My question is regarding alternative, natural therapies. It seems that Adventists are accepting more and more of the therapies that include energy work like accupuncture. I have a fairly good idea of what therapies I will not engage in but I cannot work out myotherapy because everything I read states that it is scientific. However, I have serious doubts after observing othrrs receive the treatment. Please help me to understand. What is your list of unwise therapies to take? Thank you very much.
List of unwise therapies?? I have a EGW quote on this somewhere.
Yes 'unwise', as alternative therapies are mostly about 'energy' as in the New Age sense. I'm most concerned to understand myotherapy because it is being pushed hard in one aspect of my life. I need to know what I'm dealing with. Thank you very much NB.
In the first place, the Wikipedia article on myotherapy says that it's unclear whether the therapy is actually effective. If it's not effective, then I don't see any value in pursuing it.
Suppose that the therapy is effective. How do we decide whether it's legitimate?
The fact that it's "alternative" does not itself make it bad. We believe in a variety of alternative therapies, such as hydrotherapy.
One way of deciding would be to ask whether there's any scientific basis for the treatment. In other words, is myotherapy ultimately about applying the laws of nature?
If it's not, then does this automatically mean it's bad? Suppose that I have a friend with inoperable cancer, and I pray intensively for this person, and the Lord heals him.
It's quite possible that the laws of nature are in fact being applied here, but they would be laws that are beyond human understanding.
So the final comment I want to make is that it seems prudent not only to ask if there's a scientific basis, but also ask what the spiritual basis is. Do we see the Lord at work, or are we seeing spiritualistic principles being played out?
One statement of how spiritualism works is given below.
It is true that spiritualism is now changing its form and, veiling some of its more objectionable features, is assuming a Christian guise. But its utterances from the platform and the press have been before the public for many years, and in these its real character stands revealed. These teachings cannot be denied or hidden. {GC 557.2}
Even in its present form, so far from being more worthy of toleration than formerly, it is really a more dangerous, because a more subtle, deception. While it formerly denounced Christ and the Bible, it now professes to accept both. But the Bible is interpreted in a manner that is pleasing to the unrenewed heart, while its solemn and vital truths are made of no effect. Love is dwelt upon as the chief attribute of God, but it is degraded to a weak sentimentalism, making little distinction between good and evil. God's justice, His denunciations of sin, the requirements of His holy law, are all kept out of sight. The people are taught to regard the Decalogue as a dead letter. Pleasing, bewitching fables captivate the senses and lead men to reject the Bible as the foundation of their faith. Christ is as verily denied as before; but Satan has so blinded the eyes of the people that the deception is not discerned. {GC 558.1}
There are few who have any just conception of the deceptive power of spiritualism and the danger of coming under its influence. Many tamper with it merely to gratify their curiosity. They have no real faith in it and would be filled with horror at the thought of yielding themselves to the spirits' control. But they venture upon the forbidden ground, and the mighty destroyer exercises his power upon them against their will. Let them once be induced to submit their minds to his direction, and he holds them captive. It is impossible, in their own strength, to break away from the bewitching, alluring spell. Nothing but the power of God, granted in answer to the earnest prayer of faith, can deliver these ensnared souls. {GC 558.2}
Satans way:vol 5 T.p.193-The heathen oracles have their counterpart in the spiritualistic mediums, the clairvoyants, and fortunetellers of today. The mystic voices that spoke at Ekron and Endor are still by their lying words misleading the children of men. The prince of darkness has but appeared under a new guise. The mysteries of heathen worship are replaced by the secret associations and seances, the obscurities and wonders, of the sorcerers of our time. Their disclosures are eagerly received by thousands who refuse to accept light from Gods word or from His Spirit. While they speak with scorn of the magicians of old, the great deceiver laughs in triumph as they yield to his arts under a different form.
Satans way today:His agents still claim to cure disease. They attribute their power to electricity, magnetism, or the so-called sympathetic remedies. In truth, they are but channels for Satans electric currents. By this means he casts his spell over the bodies and souls of men.
In other words, if you try these things or go to places where these things are practiced, it is like going to the Witch of Endor.
Gods way:vol. 5 of T. -194- Many are unwilling to put forth the needed effort to obtain a knowledge of the laws of life and the simple means to be employed for the restoration of health. They do not place themselves in right relation to life. When sickness is the result of their transgression of natural law, they do not seek to correct their errors and then ask the blessing of God, but they resort to the physicians. If they recover health they give to drugs and doctors all the honor. They are ever ready to idolize human power and wisdom, seeming to know no other God than the creaturedust and ashes.
[Ive made this mistake!!!]It is not safe to trust to physicians who have not the fear of God before them. Without the influence of divine grace the hearts of men are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Self-aggrandizement is their aim. Under the cover of the medical profession what iniquities have been concealed, what delusions supported!
An agent of the great deceiver will say and do anything to gain his object. It matters little whether he calls himself a spiritualist, an "electric physician," or a "magnetic healer." By specious pretenses he wins the confidence of the unwary. He pretends to read the life history and to understand all the difficulties and afflictions of those who resort to him. {2MCP 700.3}
(2)
The apostles of nearly all forms of spiritism claim to have power to heal. They attribute this power to electricity, magnetism, the so-called "sympathetic remedies," or to latent forces within the mind of man. And there are not a few, even in this Christian age, who go to these healers, instead of trusting in the power of the living God and the skill of well-qualified physicians. The mother, watching by the sickbed of her child, exclaims, "I can do no more. Is there no physician who has power to restore my child?" She is told of the wonderful cures performed by some clairvoyant or magnetic healer, and she trusts her dear one to his charge, placing it as verily in the hand of Satan as if he were standing by her side. In many instances the future life of the child is controlled by a satanic power which it seems impossible to break. {PK 211.1}
Men have given to our leading physician allegiance that is due to God alone; and he has been permitted to show what self-exaltation will lead men to do. Scientific, spiritualistic sentiments, representing the Creator as an essence pervading all nature have been given to our people, and have been received even by some who have had a long experience as teachers of the Word of God. The results of this insidious devising will break out again and again. There are many for whom special efforts will have to be put forth to free them from this specious deception. {BCL 79.3}
(2)
As I am shown special things of Satan's science, and how he deceived the holy angels, I am afraid of the men who have entered into the study of the science that Satan carried into the warfare in heaven. How I have longed to be where I should not be compelled to see the same science practiced on this earth by medical practitioners. How my heart has been agonized as I have seen souls accepting the inducements held out to them to unite with those who were warring against God. When they once accept the bait it seems impossible to break the spell that Satan casts over them, because the enemy works out the science of deception as he worked it out in the heavenly courts. He has worked so diligently with men in our day that he has won the game again and again. {BCL 128.3}
