Basic HTML Version
by
Herbert W. Armstrong
Is it starvation? Is it nature's way of healing sickness and
disease? ls it dangerous or beneficia!?
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T SEEMS
almost no one
knows the real
TRUTH
about fasti ng. One doctor
called it the "Fast Way to
Health." Another called it
"starvation diet. ,
One person asked,
"If
1
missed two meals in a row,
would I die?" Apparently many
people seem to feel that if they
missed more than one meal a
day they would at least be in
serious danger.
Sorne people believe in fasting
from the very moment they feel the
first warning signs and pains of a
cold oran approaching fever. Many
people say: " You should always
feed a cold,
but
starve a fever."
But is this true?
Is fasting dangerous? Is it bene–
ficia!? Is it nature's way of
heal–
ing?
Time to Know Trut h
You think you already know the
answer?
Don't be too sure!
I know of hundreds, if not thou–
sands of our readers who think they
know the truth about fasting-but
who
do
not-and EVERYBODY
needs, seriously, to read this arti–
cle!
On the one hand sensible fasting
is
not
a starvation diet, and those
who have the starvation fear are at
one erroneous extreme- whether
ignorant layman or professional
physician. Most doctors, incidental–
ly, have studied
medicine,
not fast–
ing, as an aid toward elimination of
June/ July 1982
disease. One doctor said to me:
"We doctors have been kept so
busy treating sick patients with
drugs and medicines, we have had
little time to study the
causes
of
sickness and disease, or much about
diet and nutrition."
In the "healing arts" (an unfor–
tunate and incorrect term) profes–
sional men have tended to special–
ize each in his one field
only.
The
medical physician seeks the cure
almost exclusively by drugs or sur–
gery. The chiropractor seeks to
cure by manipulating the spine–
perhaps with the aid of prescribed
diet. The naturopath by "natural"
means. Medica! doctors generally
ridicule fasting in the case of sick–
ness or disease, j ust as they would
avoid recommending chiropractic
treatments, or any other method
outside their one field of
medicine.
Fasting is simply outside their
field. A few medica) doctors have
advocated fasting, but certainly
they are in the minority.
But to look on sensible fasting as
starvation is an untrue extreme,
based on plain ignorance.
On the other hand, sorne go to
the opposite extreme of regarding
fasting as a CURE-ALL.
NEITHER EXTREME IS THE
TRUTH!
Wise fasting, under proper con–
ditions,
is beneficia!, not danger–
ous!
On the other hand, just as I say,
truthfully, "there is not a
cure
in a
carload of medicine," so I say FAST–
ING NEVER HEALS!
Those two statements, in the
paragraph above, will come as a
shock to many. Millions firmly
believe that medicines cure dis–
eases. 1 have never heard a physi–
cian make such a claim. Many doc–
tors have admitted candidly that
medicines DO NOT CURE. "We only
use medicines," these doctors have
said,
"to aid nature. "
But, the few who do believe in
fasting
when ill will surely be
shocked to see the statement under
my by-Jine that FASTING NEVER
HEALS! Yet that statement is abso–
lutely true- and it's about time we
come to UNDERSTAND what fasting
is-and what it is NOT!
Fastlng Never Heals
Fasting does not HEAL!
Heali ng is a divine miracle.
Healing is the
forgiveness of
S/N- and none can forgive sin but
GoD. Fasting is self-inflicted-a
human
effort, not divine miracle–
and fasting cannot forgive sin.
Jesus Christ healed the sick.
It
was always HIS
WILL.
He healed the
sick in ancient Israel, long before
bis human appearance, born human
of the virgin Mary. One of bis
names is Yahweh - Ropheka–
which, translated into English,
means OUR GoD-HEALER.
To the griping, complaining !sra–
elites in the arid lands approaching
Mt. Sinai, he said, "1 am the LoRD
that healeth thee." And in the orig–
inal Hebrew language, in which
Moses wrote this, his name was
given as "Yahweh-Ropheka."
David
knew
God heals, as surely
as he forgives sin: "Who forgiveth
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