When a colporteur family held Bible studies in his home, John tried to be just offensive enough that they wouldn’t come back, but not so overt as to offend his wife, who had invited them. It didn’t work. They kept coming and, before he knew it, the prophecies of Daniel had captured his interest.
As an antagonistic agnostic who believed only in what could be seen and proved, John found the audacity of a Bible writer claiming to foretell the future to be either incredibly bold—or just plain stupid.
The Evidence of History
Week after week, John went to his encyclopedia to search out the history of nations as they came and went. Instead of finding that the prophecies were pure speculation, he found they were uncannily on the mark. The sequence of dates, countries, and rulers in the historical record matched the prophecies!
“How could this be?” he pondered. “Unless… the prophecies were written after the fact!”
As he searched more deeply, he learned that “higher criticisms” by scholars had made that very argument, only to be overturned by archaeologists who translated the triple language writings on the Cyrus Cylinder.
With the insights provided by that cylinder, scholars determined that the names and facts in Daniel’s prophecies were correct. This brought John to a point of reckoning: Would he continue to deny the existence of God, or acknowledge the incontrovertible existence of suprahuman foreknowledge in the Bible?
The Master Design
The studies also examined the prophecies of the Messiah and their fulfillment in the life of Jesus. The unbelievable condescension
of a Creator loving mankind enough to become a man humbled John’s proud agnostic heart and turned him into a devoted servant of his loving Creator.
“The Great Controversy and the Plan of Salvation… it all made perfect sense,” John says.
“I was a software engineer—my life consisted of designing automated computerized business systems. I knew as a systems engineer that if there was a Creator, there had to be a master design. I determined to learn what that design was, and to adhere to it as closely as humanly possible to fulfill God’s intent for my life.”
Before even being baptized, John began following the diet described in Genesis 1:29 that God had designed for Adam and Eve and the seventh-day Sabbath described in Genesis 2:2-3. He immersed himself in Bible Readings for the Home Circle and the writings of Ellen G. White.
“I knew that I knew nothing about God’s design,” John says, “so I would go to the Bible and the testimony of Jesus Christ (the Spirit of Prophecy, Rev 12:17 & 19:10) for everything before taking any action. Like buying a car, or deciding on a life calling—everything, big or small. It has served me well.”
A Call to Reform
After retiring from his IT career in 1988 to work full time for God in medical missionary work, John felt led by God into gospel medical evangelism. In 1993, God led him to a statement that changed his life calling regarding God’s design for sanitarium-based medical missionary ministry:
“…The light was first given to me why institutions should be established, that is, sanitariums were to reform the medical practices of physicians. — Letter 69, 1898.” (MM 27.2)
Coupled with the more detailed instructions in 2SM 54 [1], John sensed the call to gospel medical evangelism.
Against the odds, John went back to school to complete pre-med studies 27 years after dropping out of college. He eventually graduated from Loma Linda University’s Dual MD/MPH Program with honors. During his education, he saw solid evidence that lifestyle changes could not only treat, but reverse, the chronic diseases killing most Americans.
Lighting the Fuse
In 2004, as a young physician at 55 years of age, John received an AMA Foundation Excellence in Medicine Award as the founding president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. John says God is using this medical specialty to change the very practice of medicine.
“He has blessed my humble efforts beyond anything I could have imagined,” he says. “I was called to ignite the spark that lit the fuse that caused an explosion! Medicine will never be the same.”
1. 2SM 54.2 “The way in which Christ worked was to preach the Word, and to relieve suffering by miraculous works of healing.
But I am instructed that we cannot now work in this way, for Satan will exercise his power by working miracles. God's servants today could not work by means of miracles, because spurious works of healing, claiming to be divine, will be wrought.”
ibid. 54.3 “For this reason the Lord has marked out a way in which His people are to carry forward a work of physical healing,
combined with the teaching of the Word. Sanitariums are to be established, and with these institutions are to be connected
workers who will carry forward genuine medical missionary work. Thus a guarding influence is thrown around those who come
to the sanitariums for treatment.”
ibid. 54.4 “This is the provision the Lord has made whereby gospel medical missionary work is to be done for many
souls.—Letter 53, 1904.”
Dr. John Kelly now teaches high-intensity lifestyle medicine to professionals in preparation for board
certification. He is leading the work of establishing gospel medical evangelism training for Adventist
medical professionals who want to use lifestyle medicine with God’s simple remedies to “preach the
everlasting gospel in all the world.”
