The Adventist Church’s message of health reform began with a supposed vision that their prophetess, Ellen G. White, had on June 6, 1863 in Otsego, Minnesota. It is said to be the “right hand of the Gospel” in Seventh-Day Adventism.
Ellen White, who the SDA church believes was divinely inspired and corrects inaccurate interpretations of scripture, claimed to have been shown many things by God, of prime importance was that Christian’s have a responsibility to live in harmony with health principles that would prevent illness and yield good health. This included the discarding of all animal products, flesh foods, alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee, condiments, and spices, because these things are injurious to ones body and soul.
This then evolved to being a prerequisite for all Christians if they wanted to be fit for Heaven. She also claimed that those who are waiting for the return of Christ would eventually completely do away with meat eating. On top of that, she also claimed that anyone who rejected this message of Health Reform was also rejecting God. It isn’t optional because it is a part of salvation in Adventism.
This message must be obeyed in order to be fitted for immortality. This is because she claimed it is impossible to attain to Christian perfection (their brand of sinless perfectionism) if one is partaking of meat and many other foods. It eventually became tacked onto to the Adventist “Three Angel’s Gospel” message under their Third Angel’s Message and is why so many Christian’s who know very little about Seventh-Day Adventism typically know this about them.
The Bible does not condemn the consumption of meat. Paul warned Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:1-4 that people would come along teaching doctrines of demons, one of which includes forbidding the consumption of certain foods.
Paul also explains in Romans 14:1-4 that one person eats only vegetables and another doesn’t, but God accepts both people. This is also inline with what God told Noah after the flood (Genesis 9:1-3). The same Paul very plainly says that food does not bring us near to God and we are no worse if we do not eat certain foods, and no better if we do (1 Corinthians 8:8, 10:25-9).
Furthermore, Jesus himself said in Mark 7:14-23 that all foods are clean and it isn’t what goes into a person that defiles them, but what comes out of ones heart.
Ellen White claimed that “whatever contradicts God’s Word, we can be sure proceeds from Satan”, that her writings never contradict God’s Word, and bear the test of investigation. We’ll let you connect the dots.
