God often uses illustrations to bring us a lesson, and in Amos 7:7, 8, we find a vivid and graphic one.
“Thus He shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in His hand. And the Lord said unto me, ‘Amos, what seest thou?’ And I said, ‘A plumbline.’ Then said the Lord, ‘Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of My people Israel: I will not again pass by them anymore.’ ”
A plumbline is used to see whether a wall is straight or not, but there is an interesting thing about a plumbline: no matter what the person using it thinks, or whether they have something to gain or lose, the plumbline always points straight up and down. That is why it is used.
A builder friend of mine once told me about a church that was being built. A general contractor had been hired to oversee the project, but certain parts of the building’s construction had been sourced out to various subcontractors. One of those contractors was responsible for the masonry work on the building.
One morning the general superintendent came to the job site. He thought one of the walls didn’t look straight. When the foreman for the masons came, the superintendent expressed his concern about the wall. The foreman said, “Well, let’s get the plumbline.” They did, and sure enough, the wall was not true; it was out of line.
Now, the wall had already been built up to a certain point. Do you suppose they decided that the wall wasn’t a whole lot out of alignment, and since it would take a lot of time and money to pull it down and do it right, they would just keep building on that wall even though it was out of line, but do it right on the other walls? Wouldn’t it be strange to argue that if it had been built according to the blueprint in the first place, it would have been better, but now it is too late to go back and start over?
There is only one right thing for them to do—tear it down and start over again, using the plumbline more often and more carefully. In material things, nobody questions what to do in a case like this.
But, in our text above, God is talking about something infinitely more important. Another translation states it this way: “ ‘Amos, what do you see?’ ‘A plumbline,’ I replied. The Eternal said, ‘With a plumbline I test My people.’ ”
The Seventh-day Adventist church is unique. It isn’t some sect or a cult. It is a movement established by God with a God-given message, and its destiny is to allow God to use it to prepare a people to be ready for His soon coming. But there is a question to consider: God has waited a long time, spiritually building this last-day movement. He has spent 6,000 years testing it. Unless His church is built according to the blueprint and is perfect according to its standard, what profit is it to keep building it?
Key to this message, and the foundation and central pillar of the advent movement, is the following text: “And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Daniel 8:14. It is the event highlighted in this prophecy that has made us a people, and will keep us on our job.
There are three critical things about this text. One is that great period that began in 457 B.C. and reached down to the autumn of 1844. October 22, 1844, is the birthday of God’s last-day people. It designates the beginning of the cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven, and the blotting out of the sins of God’s people. God will never enter a false record in His heavenly bookkeeping. And when He says that He will cleanse the sanctuary in heaven, that includes an accompanying work of cleansing His church on earth. As the Investigative Judgment continues in the most holy place in the sanctuary above, as the lives of men are measured by His ten-commandment law—His plumbline—God wants us to be measuring our lives according to the plumbline to be certain that we are straight and true.
“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10. We primarily think about the fourth commandment when we read this verse because the Sabbath is the seal of the law and the seal of God’s work in the hearts of His people—the sign of a completed work in which all His people have all the law written in their hearts and revealed in their lives. But there are ten commandments and behind those ten are the two great commandments: love to God and love to fellow man—God’s blueprint as well as His plumbline. In order to have a people in whose hearts and lives the ten commandments are fully revealed, God has given us a message of physical healing and restoration so that our blood streams may be pure and our brains thinking straight. That is why we have health reform and medical missionary work in this movement.
In order that we might know what this law reveals, God gave us a set of lenses—the Old and New Testaments—which magnify the law. And because some of us down here in this last generation have such poor eyesight, He’s given us, along with His law and the Bible to magnify it, a great magnifying glass in the Spirit of Prophecy. The Spirit of Prophecy magnifies the Bible, the Bible magnifies the law and thus we can see the whole duty of man.
Why is this law so important? It is the revelation of God’s will, His character. He spoke it with His lips, He wrote it with His finger. It is the only part of the Bible given to us in these ways. In the Bible, we have this same Creator who writes His will on the tables of stone, speaking to us through the prophets and apostles, and telling us in simple language what He means by every precept of His law. Now in the word of God, we find the last-day promise that He will have a remnant church that keeps His law—the ten commandments—and have the testimony of Jesus—the Spirit of Prophecy.
If the Spirit of Prophecy is the testimony of Jesus, then who is speaking to us as we read books such as The Ministry of Healing, Counsels on Diet and Foods, Counsels on Health, and the Testimonies? Jesus is speaking. We often hear it said that the messages found in the Spirit of Prophecy are out of date. Isn’t it strange that we believe that the messages in a book given to us 2,000 years ago are still valid, but messages given by the same voice over a hundred years ago, are not? I don’t believe it, do you? I believe that the One who gives us light through the Bible has given us light in the Spirit of Prophecy, and both sources of light will help, guide, and bless us all the way to the end.
There are those who believe in the writings of Ellen G. White as found in The Desire of Ages, Patriarchs and Prophets, Steps to Christ, or Christ’s Object Lessons, but they find it difficult to attach the same inspired authority to the details dealing with physiology, dietetics and nutrition, medical practice, and sanitariums and hospitals. So, the question we need to ask is, “What do we mean by the blueprint?”
I am not telling any secret when I say that we have good men in leadership who believe that there is good counsel in the writings of Ellen G. White. However, they also believe that at least some of what she wrote, while relevant to her time, is not relevant to our time. With all my heart I believe they are mistaken. I do not believe that we can treat some of the Spirit of Prophecy as guidance for a bygone age only, and jettison other guidance which we feel is outmoded or obsolete for this time in earth’s history. The truth is, friends, we have to make sure that we are right according to the plumbline.
The higher the wall, the more important it is for the continued use of the plumbline to keep the wall straight. And if in our ignorance or carelessness, in our desire to keep up with the Joneses, we have built different from the blueprint and contrary to the plumbline, then we must repent and start over again in our individual work for God. God’s patience has endured for more than 6,000 years, and He continues to wait until He gets what He wants. No matter how high we build our walls, unless God accepts our work, what profit is it?
To the point of just exactly what we mean by the blueprint, I’d like us to read the following classic statement. It relates to the Bible, but is equally applicable to the inspired instruction which has been given to us through the Spirit of Prophecy. “It is one thing to treat the Bible as a book of good moral instruction, to be heeded so far as is consistent with the spirit of the times and our position in the world; it is another thing to regard it as it really is—the word of the living God, the word that is our life, the word that is to mold our actions, our words, and our thoughts. To hold God’s word as anything less than this is to reject it.” Education, 260
Are the writings of the Bible and of Ellen G. White the blueprint for our work, or are they merely some guiding principles to apply as we think best? This is the question, and on this issue will come a confrontation in this denomination that we have yet to meet.
In 1904, Mrs. White was given a vision of an iceberg. We understand that this vision came at the same time as an open attack against the Spirit of Prophecy by the people in Battle Creek. In vision, Mrs. White was told that she was to give the order to “Meet it!”
Our controversy in the world is over the Sabbath and keeping the ten commandments, but the great controversy within this movement in the coming days is over the Spirit of Prophecy. Books have been written with the intention of debunking the authority of Ellen G. White. Now is the time for those who believe in and hold fast to the Spirit of Prophecy to come out in the open and stand up for Jesus and His testimony.
Let me illustrate what I mean in this matter of implicit faith in Mrs. White’s writings. In U.S. News and World Report, there is occasionally a page on the latest in health and medicine. One article is titled, “Alcohol’s Link to Cancer.” This was reported to Congress, and it says, “Government research has shown that there is now evidence from science that the heavy use of alcohol brings an added risk of cancer.” That supports inspired writings. But now notice what it says as the article closes. “ ‘On the other hand,’ the doctor in charge said, ‘there is no evidence that moderate use of alcohol is harmful. In fact, according to the institute’s report, moderate drinkers, as a statistical group, live longer than abstainers or ex-drinkers.’ ”
My dear friends, I plead with your hearts, while it is all very well to gather scientific evidence in support of what the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy say, we need to spend our time with major emphasis in studying the writings themselves and believing them whether science confirms them or not. We do not believe because we understand, we understand because we believe. “Through faith we understand.” Hebrews 11:3. And just as there is danger that some of our scientific men may lose their way while trying to correlate, using the scientific theories and so-called scientific data available in the scientific world today, the teachings of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy on Creation with science, we must beware that we do not evaluate what is given us in the Spirit of Prophecy according to what man has confirmed or not.
More than a hundred years ago, the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy were far in advance of the science of that time. Could it be that it is the same today? We know a lot of things today that people didn’t know then. If this light through the Spirit of Prophecy is our blueprint, let us be content to wait for the world to catch up.
Let me illustrate it in another way. Many years ago, when I was a student in the medical missionary work, the only people who did not use butter were those in the Seventh-day Adventist Church who were fanatics zealously following the writings of Ellen G. White, and were looked upon by many as extremists. People didn’t talk much about cholesterol and atherosclerosis caused by a high animal fat diet in those days, but do not miss this point: Those fanatics determined to do just what the prophet said about abstaining from eating butter and the result was fewer heart attacks. There are a hundred other details in the Spirit of Prophecy that, if we searched them out and followed them, whether there is any scientific support for them or not, we would not only be showing our faith in God, but we would also reap benefits for doing what God says.
Following the blueprint means taking both the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy at face value and accepting what we read and following their counsels whether we see any reason for it or not.
Let’s look at walking, for example. “Walking, in all cases where it is possible, is the best remedy for diseased bodies, because in this exercise all the organs of the body are brought into use. … There is no exercise that can take the place of walking.” The Retirement Years, 133, 134. Walking is better for our health than all the medicine the doctors can prescribe. Hold the head erect and the shoulders back. The lungs are forced into healthy action, circulation is improved, and many muscles are brought into exercise by walking. Walking can be a safeguard against colds. It is also good to cultivate the habit of talking with Jesus while you walk.
Here is another item of specific counsel on what we mean by the blueprint. “Sickness of the mind prevails everywhere. Nine tenths of the diseases from which men suffer have their foundation here. … The physician needs more than human wisdom and power that he may know how to minister to the many perplexing cases of disease of the mind and heart with which he is called to deal. If he is ignorant of the power of divine grace, he cannot help the afflicted one, but will aggravate the difficulty.” Counsels on Health, 324, 325. What would this do to our practice of medicine if we really believed this statement? Will we dare to refer to an unconverted psychologist or psychiatrist?
The blueprint tells us that if the physician is ignorant of the power of divine grace, he cannot help, but will instead aggravate the difficulty. If my mind ever goes off the beam, let me go insane, raving mad, and die, rather than put me in the hands of some pagan, heathen psychiatrist who does not believe in God and freewill. I would rather die insane in the Lord than be under the influence of one of these worldly psychiatrists or psychologists. Most do not understand that what is called science in the field of psychiatry and psychology goes contrary to the counsels of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy.
“We may well distrust the ungodly physician. … How terrible to trust our loved ones in the hands of an impure man, who may poison the morals and ruin the soul!” Ibid., 326. Let no medical ethics rob you of the convictions that come from this inspired blueprint.
“Our institutions are to be entirely under the supervision of God. They were established in sacrifice, and only in sacrifice can their work be successfully carried forward.” Ibid., 316
Oh, but we now know how to run the work without sacrifice. Peter tried to help Jesus learn how to run His program without the sacrifice of the cross (Matthew 16). Jesus’ response was, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Verse 23
Shall I venture another specific example of the blueprint? “It is the purpose of God that a health institution should be organized and controlled exclusively by Seventh-day Adventists; and when unbelievers are brought in to occupy responsible positions, an influence is presiding there that will tell with great weight against the sanitarium.” Counsels on Health, 401. What does “exclusively” mean? Nobody but. Of course, this counsel must be out of date. It was written over a hundred years ago.
God has given us a specific Seventh-day Adventist health message. We are not to be run-of-the-mill medical practitioners who happen to belong to the Seventh-day Adventist church. We have been given counsel to guide us in the way we are to do our work and run our institutions. Is that counsel still relevant? Yes, it is.
A full demonstration of God’s blueprint will soon be on full display. We are invited to have a part in that demonstration of all the counsel found in the Bible and given by Mrs. White, but God does not force anyone. He gives everyone an opportunity to be part of this last-day work. We must go to Him saying, “Dear Lord, I want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I will seek for it as silver, search for it as pure gold, and I’ll follow it.” There is no limit to what God can do when He has a people willing to go all the way with Him. We must say and believe as did Elijah on Mount Carmel: “If the Lord be God, follow Him, but if it be the world, then follow it.” (1 Kings 18:21).
What is God’s blueprint? His holy law, the Bible, and the Spirit of Prophecy. “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.” 2 Chronicles 20:20
[All scripture from the KJV]
Pastor W. D. Frazee studied the Medical Missionary Course at the College of Medical Evangelists in Loma Linda, California. He was called to Utah as a gospel medical evangelist. During the Great Depression, when the church could not afford to hire any assistants, Pastor Frazee began inviting professionals to join him as volunteers. Thus began a faith ministry that would become the foundation for the establishment of the Wildwood Medical Missionary Institute in 1942. He believed that each person is unique, specially designed by the Lord, of infinite value, and has a special place and mission in this world which only he or she can fill. His life followed this principle and encouraged others to do the same.