Book Review: Medicine as Prophecy
by Jack Hoehn
Alex Bryan, MEDICINE AS PROPHECY: A Brief Theology of Adventist Healthcare (2023)
This book is beautifully short (64 pages) but biblically strong in asserting (all but 15 of the 130 footnotes are Scripture references) that the institutional and professional health care of Seventh-day Adventists is our most consequential contribution to the mission of Jesus in this present world. Adventism calls people into membership because the doctrines seem right and a unique worship day and lifestyle set us apart. Members transact with the church when we “give up” sinful or harmful habits and “accept” the gift of salvation and doctrines that set us apart.
But no outreach of the church, no millions of Great Controversy paperbacks, no Breath of Life/Voice of Prophecy/3ABN/Hope Channel viewership, not all the Revelation Prophecy Seminars, no Stop Smoking programs or vegan/vegetarian cooking classes, nor all the books Adventists have scattered “like leaves of autumn” can match the impact on society of Seventh-day Adventist Health care.
There have been over 307 Adventist-associated hospitals in the world. Those in the USA (over 95 hospitals and 600 other health care institutions) serve over 16 million patients a year and are the largest Protestant health care System in the world. The Loma Linda University School of Medicine Alumni Directory now lists 13,735 medical doctors that have trained or are being trained by that medical school alone. Adventist-trained nurses, dentists, medical professionals, and technical staff surely exceed the 144,000 and are serving “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”
Bryan reminds us that total tithe income for the Adventist church in the North American Division is about $1 billion a year. Total revenue generated and reinvested by Adventist Health institutions in the USA is over $25 billion a year.
In four concise chapters, deeply supported by scriptural references, Bryan shows how Adventist health care (by those who provide it) is animated theology, living doctrine.
- Churches preach about the God who was incarnate in Bethlehem and then atoned for us on Calvary.
- Church schools teach about the dear old Bible stories retold again and again.
- Evangelists get people excited about ancient prophets predicting history before it happened, so we will accept their prediction of what might happen with Jesus’ future return.
- But talking about God, Bible, prophecy, or the future second advent of Jesus must take second place to demonstrating to the world what that Advent will mean.
And here we come back to the book’s title, Medicine as Prophecy.
Every healing action done in Jesus’ name is a signpost of the second coming. This makes Adventist health care not just a service, but a sacred sacrament–a physical action with deep spiritual significance. As if Jesus were saying, “Heal the sick, practice CPR, treat psoriasis, heal damaged minds. This do not in remembrance of me; this do in anticipation of me.”
Lists of fundamental beliefs are historical, but what can historical ideas do for present pain? And how does affirming dates in the past such as the falling of stars or the end of the Ottoman empire permit our church to take the world beyond bombs in Gaza and graves in the Ukraine?
“Relief of pain, suspension of disease, outright cure,
even compassion and comfort in death—these everyday acts
are appetizers for the end,
teasers for the final triumph,
hints of heaven’s ultimate therapy.”
This little book supports this assertion with a review of the history of health care institutions being a uniquely Christian history. He reminds us of the solid Biblical and theological support for keeping keen cutting edge science and sincere love for Jesus united in a ministry.
Reviving you from a heart attack, delivering your healthy baby, or treating your unhealthy child in Jesus name is not only a demonstration of God’s intentions in this present world, but also a prophecy of the better world to come.
The miracles of Christ were illustrations of the natural and only appeared supernatural when they were done at a speed to make clear Who designed the natural. God’s eternal plan is no more pain, no more death, no more tears. He plants a life-tree in his garden. Every nurse, doctor, clinic, hospital, pharmacy, cleaner, or cook that says, Let me help relieve your pain, fight your death, comfort your sorrow, straighten that crooked broken bone—done in Jesus name—is a prophecy of what is coming.
Lift up the trumpet and loud let it ring; Jesus is coming again. Not only for Jew or Palestinian, not just Russian or Ukrainian, not gay or straight, not woman or man, not rich or poor—for every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation. Every. Our hospitals know this and try to operate that way. Why can our schools and our churches not follow the same Jesus path? Adventist health care is the “sanctuary message” the world needs from this church. Jesus gave Sabbath priority to healing acts. Jesus demonstrated the unconditionality of God’s love—Jew, Samaritan heretic, Syrophoenician pagan, Roman warrior, slave, pig farmers, and women were equally blessed. His Father’s house, he demands, is to be a house of prayer for all people.
Jesus falsifies the idea that science and religion cannot mix. To reject science in the name of religion is unbiblical and removes the warm and beating heart from health care and credulity from religion. Some of us have viewed the expansion and growth of Adventist health care as a falling away from Adventist core purity. “We pay market wages. We cooperate with Catholics. We let other religions and even atheists work in our hospitals. We accept government money.” What if the smile of God is responsible for this growth, because Jesus wants Adventism to be more like our hospitals and less like fortress science denying schools and exclusionary churches? What if instead of being modeled on a temple with entry restricted to only a male priestly elect, Jesus did in fact destroy that temple and reestablished worship wherever and whenever two or three are gathered in his name?
Bryan is suggesting that the growing and improving Adventist health care institutions with a parallel project of making our Adventist churches more like our hospitals and clinics could be the most important way to fulfill the Adventist mission. Adventist Health people at all levels need to read this book and remember their theology. There are billions of dollars involved, and a very large part of the US population is dependent on this church-related business. It may be much more consequential how we do Adventist health care than any other outreach of the church.
Non-health-care workers also can read Alex Bryan’s concise book and decide what changes to make to support our local churches and conferences to be more healing and less exclusive. Surely we must require Adventist schools to train children to be both Jesus- and scientific-fact friendly. Gift this to the health care professionals and staff in your family. Give a copy to your pastors and head elders. Ask your conference administrators and church school board members to read it. Alex didn’t say this; Jesus did. “Heal their sick and say, God’s kingdom will soon be here!” (Luke 10:9)
This book is available at Amazon.com
in paperback($15) and Kindle($10) versions here.
Author: Alex Bryan, D.Min., MS, is currently a senior vice president of Adventist Health. He also has been president of Kettering College. He served as highly respected senior pastor at Walla Walla University, where he also taught theology, communications, and business classes. He is one of the pastor cofounders of the influential Jesus-focused One Project. [Alexander Bryant, chief administrator of the North American Division, is a different person.]
Jack Hoehn is a retired physician who writes from College Place, Washington.