I have a friend who is convinced that there is no Biblical case for the outlawing of marijuana use. I am personally against marijuana use, have never tried it, and have no plans to try it. Besides Paul's call to obey civil law where the civil law does not contradict God's law, I am wondering if anyone has a strong scriptural case for why marijuana use is wrong?
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No Comments “Biblical Question for You”
Hmmmm…I can’t think of any direct things… I’ll have a look later today and see if I can come up with anything.
You could use the body is a temple thing, but that’s going to bring it right back to you – or your friend will be able to judge his own righteousness in the light of other men, rather than God’s righteousness. So, it is a bit of a side issue.
The disregard for the civil law and a higher interest in one’s own short term pleasure is idolatry, and a violation of the 2nd commandment. Does he consider himself a good person? 😉
He understands the gospel completely, that in God’s eyes, he’s not a good person on his own.
The testimony of the Spirit tells me it’s wrong, but I wish there was a verse that said outright “thou shalt not get high.” The Bible condemns drunkenness, which is similar IMO. That argument doesn’t sink in with pot smokers though, as they claim that getting high leads to hightened awareness, as opposed to lowered awareness that comes with drunkenness.
I think the closest argument from scripture is the analogy not to get drunk: we should’nt let chemicals alter our thought processes unless necessary (i.e. anesthesia, medically necessary drugs).
Our thoughts are the well from which behavior is drawn, and anything that heightens the risk of sin is something we should take on.
Just my $.02 worth.
“Our thoughts are the well from which behavior is drawn, and anything that heightens the risk of sin is something we should take on.”
I mean this is “something we should NOT take on.” Glaringly bad typo…apologies.
I think the issue is more of what keeps us from fellowship with God. Having done both
pot and alcohol, I think alcohol is the worst of the two. I believe that anything
that causes you to break fellowship with God is where the sin in the action lies and
I think over indulging on both will do that. I do believe , though, that you reach a
“high” much quicker with pot than alcohol. It seems there is evidence that wine was
drunk by many in the Bible, though drunkeness was explcitly looked down upon. I think
that state of drunkeness or high happens pretty quickly with pot.
GlennT-
I buy your argument completely, but it hasn’t worked when I’ve tried it. When my friend started smoking pot, he claimed that he felt closer to God when he was smoking dope.Having never smoked it myself, I can’t argue with him either way on that, but I have my doubts.
I live in Minnesota. He moved to California in November, and told me about a month ago he quit smoking pot. He is still searching for a Biblical approval or condemnation of it though, and seems to be having trouble with finding either. I am willing to be proven wrong (although it will not lead me to give pot a try either way), but my gut tells me it’s no good.
That might be the key as well– God writes on our hearts the knowledge of what is good and evil. When you know it’s evil, you know it’s evil. Why does it have to be written for it to be evil? Is there anything that’s wrong that’s not specifically written to be wrong? Or does your friend only not do what the Bible explicitly prohibits him from doing? Where in the Bible does it specificially say, for example, that child porn is wrong? Since it’s not written to be wrong, does that mean it’s OK? Obviously not.
Perhaps the approach to take would be:
Do you consider getting high to be consistent with the scriptural admonitions for self-control
I’ve always thought the problem with drunkenness is that you lose self-control and open yourself up to outside influences; this seems to draw in the concept of the battle between the flesh and the spirit, as well as allowing an opening for demonic influence.
Did God create in us a deficiency to reaching a “higher” awareness & spirituality that can only be achieved through pot? It seems that would indicate that Christ is not enough for us to draw close to God, which is definitely NOT scriptural.
I’ll have to think this through more deeply.
Ogre-
That’s probably the best argument I’ve come across so far. There are a lot of things we instinctively know are wrong.
The counter argument, however, may be cultural differences. You and I belive child porn to be wrong. I’ll take it a step further and say that we also know sex with children to be wrong. In some cultures it is not considered wrong though, and the Bible only condemns sex outside of marriage. Is it necessarily wrong in Gods eyes to have sex with an 8-year-old if you are married to her? (I’m really just playing devil’s advocate here.)
I subscribe to the belief that the best way to evangelize is with the law (10 commandments), as Ray Comfort has been teaching in the modern church, and many great leaders before him have taught. Christ himself used it (the Sumarian woman at the well that he confronted with an accusation of adultery). It requires the argument that God has given us all a conscience to know right from wrong, so those who have never heard the 10 commandments are without excuse.
I like that argument. However, that’s no reason to stop looking for more arguments to bolster the debate. I will continue to look for reasons to back my assertion that pot smoking is wrong.
Inquiring-
I agree with the opening for demonic influence. I have heard stories about deliverances where the demon gained influence through many things, including pot use.
You have great points.
EZ,
One might feel they are closer to God on hallucinogens as well, but isn’t that just
the illusion the drug is giving you. I got saved about 2 1/2 years ago and it wasn’t
until I went through all the troubles I did( I went through a divorce where my ex cheated
on me twice) that I realized what “the peace that passes all understanding” meant. I was
always looking for some feeling having alway gotten those from drugs, but it isn’t
really a feeling, it is a peace within. I wonder if your friend is having the same
misperceptions about being “closer to God”.
He is struggling with his faith. He’s asking a lot of questions. The questions are good, IMO, because if he is truely seeking God, he will find the truth.
It is frustrating to me because he is a Christian, and knows the gospel and is also a good friend of mine, but no amount of help seems to matter. He will go through periods where he is on the straight & narrow, but then will “backslide” after a while. I just wish he would stay on the S&N.
He didn’t really say why he quit smoking pot when he told me that he did, but said he did that and also found a good church. I took that to mean he was figureing out that pot isn’t good. My perception of where he’s at now is that he is seeking truth, and doesn’t want to be blinded by misperceptions, even if they come from within the church. He wants to go whereever the scripture leads him, he just wants clarification on matters like this that get little direct mention. In a way, I can respect that. I don’t want to be misled in anything either. I have strong views on matters of Faith, but I also like being challenged on my views (within the confines of scripture). This is a challenging subject because he is trying to prove that scripture doesn’t condem the use of marijuana, and I am trying to prove that it doesn’t approve of it. Right now his main argument stems from Genesis 1:29 “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat (food).”
My only argument to that verse is that there are many plants that will kill you if you eat them. Maybe that wasn’t the case when this particular statement was made by God to Adam, because it was made before the fall. You can’t assume that just because something is a plant that you can safely consume it, or that God would wish for you to consume it.
One might take that to mean more of a vegan diet, more so than the OK for herbal
concoctions. I don’t know of any mention of eating animal flesh in the garden.
Just a thought.
That is a very good point. In fact, I think you are right on. The eating of animals was not ordained until Genesis 9 (2&3), after the flood.
What a great discussion. I continue in prayer for both you and your friend. I’m curious why he quit if he sees nothing wrong with it. Ah the power of the God given conscience. If you friend is a believer, or thinks he is, ask him to listen to “true and false conversion at the livingwaters.com site (http://www.livingwaters.com/listenwatch2.shtml) and get his thoughts on it. It was great for me to really ask myself – Am I truely saved???
All in all, it sounds great that you have this communication going with him. And I am amazed at the wisdom of some of these posts. Next time I have a problem, I’m going to just let you post it to your site 😉
Blessings!
Thanks Ron!
My guess is that he quit because of his conscience, but his fallen nature is looking for an excuse to start up again. I’ve done the same thing. Hopefully his conscience will win in the end.
I happen to have an mp3 version of “true and false conversion” in my possession. Ray Comfort’s entire 16 CD set that that file is a part of was once offered for free on his website before he started charging for the last 8 session. I was fortunate enough to grab them while they were available. I’ve been re-listening to them all again on my hour drive to and from work this week. I haven’t gotten his address since he moved to California, but I am planning on sending him those and some other sermons I have on CD. He doesn’t have a computer at home to listen to them on.
I am very honored by the responses I have gotten here so far. It is quite awesome to have knowledgeable Brothers & Sisters in Christ as readers here.
LOOK FOR SMOKING OF FLAX AS REFFENCE.[IN YOUR CONCORDANCE]
Where sorcery is mentioned in the Bible, isn’t the original term something like “pharmecia”, a fairly specific term for use of plants to “expand your conciousness”? Not sure, I don’t actually know Greek or anything.