God’s Farmacy, Part I

Know ye that the LORD, he [is] God: [it is] he [that] hath made us, and not we ourselves; [we are] his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Psalm 100:3. As we study from the Great Owner’s Manual—the Bible—the greatest medical book that has ever been written, we find even the diseases that we suffer with today. There is nothing new; the Egyptians suffered from the same diseases. A book written by Moses 4,000 years ago shows the same diseases. (See Deuteronomy 28.) Here we live in such a modern, technological society, with more sophisticated apparatus, more education, but we still have not won the battle with cancer and other chronic diseases, because we are shooting in the wrong direction. The only way we can prevent sickness and preserve integrity of the body is through what God ordained 6,000 years ago in the Garden of Eden. Man thinks he is wiser than God, but God has given us instruction. He wants us to not only have theory or facts, but He wants us to have understanding—how to apply that which we know.

Eight Doctors

There are eight doctors at work for us. They are:

  1. Dr. Trust,
  2. Dr. Air,
  3. Dr. Exercise,
  4. Dr. Sunshine,
  5. Dr. Rest,
  6. Dr. Water,
  7. Dr. Temperance, and
  8. Dr. Nutrition.

As we go through this study, we will find these eight principles used exclusively. I use nothing outside of these eight principles. I do not care if it works; if it is not “to the law and to the testimony” (Isaiah 8:20), I do not use it. I do not use iridology; I do not use reflexology; I do not use acupuncture; I do not use the pendulum,and I do not use muscle testing, because they are not “to the law and to the testimony.” Those things are wrought in spiritualism. We can prove that God has given us a simple plan.

“There are many ways of practicing the healing art; but there is only one way that Heaven approves.” Counsels on Diets and Foods, 301. The writer who penned those words does not leave us in darkness. She, Ellen White, goes on to talk about the eight laws. If we are asking for and looking for the Latter Rain to fall on us, we must be in harmony with God’s principles. There is no way we are going to get the Latter Rain if we are not in harmony with the health principles. We find that these principles are simple.

The devil takes the gospel and the health message and he enshrouds them in mystery where only a few people have the so-called expertise and know-how to follow God’s simple principles. But this plan is accessible to all of us. I have no advantage to anyone reading this. We have access to the same power—the Holy Spirit. If God can take a person like me from the streets of Chicago and put His Word in me, He can do it for you.

Disease is an Effort

I want to give you one of the most profound definitions of disease that I have found in any book—whether you went to Loma Linda, Harvard, or Yale, the definition given in The Ministry of Healing is the most profound that I have read in my 54 years. When I picked this book up 27 years ago, I was not a Seventh-day Adventist, and I did not know who wrote it, but I knew it was inspired. It says, “Disease is an effort of nature to free the system from conditions that result from a violation of the laws of health.” The Ministry of Healing, 127.

“Disease is an effort of nature . . . .” When we look at the word effort, it comes to mind that the body is putting forth some work or energy, what we call vital force. Nature is expending energy to maintain what we call homeostasis or balance. God created the body to maintain balance. The temperature of the body, hot or cold; the pH of the body—God created the body to maintain harmony. But when we interfere with the delicate mechanisms of the body, we disrupt its function and sickness takes place.

But notice what it says. “Disease is an effort that means that the body is expending energy to get rid of the problem that we have brought upon it through the violation of law. When someone gets sick, it does not mean that God is punishing that person. We live in a sinful world that has come about as the result of my father and your father, Adam, disobeying God. If there were no sin, there would be no disease. Therefore, my warfare is not against cancer. The Bible does not say that the wages of sin is cancer. The wages of sin is eternal death. My purpose is to lead people back to the cross, back to the Great Physician, Who not only can heal them from cancer, but Who can heal their soul. If a person gets well from cancer and does not have a relationship with Jesus, I have not done the work of God. All I have done is to produce another soldier for the devil to use against God’s people. God is not in the business of producing healthy sinners.

Our Effort vs. Nature

“Disease is an effort of nature.” Some of you realize that a common cold or chronic cough is something that you want to get rid of, so you go to the pharmacist, and you purchase what is called a cough suppressant. As you take this cough suppressant, you are now suppressing nature’s effort to free itself of the condition that has been brought about as a result of the violation of the laws of health. You take the cough suppressant; you are no longer coughing, and you feel good because the cough is gone. Six months later you end up with bronchitis. Now you take another drug to rid yourself of bronchitis. Six months later you may end up with pneumonia, and you take another drug to suppress nature. A year later you may end up with lung cancer.

The more you interfere with nature, the more you are changing one form of a disease into another form, which is more severe. At a later date, nature is so weak it cannot rally to deal with the problem. Then you come to God and want Him to work a miracle, but you have been interfering with nature’s process all along. When you end up with a headache, you may take Tylenol. Your body is not deficient of Tylenol! You need to get to the cause of the problem.

When you sneeze, the body expends energy to get rid of a foreign organism. This involves the immune system. It goes through a histamine reaction—it is trying to get rid of the problem. That is good news! You start breaking out with a rash, and you think you are dying. That is good news! You have pain, and you think you cannot handle it, but that is good news! That is nature, working in your behalf, trying to save your life, and you are trying to interfere with nature. Nature is the voice of God, and when you interfere with nature, you are saying, God, be quiet. When all the mucus begins coming out in the morning, do you really want to take something to snuff that stuff back into your body?

God Wants to Cleanse You

Like Adam and Eve trying to cover themselves with fig leaves when they realized they were naked, you cannot hide your sin in your methods. You cannot mask sickness with your own methods. God wants to cleanse you, to purge you, and to get rid of all the sin in your body. He wants to get rid of the poison in your body, so God created the body in such a way to fight these diseases.

Fever is the way the body was created to deal with infection. Fever raises the body’s temperature—and you put it out with some aspirin. Instead of learning how to do water treatments or fasting to work with nature to free the system of the infection, you treat the symptom. Treating the symptom is like mopping the floor while the water continues to pour from an overflowing sink. What should you do when the floor is covered with water and it continues to pour out onto the floor—keep mopping? No, you need to turn off the water. High blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer are nothing but symptoms! Proverbs 26:2 says, “The curse causeless shall not come.” For every curse there is a cause; for every effect there is a cause; for every symptom there is a cause. The reason that you are not well is because the doctors are treating you for symptoms.

For ten years I did not get well because the doctor was treating my symptoms. He was treating arthritis. I went to the Word of God, and there I found that the cure was in the cause. Remove the cause, and you will get rid of the problem. That is what I did, and the Lord blessed. If He chooses not to heal you, He will give you grace to endure. If you are chronically ill, He may put you to sleep until the indignation passes, so you can rise in the first resurrection. God’s plan does not fail!

Four Steps

The Ministry of Healing mentions four things that should be done in case of sickness:

1 Ascertain the cause. (See The Ministry of Healing, 234, 235.) “The cause [which] I knew not I searched out.” Job 29:16. Where do you go? Romans 3:20 says that the knowledge of the law reveals sin. Without the law there can be no knowledge of sin. You find the cause of sickness by going to the law. To what law? The eight laws of health. If you have a headache, you may ask yourself why. Are you under a lot of stress? Are you drinking enough water? Maybe it was the 10:00 p.m. meal that you ate, or maybe you are not getting enough exercise. The law will reveal to you why you are sick.

2 Unhealthful conditions—the environment in which we live—need to be changed. (See The Ministry of Healing, 127.) The environment might not be conducive for a healthy lifestyle. Why? You might live in a home that has mildew and dampness, with no sunlight. Or perhaps you are sleeping with the animals—with the cats and dogs. Maybe they are running around all over your kitchen counter. Did you know that cats and dogs are susceptible to a number of different parasites that are communicable to humans? Except for service animals, such as those used for the blind, you do not need to be sleeping with animals. They should not be in your kitchen or even in your house.

Well, you might say, they are good for older folks. No, the Holy Spirit is good for older folks; you do not need animals in the house. I remember, on the way to a camp meeting several years ago, my wife and I stopped to use the restroom at the “golden arches.” They had a clean restroom and a little picnic area. My wife says I am a nosey person, but I say that I am observant, and there is a difference. (When you are nosey you get in other people’s business. Observant means you are learning for educational purposes.) As I walked out of McDonald’s, I observed a family with a wonderful dog, a German shepherd. It was eating ice cream. As I was observing, the mistress gave the dog the ice cream and it licked; then she took the cone back, and she licked from the same cone! Animals are wonderful creatures, and I love them, but you have to be hygienic with them.

If you are living in a home where there is second-hand smoke, you are in an unhealthy environment. Maybe you are working in a job where you are breathing chemical fumes. A friend who has been an auto mechanic for over 25 years had lungs filled with fumes; his hand was black with fungus. When he quit that job his hand started turning back to its normal color. Sometimes we work in hazardous situations that are not conducive to our health. Ask God to deliver you from such a situation. He will provide you with another job.

3 Wrong habits need to be corrected. (See The Ministry of Healing, 234.) That means simply that we need to change our lifestyle habits—our sleeping, eating, and exercise habits, etc.

4 Nature is to be assisted in its effort. (See The Ministry of Healing, 127.) Perhaps sometimes when you are sick and the stomach is aching, you keep feeding the stomach. The body may say, Wait a minute; give me a rest! Maybe you need to fast for 24 hours to assist nature; maybe you need to do a dry brush rub; a hot and cold shower; perhaps a sitz bath, or a foot bath. That is what it means to assist nature.

All of this comes from that wonderful book, The Ministry of Healing. It is a great medical book. So you need to find the cause, change unhealthful conditions, and follow the eight laws of health.

God Provides Everything

Under God’s plan you will find everything you need in the eight laws of health. Under the water law you will find that you are benefited by using it internally as well as by using hydrotherapy. Under the law of exercise you can find passive exercise, physical therapy, or massage. Under the law of nutrition you not only find good food, but you also find God’s Farmacy. Food is your medicine. God’s Farmacy is found in your back yard garden and in your grocery store. Genesis 1:11, 12 and Genesis 2:5–8, 15 tell us that God planted vegetation before He put man in the Garden. Everything Adam needed was in that Garden.

God gave man an original diet. Genesis 1:29 says that God gave man fruits, grains, and nuts in the beginning. Before sin, man did not eat green herbs; man did not eat green plants. He ate from the trees; he ate seeds; he ate grains; he ate fruit. There was no vegetation in his diet at all. This was God’s plan. In Genesis 3:18, after sin, God added the herbs of the field.

Genesis 1:11, 12 describes three types of vegetation—grass, herb-bearing seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit with the seed in itself—that God made. Of the three vegetations, in the beginning, God gave man two of them. (See Genesis 1:29.) God gave animals the vegetation from the grass. (See Genesis 1:30.) God said to Adam, “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of it] all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.” Genesis 3:17, 18. Then He mentioned the sweat. Why did He do that? God is associating sweating with eating these plants, because sweating eliminates toxins out of the body. The body went through a metamorphosis. The Bible records the warning given that in the day that man would eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. (See Genesis 2:9, 17.) In that day he began to die, but God had an antidote. Therefore God gave man permission to eat fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables.

The Bible says, “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth.” Psalm 104:14. God provided the herbs for the service of man.

Grow Your Own Food

To have a healthy body, you have to have healthy food; if you are going to have healthy food, you need to have healthy soil. When we began to work with our soil years ago, we discovered that we have clay soil. The pH was something like 3.5; there were no worms in our soil. Now a few things will grow in clay, but there is no way you are going to grow healthy food where there are no worms. After a year or two of building up that soil, the food grown on it is so sweet it melts in your mouth. You can become accustomed to store-bought vegetables, but if you are in the country, you need to have a garden. If you are in the city, get some grow boxes. Even in the city you can grow some food.

Out of the Cities

Those who have the resources should get out of the cities! With all we hear about end time events, it is really interesting to me that so many of us are still in the cities. Those who can get out of the city, get more than one acre, because there are refugees coming. We have 75 acres of land. We would never use that much land. Why do we have it? Because those acres can be converted, in the future, for those individuals who cannot financially afford to get out of the city now. We got out of the city without any money—God provided. Purpose in your heart—resolve; do not say that you do not have money; God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Purpose in your heart; start getting out of debt; start getting your tools together; begin making preparation just as the Israelites had to make preparation before leaving Egypt. Resolve, and watch God honor your resolve!

To be continued . . .

Thomas Jackson is a Health Evangelist and Director of Missionary Education and Evangelistic Training (M.E.E.T.) Ministry in Huntingdon, Tennessee. He may be contacted by e-mail at godsplan@meetministry.org or by telephone at 731-986-3518.