Ellen White was instructive in forming some of the concepts behind medical ministry. At first glance it may seem she was against the use of drugs.
“Let the physician teach that the restorative power is not in drugs but in nature.” Ministry of Healing 127
“Thousands need and would gladly receive instruction concerning the simple methods of treating the sick – methods that are taking the place of the use for poisonous drugs.” Ministry of Healing 146
“The cure could be wrought only by the power of the Great Healer, yet Christ made use of the simple agencies of nature. While He did not give countenance to drug medication, He sanctioned the use of simple and natural remedies. Ministry of Healing 233
Ellen White didn’t believe drugs had restorative power. In fact she thought the use of drugs were “poisonous” and did not give “countenance” or support to medications.
This was concerning to me because just the other day I prescribed antibiotics to a 12-year-old boy who had strep throat. I refilled a patient’s blood pressure medicine. I even refilled another person’s pain pills. It made me wonder: Am I prescribing something that has not been sanctioned by God?
First an Aside on Interpreting Ellen White
Adventist historian George Knight explains a particular problem in Northern California. Many children were running around without adult supervision because both parents had to work at the St. Helena Sanitarium. In order to deal with this problem the idea of starting a school arose so children could be supervised and receive an education. However, someone read a quote from Ellen White stating that children should not receive formal education until the age of 8 or 10 years old. Debate ensued which culminated at a board meeting.
Fortunately they were able to invite a guest to help resolve the issue: Ellen White – the author herself. In response to this White said something profound which can be used in interpreting her writings, “Circumstances change the relation of things.” In other words, context is everything. Her writings were intended for everyone but addressed to certain people within a particular context. The reader was to use common sense in applying her writings to their specific situation.
Ellen White also recognized the difference between the ideal and the real. When she penned the words advising children not be schooled until 8 or 10 years-old, there were no Adventist schools at that time. Ideally children were to be homeschooled. But she also recognized that circumstances arose where the ideal could not be achieved. In which case, the best ought to be done with the situation at hand. During the board meeting, she advocated that school be started for children as young as kindergarten. Ellen White wanted us to carefully consider the context of her writing and use common sense in applying them.
The Practice of Medicine during Ellen White’s Lifetime.
The practice of medicine during Ellen White’s time is unrecognizable by today’s standards. Medicines were essentially poisons causing one to vomit, have diarrhea, bleed or blister. There were no antibiotics, antihistamines, anticoagulants, anticancer therapeutic agents, hormones, steroids, or modern diuretics. If the axiom that medical knowledge doubles every ten years is true, then medical knowledge has increased more than 50,000 percent since the death of Ellen White in 1915.[1]
Ellen White knew there were circumstances where medicines were justified. This quote is from Selected Messages, Book 2.
Before major surgery, the entire body is saturated with a powerful and, in a sense, harmful drug [the anesthetic], to the point of complete unconsciousness and to complete insensibility. By the same token, after surgical procedures, the physician may find it necessary to administer [pain killers] that almost certainly include drugs to give relief and prevent the patient from lapsing, from sheer pain, into a state of surgical shock and, in some instances, possible death.
In another place she writes that using medicines is not a denial of faith.
It is our privilege to use every God-appointed means in correspondence with our faith, and then trust in God,… If there is need of a surgical operation, and the physician is willing to undertake the case, it is not a denial of faith to have the operation performed.
She even said that we should employ every facility for the restoration of health:
It is not a denial of faith to use such remedies as God has provided to alleviate pain and to aid nature in her work of restoration…. God has put it in our power to obtain a knowledge of the laws of life. This knowledge has been placed within our reach for use. We should employ every facility for the restoration of health, taking every advantage possible, working in harmony with natural laws.
Ellen White herself used the conventional medicine of that time. She had x-ray radiation treatments for a skin problem at Loma Linda. She was vaccinated for smallpox and urged her helpers to do the same.
The bottom line is we are to do the best we can. White told a missionary it was okay to use quinine to treat malaria. When the missionary asked, “Would I have sinned to give the boy quinine when I knew of no other way to check malaria and when the prospect was that he would die without it?” she replied, “No, we are expected to do the best we can.’’
Ellen White wrote in 1905, “God does not heal the sick without the aid of the means of healing which lie within the reach of man.’’
So may be it’s okay for me to given an antibiotic, a pain pill or blood pressure medicine. Because in giving these drugs, I am using what is within my reach to bring relief of suffering. And perhaps in providing relief I can educate about the health laws and even, just maybe, point to the Great Physician.
Read What is Medical Ministry? Part 4: What Preventive Medicine Has to do With the Soul
[1] http://www.llu.edu/info/legacy/appendixe/
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