THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH IN THE OLD DISPENSATION.
By David Paulson, M.D.
“FOR unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them.” Heb. 4:2. This verily included that portion of the Gospel which related to physical health. Think of the tremendous amount of history that is concentrated in the first thirty-one verses of the Bible; yet one of the largest of these is set aside to a consideration of man’s diet, altho now looked upon as an unimportant subject, at least from a spiritual standpoint. When the Lord undertook the apparently hopeless task of weaning the children of Israel from the false and artificial habits of life which they had acquired from several generations of actual contact with those who habitually walked in darkness, He began this work by teaching them the spiritual Gospel in the plainest manner possible, viz., by object lessons. The great and grand lessons of faith, trust, and forgiveness were all taught in that wonderful ceremonial system. The physical gospel was, however, taught in an equally effective manner by what now seems to us, in some instances, to be an almost useless repetition of various cleansings from various defilements. The readiness whereby a person could be considered unclean must have served as a powerful daily lesson to impress upon these people that the human body was not to be trifled with. These elementary lessons were calculated to elevate the children of Israel from that low physical and spiritual plane upon which they had been living in Egypt, and to lead them to the point where they would be able to transfer the great thought of Christ’s dwelling in the sanctuary which they had erected, to the fact that He actually dwelt in that temple not built with hands,—the human body,—and that the same sacred regard which they had learned to have for the earthly temple, should be had for the human body, which was, after all, God’s real temple on earth. The full significance of this is brought to view in the words of Paul: “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.” It was a terrible sin to trifle with anything connected with the earthly sanctuary; but how much greater must be the sin of trifling with or marring in any degree that which is more sacred than the temple,—the human body. The earthly sanctuary was an object lesson to the people as to how to regard this dwelling-place of God on earth; for Christ is “all and in all;” and He has promised that if we will cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, He will dwell in us, and walk in us. 2 Cor. 7:1; 6:16. If we will allow God to teach us the full significance of what it means to have Christ dwell in this earthly temple, He will so eliminate the dross from our minds that we will get a clear view of that true temple in the heavens; for the only way we can get in there is through the “new and living way,” through the vail, which, after all, is His flesh. Heb. 10:20. From this text we catch a glimpse of the fact that even over in the next world “God in man” is the greatest of all temples. The Gospel that was preached to the children of Israel did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith. Let us, therefore (we who are living down in the full blaze of these truths), fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. During the Dark Ages the truth of God dwelling in human flesh was lost sight of, and a mythical conception of an immortal soul was substituted for the great truth of God’s divine presence in the body; and, consequently, the idea grew that the more the body was mistreated and abused, the sooner the immortal soul could be driven out of it, so that the real man could go to his long home. Whether or not this same error still tinctures, to a certain extent, the minds of the people, and is responsible for the terrible disregard of the human body, it is difficult to fully comprehend. But this thing is certainly true, the time has come to “cleanse the temple,” else God will soon come and destroy it forever, as He did the earthly temple when it became entirely perverted from its original use.