THE BROKEN BLUEPRINT

PART THREE
THE STORY OF LOMA LINDA: WHAT IT DID TO OUR CHURCH(1905 - ONWARD)

The 1908 Burden letter to Ruble  

PART THREE

THE STORY OF LOMA LINDA

AND WHAT IT DID TO OUR CHURCH

(1905 - ONWARD)

BEGINNINGS

INTRODUCTION

In Part One of this book, we surveyed the beginnings of our educational work and how repeated attempts by Ellen White to initiate blueprint schools were foiled, both in Battle Creek and at Emmanuel Missionary College.

In Part Two, we viewed something new: Ellen White had been shown that the time had come for schools, ministries, and mission projectsindependent of church controlto begin operating. We watched as Madison College was founded, learned how it carried on its blueprint work, and discovered the fatal errorthe yearning for accreditationthat led to its downfall.

Now, in Part Three, we will turn our attention more fully to how the blueprint for a medical missionary school/sanitarium should be conducted. We will also discover that Loma Linda, founded at about the same time as Madison, made the same mistake: It decided to seek accreditation. But, because of the nature of the situation, unlike Madison, this error by Loma Linda caused great problems for our entire denominationproblems we live with today, problems that deepen every year.

Some of those desolating effects will be briefly overviewed in Part Four.

BEGINNINGS OF OUR HEALTH MESSAGE

The first real advance in health lines came with the 1863 vision given to Ellen White at Otsego, Michigan, just after the General Conference Session that year; at this time the denomination was organized and its name officially became the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

At the May 1866 General Conference Session, Ellen White gave a powerful address, in which she urged the need to begin sharing the health message with others. As a result, Dr. Horatio S. Lay began a health journal, the Health Reformer,

That same year, the Health Reform Institute was started in Battle Creek with Dr. Lay in charge.

James reported that Ellen wept bitterly when the Health Institute was located on eight acres of land in Battle Creek instead of on a rural farm, as the Lord had recommended (Review, September 6, 1873). By that time, Battle Creek was a factory town of about 5,000 people.

A two-story building was erected, equipped with treatment rooms; and the institution opened for patients on September 5, 1866. Soon the name was changed to the Western Health Reform Institute.

The correct application of water, the right use of air, and a proper diet, along with other natural helps, brought healing to many, and spread the fame of the institute. The allopaths taught that healing comes from the applications of poisonous substances. But Battle Creek was showing the world that healing came from right living and the use of harmless healing substances.

The practice of health principles and the use of simple hydropathic means of treating disease were regarded as a means of cooperating with the divine power, which alone can truly heal. Disease was seen to be the result of transgression of natural law; and the duty and privilege of Christians to obey all these laws, and teach others to obey them, was a part of the everlasting gospel.M.E. Olsen, Origin and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists, p. 270.

AN EARLY STATEMENT

The following warning was among her earliest statements about our medical work. It was written in 1865, two years after the health message was first given to us.

The health reform is a branch of the special work of God for the benefit of His people. I saw that in an institution established among us the greatest danger would be of its managers departing from the spirit of the present truth and from that simplicity which should ever characterize the disciples of Christ.

A warning was given me against lowering the standard of truth in any way in such an institution in order to help the feelings of unbelievers and thus secure their patronage. The great object of receiving unbelievers into the institution is to lead them to embrace the truth. If the standard be lowered, they will get the impression that the truth is of little importance, and they will go away in a state of mind harder of access than before.1 Testimonies, p. 560 (cf. 1 Testimonies, pp. 633-634).

KELLOGG AND THE SANITARIUM

In 1875, young John Harvey Kellogg, M.D. (1852-1942), a graduate of Belleview Hospital Medical School in New York, joined the staff. The next year, he was appointed medical superintendent. Two years later, a second building was added, and the name was changed to Medical and Surgical Sanitarium. When someone remarked that sanitarium was not in the dictionary, Kellogg replied that it soon would be.

Gradually, the Battle Creek Sanitarium achieved an international reputation, as word spread that here was a place that really healed people, with no undesirable aftereffects.

In 1877, 1884, 1887, 1894, and 1895 more additions were made to the Sanitarium. In 1895, the American Medical Missionary College was established, with Kellogg as its president.

Adhering closely to Spirit of Prophecy methods of treatment, the Battle Creek Sanitarium became known worldwide.

In 1891, Dr. David Paulson stopped by to see John Harvey Kellogg, M.D., at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Paulson asked a question he had been thinking about for some time. John, how is it that you are able to stay five years ahead of the rest of the medical profession?

Kellogg leaned back in his chair, and the answer he gave was one that Paulson never forgot.

Kellogg replied that, if something new was advocated, he instantly adopted it if, from his knowledge of Mrs. Whites writings, it was sound. When other physicians finally accepted it, after slowly feeling their way, Kellogg had a five-year head start. On the other hand, Kellogg rejected some of the new medical fads because they did not measure up to the light given [to] Mrs. White. When other doctors finally discovered their mistake, they wondered why Kellogg had not been caught as they had.Richard A. Shaefer, Legacy, p. 60.

Unfortunately, something happened inside Kelloggs thinking at the turn of the century. He became extremely proud and began veering away from confidence in Ellen White.

By 1900, the entire complex had over 900 staff and workers. As other Adventist medical institutions were started elsewhere, Kellogg managed to become head of them. By this time, he was no longer using Seventh-day Adventist in the various names.

In addition, a growing conflict was intensifying between John Kellogg and the leaders of the General Conference. Just after the turn of the century, by various legal manipulations, he quietly began working toward gaining legal control of the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the medical school.

Very confident of himself, Kellogg wrote The Living Temple, which taught pantheism. Fortunately, Ellen White saved the denomination from that crisis. But by 1908, using legal manipulations, Dr. J.H. Kellogg managed to wrest control of Battle Creek Sanitarium and the American Medical College adjacent to it, away from the denomination. His medical school collapsed in the spring of 1910, never again to reopen. (The story is told in detail in the present authors book on the lives of Kellogg and Ballenger, The Alpha of Apostasy, 64 pp., 8 x 11, now in our 232 page Doctorinal History Trackbook, $17.50 + $3.00).

A grandiose building program in 1927, which included a 15-story tower and an elaborately decorated lobby and dining room, brought immense debt upon the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Two years later the Wall Street crash occurred; and Kellogg desperately tried to pay off that debt. He had to file for bankruptcy in 1933. In 1938, reorganization of the Sanitarium was attempted under bankruptcy protection; but, failing, in 1942 it was sold to the U.S. Government. John Harvey Kellogg died on December 14, 1943, in his home in Battle Creek at the age of 91.

Now we turn our attention to Gods plan for a replacement for the work, which Kellogg had shattered.

Three years before the Battle Creek Sanitarium and college were taken from us in 1908, the Lord guided that a far better site for our headquarters medical missionary sanitarium and training school was located. If Gods directions had been followed, the entire denomination would today be the head and not the tail. It would have commanded a leading position in medical missionary work to the entire world.

Here is what happened:

  FINDING HILL BEAUTIFUL

SEARCH FOR A NEW SCHOOL SITE

Even though, by the turn of the century, the Battle Creek Sanitarium was a leading treatment center, the special work God had for our people in medical missionary work was not being done. In 1903, Ellen White wrote:

Medical Missionary work is yet in its infancy. The meaning of genuine medical missionary work is known by but few.Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 8, p. 28.

In this study, we will learn the blueprint for a medical missionary training center.

Although, as a result of Ellen Whites urging, both the Paradise Valley and Glendale properties had been purchased for use as sanitariums, neither provided exactly what the Lord wanted.

Three years before locating those properties, she described a certain property in southern California which she had been shown at night in vision.

I have been unable to sleep after half-past eleven at night. Many things, in figures and symbols, are passing before me. There are sanitariums in running order near Los Angeles. At one place there is an occupied building, and there are fruit trees on the sanitarium grounds. In this institution, outside the city, there is much activity.EGW, Manuscript 152, 1901.

The view was so real, she said she felt as if she was there, viewing the patients outside. Some were sitting beneath the shade trees while others were working in the garden. Some of the shade trees formed tent-like canopies. Neither the Paradise nor Glendale sites fitted this description.

John Allen Burden (1862-1942) was one of our first sanitarium administrators. When he was nine years old, John already showed a deep interest in the Spirit of Prophecy writings. In 1882, he entered Healdsburg College; nine years later, in 1891, he became manager of the St. Helena Sanitarium. From about 1901 to 1904, he helped develop sanitarium work in Australia.

In 1900, soon after her return from Australia, Ellen White made her home, which she called Elmshaven, in Pratt Valley just below the St. Helena Sanitarium (established in 1878). Urging that medical institutions be established in southern California, she was guided to select John Burden to undertake the task of locating suitable sites. In 1904, he began the search. Ellen White said God had shown her that he would find good properties available at very low prices.

While surveying the coastal areas and valleys, he found many tourist hotels and health resort buildings for sale; these had earlier gone bankrupt during a real estate boom and bust.

Two of these were purchased privately on her advice: the Paradise Valley Sanitarium (1904), in National City, and the Glendale Sanitarium (1905).

Further inland, near San Bernadino, was a Victorian-styled complex called the Loma Linda Resort Hotel. When the original owner went into bankruptcy in the 1890s, the property and its extensive acreage was purchased by a group of Los Angeles businessmen and physicians who wanted to develop it as a health resort.

Renaming it Loma Linda (which means Hill Beautiful) they remodeled and richly furnished the hotel, added five patient cottages and a recreation hall, and then extensively landscaped the hill behind the facility. By this time, they had $150,000 invested in the property. But, by 1904, with few patrons and desperate for a way out, the group put it up for sale.

In early 1905, Ellen White journeyed south; when she arrived at the San Bernardino Valley, she was impressed to instruct Elder Burden to look for a property in that area which could be used for a country sanitarium.

Shortly afterward, Burden found Loma Linda. The hotel, ancillary buildings, and 76 acres were for sale for $110,000.

The sellers wanted to rid themselves of this white elephant, yet were hoping the buyer would make it succeed as a medical facility. So they told Burden he could have it for $40,000 (later discounted to $38,900). Ellen White told John to accept it. The option was signed on May 26, 1905, with a down payment of $1,000. Also included in the sale were shares of stock in two water companies. These were important since water is scarce in that area.

ELLEN WHITE VISITS LOMA LINDA

While he was living in Loma Linda, a number of years ago, and researching its history, David Lee was entrusted by Dr. and Mrs. L.H. Lonegan with a manuscript (entitled Story of Loma Linda) written by John Burden, our pioneer organizer and manager at Loma Linda. The document is also to be found in Document File 8A at the Ellen G. White Estate.

Here is the first of several excerpts from that manuscript. It describes Ellen Whites first visit to the place, which occurred on June 12, 1905:

After the return from Washington of the absent members of the Southern California Conference Committee, a meeting was called and we were asked what had been done about Loma Linda property. We explained that we had secured a thousand dollars for the first payment and had signed the contract for the purchase of Loma Linda at forty thousand dollars. ($38,900)

Natually, some of the committee felt that in view of their telegram against securing Loma Linda, in view of the advice of the Pacific Union Conference against undertaking further enterprises because of the overwhelming financial obligations, we had acted unadvisedly. It was suggested that they must officially repudiate all responsibility for what had been done. The feeling of tension was lessened, however, as soon as it was learned that the conference had not been involved financially in the purchase of the property.

We urged them, however, before taking final action, to attend a council meeting at Loma Linda with Mrs. White who was due to arrive from Washington the following morning; and this after some hesitation, they consented to do. Besides members of the conference committee, about twenty-five other members of the Los Angeles Church were invited to attend the council.

Ellen White arrived and the meeting was held on June 12, 1905 (E.G. White Biography, Vol. 6, p. 17).

The next morning about 10:10 oclock the train from Los Angeles stopped at the Loma Linda station in front of the sanitarium. The large committee were inspecting the grounds and the building when Sister White and her company drove up in an express wagon. Their train from the east had stopped at Redlands Junction, as the overland trains did not stop at Loma Linda. As Sister White stepped from the express wagon to the ground she said to her son who was with her, Willie, I have been here before. He said, No, Mother, you have never been here. Then this is the very place the Lord has shown me, for it is all familiar. Addressing another who stood by, she said to the effect We must have this place. We should reason from cause to effect. The Lord has not given us this property for any common purpose.

As she walked about the grounds and the buildings at Loma Linda, she frequently remarked, This is the very place the Lord has shown me. We entered what was then known as the assembly building at the top of the hill. Here in one room was a billiard table, in another, a bowling alley, and in the third room a card table with cards scattered over the floor. As Mrs. White entered the room, she looked and said, This building will be of great value to us, a school will be established here. Redlands will become a center, as also will Loma Linda. Battle Creek is going down. God will establish His medical work at this place. John A. Burden, Story of Loma Linda.

At that time, the denomination still owned the Battle Creek medical facilities; but, knowing in advance that it would be lost to us, Ellen had been shown that Loma Linda would take its place. But, she said, Gods plan was that it would go beyond that which the Battle Creek Sanitarium and training center was accomplishing. In this present book, we will learn what the plan was.

Much of the remainder of the complete Burden manuscript (Story of Loma Linda) deals with the many hardships, sacrifices, and providences in the development of the Loma Linda property over the next few years.

Single-handedly Ellen White urged the believers in southern California to recognize the importance of this project.

Our people in southern California need to awake to the magnitude of the work to be done within their own borders. Let them awake to prayer and labor. . I have a message to bear to the church members in southern California. Arouse, and avail yourselves of the opportunities open to you. Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 3, pp. 30-31.

On June 20 [eight days after her arrival], the Southern California Conference accepted the property as a denominational institution. After Elder Burden gave a description of the property to the assembled delegates, Ellen White spoke, followed by the conference president. In an official report of this meeting, it is recorded:

He then stated that Sister White had said that this sanitarium should be the principle training school on this coast. At this point, Sister White interrupted him and said, This will be. Minutes of Southern California Conference, June 20, 1905.

The counsel of the Spirit of Prophecy had been confirmed. As we moved forward in faith, the Lord opened the way before us, and the money came from unexpected sources. Nearly all were at last convinced that truly God was carrying forward the enterprise.Burden, Story of Loma Linda.

Well-aware of the possibilities, if the blueprint was followed, she wrote that year:

It is difficult to comprehend all that this transaction means to us.Letter 291, 1905.

By April 15, 1906, the entire purchase price had been paid and a dedication service was held on the sanitarium grounds.

We should appreciate Loma Linda as a place which the Lord foresaw we should need, and which He gave us.Medical Ministry, p. 56.

I desire that all the work of this place shall be a correct representation of what our health institutions should be.EGW, April 20, 1911.

It is well to pause here and consider John A. Burden. As you will learn in the coming pages, it was he who shouldered the full responsibility for fulfilling the Spirit of Prophecy blueprint for Loma Linda, until he was stopped.

He was calm, quiet, naturally cautious, but emboldened to audacity by his faith in the Word of God. Behind a noncommittal coolness of manner blazed an ardent and heart-warming fervor of loyalty and trustworthiness and a single-minded purpose to bless his fellow men. Mrs. White knew him well, and valued him highly. To him went her main counsel and support in this matter, and through him she saw the providences of God unfolding step by step.A.W. Spalding, Christs Last Legion, p. 152.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE OBJECTIVE?

In the beginning, John Burden was the chairman of the board, the president of the corporation, the manager of the sanitarium, as well as its chaplain.

How should he start? What principles should he adopt? Fortunately, Elder Burden had an earlier experience in following Spirit of Prophecy principles. He also had close cooperation from Ellen White. She intended to make this a truly blueprint medical missionary training center, in the full sense of the term.

At the time of her first visit to the Loma Linda property, Ellen White said something which clearly revealed the objective:

While in the amusement hall [of the Loma Linda property], she remarked God will reestablish His medical work at this place. We are further from the true picture of medical missionary work than when we first began. He never designed that our work should blossom out in the professional and commercial way in which it stands before the world today [at the Battle Creek Sanitarium]. We have educated bedside nurses, when we should have educated missionary nurses to go into the homes of the people and the villages, towns, and cities, ministering to the people, singing Gospel songs and giving Bible readings. Those who do this work will reap a rich harvest of souls, both from the higher and lower walks of life.J.A. Burden, Story of Loma Linda.

Not bedside nurses, but missionary nurses. A radically different type of nurse and physician training program was envisaged. The plan was not to train medical personnel merely to staff hospitals, but to labor in the communities of America and throughout the worldministering to the needs of people, giving them Bible studies, and bringing the final message into their lives!

SCHOOL BEGINS

During that summer, the first nursing students, most of them young people, arrived; and some on-the-job instruction was given. The sanitarium opened to patients on October 9, 1905; and, that winter, as many as 55 patients were cared for at one time. In November, Julia A. White, M.D. (no relation), recruited by Ellen White, arrived to be the sanitariums obstetrician and head of the training program for nurses. Formal instruction began early in January 1906.

Shortly afterward, the conference elected Warren E. Howell (1869-1943) to be the first president of this new school in Loma Linda (1906-1907). He had earlier taught at Healdsburg and Emmanuel Missionary College, then became president of Healdsburg (1904-1906). Like Burden, Howell was solidly for the blueprint. This new school in Loma Linda was given the name, Loma Linda College of Evangelists. His task was to gather a faculty and help Elder Burden organize nursing, general collegiate, and evangelistic medical curricula.

The next year, 1907, Howell was sent to fill a mission appointment in Greece. It seems strange that the General Conference would suddenly decide to send him to the Mediterranean (Howell knew nothing about the area or the language), when this important work at Loma Linda was barely beginning. But this pattern would continue.

 George Knapp Abbott, M.D., took his place as head of the school (1907-1909). As you may know, this was the same Abbott, another solid pioneer worker who wrote an outstanding little book on hydrotherapy, Technique of Hydrotherapy, and was co-author of the later Physical Therapy in Nursing Care (which was one of the six books the present author used in the preparation of his Water Therapy Manual; 294 pp., $10.00 + $2.50). Both of these books are now out of print. The Manual is an excellent hydrotherapy instruction book, available from the publisher of the book you now have in hand. It is one of the most complete books on the subject available today. This is fortunate, since there are not many thorough books on the subject available today. (The complete book is also included in the Third Edition of the present authors 424-page, 8 x 11, Natural Remedies Encyclopedia.)

We could, with profit, drop much of the dispensary work that is done. Giving the common treatments [hydrotherapy, etc.] to the sick will accomplish more.EGW to A.G. Daniells, 1903; Unpublished Testimonies, p. 317.

Only nine years of prior schooling were required in order to enroll in the nursing program. After taking a basic two years instruction in nursing, the students were then eligible to enroll in the evangelistic medical course.

On December 9, 1909, under a second new name, the College of Medical Evangelists (CME), the institution received from the State of California a charter authorizing the granting of academic and professional degrees.

Unfortunately, in the second decade of the twentieth century, the new medical college began to veer away, toward the professionalism, practices, and treatments given by non-Adventist medical schools.

Rather early, pressure was already being heavily exerted to move Loma Linda away from the blueprint. Fortunately, we have a letter which provides a glimpse of the divergent views. It will provide us with a broad introduction to the entire situation back then.

Not everyone was in agreement with the blueprint. In fact, there were four views regarding what should be done with the fledgling institution.

In order to better understand this, we will skip forward three years to 1908, to a letter written to a high-ranking church leader.

After that, we will next overview a large number of objectives and principles of blueprint medical missionary training centers and then return to the Loma Linda story, to see how Ellen Whites plan progressed. 

AN IMPORTANT LETTER

THE 1908 BURDEN LETTER TO RUBLE

In the spring of 1908, John Burden, the pioneer administrator at Loma Linda, wrote a letter to Dr. W.A. Ruble at the General Conference. Burden envisioned a medical school founded entirely on Spirit of Prophecy principles. It is unfortunate that, within a very few years after 1908, the situation at the Loma Linda medical school began to change. But, in this one letter, we find a remarkable overview of the entire controversy.

Wells Allen Ruble (1868-1961) had been a missionary to South Africa and, later, principal of Claremont Union College in that nation. Returning to America, he graduated in 1906 from Kelloggs American Medical Missionary College with an M.D. degree.

Ruble, at the time this letter was written to him, was prominent in a medical advisory role at the General Conference in Takoma Park. Unknown to both Burden and himself, two years later, in 1910, Ruble would be elected to the presidency of CME (1910-1914) and chairmanship of the Medical Missionary Council (which in 1913 became the General Conference Medical Department).

In this letter, Burden was trying to impress upon Ruble the importance of adhering to Spirit of Prophecy principles at the Loma Linda medical school.

Burden was only 46 years of age when he wrote this letter. After the changeover began in 1910, he continued on as a non-medical manager at CME for several years. However, from 1910 onward, he was shut out from the major curricular policy changes which took place.

In 1916, Burden was transferred to the management of the Paradise Valley Sanitarium. Before his death in 1942, he must have wept often at the course taken later by the College of Medical Evangelists. It had become a look-alike medicinal drug training institution, mirroring the other medical schools in the land.

Keep in mind that this same year, 1908, the loss by the denomination of the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the American Medical College in Battle Creek had been finalized. John Harvey Kellogg and his medical and legal associates had effectively stolen it. (See the present authors book, The Omega of Apostasy, mentioned earlier and now in our Doctrinal History Trackbook, for the complete story.) Our leaders were wondering what direction the medical training school at Loma Linda should take. 

As the following letter indicates, by 1908 there were four different views in the denomination as to what should be done at Loma Linda.

It eventually becomes clear in the letter that John Burden was urging our church leaders to adopt the third view, described below, and push it through to success in state governments throughout the nation.

In the following letter you are going to find answers to the puzzling question of how, at that time, we could have obtained official recognition while adhering fully to the blueprint in our medical work.

As you will recognize, Burdens letter to Ruble was both a warning and a prophecy. (In the following letter, brackets and all emphasis are ours.)

Loma Linda, Calif., April 13, 1908

Dr. W.A. Ruble, Takoma Park Sta., Washington, D.C.

Dear Brother:

I regret that I cannot be with you in this special council of the General Conference Committee, as I presume [First View] some attention will be given to the question of advanced medical work in our schools.

Loma Linda has been pushing forward in this line, in harmony with the light which has been coming to us for a number of years, and especially since the purchase of this institution and the establishment of the work at Washington.

It has seemed to us that the Lord is calling for an advanced medical-evangelistic training at both of these centers. We have also felt that there was more or less lack of understanding as to just what is called for in this advanced medical educational move.

[Second View] Some have felt, and have so expressed themselves, that all that is called for is what we have been attempting in our sanitarium nurses training schools, with perhaps more Bible instruction and field experience added.

[Third View] Others have felt that there should be a more advanced training in theory and practice, both in the science of the healing art as associated with the work of the third angels message, and possibly become as recognized as those who graduate and could secure State recognition would be at liberty to practice the healing art the same as other physicians.

[Fourth View] Others have seen no place for a medical school short of a thoroughly qualified institution to compete with the medical colleges of the world.

We will designate these various ideas as numbers one, two, three, and four.

[First View] Proposition No. 1 is everywhere recognized among us. It is a work, in a measure at least, understood.

[Second View] The nature, place, and work of No. 2 are beginning to be recognized by many. It is readily seen that for foreign missionaries to be qualified with an advanced training in the healing art, to be capable of diagnosing common diseases and applying what we call rational treatments, would greatly increase their usefulness in the work.

[Rational treatments was a phrase commonly used back then for natural remedies, in contrast with the giving of poison (drug medications) to sick people to make them wellwhich, obviously, was an irrational type of treatment. Another synonym, later used in this letter, is hygiene which also means to clean out and restore. For the same reason, our early workers called their treatment centers sanitariums, since they only gave natural remedies which were sanitary and cleansing. They sanitized or cleaned out and restored the body to health. In contrast, the hospitals of the world dosed the patients with dangerous chemicals. It is easy today to identify poisonous drugs. They are the ones which have contraindications, a euphemism for dangerous side effects.]

This is the work that was recommended at the Medical Convention held at Loma Linda, that the Loma Linda College of Evangelists should strengthen its faculty to carry forward. This work was also endorsed at the Pacific Union Conference held at St. Helena a few months ago; and it was there recommended that the Union Conference and the General Conference unite in helping to carry forward this work, particularly in the way of furnishing the school with such instructors as were available.

[Third View, recommended by Burden] As the Legislature of California has opened the way for the students of such a school as the Loma Linda College of Evangelists to be legally recognized to practice sanitarium methods of healing, or rational remedies, some have felt that it would be wise to have the school chartered under the law that such students as complete the entire three years course and whose qualifications enable them to pass the State examinations, might be free to work as other recognized physicians; i.e., they hold positions in our institutions and comply with all the requirements of the law. This we would designate as proposition No. 3, otherwise no matter how well-qualified they may be to do the work, they would of necessity have to labor as nurses under the direction of legally qualified physicians.

[At the time Burden wrote this, state governments recognized natural remedies equally with drug medication.]

[Continuing the third view] Our understanding of the testimonies is, that while thousands are to be quickly qualified for thorough medical-evangelistic work, some must qualify to labor as physicians. We have been instructed again and again to make the school as strong as possible for the qualification of nurses and physicians; and the opening of a way for its recognition; and especially in view of the fact that California heretofore has been one of the most difficult States for medical practitioners to gain recognition in, seemed to us a divine providence [that they let us continue teaching according to the blueprint], coming as it did the next year after we had started our school.

 [Note that Burden earlier limited this to practice sanitarium methods of healing, or rational remedies. Burden did not approve of drug medication, because he knew the Spirit of Prophecy was totally opposed to it; see chapter 16 in our Medical Missionary Manual, pp. 229-254.]

The battle was fought by the osteopaths, but [instead of only approving the osteopaths] the Legislature then threw the gate wide open for any school whose requirements for entrance to the medical course were equal to a high school preparation on the ten fundamental branches that underlie medical education.

[Satan was working diligently to close the door so our physicians would not be able to operate legally unless they acceded to using drug medications, radiation, and all the rest. Surely, as we look back on it today, the situation looked hopeless and our medical work was destined to eventually be gobbled up by AMA accreditation control, which occurred.

[But the above paragraph reveals what might have been. Ififwe had fought for legal recognition for natural remedies treatments, using herbs, water therapy, and the eight laws of healthGod would have opened the door for us to have it! The osteopaths fought the battle and gained what they wanted. The chiropractors also fought the battle and gained legal approval of their method of treatment. More recently, nurse practitioners have gained the right to practice basic medicine without an M.D. degree; in spite of opposition from the AMA. It could have been done, and God would have opened the door for us.

[Think not that this is an idle dream. Read our Medical Missionary Manual. It was Gods plan to enable our right arm to extend itself and open doors for third angels message evangelism throughout the world!

[The use of natural remedies alonethe only medical method which adhered strictly to obedience to the laws of Godcould have had outstanding success, if we had been willing to remain with them.

[But, instead, between 1912 and 1922, and onward, we gradually complied, step by step, with every requirement placed before us by the AMAs Council on Medical Education. Because of our compliance, the AMA gained a full lock-grip on medical and nursing education. The AMAs hidden objective is simple enough: Require that only those methods of treatment be used which make money for drug and medical appliance manufacturers. And what are they? things that can be patented. It is a well-known fact that those manufacturers funneled kick-back money to AMA coffers through expensive ads placed in the Journal of the AMA. The vast wealth of the drug manufacturers is legendary.]

Materia medica and surgery are both thrown out; so that a good, thorough school of hygiene or rational practice would have no difficulty of being recognized in this state.

[Materia medica was a Latin word, medical materials, meaning anything swallowed, injected, or applied topically to the skin. In the nineteenth century, this included herbs and/or poisonous chemicals; but, since the early part of the twentieth century, the phrase includes only drug medications.

[Were both thrown out; that is, California State laws were totally relaxed so that medical schools were not at that time required to instruct in the use of any particular type of materia medica or surgery.]

And should our school be recognized here, its students would have a vantage ground from which to secure recognition in other states, the same as osteopaths are being recognized. Their healing art is fast being recognized in all the States, but they have had to fight their way to the front with everything against them. Their opening the way will evidently make it easier, for a time at least, for other reputable methods of healing to become recognized.

[This letter was sent to Dr. Ruble, to be read to our General Conference leaders. Elder Burden recognized in this an opportunity, and was here pleading with the General Conference to step into it. But, he explained, they would have to fight every inch of the way, for Satan would oppose them. Elder Burden well-knew the Spirit of Prophecy counsels that the natural remedy work was to be the entering wedge for our Revelation 12:17 and 14:6-12 message to the worldwhich was obedience to the Law of God, by enabling faith in Jesus Christ. Treatment with natural remedies and acceptance of our special truths about the law and the Sabbath go hand in hand. Both teach obedience to the laws of God! But, unfortunately, in the crucial years of 1910 to 1922, our leaders temporized and lost the opportunity.

[At the same time, on another front, Satan was working to separate the medical work from evangelism. He started with Kellogg at Battle Creek, and it intensified in later years as our medical training and physicians became professionalized. Contrary to the blueprint (and the third view held by Burden), matters were arranged that only our M.D.s could diagnose, prescribe, and treat; and they were trained only in drugs and surgery while generally knowing little about natural remedies. Gods plan, as revealed through the Spirit of Prophecy, was that only a few of our people were to become fully qualified to deal with the most advanced levels of sickness with natural remedies. Many others were to care for common physical problems with natural remedies. This was Burdens third view.]

It certainly was a great misfortune that the American Missionary College [in Battle Creek] was launched under cover of the regular schools rather than under the banner of the healing art embodied in the third angels message. And it seems to some of us that we shall make the same mistake they did if we undertake to follow their example in establishing a medical school whose very standard, if it is at all maintained, means commercialism from first to last, or else the students who graduate from the school will lose their casts [recognized position] and standing with those who are following the medical practice of the present day.

[The American Medical College (1895-1910) was started by J.H. Kellogg, who was its sole president. It sought for and received accreditation by having a split campus, with the first two years of training at the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the final two years at two non-Adventist hospitals in Chicago. It issued 194 M.D. degrees before closing down, due to lack of financial support and increasing accreditation demands. It also opened a fully staffed and equipped hospital in Chicago.]

Not so with a new school which makes its own standard and wins its way by its merit; and that standard, if we understand the messages coming to us, is missionary, warp and woof, with the mercenary spirit entirely eliminated. Hence the name chosen, Medical Evangelists.

We should like to be present at your councils and hear your discussion of this question. It is extremely interesting to us, from the fact that we have had to face the issue and set ourselves to solving itor else turn down some of the plainest messages from the servant of the Lord that we have ever received.

We realize that the question is more or less hazy to all, and possibly some see no light in giving it special consideration at this time; but we are of the opinion that God is calling this denomination to a reorganization of its medical work as truly as He called a few years ago for a reorganization of the educational work. Hence, we are moving forward in the best light we can obtain.

We are anxious for your counsel and cooperation. We do not wish to be in the position of running ahead of others in this matter, and shall be glad for your counsel and advice. We only write thus fully that our plans and position and work may be clearly understood. We are perfectly willing to content ourselves for the present with working out the plan and developing persons of ability to carry on work as medical evangelists.

If it is thought wise to lay aside the thought of legal recognition of the students when they have completed their course, we are willing to wait; but we feel most deeply that, in the light of the opportunities in California, the question of establishing a school whose whole influence and teaching shall be to qualify physicians to practice the distinctive healing art of the third angels message shall be given careful consideration by those who are interested in this subject and able to judge of the merits of the question.

[You will note that the above two paragraphs could be interpreted by the General Conference as canceling out the preceding urgent warning. Burden had said, we must make major changes. But then he says, But if you think there is no need of urgency, then we will do that.

[The problem here is that the church controlled Loma Linda, and Burden could not say otherwisewithout being fired. Later in this book, we will learn from Dr. Owen S. Parretts memoirs, that Ellen White had not wanted Burden to turn control of Loma Linda over to the church when he did. Burden later recognized that this was his biggest blunder.]

[Fourth View] I am sure that as soon as the question comes up, the first thought will be of [that the blueprint is merely] a superficial medical education that would be a disgrace to the work of the message, unless we can establish the fourth proposition; i.e., a fully equipped medical school after the worlds idea, which could become a member of the association of American Medical Colleges [i.e., fully accredited]. I do not believe we should for a moment give countenance to anything of this sort. If [as the Spirit of Prophecy states] much that is now embodied in the medical schools of the world is as useless as the maxims of the scribes and Pharisees; and if there are intricate studies that are a positive injury to the mind of the student, disqualifying him for the work he should do; and again if much of their course is mere rubbish, would a medical school eliminating these useless things from its work and adding that most helpful, healing, agencythe influence of the gospel of Christ as revealed in the study of the Scriptures, combined with rational remedies and the ten fundamental branches taught in harmony thereinwould such a school become superficial simply because it stood alone and was not recognized by the modern schools of the world?

[In the above paragraph, Elder Burden is pleading with our leaders not to seek accreditation from the secular agencies.]

However, as I said before, I believe the essential thing is the qualification of the worker to do the work, and that is what we are seeking to carry forward. If it is Gods will that some of these workers, when qualified, shall stand forth in the freedom of the law of the State to practice the healing art of the third angels message, God will certainly open the way.

[He is once again saying that, if we persevere, we can, as have the osteopaths, obtain legal recognition for our advanced-trained students to become physicians, fully recognized by state law, without having to submit our school to AMA accreditation requirements. If we will do our part, God will help us do it on our terms, and in full agreement with our standards and methods of medical work.]

For the coming year, it seems to us the only consistent thing to do is to move forward in harmony with the recommendations passed at the Medical Convention and the Union Conference, which encouraged the qualifying of persons with an advanced medical efficiency to work as evangelists. Hence we shall continue the regular Medical-Evangelistic three years course, as it has appeared heretofore in our calendars.

[In the above paragraph, the workers were to be qualified by taking their training at our unaccredited CME. But, Burden continues, a one-year, quick course should also be given:]

It is also thought best to supplement this with one years very thorough instruction for mature students, such as schoolteachers, Bible workers, graduate nurses, and ministers, who want to secure in a short time all they are capable of taking in of this rational healing art, and combining it with their evangelistic work. We are therefore arranging for the best Bible instructor obtainable to carry that line along equally strong with the medical subjects.

[The following is an excellent paragraph, for it outlines the basic subjects taught at CME in its one-year course! The same basic courses were, of course, taught in expanded form in the three-year program:]

The course will embody such subjects as hydrotherapy (practical and theoretical), massage (practical and theoretical), Hygiene, physiology, anatomy, dietetics, healthful cookery, healthful dress, the study of diseases and diagnosis, and medical-evangelistic methods of field work. Crowding so much into a year will necessarily make the instruction in each subject somewhat brief, and yet the course will be a wonderful help to those who take it, and also in the development of the work.

We have asked the conference to release Elder Owen for the Bible work, and he has consented to come. We hope the General Conference and the Union Conference will see their way clear to cooperate with us in furnishing one instructor each, for all or part of the course. Already there are quite a number of advanced students applying to enter this course, several of whom are postponing going to a foreign field until they can secure this preparation, although some of them have been in school two or three years preparing in Bible lines for work in mission fields.

Our capacity is limited. I am sure, if the matter is worked out as the testimonies have suggested, and is properly set before the people, there will be a great rallying, not only of workers now engaged in some part of the work, but likewise of graduate nurses who started in to become evangelists, but have lost their way because the path has not been blazed out sufficiently clear so they could find it.

I will enclose extracts from the California law, showing what is open in the way of State recognition for us here, that you may study the matter and be able to counsel us later as to the advisability of our planning to take advantage of the law, that the school may be recognized.

Praying the Lord to bless you in this coming council, we remain, yours in the Masters work, (Signed) J.A. Burden.Burden letter to W.A. Ruble, April 13, 1908.

Instead of bedside nurses and physicians, Ellen White wanted evangelistic nurses and physicians. The blueprint included the training of large numbers of our laymen and laywomen, in shorter courses, for service as medical missionaries. The scope of the project was breathtaking. An early chapter in our Medical Missionary Manual reveals that the blueprint called for all our people, to one extent or another, to become medical missionaries.

Three days after sending the above letter to Dr. Ruble, Elder Burden sent a copy to Ellen White, accompanied by this letter:

Gradually the local brethren, Elder Reaser included, are beginning to get clearer views of what the Lord designs this school to be. You will see from the letter to Dr. Ruble, which I enclose, something of the way it is shaping in my mind.

I notice in your last communication that you cautioned strongly against the organizing of a school to compete with the medical schools of the world, saying that we were not prepared to qualify students to pass examination under the State just now. I think you will see from my letter to Dr. Ruble that our idea of a recognized school at Loma Linda, in which we could qualify persons as doctors of hygiene and rational treatments, would be a far less difficult problem than that undertaken by the Battle Creek school. However, it may not be wise to think of such a school at present, and we had better wait until we have developed the plan of qualifying evangelists thoroughly for their work and they demonstrate their usefulness before we seek for State recognition for our graduates to practice.John Burden to Ellen White, April 16, 1908.

Burden erroneously imagined that he would be given time to develop the program at Loma Linda, prepare a number of qualified graduates, and then work on obtaining full state acceptance of a full physicians course, equivalent to an M.D. degree. (He was only 46 years old in 1908.)

But it was A.G. Daniells who was in charge, not John Burden nor W.A. Ruble. And Daniells, who had been trying to eliminate Madison since 1904, in 1909 would reject Ellen Whites call to stop eating meat. He told P.T. Magan in 1911 that it was ridiculous to move out of the cities, and was in no mood to be different from the world when it came to our denominational medical work.

To inquirers who asked why he, the General Conference president, ate meat all his life, Daniells replied that he felt it was good for him.

Within two years after he wrote his lengthy letter to Ruble at the General Conference, Burden was effectively pushed aside, even though it was not until 1916 that he was transferred from Loma Linda to Paradise Valley.