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WHY GOD HATES DRUGS

Exclusive: Joseph Farah explains Greek word tying opioids to 'the dark side'

I haven’t written much about the drug crisis raging in America and around the world today.

There’s a reason for that.

The issue is very personal to me. I watched haplessly, not that many years ago, as someone very, very close to me nearly let drugs destroy her.

This happened many years ago. I’m happy to say this person has fully recovered and is leading a happy and productive life free of drugs.

But that lost time cost her dearly – wasted years, imprisonment, pain, felony record, a child, relationships, things you can never get back.

I don’t even like to think about what she went through. It’s like a nightmare. But to see someone come back from the living dead is powerful. It’s a miracle.

In my experience, a strong spiritual life is the best prevention and the best cure. And prevention is a lot easier than the cure.

Drug addiction is obviously a barrier to getting closer to God – even when one realizes he has hit rock bottom. That’s because the quicker, easier, seemingly more expedient solution to that feeling for the drug addict is almost always another fix.

Why is God the answer? He’s the answer to most questions, but it’s more specific in the case of drugs because drug use is a flirtation with the dark side of the spiritual realm. 

It’s rebellion against God.

How do I know?

You may not think the Bible mentions drugs, but it does.

God condemns “sorcery” in the Scriptures. What is sorcery? Modern dictionaries define it as “the art, practices, or spells of a person who is supposed to exercise supernatural powers through the aid of evil spirits; black magic; witchery.”

But in the Greek New Testament, the word translated “sorcery” is pharmakeia. Sound familiar? It’s where we get our English words “pharmacy,” “pharmaceuticals” and “pharmacopoeia.” That’s because sorcerers were not just casting spells with magic wands, they were “dealing in poison” and selling drugs. Sorcerers used drugs with their incantations and amulets to conjure occult power.

God hates sorcery.

It is associated with divination, enchantment, witchcraft, necromancy.

Deuteronomy 18:10-12 says: “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”

The prophet Malachi speaks of God’s judgment on those involved in sorcery: “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers …” (Malachi 3:5) There we see sorcery associated with judgment. 

Here, today, in 2018, we see the world consumed with a form of sorcery – drugs that alter the mind and attack the soul and body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

What’s most evil about drug use is the deception it causes – like all other forms of sorcery. We don’t hear much about sorcery today, but it’s all around us. We hear about it every day now with the opioid crisis that is ravaging the population – young and old – destroying lives, distorting reality, deceiving minds and souls.

How can it be stopped?

All I have to say about this subject can be summarized in these words: Share the love of God with those you love while you can. Don’t ever put it off for another day. You never know when you’re going to lose them to something like drugs or death.

When Jesus came, He cured people of all their pain and ills. He didn’t dispense drugs. He didn’t sell opioids. Instead, He touched them with the power of God.

Joseph Farah’s latest book, “The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians and the End of the Age,” is about how God will restore the world to its original state of perfection, what He called “very good.” His upcoming book is called “The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament,” hailed by dozens of Christian leaders as a breakthrough Bible book.

http://www.wnd.com/2018/04/why-god-hates-drugs/