What Does The Bible Say About Medical Marijuana

Should Christians Smoke Medical Marijuana

NoIt’s a bad Witness

Brett McCracken, author of Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide , writes about pop culture for Relevant magazine and Christianity Today.

Medical marijuana is certainly helpful for people in great pain, many of whom use the drug in the same way they would use a pain reliever like codeine. The difference between codeine and cannabis is that the latter has a very distinct, largely negative image in culturean image that carries baggage and connotations Christians must consider if they are thinking of using marijuana, even for medical reasons.

When I was in grad school, several of my colleagues smoked marijuana. I do not doubt that smoking marijuana relieved the aches and pains of my 20-something cohorts. But I wonder if “medical assistance” is the primary reason they were using it. More likely they consumed it in the way Oscar on Arrested Development didenjoying “primo bud” under the auspices of the legal right to medical marijuana.

In California, the image of marijuana use, even for medical purposes, is mostly a joke. Pot smoking has long been associated with “slackers”zoned out, disengaged, pleasure-seeking rebels always in search of a high. The image has even given rise to a genre of cinema: the Stoner Film. The image of those who smoke weed in these films is one of laziness, irresponsibility, and mischief.

The Christian Case For Marijuana

If we are concerned about justice and the mitigation of pain, we must get beyond the just-say-no mentality.

Mr. Merritt writes about the intersection of religion, culture and politics.

I grew up in an evangelical Christian ministers home during Americas Just Say No era, which means I spent most of my life believing that marijuana was just one more sinful tool that the devil used to shred Americas moral fabric. But that was before I developed a mysterious and debilitating chronic pain disorder against which most traditional medicines proved worthless. Pain, like time, has a way of transforming us.

On a gray morning in December four years ago, I awoke in my cramped Brooklyn apartment and could not feel my hands. Over the following weeks, the numbness morphed into burning, tingling, stabbing pain that spread all over my body. The pain was soon accompanied by panic attacks, crippling depression and something bordering on suicidal thoughts.

Desperate for answers and relief, I plowed through health care professionals six neurologists, three primary care physicians, two chiropractors, two physical therapists, an orthopedist, a cardiologist, a rheumatologist, a physiatrist and one especially earnest Hasidic Jewish healer. They offered me no answers, but instead gave me a cabinet full of nerve pills, painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs that clouded my mind and were accompanied by side effects that were often worse than the symptoms themselves.

Passages In The Bible Related To Intoxication

While cannabis intoxication isnt discussed in the Bible, alcohol intoxication is. Some of the most popular scripture citations from the Old and the New Testaments related to intoxicating substances such as wine include:

• Corinthians 6:10 Nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
• Ephesians 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, . . .
• Galatians 5:21 Envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
• Isaiah 5:11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!
• Isaiah 28:7 These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment.
• Proverbs 23:20-21 Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.

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Does Scripture Talk About Smoking Weed Or Taking Drugs

Bible Question:

A friend from school is constantly trying to challenge several of my beliefs. He says things that do not make any sense things I KNOW are wrong but I cant seem to find evidence in the Bible that says so. Our latest disagreement is that he supposedly found somewhere in the Bible that weeds are from God and he perceives that it is okay to smoke weed. a ridiculous distortion of the Word. But its hard to find places in the Bible that deal with something like smoking weed. Can you please, please, please help me out?

Bible Answer:

Well, he is right. God did make the weeds just as God made everything else. Just after the flood, God told Noah that he could eat any living thing that moved.

And the fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Genesis 9:2-4

God had already allowed humans to eat any plant in Genesis 29. Therefore, with Genesis 9:2-4 God allowed Noah to eat any plant and living animals that moved. Clearly some plants are poisonous or toxic and they may be eatable if we could determine how to prepare them..

Smoking In The Bible

The only place in the Bible that talks about smoking is found in the book of Genesis.

Seriously Now

What Does The Bible Say About Smoking Marijuana

Similar to other subjects such as abortion, slavery, and other controversial subjects, the Bible doesnt seem to give concrete guidance. Rather, these subjects should be looked at through various lenses and contexts in order to make a stand about the Bible and marijuana.

According to the book of Genesis, after God placed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, he commanded them: You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.

Another quotation says: Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This food will be for you, for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the Earth, everything having the breath of life in it, I have given every green plant for food.

However, all of these quotes look at marijuana through the prism of nutrition, but what about smoking weed?

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Can You Smoke Weed And Still Go To Heaven

I think this is a bad question. Smoking weed is not what causes people to go to hell. You go to hell by not repenting and putting your trust in Christ alone. If you have not been saved by faith in Christ alone, then you will not enter into heaven. Let me say this again, if you have not trusted in the perfect work of Jesus Christ on your behalf and trusted Him for the forgiveness of sins, then you will not enter into heaven. We are not saved by works. You get into heaven by resting solely upon the perfect work of Jesus.

Christ took away the sin that was blocking us from God. He lived the perfect life that we couldnt live. Jesus died, He was buried, and He was resurrected for our sins. Trust in Christ alone. However, let me say this as well. Genuine faith in Christ will radically change your life. Evidence that you have put your faith in Christ is that you will be a new creature with new desires and affections for Christ and His Word. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come The old has gone, the new is here! A genuine Christian still struggles with sin, but what a Christian will not do is live a continuous lifestyle of rebellion and sin towards God. If He truly is a Christian, then He is a new creature. If he knows that weed is sinful, he will not want to indulge in that lifestyle.

Medical Marijuana What Does The Bible Say

Question: Medical marijuana what does the Bible say?

Answer: There is no definitive biblical answer to the question of whether Christians should use medical marijuana, because marijuana for medicinal use is not addressed in the Bible. While there may indeed be some medical benefit in the use of non-smoked marijuana products such as cannabis oil, edibles, and tinctures, this article deals with smoking the drug.

First, although many states have legalized medical marijuana, its use is still illegal according to federal law. Paul exhorts us to obey the law of the land under our government in this way: Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves .

Is it wrong for a Christian who has chronic pain to use medical marijuana / hemp? Does the Bible really say one way or the other about using marijuana / smoking weed?

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Cannabis And Other Religions

Before we jump right into the scriptures of Christianity, it seems only right first to take a look at how cannabis is received amongst other religious groups as a whole.

Along with many well-known religions such as the aforementioned Rastafarian religion , there are now a number of religions that center massively on marijuana. These modern faith groups have come together to celebrate religion and cannabis!

Groups such as THC Ministries, Cantheism, The Cannabis Assembly, The Church of the Universe, The Free Marijuana Church of Honolulu, and The First Church of Cannabis concentrate on cannabis, just to name a few!

Among these are also other well-known religions that date back centuries who benefit from cannabis as part of their spiritual healing. Taoism, which originates back to 4th century China, uses cannabis incense as a cleansing tool while in Norse mythology the cannabis plant relates to beauty, fertility, and love.

These are merely a few examples of cannabis being implemented into the holy and ancient rituals of religion. But where does it fall with Christianity and the Bible?

What Does The Bible Say About Using Marijuana

In November 2012, Colorado passed the Colorado Marijuana Legalization Amendment, or Amendment 64, legalizing marijuana in the state for everyone aged 21 and over. Since then, most states have moved towards legalizing marijuana by decriminalizing it or allowing recreational or medicinal use.

In recent years, Americans have begun to examine questions regarding marijuana use and what role, if any, it should have in their lives. When weed was strictly illegal, most Christians believed that using the substance was clearly wrong because the Bible advises readers to obey the government. Now that using marijuana even recreationally is no longer illegal in several states, the morality of it seems a little murky to some.

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What Is Gods View On Smoking Marijuana

While scripture doesnt discuss using drugs, it does warn against altering your mind and intoxication, which is what cannabis ultimately does when its consumed recreationally.

A few BIble proverbs say: Proverbs 23:31-35 Do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, or when it goes down smoothly. Afterward, it bites like a snake and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will speak perverse things. And you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, and like one who lies down on the top of the rigging. You will say, They have struck me, but I am not harmed! They beat me, but I did not know it! When will I awake? I will look for another drink.

Recreational marijuana use is mostly a way of releasing control, however, Paul says I will not be brought under the power of any in one Bible passage, stating that we must always have control over our body and mind since our bodys a temple of the Holy Spirit, and we wouldnt want to cause any harm to it.

Moreover, after Adam and Eve ate the apple from the forbidden tree, Satan spoke through the serpent and to Eve by saying Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden, insinuating that Adam and Eve should act on their own accord and not pay attention to Gods words. Ultimately, Peter the Apostle said Be sober-minded be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Does The Bible Really Talk About The Legalization Of Marijuana

Most people who grew up in church have a simple thought process when it comes to wether or not something should be legal. Is it right or is it wrong? is usually the first question. If its right then it should be legal. If it is wrong, well then it should be illegal. So, with the current marijuana issue many church going, bible believing christians have a simple stance: Its wrong to get drunk, and getting drunk is like getting high so it should be illegal to smoke or sell marijuana. Open and shut, now that we know the black and white of it we can commence advocating for pot to remain illegal.I am constantly begging my fellow Bible readers to go deeper into the message of scripture. To look at the comprehensive message of Jesus and the New Testament. I would ask the Christian community to consider these three things.

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Bible Verses About Marijuana

Okay, so there are no verses that talk directly about marijuana. Is that surprising? Although the Bible mentions weed, it was the kind that interferes with agriculture . Pot was something you cooked in . The only smoking that was going on at the time the Bible was written was caused by burning wood, houses, sacrifices, and ultimately, people . So, smoking of cigarettes and marijuana are not mentioned in the Bible.

The Healing Power Of Cannabis

Cannabis, when absorbed into olive oil, quickly absorbs into the skin. This method is still used today in balms, salves, and massage oils to treat a variety of illnesses.

Some postulate that people healed through the miracle of Christ may have been healed through the gift of marijuana. The most common ailments treated in the Bible, including epilepsy, eye issues, skin diseases, and menstrual problems, are some of the same illnesses treated with cannabis today.

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What Does Marijuana Use Say About The Individuals Values

Christians have the responsibility to regulate their behavior in every area of their life according to Scripture. When deciding whether using marijuana recreationally is a sin, theres one more important consideration: the impact it may have on others.

Romans 14:20 states, Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. The issue in the verse had to do with whether or not to eat something previously deemed unclean. However, the principle may apply to marijuana use.

The individual may be able to justify using weed if it doesnt cause lapses in judgment or lead to addiction. However, their use may reflect poorly on their values and cause someone else to justify their own substance abuse. If their recreational substance use is instrumental in anothers addiction or relapse, then it would be better for them to abstain.

Before considering whether or not using marijuana is permissible, an individual should consider how it could affect their reputation and lifes focus. Talking to a respected friend or leader can bring clarity to an otherwise confusing topic. Ultimately, its important for the Christian to remember to care for the body God has given them and live free from vices.

Advice To Christian Disciples

Two biblical considerations the contrast between being lawful and being expedient, and the reminder to keep watchprovide pastors with a framework for addressing recreational marijuana use in terms less of morality than of discipleship .

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful . Exactly! Paul is here probably quoting, and qualifying, a Corinthian slogan. He argues that what we do with our bodies is part of our Christian witness, because it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me .

Paul makes his meaning even clearer by what he goes on to deny, All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. . . . All things are lawful, but not all things build up .

Being filled with the Spirit leads to more self-control , whereas getting high leads to a loss of inhibitions. Note the difference between drinking alcohol and smoking pot: a glass of wine complements food but doesnt result in intoxication, whereas the whole point of consuming cannabis for recreational purposes is to get high.

A glass of wine complements food but doesnt result in intoxication, whereas the whole point of consuming cannabis for recreational purposes is to get high.

Much like the spell the green lady cast over Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum in Lewiss The Silver Chair, marijuana clouds our ability to perceive the world clearly and dulls our sense of urgency about what disciples should be doing.

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