Why, despite medical knowledge, are so many sick today?
Is "the pill" becoming the new idol of the 20th century?
THIS generation has witnessed "the jet age," "the nuclear age" and — now — "the space age." Rapid means of communication have shrunk the world. Vast oceans, mountain ranges and deserts are no longer insurmountable barriers between nations and peoples. Continents are now quickly spanned by supersonic jets.
Why No Peace of Mind
But this fast-moving pace has not brought peace of mind. It has served, instead, to increase our nervous-tension.
Human beings (without their consent) are catapulted into this world, live a fast life, and as quickly pass from earth's scene. Millions die prematurely — many dropping dead with HEART ATTACKS in their twenties or even in their 'teens! The cause? One, certainly is hypertension, generated by the swift-moving age in which we live!
Millions fear the ominous, any moment nuclear threat of world annihilation. Tensions, frustrations, anxieties and maddening fears today drive many to mental and emotional disturbances, or to ultimate suicide!
Is there no solution to the frustration and tension generated by this fast-moving age?
The Era of the Pill
Many have asked, "How will history label this moment of time in which we live?"
"Very probably," says the London Daily Mirror, "as the Pill Age . . . "There can be little doubt this is THE ERA OF THE ALL-POWERFUL PILL" (The Daily Mirror, London — , December 5th, 1963).
The author of the above quote is Ronald Bedford, Science Editor of The Daily Mirror. He points out that today one can obtain a pill for just about everything. There is a pill to wake you up, or to put you to sleep; to give you a suntan, or to stop you from getting a sunburn; to quell your fears, to alleviate the nagging torture of worry, to reduce or increase your appetite, to 'zip you up for a party,' or to calm you down after it is over; a pill to curb the smoking habit or to kill the drinking habit; pills to prevent pregnancy or pills to increase your chances of pregnancy; pills to lift a headache! Pills, pills, pills for just about everything which ails you — or which you think may ail you!
Yes, in the Western World one can get a pin claiming to alleviate or "cure" almost anything pertaining to the body or the mind. Here in Britain most of these pills can be obtained at Government expense — on the National Health Service!
Though nobody knows the exact number of pills, capsules and tablets swallowed in Britain every day, the number is astronomical. "But, says Science Editor Bedford," a spokesman for the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry, to which nearly all the big drug firms belong, told me yesterday: 'It could be around the 10,000,000,000-a-year mark!'
"In terms of aspirin-sized tablets, laid edge-to-edge, this would put a double girdle of pills around the equator.
"And still leave enough over to lay a two-lane pill highway between Lands End [the extreme western tip of England] and New York.
"The national drug bill now runs around the £106,000,000-a-year mark (about $300,000,000). . . .
"The national pill bill itself tops the £1,000,000-a-week mark ($2,800,000)" (The Daily Mirror, London, December 5th, 1963). And remember, these pills are consumed weekly by fewer than 50,000,000 people of Britain.
The Science Editor of The Daily Mirror then asked the question, "Are we becoming a nation of pill addicts?" His answer was an emphatic "Yes"!
Britons Worship the "All-powerful Pill"?
Editor Bedford was shocked by how many doctors take the "easy way out" and all too often reach for the prescription pad instead of taking a few minutes or their time to explain- to the patient his fears. To explain why he need not rely on some pill or drug to alleviate his fears, worries and real or imagined pain.
"They [the doctors) know that a box of pills will send the patient away from the surgery happy that something, at least, has been done. They know, too, that the pill habit has become a status symbol for many of their patients.
"But patients themselves have become far too reliant on the pill," says editor Bedford. They shun common sense. They shut out self-reliance.
"They are happy to pay this price to WORSHIP at the shrine of the blue TABLET, the pink PILL, and the multi colored CAPSULE.
"Even DUMMY PILLS, containing harmless compounds, can lift the look of misery from a troubled face — simply because the taker has a simple faith in THE MAGIC PILL" (The Daily Mirror, London, December 5th, 1963).
The Science Editor of The Daily Mirror then mentions that not long ago people would take their physical and mental problems or troubles to God. "They would kneel by the bedside and ask that their faith might be strengthened in order that the spirit could triumph over the flesh" (The Daily Mirror, London, December 5th, 1963).
But how many take their physical and emotional problems to God today? And really rely on God for deliverance from their mental, emotional or physical problems or infirmities? A very few do. But of the vast majority "Many more prefer to troop to the surgery, and come away clutching a scrap of paper marked E.C.10 — a Health Service prescription.
"For some, the PILL is indeed a SAVIOR.
"But for others, the 20th Century prayer is fast becoming one which goes "Our PILL, which art in Chemists, Hallowed be thy name" (The Daily Mirror, London, December 5th, 1963).
This article just quoted, entitled "Savior or Mania?" from The Daily Mirror, shows the extent to which the people of Britain have turned to the "ALL-POWERFUL PILL" for deliverance from fears, frustration and for healing — instead of relying on the Almighty Creator God!
But what about America? Do the people in America rely less on the "all-powerful pill"?
America's Aspirin Addiction
"Machines at New Jersey-Sterling Drug Inc. have just produced their 100 billionth Bayer Aspirin tablet for the insatiable U.S. market," reports Time magazine. "All in all, U.S. industry now manufactures 27 million lbs. of aspirin a year — enough to fill four one hundred-car freight trains, enough for the 16 BILLION/ straight, five-grain aspirin tablets that Americans swallow each year, plus an even greater amount for the children's miniature aspirin and such formulations as Bufferin, APC tablets, Coricidin and Alka-Seltzer" (Time, April 10, 1964).
Aspirin, taken in moderation, may afford temporary relief from an impending cold. But too many Americans gulp down, without reason, an almost endless number of aspirins. And this report, remember, only deals with aspirins. It does not include the many hundreds of other pep pills, capsules and tablets which are daily swallowed by a gullible public in hopes of obtaining health or happiness.
"Aspirin well deserves its popularity. It is the world's first true wonder drug, and THOUGH IT CURES NOTHING, it is still the best palliative [palliate = "to ease without curing" — Webster's New Collegiate Dict.) for an astonishing variety of ills, ranging from the common cold to the crippling deformity of rheumatoid arthritis. . . . At about half a cent a tablet it is THE WORLD'S CHEAPEST DRUG" (Time, April 10, 1964).
Aspirins are now used as a weapon against headaches, fevers, pains of every description, hangovers, cancer, rheumatic disorders, the common cold, kidney stones, gout and many other ailments. But what is the result? Are we really getting healthier?
WHY does a gullible public continue to gulp countless billions of tablets, pills and capsules in a mad Endeavor to alleviate their aches, pains, illnesses — an effort to overtake that illusive thing which we call "happiness"? Why? Because we have forgotten God's way!
Real Cause of Physical and Mental Ailments
It may sound strange to your ears, but only through God's Word, the Bible, can man find the cause and the real cure of headaches, cancer, rheumatism and the endless diseases, ailments and maladies which humanity today suffers from.
Today's sick and mentally disturbed world was long ago revealed in your Bible. It's in Isaiah, the very first chapter!
"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
"Ah SINFUL nation, a people laden with INIQUITY, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord. . . .
"Why should ye be stricken [with sickness and disease] anymore? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
"From the sole of the FOOT even unto the HEAD there is NO SOUNDNESS in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment" (Isa. 1:3-6).
That is certainly today's world! Notice the cause of the illnesses which today are so prevalent in America, in Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and in the democracies of Northwestern Europe. The peoples of these countries have transgressed the spiritual and physical laws of Almighty God. They are cursed with mental and physical illness — the penalty of broken law.
Our hospital beds are overflowing! Every other hospital bed is today occupied by a mental patient. Cancer strikes at nearly every, family in America. Today it is not uncommon for people in their 'teens or twenties to have debilitating or even fatal heart attacks. Why?
The reason for all of this mental and physical illness is that our people have forgotten God, FORSAKEN HIS LAWS and ways, and have turned in utter disregard and outright rebellion against that way which would bring them true health, happiness and everlasting peace (Prov. 14:12; Judg. 17:6; Isa. 48:17, 18; 55:6-9).
(For proof that our peoples are the descendants of the so-called Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, write for Mr. Armstrong's free booklet entitled "The United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy").
Long ago, God Almighty prophesied through His servant, Moses, that our people would fall victim to every imaginable type of disease and insanity — if they disobeyed Him. You can read this clearly in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.
Notice especially Deuteronomy 28: 21- 22, 27-28, 34-35 and 58-62.
"The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until He have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. . . . The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning. . . . The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt [boils], and with the emerods [tumors], and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou can not be healed. The Lord shall smite thee with madness [insanity), and blindness, and astonishment of heart [fear). . . . So that thou shalt be mad [insane) for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see."
And if that is not enough to teach us our lesson, "The Lord shall smite thee in the knees [rheumatism], and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head. . . . If thou wilt not observe, to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD; Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. Moreover He will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee."
And what if that's not enough to teach us our lessons? "Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. And ye shall be left few in number. . . .
Our peoples are reaping an increasing harvest of sickness, disease and insanity because of our rebellion, our perversity. Despite medical knowledge we are plunging headlong down the path of disease, insanity and utter ruin!
Solution? — Obey God!
What, then, is the solution to the billions of headaches, heartaches and untold misery and death which our people are suffering? The solution is to remove the cause — disobedience to God's spiritual and physical laws!
God reveals the answer. "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to HIS COMMANDMENTS, and keep all HIS STATUTES, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for i AM THE LORD THAT HEALETH THEE" (Exod. 15:26).
Yes, if the peoples of America, the British Commonwealth, and the democracies of Northwestern Europe would diligently obey God's laws governing our spiritual and physical well-being, and do what is right in His sight, we would be free from the diseases, insanity and the staggering toll in needless premature deaths which we are reaping today.
God admonishes, "Fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be HEALTH to thy navel and marrow to thy bones" (Prov. 3:7, 8). "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. . . . For they are life unto those that find them, and HEALTH to all their flesh" (Prov. 4:20, 22).
But, instead of obeying God, our peoples flagrantly violate not only the spiritual laws of God, but even the physical laws which God set to produce health and well-being! (See Lev. 7:23, 11:1- 47, 17:10-15; Acts 15:20; Isa. 58:6-14).
Yet people want to avoid reaping the penalty brought on by such violations! The rule of life has come to be "live as you please, and then rely on the all-powerful pill, tablet or capsule. It will deliver you!"
God pities our peoples. Like dumb sheep our nations have gone down the path that leads to certain perdition. God says, "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep ALL MY COMMANDMENTS always, THAT IT MIGHT BE WELL WITH THEM, and with their children forever"! (Dent. 5:29)
"You shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be WELL WITH YOU, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess" (verses 32 and 33).
God's way is the right way, the profitable way — the only way to real peace of mind, health and happiness!
Notice how Isaiah was inspired to phrase it. "Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
"O that thou hadst hearkened to my COMMANDMENTS!" (Isa. 48:17, 18)
When will erring humanity come to see that "God is love" (I John 4:16), that all His ways, laws, commandments and statutes are right? They're really good for us! (Rom. 7:12, 14; Psa. 19-7) God earnestly desires us to "prosper and be in health" (III John 2). He not only wants us to "have life," but He wants us to "have it more ABUNDANTLY" (John 10:10), and rightly enjoy "pleasures for evermore" (Psa. 16:11).
When will man awaken from stupor and realize that the non-healing, ineffectual, non-curing, nerve-deadening, chemical concoction called a PILL is no permanent solution to mental, emotional and physical health problems? Why not read our free booklet "Does God Heal Today?" It will make the truth plain.
It's time puny, brutish men come to their senses and realize that the way to peace of mind, health, happiness, prosperity and life — is God's way — the way of obedience to His holy and righteous laws and commandments!
When humanity is taught God's "ways," when we HEED His "Word," walk in God's "paths" and OBEY His "law" — then (and only then) will we become supremely happy, healthy, prosperous — and live forever! (Isa. 2:3; 9:6-7; 11:1-9)