THE FALSE CURE OF PERPETUAL SUNSHINE

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

Radithor is a name probably not familiar to most. Radithor was a cure-all tonic marketed across the United States between 1918 and 1928. Radithor, the Certified Radioactive Water claimed to cure more than 150 health disorders. William Bailey, Radithor’s creator touted its miraculous results as “The New Weapon of Medical Science.” Another one of Radithor’s ads called it “Perpetual Sunshine” in a bottle. Trouble was---Bailey had no medical or scientific training and his product didn’t work, at all. In fact, it eventually killed some of the people who tried it.

After careful analysis of its ingredients, the newspapers reported that Radithor was laced with radium, the highly radioactive metal. But the tragic irony is that no one at the time properly tested Radithor until wealthy industrialist Eben Byers died after consuming nearly 1,400 bottles. In an effort to reverse the bad press, William Bailey offered $1,000 to anyone who could prove the danger of Radithor. No one took up the offer and Bailey drank some of his own product. He died of cancer in 1949 and his body was exhumed in 1969 out of fear of radioactive contamination. The Geiger Counter used during the autopsy showed a significant amount of radium twenty years after his death. Such was the power of a false cure.

Theologically, salvation by grace is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9). But the idea of salvation by grace alone is difficult for humans to grasp; theologian Millard Erickson wrote, “Somehow it does not seem right that we should receive salvation without having to do anything for it.” But God won’t have it any other way (Romans 6:23). If humans could do anything to facilitate salvation, certainly it would be reason to boast. Boasting is an expression of pride, and pride was the original sin in which Lucifer became Satan.

Works salvation (baptism, circumcision, church membership, etc) is what the Apostle Paul called “another gospel” (Galatians 1:6-9) Simply stated, the unregenerate are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-2; Colossians 2:13); incapable of any kind of genuine work of redemption. Radithor was marketed as a physical cure, but it was a poison that led to physical death. Trying to gain salvation through any means other than the Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:6; Titus 3:5) sounds like a laudable “spiritual cure”, but it is a spiritual poison that leads to a spiritual second death (Revelation 21:8). Think about it.