Living In The Light

October 29, The Legacy Of Disobedience

“The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.”
—Numbers 14:18 LL 318.1

The health reform is an important part of the third angel’s message; and as a people professing this reform, we should not retrograde, but make continual advancement. It is a great thing to ensure health by placing ourselves in right relations to the laws of life, and many have not done this. A large share of the sickness and suffering among us is the result of the transgression of physical law, is brought upon individuals by their own wrong habits. LL 318.2

Our ancestors have bequeathed to us customs and appetites which are filling the world with disease. The sins of the parents, through perverted appetite, are with fearful power visited upon the children to the third and fourth generations. The bad eating of many generations, the gluttonous and self-indulgent habits of the people, are filling our poorhouses, our prisons, and our insane asylums. Intemperance, in drinking tea and coffee, wine, beer, rum, and brandy, and the use of tobacco, opium, and other narcotics, has resulted in great mental and physical degeneracy, and this degeneracy is constantly increasing. LL 318.3

Are these ills visited upon the race through God’s providence? No; they exist because the people have gone contrary to His providence, and still continue to rashly disregard His laws. In the words of the apostle, I would entreat those who are not blinded and paralyzed by wrong teaching and practices, those who would render to God the best service of which they are capable: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 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” (Romans 12:1, 2). We have no right to wantonly violate a single principle of the laws of health. Christians should not follow the customs and practices of the world.— Counsels on Health , pp. 49, 50. LL 318.4

Further Reflection: : One of the most important gifts that families pass on to future generations are good health practices. What legacy of health has been passed on to you? LL 318.5