In his book The Radical Wesley, historian Howard A. Snyder makes the following observation about the great English reformer: "According to some critics John Wesley never had an original idea in his life. He just borrowed from others. Even if true, this would hardly solve the riddle of Wesley. His genius and originality lay precisely in his borrowing, adapting and combining diverse elements into a synthesis more dynamic than the sum of its parts" [Critics of Ellen G. White please take note].¹

In such a synthesis one should expect to see an exemplification of the progressive truth principle that ideas are almost never " immaculately conceived." Virtually all new ideas have a past of one sort or another. 

This is certainly true of the Adventist health message. Ronald Numbers was correct in his contention that many of the ideas and attitudes that conditioned our earlier teachings regarding healthful living and rational therapeutics were floating around in the western world, including America, particularly in the last half of the nineteenth century. 

What needs to be explained is how those early ideas developed into a world-wide network of training and health-care institutions that has been one of the marvels of the modern religious world. Whatever happened to Sylvester Graham, Dr. James C. Jackson, Larkin B. Coles, William A. Alcott and the others? (Graham's crackers are about all I can think of at the moment.) It was not that Adventist concepts were novel. They too had a past. God does not work in a vacuum. It was the way that everything came together -- the Adventist synthesis, conceived by inspiration and grounded in the wisdom and courage of a small number of dedicated men and women, and, above all, under the guidance of God through a prophetess who had good reason to have health on her mind-that made the difference.

It is this synthesis that I wish to explore in an attempt to discover the conceptual foundations of the Adventist health message. Ideas not only have a past; they have a future. In 1948 Richard M. Weaver wrote a book bearing the provocative title, Ideas Have Consequences.² They really do. A General Conference Department of Health and Temperance, a host of past and present hospitals, treatment rooms and sanitariums, health-food factories, and nursing, dental, and medical schools, one a health-sciences university, plus thousands upon thousands of trained health professionals, and a conference such as this, lend credence all around the world to Weaver's assertion -- as do the longevity and morbidity statistics provided by those individual Adventists who practice their own health preaching.

The title of this discussion is consciously stated in plural terms: "foundation(s)." However, as we proceed it will become apparent that the use of the plural is misleading if we indicated by it that there are several foundations to be examined. This is, we submit, ultimately not the case. We shall, rather, be examining one ultimate truth from a variety of aspects considered together that, make up truth's unity. This is what we imply by the use of the word synthesis.

Let us begin, then, by thinking about the Foundation of the foundations. The most important thing that can be said about God, the ultimate ground and source of our being and meaning, is that He is one. The ancient Hebrew Shema, four words in original Hebrew, "Yahweh our God, Yahweh one, translated, "Hear, 0 Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one" (Deut. 6:4, NIV), has been repeated twice daily for centuries by faithful Jews as the primary confession of their faith.

Adventists and other Christians, but especially Adventists because of the power of the Sabbath to condition attitudes of worship toward God, have related God's unity to His biblical role as the Creator of everything that is-not only Creator, but Sustainer. (One, in reference to God is, of course, a qualitative rather than a quantitative statement about the triune God). The notion stands at the very heart of the three angels' messages: "Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the sprigs of water" (Rev. 14:7). The writer of Hebrews tells us, "But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word" (ch. 1:2, 3).

Obviously, a formula stating that God is one, and that He is the Creative source of everything that is in the universe, invests he universe with that same overall quality. This is the essence of "radical" (to its roots) monotheism. Such unity may be stated in other terms. For example, we have Ellen White's observation that God was not dependent on previously existing matter for the creation of this earth,³ and in these days, since E=mc², she would also have to say God was not dependent on previously existing energy. Matter and energy are now seen as interchangeable. To be complete, she would also have to add that God was not dependent upon a moral order outside of Himself either. All that is required is that He be self-consistent.

Radical monotheism so expressed is an idea with consequences that run deep and in so many directions. In interest of brevity we shall limit ourselves to a couple of those that bear primarily on the subject at hand.

The shema says something about making sharp distinctions between natural and supernatural. Note how Ellen White refers to the gulf commonly placed between them in one of her more profound references to God in His relation to nature and its processes: "In dwelling upon the laws of matter and the laws of nature, many lose sight of, if they do not deny, the continual and direct agency of God. They convey the idea that nature acts independently of God, having in and of itself its own limits and its own powers wherewith to work. In their minds there is a marked distinction between the natural and the supernatural. The natural is ascribed to ordinary causes, unconnected with the power of God....

"This is false science; there is nothing in the word of God to sustain it. God does not annul His laws, but He is continually working through them, using them as His instruments. They are not self-working.... Nature in her work testifies of the intelligent presence and active agency of a being who moves in all His works according to His will. It is not by an original power inherent in nature that year by year the earth yields its bounties and continues its march around the sun. The hand of infinite power is perpetually at work guiding this planet. It is God's power momentarily exercised that keeps it in position in its rotation.

"The God of heaven is constantly at work. It is by His power that vegetation is caused to flourish, that every leaf appears and every flower blooms. Every drop of rain or flake of snow, every spire of grass, every leaf and flower and shrub, testifies of God..

"The mechanism of the human body cannot be fully understood; it presents mysteries that baffle the most intelligent. It is not as the result of a mechanism, which, once set in motion, continues its work, that the pulse beats and breath follows breath. In God we live and move and have our being. Every breath, every throb of the heart, is a continual evidence of the power of an ever-present God..

"It is God that causes the sun to rise in the heavens."⁴ As G. K. Chesterton once put it: "The only reason the sun gets up in the morning is because God says, "All right, do it again.'" He opens the windows of heaven and gives rain. He causes the grass to grow upon the mountains.

One can scarcely imagine monotheism being stated in more radical terms or a statement that more clearly rejects the two-story (or three-story, if one includes the underworld) universe of our philosophical ancestors. God dwells and works on both floors.

This does not mean that there is no difference between the two floors. It will be noted in the above statement that God works through His laws but He is not subservient to them. As Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe from the minutest of atomic particles to the incredibly vast galactic heavens, He is active Sovereign. The Creator is actively in charge, that is, in charge of everything except that which through abuse of His gift of freedom has chosen to rebel against Him.

One way to describe this is to refer to its variables in terms of "dimensions" of divine activity. I shall be referring mainly to two of them to illustrate my point. There are many others.

The term dimension is intended to convey the idea that although there are a variety of windows on reality there is ultimately also fundamental unity. We experience a uni- and not a multi-verse. It is a multidimensional unity, or universe, because it is created and upheld by a God, who is one.

Considering the various dimensions of God's activity as though they exist in isolation may be an expedient way to go about sharpening focus on the whole; theologians do it all the time -- the "attributes of God," etc. -- but the very word dimension suggests the existence of a point at which that which may be analyzed separately fundamentally belongs together. That point is God. His is the presence and creative power behind and beyond them, uniting all of the dimensions with His own unity.

The two dimensions I have selected to illustrate my point are selected not only because they are foundational but also because they recur throughout the whole. They are the geometric terms horizontal and vertical. The horizontal and vertical dimensions together identify the two types of divine activity referred to in Ellen White's statement above regarding the relation of God to nature.

By horizontal we refer to those qualities of existence that are ordinary, repeatable, predictable, natural, common, everyday-like heartbeats and breathing, flowers blooming, planets orbiting, sun rising, etc. These make up most of the observable activities of God. They happen all the time. We write textbooks about them, appreciate, study, and observe them as laws of nature discovered in God's "other book.."

By vertical actions of God, we refer to those actions that are unusual and extraordinary, involving decision, intelligence, and creativity. They are what Germans call einmaligketten --" things that happen only once." We call them miracles, but this does not mean that they are necessarily opposed to law and order. Rather, they are usually orderly at another level -- one not commonly observed, at least by us, and startling by definition. (The word miracle suggests "to cause to stare at.") An orderly universe may still be interjected with the surprising and unexpected. God's mysterious interventions in human history described in the Bible were usually, though certainly not always, vertical acts. Most of the time they involved both dimensions. They were historical, but also were often trans -historical. They took place in. history but in reality were from above, beyond, and outside history. Naaman was healed when he bathed *in the Jordan, but he was not healed by the Jordan.

Man, himself, by analogy, is the clearest expression of the wholistic, multidimensional unity of God. Man too is a multidimensional unity. This is part of the meaning of the statement that man was created in God's image. (It is important that we be clear about the meaning of wholism in this context, since there is currently a loose collection of New Age, far out, antiscientific nonsense floating around that is spelled "holism," which, based on a different set of presuppositions, only remotely resembles the wholism of the Adventist message.

Adventist wholism is based on our biblically based, conditionalist understanding of humanity (what we used to call our state-of-the-dead doctrine, or, in Ellen White's terms, the nonimmortality of the wicked.)⁵ In the Adventist synthesis human beings have no real, even spiritual, existence apart from the body. The body counts. Conscious survival after death depends totally on the creative power of God in the whole-person resurrection of the body or its transformation at translation. Interim survival is solely in the memory of God. I shall live again because God remembers me.

Prior to death, humanity is a complex interaction of mind and body in which everything that happens to any part of him, to any dimension, happens in some way to the whole of him. Mind affects body, body affects mind, and both interact with the surrounding environment. A whole healing ministry has been integrated around this understanding. It is fundamental to the Adventist health synthesis.

The fall-out from such thinking is consequential. Note, for example, how perception, knowing, even of divine things depends upon the body as its medium. (A widespread misunderstanding of man in dualistic terms sees a loosely associated soul and body, "psyche and soma." Anciently this raised questions of how communication took place across the psychosomatic barrier. Augustine spoke of God's communicating directly "soul to soul," "psyche to psyche, bypassing the human brain, which to him belonged to a different order of reality.) Ellen White said in several places, indicating that she considered it important -which indeed it is as one answer to an old philosophical dilemma, "the mind-body,--" "The brain nerves which communicate with the entire system are the only medium through which Heaven can communicate to man and affect his inmost life."⁶ If that statement doesn't raise our levels of health-consciousness, surely nothing will. The body counts-terribly.

Observe how this comes through in the following: -Whatever injures the health, not only lessens physical vigor, but tends to weaken the mental and moral powers. Indulgence in any unhealthful practice makes it more difficult for one to discriminate between right and wrong, and hence more difficult to resist evil. It increases the danger of failure and defeat."⁷ The multidimensional wholism of the Adventist synthesis has implications that affect almost every area of life. Note how the following key passage harmonizes with our earlier picture of God and nature.⁸

"God desires that His workers in every line shall look to Him as the giver of all they possess. [Recall that the term worker implies in traditional Adventist speech and practice, denominational employee. Observe its wider meaning here.] All right inventions and improvements have their source in Him who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. The skillful touch of the physician's hand, his power over nerve and muscle, his knowledge of the delicate organism of the body, is the wisdom of divine power, to be used in behalf of the suffering. The skill with which the carpenter uses the hammer, the strength with which the blacksmith makes the anvil ring, comes from God. He has entrusted humanity with talents, and He expects them to look to Him for counsel. Whatever we do, in whatever department of the work we are placed, He desires to control our minds that we may do perfect work.

"Religion and business are not two separate things; they are one. Bible religion is to be interwoven with all we do or say. Divine and human agencies are to combine in temporal as well as in spiritual achievements. They are to be united in all human pursuits, in mechanical and scientific enterprises."⁹

What a difference it would make if all God's children always carried out their even quite ordinary activities with a sense of the Divine presence! One can hardly imagine a more radical circumstance, one more calculated utterly to transform life on this planet. But that's just what radical monotheism, the belief that God is Creator and Sustainer of everything is all about. Thomas Chalmers once said, -If it be the characteristic of a worldly man that he desecrates what is holy, it should be of the Christian to consecrate what is secular, and to recognize a present and presiding divinity in all things."

Another response to the monotheistic premise has found a much wider expression in Adventism: concern for physical well being, especially as it relates to nature, as in "nature's remedies." Partly this derived from our Protestant heritage. For example, one of Wesley's most widely distributed books had to do with healthful living -- much of it nonsense, unfortunately. The thrift, hard work, and Spartan lifestyle of the so-called Protestant ethic rendered self-indulgence and indolence sins to be shunned. Mainly, for Adventists it was a natural corollary of their conditionalist doctrine of humanity referred to earlier.

This is also an area where, of late, Adventists seem to have been losing something of their leadership role relative to other health professionals and institutions. Others appear to have stolen our best lines-and sometimes seem to be saying them better than we.

That may be arguable, but there is no argument that there is one area in which Adventists, if they remain true to their calling, will always have the possibility of being at the fore-at the head and not at the tall of health interest both in teaching and practice. This has to do with motivation in pursuit of personal health goals. There are a variety of reasons that people jog in the rain at 6 o'clock in the morning and, eat diets that are low in fat, cholesterol, and sodium. Exercise and low fat diets make one look good: slender thighs, legs, and firm waistlines. They also make one feel good, as every jogger knows (those endorphins). For those who are good at it, at least, running can be a source of competitive self-esteem. (That's mainly what marathons are all about.) Exercise makes for robust cardiovascular health. Joggers live longer (nonjoggers say it only seems like it!). These are mostly acceptable reasons, but apparently not enough to get all of the potatoes off the couch.

The Adventist synthesis, grounded firmly in worship of the Creator, should place concern for maximum health under that same general rubric. If one worships God, it necessarily follows that one will respect His Creation, of which the human body is the very epitome. It is an affront to God to abuse His creation. I have no idea how many Adventists look after their physical and mental health as an expression of worshipping their Creator. Recognized or not, it is an essential part of their God-given message!

There is another "sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees" these days that proclaims the same message but has been even less recognized by us. Part of the reason has to do with the magnitude of the problem and the nature of its solution. Concern for the environment around us, which actually figures so prominently in personal and social health, is also one involving respect for creation, and thus for the Creator. At creation man was given responsibility for his environment, "to dress and to keep it. He has also been warned of destruction of "them which destroy the earth" (Rev. 11: 18).

The trouble is most of the world's environmental problems are too complex for individuals or small groups to handle. Cleaning up earth's rivers, lakes, and skies will involve enormous expenditures of effort and money, and there are no quick fixes. It will call for massive and persistent effort applied by groups and governmental leaders over the long haul to make a difference.

The tragedy is, we know what to do to clean things up, to restore our damaged ecosystems, and to prevent further despoiling. What is missing, at every level of society, is the collective will to do it. Again, it is a question of motivation. To bring health and healing to our living environment again calls for worship of its Creator. It is an essential part of the Adventist health message. We must as surely cry out in alarm here as in the matter of personal physical and mental health. The environment is another dimension of the whole.

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.

The cohesion, persistence, and power of the movement's interest resulted largely from its understanding of the nature of things, including the belief that God is sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe. The awareness of His Oneness rejected radical dualisms of supernatural and natural, as well as a dualism of soul and body. This resulted in a view that the body, including the surrounding material environment, should be respected as an aspect of the workshop of the Sovereign Creator. The body counts, and is to be protected and nurtured as the vehicle of worship and divine disclosure.

It is this conceptual foundation, what we have called "radical monotheism," that is currently being threatened by an increasing shift of our health ministry toward secular, technical entrepreneurship, with an accompanying loss of the sense of the divine presence. This should give us all cause for concern. May God help us to uncover our conceptual roots again, so that we can be assured that they remain attached to the tree of life and healing that God intended this movement to be.

Jack Provonsha is emeritus professor, philosophy of religion and Christian ethics, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California.

REFERENCES

1. Howard A. Snyder, The Radical Wesley (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1980), p. 143.

2. Chicago: University Press.

3 Ministry of Healing, p. 414.

4. Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, pp. 259,260.

5. See Counsels to Writers and Editors, p. 30.

6. Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, p. 347.

7. Ministry of Healing, p. 12 S.

1. See Testimonies for the Church, pp. 259, 260.
2. Christ's Object Lessons, pp. 349, 350.

Used by Permission

Note: This paper was presented at "Health 2000 and Beyond " A study Conference of Adventist Theology, Philosophy, and Practice of Health and Healing" at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, June 18-24, 1993.

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