Personal from the Editor

December, 1967

WE PRIDE OURSELVES on being the most advanced, enlightened,

scientifically developed generation that ever lived.

     We suppose that we are now on the doorstep of eradicating

sickness and disease, due to the miraculous advances of medical

science. We suppose the great advances in sanitary measures, in

the new "wonder drugs," in preventive serums, vaccines and

inoculations are bringing modern civilization into a state of

wonderful health.

     WE COULDN'T BE MORE WRONG!

     Modern civilization is not bringing health nor abolishing

disease.

     While the medical profession works to reduce TB, cancer, and

other diseases, modern civilization is CREATING NEW DISEASES

NEVER HEARD OF A FEW GENERATIONS AGO. Sickness and disease are on

an accelerating INCREASE!

     It may seem incredible! We frantically brush our teeth and

use toothpastes supposed to produce "fewer cavities," yet there

is more tooth trouble than was known in any past century. The

more furiously we brush with "fewer cavities" brands of

toothpaste, the more tooth troubles we suffer!

     WHY?

     How can this BE?

     I suppose many would ask: "But isn't it NATURAL to be sick?

Are we not made in such a way that we simply have to become sick

and contract disease? And didn't God raise up medical science to

combat it?"

     The answer is an EMPHATIC NO!

     Sickness and disease are NOT natural!

     We were made to BE WELL!

     When man invents and produces a fine mechanism -- a fine

watch, automobile, jet plane, washing machine -- he expects the

fine watch to keep good time for years; the first Rolls Royce

automobile ever made is still running; the huge 707 jets made the

"polar flight" every day from London to the west coast of the

United States without motor failure. Of course I am not talking

about a cheaply made watch, motor car or washing machine. But the

most marvelous and perfectly made mechanism ever produced is the

human body and mind.

     The Almighty God made the human body so that -- even though

composed of material substance from the ground -- its NORMAL

CONDITION is one of robust, invigorating, radiant GOOD HEALTH!

     Sickness and disease are ABNORMAL -- they are the PENALTY of

VIOLATION OF NATURAL LAWS. They are PHYSICAL SIN!

     I knew the philosopher-author-lecturer-publisher Elbert

Hubbard, who died when a German submarine sank the Lusitania

before U.S. entry into World War I. He understood something of

physical health. Once when I visited him at East Aurora, N. Y.,

other guests and I were herded out on the veranda of Roycroft

Inn, for a vigorous round of heaving the "medicine ball" at each

other. It was vigorous exercise. Hubbard kept fit -- watched his

diet, got in plenty of exercise, natural sleep, deep breathing in

fresh air.

     He said: "Of two things, being thrown in jail, or becoming

sick, becoming sick is the GREATER DISGRACE!" One is thrown in

jail for violation of a MAN-MADE law -- it could be a nonsensical

law -- he could have been falsely accused. But when one is sick,

a NATURAL law has been broken -- and there was no false arrest.

     One may break man-made civil laws and not get caught. But

when you break GOD'S LAWS, the penalty is automatic!

     And what does modern civilization do about it? It -- NOT GOD

-- raised up "medical science" to try to deal with the effect --

ignoring the CAUSE -- attempting to remove the PENALTY which the

Creator GOD imposed for physical violations. Treating the EFFECT,

while ignoring the CAUSE, is to ENCOURAGE the violation which

CAUSES the sickness; to encourage SIN! Only most people never

thought of it that way.

     Now LOOK AT THE STAGGERING FACTS:

     Children of 1910 had many diseases never heard of three

generations before. They grew into young manhood by 1917. They

enlisted or were drafted into the army in World War I. But in

1917, nearly one third of our young men between the ages of 18

and 31 were so UNFIT physically they could not be accepted for

military duty.

     Have conditions improved?

     By 1964, the number unfit for military duty had climbed from

slightly under 33% (in itself a disgrace!!!) to 53%. This was not

all physical unfitness -- a NEW sinister threat to our national

progress and safety was now rising rapidly -- 16.2% of these

FAILED MENTAL TESTS!

     Nearly half of all Americans -- more than 67 million -- are

suffering with at least one chronic disease or disability. Of

those over age 45, SEVEN OUT OF TEN are afflicted with at least

one chronic condition.

     Each day some TWO MILLION Americans see a doctor! Almost

THIRTY MILLION are yearly spending time in hospitals; 1 1/2

million are hospital patients on any one day!

     There are at least TWELVE MILLION surgical operations

performed annually in the United States alone!

     In Britain conditions are as bad -- or worse.

     In the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, OUR

NATIONAL VITALITY IS ON THE WANE!

     But, one asks, hasn't medical science made tremendous

strides in conquering diseases? But while they are working on

some diseases, several times as many NEW DISEASES appear in our

midst -- diseases unheard of some four generations ago! Diseases

of MODERN CIVILIZATION!

     Among diseases of modern civilization are diabetes, cancer,

heart diseases, Bright's disease, kidney diseases, acidosis,

asthma, rheumatism. There is a definite CAUSE for these.

     Look at young children pouring out of public elementary

schools today. Notice how many are pale, anemic, round

shouldered, more than half of them constipated, wearing glasses,

having bad teeth, diseased tonsils.

     How many today live in a home where there is NEVER a cold or

fever, no tooth troubles, or poor eyesight, or any of these

diseases? Where NO ONE is ever sick? Do you know of any such

home? You're a most rare person if you do! All humanity SHOULD

live in such a home -- COULD!! -- and many if not most WILL in

the God-ruled WORLD TOMORROW!

     One of the greatest industries today is the cosmetics

industry -- selling millions of dollars (or equivalent in other

monetary standards) in materials to PAINT ON color that has been

ROBBED from natural foods!

     The very FIRST trouble with our deteriorating physical

status is that we take sickness for granted! We seem to assume

sickness is natural and necessary. We are in IGNORANCE of the

CAUSES. Modern Society treats the RESULT, but IGNORES the CAUSE!

     WHAT, then, are the specific CAUSES?

     One physician said to me: "We doctors are kept so busy

treating sicknesses and diseases that we simply have no time to

study and research into the CAUSES.

     But SOME of the most noted physicians and surgeons have

given thought and study into the CAUSES. And leading doctors have

said that 90% to 92% of all sickness and disease results from

FAULTY DIET! Some of them have said that the average American or

British dining table is a dietetic HORROR! Few people, it seems,

realize that FOOD has any connection with health or sickness. The

actual FACTS are appalling!

     Let me give you some important facts!

     First, just what ARE we? Of what are we composed?

     God Himself ought to know -- and He says: "Dust thou art,

and unto dust shalt thou return." And again, "The Eternal God

formed man of the dust of the ground" (Gen. 3:19; 2:7). Dust --

ground -- Material substance. In the ground are approximately 103

elements. But the human body is composed of 16 of them. And these

are the 16 that grow in food.

     Elements are present in the two general forms -- the organic

and inorganic state. Organic elements are LIVING matter. For

example gold is an inorganic element. Gold does not grow through

roots of a plant into the organic form. If it did, we would

surely have a lot of "gold farmers," trying to get rich by

growing gold. But iron, much harder than gold, DOES grow in plant

life into organic or LIVING matter. Beet tops are fairly rich in

iron. In somewhat lesser content there is some iron in

blackberries and cherries. Grapes have very little, yet an

enterprising advertising man years ago took advantage of that

small trace by packaging raisins in small packets at candy

counters, with the slogan "Have you had your IRON today?"

Supposing raisins to be rich in iron, millions bought the

raisins.

     One of the hardest elements known is manganese. This metal

is used in bank safes. Yet small traces of this element are drunk

in through rootlets of some plants and converted into LIVING

matter in food. Our bodies NEED manganese. But it is a good thing

for us that they need only small traces of it, or we should not

be able to obtain enough of it in organic form.

     So it is literally true that "we are just what we eat." Our

bodies started from a small ovum, no larger than the period at

the end of this sentence -- and even that was developed through

food that grew in the ground. And that ovum had to be fertilized

by a sperm cell only one-fiftieth as large. But what caused that

tiny embryo to GROW until you were born? It was developed from

food that grew out of soil -- out of dust. But you are now much

larger and heavier than when you were born. Where did all the

REST OF YOU come from? From FOOD, which came from the ground --

FROM DUST!

     So it is literally true that you ARE what you eat -- and

"dust thou art". Since you ARE merely FOOD converted into a human

body and mind, is it not plain that whatever FOOD you put into

your mouth has a very great deal to do with WHAT you are -- and

WITH YOUR HEALTH, or lack of it.

     Now let me give you more facts.

     Of the TWO STATES in which these 16 elements exist, ONLY

organic elements are food. Inorganic elements taken into the

stomach are actually a poison -- some of them, like potassium

cyanide, deadly poison! For example anemic people need more iron.

They have become anemic through iron deficiency. But if you are

to build natural good health you must get that iron in ORGANIC

FOOD -- not in pills made of inorganic iron. ONLY organic

elements grown through food are naturally absorbed into the

bloodstream to replenish broken-down cells and supply tissue,

healthy flesh and blood.

     Now of the 16 ORGANIC elements that grow in food, THESE are

present in two forms -- acid and alkaline. Twelve of these 16

elements are the alkaline mineral elements. Included in these are

iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, silicon, sulphur, manganese.

These supply the nourishment -- replace deteriorating cells,

build bone, flesh, tissue, skin, hair.

     Four of the 16 elements are called carbohydrates -- the acid

reacting elements. These are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen.

Principal of these is carbon. These are found in starch, sugar,

and fats. You've read advertisements, advising, "Give your child

more (the brand advertised) to supply quick energy." One thing is

wrong with that: IT IS TOO TRUE!

     The carbohydrates DO supply our energy. They are -- up to a

certain point (and THAT'S the VITAL point) absorbed into the

bloodstream. On the way back to the heart the blood passes

through the lungs. Your lungs are like the carburetor in your

automobile. The "carbon" in your car that supplies ITS energy is

the gasoline (petrol to our British and continental readers). As

it passes through the carburetor, it is FIRED on mixing with the

oxygen in the air. This is a little explosion, which forces the

piston and thus results in propelling the car.

     In like manner, as your blood passes through your lungs, it

"fires" on mixing with the oxygen in the air you have inhaled.

Your breath filters out the impurities the blood is carrying off,

and these impurities (broken-down cells) are expelled through

exhaling your breath. That's why you sometimes have "bad breath."

I think you can see what happens when your lungs are filled with

poisonous tobacco smoke. They simply do not perform their full

duty. And THIS damage is IN ADDITION TO what doctors are now

telling us about LUNG CANCER! YOU get a DOUBLE DOSE of bad

health!

     At the same time, this "firing" of the carbon in the blood

supplies not only ENERGY, it also supplies your bodily heat --

keeping your body at normal temperature of 98.6 degrees.

     Now here is a MOST IMPORTANT FACT! Nearly all of us, today,

because of what our food factories have done to our foods, are

eating several times more of the carbohydrate elements than we

should for normal good health. So WHAT HAPPENS? If this carbon in

the blood supplies not only energy but also our bodily heat, WHY

does it not raise our bodily temperature up to two or three times

the normal 98.6 degrees?

     The answer to that is IMPORTANT!

     That is something DOCTORS OUGHT to be telling us. Why don't

they? I guess you'll have to ask THEM -- I can't answer for them.

Perhaps they are just so busy TREATING the PENALTY you have

incurred by BREAKING NATURE'S LAWS, eating an over-abundance of

the carbohydrates.

     But I will tell you what happens. And YOU had better HEED!

     If eating twice as much of the carbohydrates as you should

actually DOUBLED your bodily temperature, you'd die of high fever

before the doctor could get to you. But YOUR CREATOR provided a

preventive, so it does not react quite that way. Just as some

taxicab companies put a "governor" on the accelerators of their

cars, so that the driver can only push it down far enough to

reach the controlled speed the company has predetermined --

perhaps 45 -- perhaps 55 or 60 miles per hour -- so your Maker

designed the bloodstream of your body to absorb no more

carbohydrates than 1/2 of 1% approximately of either the weight

or volume of blood -- and at the moment I do not remember which.

     What, THEN, happens to the excess of the carbohydrates you

are stuffing down your stomachs? They DO supply a certain

unnatural artificial energy -- but they are primarily eliminated

in an unnatural way, contrary to nature's laws, through the

kidneys. And this process in time builds up and causes a whole

string of these modern diseases of a law-breaking civilization!

But SOME of it IS carried as a toxin or poison by the blood into

muscles and joints. And after so long a time, you "catch a cold"

or "a fever" -- so you think, not realizing that you actually ATE

that cold or fever before you "caught it." It may go into

pneumonia! A cold or fever is merely a sudden violent elimination

of toxins and poisons you have injected into your body by WRONG

DIET which has BROKEN GOD'S PHYSICAL LAWS!

     Or, this accumulation of toxins may result in rheumatism,

arthritis, or other disease.

     Actually, your body requires two or three times as much of

the alkaline-reacting mineral elements as of the carbohydrates --

yet the average American or Briton is eating at least two or

three times as much of the carbohydrates.

     And WHAT ARE the carbohydrates? They are the starches,

sugars, fats and oils.

     Today nearly everything we eat passes through man's hands --

or his factories -- before it comes to the consumer. In the

interests of bigger profits the gigantic food industry is giving

us a diet of FOODLESS foods.

     Take wheat. Wheat is almost a perfect food. It contains all

16 food elements, and in perfectly balanced proportion. But they

take that perfect grain of wheat apart, rob it of the 12 mineral

elements, and turn it into white flour -- containing the four

carbohydrate elements.

     Why?

     Well, if they were to give you real WHOLE wheat flour, it

would spoil after so long a time. And in the BIG BUSINESS

distribution system, the flour may not reach the consumer until

after it spoils. THAT would mean a loss to the food industry.

     One dietician gave this advice: "My BASIC RULE in diet is:

Eat ONLY those natural foods that will spoil -- and eat them

before they do."

     What SHOULD we do? Well, I'll tell you what we do at

Ambassador College. We raise our own wheat in Kansas, our own

beef and many other items of food in Texas. We have large trucks

(vans -- lorries) -- the largest allowed on the highways -- one a

refrigerator truck. We bring our own hard wheat, naturally and

organically grown, in our own trucks to the Pasadena and Texas

campuses. There we have our own stone grinders. When our bake

shops are ready to bake another batch of bread, or pastries, the

wheat is ground into flour -- real whole wheat flour -- and

immediately baked. We use honey or natural brown sugar instead of

"refined" sugar (which has been robbed of its alkaline elements).

     There are many things more that we do -- but that serves as

an illustration. We feed about a thousand students three times a

day, and we try to feed them on REAL FOOD, not foodless "foods."

     There is another area in which our English-speaking peoples

ruin their own health. They take a good steak, or a mixed green

salad of uncooked leafy-green vegetables, or other fruits or

vegetables, and then RUIN them with sauces, gravies, or dressings

that will wreck any stomach -- at least in time! We think we must

mix foods into conglomerations of meat with starch, sugars,

condiments, artificial flavors, preservatives, sea-"foods," and

unhealthful mixtures -- IN CONFUSION! The best chefs are those

who can concoct the most injurious sauces and conglomerations.

And then the people of this degenerate world suppose it is just

NATURAL to be sick!

     A little baby will put about everything in reach into his

mouth. It seems most of our adults are still doing it. If we like

the taste -- or develop a perverted taste -- we think it must be

good food! But everything that grows is NOT good food. Nor is

every animal good for food.

     Another reason our bodies are being robbed of the alkaline

minerals is the way our women cook. The other day I thought of

writing an article under the headline: "HOW To HURRY Your DEATH!"

I may still write it for a later issue of The PLAIN TRUTH.

     Ask a woman WHY she does not feed her children steel-cut

oats, and natural brown rice.

     "Oh, that takes too much time!" she will probably answer. So

she uses the quick-cooking minute-oats or minute rice -- the kind

that has been robbed of all the real food value and reduced to a

starch. SHE JUST CAN'T AFFORD TO TAKE TIME to give her children

good health. She must HURRY -- and build up in their bodies

anemia, and diseases that WILL KILL them BEFORE THEIR TIME.

     A MURDER is merely ending a life before its time. Many of

you are doing that on the installment plan -- doing it not only

to yourselves, but also to your children.

     Suggest to a woman that she cook her vegetables on slow heat

-- at a temperature of 180 degrees in a heavy aluminum utensil.

She will probably protest that she can't take the time -- and

besides, hasn't she heard that one gets poisoned from food cooked

in aluminum? She may have HEARD that, BUT IT IS EMPHATICALLY NOT

TRUE!

     That rumor has been circulated in a trade war as a means of

business competition. The American Medical Association made

exhaustive tests, years ago, that utterly disproved that rumor.

So did the British Medical Association. However, the heavy

aluminum utensils are now lined inside with a very thin layer of

stainless steel.

     But IT DOES NOT TAKE MORE TIME -- because aluminum is a

conductor of heat. The SIDES of the pan -- and the lid -- absorb

the heat, and the food is not cooked from the bottom ONLY, but

from the sides and the top as well. Result: even though the

temperature is lower, the food cooks as fast or faster.

     United States Department of Agriculture chemical tests made

at the University of Wisconsin have shown that when you cook at

or above the boiling point, you cook out from 23% to 78% of the

alkaline mineral elements -- the REAL FOOD -- and that steam that

escaped was also the FLAVOR!

     But -- many women, I have found, simply are unwilling to

believe that TRUTH. They think proper cooking would take more

time -- and THEY HAVEN'T TIME to keep their children healthy. If

it means killing their own children BEFORE their time -- murder

on the installment plan -- they simply CAN'T TAKE TIME to prevent

this installment-plan murder!

     Many children are raised on a diet of white bread, jellies

and jams, potatoes with greasy and starchy gravy, a little meat,

pie and cake and cookies and pastries, candy. Some will ask:

"Well what else CAN we eat?"

     Eat more vegetables -- green leafy raw salad vegetables

unspoiled by injurious dressings; non-starch vegetables cooked at

low temperatures -- about 180 degrees, and served with only

butter and a little salt; fresh fruits; clean lean meats (NO

FAT); whole grains; fresh raw (unpasteurized) milk, butter,

cheese; eggs and clean fowl.

     What about potatoes? And I mean Irish potatoes. Are they not

starchy? Only when and because you women pare off the alkaline

part containing the needed minerals. Slice a potato in half and

notice the ring a little way inside the skin. The portion between

that ring and the skin is the alkaline part. The inside is the

starch part. If you cook the whole -- unpeeled -- potato in a

heavy aluminum pan at about 180 degrees temperature, you'll find

that the skin is VERY thin and will peel right off, leaving you

the WHOLE potato. In this form, it is called by some the king of

vegetables.

     If you have bony knobby knees and elbows, and would like to

be more pleasingly rounded (or plump without being fat or

overweight) try cutting out the INSIDE of the potato, and eating

often of the alkaline part. The alkaline portion outside the

visible ring, a little way inside the skin of the potato, is

strong in potassium. In perhaps six months you'll be surprised at

what this natural, organic potassium will do.

     In this editorial I have had space only to scrape the

surface of this subject. Perhaps sometime I may find time to

write more fully and in more detail.

     But before ending, I want to give you a little of what our

Creator says about health and sickness. It is God's will that we

be IN HEALTH (III John 2). God intended us to obey His laws --

His physical laws that operate in our bodies for good health as

well as His Spiritual Law. Yet He knew our weaknesses and

rebellious nature. When we repent of breaking His Spiritual Law

and transgressing against Him, our loving and merciful Father has

provided a way for removing the penalty -- through Jesus'

sacrifice, paying the penalty in our stead.

     In like manner, when nature's laws have been broken, this is

God's instruction to those who have become His begotten children:

     "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the

Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the

name of the Lord: and THE PRAYER OF FAITH shall save the sick,

and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins,

they shall be forgiven him" (James 5:14-15).

     Notice important specific points in that instruction. First,

it is addressed to, and pertains to those who have become God's

own begotten children -- those who ARE Christ's -- and in Romans

8:9 it is made plain that ONLY those who have, and are being LED

BY, in daily living (verse 14) His Holy Spirit, are Christ's.

Next, it says the prayer of FAITH shall save the sick. But James

also says (chapter 1:6-7) that if one's faith wavers, he will not

receive the answer. Yet also, in the "faith chapter" of the

Bible, Hebrews 11, we read this: "he that cometh to God must

BELIEVE that He IS, and that He is a REWARDER of them that

diligently seek Him" (verse 6).

     And again, what we ask of Him we receive BECAUSE we keep His

Commandments, and do those things that please Him (I John 3:22).

     So, although God DOES HEAL, there are conditions -- we do

have our part to perform.

     Notice further: When the sick came to Jesus, He healed them

"... that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the

prophet, saying, 'Himself took our infirmities, and bare our

sicknesses'" (Mat. 8:17) and that "by whose STRIPES ye were

healed" (I Peter 2:24). Before Jesus was crucified, He was beaten

with stripes -- paying the penalty of our PHYSICAL transgressions

in our stead.

     This kind of healing -- and nothing else IS actual HEALING

-- is a divine miracle, FORGIVING physical SIN -- and removing

its penalty. It is a MOST SERIOUS THING, not to be taken lightly

-- not to be made a mockery of by fanatical and wild public

demonstrations in "healing meetings." Jesus healed -- the

apostles healed -- He gave AUTHORITY to His ministers to heal --

but they did it quietly, without demonstration, as a ministry of

LOVE -- not as a highly publicized circus sideshow to attract

crowds.

     This sort of sensational "divine healing" is NOT the way of

God. Such practices today have only brought ridicule and

discredit and in no sense do I advocate or approve it! The courts

and law-enforcing agencies, as a result of these UNSCRIPTURAL

divine healing practices, are completely hostile to "divine

healing." But what Jesus did, and commissioned HIS true ministers

to do, IS SOMETHING ALTOGETHER DIFFERENT.

     Real healing by God's power is a matter of FORGIVING SIN --

sin against the physical body. Read Luke 5:18-26. None but GOD

can forgive sin (verse 21). Doctors, therefore, CANNOT HEAL. They

can work WITH nature's laws -- but that is not HEALING.

     Do we, then, advise people AGAINST going to medical doctors?

BY NO MEANS. Doctors have their place in this world. But the

healing that God performs is NOT OF THIS WORLD.

     I have answered the call of thousands, who have come to me

for prayer for healing. Many HAVE been healed -- miraculously --

of even cancer and an advanced case, in a hospital, of leukemia.

On the other hand, many HAVE NOT been healed. Yet I have prayed

with the same faith for the one as the other.

     WHY are many not healed? Jesus said it is ACCORDING TO YOUR

FAITH. Perhaps they did not fully believe. Perhaps they were not

obedient. Perhaps they should read James 4:3, where it says: "Ye

ask, and receive not, BECAUSE ......" And you may read the answer

yourself.

     So let me make this plain.

     I DO NOT SAY, don't go to the doctor of medicine. I DO NOT

KNOW whether YOU will be healed by God -- because I cannot know

whether you have the faith, are conforming to God's conditions,

have really repented and turned from violating God's laws. I do

not leave people without ANY help -- for, if they do not have the

faith, have not repented, are not keeping God's commandments,

they probably won't be healed, and I cannot advise them against

the only help they might have -- that which this world's society

has set up. Healing by God is NOT a thing to experiment with!

     But, why not solve this whole question by avoiding the CAUSE

of sickness and disease -- and KEEPING HEALTHY in the first

place? Then there is NO PROBLEM, is there?

END