Presented by

Katembo Kambere Thadee, BSN,MPH

Adventist University of the Philippines
2010

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health

Beliefs and Practices 1
 Outline
Introduction
Objectives
Key terms
The prevailing health practices in
the early Adventist pioneers’ days
The birth of the Adventist healthy
lifestyle teachings and principles
 Conclusion
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices 2
 Introduction
• Wholeness and health have been an emphasis of the Seventh-
day Adventist Church since the 1860s when the Church began.
(SDA Church, Mission and service: Health, http://www.adventist.org/mission_and_service/health.html.en)

The Seventh-day Adventist Church came on the scene at a

time, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, of great
conceptual and social ferment. Among the things in which
people were interested were appeals to nature and nature's God
in matters of health and disease. Under the guidance of God, a
called people were committed to the task of selecting the best
and developing and organizing it into a worldwide system of
health and healing that gave this movement a voice of authority
in this dimension of the movement's ministry (Provonsha, J. Conceptual
Foundations of Our Health Message. Retrieved on April 13,2010 from
http://www.aims-health.net/provon.html ) Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs and Practices 3
 Main Objectives are :
 

1. To describe the prevailing health practices in the early

Adventist pioneers’ days

2. To circumscribe historically the birth of the Adventist

healthy lifestyle teachings and principles

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 4
 Key terms

Health doctrine: teachings and beliefs relating to health.

Health practices: habitual way of doing actions relating to

health

Health behaviors: individual responses or reactions to

internal stimuli and external conditions with influence on
health.(Edberg, 2010)

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 5
 -I-
The Prevailing Health
Practices in the Early
Adventist Pioneers’ days

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices
6
 1.1. General Context of Health Conditions in
the 19th Century

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the living

conditions were completely appalling (very bad).

In England for example, the disposal of sewage and other

waste had always been a problem among the urban
population of these islands. Piles of decaying waste could
regularly be seen in the streets. (Troy Southgate, Public Health
in the 19th Century. http://www.rosenoire.org/articles/hist22.php)

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 7
 General Context(ctd…)
• Health issues in this period of enlightenment and
revolution (1750-1830) are essentially related to the
increase of the population, deficient hygiene and
sanitation with high prevalence of infectious diseases,
while the microbiological origin of those diseases was
not yet known. Emphasis was on practices such as
health policy and variolation without involving the
population in prevention actions .

• From 1830-1875 will come the age of industrialism

and sanitary movement. It is the period of great
epidemics and the replacement of the miasma
theory by the contagious theory.
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices 8
General context(Europe)
• Would we notice that Cholera epidemic spread in
London during that period (1848-1854)and John Snow
lead the study on it , but organisms responsible for
diseases ( to be called microbes later) were not known
until the years 1880’s.

• From 1875 to 1950, that period is named the

bacteriological era with the great discovery of
several microbes.
( Georges Rosen. 1993. A history of public health. Expanded
edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press.)

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices
9
 General Context (USA)
It is in a such context of many lifestyle health
problems during the period 1830-1875, coupled
to the ignorance of the etiology of diseases, that
the young Seventh –Day Adventist Church will
be born and it was really a need to connect
the gospel with the health message.

In the context of the USA, Robinson(1955) describe that

period as “times of this ignorance”

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices
10
 Poor Medical practices
1-Bloodletting : is the withdrawal of often considerable
quantities of blood from a patient to cure or prevent illness
and disease. It was the most common medical practice
performed by doctors from antiquity up to the late 19th
century, almost 2,000 years.

George Washington (1732-1799) ,

first US President (1789 -1797) is one
the victims of that practice.

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices
11
 2- Use of Dangerous drugs such as :

* Calomel or Mercurous chloride very toxic, used in

medicine as a diuretic and purgative (laxative) in the
US (1830s-1860s ).

It is obvious nowadays that

Mercury is a heavy metal and very toxic.

That time “mercury was a remedy of great value in the

treatment of many chronic diseases.” (Robinson,1955)

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 12
Dangerous drugs(cntd…)

Opium (an illegal drug) in combination with

calomel and antimony (toxic).

Clinically, antimony poisoning is very similar to

arsenic poisoning, larger doses cause violent and
frequent vomiting, and will lead to death in a few
days.

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 13
3-Several Alternative Practices

Use of milk to cure fever and later on the use of

water only

Absence of true scientific knowledge regarding diet,

sanitation and rational therapy

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices
14
 4-Liquor and Tobacco Used
Ministers in many popular churches were
free to use tobacco and
to drink alcoholic beverages without criticism

At the age of 18, when young Loughborough was

beginning to preach, he was advised to use tobacco as a
remedy for a lung difficulty which followed a slight
hemorrhage. He accepted the advice but cessed smoking 2
years later. (Robinson, 1955)

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices
15
1.2. Specificity of Prevailing Health Practices in
the Early Adventist Pioneers’ Days

Among those pioneers , 7 names are

emphasized from James White ,
the
first GC President to Kellogg the
famous and first Adventist doctor,
who died the last.
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices
16
 Elder Andrews statement
In 1863, he wrote: “ I was not instructed
in the principles of hygiene, for my father
and mother had neither of them any just
knowledge of these.

I was kept from the use of tobacco,

and from even tasting strong drink; but
I learned almost nothing of the evils of
unwholesome food.
John N.
Andrews
(1829-1883) I did not know that late suppers were
serious evils
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices 17
Elder Andrews statement (cntd…)

I had no idea of any special transgression in eating

between meals…I supposed old cheese was good to
aid digestion.

Hot biscuit and butter, doughnuts, pork in every

form, pickles, preserves, tea, coffee, etc., were all of
common use. (December, 1871 as cited by Robinson,
1955).

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 18
 Elder Andrews’ death
With his wife Angeline, they had 4 children Charles (born
in 1857), Mary (born in 1861) and two others passed away
at a very young age.

John Andrews’ wife Angeline died of a stroke in 1872.

As a widower with his teenage children, He went to Europe

in 1874 as the first official SDA missionary.

Andrews died in Europe (in Basel, Switzerland) of

tuberculosis in 1883( one year after the discovery of the
Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Koch), at the age of 54.
(Pathways of the pioneers,
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
http://www.whiteestate.org/pathways/jandrews.asp)
and Practices 19
James White (1821 – 1881)
Co-founder of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church with his wife Ellen
and Joseph Bates. He was the fifth of
nine children,
No tobacco, no alcohol in this life

First President of the GC

He suffered three stroke in his life

He died at age 60 in 1881 for Malaria

that John Kellogg at Battle Creek
sanatorium tried his best in vain.
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices 20
Ellen G. White (1827- July 16, 1915)

She and her twin sister Elizabeth were

the youngest of eight children.
The mother of four boys, Mrs. White
suffered the pain of losing two of her
sons. Herbert died as an infant a few
weeks old, and Henry died at 16

She died at age 88 on July 16, 1915 for

heart failure.

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 21
Joseph Bates (1792 – 1872)
Bates eventually served as captain of
his own ship, beginning in 1820.

In 1821 he gave up smoking and

chewing tobacco

He later quit using tea and coffee and

in 1843, he became a vegetarian.

He died at the age of 80 at the

Health Reform Institute in Battle
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
Creek. and Practices 22
John H. Kellogg (1852 – 1943)
Was a multi-talented man: surgeon,
inventor of surgical instruments, exercise
device inventor, pioneer in physiotherapy
and nutrition, and a prodigious writer.

He developed a strong dislike for the

ministers of the church, claiming that
they were relatively uneducated and
many did not practice health reform,
especially concerning meat eating.
He died in 1943 for unspecified cause.
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices 23
Uriah Smith (1832-1903)

Smith was elected the first secretary

of the General Conference when it
organized in 1863.

At age 71, Smith died of a stroke on

his way to the Review office.

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 24
Goodloe H. Bell (1832 – 1899)
Eldest of 12 children,

Overwork placed him in the Western

Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek,
in 1866, shortly after it opened.

There he accepted the Seventh-day

Adventist faith ( through the health
services)

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 25
Averages from the profile of the 7
SDA pioneers
Mean age (life span) = 73.5 years

Sibling mean = 10

Cause of death =
stroke,
malaria,
TB,
heart failure Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices 26
 Summary of heath conditions
Too many births, births too close
Sedentarity and especially for girls
Unhealthy clothes for children ( not covering arms and limbs)
High Infant Mortality rate
Congested rooms without enough air
Neglect of cleanliness ( house, clothes, taking bath)
Dangerous drugs
tobacco and alcohol use
No vaccination because microbes not yet discovered
This is the summary of health conditions of that time.
(Adapted from White, E. , Selected message 2)
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices 27
 It was a need
With this back ground of poor health conditions of the
19th century

We can truly appreciate the great advance that has been
made in this generation

Which is a rich heritage of us who live today

SDA were providentially led to accept the sound reforms

in health habits as a matter of religious principles.
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices 28
 - II -
Historic of the Birth of
the Adventist Healthy
Lifestyle Teachings and
Principles
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices
29
 2.1 Health Reforms Among SDA
Formative period of the body of SDA may roughly stated to
have been from 1844 to 1855.

Still time of general ignorance but inclusion of progressive

laws of life in the faith and practices of the believers at the
propitious time was already decided.

Why? It seems to have been in the providence of God that

the great fundamental spiritual truths should be presented
first.

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices
30
 Tobacco still tolerated
Autumn 1848 ( first vision on health), Ellen White was
shown in vision that not only tobacco was harmful, but also
tea and coffee as well, and she stopped the use of them as
beverages.
Content of vision: Injurious effects of tobacco (“a slow,
insidious, and most malignant poison”), tea, and coffee.
Should we notice that the first epidemiological studies on
tobacco were lead by DOLL and HILL in 1950.( 102 years
later)
No special effort, however, was made through
denominational publications to induce sabbathkeeping
Adventists to discontinue the use of tobacco until the
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
latter part of 1853. and Practices 31
Feb. 12, 1854: A second limited view
was given 1. Health-related issues:
Adultery in the church
Lack of bodily cleanliness
among Sabbathkeepers
 Control of appetite needed

2. Other topics discussed:

Profanity
Parental neglect of children
Unwise youthful marriages

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 32
2.2. Health Reform from 1863
Development of the “Health
message”--the Decade of the
1860s

 The General Conference was

organized May 21, 1863.

Sixteen days later the first

major health reform vision
was given June 6th, 1863.

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs and
Practices
33
 A memorable vision
Ellen White's work and teachings related to health reform
had their origin in a 45-minute vision that she received
while in prayer with friends on Friday night (Sabbath )of
June 6, 1863 in Otsego, Michigan, in the home of Aaron
Hilliard during a family worship period.

That is the first major, comprehensive health vision

She was 36 years old and had been a rather heavy meat
eater prior to this time.

She was shown that people wishing to live a life of the spirit
have a sacred duty to attend to their health.
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices 34
 They should
abstain from tobacco, alcohol, and meat,

be temperate in eating and work, and, whenever

possible,

use natural remedies to heal diseases: water , proper

diet, fresh air, exercise, sunshine, and rest

This is the doctrine or principles witch will take the

acronym of NEWSTART, as used today.

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 35
Scope of the Vision contents
Content: emphasized earlier reforms; introduced new
ones. 10 emphases (Roger W. Coon. Ellen G. White and the SDA
“Health Message:”God’s Third Priority for the First 20 Years of Vision)

1. Care of health as a religious duty

God requires us to glorify Him in our bodies.
We earn nothing, however, toward salvation/eternal life.

2.The cause of disease is a violation of health laws.

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 36
3. Intemperance on many fronts attacked:

(i) “Stimulating drinks”

(ii) Tobacco “in whatever form”
(iii) Highly spiced foods
(iv) Overwork: “intemperance in labor”
(v) “Indulgence of base passion”: Manifestations
not particularly otherwise identified; obviously
reference to intemperate sexual relationships
between husband/wife.

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 37
4. Vegetarianism advocated;
pork totally prohibited
first time nonfleshdiet revealed to EGW as ideal

5. Proper dietary habits to control appetite:

(i) Danger of eating too much.
(ii) Danger of eating between meals

6. Control of the mind essential; many illnesses have

their origination in a diseased mind, rather than from
organic/viral causes.
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices
38
 7. Natural remedies in healing better than drug
medication:
(i) Those identified in this vision:
(a) Pure air
(b) Pure water--for both internal/external use
(c) Sunshine
(d) Physical exercise
(e) Adequate rest
(f) Fasting for brief periods, to rest stomach
(g) Proper nutrition
(ii) In 1885--22 years later--she would add a final
“natural remedy”: “A firm trust in God,” “trust in divine
power.”

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs 39

and Practices
Natural remedies(cntd…)

8. Personal cleanliness--raised in 1854 vision--reiterated here.

(i) Broadened to include body, clothing, and living quarters
(ii) Personal cleanliness placed on level of “purity of heart”
for all professing Christians.
9. Environmental Concerns:
Remove decaying vegetation from immediate proximity of
home
Wherever possible, build houses on high ground, avoid
allowing water to settle nearby.
10. Health education:
For the first time, a “duty” of Christians to educate the public.
This would be further re-emphasized in the 4th health-reform
vision of Dec. 25, 1865, at Rochester, NY.

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs 40

and Practices
 Vision of Christmas 1865
The second major health vision was given in Rochester,
New York. ( but 4th vision in general)

Background: Special service in Local SDA Church

Christmas Day for healing for James White and his
recovery of health.

Content: SDAs should now provide a health-care

institution , Guiding her to the establishment of a
health reform institute that would care for the sick and
teach basic principles of healthful living and
preventive medicine.
Cure those already ill
Teach preventive medicine Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
41
and Practices
Summary of the 4 health visions
First vision on health: Autumn 1848 on tobacco ,tea and
coffee
Second vision on health : Feb. 12, 1854 on adultery,
cleanliness , appetite control, youthful marriage.
Third vision on health (first major, comprehensive
health vision) June 6, 1863. 10 principles comprising
the actual NEWSTART.
Fourth vision on health (second major health
vision ): Christmas 1865. Emphasis on creation of
Health institutions.

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 42
 Health Reform Institute of Battle Creek
Less than a year later (5 September
1866) the Western Health Reform
Institute was opened in Battle Creek,
Michigan.

Thereafter a number of health

institutions were founded.

The January 1904 issue of Good

Battle Creek Sanatorium
rebuilt by Kellogg after the
fire of 1902
Health magazine lists 17 sanat0riums
in the United States and 9 overseas,
plus 29 Adventist-run vegetarian
cafes and restaurants throughout
America. Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs
and Practices 43
Writings on Health
Ellen White's major books on health included :
Counsels on Health (1890 cit??),
Healthful Living (1898, a remarkable
compilation of her teachings by David
Paulson, MD cit??),
Ministry of Healing (1909 cit??), and
Counsels on Diet and Foods (1938, a
posthumous compilation from her
voluminous writings).

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices
44
 Conclusion
1. To describe the prevailing health practices in the early
Adventist pioneers’ days
2. To circumscribe historically the birth of the Adventist
healthy lifestyle teaching and principles
These were the two main objectives of this presentation.
 We humbly believe that it has been clear. Health conditions at
that time were very poor. It should be a great obstacle to the
Gospel, if there was not health message. And what about us
nowadays?

 This brief history is an obvious proof that Adventist healthy

lifestyle teachings and principles were not born by the will of
man, but “ it was carried along by the Holy
Spirit”(2Pet.1:21).
Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs 45
and Practices
THE END AND THANK YOU

Philosophical Basis of Adventist Health Beliefs

and Practices 46