Seeking the Causes of Death, I Found Life
The story of a pathologist
“I HAVE the hope of never dying,” my friend said. I smiled ironically at this. Yet at the same time it provoked an intense curiosity in me. I knew my friend very well. We had studied together at school, and he had never given me any reasons to doubt his sanity. As a pathologist I was familiar with death and many of its causes, but the idea of unending life had never entered my mind.
After the conversation, he gave me two books: The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life and Is the Bible Really the Word of God? That was my first contact with the message Jehovah’s Witnesses preach from the Bible. Those two books were going to mean a great change in my life and even a change of direction in my medical research work.
I had spent many years in oncological research—the study of tumors. As a pathologist I was interested in the origin and cause of diseases. I was faced daily with the two constants—life and death. I was fascinated by the miracle of life and the mystery of death. And now, unexpectedly, I heard someone affirm that perhaps he would never die since he expected God’s Kingdom to come within his lifetime.—Matthew 6:9, 10.
My Career in Medicine
I was not brought up in a very religious home. My father, an intelligent man and a great reader, had got to know enough about the Catholic religious leaders in Spain to have no desire to inculcate their ideas in us. In those days Catholic religious teaching was obligatory in school. When I reached the age of 15 and started to reason about Catholic doctrine, I decided to break away from the church.
At one time I was thinking of a military career, but by the end of my bachillerato (high school) studies the choice had come to be between engineering and medicine. I had read much about doctors and had often heard my father speak favorably of prominent Spanish doctors such as Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Nobel prize winner for medicine. So I finally chose the fascinating science of medicine.
Catholic Theologian Tries to Convert Me
As time passed I became more intransigent in my opposition to Catholicism, to the point of becoming an agnostic. I constantly argued against doctrines such as the Trinity, hell, and the infallibility of the pope.
One day, during an argument with some friends in the National Library of Madrid, one of them invited me to meet a well-known Catholic theologian who, I was told, would be able to clear up my doubts and refute my arguments. I accepted the challenge, and that same day we visited the clergyman’s house.
When we arrived he was very pleasant and said he had the afternoon free for us. He would be very pleased to help me return to the Catholic Church. After half an hour of argument and counterargument, he suddenly remembered that he had an appointment! My friend was disillusioned to see his theologian back down.
I could not accept half-truths adorned with false human philosophy that at times dared to depersonalize God in a Trinity and present him as a cruel, malevolent designer of the torments of hell where people were retained forever. I could not accept such a God.
My Fascination With Medical Research
The years passed swiftly, and I qualified as a doctor. I specialized in internal medicine, pursuing my career with enthusiasm. I wanted to help sick people. One day I was called to attend a young girl who was sick with leukemia. I was greatly affected by this case—to think that soon she would have to die. I became obsessed with this terrible illness that puts a premature end to so many lives.
When I returned home that day, I went to my study, took out all the books and publications on the subject, and started to study it intensively. I wanted to find the root cause of the illness, and from there, the cure. I studied all through the night.
By dawn I was all excited because I had worked out a complete theory on the possible causes of leukemia. I was determined to publish my theory. But I remembered counsel by Santiago Ramón y Cajal: It is one thing to theorize; it is another to demonstrate the theory. Theory alone was not enough. I needed to carry out experimental research to really prove it. What was the final result? I decided I would dedicate my life to medical research. Thus I decided to specialize in oncology, pathological anatomy, and other branches of pathology.
I made progress in my research to the point that I was asked to apply the results of my animal experiments to cancer patients. I refused to do so since I had only experimented with one type of tumor. First I wanted to experiment with another type that I also knew well. I was convinced that each type of tumor requires a specific immunization.
I was involved in my experiments and enjoying the benefits of annual grants from a Spanish cancer association and from the World Health Organization. Then something totally unexpected occurred. I was told that to continue receiving such grants I would have to hand over the results of my research to another research unit not under my supervision. I was not willing to go along with this policy. Because of such medical politics, I had to discontinue my research work.
A New Field of Research
That was my situation when I first met my friend the Witness. My wife and I had recently obtained a Bible, and I had read some of the “New Testament.” My interest in spiritual themes was rekindled. That night I started by reading the book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life.
Dawn was breaking when—after a calm, profound, and at the same time exciting, reading—I almost completed the book. I had to get some sleep. But first, with great joy, respect, and deep emotion, I prayed to God. I expressed gratitude for what I had learned that night about him not only as the Creator but also as a living God with the marvelous qualities of love, wisdom, justice, and power. This was a God I could respect and worship.
I read this and the book Is the Bible Really the Word of God? in two days. The next day I telephoned for the Witnesses to bring me more books that were advertised. They soon delivered them, along with a book on evolution. I devoured them and came to the conclusion that only Jehovah’s Witnesses had the truth regarding the worship and service of the true God, Jehovah. I had never read anything like this in religious material before—this was the essence of simplicity and clarity.
Since I was used to reading scientific treatises with their extensive bibliographies, I was impressed by the standard the Witnesses set. In their publication Did Man Get Here by Evolution or by Creation? was a list of 248 bibliographic sources! It was obvious that much research had gone into that book.
I spoke to my wife about my conclusions regarding the Bible and the Witnesses. She then read the Truth book herself and agreed to join in a systematic Bible study with the Witnesses. We used two Bibles, the Catholic Nácar-Colunga and the Witnesses’ New World Translation. At one point we were having three studies a week. Soon we started to attend the meetings at a Kingdom Hall in Madrid.
The more I studied the Bible, the more I realized that medicine was never going to have the real answer to man’s problems. We might make some progress against certain diseases, but as a doctor I always came up against the unattainable: to make death bow the knee. No branch of medicine could utter the forceful words found in the Bible: “Death is swallowed up forever” and “death will be no more.” Only God, ‘for whom it is impossible to lie,’ can guarantee the fulfillment of this hope, yearned for by so many.—1 Corinthians 15:54; Revelation 21:4; Hebrews 6:18.
With a changed outlook, I decided to leave cancer research and I accepted the position of Director of the Pathological Anatomy Service in the city of Orense in northwestern Spain. Compared to research work, this seemed like a loss of prestige in the medical world. But another factor that influenced my decision was that I knew that the Orense Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses needed help. Later we were baptized as Christian witnesses of Jehovah on May 29, 1971, in Orense.
Witnessing to a Queen
Since then I have had many privileges in relation to the congregation. I have been an elder for several years and have also been responsible for directing the First Aid Department at many assemblies and conventions. As a doctor and pathologist I have—by radio, television, and the press—defended the stand of Jehovah’s Witnesses against the use of blood transfusions. Our Bible reasons are solid, and there is mounting evidence in the medical world for restraint in this field.—Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:14; Acts 15:28, 29.
In 1978 I was invited to give a talk on “Blood, Medicine and the Law of God” at the Superior Council of Scientific Research in Madrid. Nine years before, I had presented a discourse about cancer research in this same place. What a contrast! Now I had an audience of doctors and clergy, along with Queen Sophia of Spain who attended as a student of humanities. The talk was supposed to be for an hour. Actually, the discussion went on for nearly three hours. I was able to answer many questions, and at the end Queen Sophia kindly congratulated me. I was happy that I could give a witness to Jehovah’s praise.
Now when I stare into my microscope to investigate the causes of sickness and death, I am also impelled to praise Jehovah God for the marvelous complexity of the microscopic world. The miracle of life continues to be a source of fascination and amazement, and the enigma of death now has its concrete answers—death is the wages that sin pays.—Romans 6:23.
I have found from my study of the Bible that the true hope for the dead is in the resurrection that Jesus taught. He himself said: “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out.”—John 5:28, 29.
I am deeply grateful to Jehovah for my knowledge of the truth, to know that soon health and life will be restored to obedient mankind. As a doctor and pathologist I will be out of a job, for then no one will say, “I am sick”; even “death will be no more.” (Isaiah 33:24; Revelation 21:3, 4) But I will be happy to lose that line of work. Thus, like my friend in the introduction to my story, I, too, now entertain the hope of never having to die!—As told by Dr. Salvador González.
[Blurb on page 26]
I was fascinated by the miracle of life and the mystery of death
[Blurb on page 27]
A different goal in life