Going Viral

If the gospel were a YouTube video posted two thousand years ago, it could aptly be described as “gone viral.”

The gospel of Christ reached literally every person on planet earth in a single generation.^[1] Like COVID-19, it spread rapidly throughout the whole world, changing lives and crossing borders– political, linguistic, and cultural–with ease. In fact, the governor of Bithynia wrote regarding the rapid spread of Christianity in a warning letter to emperor Trajan, “many persons of every age, every rank, and also of both sexes are and will be endangered.”^[2] He even likened the gospel to a virus, calling it a “contagion.” About a hundred years ago, the same thing almost happened, but God’s remnant people unintentionally quarantined themselves by adopting policies they deemed necessary in order to be accepted by the world. If the gospel was to become a contagion–a pandemic–Satan stopped the spread. However, the enemy’s apparent triumphs are always temporary and never absolute, and when we understand the good news of Christ for this last generation, the gospel will go “viral” again.

There are a few qualities a virus or bacteria must possess in order for the disease it causes to become a pandemic–to “go viral.”

1) Novelty. When a new flu virus comes out, it’s like the latest iPhone. Everybody wants one. Of course, nobody wants the flu, but when an especially contagious strain of influenza begins to make its rounds, it’s simply a matter of time before the multitudes are infected. But after its novelty has died down, like the iPhones of yesteryear, nobody talks about it anymore. It has made its rounds. So then we must measure its:

2) Potency. Another reason why certain disease breakouts make it onto evening news and others don’t is because some take the lives of masses of people and others essentially cause the common cold. In some cases, the disease may cause a terrifying array of symptoms and thereby garner publicity, but this alone does not enable a disease to become a pandemic. What’s missing is the need for it to be:

3) Transmissible. Certain diseases may have novelty and potency, but without the ability to be easily spread from one person to another, there is no possibility of the disease becoming a pandemic. Transmissibility can be facilitated by modern high-speed transport, but the fundamental requirement is that the disease be easily communicated through direct contact or through the air. Still, one factor for the success of a viral contagion is essential:

4) Resilience. Even if a disease is readily transmitted through airborne particles, causes life-threatening symptoms, and has the novelty factor, it must be able to withstand a variety of environmental factors to sustain its spread. If a single ray of sunlight alone, for example, is enough to kill the virus or bacteria, it will not become a pandemic. There must be a level of resilience in order for a disease to go viral.

In the book of Acts, the gospel went viral, but not without cause. It possessed all four factors of virality. It was novel, potent, transmissible, and resilient. The multitudes were accustomed to religion that was cold and formal, but the practical, self-sacrificing gospel of Jesus Christ was novel and refreshing. Not only were the apostles able to miraculously preach the gospel in many languages, but the message actually transformed the culture of the church. Selfishness was lost in benevolence: everything Christ’s disciples had was voluntarily distributed to those who had need. The apostles understood that the gospel Jesus preached was made potent by His work of healing, so they followed His example in healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. This was medical missionary work at its finest–ministering to people’s needs without expecting riches in return–and people couldn’t stop talking about it. It was this combination of novelty and potency that made the gospel so transmissible and enabled it to withstand the preventative measures civil and religious authorities put in place. No one had seen such miraculous power and selflessness in “uneducated and untrained men,” and they “realized that they had been with Jesus.”^[3] This same demonstration of the gospel is God’s plan for His remnant church, for “All that the apostles did, every church member today is to do.”^[4] 

Gospel-medical evangelism is the most novel, most potent, most transmissible, and most resilient strain of outreach methods. Regarding Isaiah 58, which essentially describes what the apostles were doing after the early rain, Ellen White writes, “​​The fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah contains present truth for the people of God. Here we see how medical missionary work and the gospel ministry are to be bound together as the message is given to the world.”^[5] In other words, when medical missionary work and the gospel are united, the gospel goes viral. People are in search for a novel, fresh demonstration of the gospel, for they are “disgusted with the dry formalism which exists in the Christian world”^[6] and we are told that “Nothing will open the doors for the truth like evangelistic medical missionary work.”^[7] We are further told that medical missionary work is the secret to transmissibility, for it opens the door for the transmission of the gospel in every place. “Every city is to be entered by workers trained to do medical missionary work. As the right hand of the third angel’s message, God’s methods of treating disease will open doors for the entrance of present truth.”^[8] Lastly, this work is resilient; for in the end, “there will be no work done in ministerial lines but medical missionary work.”^[9] The gospel, when exemplified by the medical missionary work, possesses all four factors of virality, and at the turn of the 20th century, God was working to establish a training center to send thousands of medical missionaries all over the world. The gospel was about to go viral. However, because Satan knows that such a demonstration will quickly terminate his six-thousand year reign, he resorted to one of his most reliable tactics: the introduction of a counterfeit.

Jesus predicted counterfeits, warning us, “false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”^[10] Paul warned of counterfeit gospels, saying “even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”^[11] In medical science, one of the most efficient ways to stop deadly strains from going “viral” is to introduce a counterfeit: a weaker version of the virus. When the body thinks it has the virus, it builds up immunity against it, and if the more potent version comes along later, the body can better defend itself. As Christians, we pray that the true gospel will go viral and usher in the second coming of Christ,^[12] but perhaps even we have accepted one of the enemy’s counterfeits, thus decreasing our ability to transmit the true gospel to others.

The Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists (CME) was to be a training school “of the highest order.”^[13] Like Madison college, it was to be modeled after the schools of the prophets,^[14] with the hopes that it, too, would produce graduates who would establish more health and education centers after the same model. It was not intended to become a mammoth institution or remain the only Adventist medical school in the nation. The school was to train graduates for work in distinctively Adventist lines instead of for commercial purposes. We were to steer away from the pharmaceutical industry, emphasizing God’s method of healing and educating “away from drugs.”^[15] Sanitariums were to be established; places where people would “learn to stay well.”^[16] By means of thousands of little health centers operating outside every large city^[17] and bands of workers doing gospel-medical evangelistic campaigns^[18] operating throughout the cities, the urban masses were to be reached. “Thousands” of medical missionaries were to be trained, not for work “in professional lines as physicians, but as medical missionary evangelists.”^[19] God gave to our pioneers a blueprint designed to train workers to enter every city and make inroads for the present truth. If followed, this plan of true education would equip a generation to live out the gospel of Christ, and make it “go viral.”

Yet somehow, this endeavor has proven unsuccessful; obviously the everlasting gospel hasn’t gone viral yet. Only a few have dared to identify Satan’s counterfeit, and fewer still have successfully demonstrated something better–something that will overcome the enemy’s efforts and finally clear the way for the Holy Spirit to finish the work.

Mark Finley’s mentor and Wildwood Sanitarium’s^[20] founder W.D. Frazee made a statement about medical missionary work that succinctly describes the counterfeit—the tamed version of gospel-medical evangelism that Satan introduced among our people: “A dear friend of mine, a minister of many years, says that medical missionary work, like its divine Author, has been crucified between two thieves. One is the thief of commercialism, and the other is the thief of professionalism…”^[21] Think about the ministry of healing that Jesus performed and the life of poverty He endured; and then compare it to the ministry of healing commonly practiced today. Being a medical professional today has become perhaps the quintessential example of Adventist achievement for many aspiring students in our universities. Yet it is astounding how few of these graduates pursue careers doing truly evangelistic work. Most, it seems, end up working separate from the church in hospitals whose interests are more professional and commercial than evangelistic. When I was growing up, not one medical professional in my church was working for an evangelistic medical company. All were working in professional lines as physicians, with very little to no opportunity to win souls. I asked myself, can this really be medical missionary work?

“Too much commercial work has been mingled with the medical missionary work.”^[22] The Lord’s messenger wrote this in regard to the work being carried forward in Battle Creek. The sanitarium had recently burned down because Kellogg had, against advice, made the medical work into an enterprise separate from the Seventh-Day Adventist church. Kellogg wanted to make the health work into a non-denominational work for carrying forward “medical and philanthropic work independent of any sectarian or denominational control, in home and foreign lands.”^[23] Ellen White opposed this idea of doing medical work separate from the church, saying “It has been stated that the Battle Creek Sanitarium is not denominational. But if ever an institution was established to be denominational in every sense of the word, this sanitarium was.”^[24] 

Today, we face a global crisis in health evangelism. We have united ourselves with a medical-industrial system rather than a medical-evangelistic system, and thus neutralized the power of the gospel in the medical missionary work. The very term “medical” has been hijacked to refer almost exclusively to the professional work done in hospitals and clinics today, which are almost entirely disconnected from the work of health reform or the three angels’ messages. The good news, though, is this: The gospel will still go viral. We are told that the gospel shall go to every nation, and then the end shall come.^[25] God promises further, “We shall see the medical missionary work broadening and deepening at every point of its progress, because of the inflowing of hundreds and thousands of streams, until the whole earth is covered as the waters cover the sea.”^[26] Although CME has been disobedient to the heavenly vision, even Loma Linda is a prisoner of hope.^[27] If we are willing, the great Physician Himself will teach us how to break every worldly yoke, and once again work as He worked. And when, by His grace, He brings us back to our upright position of distinction from the world,^[28]  the gospel will once again, “go viral.”

[1] Col. 1:23
[2] “Pliny and Trajan on the Christians.” n.d., accessed on July 16, 2024. https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/pliny.html.
[3] Acts 4:13
[4] Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7. (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1902), 33.
[5] Ellen G. White, Evangelism (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1946), 516. Emphasis supplied.
[6] Ibid, 514.
[7] Ibid, 513. Emphasis supplied.
[8] Ibid, 516.
[9] Ibid, 523.
[10] Matthew 24:24
[11] Galatians 1:8
[12] Matthew 24:14
[13] Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts (Ellen G. White Estate, 1907), vol. 22, Ms 151, par. 2.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts (Ellen G. White Estate, 1889), vol. 6, Lt 6a (1890), par. 29.
[16] “The word sanitarium, Kellogg proclaimed, would come to mean a ‘place where people learn to stay well.'” Richard J. Schwarz, Light Bearers to the Remnant (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1979), 116
[17] Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts (Ellen G. White Estate, 1905), vol. 20, Lt 59, par. 7
[18] See Lilienne Stafford, “The Tindall Notes,” Prisoners of Hope, February 2024, 14-18.
[19] Ellen G. White, Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1913), 471.
[20] Now called Wildwood Health Institute.
[21] W.D. Frazee, “Thanksgiving Day.” (November 24, 1972).
[22] Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts (Ellen G. White Estate, 1906), vol. 21,  Lt 218, par. 11.
[23] Dr. J. H. Kellogg, “The Medical Missionary”, (January 1898), cited in White, A. L., Ellen G. White: The Early Elmshaven Years: 1900-1905, (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1981), vol. 5, 160.
[24] Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts (Ellen G. White Estate, 1902), vol. 17, Lt 128, par. 19.
[25] Matthew 24:14
[26] Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts (Ellen G. White Estate, 1901), vol. 16, Ms 32, par. 21.
[27] Ellen G. White, “Review and Herald”, January 9, 1894, (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1851), par. 12.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Galatians 1:8