Subject

Key Statement/Teaching

Paragraph

Member responsibility

James wrote that "faith without works is dead." This applies to all aspects of the Christian life including health maintenance, health care, disease prevention, regular checkups by a qualified doctor, and healing and/or medical procedures in times of illness or injury.

129

Member responsibility

Christians should avail themselves of the best health care that man can provide and, at the same time, ask God to supernaturally supply what man cannot. This could also include the sick person asking God to bless the skill of the doctor in his diagnosis and treatment.

129

Member Responsibility

It is the responsibility of each Christian to recognize the important distinction between the physical and the spiritual. God's miraculous intervention to heal is spiritual; this healing is God's prerogative. What we do for ourselves is physical, a means of aiding and complementing the natural bodily processes in healing the body. God does expect us to do what we can for ourselves.

132

Member Responsibility

Surgical interventions, pharmacological prescriptions and other medical procedures (whether diagnostic, preventive or curative) must be evaluated on their own merits and on their own terms.

133

Member responsibility

When one chooses a physical procedure or medicine, his concern should be for their effectiveness rather than which method or medicine is more spiritual or biblical.

135

Member responsibility

In evaluating physical procedures in matters of health, the Christian is encouraged to emphasize proper health maintenance and disease prevention: there is minimum expense, little inconvenience and no side effects to a balanced program of health care.

136

Member responsibility

Eat natural foods (as much as logically possible) in a balanced diet and avoiding processed sugars and starches.

136

Member responsibility

Proper health care should include periodic physical examinations for all Christians and their families by a qualified medical doctor.

137

Member responsibility

Care should be taken to select the most able and proficient doctor available as the family physician. He should have a genuine interest and concern about the health of all members of the family. Eminently qualified specialists for particular problems should generally be recommended by the family doctor.

137

Member responsibility

When one seeks professional medical help, he should select the most competent within his means. One is not more "righteous" than another, but one might be more skilled than another.

138

Member responsibility

He will be sound-minded in matters of health, not seeking physically "miraculous" or unorthodox "cures " under the false assumption that they are somehow more righteous than the procedures of a knowledgeable specialist

139

Member responsibility

Christians must never judge one another, nor compare themselves among themselves.

140

Member responsibility

Do not attempt to impose [force yourself on others] your will or opinions on health and healing unto others.  Be respectful of another person's approach to health and healing.

142

Member responsibility

Do encourage your brother in the faith to seek the best care and professional help.  Encourage them to be in the best health they can.  Encourage them to seek the best information and ministerial counseling [see paragraph 143-145].

142