QUESTION:
Should Believers use medical vaccines?
ANSWER:
“Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” [Jeremiah 8:22]
“The fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.” [Ezekiel 47:12]
“They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.” [Luke 5:31]
“Seeing in medical books, that I even have it in my home to read. I'm--I'm interested in medicine, certainly am, anything that'll help God's people, help human beings. If it's peace, studying peace terms, I am interested in that. I am interested in a--a better community to live in. I'm interested in better schools for our children to go to. I'm interested in anything that's good, wholesome and right. And medicine has done some great things. I believe God has used it in many things. I believe, if we'd be more sincere and consecrated to God, they'd already had stuff for cancers and everything else. If we just... God's got the thing, if we'd just ask Him about it. See? So now, I believe the reason the Salk vaccine was, just because of little children suffering the way it is. And Satan, that evil thing out there, paralyzing them little children and things; and God just let that be discovered, for the inoculation. And it's done a great thing, and to which we are grateful to Almighty God for it. Just so thankful that God has ever blessed us in the..." [The Uncertain Sound, Jeffersonville IN 60-1218]
“How do they find toxin? The first thing they do, science works on a--a certain different kinds of chemicals, and they mix it together in the laboratory, and they put germs under the test and pour this toxin on it. And then take the good germ and the bad germ and work together till they can find something that will kill the bad germ and (unless it's an antibiotic), and--and leave the good germ. Now, when they think they've got it perfected, they take that serum, and give it to a guinea pig and find out if that guinea pig will live or die. Now, sometimes it won't work on human beings. And you can't be sure about medicine, because sometimes a medicine that will help one will kill the other one. And they're working on some kind of a medicine or something to-to try to cure the cancer." [Why? Tulsa, Oklahoma 60-0401m]
“Medicine has to be tested. They take medicine and they... First, when they find a toxins that they think that's for some ailment, they try it on guinea pigs. And they take the toxin, after the science has worked on it for a long time, and they shoot it into a little guinea pig, and they watch his reaction. If it doesn't hurt the little guinea pig, then they use it on human beings. But medicine is a chance to take. For some medicines that will help one human being, might kill another. So you have to watch that, because that it's--it's... Sometimes you must be sure that you know what you're doing, and let a doctor that knows how to give it, give it to you, someone that you got confidence in." [Balm In Gilead, Chicago, Illinois 59-0614]
“Usually, when we're hunting a toxin... There was a time when there was no toxin for smallpox; there was no toxin for the--for the polio. But we have those toxins now, and they're--they're great. We appreciate them. And then I thought, "How do you find a toxin? The way you find a toxin, doctors, usually, and scientists in research, they--they find some kind of a chemical and then try it on a guinea pig, and see if the guinea pig can survive it.
Then they give it to you. And sometimes those toxins are... They won't work on all people, because all people maybe not be the same kind of condition of a body that that guinea pig is, so it wouldn't work right." [Why? Phoenix, Arizona 61-0128]
"And think that he could fix your arm up, it's a dangerous thing not to do that. You should do it. It's dangerous if you don't do it. And there was a time we didn't have much toxine. People died with diphtheria, but they got a toxine for it. Polio, the Salk toxin, that's--that's fine; I--I sure appreciate that. I believe a man would be more humble... You say, "Brother Branham, you believe in Divine healing?" That's all Divine healing. Every bit of it's Divine healing. "I'm the Lord Who heals all thy diseases." Yeah. Every bit of it is Divine healing. If hospitals and the--and stuff like that is not the...Tell me where there ever was one doctor that could heal a disease, or tell me where they got a medicine that'll heal a disease. I was interviewed at Mayo's; you seen it in the "Reader's Digest," and so forth, Donny Morton, was healed up here. They called me, and they say, "We don't claim to be healers, Mr. Branham, we only claim to assist nature. There's one Healer; that's God." Sure. [Balm In Gilead, Long Beach, California 61-0218]
“In medicine, sometime, there was a time when there was no toxin for typhoid fever. There was no... Just recently they got the Salk vaccine for the--for the children, for the a--the polio. There was a time they didn't have it. They got it now. There was a time there was no inoculation for a--a typhoid fever, and tetanus, and typhus shots, they didn't have it. But we got it now." [Why? Phoenix, Arizona 60-0309]
"Here sometime ago, I was called to a bedside, took out of a meeting and called to a bedside where there was a--a young boy dying. And the old father came to me, it's been about fifteen years ago, I guess, and he said, "Would you come to my son, he is--he is dying with a--a horrible thing?" It's a--a disease of the heart, I call... I believe it's called some kind of a--a heart disease, I forget what the name of it is now, but it was real, real bad. And so I said, "Yes." Oh, I beg your pardon, it went on to his heart, but it was polio that was in his body. It was polio. And that was before we had the Salk vaccine. And then the boy was real bad. And so when I went to pray, the doctor wouldn't let me in. And he said, "I can't let you in." [Perseverance, New York, New York 63-1116e]
"What if we had something that they could say they could make a--a man that's--that's dying with cancer, come back and be well again? Would that not be an achievement? Like the Salk vaccine for the children, it went worldwide. But say for instance, what if science had found something, a little medicine that they could put in a spoon, and could pour it in an old man's mouth, or an old woman ninety years old, and watch it for about--the patient for about one minute, and see them return back to a young man and woman, with a blood that would never get old, and a being that would never die? Why, the whistles would blow. Nations would scream, "Death was over: No more old age, no more death, we've conquered it." Why, it would be something. Men are trying to find that through the resource of, well, of literature, or culture, education, science." [God’s Provided Way, Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada 61-0516]
Bible References: Jeremiah 8:22; Ezekiel 47:12; Luke 5:31
[Answer provided by Bro. Ken Andes, Minister, Lynden, Washington, USA]