64. The Physician — a Co-worker with Christ
Today’s reading: “The Ministry of Healing” p. 111.
We begin a new section, “The Work of the Physician” with advice applying particularly to qualified doctors. There are two chapters in this section, the first looks at the doctor in acute settings, probably in a sanitarium. The second deals with the doctor’s role in health education and preventive medicine.
As this book was published, Loma Linda was being established to train some physicians, who were to lead out in the health work and run the health institutions and sanitariums. However Loma Linda’s emphasis was to train thousands of “medical-evangelists” (John Burden), and only some fully qualified doctors. The medical evangelism course was soon dropped in favour of just training qualified doctors (a long story). This was a major step towards establishing “the worst evil” in the Adventist church.
So what is it that doctors (and leaders) in health work need to know?
- They are Co-workers with Christ, with the same ministry, united with Christ. He is at their side.
- Their ministry relieves both physical disease and spiritual sin-sickness, by pointing people to Christ.
- Restoration is the goal
- Christ, the Chief Physician, is the true head of the medical profession because He accomplishes recovery, He is healer and imparter of life.
- They are to use “nature’s remedies” to assist nature in the work of healing.
