So, why, you may ask, do Adventists focus so much time and energy on health and nutrition?
As with everything else we practice, the answer lies in the bible, and the bible alone. We try never to "cherry pick" verses to suit our desires, but take a wholistic, comprehensive approach to the things the bible teaches us.
With regard to health and nutrition, here are a few of the pertinent verses:
- What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
- Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags. (Proverbs 23:20-21)
- And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so." (Genesis 1:29-30)
If you know your bible, you might believe that selecting these verses is, in fact, cherry picking. Doesn't Genesis 9:3-4 say "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood."?
It does! But changing times requires changing practices, and -- sadly -- times took a dramatic change for the worse in the 1980's. Please use this link to our page explaining what happened, and how we've adapted to deal with it: A Nutritional Crisis
Otherwise, Here's a quote from Ellen White:
"Satan gathered the fallen angels together to devise some way of doing the most possible evil to the human family. One proposition after another was made, till finally Satan himself thought of a plan. He would take the fruit of the vine, also wheat, and other things given by God as food, and would convert them into poisons, which would ruin man's physical, mental, and moral powers, and so overcome the senses that Satan should have full control."
What do you think? Sound like current news reports?
Jeanne Lehrman, our Director for Health & Temperance, grew up in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia. Feeling God calling her to relocate, Jeanne and her husband moved to Tazewell, Tennessee over 15 years ago, when they became members of the Middlesboro SDA Church.
A true pioneer woman, Jeanne lives completely off the grid, and is a wealth of information about vitamins, herbs, healthy cooking, and gardening.
The sub-menus are split into two sections: health, and nutrition. Please check this web area frequently for relevant, interesting, and useful ideas!
