Balm of Gilead

What We Believe:  About Health

• We believe that physical health is an important factor toward effective service and worship. A body that is diseased or in ill repair has a diminished capacity for effective service and worship.
• We believe that good health is built upon Biblical principles.  In order to maintain good physical health one must consistently breathe clean air, drink pure water, eat health promoting food, consume certain supplements, exercise properly, and get adequate rest, as well as learn how to effectively handle stress.
• We believe that health-promoting foods are primarily from the garden and secondarily from clean animals.  A healthy diet is one that is balanced and centered on fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, with dairy, fish, eggs, poultry and meat from clean animals rounding out the diet.  In addition, these God given foods should be in forms closest to their original state and free of chemicals, hormones and antibiotics.
• We believe that invasive health care measures are sometimes necessary.  At times surgery and other invasive medical procedures may be necessary lifesaving measures.  Such occurrences should be rare, but should also be preceded and followed by good health measures.
• We believe that invasive measures do not heal.  At the same time, we believe that healing only comes when the body’s own God-given protective mechanisms are restored.
• We believe that spiritual health is of utmost importance.  As important as physical health is, it is only a means to an end, not an end in itself.  Man was created to love, obey and serve God.  Of what profit is it to be well physically, and yet have neither peace with God nor a sense of His purpose for life?  We believe that our role is to help the individual remove both physical and spiritual roadblocks to greater service in the world for Jesus Christ.

What We Believe:  About Our Christian Faith

• We believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God in Three Persons, to be the only true God.
• We believe in Jesus Christ as the Head of the Church, the Savior and Redeemer of the world and only Mediator between God and man. All powers and functions in the Church are subject to Christ’s authority. The Church throughout the world and of all ages is His Body, of which we are individually and corporately members, made possible entirely by God’s grace in Jesus Christ, through faith.
• We accept the Scripture of the Old and New Testaments as the true Word of God, inspired and holy, and as the supreme standard of faith and duty.
• We acknowledge the Apostles’ Creed , the Nicene Creed and the Westminster Confession of Faith as worthily expressing the fundamental and traditional faith commonly held by the Church.