Does Adventism’s health message conflict with the biblical gospel?

ASK THE PASTOR WITH DALE RATZLAFF | Pastor and Founder, Life Assurance Ministries (1936–2024

FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE PRINT VERSION OF PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE, SPRING, 2015. 

The answer is a clear “yes” and an uncertain “no”. The Adventist emphasis on healthful living is good. Adventists have been leaders in developing hospitals, medical and dental schools, and clinics around the world. However, Ellen White makes a number of statements regarding health that have proven to be incorrect, have no biblical support, may have their roots in pagan religions, put people under false guilt, and most importantly, undermine the gospel. 

Ellen White said, meat eating “has always been a curse to the human family”.¹ If true, one wonders why Christ, the sinless One, ate meat even just before the cross, on the day of the resurrection, and later served His disciples a fish breakfast.

For over a thousand years there was no restriction on what man was to eat.² Later, when God wanted to make a separation between Israel and the other nations, God gave them the clean and unclean laws, as well as rituals and dress codes.³ When the old covenant came to an end at the cross and the gospel was no longer associated with a particular people, the clean and unclean rules were removed.⁴

There are a number of negative aspects of Adventist’s teachings on health; we will look at only two. First is their continuing reliance on Ellen White’s statements as the final word on health. For example, she often linked the evils of tobacco and liquor with the use of coffee and tea.^{5, 6}

Medical studies have now shown that both coffee⁷ and tea⁸ used in moderation have more positive healthful benefits than negative effects.

A second negative aspect of the Adventist health message is that it confuses the simple gospel of faith in Christ by making healthful living a means of acceptance with God and/or personal sanctification. Anything that takes away from our completeness in Christ is a false gospel. Ellen White said that the health message is not the gospel but only the “right arm of the gospel”; however, many of her statements confuse the issue. Following are a few such statements while many could be given.

Never should a morsel of food pass the lips between meals.⁹ …not even an apple, a nut, or any kind of fruit.¹⁰ … Did the smallness of the amount lessen the sin of the act?¹¹

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, and then you come to meeting and ask God to bless and save your children. How high do your prayers go? You have a work to do first. When you have done all for your children which God has left for you to do, then you can with confidence claim the special help that God has promised to give you.¹²

Scripture makes clear that food is not something that draws us to God or separates us from God.¹³ The gospel is not lifestyle but is our faith in the finished work of Christ centered on His death, burial and resurrection.¹⁴ Health is important. Christians should be intelligent in healthful practices. However, we should never think that our diet will commend us to God.†

ENDNOTES

1. Ellen G. White, Counsels on Diet and Health, p. 412.
2. Gen. 9:3.
3. See Lev. 11; 16; Deut. 22:11.
4. See Mk. 7:15-23; Acts 10; 11; Rom. 14:14.
5. Ellen G. White, Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, p. 34, 36.
6. Ellen G. White, Counsels to the Church, p. 105.
7. http://authoritynutrition.com/top-13-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-coffee/
8. http://authoritynutrition.com/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-green-tea/
9. Ellen G. White, Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, p. 50.
10. Ellen G. White, Healthful Living, p. 55.
11. Ellen G. White, Testimony to Physicians, p. 60.
12. Ellen G. White, Child Guidance, p. 366.
13. Mk. 7:14-23; Rom. 14:2-3; 1 Cor. 8:8; Col. 2:16.
14. 1 Cor. 15:1-4.

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Dale Ratzlaff

Dale Ratzlaff (1936–2024), is the founder of Life Assurance Ministries and Proclamation! Magazine. He served as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor for 13 years, seven at Monterey Bay Academy where he taught Bible. He and his wife Carolyn left the Adventist church in 1981 when he realized he could no longer teach the investigative judgment with a clear conscience. He has authored several books on Adventism that are available through his website, SabbathInChrist.com.

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