Commentary on "The Blessings of the Prophetic Gift"

PHIL HARRIS

 

Day 4: Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Today's lesson focuses on the Adventist health message which is known as; "counsels on health" because it is the counsel given by Ellen White on this subject.

God speaking to the Israelites:

…and said, "If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I [am] the LORD who heals you." (Ex. 15:26 NKJV)

 

Problems

The first reference given is; Lev 7:22-26. For the most part, these are rules that pertain to animals brought as a sacrifice. For instance, there is the prohibition against eating the fat of the sacrifice. This is a poor text to support a health message. What this passage does show is why the sons of Eli the priest were so evil when they demanded the raw meat with the fat still on it. The fat was meant to be burnt in the sacrificial fire.

The next reference, Lev. 11:1-8, poses another interesting problem. In these verses the Hebrew people are given a list of what animals are clean and what is to be considered as unclean. This appears to be somewhat contradictory when compared to what animals God gave Noah to eat:

Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. (Gen. 9:3,4)

We find the explanation when we study further into Leviticus:

But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. (Lev. 20:24-26)

The Hebrew people were to show their separation from the godless people around them by not eating food God declared as unclean for them. The list of 'unclean foods' they were forbidden to eat was to demonstrate their separation from the sins of the Gentiles. Insight into the association of Gentiles with unclean foods gives Christians a full understanding of the vision given to Peter by God in Acts Chapter Ten. Gentiles were no longer to be considered as unclean in the same way that there were now no longer foods that were to be considered as unclean. To argue that the vision didn't change the food rules and was only talking about Gentiles versus Jews is to forget that the these rules also included separation or contact from Gentiles while eating. You can not separate contact with Gentiles while eating from what was 'unclean' meat. This was demonstrated by Paul when he came down so hard on Peter:

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. (Gal. 2:11,12 ESV)

Now, we need to consider another important point by looking at First Corinthians chapter three, verses 16 and 17, which are used to support the Adventist health message:

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (I Cor. 3:16,17)

If you start with verse one of this chapter you will learn a lesson that has nothing to do with what we eat or anything else we do to our bodies. When we put our loyalty on a person other than Jesus Christ, that is the sin that pollutes the Body of Christ. Ultimately, the warning in verses 11 through 15 is being ignored:

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. (I Cor. 3:11-15)

Here are the words of Jesus concerning what defiles a person. Notice that food does not but there are many things that do.

And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. (Mark 7:14-23)

 

Summary

While it is good that Christians care for their bodies and nourish them in all ways, spiritually, mentally and physically, this should not be the focus of our "missionary call". It is not part of the gospel message and as we have just seen in the last Scripture passage, it is not what pollutes or defiles our bodies, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Since Jesus Christ is central to the gospel message, that is where our focus should be. For a group of people who love to quote the 'Ten Commandments', how can they overlook the one that says; "thou shall have no other Gods before me"?

 

 

Copyright 2009 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised March 6, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.

 

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