Smoking Weed
From The Official Christafari Website On Marijuana & The Issue Of Pharmakeia/ Drugs & Spiritism
"Most people are shocked when they learn that this verse refers to drug use. Contrary to popular belief, marijuana is not a new drug. In fact, just recently marijuana ashes were found in a fourth-century tomb. The drug was believed to have been smoked by a pregnant teenager sixteen hundred years ago. Some documentations of marijuana use date back as far as the nineteenth century B.C.
The popularity and use of marijuana has increased within the past few years. This pattern of today's intensified drug use was prophesied almost two thousand years ago in the book of Revelation. There are three passages in this book that speak directly about Pharmakeia, Revelation 9:21; 21:8; and 22:15. These three verses tell of the sinfulness of drug use, the non repenting hearts of the users, the state of the end times, the separation of drug users from the kingdom of God, and their second death by placement into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. We conclude that God is very serious about how he deals with this sin.
Marijuana is a hallucinogenic (Funk and Wagnalls 445). This is one of the reasons why using it is sorcery and witchcraft. With the use of drugs, you are opening yourself up to all sorts of spiritual attacks and seducing spirits. Mind altering drugs are used in witchcraft to alter your reality. This can be very dangerous. This is why God calls us to be sober and avoid attacks from Satan (I Peter 5:8). This implies that if we are high, we cannot avoid attacks from the evil one.
In conclusion, marijuana is not a biblical sacrament that we must take in order to become closer to God. In fact, the Bible speaks against marijuana because it is a sin. Marijuana is clearly a stronghold that Satan has used on this world for many generations. God can deliver and heal one from an addiction to marijuana. The truth can be found only through faithfully studying the word of God.
"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." (Isaiah 40:8)
Interestingly, The Hopi Indians Disaprove Of The Use of Mind Altering Substances, Saying,
From The Official Christafari Website On Marijuana & The Issue Of Being Sober
"What does the Bible say about being sober? If so, how does this relate to my regular weed smoking? Are there any specific verses that would discourage me from taking bong hits/getting high?
The Bible tells us that we should separate ourselves from this world, being this world but not of it. In Romans 12:1-2 we are instructed not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should LIVE SOBERLY, righteously, and godly in this present world" (Titus 2:11-12).
In the New Testament, the form of the word "sober" is used 17 times. Sobriety is an important part of a Christian's life. It is impossible to be sober and of a sound mind while using marijuana. In fact, recent medical science has even deciphered marijuana's high by locating tetrahydrocannabinol receptors in the human brain . "Many users describe two phases of marijuana intoxication; initial stimulation, giddiness, and euphoria, followed by sedation and tranquillity. Mood changes are often accompanied by altered perceptions of time and space and of one's bodily dimensions. The thinking processes become disrupted by fragmentary ideas and memories. Negative effects can include decreased motivation, confusion, acute panic reactions, anxiety attacks, fear, a sense of helplessness, and loss of self control" (Funk 445).
Marijuana is from the "Hops" family, the same family through which we get beer. However, the Greek terms for sobriety are not limited to drunkenness. They mean to be sober, and of sound mind, to be aware, much like our use of the word sober today is not limited to one substance, but is achieved by abstaining from intoxication.
In the scriptures, sound doctrine teaches that one must be sober (Titus 2:1-2, 4, 6) According to II Corinthians 5:13 we are to be sober for the cause of our brothers and sisters in Christ. For in I Corinthians 8:9-13 we are called not to let our liberty become a stumbling block for others. Bishops, deacons, overseers, elders and their wives are called to be sober (I Timothy 3:2-3, 11). Romans 12:3 calls us to think using sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given us. II Thessalonians 5:6 tells us to watch and be sober. I Peter 4:7 reminds us that we must be sober for prayer and I Peter 5: 8 warns us that we must be sober to avoid attacks from Satan.
Anyone who has used marijuana knows of the unmistakable high that one receives after smoking or eating the drug. I can tell you from personal experience that one is not sober and far from being of sound mind while under the influence of marijuana. In smoking marijuana, a user is clearly disobeying firm biblical statutes and sinning against Almighty God."
Pentacotalism & Charismatics: Could They Be A form of Pharmakeia? Spiritism?
These Points of Debate Against The Use of Marijuana Possibly Being Linked to Spiritism By Christafari Are Well Written And Do Presents Some Good Debates. Since I Myself Have Never Smoked Marijuana...I Therefore Can Neither Deny Nor Verify These Claims...Also, since I have never experience "charismatics" or being "Pentecostal"..I can not claim whether it's source is of light or darkness either..However, the following is some debate points that a Bible Students groups make about about the chrasimatic and Pentacostal experiences...
One Bible Students Group Wrote:
"If the gift of tongues was not ecstatic utterances and if the gift of tongues ceased shortly after the death of the Apostles, then how do we account for the phenomenon of tongues in the form of ecstatic utterances today? It is interesting to note that glossolalia is not a phenomenon confined to Christianity. Pagan religions throughout the world are frenzied with tongues. This is reflected in an article in the Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation entitled "An Ethnological Study of Glossolalia" by George J. Jennings, March 1968. Jennings observes that glossolalia is practiced amoung the following non-Christian religions of the world; the Peyote cult among the North American Indians, Shamans in the Sudan, the Shango cult of the West Coast of Africa, the Shago cult in Trinidad, the Voodoo cult in Haiti, the Aborigines of South American and Australia, the aboriginal peoples of the subarctic regions of North America and Asia, the Shamans in Greenland, the Dyaks of Borneo, the Zor cult of Ethiopia, the Siberian shamans, the Chaco Indians of South America, the Curanderos of the Andes, the Kinka in the African Sudan, the Thonga shamans of Africa, and the Tibetan monks. Certainly we wouldn't attribute Glossolalia in these heathen religions to the work of the holy Spirit.
The Hippie Movement, The Chrasimatic Movemement & Drugs, And The Contemporary Movement
Back in the late 60's and early 70's, during the time of the hippy revolution and everything which became the turning point.
The church was effected by two elements: 1) hippy freedom and tolerance, and 2) charismania's spirituality/Neo-Pentecostalism. These '2' elements are seperate things but of which are more often than not..they merged together.
Mind Altering Drugs vs. Emptying The Mind In Eastern Mediational Praticices & It's Effects Compared to Christian Charismatics
One of the elements of hippy-dom was the embracing of Yoga, TM and the mind-altering drugs. Yoga and TM were methods of opening the mind to receive eastern spiritual mysticism. And the drugs aided in the process of emptying the mind, in order to embrace this new spirituality. See My Next article following this one below! Remember the "empty house" which the demons fill.-Mt12:43-45. Infact, very surprisingly, the New Age magazine "Whole Life Times" featured an article in their December 2001 issue called,"Kundalini Psychosis: The Perils of Spiritual Excess",By Frances Scarpoli,in which the writter gives a personal story of how her devotion to TM mediation nearly drove her to permanent insanity and that it was through the help of a Episcopalaian pastor she was able to come out of it and gained her sainity back. But the account it frightening!
The Beatles, and others who followed their example, traveled to India to be under the tutelage of a Hindu monk named the Maharishi. The Maharishi said, in the book Maharishi the Guru, that when one meditates, one reaches the "ultimate state of life," where one can find the "absolute pure conscious of Being."
Meditation quickly became the fad of the day, and many hippies and musicians gave up drugs in favor of the Indian teaching of TM. Today, although meditation is not as popular as it was in the sixties, many still practice this ancient Indian ritual.
Harrison personal embrace with Hinduism, and his personal popularity influenced many to follow his example and to give up LSD in favor of TM style of meditation in it's place.
George Harrison says that one reason he became interested in Indian was the way, as he said in a 1992 interview for Billboard, "it unlocked this enormous big door in the back of my consciousness." This is also why he "supposedly" gave up LSD and took up TM style meditation.
While hippies were getting "stoned" in their communes, the "church" was doing the same thing with shamanism. Instead of drugs, they had a pastor.
IS THE SPEAKING IN TONGUES & "SPIRIT-FILLED"/PENTECOSTAl/CHARISMATIC EXPREIENCE CONNECTED TO DRUGS,PHARMAKEIA, DEMONISM?
Religious of America By Leo Rosten "Drugs & Pentecostalism", Pages 454- 595:
"A valuable diagnosis emerged from the researches of Robert L. Adams and robert Jon Fox, who studied drug addiction in Pentecostal youth groups in the United States and concluded (in the Fall of 1972 issue of Trans-Action): Members of Charismatic movements have a high incidence of psot drug use, with 62% of those over 12, and 44% of those under 18, have used drugs. Only a 'few' individuals [ of those studied]were extreamly light users, usually of Marijuana.
Ample evidence supports the concern connecting the comsumption of drugs and the solicitation of religious visions. Some young people refer to their Pentecostalism as "The Jesus Trip," or "Jesus High." One mystic described his new faith- via-halluciation as " a rush- like speed." (amphetamines). And this account from one former clavary Chapel member:"Then there was Jeff Johnson himself, our leader, who would tell us that before converting to Christianity and while tripping on acid, the devil appeared to him in a tent in the jungles of Hawaii, and, Johnson insisted, granted him the power to control the elements. After experimenting with the flies in his tent - making them do backflips with the power of his mind - he wandered to a cliff overlooking the ocean. There he summoned a tsunami that drowned all the sunbathers on the beach. He did not tell this story as that of an imagined vision during a bad trip, but as an event that he apparently believes actually took place, an occurrence so unsettling that he had no choice but to turn to Jesus to escape the devil's temptations. We all prayed that an experience that overpowering, that mystical, that cool, might someday happen to us." Click on the image of the purple ascending Dove to Read the whole article.-.
One Bible Students group writes:
How do we explain tongues today? As has been noted, tongues-speaking is also practiced in many heathen religions throughout the world today. Certainly this is not the work of the holy Spirit. However, this much is observable - when a person has experienced tongues he is absolutely convinced as to the scripturalness of his experience and the correctness of his doctrinal beliefs. Hence the traditional Pentecostal insists on the correctness of the "second blessing." The Protestant who speaks in tongues feels that his doubt in the inspiration of the Bible is vindicated. Catholic Pentecostals testify that the charismatic experience has deepened their devotion to Mary. A glossolalic experience convinces the practicer that their brand of Christianity is right, etc. Thus, while tongues may not be directly caused by Satan yet it can be used by him as an effective means of sidetracking sincere Christians. The following scriptures reveal that one of the signs of the end of the world or age would be the phenomenal working deceptions of Satan in the Church. "And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Matt. 24:2 and 24
"Even his, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." 2 Thes. 2:9-11
Satan's involvement in the charismatic wonders cannot be ruled out as part of the deceptive wonders at the end of the age."
As I pointed out to you, I myself have never smoked weed not taken any drugs, nor have I ever cared to drink, although all of this has been around me and my family, of which many of them have taken part in and some still do. I neither have tried crasimatics or Pentecostalism. But in the end..For myself choose to avoid ANY mind altering experiences, be they from a natural plant such as Marijuana or Peyote or be they the form of mind-altering emotionalism such as crasimatics or trace-like religion. Because the form of faith I believe in is 'NOT' fundamental in nature..but rather is progressive...I do not therefore believe that those that may participate in one or more of the above discribed mind-altering activities is hopelessly "DOOMED". However, since there seems to be "a chance" that altering your conscious state 'may' open the door to spiritism...It is NOT a chance, no matter how small, that I myself am wanting nor willing to take. The only high I feel I need is the natural since of inner peace through Jesus Christ..NOT an emotional high..but just a peaceful feeling.
NOW LET'S READ ONE WOMEN'S SCARY STORY OF HOW SHE ALMOST LOST HER MIND MESSING WITH TM...TAKEN FROM THE NEW AGE MAGAZINE "WHOLE LIFE TIMES"...
