

The Bible and Diet

Copyright 2015 by David Cloud

This edition June 15, 2015

ISBN 978-1-58318-186-7

Published by Way of Life Literature

P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061

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Canada: Bethel Baptist Church,

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Important Introductory Thoughts

Dieting is a multi-billion dollar industry, and dietary fads are exceedingly popular.

There are even dietary plans that purport to be Bible-based.

There is the Hallelujah Diet which has had a broad influence since the 1990s. It is a vegan diet, which means no meat or animal-derived products such as dairy and eggs, and most of the vegetables are uncooked. (Differing from the "vegan" diet, a "vegetarian" diet avoids meat but allows animal-derived products.)

There is the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) diet, which is a vegetarian diet with eggs and low-fat dairy products allowed in moderation. In her 1863 book Counsels on Health, SDA prophetess Ellen White claimed that God showed her the "evils of meat eating." If an Adventist decides to eat meat, he is restricted to meat that is clean under the Old Testament dietary regimen. Seventh-day Adventists teach dietary programs, operate cooking schools, publish cook books, and sell "health foods." The founder of Kellogg's cereal was a Seventh-day Adventist.

There is the Daniel Diet, the God Diet, the Maker's Diet, the Genesis Diet, the Edenic Diet, and others.

There are also a slew of "alternative health" regimens, and Bible-believing Christians seem to be as susceptible as non-believers to the lure of such things as macrobiotics, chiropractic, and mega-vitamin programs.

Consider Scott Strong, former music director at Providence Baptist Church, Raleigh, North Carolina. After being diagnosed with a brain tumor, he got caught up in the Hallelujah Diet. His story was featured in the Raleigh News & Observer and republished in The Baptist Standard in May 26, 1999. "Instead of surgery, he has opted for an all-natural vegetarian diet he is convinced is God's will for everyone."

In spite of the promise of health and longevity via "God's original diet," Scott died on March 14, 2011, at age 52.

## My Objective

As a Bible teacher, my objective is to teach what the Bible says and does not say about diet. I desire to warn about dietary plans that are based on teaching that is contrary to Scripture.

My purpose is not to set out the ideal diet or to answer every question about diet or to give medical advice.

Health is important in the Christian life. The body is the temple of God (1 Cor. 6:19-20), and it is wrong to impair one's health, perhaps even to send oneself to an early grave, by lack of wisdom in diet or by harmful habits such as smoking and drinking.

Beyond this, I believe that diet is largely a personal matter. If you like your diet and you believe that it helps you, or if you need a certain diet for a special health situation, that is your business. If you want to take B12 supplements or Barley Green or mega doses of vitamin C, if you want to juice or eat uncooked food or drink some special type of water, that is your business.

But we would urge you not to fall for something that is patently unscriptural or that is based on bogus "science." Extensive studies have been done on many proposed cures and dietary plans to ascertain whether they are effective. Don't ignore scientific tests and fall for testimonials and feelings.

At best, you will be wasting your money, and you could even be harming your health or associating with doctrines of devils.

My intention is not to tell God's people what to eat; my desire is to help us think biblically about diet.

I have found that this issue tends to stir up strong emotions in some people. Let me urge you not to become emotional or react in "knee jerk" fashion.

As a God-called preacher, I am instructed to preach God's Word and to reprove error (2 Timothy 4:2). If I failed to do this, I would be lacking in compassion for God's people, and I would be accountable to the Lord for not proclaiming the whole counsel of God.

As a hearer, you are obligated to imitate the noble Bereans. God commended them because they tested everything by Scripture, and we should follow their wise example when it comes to diet or anything else in the Christian life.

"These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11).

That is exactly what I ask you to do. If you find my teaching to be scriptural, accept it. If not, you are under no obligation to agree with me.
The Bible and Diet

The foundation for sound knowledge on any subject begins with "Thus saith the Lord," and God's will is found in Scripture.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Observe that the Bible is able to make the child of God perfect or complete (fully furnished) in God's will. The Bible doesn't contain everything we would like to know; it contains everything that God wants us to know about spiritual and moral things in this present time.

In this section we aim to look at every major Bible passage touching on diet. If we have overlooked something, it is not on purpose.

In the Bible we find everything we need to exercise wisdom in the matter of diet and to avoid every danger and pitfall.

Genesis 1:29

"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat."

In the beginning of man's history, diet was simple and bountiful. Man could eat all of the fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and legumes. To drink, there was crystal clear water, the juice made from any of Eden's choice produce, as well as milk from dairy animals. God made man's body with its need for certain vitamins and nutrients, and He provided everything man needed for health. He also made man's keen sight, smell, and taste and provided a diet not only rich in nourishment, but also rich in pure enjoyment.

Genesis 2:16-17

"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

This passage touches on diet, because it explains the root cause of sickness and death. It is the wages of sin (Romans 6:23). When Adam and Eve broke God's commandment they fell under God's judgment of death.

The New Testament puts it this way: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12).

There are three deaths. There is spiritual death, which is separation from God (Ephesians 2:1). Adam and Eve experienced this as soon as they sinned. There is physical death, which is separation of the spirit from the body (James 2:26). Finally, there is eternal death, which is everlasting punishment in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10-15).

All have sinned, and all die; and death is not only an event, it is also a process. Sickness and "old age" are a part of the process. While diet can affect man's health, there is no diet that will guarantee health and longevity to fallen man.

Genesis 3:17-19

"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. ... Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

Man no longer lives in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were booted out of the garden into a fallen world tainted with thorns, pests, poisons, and disease. Because of the fall, the most powerful toxins can be labeled "all natural"!

No matter what "God's original diet" might have been in Eden, things have changed dramatically from that blissful time. We live in a world that "groans and travails in pain" (Rom. 8:22). This is the foundational cause of all sickness and death.

Man has been trying to regain paradise ever since our parents fell and were evicted, but every utopian dream has been a failure because it cannot deal with the root of the problem, which is man's sin before a holy God.

Only through Jesus Christ can man regain paradise. The plan for regained utopia is entirely of God's design. "... the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world" (1 John 4:14). The Son of God was born a sinless man through the virgin birth, demonstrated His divinity by miracles and the fulfillment of ancient prophecy, died to make atonement for man's sin, and rose from the dead.

When a sinner repents of his sin and receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, he is justified by God. He is declared righteous on the basis of what Christ did for us on Calvary. But the indwelling fallen nature is not removed in this present life. Only in the resurrection does the believer regain utopia.

Genesis 9:3-4

"Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat."

At the end of the Flood, about 2,350 years after Eden, God instructed Noah and his sons that they could eat meat with their fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains.

It might be that men ate certain meats before the Flood, but there is no clear record of it in Scripture. Abel was a shepherd (Gen. 4:4). He doubtless used the wool, but did he eat the meat, too? We don't know.

Regardless, God's command in Genesis 9 destroys the idea that a vegetarian diet is in any way superior to a non-veg diet. The Creator would not instruct man to eat meat if it were dangerous for his health and overall wellbeing.

We are not told why man was restricted to a vegetarian diet prior to this, but it is clear that there was a major change in mans' diet following the Flood, and that change was initiated by God.

Genesis 18:6-8

"And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat."

In this situation, Abraham fed God and the angels a meal of fresh, hearth-cooked bread, tender calf, butter and milk. It sounds yummy! You can be sure that Sarah and Abraham were quite the cooks! It was not a vegetarian meal or a low fat or low carb meal, but this was obviously Abraham's diet, and God and the angels ate it, too.

Abraham lived to be 175 on this diet (Gen. 25:7-8).

Exodus 12:3-8

"Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: ... And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it."

Israel killed and ate meat in the process of practicing their religion. For the Passover, it was roasted lamb or goat. Obviously, then, there is nothing unhealthy about eating meat. The meat was cooked and served with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Leviticus 6:25-26

"Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the LORD: it is most holy. The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it: in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation."

The sin offering was a bullock (Lev. 4:3), a goat (Lev. 4:27-28), a lamb (Lev. 4:32), a turtle dove, or a pigeon (Lev. 5:7).

The priests of Israel ate portions of these roasted animal sacrifices.

Since this was God's law, it is obvious that there is nothing inherently unhealthy about eating meat.

Leviticus 11:1-24

"And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you. These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you: They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination. Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you. And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, And the vulture, and the kite after his kind; Every raven after his kind; And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat. All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you. Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth; Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you. And for these ye shall be unclean: whosoever toucheth the carcase of them shall be unclean until the even."

Under the law of Moses, God restricted the types of meat that Israel could consume. Most famously, they could not eat pork.

It is important to understand that the Old Testament dietary laws were not for the purpose of health or physical cleanliness.

First, there was no such dietary restriction prior to the giving of the Mosaic law. Did God not care for men's health prior to this?

Second, there is no evidence that the animals listed as unclean were inherently more unhealthy to eat than those listed as clean. It has been said that the forbidden animals, such as pigs, were pronounced unclean because they are scavengers, but this is not the reason that they were declared unclean. The Bible says nothing about the diet of the animals listed in Leviticus. Chickens eat dung, but they were not unclean. Rabbits do not eat dung or other dirty things, but they were unclean simply because they didn't have cloven hooves. Horses do not eat dung, but they were unclean because they didn't chew the cud. There is no evidence that fish that have fins and scales are inherently more healthy than those that don't.

Third, there is no such dietary restriction in the churches. Had the Mosaic dietary laws been for the purpose of health, they would not have been abolished for church age believers.

Paul explains that the Old Testament dietary laws are "a shadow of things to come" (Col. 2:16-17). Shadows are not permanent, and shadows are not the reality. A biblical shadow is a type of spiritual things.

Israel's dietary law was given to teach the principles of separation and holiness.

"For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth: To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten" (Lev. 11:44-47).

God used these laws to impress upon His people the importance of distinguishing between clean and unclean, holy and unholy. The law depicts strict separation from sin and from the evil things of the world. These are lessons that are also emphasized in the New Testament.

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Rom. 12:2).

"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (2 Cor. 6:17).

"Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. 7:1).

"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Eph. 5:11).

"Abstain from all appearance of evil" (1 Th. 5:22).

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Titus 2:11-12).

"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls" (Ja. 1:21).

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world" (Jam. 1:27).

"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (Jam. 4:4).

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 Jn. 2:15-16).

God also used these Old Testament ritualistic laws to separate Israel from the other nations and to keep her distinct even during her global dispersal over the past two and a half millenniums.

"Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine" (Lev. 20:25-26).

We see an example of how this worked in Daniel's life. His refusal to eat the standard Babylonian food set him and his Jewish friends apart in Nebuchadnezzar's pagan court (Dan. 1:8).

Deuteronomy 6:3

"Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey."

Twenty-one times the Bible describes Israel's Promised Land as a land of "milk and honey." It should be obvious, then, that milk and milk products are not inherently harmful to man's health. They are a blessing from God.

Deuteronomy 12:20

"When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after."

Here we see that Israel was instructed by God to eat meat. They were at liberty to eat any meat, except that which was unclean by the Levitical standard. The Jews were not vegetarians.

Daniel 1:8-16

"But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king. Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us PULSE TO EAT, AND WATER TO DRINK. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse."

The Daniel Diet purports that the diet described in this passage teaches "biblical principles of natural health and healing" and "offers practical and spiritual answers to overcoming ill health" (danielsdiet.com).

It was a diet of vegetables and water. The term "pulse" refers to "herbs or vegetables grown from seeds; a vegetable diet is what is implied" (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia).

The fact that this diet is not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture proves that it was a special diet for a special situation with a special purpose rather than a general dietary law.

Daniel did not want to be ceremonially defiled by the Babylonian diet which consisted of things forbidden in the law of Moses. We have already seen that Moses did not forbid the eating of meat, so it is probable that the restriction of the diet to vegetables and water was to demonstrate God's power to the Babylonians.

Daniel 10:1-3

In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision. In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled."

Here it is clear that Daniel did not keep a vegetarian diet all of his life. The fact that he fasted by abstaining from "pleasant bread," flesh and wine proves that he ate these things.

Further, Daniel's fast in chapter 10 was not for the purpose of health. The context shows that he was mourning over Israel's destruction and seeking wisdom from God.

There are no examples of fasting for health in Scripture. Every mention of fasting has a spiritual context. The chief purpose of fasting was described by Christ in Matthew 17:21. "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." Biblical fasting is for spiritual warfare.

Mark 14:17-20

"And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full."

Twice Jesus fed the multitudes with bread and fish. It is obvious that He was not a promoter of vegetarianism.

John 21:9-13

"As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. ... Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise."

Jesus fed the disciples privately with bread and fish after His resurrection. Again it is obvious that vegetarianism is not superior to non-veg diets.

Acts 10:9-16

"On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven."

God instructed the staunch Jew Peter to eat of animals that were unclean under the law of Moses. This was so shocking to Peter, that he refused to obey God at first.

It's true that through this vision God was teaching Peter that Gentiles can be saved on the same basis as the Jews, but it is also true that God was literally commanding Peter to eat of the animals that were unclean under the law of Moses, such as pigs.

Had these animals been inherently unhealthy, God would not have commanded Peter to eat them.

Acts 15:20

"But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood."

This instruction sent by the apostles to the early churches restricted the believers from eating meat that was strangled and from blood. "Things strangled" refers to animals that are killed without shedding their blood. Thus, to eat "things strangled" is to eat the blood. This is forbidden, because the Bible says the blood contains the life (Lev. 17:11, 14). The restriction against eating blood is an ancient one that goes back to man's earliest history before the giving of the Mosaic law (Genesis 9:4-6).

Note, though, that the apostles delivered absolutely no restriction about eating meat itself.

Romans 8:18-25

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."

All weakness and sickness and trouble in this life ultimately stems from man's fall. It goes back to our sin against God. We live in a world that groans under a divine curse, and even those who are born again groan under that curse (Rom. 8:22-23) and live in "the body of this death" (Rom. 7:24).

The New Testament faith does not teach us to expect total health and deliverance in this present world. It teaches us to live by hope, and hope that is seen is not hope.

Romans 14:1-4

"Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand."

Paul taught that Christians are not to judge in matters of food and drink. This is an area of Christian liberty. Seventh-day Adventists, Mormons, and pop dietitians have dietary laws, but the Bible forbids such laws in the Christian life. Diet is a matter of personal taste and health, not a matter of spiritual law.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

This passage teaches us that the believer should be careful about his physical health. This is a warning against health-destroying diets and health-injuring habits such as smoking and drinking.

1 Corinthians 10:20-22; 2 Corinthians 6:14-17

"But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?"

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you."

God forbids His people to participate in anything that is associated with the demonic, with paganism, and with idolatry.

Many "alternative health care" programs are definitely associated with such things. These include many aspects of chiropractic, as well as macrobiotics, naturopathy, reflexology, homeopathy, iridology, and applied kinesiology.

We will discuss this more in the chapter "A Demonic Diet."

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

"And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."

This passage describes the apostle Paul's physical affliction. Three times he asked God to take away this problem, but God refused to do so.

Paul was told that this infirmity was something God wanted him to have for his spiritual well-being. Upon learning this, Paul bowed to God's will and wisely said: "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).

This is a perfect example of how believers should deal with sickness and afflictions. We should pray for healing and release, but when God does not heal, we must bow to His will and accept that sickness or trial as from the divine hand.

This is not lack of faith; it is submission to the sovereignty of Almighty God.

Some have argued that Paul's infirmity was not a sickness, but the Greek word astheneia, which is translated "infirmity" in 2 Corinthians 12:9, is elsewhere translated "sickness" (Mat. 8:17; Jn. 11:4) and "disease" (Acts 28:9).

To say that Paul's infirmity in 2 Corinthians 12 was not a sickness is not proper biblical interpretation; it is an act of desperation to uphold a heretical viewpoint.

Colossians 2:8, 16-23

"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. ... Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh."

This passage warns about the asceticism that accompanied gnostic heresies. Eventually this produced the monastic system that became a major part of the Roman Catholic Church. It is an attempt to gain salvation and spirituality through ascetic practices, such as extreme fasting, abuse of the body, isolation, celibacy, silence, sleep deprivation, wearing uncomfortable clothes, and self-flagellation. Most of the contemplative mystics whose writings are revered by evangelicals today lived in the atmosphere of heretical asceticism.

Paul summarized this philosophy as "touch not; taste not; handle not" and "neglecting of the body" (Col. 2:20-23). The "taste not" and "neglect" aspect of asceticism includes extreme diets such as lengthy fasts and avoiding various types of food.

The Word of God warns against this in the strongest terms.

Paul called it "will worship" (Col. 2:23), because it is the exercise of religion by the power of the will of unregenerate man.

Paul warned that the aforementioned practices are "the commandments of and doctrines of men" (Col. 2:22). There are no commandments in the New Testament about what we eat.

1 Timothy 4:1-5

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer."

Paul warned that a commandment to abstain from meats is a doctrine of devils. The word "meats" is from the Greek "broma," which refers to food in general.

To make spiritual and religious laws that restrict the eating of food is a doctrine of devils.

Vegetarianism is an example. This is no light matter. If an individual wants to eat a vegetarian diet, that is his business, but no one can make a law of it for other people. Since the days of Noah, vegetarianism has not been a Bible diet!

Paul taught that the believer is at liberty to eat any food (1 Tim. 4:3-5).

We see that God made animals to be eaten by man ("which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe," 1 Tim. 4:3). This takes us back to Genesis 11 following the Flood, when God told Noah, "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you..." (Genesis 9:3).

We see, too, how that food is sanctified. First, it is sanctified by the Word of God. This means that God's Word permits and sanctions it. God's Word teaches us that God has provided all things to enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17). Second, food is sanctified by prayer. The prayer of thanksgiving sets the meal apart and makes it holy and pleasing before the Creator. The food is a sweet savor to man, and the prayer of thanksgiving in Christ is a sweet savor to God. Lack of thanksgiving was the first step toward idolatry (Rom. 1:21).

1 Timothy 4:8

"For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

Here Paul addresses the priorities of life.

First, we learn that diet and bodily exercise have some profit.

Eating a balanced diet has profit, and multitudes of studies have found that exercise is important for maintaining health. It has been said that "inactivity is life-limiting." The British government recommends that adults have five or more sessions of 30 minutes' moderate activity a week (e.g., brisk walking, swimming, cycling, stair climbing). The U.S. Centers for Disease Control makes the same recommendation (150 minutes of moderate exercise per week), and the CDC emphasizes that the exercise can be broken into 10 minute segments and aerobic exercise should be combined with some muscle-strengthening activities (e.g., weight lifting, resistance bands, push-ups, sit-ups). The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association recommend 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise (e.g., running, tennis, jumping rope), and they say that shorter 10-minute workouts can be as beneficial as longer workouts.

Brisk aerobic exercise has consistently been found to have the potential to add years to one's life as well as "life to one's years," meaning it can increase good health into older age.

But we also see in 1 Timothy 4:8 such things as bodily exercise should not take precedence over godliness and should not become the priority in one's life.

To maintain the ideal "body mass index" and run marathons and maintain meticulous diets and research and follow "alternative health" programs requires a major commitment of time and energy in one's brief earthly lifespan.

But Paul indicates that the commitment to such things should be "little," and little is the opposite of large.

The fact that the pursuit of physical health and bodily exercise is so popular today at a nearly fanatical level is evidence of the idolatry of this end-time society. It is a reflection of the self-worship that is described in Paul's prophecy of the latter days ("men shall be lovers of their own selves," 2 Timothy 3:1-2).

It is also a reflection of the temporal-mindedness of this generation. Men's thoughts and affections are devoted to this present life.

The fact that so many believers ape the world in these things does not make it right.

Consider Paul's exhortation:

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory" (Col 3:1-4).

After His resurrection, Christ emphasized that His will for this present age is for His people to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and establish sound churches for the discipling of believers. This is repeated five times in Scripture (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:44-48; John 20:21; Acts 1:8). Since this is what Christ emphasized, this should be the priority of every child of God. It is a very big task, which is nowhere near being fulfilled. Literally billions of people have not heard a clear and sound presentation of the gospel. Multitudes of those who profess Christ do not themselves know the gospel. Every believer is an ambassador of Christ in this great work (2 Cor. 5:20). It is a major part of our calling as a child of God.

How can God be pleased when His people spend the bulk of their time, energy, and money on the physical and temporal to the neglect of the spiritual and eternal?

George Malkmus is an example of a professing Christian who has gotten sidetracked from proper biblical priorities.

"Malkmus was pastor of a Baptist church in upstate New York in 1976 when he says a chiropractor told him he had developed a cancerous tumor in his colon. Malkmus says he could feel the tumor underneath his rib cage and found blood in his stool. But having watched his mother die of colon cancer after repeated rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, Malkmus, then 42, avoided the medical route.

"Instead, he sought out a Texas evangelist named Lester Roloff who had a reputation as a 'health nut.' Roloff recommended a strict raw fruit and vegetable diet, including one to two quarts of fresh carrot juice each day. [Note from Bro. Cloud: Lester Roloff was not a vegetarian.]

"Malkmus resigned from his church and devoted himself to health and healing. Within a year, Malkmus claims, his tumor was gone--and so were his allergies, his hemorrhoids and his dandruff.

"He began a journey into the counterculture world of alternative health, becoming an organic gardener for the Shangri-La Health Resort in Bonita Springs, Fla., and a few years later bought 50 acres of mountain land in Tennessee, where he lived as self-sufficiently as he could. He pumped water from a spring and used a compost instead of a flush toilet. ...

"But in 1992, Malkmus bought a small restaurant in Rogersville, Tenn., and started selling fresh juice and salads. The restaurant was an instant success, and in time, people began listening to Malkmus' message and buying his books, and his ministry began growing" (Yonat Shimron, "The Hallelujah Diet: Miracle Cure or Just a Veggie Tale"? Raleigh News & Observer, Raleigh, NC, cited from The Baptist Standard, May 26, 1999).

Here is the case of a pastor who got so wrapped up in the pursuit of health that he quit the pastorate and put his full-time energies into diet. There is nothing "little" about this man's commitment to "bodily" things. He serves the "gospel of good health" more than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy 5:23; 2 Timothy 4:20

"Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities."

"Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick."

Paul did not give Timothy or Trophimus a holy diet that would solve all of their physical ailments. There is simply no promise in Scripture of perfect health or even of good health, regardless of what diet you choose or how much you might exercise or how holy you might live or how much faith you might have.

Death, with all that it entails (i.e., sickness, weakness, old age) is the wages of sin (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 6:23). A good diet can provide better health benefits than an improper diet, but no diet can promise good health. If such a diet were possible, God would have told us in Scripture, and Paul would have informed the churches about it.

Those who promise health via diet or any other program are deceived, and they are offering false hope. This is a major mark of a quack. You would think that any Bible believer would understand the truth of this, but when people are sick they can become desperate and grasp at any promise, no matter how quacky or unscriptural.
A Good Diet

In light of Scripture, a good diet is not complicated. A good diet is a balanced diet that provides all of the vitamins and nutrients that man needs.

1 Timothy 4:4 summarizes a biblical approach to diet. It says that "every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving."

God has provided a great bounty for man's benefit, and this includes animal meat (Gen. 9:3-4).

Man has learned that there are basic "food groups" that provide a balanced diet, and these food groups are simply the major types of food that God has supplied for man's benefit and enjoyment.

Fruits and vegetables and nuts are good. Properly cooked meat is good. Fish is good. Milk and milk products are good. Nothing is to be refused, except for personal taste or a special dietary necessity.

The importance of balance is also seen in Proverbs 25:27, "It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory," and Proverbs 25:16, "Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it."

Eating too much of anything is not good, especially to the neglect of other things. Honey is good, but too much honey is too much sugar, and modern medicine has identified this as a cause of diabetes and other ailments. The problem is not in the sugar; the problem is in the lack of balance and wisdom and continence in one's diet.

There are problems with too sugar, too much meat, too many carbohydrates, too much starch, too much fat, too many vitamin supplements, even too many vegetables to the neglect of other things.

"All food is health food in moderation; any food is junk food in excess" ("Twenty-Six Ways to Spot Quacks and Vitamin Pushers," Quackwatch, Dec. 9, 2012).

This does not take into consideration special diets that are necessary for certain health conditions, such as diets necessitated by allergies. For example, some people can't drink milk or eat peanuts.

Since I have had two episodes of acute pancreatitis, I must maintain a low fat diet. Such a diet is not necessary for most people, but because my pancreas was injured in a procedure to remove a gall stone, it is necessary in my case.
A Quack Diet

Quackery is "the promotion of unproven or fraudulent medical practices." A quack diet is a diet that is based on bogus science and that makes bogus claims. It is based on unsubstantiated testimonials and feelings.

"Quackery" derives from the Dutch word "quacksalver," which originally referred to a "hawker of salve." The word was used for traveling salesmen who shouted or "quacked" the benefits of their goods.

This is a good description of pop dietitians today who quack about their super diets and secret formulas, and they can quack louder than ever via the Internet.

The quack industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that preys particularly on the elderly, the sick, the desperate, the infirm, the vain, and above all, the gullible.

God's people will do well to heed the warning of Proverbs:

"The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going" (Proverbs 14:15).

In this section we will discuss the following marks of a quack diet:

A quack diet promises near perfect health and longevity.

A quack diet makes high-sounding claims.

A quack diet is promoted by bogus claims.

A quack diet claims to be based on the Bible.

A quack diet mixes truth with error.

Promoters of quack diets tend to exaggerate their health.

A quack diet is tied to a money-making scheme.

A quack diet is based on testimonials.

A quack tends to diagnose his favorite deficiency or disease in everyone he consults.

A quack tends to discredit standard medicine.

A quack diet plan promotes "all natural" as opposed to "synthetic."

A quack diet promises weight loss with little or no effort or exercise.

Quack diets can promote dangerous practices.

### A quack diet promises near perfect health and longevity.

Diet is only one aspect of health and longevity, and the most perfect diet imaginable cannot guarantee perfect health or a long life. The ultimate cause of death is sin, not a faulty diet. Sin works in the individual from conception and ultimately brings physical death. Apart from salvation, it brings the second death, which is eternal judgment in the lake of fire.

The process of living is the process of dying. Aging, with all of its attendant problems, is a "natural" condition brought about by the fall.

While there are health benefits to a good diet, there are great limits to what any diet can accomplish. And anyone who promises health and vitality and longevity through any certain diet is a quack.

When George Malkmus established the Back to the Garden Ministries in 1993 and promoted his Hallelujah Diet, it was said "to eliminate sickness from the Christian Community in particular and the world in general." Malkmus says:

"My conclusion after all these years of research and experience is that WE DO NOT HAVE TO BE SICK!!! Disease and sickness are self-inflicted! Almost every physical problem, other than accidents, is caused by improper diet and lifestyle! All we have to do to be well is eat and live according to the way God intended! ... We can literally control whether we are going to be sick or not and how long we are going to live by simply choosing how we live our lives" (all caps emphasis in the original) (God's Way to Ultimate Health).

The first issue of Malkmus' Back to the Garden magazine in 1993 contained the following statement by Paul Bragg:

"Don't you believe the moth-eaten fallacy that man, as he gets older, must face decrepitude, decay, senility and death! Man does not die--he commits slow suicide with his unnatural habits of living. Your body is the most glorious accurate instrument of this universe. Given the correct fuel, pure air, exercise and keeping it internally clean; your body will last indefinitely and function perfectly."

The Daniel Plan purports to "equip you with practical tools and resources to bring health into every area of your life."

The Perfect Health Diet promises that you will "feel younger, live longer." It is described as "Four Steps to Renewed Health, Youthful Vitality, and Long Life."

Linus Pauling claimed that a high dosage regimen of vitamin C, vitamin A, and vitamin E, plus selenium and beta-carotene, would produce longevity and cure most diseases, including heart disease, polio, tuberculosis, meningitis, asthma, arthritis, diabetes, strokes, ulcers, kidney failure, and AIDS. In 1977, Pauling said, "Life expectancy will be 100 to 110 years, and in the course of time, the maximum age might be 150 years" (Paul Offit, M.D., Do You Believe in Magic: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine, p. 54).

Movie star Suzanne Somer's book Sexy Forever describes a diet, supplement, and health regime that "is the secret elixir we have all been looking for." She says, "The second half of your life can be better than the first half."

Quack, quack!

Other dietary plans, while not promising perfect health, come near to promising it.

In the early 2000s, Bible teacher Bill Gothard moved into the quack medical field. He began by promoting the teaching of Henry Wright, pastor of Pleasant Valley Church, Thomaston, Georgia, and head of a ministry called BE IN HEALTH. His web site proclaims, "We are dedicated to the eradication and prevention of all spiritual, psychological, and biological disease," and, "God's perfect will is that you don't get sick." Then Gothard developed his own TOTAL HEALTH program and built the International Institute for Health and Research in Nashville (now apparently defunct).

It is true that proper nutrition can provide health benefits, but that does not mean that nutrition and/or alternative health care can heal everything, and it does not mean that there is such a thing as a guarantee of total health, and it does not mean that we should look askance at standard medicine as the "alternative care" field tends to do.

### A quack diet makes high-sounding claims.

When you hear that something is a "miraculous breakthrough," "groundbreaking," "revolutionary," "super," "absolutely fantastic," "unprecedented," or some such high-sounding claim, run the other way! This is quack language.

For example, Master Miracle Solution (MMS), a toxic bleach cure, is marketed by Jim Humble as "the Miracle Mineral Solution of the 21st Century," a cure for "most cancer," AIDS, hepatitis, herpes, TB, malaria, possibly Ebola, "and many more of mankind's worse diseases."

Friends, if it sounds too good to be true, it most probably is!

### A quack diet is promoted by bogus claims.

There are many bogus claims made by pop dietitians and alternative health proponents.

One bogus claim is that most people have vitamin and mineral deficiencies because of nutritionally depleted soil, the over-processing of food, toxins in the food supply, and/or other such things. This sets the stage for the dietitian to promote his special diet and secret formulas and super supplements that correct the alleged problem. Yet the premise is bogus.

"Their pitch resembles that of the door-to-door huckster who states that your perfectly good furnace is in danger of blowing up unless you replace it with his product."

"However, very few individuals in industrially developed countries suffer from specific vitamin and mineral deficiencies. ... In lesser-developed countries, deficiencies are due to inadequate food intake. Nutritional deficiencies can be corrected with a well-balanced diet. In addition, most manufactured products are fortified with specific vitamins and minerals. The body recognizes and utilizes these nutrients as effectively as the ones sold in health food stores..." ("Quackery," Diet.com, n.d.).

"Quacks distort and oversimplify. When they say that milling removes B-vitamins, they don't bother to tell you that enrichment puts them back. When they tell you that cooking destroys vitamins, they omit the fact that only a few vitamins are sensitive to heat. Nor do they tell you that these vitamins are easily obtained by consuming a portion of fresh uncooked fruit, vegetable, or fresh or frozen fruit juice each day. Any claims that minerals are destroyed by processing or cooking are pure lies. Heat does not destroy minerals" ("Twenty-Six Ways to Spot Quacks" by Stephen Barrett, M.D. and Victor Herbert, M.D., Sept. 7, 2014, Quackwatch.com).

Consider claims about Barley Green. George Malkmus' Hallelujah Diet calls for three daily teaspoons of it. AIM, a manufacturer and distributor of vitamins and supplements that was associated with Malkmus until 2002, claimed that Barley Green contains "25 kinds of vitamins, including B15, K, and P," yet there are only 13 vitamins for humans and B15 and P are not among them (Stephen Barrett, "Rev. George Malkmus and His Hallelujah Diet," Quackwatch.org).

This reminds me of a bottle of ketchup made of pumpkin that my wife and I saw in a restaurant in Kathmandu, Nepal, in the 1980s, which had "vitamin Z" as one of the ingredients!

AIM also claimed that Barley Green contains "live enzymes" that fight pollutants, yet "the fact that these enzymes would be destroyed during digestion and therefore would fail to enter the body of Barley Green users was not mentioned; nor was the fact that the amounts of most nutrients in Barley Green were insignificant" (Ibid.).

"In 1988, the FDA ordered AIM to stop claiming that Barley Green would make people more energetic and was effective against cancer, arthritis, high blood pressure, obesity, depression, and many other health problems. The FDA also told the company to stop making false statements about the quality of the American food supply" (Ibid.).

There is the claim that fluoride is dangerous. But "fluoride is necessary to build decay-resistant teeth and strong bones. The best way to obtain adequate amounts of this important nutrient is to augment community water supplies so their fluoride concentration is about one part fluoride for every million parts of water" ("Twenty-Six Ways to Spot Quacks" by Stephen Barrett, M.D. and Victor Herbert, M.D., Sept. 7, 2014, Quackwatch.com).

There is the claim that chemical fertilizers are inferior to "natural" fertilizers.

"If an essential nutrient is missing from the soil, a plant simply doesn't grow. Chemical fertilizers counteract the effects of soil depletion. Quacks also lie when they claim that plants grown with natural fertilizers (such as manure) are nutritionally superior to those grown with synthetic fertilizers. Before they can use them, plants convert natural fertilizers into the same chemicals that synthetic fertilizers supply. The vitamin content of a food is determined by its genetic makeup. Fertilizers can influence the levels of certain minerals in plants, but this is not a significant factor in the American diet. The pesticide residue of our food supply is extremely small and poses no health threat to the consumer. Foods 'certified' as 'organic' are not safer or more nutritious than other foods. In fact, except for their high price, they are not significantly different" ("Twenty-Six Ways to Spot Quacks" by Stephen Barrett, M.D. and Victor Herbert, M.D., Sept. 7, 2014, Quackwatch.com).

There is the claim that "bioidentical" hormones are different from and superior to "conventional" hormones.

"Supported by Oprah Winfrey, promoted by Suzanne Somers, and backed by gynecologists like Christiane Northrup, bioidentical hormones have become a national phenomenon. There are, however, a few flaws in the logic. First, estrogen is estrogen. Whether it's isolated from soybeans, wild yams, or horse's urine, it's the same molecule; the source is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the molecular structure of the final product. ... Second, the distinction between Big Pharma and small compounding pharmacies, while appealing to the public, is misleading. 'They [bioidentical and conventional hormones] are primarily all made at the same factory in Germany,' says Lauren Streicher, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. 'There's a couple [of large factories] in the United States. They're the ones that synthesize it from plants and then send it to [small] compounding pharmacies and to the major pharmaceutical companies.' If bioidentical and conventional hormones are the same products made in the same place, then they probably carry the same risk" (Paul Offit, Do You Believe in Magic? pp. 115, 116).

There is the claim that the body needs a juicing diet to get rid of toxins. Of these so-called "detox diets," we read:

"The premise of doing juice cleanses and other types of liquid detox regimens is false, said Liz Applegate, director of sports nutrition at the University of California, Davis. 'The body does not need any help in getting rid of toxins,' she said. There are detoxifying enzymes in the liver that break down alcohol and other drugs, and the kidneys handle water-soluble toxins, Applegate said. ... There's no scientific evidence that juice cleanses are a sensible approach to better health. Cleansing's touted benefits--from detoxifying the body and resting the digestive system, to boosting immunity and improving mental focus--are largely anecdotal and unproven. The notion of using these methods to give the digestive system a rest is nonsensical, Applegate said. 'The digestive system operates every day to digest foods, and it doesn't need any rest,' she said" ("6 Potential Dangers of Juice Cleanses and Liquid Diets," LiveScience.com, Nov. 24, 2014).

"Juice cleanses and liquid detox diets are not a healthful or safe approach to weight loss, said Joy Dubost, a dietitian in Washington, D.C., and a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 'There's no scientific research that it provides benefits in the short or long term, and it's not an overall healthy approach to eating,' she said. ... Once people hear the hype and that the "beautiful people" are doing it, everybody else wants to jump on the bandwagon, Dubost said. But it's not a healthful approach, she maintained. Like other fad diets, cleansing and so-called detox diets promise a quick fix, she said. 'Cleansing may produce short-term results, but it definitely doesn't produce long-term benefits,' Dubost said" ("4 Myths about Juice Cleansing," LiveScience.com, Nov. 15, 2014).

There is the claim that "natural vitamins" are superior to "synthetic" ones.

"Each vitamin is a chain of atoms strung together as a molecule. With minor exception, molecules made in the 'factories' of nature are identical to those made in the factories of chemical companies. Does it make sense to pay extra for vitamins extracted from foods when you can get all you need from the foods themselves?" ("Twenty-Six Ways to Spot Quacks" by Stephen Barrett, M.D. and Victor Herbert, M.D., Sept. 7, 2014, Quackwatch.com).

There is the claim that antioxidant supplements (selenium, beta-carotene, vitamins A, C, E) provide the same health benefits as eating fruits and vegetables and can stave off and counteract cancer and heart disease.

In fact, multiple, extensive studies have shown that those taking vitamins and supplements, particularly in mega doses, were "more likely to die from lung cancer or heart disease than those who didn't take them" (Paul Offit, M.D., Do You Believe in Magic: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine, p. 59). This was the conclusion of a 1994 study of 29,000 Finnish men, a 1996 study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center of 18,000 people, a 2004 study by the University of Copenhagen of 170,000 people, a 2005 study by Johns Hopkins School of Medicine of 136,000 people, a 2007 study by the National Cancer Institute of 11,000 men, a 2011 study by the University of Minnesota of 39,000 older women, and a 2011 study by the Cleveland Clinic of 36,000 men. In the latter study, those who took vitamin E had a 17 percent greater risk of prostate cancer. A 2005 study examined 9,000 people who took high-dose vitamin E to prevent cancer. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that those who took the supplement were "more likely to develop heart failure than those who didn't." The aforementioned University of Copenhagen study concluded, "We could not find evidence that antioxidant supplements can prevent gastrointestinal cancers; on the contrary, they seem to increase overall mortality." The University of Minnesota study found that those who took multivitamins and supplements "died at rates higher than those who didn't." A 2008 review of all existing studies involving more than 230,000 people "found that vitamins increased the risk of cancer and heart disease" (Offit, p. 59).

One problem with vitamin supplements is that so little is known how they act apart from the food in which they appear naturally. Consider the following:

"Studies increasingly suggest that vitamins are not the health-enhancing wonder we might wish. Part of the problem, writes Catherine Price in her new book Vitamania: Our Obsessive Quest for Nutritional Perfection, is that we're still not entirely sure how vitamins work when they're taken divorced from foods.

"One thing that's undoubtedly happening when you eat an apple (or any other natural food, for that matter) is synergy, the phenomenon in which substances work differently when they're together than when they're on their own--the vitamin C in a Red Delicious, for example, may not act the same way in isolation as it does when it's surrounded by an apple's other compounds.

"Or consider berberine, a chemical compound in a plant called goldenseal that's known for its antibacterial qualities. When ingested in the form of goldenseal, berberine isn't usually toxic. But the same dose of berberine 'can get pretty toxic pretty quick' if it's isolated from the plant, said analytical chemist James Neal-Kababick.

"... it's unwise to assume that a supplement made of an isolated natural compound is necessarily safe--or that its ingredients will behave in the same way that they do when found naturally in food. The effects of some compounds also depend on what else they're consumed with--the fat-soluble vitamins (A or beta-carotene, D, E, and K) require adequate fat to be absorbed (that's one reason cooking vegetables with oil can make them more nutritious), whereas the water-soluble vitamins (C and the Bs) do not.

"What's more, whole foods often appear to contain other substances that are necessary for their supposedly beneficial phytochemicals to be absorbed and used. A 2011 study on broccoli found that giving subjects fresh broccoli florets led them to absorb and metabolize seven times more of the anticancer compounds known as glucosinolates, present in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, than when glucosinolates were given in straight capsule form--presumably because the whole broccoli contained other compounds that helped their bodies put the anticancer chemicals to use. Indeed, many times the active forms of plant chemicals found in human blood are different from those found in food, indicating that some sort of conversion has taken place.

"Tomatoes have garnered attention recently for their levels of lycopene, a red-orange carotenoid with powerful antioxidant effects--that's why lycopene has become a nutritional buzzword, popping up on labels of everything from spaghetti sauce to ketchup. But tomatoes contain many bioactive chemicals besides lycopene, including not just vitamins like folate and vitamins C and E, but other carotenoids like phytoene, phytofluene, and beta-carotene, and flavonols like quercetin and kaempferol.

"These compounds' combined presence may well explain why one 2004 paper in the Journal of Nutrition found that freeze-dried whole tomato powder appeared more effective than lycopene supplements alone in reducing the growth of prostate tumors in rats.

"'It's not like A does B, and X gives you Y,' said Neal-Kababick. 'There's a lot that's still being discovered and understood. We're at the tip of the iceberg: we haven't really even gotten our heads under the water yet to see the rest of the work that has to be done.'

"As one paper on synergy explained its challenges, 'Understanding one leaf in a forest does not necessarily provide insight into the entire forest. The interrelation of human physiology and of the biological activity of plant and animal foods that humans consume is incredibly complex, replete with checks, balances, and feedback loops, dependent on a myriad of substances that differ only in subtle ways from one another'" ("How do vitamins work? What we know and what we're figuring out," National Post, Feb. 28, 2015).

There is also the claim that fecal matter clings to the intestines and requires special treatment.

"Quacks may also suggest that fecal material collects on the lining of the intestine and causes trouble unless removed by laxatives, colonic irrigation, special diets, and/or various herbs or food supplements that "cleanse" the body. The falsity of this notion is obvious to doctors who perform intestinal surgery or peer within the large intestine with a diagnostic instrument. Fecal material does not adhere to the intestinal lining. Colonic irrigation is done by inserting a tube into the rectum and pumping up to 20 gallons of water in and out. This type of enema is not only therapeutically worthless but can cause fatal electrolyte imbalance. Cases of death due to intestinal perforation and infection (from contaminated equipment) have also been reported" ("Twenty-Six Ways to Spot Quacks" by Stephen Barrett, M.D. and Victor Herbert, M.D., Sept. 7, 2014, Quackwatch.com).

There is the claim that autism can be cured with vitamins and supplements.

This is the position of Bernard Rimland's Autism Research Institute and Defeat Autism Now (DAN) and has been promoted by movie star Jenny McCarthy and Oprah Winfrey. In their desperation for help, parents of autistic children can be easy targets for bogus science. But the regime of mega doses of vitamins, restricting gluten, detox therapies such as coffee enemas and chlorine dioxide treatments, avoidance of vaccines, and other "alternative therapies" has not cured autism.

After examining the pros and cons of this claim, Dr. Paul Offit concludes, "Given our current understanding of the disorder, McCarthy's advice to treat autism as if it's caused by parasitic infections, heavy-metal poisoning, or blocked lymph glands is nonsense" (Do You Believe in Magic? p. 133).

There have been fifteen studies of the use of secretin in the treatment of autism, and they have consistently found that secretin is no better than a placebo.

Yet even when parents were shown the extensive evidence of secretin's ineffectiveness, 69% of them "still wanted to use the drug--still wanted to pay thousands of dollars and travel hundreds of miles to get something they now knew didn't work" (Offit, p. 134).

This shows that desperation can greatly cloud one's critical thinking, and it goes far to explain the persistent popularity of quack health care schemes in the face of the evidence. In all areas of life, human beings believe what they want to believe.

There is the claim that echinacea is effectual in the treatment of colds. But a large University of Washington study in 2003 found that echinacea is not more effectual than a placebo (Offit, p. 102).

There is the claim that mega doses of saw palmetto are effectual in the treatment of enlarged prostate in men. But a large, year-long study in 2006 by the University of California at San Francisco, the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and Northern California Kaiser Permanente found that saw palmetto was no more effectual than a placebo. When the study was repeated in 2011, using higher doses, the same conclusion was reached. Study author Gerald Andriole of the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, concluded, "Men should not spend their money on this herbal supplement as a way to reduce symptoms of an enlarged prostate because it clearly does not work any better than a sugar pill" (Offit, p. 101).

There is the claim that garlic can lower cholesterol. But a 2007 study by the Stanford University School of Medicine, that examined 192 adults for six months, found that "none of the forms of garlic used ... had statistically or clinically significant effects on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol or other plasma lipid concentrations in adults with moderate hypercholesterolemia" (Offit, p. 100).

There is the claim that St. John's wort is an effectual treatment for depression. But a year-long study in 1999 at 11 academic medical centers found "no difference in any measure of depression" (Offit, p. 99).

There is the claim that ginkgo biloba is effectual in treating dementia or enhancing memory. But a multi-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health involving more than 3,000 elderly people found that ginkgo was no more effective than a sugar pill (Offit, p. 98).

These are only a few of the bogus claims that are quacked far and wide today.

### A quack diet claims to be based on the Bible.

Many quack diets claim to be based on the Bible.

There is the God Diet, the Maker's Diet, the Genesis Diet, the Daniel Diet, the Edenic Diet, the Hallelujah Diet, the Seventh-Day Adventist diet, and others.

Jim Humble, the father of Master Miracle Solution (MMS), is also the founder of "Genesis 2 Church of Health and Healing."

The Daniel Diet "teaches BIBLICAL principles of natural health and healing."

The reason why we call these quack diets is that they are based on a bogus interpretation of Scripture. Typically they are based on the diet described in Genesis 1 and/or Leviticus, though these dietary plans, as we have seen in the chapter "The Bible and Diet," are no longer in effect.

The Genesis Diet says,

"In the second chapter of Genesis, we see God's health plan for man. God placed Adam in a natural setting with nutritional foods, crystal clear waters and responsible work to stimulate his mind and exercise his body."

George Malkmus, founder of the Hallelujah Diet, says:

"God handed down to us in Genesis 1:29 a diet composed of raw fruits and vegetables, gathered by hand, as found fresh and untainted in nature. This diet did not contain any animal products or even any grains. On this 100% uncooked vegetarian diet man lived an average of 912 years, without any recorded sickness for the first almost two thousand years of recorded history. I estimate this diet contained approximately 5% unsaturated fat, 90% complex carbohydrates, and 5% protein. After the flood, as we learn in Genesis 9:3, God allowed animal flesh to be added to His original diet and the cooking of food began. Revealingly, with the addition of flesh and cooked food, physical problems began. Looking at Genesis 50:26, we see that the life-span of man dropped from an average of 912 years on God's original diet to 110 years, in ten generations, on God's permissive diet ... approximately 20% fat, 70% carbohydrates, and 10% protein" ("Diets, diets, diets," Back to the Garden newsletter, Spring/Summer 1999).

This statement is filled with errors. First, there is no evidence that diet is the reason why men lived so long before the Flood. Second, there is no evidence that men lived without sickness before the Flood. Third, if animal meat is bad for man's health, why did God instruct Noah and his sons to eat it? And why did God instruct Israel to eat it? And why did Jesus eat it and feed it to others? Fourth, Malkmus calls meat "God's permissive diet," but it was no such thing. God said, "Every moving thing that liveth SHALL BE meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things" (Gen. 9:3). Fifth, there is no evidence that Adam and his descendants before the Flood ate no grains and used no dairy products. Sixth, there is no evidence that men before the Flood did not cook their food.

When we test everything by God's Word, as we are instructed to do, the Hallelujah Diet falls flat, as do all of the diets that purport to be "biblical."

Any individual who wants to eat the Hallelujah Diet or the God Diet or the Maker's Diet is at liberty to do so, but he or she should know that these are not "biblical" diets.

I received the following e-mail recently:

"I am praying that you will be able to follow strict dietary habits such as were given by God in the beginning of the world to the whole human race: fruits, grains, nuts, legumes, vegetables, and very light on dairy and eggs because of the disease in the animal kingdom."

This counsel is not based on a sound interpretation of Scripture.

There is no biblical restriction today against dairy products or eggs or any type of meat. The Bible does not say that the animal kingdom is permeated with disease so that animal products are inherently tainted.

If an individual doesn't want to eat pork; if he or she wants to be a vegetarian; if he wants to avoid eggs or processed sugar and flour; if he wants to eat strictly "non-synthetic" and "organic" products; if he wants to take a variety of supplements, that is a personal matter and cannot be made into a biblical issue or a law for others.

### A quack mixes truth with error.

Quackery is truth mixed with error. It is sense mixed with nonsense. It is true science mixed with pseudo-science.

For example, it is true that a diet that avoids extremes of too much sugar and fat and carbohydrates, combined with a lifestyle that includes regular exercise and avoids such harmful habits as smoking and drinking, can reduce the chance of certain sicknesses, including diabetes and heart disease.

But many are not content with this. They rush off into quackery land, claiming that their regimen will truly or very nearly guarantee health and longevity, heal cancer, make you happy, and all sorts of other things.

This is sense mixed with nonsense.

### Promoters of quack diets tend to exaggerate their health.

Consider George Malkmus. He promises that his Hallelujah Diet produces good health into old age.

"My conclusion after all these years of research and experience is that WE DO NOT HAVE TO BE SICK!!! Disease and sickness are self-inflicted! Almost every physical problem, other than accidents, is caused by improper diet and lifestyle! All we have to do to be well is eat and live according to the way God intended! ... We can literally control whether we are going to be sick or not and how long we are going to live by simply choosing how we live our lives" (all caps emphasis in the original) (God's Way to Ultimate Health).

Yet Malkmus has not had the perfectly healthy life that he promises. He has gotten old and suffered sickness like everyone else. In 1999, at age 65, he claimed that all of his physical problems had disappeared, but two years later he had a stroke and developed high blood pressure, for which he took prescription medication after finding that a herbal diet did not cure the problem. Yet he had claimed that his diet prevents heart disease and stroke.

Linus Pauling, who promised longevity and freedom from colds and cancer through a regimen of high-dosage vitamins, continued to have colds (which he liked to characterize as "sinus infections"), and both he and his wife died of cancer.

Suzanne Somers claims to have discovered the secret of anti-aging, but she is aging rapidly regardless of her protestations to the contrary. In 2006, at age 62, she admitted on Larry King Live that she takes Botox treatments to maintain "a youthful appearance." As Dr. Paul Offit observes, "It's hard to make the case that people should live naturally when you're injecting one of the most powerful toxins known to man (botulinum toxin) directly into your face" (Do You Believe in Magic? p. 125).

When it comes to exaggerating one's health, Paul Bragg was probably the king. He was quoted as follows in the first issue of George Malkmus' Back to the Garden magazine in 1993:

"Don't you believe the moth-eaten fallacy that man, as he gets older, must face decrepitude, decay, senility and death! Man does not die--he commits slow suicide with his unnatural habits of living. Your body is the most glorious accurate instrument of this universe. Given the correct fuel, pure air, exercise and keeping it internally clean; your body will last indefinitely and function perfectly."

The "Bragg Healthy Lifestyle" regimen promised "vital living to 120," yet Paul Bragg died in 1976 at age 81, only slightly above the average life expectancy. Further, Bragg did not have the perfect health that he promised others. He even lied about his age to make himself appear to be older than he actually was!

### A quack diet is tied to a money-making scheme.

When someone makes money by promoting a certain diet or alternative health program, he is not unbiased. The Bible warns that man's fallen heart is deceitful (Jer. 17:9). It is easy to convince oneself that something is true if you really want to believe it. Salesmen are taught to "sell yourself on this product so that you can sell to others," and this is not that difficult for enthusiastic people.

In the field of diet, one of the biggest money makers is the business of vitamins and supplements. It is $34 billion a year industry.

The Maker's Diet requires supplements that are made by the Garden of Life company, which is conveniently owned by the Maker's Diet founder Jordan Rubin.

George Malkmus, author of the Hallelujah Diet, is typical in that he has built a prosperous business from his dietary claims. Consider just one supplement, Barley Green. His diet calls for three teaspoons per day, and he sold it in 2001 for $49.95 for 10.5 ounces, which amounts to more than $4 a day or $120 a month for the dieter. Malkmus also sells the Udo's oil, the B12 supplement, the Herbal Fiberblend, and other things that his diet calls for. The Hallelujah Diet book costs $15; the recipe book, $25, etc.

### A quack diet is based on testimonials.

The greatest tool in the quack's kit is a favorable testimonial.

The Daniel Diet "shows, through testimonies, the success of this diet."

George Malkmus claims that "tens of thousands of people who have applied the principles of the Hallelujah Diet have written to tell us that their physical problems also went away."

The testimonials proclaim that someone took this particular product or followed that particular diet, and it increased his energy, healed his disease, removed his pain, even restored his emotional well-being.

Yet anecdotal testimonials do not prove that a diet or supplement delivers according to its promise or that the product in question is more effective than something else.

Consider some of the problems with testimonials:

First, testimonials are selective.

Typically, the promoter of a diet or product will not publish the testimonies of those who were not helped or who were affected negatively. If 1,000 people tried the product and five found some benefit, the producer will publish the five testimonies and ignore the 950.

Bogus total health programs do not admit their own failures. The failures (and, if the truth be known, they usually outweigh the successes) are never the fault of the program.

Consider the Hallelujah Diet. The following statement demonstrates how that testimonials can be selective and not give the whole picture.

"In the spring of 2001, while attending a Hallelujah Acres Health Minister Reunion, we learned that there was possibly an important ingredient missing in the Hallelujah Diet, an essential nutrient called Vitamin B-12. They now recommended those on the Hallelujah Diet take a supplement to make up the difference for the lack of this vitamin in the diet.

"Had God forgotten this key vitamin in His 'ideal diet' so that it required supplementation? We discovered that this vitamin was primarily found in meat and other animal products but were told that B-12 could also be produced from sources such as friendly bacteria in the intestinal tract. ...

"About six months later, Romsey became pregnant with our seventh child. Having two other successful pregnancies on the Hallelujah Diet, we were ready for our third. Since this was the seventh pregnancy in eleven years for Romsey, she would need as much nutrition as possible. So we determined there would be no 'cheating.'

"It was the Hallelujah Diet all the way with lots of juicing, which included a daily regimen of 64 ounces of fresh vegetable juice consisting of 50% carrot and the other 50% greens like kale, chard, celery, spinach, cucumber, and zucchini. We made sure the cooked portion was kept to a minimum of 15% by leaving that portion to the final meal of the day.

"We also added Udo's Perfected Oil Blend and lots of barley powder as recommended by Hallelujah Acres. ...

"Several months following the birth of our child named Andrew Aaron, we began to notice some symptoms that concerned us. His muscle strength and motor skills were far behind for his age of nine months. He could neither crawl nor hold his head up.

"After doing some research into the symptoms of Vitamin B-12 deficiency, we realized our child was likely deficient. We also found out that the most accurate testing for Vitamin B-12 deficiency is done through the urine, not the blood. So we had a urine sample tested and the results consequently showed positive for B-12 deficiency.

"We began Vitamin B-12 supplementation and saw some immediate improvements. After a few weeks he could hold his head up and began to scoot around on the floor on his belly.

"Up to this time, this child was solely breast-fed but realizing Romsey wasn't supplying the baby with the nutrients he needed, we began to add raw goat milk to his diet.

"At one year, he cut his first tooth only to have most of the enamel missing off the front of it. This revealed more evidence of Hallelujah Diet deficiency beyond Vitamin B-12.

"This past summer, we learned that Greg Westbrook and his family, former Health Ministers [with the Hallelujah Diet] and founders of the Weigh of Wisdom Workshop, also suffered from numerous deficiencies after following the Hallelujah Diet for a number of years. They amended their diet to include some animal products in order to correct their deficiencies.

"After the Westbrooks went through their trials of deficiencies on this diet, THEY WONDERED HOW MANY OTHERS ON THE HALLELUJAH DIET WERE HAVING SIMILAR PROBLEMS. So they created and released a survey of deficiency symptoms for long-term Hallelujah Dieters and, to their utter astonishment, THE MAJORITY OF THE RETURNED SURVEYS INDICATED NUMEROUS SYMPTOMS OF DEFICIENCIES. ...

"After knowing this family and their character and integrity, I knew they must have done their research to come to the conclusion they needed to put clean animal products back in their diet. ...

"In some ways we feel duped" (Andrew Foote, "Our Experience with Deficiencies on the Hallelujah Diet," Chetday.com, n.d.).

Instead of commending these people for finding flaws in the Hallelujah Diet, Malkmus labeled them enemies of the truth. Testimonials like this won't appear on the Hallelujah Diet's web site.

Second, it is usually impossible to know if the diet or supplement itself is the actual cause of the professed result.

For example, a few years ago an ad for a weight loss product claimed that if you took a certain supplement four hours before going to bed (or something to that effect) and did not eat anything afterwards, you would lose weight. The fact is that if you don't eat late night snacks, you will lose weight regardless of the efficacy of any accompanying supplement!

Third, it is possible that the same results would have been obtained without the special diet or supplement.

Fourth, the individual might not have had the condition that was supposedly corrected.

As with the claims of those who are allegedly healed at Pentecostal meetings, frequently the claims about dietary efficiency cannot be medically substantiated.

Consider George Malkmus. He claims that he was healed of intestinal cancer through diet, yet he has admitted that he did not consult a cancer specialist and was not medically diagnosed with cancer. A reporter who interviewed Malkmus in 1998 said, "He admits that he never went to a cancer specialist for a diagnosis. He consulted nutritionists and chiropractors" (Shelby Star, Shelby, NC, Jan. 10, 1998).

Fifth, many ailments are psychosomatic, which means they are physical problems caused by stress, anxiety, depression, etc.

These types of ailments can be healed by a variety of methods, including placebos and hypnosis, both of which act by way of suggestion. Though the placebo has no therapeutic healing properties, the individual is convinced that it does, so he finds relief by this means.

Many of the testimonies of charismatic healings probably pertain to psychosomatic issues. For example, the International House of Prayer in Kansas City lists alleged healings that have taken place through its ministry. Many of these pertain to headaches, pains in the back, shoulder, knee, etc., vertigo, insomnia, asthma, gastric problems, fatigue, and emotional issues. All of these can have a psychosomatic basis.

Sixth, it is possible to deceive oneself about a matter.

An example of this is when patients in large double blind studies who are unknowingly taking a placebo report that their condition has improved.

For example, in a study of 300 men lasting 72 weeks, half were given saw palmetto extract and half were given a placebo. Men in BOTH GROUPS reported slight improvement ("Does Saw Palmetto Treat Enlarged Prostate?" WebMD News Archive).

Seventh, oftentimes the "healing" or health benefit is temporary.

Someone may experience what seems to be a definite benefit from a diet or supplement, etc., but it is not long lasting. If one could go back and talk to those who have given testimonies, one would often find that the situation has changed.

I had such an experience with saw palmetto. Since I had symptoms of an enlarged prostate, something that most men over 50 suffer, I decided to try saw palmetto. It actually seemed to work for awhile, but over time I realized that nothing of substance had changed, so I stopped taking it. At the beginning of my self-treatment with saw palmetto, I actually told a couple of friends that "it works," and I recommended that they take it. But eventually my experience confirmed tests that had found that it is no more effective than a sugar pill, even at high doses.

This is true for those who experience "healing" in charismatic crusades as well as for those who pursue special dietary regimes.

Eighth, many ailments correct themselves, with or without a special diet or supplements.

In His mercy, God has given the body great healing properties, and these properties continue to be effectual even after the fall. Psalm 103:3 says He "healeth all thy diseases." For one thing, this means that throughout our earthly lives, a healing process goes on. The body has a powerful immune system that fights off disease. Good bacteria on the skin and in the body war against bad bacteria. White blood cells are perpetually on guard against infection. Platelets leap into action when the skin is punctured and signal the "cascade" of events that produce blood clots.

"God has given your body incredible powers of healing and repair, and you could almost say that we carry our very own doctor and pharmacy inside us. ... Studies on the body's built-in pharmacy have, so far, confirmed that the body is also able to treat coughs, anxiety, high blood pressure, depression, asthma, colds, arthritis, ulcers, high cholesterol, and even warts. Often, the medicines we take simply give the body 'permission' to do its own healing by giving us the belief we are going to get better" ("The Body's Incredible Healing Powers," Creation Moments, Nov. 28, 2014).

Ninth, there are diseases that can go into remission.

This is true for some types of cancers, for Crohn's disease, for Lupus, and others.

Many diseases take different courses and forms in different people, and the variety can be dramatic.

Acute pancreatitis, for example, kills some people quickly, while in others it develops into a chronic condition, and in others it never recurs. In such cases, one person might attribute the situation to divine healing and someone else might attribute it to a special diet and someone else, merely to "good luck." (I believe in and have experienced divine healing by prayer, and I believe that the child of God should give God the glory for everything, including "remissions." Here I am specifically talking about attributing a "natural remission" to a special diet or supplement or something like that, when it is not possible to establish the exact cause and effect.)

Dr. Joel Tepper, chairman of the department of radiation oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says that "studies have shown that most people who benefit from alternative therapies, such as diets, also have been treated by conventional medicine as well, so it's hard to tell where the cure has come from" ("The Hallelujah Diet: Miracle Cure or Just a Veggie Tale?" Raleigh News & Observer, Raleigh, NC, May 26, 1999).

In the following statement, two medical doctors explain why testimonials are not sufficient to establish medical truth:

"Establishing medical truths requires careful and repeated investigation—with well-designed experiments, not reports of coincidences misperceived as cause-and-effect. That's why testimonial evidence is forbidden in scientific articles, is usually inadmissible in court, and is not used to evaluate whether or not drugs should be legally marketable. (Imagine what would happen if the FDA decided that clinical trials were too expensive and therefore drug approval would be based on testimonial letters or interviews with a few patients.)" ("Twenty-Six Ways to Spot Quacks" by Stephen Barrett, and Victor Herbert, Sept. 7, 2014, Quackwatch.com).

### A quack tends to diagnose his favorite deficiency or disease in everyone he consults.

The quack wants to sell things, so he tends to diagnose the need for his product or service in nearly every person he examines.

This can be anything from the need for a special diet and/or vitamins and supplements to "detoxification" to a chiropractic adjustment to gall bladder removal.

### A quack diet discredits standard medicine.

Quacks usually state outright or else they imply that you should not trust regular medical practice. They tend to reject standard principles of nutrition. They question "traditional" medical treatments and cast doubt on immunizations.

They probably do this so people will become dependent on them. They don't want you to trust "traditional" medicine, but they want you to trust them. Whether or not this is their motive, it is the result.

George Malkmus of the Hallelujah Diet markets videotapes by Lorraine Day, who warns that medical care is "against God's will, and does far more harm than good" (cited from S. Barrett, "Preliminary Notes on Dr. Lorraine Day," Quackwatch.org, May 31, 2002).

Malkmus has written:

"All drugs are toxic to the system and create new problems! The solution to our physical problems is not more pollution! Every drug is liver toxic, even an aspirin! Every drug causes a new problem for which another drug is often necessary to relieve the symptoms of the previous drug. The taking of drugs places a person on a vicious downhill spiral that will create ever more physical problems and ultimately end in an early demise" ("Drugs: A Killer of Mankind," Hallelujah Acres Online).

While we don't think that modern medicine is infallible by any means, and we don't advise blind trust in medical doctors, we can see that God has opened the floodgates of knowledge in these last times in fulfillment of prophecy ("knowledge shall be increased," Daniel 12:4).

Modern medicine is part of the explosion of knowledge that has happened in the last 150 years. Modern inventions include electricity, telephone, radio, railroads, automobiles, airplanes, atomic power, rockets, television, computers, the Internet, and mobile phones.

During this same time, God has given men wisdom about the human body and healing. Doctors have discovered that microscopic germs cause diseases. Modern microscopes allowed doctors to examine germs that cannot be seen with the unaided human eye, and to explore the living cell. Doctors invented immunizations to prevent many deadly and crippling diseases, including rabies, smallpox, cholera, and polio. They discovered that wounds heal better if kept clean. They discovered anesthesia so that patients could be put to sleep and not feel the pain of surgery. Doctors invented the X-ray and CAT scans so that they could see things inside of the body. Doctors discovered antibiotics such as penicillin, which have saved countless people from dying by infection. They invented amazing surgical techniques, such as open heart surgery and heart transplants. They invented hip replacements and knee replacements.

These modern medical practices have been an untold blessing to people all over the world. They are the gracious God's gift to unworthy people.

Typically, modern medicines and procedures are rigorously tested for years. Before medical companies are allowed to sell a medicine and doctors are allowed to use it, it must be repeatedly and extensively tested on animals and people. They have to know whether the medicine will cause bad effects and whether it will interact with other medicines in a negative way. They have to determine the proper dosage. Modern medicines are subjected to hundreds of tests before they are approved for use by the public.

Consider what was required to gain approval of RotaTeq, a rotavirus vaccine that has saved the lives of multiplied thousands of children. First, the product had to be tested in animals. Then it was tested in ever-larger studies on humans. Finally, it was tested in a massive study called Phase III. The following account is given by Paul Offit, co-inventor of the vaccine.

"The Phase III trial for one rotavirus vaccine, Rotateq, included more than 70,000 children from eleven countries, tested for four years at a cost of about $350 million. If stacked one on top of another, patients' records from the trial would have exceeded the height of the Sears Tower in Chicago. The FDA allowed the manufacturer of RotaTeq to make claims about safety and effectiveness only after those claims had been supported by rigorous scientific studies; otherwise, it wouldn't have licensed the product" (Offit, Do You Believe in Magic? p. 95).

Pop diet programs and dietary supplements are not subject to this type of testing, yet the practitioners would have their patients trust them rather than vigorously tested products and procedures.

I thank the Lord for modern medicine. I am thankful for bifocals and hearing aids and artificial hips and heart surgery.

I am thankful that I have lived to 65 years of age and that I have not died from infection and many other things that could have sent me to an early grave in former times. I am thankful for the antibiotics and supplementary oxygen and intravenous feeding and other modern procedures that helped me survive pancreatitis.

At the same time, I am not going to blindly follow the counsel of medical doctors, and my trust is in God, not human medicine.

When I walked out of the hospital after many days in intensive care for pancreatitis, I was very thankful for modern medicine, but I was much more thankful to the God who heals all diseases (Psa. 103:3), the One who designed the miraculous human body with its amazing healing mechanisms, the One who graciously answers the prayers of His saints. In my distress I called on the Lord and had the elders pray over me according to James 5. I heard from more than 1,000 people who were praying for me, and I know that my healing ultimately was an answer to prayer. God uses means, but let us not be so foolish as to worship the means.

I am well aware of facts such as the following:

"A study done at a Boston hospital revealed that 36% of hospital admissions were the result of physicians' blunders! Even if your physician is competent, the hospital has a 67% chance of misdiagnosis according to JAMA. The Harvard School of Public Health reported on ABC that about 1.3 million people per year are injured because of hospital treatment with about 180,000 dying as a result!" (Don Boys, "Childhood Vaccinations: the Real Story," Feb. 9, 2015).

And this is in America which has a high standard of medical practice. The situation is far worse in many other places.

In fact, I realize that "traditional" doctors are not above running their own scams. I think of a large outpatient hospital in the United States that specializes in gall bladder removal. The doctors associated with this hospital "just so happen" to advise the removal of the gall bladder for many of their patients. In one church in the area, I was amazed to discover what a large number of the members have gone through this treatment. One would think that there is an absolute epidemic of gall bladder problems in that region. Patients are run through the system like cogs on a conveyer belt. It is a gall bladder removal factory that would make Henry Ford proud. The operation is properly accredited and technologically brilliant, but it has the appearance of a scam.

I am not going to put blind trust in any field of science. It is too infallible and too changeable.

At the same time, I am not going to ignore standard medical practice and pursue a program that is based on a heretical reading of Scripture or bogus science and unsubstantiated testimonials.

I want to have a godly skepticism toward anything pertaining to man and test everything by my final authority, God's Word.

### A quack diet plan promotes "all natural" as opposed to "synthetic."

Many quacks exalt "natural" over "synthetic" and "inorganic," warning about the "toxicity" of the latter. They would have us believe that the food chain is toxic because man has tampered with it, from the use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers to modern processing and preservative techniques.

Consider the following statement, which is typical:

"... our food is getting less and less nutritious. Fields are depleted by overuse. Pesticides limit the action of beneficial microbes in the soil that help plants draw in nutrients. Fertilizers focus on certain key chemicals and don't take into account all the trace minerals, organic components, or beneficial microbes that go into good nutrition. And genetically modified foods have made their way into our food supply when we don't know how they may affect us in the long term. On top of these problems, we refine and process our food so it lasts longer, is more convenient, tastes better, and is even made to be more addictive. We strip out and destroy vital nutrients as we process them. Much of the food we find in grocery stores outside the produce section barely resembles what humanity has been eating for thousands of years. There's no wonder we have so many auto-immune disorders, food allergies, and growing epidemics of obesity."

That is a dire picture!

But there are many important truths that are typically ignored in this discussion, that are necessary to gain a well-rounded understanding of the situation.

First, the world itself is toxic because of man's fall.

"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field" (Genesis 3:17-18).

As we have considered in the chapter "The Bible and Diet," man no longer lives in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were booted out of the Garden into a fallen world tainted with thorns, pests, poisons, and disease. The most powerful toxins can be labeled "all natural"!

"The vitamin and supplement industry ... successfully created a false dichotomy. On one side are natural products: vitamins, minerals, dietary supplements, plants, and herbs. Because they're natural, they're safe. On the other side are drugs. Because drugs are man-made, they're supposedly more dangerous. However, many drugs are derived from nature, including antibiotics. Furthermore, the notion that natural products aren't dangerous is fanciful. ... Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst in Trick or Treatment [write] 'just because something is unnatural does not mean that it is bad. Arsenic, cobra poison, nuclear radiation, earthquakes, and the ebola virus can all be found in nature, whereas vaccines, spectacles, and artificial hips are all man-made'" (Offit, Do You Believe in Magic? p. 90).

Second, God has given man permission to "tamper" with nature and the wisdom to do so.

Man was instructed to exercise dominion over the earth.

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28).

Man's God-given dominion gives him the authority to use the earth's resources, to explore, to invent, to improve. Adam's earliest offspring practiced farming and animal husbandry, musicology, and metal working (Gen. 4:20-24). All of these things require interfering with and improving upon "nature." Metal working, for example, requires digging big holes in the earth and working with toxic substances for refining and smelting, creating alloys, etc. It is God's express will that man do this type of thing in all fields, including medicine. He can investigate his own physical makeup and invent medical techniques for healing and use the earth's vast resources for this endeavor.

Obviously not everything man has done has been right or healthy, because he is a fallen sinner, but the principle of creating "synthetics" is not unscriptural or inherently wrong.

Third, quacks usually do not acknowledge that men live longer today than before modern technology intervened (such as in the 18th century).

While they decry the healthiness of the modern Western food chain and play up the danger of synthetics and toxins, they ignore the fact that the modern food and modern medicine have improved man's quality of life in dramatic ways.

Fourth, quacks typically ignore the fact that sickness and death are the results of the fall and have been with us since Adam and Eve sinned against God.

They decry the "sickness" of modern society and blame the toxicity of the food supply, but there has not been a perfectly healthy generation since Adam. Look at the ancient Babylonians or the Persians or the Greeks or the Romans or the Ottomans or the Chinese. Look at Europe in the 16th century. Where is that generation that was not plagued with sickness, disease, and death? The sicknesses and diseases might be different from generation to generation and place to place, and some civilizations have been more healthy than others, but no diet in history has solved this problem.

If someone wants to see a very real problem with "toxins" and sickness and disease, let him leave the West and live for a while in a third world Asian or African country like Nepal where things are far more "natural" because of lack of effective government regulation and lack of modern technology. The rivers are cesspools. The air and the water supply are dangerously polluted. The food is contaminated and dangerous to eat if not properly cleaned and cooked.

We are not saying that there is no problem with modern food processing and preservation techniques and that we should blindly trust the "system." What we are saying is that there is more to this story than is often told, and we need to consider the big picture and have a sense of historical context.

By the way, quacks tend to promote "all natural," but mega doses of vitamins and supplements are anything but natural! For example, one would have to eat 30 cantaloupes a day to get the 3,000 milligrams of vitamin C that Linus Paulus recommended for his health and longevity program.

### A quack diet promises weight loss with little or no effort or exercise.

It has been said, "If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is." I have oftentimes found this maxim to be helpful, whether it pertains to a "get rich quick" scheme or a weight loss program.

Typically, weight loss requires a balance of burning more calories than one takes in through food, and calories are consumed through physical activity. Weight loss is basically a matter of proper diet and proper exercise, and as one's body ages, the individual is usually more susceptible to weight gain, and it is more difficult to keep the excess weight off. There is no easy path. There is no "secret" that will bypass this biological process. There is no pill or supplement (e.g., Raspberry Ketones) or cream or device that will magically take off the pounds.

"Unless a person develops and maintains a better diet and physical activity habit, any weight lost (often water or muscle rather than fat) will soon return" ("Weight Loss Scams," ScamWatch.gov.au).

### Quack diets can promote dangerous practices.

Not only can quack diets be of dubious benefit and cost money that need not be spent, but some of them promote dangerous practices.

Jim Humble's Master Miracle Solution (MMS) is toxic. When mixed with citrus juice, MMS forms chlorine dioxide, a strong bleach. Users of MMS are even told to expect to become ill through ingesting the solution and that this is evidence that it is working to "kill all pathogens, parasites, diseases, and even heavy metals" ("Jim Humble's MMS Fraud," The Health Wyze Report, n.d.). An FDA warning says that MMS "when used as directed, produces an industrial bleach that can cause serious harm to health. ... High oral doses of this bleach, such as those recommended in the labeling, can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration."

The Hallelujah Diet can produce vitamin deficiencies.

"[T]he diet can typically cause low levels of iron, protein, selenium, biotin, niacin, pantothenic acid, and zinc. The lack of these nutrients and the low caloric intake can result in low energy levels over an extended period of time, and while exercise is encouraged, followers of this diet may find that their propensity toward exercise is limited due to these low energy levels. Probably one of the biggest Hallelujah Diet dangers is the low protein levels. Low protein can result in many health problems, including the following: Low energy levels, bleeding gums, muscle cramps, edema, reduced thyroid function, loss of muscle, reduced insulin secretion, recurring infections, gross weight loss, thinning hair" (Susie McGee, "Dangers of the Hallelujah Diet," lovetoknow.com).

Many diets recommend large amounts of carrot juice, but this can result in vitamin A toxicity. When ingested, the beta carotene in the carrots converts to vitamin A, and just three 1/2 cup servings can exceed the danger level of this vitamin ("What Are the Dangers of Juicing Carrots?" Livestrong.com, Aug. 25, 2014).

Mega doses of vitamin A cause blurred vision, bone pain, and dizziness.

We have seen that extensive studies have shown that vitamin E and other antioxidant supplements, particularly in mega doses, increase the risk of cancer and heart disease.

In the 1980s, L-tryptophan, an amino acid sold in health food stores, "caused a neurological condition that affected more than five thousand people and killed twenty-eight" (Paul Offit, M.D., Do You Believe in Magic? p. 84).

Ephedra, an extract from the plant Ephedra sinica, was billed as a weight-loss product and energy booster in the 1990s and sold in mega doses for this purpose, often in combination with large quantities of caffeine. It was banned as a dietary supplement by the FDA in 2004 because negative side effects. "It caused psychosis, hallucinations, paranoia, depression, irregular heartbeats, and strokes in hundreds of people." One man jumped out of a second-story window to escape imaginary attackers, and major-league pitcher Steve Bechler died after taking the supplement (Offit, p. 141). The FDA collected more than 800 reports of serious toxicity, including 22 deaths. Ephedra remains in use in moderate quantities for purposes other than dietary. Pseudoephedrine, a synthetic ephedrine compound, is widely used as cold remidies.

Dr. Offit warns:

"The possibility of harm caused by natural products sold in health food stores isn't theoretical. Blue cohosh can cause heart failure; nutmeg can cause hallucinations; comfrey, kava, chaparral, Crotalaria, Senecio, jin bu huan, Usnea lichen, and valerian can cause hepatitis; monkshood and plantain can cause heart arrhythmias; wormwood can cause seizures; stevia leaves can decrease fertility; concentrated green tea extracts can damage the liver; milkweed seed oil and bitter orange (Citrus aurantium) can cause heart damage; thujone can cause neurological damage; and concentrated garlic can cause bleeding.

"Indeed, one of the worst dietary supplement disasters in history occurred in 1992, when about a hundred people developed kidney failure from a 'slimming' mixture found to contain the plant aristolochia; at least seventy patients required kidney transplants or dialysis, and many later developed bladder cancers.

"In 2008, more than two hundred people--including a four-year-old--were poisoned by massive doses of selenium contained in Total Body Formula and Total Body Mega. ...

"Herbal remedies can also cause harm: two infants died from a tea containing pennyroyal and another from a decongestant containing capsaicin. ...

"These problems aren't rare. Between 1983 and 2004, poison-control centers in the United States received 1.3 million reports of adverse reactions to vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements, of which 175,268 required treatment in hospitals and 139 resulted in death. In 2012, the FDA estimated that approximately 50,000 adverse reactions to supplements occurred every year" (Paul Offit, Do You Believe in Magic? pp. 90, 91).

Further, by heeding the advice of quack dietitians to avoid "traditional" medical treatments, many people have died early and have had their quality of life unnecessarily reduced.

In 1980, 10-year-old Joey Hofbauer died of Hodgkin's disease after he was treated with laetrile (made from apricot pits), high doses of vitamins and supplements, and "alternative" remedies such as as coffee enemas, instead of standard medical treatment for cancer. A specialist who testified at Joey's trial called it "a witch doctor's diet."

Following are two other examples:

"I know of one case in which a 68-year-old man with cancer in his throat and behind his nose canceled scheduled treatment with radiation after seeing one of Day's videotapes. At that time, the doctors thought this treatment had 70% chance of curing him. Without treatment, however, the cancer gradually spread to the surrounding tissues. Over a two-year period, the cancer became extremely painful and ate a hole through the roof of his mouth that makes it difficult for him to eat without the food going out his nose. Radiation and chemotherapy made the cancer disappear from his nose and throat, but it has recurred at the base of his brain. Chemotherapy may still prolong his survival, but his trust in Day's story reduced the quality of his life and appears to have shortened it by several years.

"Another case I know about involves a 39-year-old woman who suddenly discovered that she had a malignant melanoma that had metastasized to her brain. The doctors thought that without treatment she might live for a few months and that with chemotherapy, she might live for up to a year. Some people in this situation decide that they want to live as long as possible, whereas others decide that it would not be worth suffering with chemotherapy for such a short extension. After listening to Day's tapes, this woman became terrified about chemotherapy and decided that Day's methods would cure her. She lived for about two more months, during which she stopped eating nearly everything she enjoyed and ate mostly raw vegetables and fruits. Before she got sick, eating had been one of her favorite activities. But during her final weeks, she felt miserable because she craved her usual foods, but she would not eat them and wound up "basically starving herself" and losing 40 pounds. I advise people who are terminally ill to spend their remaining time as pleasantly and productively as possible. The patient's older sister, who shared this story with me, believes that Day's advice greatly reduced the patient's quality of life" (Stephen Barrett, M.D., "Stay away from Dr. Lorraine Day," Quackwatch.org, March 16, 2013).
A Demonic Diet

It is not wrong to want to live in a healthy manner, and we know that there are "natural" or alternative remedies that are effective and legitimate for certain problems. But when a practice enters into the realm of the occult, it is forbidden by God's Word.

Occultic practices have infiltrated the Western dieting and health care fields through "alternative health" practices.

A friend observed, "If you go into any health food store it is like going into a New Age chapel."

A study done by David Eisenberg of Beth Israel Hospital in 1990 found that Americans were spending $14 billion a year on alternative health care, including New Age practices such as meditation, touch therapy (including Reiki), positive confession, guided imagery, polarity therapy, aromatherapy, sound therapy, gemstone healing, magnetic therapy, spiritual healing, biofeedback, reflexology, iridology, urotherapy, homeopathy, emotional freedom techniques (EFT), hypnosis, and acupuncture.

That figure has grown dramatically since then. Now it is $34 billion a year (Paul Offit, M.D., Do You Believe in Magic? p. 1).

According to a report in the U.S. News & World Report for January 21, 2008, alternative medicine has gone "mainstream."

While in 1992, only 2% of U.S. medical schools offered courses in alternative medicines, by 2004 that figure had risen to 67% ("More Medical Schools Teaching Spirituality in Medicine," Lighthouse Trails, March 4, 2008).

The famous Mayo Clinic has a section on its web site on "complementary and alternative medicine," dealing with touch therapy, yoga, tai chi, acupuncture, cupping, biofeedback, and hypnosis.

Randall Baer, a former New Age medical practitioner, warns:

"The area of holistic health is one of the most subtle and sophisticated areas of the murky merging of the esoteric and the mundane, the metaphysical with the mainstream, the pseudo-scientific with the scientific, the non-New Age with the New Age" (Inside the New Age Nightmare, 1989, p. 22).

Consider some examples of techniques and practices that contain very dangerous spiritual elements that can usually be traced to idolatrous eastern religions.

## Life Force Energy

An example of an occultic philosophy that has infiltrated the medical field is the idea that there is a metaphysical life force energy that permeates everything and that flows through and/or around the body and affects the health. This is foundational to the eastern approach, which aims to manipulate the flow or balance of life energy to restore and maintain health. Hindus call it prana; Chinese call it chi or qi (pronounced chee); Japanese call it ki. Terms with similar meaning are kia, huna, mana, innate, ordic, and orgone.

It is purely occultic, with no biblical or biological basis, and it lies at the heart of yoga, eastern massage, reiki, feng shui, tai chi, acupuncture, acupressure, polarity therapy, magnetic therapy, biofeedback, reflexology, iridology, Ayurveda, homeopathy, and the martial arts.

Consider what the Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience says about the field of "bodywork" (e.g., acupuncture, chiropractic, polarity therapy, reflexology, reiki, rolfing, therapeutic touch, touch for health).

"Bodywork therapies assume the existence of a universal life force that affects health, which can be stimulated by the therapy. ... Bodywork therapy involves a high level of intuitive awareness on the part of the therapist; PSYCHIC ABILITIES SOMETIMES DEVELOP over the course of time. Patients sometimes report experiences such as past-life recall and clairvoyance."

The wise Bible believer does not need any further warning. If these practices sometimes result in "psychic abilities," past-life recall" (reincarnation), and "clairvoyance," they are obviously demonic and should be avoided like the plague.

The Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs offers the following warning:

"We believe that any system which claims to regulate or manipulate 'invisible energies' is, at least potentially, an introduction to occult energies and should be avoided."

## Humors

Another example of an occultic practice that has invaded the field of medicine is the idea of humors. It is based on the ancient Greek cosmology that there are four elements--fire, air, water, and earth--and these have four corresponding humors in the body: choler (yellow bile), blood, phlegm, and melancholy (black bile). An imbalance of the humors supposedly results in sickness, and humor practitioners prescribe remedies to control and balance the humors, but it is pure hocus pocus!

## Visualization

Visualization is a foundational New Age technique that is used widely in holistic health care. For example, the Taoist Water Method uses visualization to "dissolve energy blockages." It is described as follows:

"Lift your hands above your head ... begin slowly moving your hands down your body. As you sense or feel a blockage, stiffness, or pain, visualize it as hard and cold ice. Allow it to turn from stiff ice to fluid water as the cleansing line touches it. Then allow the water to vaporize and lift out of your body and out of your outer energy. With your exhale, send it far away from your being. ... Continue down your body, doing this wherever you feel blockage or pain" (John Talbot, Come to the Quiet, p. 221).

This is occultic, and any benefit derived from it is either psychological or demonic. Visualization is the doctrine of the power of mind over matter, and it is not supported by Scripture.

## Hypnosis

Another occult practice that has invaded the health care field is hypnosis. This is "an induced altered state of consciousness in which the subject becomes passive and is responsive to suggestion" (Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience).

The term hypnosis is from hypnos, the Greek god of sleep, and was coined by James Braid, a 19th-century British mesmerist.

Hypnosis is used widely in medicine and psychology. Donald Connery, in Exploring Hypnosis, says, "There is greater interest in and employment of medical hypnosis than ever before in history." The American Medical Association approved the use of hypnosis in 1958. Courses on hypnosis are taught in many medical schools and an estimated 20,000 medical and psychological specialists use it ("Hypnosis," Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs).

Hypnosis is used in pain relief, anesthesiology, drug and alcohol abuse treatment, weight control, birth control, sleep therapy, physical healing, psychological healing, self-improvement, human potential, regression therapy (healing the present through recovering memories of the past), and many other ways.

When used in the field of modern health care, the idea is that the practice of hypnotism itself is innocent and can be divorced from its occultic associations, but this is impossible. Hypnotism arose from the field of occultism and remains intimately associated with it. The Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology says: "Hypnotism is no longer classed with the occult sciences. ... Nevertheless its history is inextricably interwoven with occultism, and even today much hypnotic phenomena is classed as 'spiritualistic.'"

The Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs observes: "Historically, hypnotism is typically associated with the occultist or psychic, the one who exercises power over things or persons, such as the shaman, magician, witch doctor, medium, witch, guru, or yogi."

In the 18th century, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) communicated with spirits while in a trance state induced by breath control. It was called somnambulance. In 1788, a Swedenborgian society in Stockholm reported to a sister society in France a number of cases in which somnambulists had transmitted messages from the spirit world (Slater Brown, The Heyday of Spiritualism).

Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), an astrologer and occultist, proposed a healing technique through hypnosis and the flow of "animal magnetism" from the practitioner to the patient. He held the occultic view that there are thousands of channels in our bodies through which an invisible life force flows and that illness is caused by blockages. The practitioner of animal magnetism could allegedly cure sicknesses by overcoming the obstacles and restoring the "flow."

The term "to mesmerize" is based on Mesmer's hypnotic practices, and the field of modern hypnotism stemmed from his techniques.

Mesmerization or hypnosis produced two occultic movements in the 19th century.

One of these was New Thought or Mind Science. Phineas Quimby (1802-66), a student of Mesmer, called his "mind healing" theories the Science of Health and had a powerful influence on Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science.

The other occultic movement produced by hypnotism was spiritism. Another Mesmer student, Andrew Jackson Davis, published a book in 1847 which was dictated to him by spirits while he was in a mesmeric trance. The Encyclopedia of Psychic Science says, "The conquest by spiritualism soon began and the leading Mesmerists were absorbed into the rank of the spiritualists."

The spiritist revival in Brazil also began with hypnosis. French educator Leon-Denizarth-Hippolyte Rivail encountered spirits through the practice of hypnosis. His spirit guide instructed him to take the name Allan Kardec, and under this name he wrote the very influential The Book of the Spirits (1857).

John Ankerberg observes: "Mesmerism, then, paved the way for occult revival. And there is an ominous parallel today in the great upsurge of interest in hypnotism as both an occult method and a medical-diagnostic tool. ... Whatever their differences, one fact is admitted by all. The phenomenon of mesmerism is today known as hypnotism" (The Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs).

The danger of hypnotism is evident from the fact that it can produce a wide variety of occult phenomena, including past life experiences, multiple personalities, speaking in unknown languages, automatic writing, clairvoyance, telepathy, seizures, spirit possession, astral projection, and psychic diagnosis (Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs).

One famous example of multiple personalities that developed through hypnosis is Susan Houdelette. She was a normal woman who sought the help of a therapist to quit smoking, but when placed under hypnosis she developed 239 different personalities!

There is an entire field of repressed memory syndrome whereby supposed hidden memories are recovered through hypnosis and other techniques. What has often been recovered, though, are fantasies that become reality to the patients.

"... there are thousands of victims today who, because of hypnotic regression, only think that they were subject to sexual or satanic abuse as children. This has resulted in great tragedies, including ruined families (where parents were the alleged abusers or Satanists) and patients who committed suicide. Because thousands of families have been torn apart by things like this, a national organization has been formed specifically to draw attention to the problem and to help victims of what is termed the 'false memory syndrome'" (Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs).

Many support hypnotic therapy because "it works," but just because something works does not mean that it is right. There are innate powers within man that can be manipulated and there are satanic powers. The magicians in Egypt were able to perform amazing feats and could even duplicate some of the divine miracles (Exodus 7:10-12, 19-22; 8:5-7).

Further, it must be understood that hypnotic healing often results in "symptom substitution," whereby victory in one area results in defeat in another.

One woman who lost her fear of spiders developed a strong addiction to alcohol. Another who found relief from the pain of gall-stones began to suffer from terrible outbursts of rage.

Dr. Kurt Koch, a Christian expert in occultic phenomena, warned: "I could quote many examples like this involving so-called harmless hypnotists. ... The unfortunate thing is that occult hypnosis is often used as a means of obtaining healing. The apparent success of the hypnosis, however, is accompanied without fail with all sorts of mental and emotional disturbances" (Demonology Past and Present, 1973, p. 128).

This is a very loud warning to those who have ears to hear.

Even though hypnotism has been "secularized" and brought into the fields of health care and education, it is still intimately associated with the occult.

It is one of the most prominent techniques in the New Ager's toolbox. It is used as the door to astral planes, as the key to uncovering UFO abductions, and as a wonder tool to help people develop psychic powers. Simeon Edmunds, author of The Book of Hypnosis, says the first step to the development of psychic power is to enter the deepest possible level of hypnosis. In Hypnotism and the Supernormal, Edmunds says that "many of the most famous spiritualistic mediums began their psychic careers as hypnotic subjects, and hypnosis has been used with marked success in the development of a number of others."

Hypnosis is used by channelers to prepare themselves for communication with spirits. For example, Esther Hicks, the channeler of an entity called Abraham, makes contact with her spirits through self-induced hypnotic trance. Various channeled spirits have actually recommended the practice of hypnosis.

Hypnosis is used to recover the events of alleged past lives. As a member of the Self-Realization Fellowship Society before I was converted to Jesus Christ, I was taught a method of hypnosis or guided imagery which was supposed to allow me to investigate my past lives. Some who have used this technique have actually seen places in their "imagination" that they have never visited only to discover these actual places later while traveling.

This is a fearful demonic deception, because the Bible says man lives once and then faces judgment (Heb. 9:27). There is no transmigration of the soul through various life experiences. Reincarnation is a lie of the devil, and those who experience past lives are experiencing a strong delusion.

Yet hypnosis persistently results in the delusion of past life recovery. One study of 6,000 hypnotized subjects found that 20% reported "earlier lives" (Deidre and Martin Bobgan, Hypnosis and the Christian, p. 23). And this is true even when it is used by therapists who don't believe in reincarnation. For example, psychologist Diana Denholm first used hypnosis to help people stop smoking and lose weight and other such things, but when some of her patients experienced "past lives" she became convinced of its reality. She now uses regression therapy regularly (Raymond Moody, Coming Back: A Psychiatrist Explores Past-Life Journeys, pp. 12-13).

Psychiatrist Brian Weiss, author of Many Lives, Many Masters, is another example. He became a staunch believer in reincarnation when one of his female patients, while under hypnosis, described past lives. He has helped more than 4,000 patients dredge up alleged past life experiences.

The fact that hypnosis is so intimately associated with the occult and communication with spirit realms forbidden in Scripture is a loud warning to those who have ears to hear.

"Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God" (Lev. 19:31).

"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee" (Deut. 18:10-12).

The wise Christian will stay far away from anything savoring of the occult! Playing with such things is like playing with a poisonous serpent.

The Bible repeatedly exhorts the believer to be sober.

"Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and BE SOBER" (1 Th. 5:6).

"That the aged men BE SOBER, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience" (Tit. 2:2).

"That they may teach the young women to BE SOBER, to love their husbands, to love their children" (Tit. 2:4).

"Young men likewise exhort to BE SOBER MINDED" (Tit. 2:6).

"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, BE SOBER, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 1:13).

"But the end of all things is at hand: BE YE THEREFORE SOBER, and watch unto prayer" (1 Pet. 4:7).

"BE SOBER, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet. 5:8).

To be sober means to be in control of one's mind, to be spiritually and mentally alert. It means to be vigilant, to be on guard against danger. It is the opposite of allowing oneself to be put into any kind of trance. Unless the believer remains sober and vigilant, he is in danger of being deceived.

Thus, even a "mild" level of hypnotism can be spiritually dangerous.

The Bible warns that demons transform themselves into angels of light (2 Cor. 11:13-15), and they are ready to deceive those who go beyond the bounds of biblical protection.

The fact that hypnosis is used today by some Christian psychologists and doctors, does not justify it. We live in an apostate age of illicit ecumenism, syncretism, and interfaith dialogue, an age in which multitudes of professing Christians have turned their ears from the truth and have turned to fables (2 Timothy 4:3-4). Instead of standing on the Bible alone as the sole authority for faith and practice (though they might give lip service to this principle), professing Christians are delving into forbidden realms and mixing truth with lies. The white of truth and the black of error have become the gray of end-time compromise.

## Meditation

Another New Age technique that has invaded the field of health care is meditation.

Meditation is the practice of relaxing and entering into a transcendental state of consciousness. It involves putting oneself into a hypnotic or an "altered" state of consciousness through repeating a mantra or focusing the mind on a single picture or mental image, etc.

Meditation is an integral part of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, and pagan spirit worship. I was taught meditation techniques as a member of the Self-Realization Fellowship Society before I was converted to Jesus Christ. They describe meditation as "the science of uniting the individual soul with the Cosmic Spirit."

Meditation is used everywhere in the New Age. Alice Bailey, founder of the Lucifer Trust, taught that meditation is one of the most important means of recognizing one's own divinity and tapping into the wisdom of the universe. She organized meditation groups to meet on the full moon "to create lines of spiritual force" to prepare for the coming of this christ (Robert Eelwood, Alternative Altars: Unconventional and Eastern Spirituality in America, p. 134).

New Age channelers use meditation to align themselves with their spirits. David Spangler, who channeled a spirit called "John," said:

"In order to accomplish it, I must enter into meditation and align with my own Higher Self, my inner spirit, for it is with that level that John can communicate most effectively" (Conversations with John, 1980, p. 1).

Meditation is the first step of the Silva Mind Control Method. The student is taught that after entering a meditative state (which is called "reaching your level") he can perform various occultic things such as out of body travel.

John Gray recommends meditation as one of his "nine steps for creating the miraculous."

John Canfield recommends meditation as the way to hear the voice of God.

Cheryl Richardson describes meditation as "spending time with yourself just turning your vision inward." She suggests that the practitioner relax and then do the following:

"Imagine that you are inhabiting yourself ... imagine someplace where you feel comforted ... Just relax into this place ... As you rest in this place, just ponder the question: Why am I here? ... You may see an image or hear a word. Just sit with this question: Why am I here? What are you called to do? What's calling you in your life. Simply notice anything that comes to mind, and enjoy this time with yourself."

Oprah Winfrey calls it "centering up for myself" and believes that it connects her to her spirit guides.

Shakti Gawain says:

"Almost any form of meditation will eventually take you to an experience of yourself as source, or your higher self. ... you may even experience a lot of energy flowing through you or a warm radiant glow in your body. These are signs that you are beginning to channel the energy of your higher self" (Creative Visualization, 2002, back cover).

New Agers believe that meditation even has the power to create a new world. The Harmonic Convergence and Global Peace Meditation Days are predicated upon this belief. Each Meditation Day features, among other things, a sustained period of meditation focusing on peace and harmony.

Since the 1980s the New Age practice of meditation has been infiltrating the field of health care. In 1987, USA Today reported:

"Once a practice that appealed mostly to mystics and occult followers, meditation now is reaching the USA's mainstream. ... The medical establishment now recognizes the value of meditation and other mind-over-body states in dealing with stress-related illness" (USA Today, Sunday supplement, July 24-26, 1987).

Ray Yungen observes that those who practice meditation for health can get more than they bargain for:

"As one meditation teacher explains, 'It is more than a stress reducer. It is the vehicle all religions use to impart the esoteric knowledge of their own mystical tradition.' Thus, many people have unwittingly become New Agers by simply seeking to improve their physical and mental health through meditation. ... [Joan] Borysenko, a medical doctor, revealed: 'I originally took up secular meditation for its medical benefits and in time discovered its deeper psychological and spiritual benefits'" (A Time of Departing, p. 99).

As we have seen, the Bible's exhortations for the believer to be "sober" (e.g., 1 Thessalonians 5:6; 1 Peter 5:8) forbid any practice whereby the individual ceases to be fully in control of his or her mind.

To be sober means to be spiritually and mentally alert. It means to be on guard against danger. It is the opposite of being in an altered state of consciousness.

## Dream Analysis

Another New Age technique that is spreading within the field of health care is dream analysis. The idea typically is that one's dreams are a form of revelation from the realm of the "unconscious" and that the individual can learn to interpret them and thus be guided by them.

Cross Country Education has provided training in dream analysis to more than one million health care professionals since 1995 (http://www.seminarinformation.com/qqbuen/).

The Discovery Channel's online Health Center features six steps to decoding dreams from Marcia Emery's book The Intuitive Healer: Accessing Your Inner Physician.

WebMD and EmaxHealth, general purpose medical health web sites, also include sections on dream interpretation.

The Aisling Dream Interpretation course claims that "dreams always advise us of the best course of action to improving health" and they "open your eyes to the presence of angels in your life."

It is true that God sometimes gave revelation by dreams in Bible times, but He also made the meaning clear in such cases. For example, the dream given to Nebuchadnezzar was interpreted by Daniel (Daniel 2). The Bible nowhere teaches us how to interpret dreams in general.

The current focus on dream interpretation came from Carl Jung. He believed that dreams "serve to guide the waking self to achieve wholeness," but he was a deceived man who communicated with demonic spirit guides all his life.

In fact, dream interpretation is pure guesswork. For example, at the Edgar Cayce web site we find the following dream and its analysis:

"I am from Scotland. I dreamt that I had a couple of worms attached to me. One was on my arm. They seemed to originate from tiny insects (maybe ants). Someone said I had to get rid of them as they would attach to my face and I felt a little anxious about that. My husband pulled them off and said not to worry, as they were easy to get rid of."

"Dear Dreamer, bugs or insects can often be symbolic of something bothering or 'bugging' the dreamer. The fact that they originated from tiny insects suggests that you may have allowed tiny worries to grow into bigger issues and problems. Your husband telling you not to worry could be literal in terms of his approach to something you are concerned about. I think the dream is related to your worrying about your new job and is simply showing you that it is not as big of a problem as you are making it into."

The "interpretation" is nothing but a wild guess. Those who seek wisdom through dream interpretation are in great danger of being deluded. We don't need dream revelation. We have the complete revelation of God in Scripture which is able to make us "perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

(For information about Ayurveda, Reiki, Homeopathy, Reflexology, Iridology, Acupuncture, Chiropractic, Macrobiotics, Naturopathy, Rolfing, Applied Kinesiology, Neuro-Emotional Techniques, Touch for Health, and Behavioral Kinesiology, see the free eBook New Age Health Care at www.wayoflife.org.)
Conclusion

Let's review the points we have made in this report.

Health is important in the Christian life. The body is the temple of God (1 Cor. 6:19-20), and it is wrong to impair one's health and perhaps even to send oneself to an early grave by lack of wisdom in diet or by harmful habits such as smoking and drinking.

But diet and exercise is not to be the Christian's priority (1 Tim. 4:8; Col. 3:1-4).

There is no such thing as a "Bible diet." Even if Adam was a vegetarian, that was changed after the Flood when God added meat to man's diet (Gen. 9:3-4). The law of Moses did not promote vegetarianism (Ex. 12:3-8; Lev. 6:25-26; De. 12:20). God's restriction of "unclean" animals was not for mankind in general but to Israel in particular, and it was not a matter of health but of holiness (Lev. 11:44-47) and separation (Lev. 20:25-26). Daniel did not maintain a vegetarian diet all his life (Dan. 10:2-3), and he did not fast for health. Jesus was not a vegetarian (Mk. 14:17-20; Jn. 21:9-13). New Testament believers have liberty in diet (Rom. 14:1-4; Col. 2:8, 16-23; 1 Tim. 4:1-5). In the New Testament era, laws pertaining to diet are characterized as "doctrines of demons" (1 Tim. 4:1-2).

God's people should exercise wisdom and not be deluded by the promises of quacks based on such things as bogus science, unsubstantiated "testimonials," and heretical interpretations of the Bible.

Any practice that is associated with the occult should be avoided (Lev. 19:31; Deut. 18:10-12). These concepts and practices include life force energy, humors, Meditation, hypnosis, visualization, reiki, eastern massage, biofeedback, reflexology, iridology, Ayurveda, acupuncture, homeopathy, and some aspects of chiropractic. (For information on these practices see New Age Health Care, which is available as a free eBook from www.wayoflife.org.)
Brilliant Quacks

Being deceived by quackery is not always an issue of intellect and education. It happens to the educated as well as the non-educated, to the credentialed as well as the non-credentialed, to the experienced as well as the unexperienced.

It is easy for a man to be deceived. This is a fallen world filled with spiritual darkness under the control of an angel of darkness who manifests himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).

And the Bible warns that the human heart is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).

The fallen human heart is not ultimately committed to truth. It believes what it wants to believe, and there are many motives for believing a lie, including financial gain, pride, prestige, conformity, and security or avoiding trouble.

Thirty-three times the New Testament warns about deception.

"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you" (Matthew 24:4).

"For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple" (Romans 16:18).

"That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive" (Ephesians 4:14).

"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:13).

"And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, WHICH DECEIVETH THE WHOLE WORLD: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him"(Revelation 12:9).

I learned the power of deception as a young man when I was deceived by the claims of reincarnation promoted by the Self-Realization Fellowship Society. I was deceived by testimonials and by a technique of hypnotism that seemed to provide objective evidence. I saw later that I had been motivated to believe in reincarnation by my rebellion against the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is possible to believe a lie and to believe it with all of one's heart.

Following are three brilliant men who were deceived into seeing what they wanted to see.

PERCIVAL LOWELL

Percival Lowell (1865-1916) was born into a wealthy, high-society Boston family, graduated from Harvard, was a brilliant mathematician and successful businessman, traveled widely in the Far East, learned several languages, and kept company with affluent, influential people.

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published when Lowell was a boy, and he accepted the doctrine of evolution wholeheartedly.

Later Lowell's imagination was stirred by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli's 1893 book Life on Mars and the report of supposed "channels" on the red planet. Seeing this as proof that life existed on other planets Lowell set out to bring this "evidence" home for the evolutionary cause. He used his wealth to construct an astronomical observatory with a 24-inch telescope in the American west near the Grand Canyon. It was completed in 1894, and from then until his death 22 years later he studied Mars and published reports and books.

Eventually he "saw" and named 700 canals on Mars and came to believe that Martians were building the canals in an attempt to save their planet. He even deduced many fascinating details about the lives of the Martians.

The one small problem with all of this is that there are no canals on Mars and there are no Martians. This has been proven by more powerful telescopes and by space exploration since the first successful flyby of the planet by NASA's Mariner 4 probe in 1965. Currently there are five orbiters circling Mars and two NASA exploration vehicles crawling on the surface. There are no canals or Martians.

How could an intelligent, well-educated man see canals and alien civilizations that do not exist? The answer is that he saw what he wanted to see.

It is the same phenomenon that allows any evolutionary atheist to see evidence for Darwinian evolution or for a quack to see evidence for a quack cure.

ANDREW IVY

Andrew Ivy (1893-1978) was one of the most prominent medical doctors in America in the first half of the twentieth century. His Ph.D. and M.D. were from the University of Chicago. He was the head of physiology and pharmacology at Northwestern University Medical School, vice president of the University of Illinois, and president of the American Physiological Society for three years.

The author of 2,000 scientific articles, he was once the most cited scientist in the world. His textbook on peptic ulcers remains a classic. He was famous for helping to prosecute Nazi doctors accused of torture and murder. He was said to have been "the most famous doctor in the country" (Jonathan Moreno, Undue Risk, p. 266).

Beginning in 1949, after meeting Stevan Durovic of Yugoslavia, Ivy began promoting a new cancer treatment called krebiozen. Durovic claimed that it was made with a serum collected from horses injected with a bacterium called Actinomyces bovis (Paul Offit, Do You Believe in Magic? The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine, p. 168). He claimed to have successfully tested it on dogs and cats with cancer.

Ivy was convinced that the cure was real, because he had studied dogs with cancer and believed that they produced a natural anti-cancer substance, though he couldn't find it. Now he was convinced that Durovic had found the missing substance.

Though Durovic refused to reveal to Dr. Ivy how he made the extract, claiming that it was a commercial secret, Ivy soon began trials on humans. In March 1951, he announced at a press conference that he had treated 22 patients with krebiozen and had found "dramatical clinical improvement." He failed to say that 10 of the patients had died of cancer!

Ivy trusted Durovic's supposed test results, but he was lying. For example, Durovic claimed in 1959 and again in 1961 that a Mr. Taietti was "well and active," yet Taietti had died of bladder cancer in 1955.

More than 4,200 cancer patients were treated with krebiozen, but studies began to find that the treatment was worthless.

A study by the FDA of the Krebiozen Foundation's records of 1,526 patients found only three that might have shown slight benefit from the treatment, and these were questionable.

When the National Cancer Institute and FDA analyzed the content of krebiozen, it turned out to be nothing more than mineral oil. A powder supplied by the Krebiozen Foundation was composed of creatine monohydrate, "a normal constituent of muscle and a common laboratory compound purchasable for $.30 a gram, approximately $10 for a 1-ounce bottle."

By trusting krebiozen treatments instead of traditional care, patients died of treatable cancer. For example, Orme Moritz refused surgery for breast cancer and accepted treatment with krebiozen for a year. By the time she had an operation, it was too late. The cancer had spread, and she soon died (James Holland, M.D., "The Krebiozen Story").

In 1964, Durovic moved to Switzerland and lived off of the money he had stashed away in a Swiss bank account.

Until his death in 1978, Andrew Ivy remained convinced that Krebiozen was a cure for cancer.

LINUS PAULING

Linus Pauling (1901-1994) taught at the California Institute of Technology for more than 40 years and was the first person to be the recipient of two unshared Nobel prizes. He also won the National Medal of Science, the Medal for Merit, awarded by the U.S. president, and received honorary degrees from Cambridge, the University of London, and the University of Paris. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine and was "hailed as one of the greatest scientists who had ever lived."

At age 30, Pauling won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research into chemical bonds. That year he received the Langmuir Prize for the most outstanding young chemist in the United States and became the youngest person elected to the National Academy of Sciences. "Paul's idea revolutionized the field, marrying quantum physics with chemistry" (Paul Offit, Do You Believe in Magic? p. 49). When asked to comment on Pauling's findings, Albert Einstein shrugged his shoulders and said it was too complicated for him.

In 1949, Pauling discovered that the hemoglobin in sickle cell anemia has a slightly different electrical charge that affects how it reacts with oxygen. This marked the birth of molecular biology.

In 1951, Pauling demonstrated that proteins in the cell are folded.

In 1962, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in pushing the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

But at age 65, Pauling became the proponent of taking mega doses of vitamin C for health and longevity.

He was influenced by Irwin Stone, a man who called himself a doctor but was credentialed only through a non-accredited correspondence school. Stone recommended that Pauling take 3,000 milligrams of vitamin C a day for longevity.

Pauling testified that he felt much better and didn't suffer colds, so he increased his daily intake of vitamin C to 18,000 milligrams.

In his 1970 book Vitamin C and the Common Cold, Pauling recommended 3,000 milligrams daily and claimed that the cold would be eradicated. He saw vitamin C usage as "a step toward a better world." The sale of vitamin C exploded. "By the mid-1970s, 50 million Americans were following Pauling's advice" (Paul Offit, Do You Believe in Magic? p. 52).

But multiple medical studies have failed to find any correlation between vitamin C and the cure of the common cold.

"Researchers at the University of Maryland gave 3,000 milligrams of vitamin C every day for three weeks to eleven volunteers and a sugar pill (placebo) to the others. Then they infected volunteers with a common cold virus. All developed cold symptoms of similar duration. At the University of Toronto, researchers administered vitamin C or placebo to 3,500 volunteers. Again, vitamin C didn't prevent colds... In 2002, researchers in the Netherlands administered multivitamins or placebo to more than 600 volunteers. Again, no difference. At least fifteen studies have now shown that vitamin C doesn't treat the common cold" (Paul Offit, Do You Believe in Magic? p. 53).

Not only did Dr. Pauling continue his campaign for vitamin C as a cold killer, he went on to claim that it can cure 75% of cancer cases. Cancer patients began to demand high doses of vitamin C.

Again, extensive medical tests found no benefit from vitamin C for cancer patients. Charles Moertel of the Mayo Clinic, who performed two different tests, said, "We were unable to show a therapeutic benefit of high-dose vitamin C."

Not only did Pauling not accept the results of the tests, he consulted lawyers about suing Moertel.

Next, Pauling claimed that mega doses of vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin E, plus selenium and beta-carotene, could treat most diseases, including heart disease, hepatitis, polio, tuberculosis, chickenpox, meningitis, arthritis, diabetes, strokes, tetanus, typhoid, leprosy, rabies, and AIDS.

This is contrary to the finding of dozens of tests.

In fact, multiple, extensive studies have shown that those taking vitamins and supplements, particularly in mega doses, were "more likely to die from lung cancer or heart disease than those who didn't take them" (Paul Offit, M.D., Do You Believe in Magic? p. 59). This was the conclusion of a 1994 study of 29,000 Finnish men, a 1996 study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center of 18,000 people, a 2004 study by the University of Copenhagen of 170,000 people, a 2005 study by Johns Hopkins School of Medicine of 136,000 people, a 2007 study by the National Cancer Institute of 11,000 men, a 2011 study by the University of Minnesota of 39,000 older women, and a 2011 study by the Cleveland Clinic of 36,000 men. In the latter study, those who took vitamin E had a 17 percent greater risk of prostate cancer.

A 2005 study examined 9,000 people who took high-dose vitamin E to prevent cancer. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that those who took the supplement were "more likely to develop heart failure than those who didn't."

The aforementioned University of Copenhagen study concluded, "We could not find evidence that antioxidant supplements can prevent gastrointestinal cancers; on the contrary, they seem to increase overall mortality."

The University of Minnesota study found that those who took multivitamins and supplements "died at rates higher than those who didn't."

A 2008 review of all existing studies involving more than 230,000 people "found that vitamins increased the risk of cancer and heart disease" (Offit, p. 59).
About Way of Life's eBooks

Since January 2011, Way of Life Literature books have been available in eBook format. Some are available for purchase, while others are available for free download.

The eBooks are designed and formatted to work well on a variety of applications/devices, but not all apps/devices are equal. Some allow the user to control appearance and layout of the book while some don't even show italics! For best reading pleasure, please choose your reading app carefully.

For some suggestions, see the reports "iPads, Kindles, eReaders, and Way of Life Materials," at www.wayoflife.org/database/ebook.html and "About eBooks, eReaders, and Reading Apps" at www.wayoflife.org/help/ebooks.php.
Powerful Publications for These Times

Following is a selection of the titles published by Way of Life Literature. The books are available in both print and eBook editions (PDF, Kindle, ePub). The materials can be ordered via the online catalog at the Way of Life web site \-- www.wayoflife.org \-- or by phone 866-295-4143.

BIBLE TIMES AND ANCIENT KINGDOMS: TREASURES FROM ARCHAEOLOGY. ISBN 978-1-58318-121-8. This is a package consisting of a book and a series of PowerPoint and Keynote (Apple) presentations which are a graphical edition of the book. The PowerPoints are packed with high quality color photos, drawings, historic recreations, and video clips. Bible Times and Ancient Kingdoms is a course on Bible geography, Bible culture, and Bible history and has a two-fold objective: to present apologetic evidence for the Bible and to give background material to help the student better understand the setting of Bible history. We cover this fascinating history from Genesis to the New Testament, dealing with the Table of the Nations in Genesis 10, the Tower of Babel, Ur of the Chaldees, Egypt, Baal worship, the Philistines, the Canaanites, David's palace, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Ahab and Jezebel, the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel, the Assyrian Empire, Hezekiah and his times, Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylon, the Medo-Persian Empire, Herod the Great and his temple, the Roman rule over Israel, and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. Many of the archaeological discoveries from the past 200 years, which we relate in the course, are so fascinating and improbable that they read like a novel. It is easy to see God's hand in this field, in spite of its prevailing skepticism. The course also deals with Bible culture, such as weights and measures, plant and animal life, Caesar's coin, the widow's mite, ancient scrolls and seals, phylacteries, cosmetics, tombs, and the operation of ancient lamps, millstones, pottery wheels, and olive presses. The course begins with an overview of Israel's geography and a timeline of Bible history to give the student a framework for better understanding the material. Each section includes maps to help the student place the events in their proper location. The course is packed with important but little-known facts that illuminate Bible history and culture. The preparation for the book is extensive, the culmination of 40 years of Bible study, teaching, and research trips. In this context the author built a large personal library and collected information from major archaeological museums and locations in North America, England, Europe, Turkey, and Israel. We guarantee that the student who completes the course will read the Bible with new eyes and fresh enthusiasm. 500 pages book + DVD containing 19 PowerPoint presentations packed with more than 3,200 high quality color photos, drawings, historic recreations, and video clips.

THE BIBLE VERSION QUESTION ANSWER DATABASE. ISBN 1-58318-088-5. This book provides diligently-researched, in-depth answers to more than 80 of the most important questions on this topic. A vast number of myths are exposed, such as the myth that Erasmus promised to add 1 John 5:7 to his Greek New Testament if even one manuscript could be produced, the myth that the differences between the Greek texts and versions are slight and insignificant, the myth that there are no doctrines affected by the changes in the modern versions, and the myth that the King James translators said that all versions are equally the Word of God. It also includes reviews of several of the popular modern versions, including the Living Bible, New Living Bible, Today's English Version, New International Version, New American Standard Version, The Message, and the Holman Christian Standard Bible. 423 pages.

THE FOREIGN SPIRIT OF CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP MUSIC. This hard-hitting multi-media video presentation, published in March 2012, documents the frightful spiritual compromise, heresy, and apostasy that permeate the field of contemporary worship music. By extensive documentation, it proves that contemporary worship music is impelled by "another spirit" (2 Cor. 11:4). It is the spirit of charismaticism, the spirit of the latter rain, the spirit of the one-world church, the spirit of the world, the spirit of homosexuality, and the spirit of the false god of The Shack. The presentation looks carefully at the origin of contemporary worship in the Jesus Movement of the 1970s, examining the lives and testimonies of some of the most influential people. Nearly 60 video clips and hundreds of photos are featured. It is available on DVD and as an eDownload from the Way of Life web site.

THE FUTURE ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE. ISBN 978-1-58318-172-0. One of the many reasons why the Bible is the most amazing and exciting book on earth is its prophecies. The Bible unfolds the future in great detail, and The Future According to the Bible deals in depth with every major prophetic event, including the Rapture, the Judgment Seat of Christ, the Tribulation, the Antichrist, Gog and Magog, the Battle of Armageddon, the Two Witnesses, Christ's Return, Muslim nations in prophecy, the Judgment of the Nations, the resurrection body, the conversion of Israel, the highway of the redeemed, Christ's glorious kingdom, the Millennial Temple, the Great White Throne judgment, and the New Jerusalem. The first two chapters deal at length with the amazing prophecies that are being fulfilled today and with the church-age apostasy. Knowledge of these prophecies is essential for a proper understanding of the times and a proper Christian worldview today. The 130-page section on Christ's kingdom describes the coming world kingdom in more detail than any book we are familiar with. Every major Messianic prophecy is examined. Prophecy is a powerful witness to the Bible's divine inspiration, and it is a great motivator for holy Christian living. In this book we show that the Lord's churches are outposts of the coming kingdom. The believer's position in Christ's earthly kingdom will be determined by his service in this present world (Revelation 2:26-27; 3:21). The book is based on forty years of intense Bible study plus firsthand research in Israel, Turkey, and Europe.

INDEPENDENT BAPTIST MUSIC WARS. ISBN 978-1-58318-179-9. This book is a warning about the transformational power of Contemporary Christian Music to transport Bible-believing Baptists into the sphere of the end-time one-world "church." The author is a musician, preacher, and writer who lived the rock & roll "hippy" lifestyle before conversion and has researched this issue for 40 years. We don't believe that good Christian music stopped being written when Fanny Crosby died or that rhythm is wrong or that drums and guitars are inherently evil. We believe, rather, that Contemporary Christian Music is a powerful bridge to a very dangerous spiritual and doctrinal world. The book begins by documenting the radical change in thinking that has occurred among independent Baptists. Whereas just a few years ago the overwhelming consensus was that CCM was wrong and dangerous, the consensus now has formed around the position that CCM can be used in moderation, that it is OK to "adapt" it to a more traditional sacred sound and presentation technique. The more "conservative" contemporary worship artists such as the Gettys are considered safe and their music is sung widely in churches and included in new hymnals published by independent Baptists. As usual, the driving force behind this change is the example set by prominent leaders, churches, and schools, which we identify in this volume. The heart of the book is the section giving eight reasons for rejecting Contemporary Christian Music (it is built on the lie that music is neutral, it is worldly, it is ecumenical, it is charismatic, it is experienced-oriented, it is permeated with false christs, it is infiltrated with homosexuality, and it weakens the Biblicist stance of a church) and the section answering 39 major arguments that are used in defense of CCM. We deal with the popular argument that since we have selectively used hymns by Protestants we should also be able to selectively use those by contemporary hymn writers. There are also chapters on the history of CCM and the author's experience of living the rock & roll lifestyle before conversion and how the Lord dealt with him about music in the early months of his Christian life. The book is accompanied by a DVD containing two video presentations: The Transformational Power of Contemporary Praise Music and The Foreign Spirit of Contemporary Worship Music. 285 pages.

KEEPING THE KIDS: HOW TO KEEP THE CHILDREN FROM FALLING PREY TO THE WORLD. ISBN 978-1-58318-115-7. This book aims to help parents and churches raise children to be disciples of Jesus Christ and to avoid the pitfalls of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The book is a collaborative effort. It contains testimonies from hundreds of individuals who provided feedback to our questionnaires on this subject, as well as powerful ideas gleaned from interviews with pastors, missionaries, and church people who have raised godly children. The book is packed with practical suggestions and deals with many issues: Conversion, the husband-wife relationship, the necessity of permeating the home with Christian love, mothers as keepers at home, the father's role as the spiritual head of the home, child discipline, separation from the pop culture, discipleship of youth, the grandparents' role, effectual prayer and fasting. Chapter titles include the following: "Conversion," "The Home: Consistent Christian Living and the Husband-Wife Relationship," "Child Discipline," "The Church," "Unplugging from the Pop Culture," "Discipleship," "The Grandparents," "Grace and the Power of Prayer." 531 pages.

MUSIC FOR GOOD OR EVIL. This video series, which is packed with photos, video and audio clips, has eight segments. I. Biblical Principles of Good Christian Music. II. Why We Reject Contemporary Christian Music. It is worldly, addictive, ecumenical, charismatic, shallow and man-centered, opposed to preaching, experience-oriented, and it weakens the strong biblicist stance of a church. III. The Sound of Contemporary Christian Music. In this section we give the believer simple tools that he can use to discern the difference between sensual and sacred music. We deal with syncopated dance styles, sensual vocal styles, relativistic styles, and overly soft styles that do not fit the message. IV. The Transformational Power of Contemporary Worship Music. We show why CCM is able to transform a "traditional" Bible-believing church into a New Evangelical contemporary one. Its transformational power resides in its enticing philosophy of "liberty" and in its sensual, addictive music. We use video and audio to illustrate the sound of contemporary worship. V. Southern Gospel. We deal with the history of Southern Gospel, its character, its influence, and the role of the Gaithers in its renaissance. This section is packed with audio, video, and photos. VI. Marks of Good Song Leading. There is a great need for proper training of song leaders today, and in this segment we deal with the following eight principles: Leadership, preparation, edification, spirituality, spiritual discernment, wisdom in song selection, diversity. One thing we emphasize is the need to sing worship songs that turn the people's focus directly to God. We give dozens of examples of worship songs that are found in standard hymnals used by Bible-believing churches, but typically these are not sung properly as "unto God." VII. Questions Answered on Contemporary Christian Music. We answer 15 of the most common questions on this subject, such as the following: Is rhythm wrong? Isn't this issue just a matter of different taste? Isn't the sincerity of the musicians the important thing? Isn't some CCM acceptable? Didn't Luther and the Wesleys use tavern music? What is the difference between using contemporary worship hymns and using old Protestant hymns? VIII. The Foreign Spirit of Contemporary Worship Music. This presentation documents the frightful spiritual compromise, heresy, and apostasy that permeate the field of contemporary praise. Through extensive documentation, it proves that contemporary worship music is controlled by "another spirit" (2 Cor. 11:4). It is the spirit of charismaticism, the spirit of the "latter rain," the spirit of Roman Catholicism and the one-world "church," the spirit of the world that is condemned by 1 John 2:16, the spirit of homosexuality, and the spirit of the false god of The Shack. The presentation looks carefully at the origin of contemporary worship in the Jesus Movement of the 1970s, examining the lives and testimonies of some of the most influential people. 5 DVDs.

ONE YEAR DISCIPLESHIP COURSE, ISBN 978-1-58318-117-1. This powerful course features 52 lessons in Christian living. It can be broken into sections and used as a new converts' course, an advanced discipleship course, a Sunday School series, a Home Schooling or Bible Institute course, or for preaching outlines. The lessons are thorough, meaty, and very practical. There is an extensive memory verse program built into the course, and each lesson features carefully designed review questions. Following are some of the lesson titles (some subjects feature multiple lessons): Repentance, Faith, The Gospel, Baptism, Eternal Security, Position and Practice, The Law and the New Testament Christian, Christian Growth and Victory, Prayer, The Armor of God, The Church, The Bible, The Bible's Proof, Daily Bible Study, Key Principles of Bible Interpretation, Foundational Bible Words, Knowing God's Will, Making Wise Decisions, Christ's Great Commission, Suffering in the Christian Life, The Judgment Seat of Christ, Separation - Moral, Separation - Doctrinal, Tests of Entertainment, Fasting, Miracles, A Testing Mindset, Tongues Speaking, The Rapture, How to Be Wise with Your Money, The Believer and Drinking, Abortion, Evolution, Dressing for the Lord. 8.5X11, coated cover, spiral-bound. 221 pages.

THE PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC MOVEMENTS: THE HISTORY AND THE ERROR. ISBN 1-58318-099-0. The 5th edition of this book, November 2014, is significantly enlarged and revised throughout. The Pentecostal-charismatic movement is one of the major building blocks of the end-time, one-world "church," and young people in particular need to be informed and forewarned. The author was led to Christ by a Pentecostal in 1973 and has researched the movement ever since. He has built a large library on the subject, interviewed influential Pentecostals and charismatics, and attended churches and conferences with media credentials in many parts of the world. The book deals with the history of Pentecostalism beginning at the turn of the 20th century, the Latter Rain Covenant, major Pentecostal healing evangelists, the Sharon Schools and the New Order of the Latter Rain, Manifest Sons of God, the charismatic movement, the Word-Faith movement, the Roman Catholic Charismatic Renewal, the Pentecostal prophets, the Third Wave, and recent Pentecostal and charismatic scandals. The book deals extensively with the theological errors of the Pentecostal-charismatic movements (exalting experience over Scripture, emphasis on the miraculous, the continuation of Messianic and apostolic miracles and sign gifts, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of fire, tongues speaking, physical healing guaranteed in the atonement, spirit slaying, spirit drunkenness, visions of Jesus, trips to heaven, women preachers, and ecumenism). The final section of the book answers the question: "Why are people deluded by Pentecostal-Charismatic error?" David and Tami Lee, former Pentecostals, after reviewing a section of the book said: "Very well done! We pray God will use it to open the eyes of many and to help keep many of His children out of such deception." A former charismatic said, "The book is excellent and I have no doubt whatever that the Lord is going to use it in a mighty way. Amen!!" 487 pages.

A PORTRAIT OF CHRIST: THE TABERNACLE, THE PRIESTHOOD, AND THE OFFERINGS. ISBN 978-1-58318-178-2. (new for 2014) This book is an extensive study on the Old Testament tabernacle and its priestly system, which has been called "God's masterpiece of typology." Whereas the record of the creation of the universe takes up two chapters of the Bible and the fall of man takes up one chapter, the tabernacle, with its priesthood and offerings, takes up 50 chapters. It is obvious that God has many important lessons for us in this portion of His Word. Speaking personally, nothing has helped me better understand the Triune God and the salvation that He has purchased for man, and I believe that I can guarantee that the reader will be taken to new heights in his understanding of these things. Everything about the tabernacle points to Jesus Christ: the design, the materials, the colors, the court walls and pillars, the door into the court, the sacrificial altar, the laver, the tabernacle tent itself with its boards and curtains and silver sockets, the tabernacle gate, and veil before the holy of holies, the candlestick, the table of shewbread, the incense altar, the ark of the covenant, the high priest, and the offerings. All is Christ. The tabernacle system offers brilliant, unforgettable lessons on Christ's person, offices and work: His eternal Sonship, His sinless manhood, His anointing, His atonement, His resurrection glory, His work as the life and sustainer and light of creation, His eternal high priesthood and intercession, and His kingdom. In addition to the studies on every aspect of the tabernacle, A Portrait of Christ features studies on the high priest, the Levitical priests, the five offerings of Leviticus, the day of atonement, the ransom money, the red heifer, the cherubims, strange fire, the golden calf, leprosy, the Nazarite vow, the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, and the transportation of the tabernacle through the wilderness. The tabernacle is very practical in its teaching, as it also depicts believer priests carrying Christ through this world (1 Pet. 2:5, 9). Like the Israelites in the wilderness, believers today are on a pilgrimage through a foreign land on the way to our eternal home (1 Pet. 2:11). Don Jasmin, editor of the Fundamentalist Digest says, "This new book on the Tabernacle constitutes the 21st-century classic treatise of this rich theme." 420 pages.

SEEING THE NON-EXISTENT: EVOLUTION'S MYTHS AND HOAXES. ISBN 1-58318-002-8. This book is designed both as a stand alone title as well as a companion to the apologetics course AN UNSHAKEABLE FAITH. The contents are as follows: Canals on Mars, Charles Darwin and His Granddaddy, Thomas Huxley: Darwin's Bulldog, Ernst Haeckel: Darwin's German Apostle, Icons of Evolution, Icons of Creation, The Ape-men, Predictions, Questions for Evolutionists, Darwinian Gods, Darwin's Social Influence. The ICONS OF EVOLUTION that we refute include mutations, the fossil record, homology, the peppered moth, Darwin's finches, the fruit fly, vestigial organs, the horse series, the embryo chart, the Miller experiment, Archaeopteryx, bacterial resistance, the big bang, and billions of years. The ICONS OF CREATION that we examine include the monarch butterfly, the trilobite, the living cell, the human eye, the human brain, the human hand, blood clotting, the bird's flight feathers, bird migration, bird song, harmony and symbiosis, sexual reproduction, living technology, the dragonfly, the bee, and the bat. The section on APE-MEN deals with Cro-Magnon, Neanderthal, Java Man, Piltdown Man, Nebraska Man, Peking Man, Lucy, Ardi, Ida, among others. The section on PREDICTIONS considers 29 predictions made by Biblical creationism, such as the universe will behave according to established laws, the universe will be logical, and there will be a vast unbridgeable gulf between man and the animal kingdom. DARWINIAN GODS takes a look at inventions that evolutionists have devised to avoid divine Creation, such as panspermia and aliens, self-organization, and the multiverse. 608 pages.

SOWING AND REAPING: A COURSE IN EVANGELISM. ISBN 978-1-58318-169-0. This course is unique in several ways. It is unique in its approach. While it is practical and down-to-earth, it does not present a formulaic approach to soul winning, recognizing that individuals have to be dealt with as individuals. The course does not include any sort of psychological manipulation techniques. It does not neglect repentance in soul winning, carefully explaining the biblical definition of repentance and the place of repentance in personal evangelism. It explains how to use the law of God to plow the soil of the human heart so that the gospel can find good ground. The course is unique in its objective. The objective of biblical soul winning is not to get people to "pray a sinner's prayer"; the objective is to see people soundly converted to Christ. This course trains the soul winner to pursue genuine conversions as opposed to mere "decisions." The course is also unique in its breadth. It covers a wide variety of situations, including how to deal with Hindus and with skeptics and how to use apologetics or evidences in evangelism. There is a memory course consisting of 111 select verses and links to a large number of resources that can be used in evangelism, many of them free. The course is suitable for teens and adults and for use in Sunday School, Youth Ministries, Preaching, and private study. OUTLINE: The Message of Evangelism, Repentance and Evangelism, God's Law and Evangelism, The Reason for Evangelism, The Authority for Evangelism, The Power for Evangelism, The Attitude in Evangelism, The Technique of Evangelism, Using Tracts in Evangelism, Dealing with Skeptics. 104 pages, 8x11, spiral bound.

THINGS HARD TO BE UNDERSTOOD: A HANDBOOK OF BIBLICAL DIFFICULTIES. ISBN 1-58318-002-8. This volume deals with a variety of biblical difficulties. Find the answer to the seeming contradictions in the Bible. Meet the challenge of false teachers who misuse biblical passages to prove their doctrine. Find out the meaning of difficult passages that are oftentimes overlooked in the Bible commentaries. Be confirmed in your confidence in the inerrancy and perfection of the Scriptures and be able to refute the skeptics. Learn the meaning of difficult expressions such as "the unpardonable sin." A major objective of this volume is to protect God's people from the false teachers that abound in these last days. For example, we examine verses misused by Seventh-day Adventists, Roman Catholics, Pentecostals, and others to support their heresies. We deal with things such as the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, cremation, head coverings, did Jesus die on Friday, God's repentance, healing in the atonement, losing one's salvation, sinless perfectionism, soul sleep, and the Trinity. Jerry Huffman, editor of Calvary Contender, testified: "You don't have to agree with everything to greatly benefit from this helpful book." In researching and writing this book, the author consulted roughly 500 volumes, old and new, that deal with biblical difficulties and the various other subjects addressed in Things Hard to Be Understood. This one volume, therefore, represents the essence of a sizable library. Sixth edition Feb. 2014, enlarged and completely revised, 441 pages.

AN UNSHAKEABLE FAITH: A CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS COURSE. ISBN 978-1-58318-119-5. The course is built upon nearly 40 years of serious Bible study and 30 years of apologetics writing. Research was done in the author's personal 6,000-volume library plus in major museums and other locations in America, England, Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East. The package consists of an apologetics course entitled AN UNSHAKEABLE FAITH (both print and eBook editions) plus an extensive series of Powerpoint/Keynote presentations. (Keynote is the Apple version of Powerpoint.) The 1,800 PowerPoint slides deal with archaeology, evolution/creation science, and the prophecies pertaining to Israel's history. The material in the 360-page course is extensive, and the teacher can decide whether to use all of it or to select only some portion of it for his particular class and situation. After each section there are review questions to help the students focus on the most important points. The course can be used for private study as well as for a classroom setting. Sections include The Bible's Nature, The Bible's Proof, The Dead Sea Scrolls, The Bible's Difficulties, Historical Evidence for Jesus, Evidence for Christ's Resurrection, Archaeological Treasures Confirming the Bible, A History of Evolution, Icons of Evolution, Icons of Creation, Noah's Ark and the Global Flood.

WAY OF LIFE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BIBLE & CHRISTIANITY. ISBN 1-58318-005-2. This hardcover Bible encyclopedia contains 640 pages (8.5x11) of information, over 6,000 entries, and over 7,000 cross-references. Twenty-five years of research went into this one-of-a-kind reference tool. It is a complete dictionary of biblical terminology and features many other areas of research not often covered in such volumes, including Bible Versions, Denominations, Cults, Christian Movements, Typology, the Church, Social issues and practical Christian living, Bible Prophecy, and Old English Terminology. It does not correct the Authorized Version of the Bible, nor does it undermine the fundamental Baptist's doctrines and practices as many study tools do. The 5th edition (October 2008) contains new entries, extensive additions to existing entries, and a complete rewriting of the major articles. Many preachers have told us that apart from Strong's Concordance, the Way of Life Bible Encyclopedia is their favorite study tool. A missionary told us that if he could save only one study book out of his library, it would be our Bible encyclopedia. An evangelist in South Dakota wrote: "If I were going to the mission field and could carry only three books, they would be the Strong's concordance, a hymnal, and the Way of Life Bible Encyclopedia." Missionary author Jack Moorman says: "The encyclopedia is excellent. The entries show a 'distilled spirituality.'" 5th edition, 640 pages. A computer edition of the encyclopedia is available as a standalone eBook for PDF, Kindle, and ePub. It is also available as a module for Swordseacher.

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