The Ultimate Medical Mistake
Chapter 6

The Ultimate
Price Of Error

While many are of the opinion that medicine is making great advances, it is sad indeed that these so-called advances have done little to alter the fact that the world’s people today are more seriously ill than ever before.

As Dr Alexis Carroll confirms:

“Although modern hygiene has made human existence far safer, longer, and more pleasant, diseases have not been mastered. They have simply changed in nature. The organism seems to have become more susceptible to degenerative diseases, but we must still die and we die in a much larger proportion from degenerative diseases. The years of life which we have gained by the suppression of diphtheria, smallpox, typhoid fever, and so forth, are paid for by the long sufferings and lingering deaths caused by chronic infections and especially by cancer, diabetes and heart disease.” (As quoted by Dr. Bernard Jensen, Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management; p.129)

In order to better appreciate why it is that mankind has become more susceptible to chronic and degenerative diseases, let us take a moment to consider the standard treatment of the common cold.

When we have a cold, we will usually sneeze, cough, and perspire, our nose will usually run, and we will usually develop a fever - and all of these “symptoms” are sure signs that nature is healing and cleansing the system.

The majority of people, however, are blissfully unaware of the “purpose of disease” and, as such, they will usually not hesitate to take medications that suppress these friendly healing and cleansing efforts of nature. Had they studied the insert that accompanied the medicine, they would have noticed that it was formulated for “symptomatic relief.” This means that even the manufacturers of the “remedy” are not claiming that their medicine can cure the cold, but only that it can suppress the symptoms of the cold.

Nevertheless, in blind faith the average person will confidently take the prescribed dosage, and sometimes they will even take a little more “for good measure.”

Now, because the medicine contains alcohol, they soon feel a little more cheery and relaxed and, because it also contains analgesics, they may feel a little more comfortable and, because the medicine suppresses their cough by drying up the mucous membranes in the nose and throat, they may even find themselves praising the wonders of modern-day science - thinking all the while that the drugs have improved their condition - but this could not be further from the truth.

By suppressing the symptoms associated with their cold, all that they have accomplished is to "lock" into the system the very impurities that Nature was attempting to remove from the system via the friendly agency of acute disease.

It was in this context that Ellen White gave the following warning:

“When drugs are introduced into the system, for a time they may seem to have a beneficial effect. A change may take place, but the disease is not cured. It will manifest itself in some other form. In nature’s effort to expel the drug from the system, intense suffering is sometimes caused the patient. And the disease, which the drug was given to cure, may disappear, but only to reappear in a new form, such as skin diseases, ulcers, painful diseased joints, and sometimes in a more dangerous and deadly form [chronic and/or degenerative disease]. The liver, heart, and brain, are frequently affected by drugs, and often all of these organs are burdened by disease, and the unfortunate subjects, if they live, are invalids for life, wearily dragging out a miserable existence.” (2SM451.3)

In the statement below, our attention is drawn to a similar scenario. Here again someone is ill, and here again nature is being denied the opportunity of completing her gracious healing and cleansing work. Instead of cooperating with nature, . . .

“A physician is sent for, who prescribes some drug which gives present relief but which does not cure the disease. It may change the form of disease, but THE REAL EVIL IS INCREASED TENFOLD. Nature was doing her best to rid the system of an accumulation of impurities, and could she have been left to herself, aided by the common blessings of heaven, such as pure air and pure water, a speedy and safe cure would have been affected.” (MM281.4)

As it was in days gone by, so it is today, nature’s acute cleansing efforts are seldom granted the benefit of “the common blessings of heaven” such as sunlight, fresh air, exercise, abstemiousness, rest, natural foods, water by mouth, hot and cold-water treatments, and the exclusion of sugar, hydrogenated fats, refined grains, and other junk foods from the diet, etcetera. See MH127.2. Instead, the patient is subjected to a never-ending round of toxic medications. Little or no thought is given to the lifestyle, dietary, and/or environmental factors that gave rise to the condition in the first place, little or no effort is made to help nature to cleanse the system, and no recommendations are forthcoming as to the future living habits of the patient.

“Those who are thus dealt with are constantly sick, and constantly dosing. And yet, if you listen to their conversation, you will often hear them praising the drugs they have been using, and recommending their use to others, because they have been benefited by their use . . . And yet many are so blinded they do not see that all the drugs they have taken have not cured them, but made them worse.” (4aSG137.1)

In the statement below, Dr Harry Benjamin highlights the very real dangers associated with this type of “shotgun medicine:”

“It is surely the greatest tragedy of modern times that men such as these, actuated by the best and highest motives, - motives for the alleviation of the sufferings of mankind - should, by virtue of the methods they employ, be directly instrumental in actually causing disease to be far more widespread and prevalent than it otherwise need be, simply because the whole of their practice is based upon and upholds a philosophy of disease which is so completely and irrevocably false, so completely "unaware" of the true facts of the matter.

“By the administration of drugs, vaccines, sera, anti-toxins, etc., and the extremely free use of surgery, the medical profession seeks to rid mankind of "disease," simply because it can never understand that "disease" is a natural attempt on the part of the body to protect and free itself from the harmful effect of poisons generated and accumulated in the system as a result of wrong living, dietetic and otherwise.

“These methods, instead of allowing the toxins and poisons in question to be readily ejected from the system - eliminated, that is - as Nature intends, and as the methods of Naturopathy allow, succeed only in forcing these same toxins and poisons farther back into the system, where - plus the drugs, vaccines, sera, etc., administered by the doctor - they collect around the deeper structures, or find lodging within the vital organs, to form the basis for far more serious troubles later on.” (Everybody’s Guide To Nature Cure, p.21)

The tragedy of it all is that for as long as orthodox medicine fights disease instead of cooperating with disease, and for as long as orthodox medicine focuses most of her energies on the suppression of the effects of disease, instead of on the prevention of disease and on the removal of the underlying causes of disease, for just so long orthodox medicine will continue, in all of her well-meaning sincerity, to transform our friendly acute diseases into life-threatening chronic and degenerative conditions.

Cured To Death

While we have to again acknowledge that there are many wonderful, sincere, self-sacrificing individuals involved in the medical/drug industry, there is more than enough evidence to convince us that disease-mongering is rife in the world of medicine. While it is also true that many lives have been saved by medicine, Ellen White warns repeatedly that . . .

“The drugging business has done more harm to our world and killed more than it has helped or cured.” (MM27.2)

Patrick Holford is considered by many to be one of the world authorities on natural health. He tells us that,  . . .

“Year after year the so-called safe, licensed medicines are killing more people than road accidents.” (Food is Better Medicine Than Drugs, p.335)

Even the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, has published reports stating that physician induced disease (iatrogenic disease) is now fully recognized as the third leading cause of death in the United States.[1]

But this is only the tip of the iceberg as there is an abundance of evidence suggesting that physician induced disease could well be the leading cause of death in the world - by far.

The first piece of evidence may be found by searching for the following three words at www.google.com - DOCTORS STRIKE MORTALITY. This search will present you with a number of credible and consistent reports that speak of a frightening anomaly. The following is just one of those reports:

“When doctors in Israel took industrial action and went on strike back in 2000, it highlighted a strange phenomenon – when doctors go on strike, the death rate plummets. In this particular instance, the death rate fell by nearly 40% over the strike period. But it’s by no means an isolated example.

“Back in 1973, Israeli doctors went on strike for four weeks and deaths fell by 50% in that month.

“The same happened in Los Angeles in 1976, which saw an 18% decline in deaths during industrial action by doctors. When the strike ended, and the medical machine started grinding back into action, the death rate returned to usual levels.

“The same thing happened in Bogota in 1972. Doctors withdrew all treatments apart from emergency care. And guess what? The mortality rate went down by 35%.”[2]

Based on these reports, we deduce that between 18% and 50% of all deaths could be somehow related to recent medical intervention. 

Then, if we were to factor into this consideration the staggering number of deaths that result from long-standing medical intervention - that being the kind of intervention that ultimately leads to chronic and degenerative disease - we would have to conclude that we could be looking at a man-made calamity of gargantuan proportions.

As such, there is very good reason to believe that the following inspired statement is as applicable today as ever it was in the past:

“I was shown,” Ellen White states “that more deaths have been caused by drug taking than from all other causes combined. If there were in the land one physician in the place of thousands, a vast amount of premature mortality would be prevented. Multitudes of physicians, and multitudes of drugs, have cursed the inhabitants of the earth, and have carried thousands and tens of thousands to untimely graves.” (4aSG133.1)

With an inspired standard to guide us, with clear logic to persuade us, and with dependable evidence to convince us, we simply have to conclude that something in the medical world is seriously amiss and that radical reform is called for.

‘Shall physicians continue to resort to drugs, which leave a deadly evil in the system, destroying that life which Christ came to restore? Christ’s remedies cleanse the system. But Satan has tempted man to introduce into the system that which weakens the human machinery, clogging and destroying the fine, beautiful arrangements of God.” (2SM288.3)

“The drug science has been exalted, but if every bottle that comes from every such institution were done away with, there would be fewer invalids in the world today. Drug medication should NEVER have been introduced into our institutions. There was NO NEED of this being so, and for this very reason the Lord would have us establish an institution where He can come in and where His grace and power can be revealed. “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” He declares.” (PH144-12.4)

Some will no doubt respond to the foregoing by claiming that science has made great advances in recent decades, and/or that modern-day drugs are not as harmful as the drugs that were used in the past. Yet all such arguments are without substance. While drug use is sometimes unavoidable, we need to carefully consider the following:

Then there will be those who will point to the many new technological advances and inventions in the field of medicine and claim that medical science today is a far cry from what is was in times gone by. While we do need to recognize the developments that have been made in the field of medical technology, and while we do need to acknowledge that in many respects a good and honorable work is being done, these “plusses” do not in any way detract from the fact that an extremely serious mistake has been made.

More than this, we do need to recognize that every new invention or development is not necessarily a true medical “advance,” and that these new inventions do not necessarily translate into improved health for the masses. The reason I say this is because many of these so-called medical advances . . .

• Are focused on the diagnosis of disease rather than on the cure of disease and, as such, they do little or nothing to improve the patient’s long-term prospects.

• Are focused on the diagnosis and/or treatment of conditions that trace their beginnings to inappropriate medical intervention in the first place.

• Are focused more on keeping us alive (for as long as we are able to foot the bills), while they do little or nothing to improve our health.

Having considered the foregoing, we are now in a position to identify the ultimate medical mistake – that being the almost universal failure on the part of the self-acclaimed “guardians of our health,” to understand the essential nature and purpose of disease.

We have labeled this mistake as the ultimate medical mistake yet, in terms of loss of life and unnecessary suffering, this mistake could well rank as the mistake of all mistakes. After all, it is difficult to imagine a more serious and a more far-reaching mistake than the chemical suppression or obliteration, and this on a massive global scale, of God’s gracious provision for the healing of His children.

Apportioning the Blame

Who, therefore, should carry the blame for this horrendous mistake? Who is answerable for the immeasurable suffering and sorrow that may be traced back to this mistake?

Can we realistically blame this tragedy on the orthodox medical establishment when we, the very custodians of truth, have hidden our light under a bushel; when we who have been blessed by God with an altogether unique health message have failed hopelessly (a) to embrace this message ourselves and (b) to “reform the medical practices of physicians?” (MM27.2; 125.2)

If we have failed to share our God-given light with the world, can we blame medical science for the consequences of our failing?

If we have turned our backs on our God-given mandate, then we can do none other than hold ourselves answerable, at least in some significant degree, for this deplorable state of affairs.

“The failure to follow sound principles has marred the history of God's people. There has been a continual backsliding in health reform, and as a result God is dishonored by a great lack of spirituality. Barriers have been erected which would never have been seen had God's people walked in the light.” (CH578.2)

“It is a shame to those who have had great light and truth upon temperance that they have not received and practiced it more thoroughly. Had they cherished and lived up to the light they have had, they would be far in advance of what they are now.” (SpM85.1)

“Because the word of God has been neglected, strange things have been done in the medical missionary work of late. The Lord cannot accept the present showing.” (CH370.3)

“Traditions and customs have become so interwoven with the belief of the medical profession that physicians need to be taught the very first principles of the way of the Lord.” (MM119.1)

“The members of the church are in need of an awakening, that they may realize their responsibility to impart these truths. Those who have been enlightened by the truth are to be light bearers to the world. To hide our light at this time is to make a terrible mistake. For us to refuse to let our light shine to those in darkness is to contract guilt, the magnitude of which cannot be computed.” (7T62.2; RH09-17-03.2)

“God means that testing truth shall be brought to the front and become a subject of examination and discussion, even if it is through the contempt placed upon it. The minds of the people must be agitated. Every controversy, every reproach, every slander, will be God’s means of provoking inquiry and awakening minds that otherwise would slumber.” (5T453.1)

“A world is waiting to hear the message of present truth. The truth for this time, the third angel’s message, is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, meaning with increased power, as we approach the great final test. This test must come to the churches in connection with true medical missionary work.” (AG338.5; LLM336.4)

With these rather sobering and challenging thoughts in mind, we would do well to once again consider a statement that I shared with my reader at the beginning of this book:

“Everywhere people are perishing for lack of a knowledge of the truths that have been committed to us.” (CD455.3)

Our accountability is great indeed, but it is not too late to start making the decided changes that God is calling for?

Please help us Lord Jesus - please help us to understand that our lethargy in this respect always translates into pain for others.

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