True Revival: The Church's Greatest Need (2010) by Ellen G. White

Pages:  94

Selected Quotations:
"It is not [only] the most talented, not [only] those who hold high positions of trust, or are the most highly educated from a worldly point of view, whom the Lord uses to do His grand and holy work of soulsaving."

"He will, by the use of simple means, bring those who possess property and lands to a belief of the truth, and these will be influenced to become the Lord's helping hand in the advancement of His work. - Letter 62, 1909"

"Wherever the word of God has been faithfully preached, results have followed that attested its divine origin.... The "light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" illumined the secret chambers of their souls, and the hidden things of darkness were made manifest."

"With every truly converted soul the relation to God an to eternal things will be the great topic of life.... Before the final visitation of God's judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. At that time many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and His Word."

"The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power he will make it appear that God's special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world."

"Yet none need be deceived. In the light of God's word it is not difficult to determine the nature of these movements. Wherever men neglect the testimony of the Bible, turning away from those plan, soul-testing truths which require self-denial and renunciation of the world, there we may be sure that God's blessing is not bestowed."

"In the truths of His word, God has given to men a revelation of Himself; and to all who accept them they are a shield against the deceptions of Satan. It is a neglect of these truths that has opened the door to the evils which are now becoming so widespread in the religious world."

"It is the world of conversion and sanctification to reconcile men to God by bringing them into accord with the principles of His law. In the beginning, man was created in the image of God. He was in perfect harmony with the nature and law of God' the principles of righteousness were written upon his heart."

"True sanctification is a Bible doctrine."

"And since the law of God is "holy, and just, and good," a transcript of the divine perfection, it follows that a character formed by obedience to that law will be holy."

"The Christian will feel the promptings of sin, but he will maintain a constant warfare against it. Here is where Christ's help is needed."

"The Scriptures plainly show that the work of sanctification is progressive."

"Those who experience the sanctification of the Bible will manifest a spirit of humility."

"The desire for an easy religion that requires no striving, no self-denial, no divorce from the follies of the world, has made the doctrine of faith, and faith only, a popular doctrine, but what saith the world of God? [Read James 2:14-24]."

"The testimony of the word of God is against this ensnaring doctrine of faith without works. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions upon which mercy is to be granted., it is presumption; for genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures."

"The Lord would have His people sound in the faith - not ignorant of the great salvation so abundantly provided for them. They are not to look forward, thinking that at some future time a great work is to be done for them; for the work is now complete."

"Christ made an end of sin, bearing its heavy curse in His own body on the tree, and He hath taken away the curse from all those who believe in Him as a personal Saviour."

"We would not enjoy heaven unless qualified for its holy atmosphere by the influence of the Spirit and the righteousness of Christ."

"In order to be candidates for heaven we must meet the requirement of the law: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself" (Luke 10:27)."

"By beholding Jesus we receive a living, expanding principle in the heart, and the Holy Spirit carries on the work, and the believer advances from grace to grace, from strength to strength, from character to character. He conforms to the image of Christ, until in spiritual growth he attains unto the measure of the full stature in Christ Jesus. Thus Christ makes an end of the curse of sin, and sets the believing soul free from its action and effect."

"Reconciliation means every barrier between the soul and God is removed, and that the sinner realizes what the pardoning love o God means."

"Many think they must wait for a special impulse in order that they may come to Christ; but it is necessary only to come in sincerity of purpose, deciding to accept the offers of mercy and grace that have been extended to us."

"No one can believe with the heart unto righteousness, and obtain justification by faith, while continuing the practice of those things which the Word of God forbids, or while neglecting any known duty."

"Genuine faith will be manifested in good works; for good works are the fruits of faith."

"It is by continual surrender of the will, by continual obedience, that the blessing of justification is retained."

"It is an evidence that a man is not justified by faith when his works do not correspond to his profession"

"The faith that does not produce good works does not justify the soul"


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The Kellogg Imperative: John Harvey Kellogg's Unique Contribution to Healthful Living (2003) by Richard J. B. Willis

Pages:  110

Selected Quotations:

"We can know that Kellogg had an influence on the national Research Council, the National Academy of Sciences, and the ECC reports indirectly at least. Kuzma observes that over the past twenty-nine years more than one hundred and fifty-seven articles in various scientific journals have reported on the Adventist lifestyle which Kellogg did so much to shape ([Kuzma 1989:16]).

" Doctors Frank Lemon, Richard Walden, and P. William Dysinger started the scientific interest in 1958 when they reported that the incidence of heart disease and cancer was significantly lower in Californian Seventh-day Adventists than in Californians of comparable age (ibid). This led to other studies using Seventh-day Adventists either in direct experimentation or as a control group for studies taking place elsewhere."

"The Adventist lifestyle has been acclaimed worldwide. One American scientist commented, " It appears that the best insurance one can take out today is to follow the lifestyle of SDAs' (ibid 17). A Canadian official said, "I've got some advice on how to improve the health of Canadians, and, at the same time, lop billions of dollars off our annual costs. I think we should study the lifestyle of adherents of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and then explore ways and means of persuading the public to emulate the Adventists in at least some ways' (ibid). When the United States Congress examined guidelines for the health of the nation they utilised findings on Adventists, referring to the lifestyle as the 'Adventist advantage' (ibid)."

"World authority on hypertension Dr. Norman M. Kaplan, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas, told Adventist health professionals, 'You as Adventists may have espoused a certain dietary lifestyle on the basis of faith [through the influence of Ellen G. White], in the past; but now you can practice it on the basis of scientific evidence [through the influence of Kellogg and the professionals who have followed him]. Hopefully you will not go back and rejoin the mainstream again, but rather adhere to your health heritage' (Coon 1993;12). Dr. William Herbert Foege, an assistant US Surgeon General, declared, 'You Adventists are now the role model for the rest of the world' (ibid). It might be argued that Kellogg's greatest impact on health promotion is to be found in the lifestyle of approximately twelve million Seventh-day Adventists worldwide and their further influence through the church's community health promotion programmes."

"To quote again from Wilson as to how the reform in health will come about: 'Education for health is not simply an extra discipline similar to other clinical subjects. It is what health and illness are all about within the movement of man towards greatness. The first health educators in society are mothers of families' (Wilson 1975:102). Put more simply, 'Mothers create health or illness in their children by the information, attitudes and life-styles to which they introduce their children' (ibid 34). Eighty-two years before Wilson's statement Kellogg had said the same thing; 'State and national health boards and committees certainly do excellent work for communities and nations; but the real influence which they exercise over the health of individuals is insignificant when compared with that which may be, and indeed is, exercised by the matrons of the various households which make up the villages, cities, and nations' (Kellogg 1893:17). Again put simply, 'All reforms must begin at home to be effective' (ibid 18). Not only the home but the school, 'He [the physician] will follow the children to the schoolroom, and insist upon the training of the body a well as the mind' (ibid iv)."

"Kellogg's record for uninterrupted dictation to his secretary, who had four assistants, was a twenty-hour stretch. He would use the night hours to translate foreign medical books for his own edification or write a book of his own around the clock until it was finished (Powell 1956:57). In a fifty-year period Kellogg established more than thirty companies and publications (ibid 60)."

"Kellogg did not solicit funds for these activities. Apart from generous donations by interested parties, funding came from Sanitarium profits, the money generated by his health food companies, and writing royalties."

"Perhaps remembering the inadequacies of his own training at Trall's Hygieo-Therapeutic College and his subsequent attendance at Bellevue, Kellogg proposed to open a 'Hygienic School'. In the Health Reformer of August 1878, the school was announced as 'not only the first, but the only school  of the sort in America.' It was not to be a medical school but rather a health education school, able to provide the kind of background useful to either health promotion or as a pre-medical course."

"Kellogg's mental philosophy classes must have had some influence as Dr William Sadler, one of Kellogg's students, later became renowned as a Christian counsellor and psychiatrist. The school issued a certificate of study and proficiency which was accepted by any medical college in the United States, allowing entrance to a regular medical course."

"One of his former patients from Battle Creek, the famous aviator Glenn Curtiss, offered Kellogg a property in Miami, worth over a quarter of a million dollars, for one dollar! Remarking that it was being offered too cheaply, Kellogg sealed the deal with a ten dollar bill (GH. 1994:13).... The Miami location became a miniature Battle Creek as Kellogg spent the warmer winter months there."

"Doctors William and Charles Mayo credit their friend Kellogg with the idea for their founding of the now famous Mayo Clinic (Strange 1964:4B)."

"Despite the fact that the institutions referred to were started on Battle Creek lines, they had no direct link with the Sanitarium. The charitable status of Battle Creek as drawn up with the State of Michigan declared in one of its statutes: 'No funds of the institution can be lawfully sent outside the state to build or support other enterprises of any kind' (Kellogg 1912:25).

"The Battle Creek Sanitarium has no branches and is not allied to or affiliated with any other institution in the world."

"Dr Kellogg sought and found in nature many answers to life's ailments. In the simple elements of sunshine, fresh air and exercise he made the weak become strong. In light, heat and water he restored the handicapped to usefulness. For foods, he took grains and cereals, fruits and nuts, finding valuable minerals and vitamins; and to his discoveries added the invention of ways to process these foods to make them attractive to the eye and digestible in the stomach."

"Michael O'Donnell, the editor of the American Journal of Health Promotion, defines health promotion as 'the science and art of helping people change their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health. Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual health' (Nieman 1992:123)."

"Dr Gertrude Brown posed and answered the question, 'What made Battle Creek so famous throughout the world? Its God-given health principles, its facilities for treatment, a staff of devoted workers, and a combination of spiritual and physical interests' (Brown n.d.:90, 91). At its head stood a man totally committed to health promotion - Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Health promotion was not his work - it was his way of life!"

"Dr Michael Fitzpatrick notes that in the 1960s Dr Rene Dubos contrasted the two traditions in medicine (depicting them as Hygiea and Asclepius known through classical myth). Dubos stated:
'For the worshippers of Hygiea, health is the natural order of things, a positive attribute to which men are entitled if they govern their lives wisely. According to them, the most important function of medicine is to discover and teach the natural laws which will ensure to man a healthy mind in a healthy body.'

On the other hand, Dubos said, stood the followers of Asclepius: 'More sceptical or wiser in the ways of the world', they believe that 'the chief role of the physician is to treat disease, to restore health by correcting any imperfection caused by the accidents of birth or of life' (Fitzpatrick 2001:133). Kellogg's road to Wellville brought both Hygiea and Asclepius together in his visionary Utopia, a task that few others could have accomplished, and set what was to prove an enduring pattern in all that folllowed in healthful living."

Click here to buy The Kellogg Imperative:  John Harvey Kellogg's Unique Contribution to Healthful Living by Richard J. B. Willis

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Caution urged over editing DNA in wildlife (intentionally or not) (04 August 2015) by Heidi Ledford

Pages:  3

This article in the journal Nature summarizes a set of recent articles in the journal Science which explain the scientific advances achieved in "gene drive." Scientists at the University of Carlifornia, San Diego published an article sharing how they used a gene-editing technique (CRISPR) to "insert a mutation into fruit flies that would be passed on to almost all of their offspring."

Some scientists are excited about this development as they see a potential to "render mosquitoes unable to carry malaria parasites or to wipe out harmful invasive species." Others are concerned that this technique "could also have unanticipated environmental costs and might be impossible to reverse."  Some at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Virginia have security concerns about this technique.

Click here to read Caution urged over editing DNA in wildlife (intentionally or not) by Heidi Ledford

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