Health Feature by Pr Eugene Carolus
Article written by Pr S Poswa
The level of sickness in society is increasing every year. According to the World Health Organization, about 422 million people have diabetes worldwide and it is estimated that around 1.5 million deaths are attributed to diabetes each year.[1] A study observed that the prevalence of diabetes in 2021 among females in South Africa was 10% and among males it was 6%.[2] This is just one disease, and if space allowed, we would show similar staggering statistics with many of the lifestyle-related diseases. What hope do we have, if any, to improve the status quo?
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been blessed with inspired counsel on healthy lifestyle. In answer to the above question, Ellen G. White gives this counsel, “The only hope of better things is in the education of the people in right principles.”[3] Therefore, the church has the obligation to educate both its members and the communities where God has placed us about the right principles of health. In the same paragraph quoted above, Ellen White continues, “In case of sickness, (1) the cause should be ascertained. (2) Unhealthful conditions should be changed, (3) wrong habits corrected. (4) Then nature is to be assisted in her effort to expel impurities and to re-establish right conditions in the system.”[4] To elucidate the points they have been numbered, so that the steps to be taken are clear. It is only as these steps are carefully followed that we will see improvements in our health. One then may ask: How is nature to be assisted to re-establish right conditions in the system? Ellen White answers, “Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness (self-control), rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power—these are the true remedies. Every person should have a knowledge of nature’s remedial agencies and how to apply them.”[5]
It is our goal as the Western Region of the Cape Conference to educate our members in the right principles. We want to train our members on how to use the principles of health for healing and for opening the heart for the reception of the gospel. In future articles we will share how these principles work in treating disease and share powerful testimonies that show that God’s way works. It is time to take heed to the wise man’s words: “Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.” (Proverbs 19:20, KJV).
[1] https://www.who.int/health-topics/diabetes#tab=tab_1
[2] https://jhpn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41043-022-00281-2
[3] Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Tampa, ID: Pacific Press), 127.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
