The Health Food Ministry

Words of Counsel Regarding the Health Food Work

Many years ago the Lord gave us light regarding health reform. This light was designed to be a blessing to those in need of physical help, and to open doors for the proclamation of the truth. The light upon health reform should be better understood. As further light is revealed to God's people, they are to communicate the truth to others. HFM 72.4

I am instructed to say that the health food work is not at present being conducted as to greatly advance the work of God. The Lord has presented before me many dangers that threaten the management of this business. The Lord never designed that the manufacture and sale of health foods should become such a commercial [business] as it now is. This is not to become a speculative business, in which a few shall receive large personal profits. To many minds God has given wisdom to devise healthful food preparations. HFM 73.1

The Lord would have a knowledge of diet reform imparted to the people of God. It is an essential part of the education to be given in our schools. As the truth is presented in new places, lessons should be given in hygienic cookery. Teach the people how they may live without the use of flesh meats. Teach them the simplicity of living. HFM 73.2

The Lord has been working, and is still working, to lead men to prepare from fruits and grains, foods more simple and less expensive than many of those that can now be obtained. Many cannot obtain these expensive food preparations, yet they need not necessarily live upon an impoverished diet. The same God who fed the thousands in the wilderness with bread from heaven will give to His people today a knowledge of how to provide food in a simple manner. HFM 73.3

I have a testimony to bear regarding the work of our restaurants. These institutions have absorbed much of the talent which could be used in evangelical work. In this enterprise, many are employed who, with Bible in hand, should be teaching in new places, flashing the light of truth into the mist and fog of error. Thus much talent and capability are absorbed in a work which, as now conducted, reveals but small results in the salvation of souls. The restaurants are carrying a burden which God has not laid upon them. The preparations of food are so expensive that the poorer class of people are unable to use them. There should be greater simplicity in the preparation of foods. HFM 73.4

As a people we stand reproved of God because so much talent is absorbed in mere commercial interests, while the all-important work of soul-saving is left to languish. Such an intensity of effort should not be given to the manufacture and merchandise of food products, while souls are left to starve for the bread of life. God never designed that the manufacture of foods should be a snare to His people, as it certainly has been. The Lord gave this work to be a blessing to His people, but selfishness and greed and dishonesty have made it productive of great evils. That which God designed to be a blessing has absorbed and diverted from His work valuable talents. HFM 74.1

The health food work is not to be conducted as a selfish monopoly, in which a few shall gather to themselves large profits, while others, equally capable, are excluded as those having no rights. The Lord forbids any one to force his brethren to sign contracts whereby he may appropriate to himself the benefits of the knowledge which has come from other minds. HFM 74.2

As God's peculiar people, we must stand free from every fraudulent transaction. Let not one thread of selfishness be drawn into the pattern. No cheap or unwholesome articles are to be placed before the public. Nothing should be represented as being pure and first-class when it is really of inferior quality. HFM 74.3

Care must be taken lest we communicate to unscrupulous men a knowledge that will enable them to utilize as a source of income for themselves the light that God has given to be a blessing to His people. In the manufacture of so-called health foods, unprincipled men would introduce adulterations that would be injurious. HFM 74.4

Let every business transaction be done in righteousness, remembering that we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block, or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.... Let not then your good be evil spoken of: for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Romans 14:11-17. HFM 75.1

We need to cut away from our lives everything that would absorb the mind and dull our sensibilities in the perception of the future eternal riches of glory. We should bring into our daily experience those things only which will enable us to strengthen and perfect our character, that we may reflect to others the light of heavenly things. HFM 75.2

There is a world to be warned. We are nearing the close of time. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the world. The Lord is calling us out of sleep. We have lost many precious opportunities, but let us lose no more time. The sunlight of truth is to shine forth to the world. Cast off the works of darkness and uncertainty. Manuscript 96, 1905 (written September 7, 1905). HFM 75.3