"Through it all [the development and history of Seventh-day Adventist health principles and medical practice] we see the guidance of God as projected by the little lady from Elmshaven. At strategic moments in the development of our medical work, this remarkable woman gave the encouragement and wise counsel needed to keep the program balanced and moving forward."
Because of her understanding of the Great Controversy Theme, Ellen White saw the implications involved in humanity's indivisible unity of body, mind, and spirit. Not only were human beings "free moral agents," the interacting, integrating components of body, mind, and spirit required the health of each component so that all the components would function effectively. Without the well-being of this synergy, the human being would soon suffer and hasten the slide to death.
Interaction a Spiritual Matter
In 1875 Ellen White called this interaction between mind and body "a mysterious and wonderful relation. They react upon each other." Further, she made this profound concept intensely practical: "It cannot be to the glory of God for His children to have sickly bodies or dwarfed minds."
One may ask, why do "sickly bodies or dwarfed minds," as a general rule, have anything to do with "the glory of God"? Ellen White is consistent and wholistic: "Anything that lessens physical strength enfeebles the mind, and makes it less capable of discriminating between right and wrong. We become less capable of choosing the good, and have less strength of will to do that which we know to be right."
The question is: How did Mrs. White develop her expansive, wholistic contribution to health awareness, an emphasis that has become more relevant as the years pass? Was her distinctive formulation of health principles developed in a mind hermetically sealed from the world around her and penetrated by the Spirit alone? No, that is not how God works. Her theological understanding of the Great Controversy Theme provided the mental grid whereby she was able to recognize in the area of health and disease the fundamental and enduring wisdom of her age, and to reject that which would soon prove worthless.
Emanating from this theological sense of wholeness flowed a distinctive and eventually coherent philosophy of health. This philosophy, in addition to clear insights by which millions of church members have ordered their personal lives, has spanned the earth with a singular system of health institutions.
Nineteenth-Century Health Notions
To better appreciate the distinctiveness of Ellen White's philosophy of health, let us review some of the prevailing health notions of the nineteenth century. At the beginning of the century, a remarkably standardized pattern for the treatment of disease relied "mostly on bleeding, purging, and polypharmacy."
The cause of disease was a matter of widely diverse conjecture. The Christian world generally believed that illness and suffering were divinely inflicted because of sin. Healing, if possible, was the result of prayer and faith.
But new ideas were surfacing in the early 1800s. Horace Mann, in his famous 1842 report to the Massachusetts school authorities, wrote that suffering was "no part of the ordination of a merciful Providence, but to be directly chargeable to human ignorance and error." Further, if people would obey "the physical laws of God, they would no more suffer pain than they would suffer remorse, or moral pain, if in all things they would obey the moral laws of God."
But changing the source of disease from heaven to earth did not automatically explain its cause. Mann, for example, rejected the idea of an invading, foreign body. Contemporaries blamed various causes, including variations in body fluids, filth and odors as found in garbage and sewage, and stimuli, either too much or too little. For many medical specialists, health was an intermediate state of excitement, and the physician's task was to adjust the excitement level. Whenever people occasionally raised the possibility that nature itself contained healing powers, as Hippocrates long before had believed, they were "confronted with the almost uniform opposition of the regular medical practitioners, who labeled them as empiric rustics attempting to restore a discredited element of primitive medicine."
The "stimuli" theory, probably the prevailing treatment of disease, became known as "heroic" medicine. Benjamin Rush (1745?-1813), dean of American physicians, actively promoted this popular treatment wherein the sick had to resign themselves to "massive bloodletting, considered a panacea for almost every problem, and to submit to the violent purgatives and emetics which the medical doctors administered." The physician's task was to "conquer nature" with a special drug, the more violent the better, for each disease. George Washington became a well-known victim of deadly conventional medicine during the first half of the nineteenth century.
In 1860 Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, professor of anatomy at Harvard University, wrote that "if the whole materia medica, as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind-and all the worse for the fishes."
The second quarter of the nineteenth century, often known as the Jacksonian era, was swamped with innovation and change in most all areas of American life. Emotional, human-centered ideas overtook the rational, classical order of the preceding century. Fresh optimism and the sense of equality of all human beings inspired "reforms" in such areas as education, prisons, abolition of slavery, women's rights, politics, and health.
This new focus on the individual and away from traditional theories was thoroughly evident in the remarkably fresh concern for personal health. Distrust of traditional medicine with its "heroic" treatments and pitiful results turned the minds of many in all classes to what could be done with common sense.
In this exhilarating era of optimism and its new focus on the "common man," such health reform movements as the following sprang up everywhere: The temperance movement, promotion of vegetarianism, public renunciation of "all evil habits," (tobacco, alcoholic beverages, tea, coffee, etc.), development of "physiological" societies, emphasis on public health, including sanitation and hospitals, new attention to fashion, and the emergence of "water" treatments.
Physical Afflictions of Early Adventists
Early Adventists were as physically afflicted as their contemporaries. Many of them, fearful of the prevailing medical practice, turned to prayer as their best hope. In 1846 Otis Nichols wrote to William Miller about young Ellen White: "The Spirit of God is with her and has been in a remarkable manner in healing the sick through the answer of her prayers; some cases are as remarkable as any that are recorded in the New Testament."
Dramatic Healings
Ellen and James White participated in many dramatic healings within their own family. But they did not consider the use of natural remedies to indicate lack of faith. From her early years to her last, Mrs. White clearly warned against fanaticism: "We believe in the prayer of faith; but some have carried this matter too far . . . . Some have taken the strong ground that it was wrong to use simple remedies. We have never taken this position, but have opposed it. We believe it to be perfectly right to use the remedies God has placed in our reach, and if these fail, apply to the great Physician, and in some cases the counsel of an earthly physician is very necessary. This position we have always held."
In 1854 she visited a "celebrated physician in Rochester" for a painful swelling on her left eyelid that was diagnosed as cancer. But the physician told her that she would die of apoplexy before the cancer would kill her! About a month later, after much trust and prayer, she suddenly was healed of both the cancerous eyelid and the oppressive heart condition that had made breathing difficult.
First Health-minded Adventist
Joseph Bates, that indefatigable former sea captain, seemed to be the first and, for some time, the only Adventist leader who had come to terms with health principles and the cause of disease. On the basis of observation and personal experience, he had decided in 1824 (at the age of 32) to abstain "from all intoxicating drinks." Earlier, he had given up tobacco in all forms. After another seven years, he determined not to drink tea or coffee. Probably the lectures of Sylvester Graham, who had written that "both tea and coffee are among the most powerful poisons of the vegetable kingdom," confirmed his observations. By 1843 Bates had given up flesh food.
However, though a staunch Millerite and later an energetic apostle of the seventh-day Sabbath, Bates apparently was not a health-reforming evangelist. He did not write out his strong health-reform beliefs nor personally try to persuade his associates. But he was very successful, through his Sabbath pamphlet, in convincing James and Ellen White in 1846 that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Thereafter, Bates and the Whites were intrepid leaders of the "scattered flock."
Ellen White's Early Awareness of Health Principles
As early as 1848 Ellen White was shown the harmful effects of tobacco, tea, and coffee. Some church members were not easily convinced regarding tobacco. In an 1851 letter she responded to the question as to whether she had seen "in vision" that it was wrong to use tobacco: "I have seen in vision that tobacco was a filthy weed, and that it must be laid aside or given up." She wrote encouraging letters to those who struggled to break the tobacco habit.
But diet was another matter for the Whites. Many lifestyle changes had already been made within a few short years. The introduction of further change, such as self-denial in dietary habits, would have been enormously distracting and a source of much division among these early Sabbath keeping church members. Achieving doctrinal unity was more important for early Sabbatarian Adventists. Such unity established the spiritual climate for the more personal tests that would be introduced later.
The issue of eating swine's flesh is a good example of an important Biblical concept that had to wait until a church was ready for its significance. Some had contended as early as 1850 that the Bible definitely forbids eating swine's flesh, but James White thought that some of the Biblical reasoning was inappropriate: "We do object to a misapplication of the Holy Scriptures in sustaining a position which will only distract the flock of God, and lead the minds of the brethren from the importance of the present work of God among the remnant."
By 1858 the issue was being zealously pushed by the Haskells, to whom Ellen White wrote this interesting counsel: "I saw that your views concerning swine's flesh would prove no injury if you have them to yourselves; but in your judgment and opinion you have made this question a test, and your actions have plainly shown your faith in this matter. . . . If it is the duty of the church to abstain from swine's flesh, God will discover it to more than two or three. He will teach His church their duty. . . . I saw that the angels of God would lead His people no faster than they could receive and act upon the important truths that are communicated to them."
The Whites were not ready to take positions unless they had the clearest Biblical evidence or a clear word from the Lord through a vision. Up to the health vision of June 6, 1863, they believed that the dietary restrictions set forth in Leviticus 11 as part of the Jewish ceremonial laws, were no longer applicable since the Cross. During the 1850s, Adventists freely ate pork. After the June 6 vision, the issue of eating swine's flesh was settled among Seventh-day Adventists. Why? Ellen White now wrote with vision-certainty: "God never designed the swine to be eaten under any circumstances. . . . The eating of pork has produced scrofula [derived from the Latin word for a breeding sow, a term for tuberculosis of the lymph nodes], leprosy, and cancerous humors [blood or lymph fluids]. Pork-eating is still causing the most intense suffering to the human race."
Ellen White had been suggesting for a decade other aspects of healthful living that cut across the general habits of almost everyone. In 1854, at a time when modern conveniences were not even thought of, she called for cleanliness among those professing Christianity: "I saw that the houses of the saints should be kept tidy and neat, free from dirt and filth and all uncleanness." Turning to maintaining health, especially in dietary matters, she wrote that we must "take special care of the health that God has given us. . . . Deny the unhealthy appetite, eat less fine food, eat coarse food free from grease. Then as you sit at the table to eat you can from the heart ask God's blessing upon the food and can derive strength from coarse, wholesome food."
The Health Vision of 1863
On May 21, 1863, at Battle Creek, Seventh-day Adventists organized themselves under a General Conference that unified their scattered churches. For the first time they had a center that promised unity and efficiency in their missionary outreach. About two weeks later, on June 6, 1863, Ellen White was given the epochal health vision in Otsego, Michigan. It seems that God waited until the church had completed its organizational struggles before giving them the next step in their assignment-a responsibility that required unity of spirit and a general sense of harmony in doctrinal matters.
James White may have said it best when he reflected in 1870 on how the Lord had been leading the "scattered flock" into becoming a transcontinental movement. Although his sentiments could be applied as well to their doctrinal development in the earlier years, he contemplated the growing unity around the health messages: "The Lord also knew how to introduce to His waiting people the great subject of health reform, step by step, so they could bear it, and make a good use of it, without souring the public mind. It was twenty-two years ago [1848] the present autumn, that our minds were called to the injurious effects of tobacco, tea, and coffee, through the testimony of Mrs. White. God has wonderfully blessed the effort to put these things away from us, so that we as a denomination can rejoice in victory, with very few exceptions, over these pernicious indulgences of appetite. . . . When we had gained a good victory over these things, and when the Lord saw that we were able to bear it, light was given relative to food and dress."
Led Step by Step
Psychologically, it could not have been otherwise. It was the method of Jesus: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" (John 16:12). People cannot relate to too much change at once. Early Adventists proclaimed the seventh-day Sabbath at a time when a six-day work week was common, and to get Sabbath privileges was virtually impossible. Their enthusiastic announcement of a very near Second Coming seemed far-fetched to their neighbors who remembered the Millerite embarrassment in 1844. To declare further, in those early years, that Adventist Christians should not smoke tobacco, drink alcoholic beverages, use tea and coffee, or eat swine's flesh-would have been too much to contemplate. Change takes time, even today.
And now the Otsego health vision. Many items in it were extremely relevant to the Whites themselves as to how they could improve their health by setting better priorities for their time and energies, by a more "cheerful, hopeful, peaceful frame of mind," and by not leaving their own health care to God "to take care of that which He has left for us to watch and care for."
Further, the Lord instructed the Whites and others to speak out "against intemperance of every kind . . . in working, in eating, in drinking, and in drugging." But they were not to have only a negative message. They were to guide Seventh-day Adventists and others to a life style that harmonized with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. The sweep of the vision "astonished" Ellen White. She wrote: "Many things came directly across my own ideas."
In May 1866, she visited Dr. H. S. Lay, an Adventist physician in Allegan, Michigan. Fascinated with her vision summary, he wanted a full interview. Mrs. White responded reluctantly because she "was not familiar with medical language," and because "much of the matter presented to her was so different from the commonly accepted views that she feared she could not relate it so that it would be understood."
Dr. Lay was impressed. Her insights were accurate and the overall coherency profound. He knew that the interacting nature of these principles did not come from human sources. He often related to others what he learned that day.
One of his medical friends with whom he much later shared this special information was Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. In 1897 Dr. Kellogg said: "It is a very interesting fact that the Lord began giving us this light thirty years ago. Just before I came to the Conference I had a talk with Dr. Lay, and he told me of how he heard the first instruction about health reform away back in 1860 and especially in 1863. While he was riding in a carriage with Brother and Sister White, she related what had been presented to her upon the subject of health reform, and laid out the principles which have stood the test of all these years-a whole generation."
Speaking to the assembled delegates at the 1897 General Conference, Dr. Kellogg added: "It is impossible for any man who has not made a special study of medicine to appreciate the wonderful character of the instruction that has been received in these writings. It is wonderful, brethren, when you look back over the writings that were given us thirty years ago, and then perhaps the next day pick up a scientific journal and find some new discovery that the microscope has made, or that has been brought to light in the chemical laboratory-I say, it is perfectly wonderful how correctly they agree in fact. . . . There is not a single principle in relation to the healthful development of our bodies and minds that is advocated in these writings from Sister White, which I am not prepared to demonstrate conclusively from scientific evidence."
While traveling on a brutal schedule, still mourning the sad death of Henry, their firstborn, Ellen White rushed to completion Spiritual Gifts, volumes 3 and 4. Volume 4 contained a section called "Health," which contained the first comprehensive statement on health principles since the Otsego vision.
Were Adventists ready for this next call for personal reform? So many orders were received that an announcement was made in the Review and Herald, August 23, 1864: "The call for Spiritual Gifts is so great that we are unable to fill orders as soon as they are received. We have two binders at work, but today have not a single copy in the office."
Reports of immediate and beneficial results began to pour into the Review and Herald, the Adventist clearing house for information. Pastor Isaac Sanborn wrote that for ten years he had tried many remedies for his inflammatory rheumatism. Then, in the spring of 1864 he gave up pork, and a few months later he adopted a two-meal-a-day program, without meat of any kind. He joyfully reported: "I enjoy as perfect health as probably can be enjoyed in this mortal state. I would not return to my old habits of eating for any consideration. . . . I thank God for the light He has given upon this subject." M. E. Cornell recounted how his wife lay at the point of death with typhoid: "We knew that to take the drugs of physicians would be in this case certain death." They applied hydrotherapy treatments, giving "nature a chance to throw off the disease." In a short while, as they united in prayer, Mrs. Cornell was out of danger.
Ellen White was forthright about the changes that had come to her as she applied the counsel she passed on to others, counsel that "came directly across my own ideas." In her "Health" article, one year after the vision, she wrote: "Since the Lord presented before me, in June, 1863, the subject of meat-eating in relation to health, I have left the use of meat. For a while it was rather difficult to bring my appetite to bread, for which, formerly, I have had but little relish. But by persevering, I have been able to do this. I have lived for nearly one year without meat. For about six months most of the bread upon our table has been unleavened cakes, made of unbolted wheat meal and water, and a very little salt. We use fruits and vegetables liberally. I have lived for eight months upon two meals a day."
Ingredients of the Otsego Health Vision
What was so electrifying, so sweeping, so full of promise in the Otsego health vision? The core principles were: