ellen G White, Healthful Living, pp 176-177). “Exercise will aid in the work of digestion. Take a walk after a meal; but no violent exercise after a full meal ... Moderate exercise every day will impart strength to the muscles, which without exercise become flabby and enfeebled” (Ellen G White, Testimonies, volume 2, pp 530-530).

But no Christian health reformer who is seeking a Christ-like character should play sports for exercise. “I have not been able to find one instance where He educated His disciples to engage in amusement of football or pugilistic games, to obtain physical exercise, or in theatrical performances; and yet Christ was our pattern in all things” (Ellen G White, Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 229).

Water – “And a river went out of Eden and watered the garden” (Genesis 2:10) – pure water and no other drinks are helpful. “Water is the best liquid possible to cleanse the tissues ... Drink some, a little time before or after a meal” (White, Healthful Living, p 226). Drink at least 1 ounce [0.028 litre or 28 millilitres] of water daily for every 2 pounds [1 kilogram] that you weigh. Do not drink at a meal. Stop all sinful drinks indulgence. “Tea and coffee drinking is a sin” (White, Counsels on Diet, p 425).

Sunlight – “And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day” (Genesis 1:16) – the sun is the great healing agency; exposures to sunlight, avoiding sunburn, benefits our bodies, for “sunshine, the beautiful surroundings of nature ... these are God’s means for restoring the sick to health” (Ellen G White, Testimonies, volume 7, p 85).

Temperance – “Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is ... good for food” (Genesis 2:9) – “True temperance teaches us to dispense entirely with everything hurtful and to use judiciously that which is healthful” (Ellen G White, Review and Herald, 5 September 1899) {PP 562.1}.

Air – “And God called the firmament Heaven” (Genesis 1:8) – Strong’s Hebrew 7549: An expanse, the firmament, visible arch of the sky. It is in this space or expanse that we find fresh air. “The stomach, liver, lungs and brain are suffering for want of deep, full inspirations of air which would electrify the blood and impart to it a bright, lively color, and which alone can keep it pure, and give tone and vigor to every part of the living machinery” (Ellen G White, Testimonies, volume 2, pp 67-68).

Rest – “He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made” (Genesis 2:2) – we need daily rest and weekly rest. Digestive system need rest to fight disease. “After disposing of one meal, the digestive organs need rest. At least five or six hours should intervene between the meals, and most persons who give the plan a trial, will find that two meals a day are better than three” {MH 304.1}.

Trust – “And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man” (Genesis 2:22) – Adam slept in full trust in God, it is in this trust God pierced his side and formed a suitable companion for him – the same God sustains life. “Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. No calamity can befall the least of His children, no anxiety harass the soul, no joy, cheer, no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest” (Ellen G White, Steps to Christ, p 100).

Health reform is practiced without drugs

“God’s servants should not administer medicines which they know will leave behind injurious effects upon the system, even if they do relieve present suffering” – Ellen G White {4aSG 139.3}. “Every student should understand how to take such care of himself as to preserve the best possible condition of health, resisting feebleness and disease; and if from any cause disease does come, or accidents occur, he should know how to meet ordinary emergencies without calling upon a physician, and taking his poisonous drugs” – Ellen G White {FE 426.3}.

“The physician who depends upon drug medication in his practice, shows that he does not understand the delicate machinery of the human organism. He is introducing into the system a seed that will never lose its destroying properties throughout the lifetime. I tell you this because I dare not withheld it. Christ paid too much for man’s redemption to have his body so ruthlessly treated as it has been by drug medication.” “Years ago the Lord revealed to me that institutions should be established for treating the sick without drugs. Man is God’s property, and the ruin that has been made of the living habitation, the suffering caused by the seeds of death sown in the human system are an offense to God” (White, Medical Ministry, p 229).

“Those who make a practice of taking drugs sin against their intelligence and endanger their whole afterlife. There are herbs that are harmless, the use of which will tide over many apparently serious difficulties. But if all would seek to become intelligent in regard to their bodily necessities, sickness would be rare instead of common. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” {12LtMs, Ms 86, 1897}.

“A practice that is laying the foundation of a vast amount of disease and of even more serious evils is the free use of poisonous drugs. When attacked by disease, many will not take the trouble to search out the cause of their illness. Their chief anxiety is to rid themselves of pain and inconvenience. So they resort to patent nostrums, of whose real properties they know little, or they apply to a physician for some remedy to counteract the result of their misdoing, but with no thought of making a change in their unhealthful habits. If immediate benefit is not realized, another medicine is tried, and then another.

“People need to be taught that drugs do not cure disease. It is true that they sometimes afford present relief, and the patient appears to recover as the result of their use; this is because nature has sufficient vital force to expel the poison and to correct the conditions that caused the disease. Health is recovered in spite of the drug. But in most cases the drug only changes the form and location of the disease. Often the effect of the poison seems to be overcome for a time, but the results remain in the system and work great harm at some later period” (Ellen G White, Ministry of Healing, p 126).

“By the use of poisonous drugs, many bring upon themselves lifelong illness, and many lives are lost that might be saved by the use of natural methods of healing” (ibid, p 126). “Let physicians teach the people that restorative power is not in drugs, but in nature. Disease is an effort of nature to free the system from conditions that result from a violation of the laws of health. In case of sickness, the cause should be ascertained. Unhealthful conditions should be changed, wrong habits corrected. Then nature is to be assisted in her effort to expel impurities and to re-establish right conditions in the system” (ibid 127).

Hospitals and physicians have their place – they can test for parasites, and diagnose disease. You can then use true remedies to cure the disease in line with God’s healing method. But it was for this that God said “that institutions should be established for treating the sick without drugs” {MM 229.3}.

Health reform by faith fits us for immortality

“The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17). This means that we are to eat, drink, sleep, move, and have our being, by faith. Everything that goes to make up life, is to be done by faith. We are to live by faith. All the difference between the Christian and the sinner is that one lives in the right way, and the other lives in a perverted way; one has perfect life, the other has only partial life, in fact, has not real life at all. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12).

The life of faith has to do with our flesh, our body. We read: “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Again: “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13).

Living by faith is to keep passions and appetites subdued, as in Paul’s analogy: athletes run for “a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so ... I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that, by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

Our bodies are temples of God, and as such the life of Christ is to be manifested in our mortal flesh. This means health: “My son, attend to My words; incline thine ear to My sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:20-22).

But living by faith does not by any means signify that using natural true remedies is inconsistent with healing by the Word. Far from it. Everything that is a means of conveying life is the agent of the Word. Christ is the Personification of the Word, and “in Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28), yet we live by eating and drinking and breathing.

God wishes that both our bodies and mind will be in good health: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (3 John 1:2). We cannot have health of soul without using provisions that God has given, without following His word faithfully; neither can we have health without doing the same thing.

Health reform is a part of God’s plan of salvation as righteousness by faith. God wishes that our souls prosper; but how can our souls prosper without righteousness by faith? — they cannot do it. God wishes above all things that we may prosper and be in health even as our souls prosper; but how can our health prosper as He wishes it without health reform by faith? — the health of our bodies cannot do it.

Genuine health reform means health reform by faith, as genuine righteousness means righteousness by faith. If a person does not apply health reform by faith, then he does not get the benefit that is in it, and he cannot. Now that you may see that that is just what the scripture says, let us turn to Romans 14:15-23:

“But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. Let not then your good be evil spoken of: for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ [is] acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

This statement that whatever is not of faith is sin, is a universal truth. Yet here it is stated in direct connection with eating. Whatsoever is not of faith in eating, as well as anything else, is sin. So that he that doubteth is condemned, or damned, if he eat; because of what? – because he eateth not of faith. then a man that eats not of faith, what is his condition before God? – he is condemned. What is he doing? – he is sinning, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Faith is the gift of God. It comes to us by the word. For “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Then in order to eat by faith, we get the faith, and the authority for eating, and what we shall eat, from the word of God. If a man slights what the word of God says he shall eat, he does not eat by faith. The faith by which we are to eat is of God, as the faith by which we receive righteousness is of God. So that just as the word of God brings faith to us, pertaining to our soul’s salvation, so the word of God brings faith to us concerning our health. The Word of God brings faith concerning our soul’s prosperity, and when in faith we accept that word, our souls prosper; so in faith we take this word concerning our health, and our health prospers. Now that is a fact.

Our salvation is by grace through faith, and so our health reform is by grace through faith. And that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Health reform never came by us. It came from God. Therefore, as the salvation of souls came by the grace of God, the gift of God through faith, and not of ourselves; so health reform came as the gift of God, and by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.

Our bodies are the Lord’s just as certainly as are our spirits; and our bodies are to be like Christ’s just as certainly as our spirits and our characters are to be made like Christ’s. “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:23). That is the object of health reform – to prepare our bodies for immortality. “It should ever be kept prominent that the great object to be attained through this channel is not only health, but perfection and the spirit of holiness, which cannot be attained with diseased bodies and minds” {RH May 7, 1914, par. 3}.

What is the object of health reform, then? – it is for perfection, and the spirit of holiness. It is simply the same thing as being like Christ in body and in spirit.

In Revelation 14:9-11 we have the third angel’s message. The object of the third angel’s message is to fit us to meet Christ alive. And the health reform is part of the third angel’s message. Health reform is just as much in its place fitting people to be like Christ and to be translated to immortality when He comes, as the main body of the third angel’s message is to make us like Christ in character. “And what is the work that we are to undertake here just previous to receiving immortality? It is to preserve our bodies holy, our spirits pure, that we may stand forth unstained amid the corruptions teeming around us in these last days” {2T 356.1}. Health reform fits us for immortality. The place of health reform in connection with the third angel’s message, is thus stated: “Its place is among those subjects which set forth the preparatory work to meet the events brought to view by the message; among these it is prominent” {RH May 7, 194, par. 5}.

What are the events brought to view by the third angel’s message? – the coming of the Lord; and before that, the pouring out of the plagues, and the worship of the beast and his image on the part of the wicked; perfect holiness and the close of probation on the part of the righteous. The image of Christ is to be reflected in us fully; we are to be sealed with the seal of the living God; so that we are like Jesus in character. And when we are to pass through the seven last plagues, and meet him when he comes in the blazing glory of all the universe, that we may be like him in body. Those are the things brought to view in the third angel’s message, and health reform is to be preached by us all and set forth as the preparatory work to meet those things which the message tells about. “Among these it [health reform] is prominent.”

Well, then, do you not see that health reform, without the events that the third angel’s message brings to you, is almost meaningless? In any other view than God gives, it is almost meaningless, because it is not simply for present health, in this world; it is not simply as a thing of health, that men may go on without believing in the Lord, and just merely for the sake of health. There is a benefit in that, of course; but that is not the purpose of preaching or teaching it by us. It is not that people shall merely have health. No, sir. It is health by faith, in view of the things that are brought to view by the third angel’s message, to meet Jesus Christ, and the things that are coming between us and His coming. And therefore we are to preach the third angel’s message, and get people to see what is coming, and then get them to prepare their bodies to meet them, in Christ.

In other words, righteousness by faith brings us to the perfection of Jesus Christ in character, and health reform by faith brings us to the perfection of Christ in our bodies. Between the point where we are sealed with the seal of the living God, and the coming of Christ, there are the seven last plagues, and our bodies have got to go through them unscathed, before they become like the glorious body of Jesus. When we preach to the people the coming of the Lord, and the necessity of meeting Him, and the motive in keeping the Sabbath, and all that, their bodies are not prepared by that in itself, to meet Him. So, the health reform has to come in its place, and fit the people to meet the events brought before them in the preaching of the message; and that is just as much a part of the third angel’s message, in its place, as is the other.

Having the faith of Christ, receiving righteousness by faith, and the keeping of the Sabbath, seeing Christ in it, and receiving the seal of God, the perfect image of Jesus Christ, reflected in the character, – this prepares the character for the close of probation. And the health reform is to prepare our bodies for the close of probation, because, between the close of probation and the Saviour’s coming, our bodies are to pass through the plagues before we are ready to meet Him, and be like Him, seeing Him as He is. This is true.

Let us be very clear, the object of health reform is not merely for health’s sake, for that is not God’s view of it. When it is practiced and taught anywhere merely for health’s sake, it is not meeting God’s mind. Of course the person who practices it will have better health, but will he be prepared for what it is to prepare him? – No. Getting people ready to meet Jesus Christ, to be translated, ready for the Lord, – that is the Lord’s idea of it and purpose in health reform.

As true health reform is by faith, it is wholly an individual matter. “Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God” (Romans 14:22). Now, then, true health reform is by faith; therefore, just as truly as faith is an individual matter, so true health reform is an individual matter; one cannot practice it for another. God’s promises are just as much an individual matter to you as though there were not another man in this world. Now it is the same thing in health reform. “Hast thou faith?” what then? “have it to thyself before God.” He is writing about eating, too. In matters of health reform, “It is an individual work; one cannot do it for another” {1T 486.2}. Health reform is just as certainly an individual matter as is one’s own soul’s salvation.

Conclusion

The object of health reform is not merely for health’s sake. “It should ever be kept prominent that the great object to be attained through this channel is not only health, but perfection and the spirit of holiness, which cannot be attained with diseased bodies and minds” {RH May 7, 1914, par. 3}. Health reform is to prepare us to pass safely through the seven last plagues, and be fitted for traslation.