Jerusalem Blade
Puritan Board Professor
Pharmakeia in the NT Era: Exposition and Application, with Objections Answered
I’ve titled the thread this way as evidently “sorcery” is a buzz-word that gets folks defensive and overheated. So I’ll just stick with the NT Greek word that’s usually translated into English as “sorcery” or “witchcraft” – the LXX likewise using pharmakeia and its cognates when referring to persons or activities in the OT involving the magic arts (cf. Ex 7:11, 22; 8:7, 18; 9:11; 22:18; Deut 18:10; Isa 47:9, 12; 2 Chr 33:6; 2 Kings 9:22; Dan 2:2; Mic 5:12; Nah 3:4; Mal 3:5). Commenting on this last verse, Malachi 3:5,
Calvin says, “as the word is found here all by itself, the Prophet no doubt meant to include all kinds of diviners, soothsayers, false prophets, and all such deceivers: and so there is here again another instance of stating a part for the whole”, saying of the Jews of that time, “they were then so given up to gross abominations, that they abandoned themselves to magic arts, and to incantations . . . of the devil.” (Calvin’s Commentaries; Vol 15, p. 577).
Very often we find, in both the OT and the New, this use of synecdoche (stating a part for the whole) when the word pharmakeia and its cognates are used, the use of drugs as the essential and common component in almost all of the “magic arts”. Consider, the Jews who translated the OT into the LXX invariably used a word signifying “drugs used as magic potions” whenever referring to the magic arts and its practitioners. Why would they do that – use that particular word – were it not actually so?
If anyone wonders why I am referencing the LXX (given my AV priority views), I quote from a previous thread,
Likewise with the apostles – Paul and John – we see them using the words pharmakeia and its cognates as such drugs are always connected by them with the magic arts, and in fact stand for them, even as Washington stands for the United States. Drugs stand for the magic arts – by synecdoche – being an essential ingredient in their activities.
As an example, I quote from the old ISBE,
In Acts 8 and 13 Simon and Elymus are respectively called “sorcerers”, and the underlying Greek there is mágos, a magician or sorcerer, a practitioner of the magic arts.
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Why this background information, and, some of you may say, why belabor this topic by going over it again? In a recent thread on marijuana (that “disappeared” due to the volatility of the issue) and the vote for and against it in California, when I took the position that, a) it should not be legalized, and b) it should continue to be prohibited in Christ’s church, I met with much opposition on both counts. Perhaps some of it was honest misunderstanding. So I will seek to be clearer in how I present the matter here.
In this aforementioned thread I expressed surprise, and then some shock, to see what we in the churches in the last century held in consensus to be the Biblical view on marijuana and other drugs of that class, which was that it and they were classified as pharmakeia, and those who used them as pharmakeus, sorcerous drugs and sorcerers respectively, and as such strictly and incontrovertibly condemned by Scripture.
Perhaps a factor in this is that I’m 68 years old – not to suggest that my brain is addled (though some might disagree!) – but rather that in the 60s through the 90s of the last century the church’s testimony to the culture was quite different than what it is today. I came of age – and later, was converted – in those days. Back then, we had to stand against the drug use of the hippie / Woodstock counterculture and its actively seeking to lure souls into its false visions and promises through the use of a certain class of drugs, the psychedelics or hallucinogens, of which marijuana was a primary component, along with Lysergic acid diethylamide 25, or LSD, and others.
Most of the people on this board are a good bit younger than this, or if around my age, perhaps did not have direct involvement in or with the counterculture. At any rate, it’s a different world now than it was then! Two generations have sprung up with no knowledge of our struggles against the storm of false teachings, false spiritualities, and states of consciousness resulting from the use of those drugs, marijuana included.
When the Lord’s elect were confronted with exegetical evidence from Scripture concerning the drugs we took, we were convicted we were committing the sin of pharmakeia – knowing full well from our experience that the word of God was true, and that the Lord had begun to fulfill His promise in our own generation: “I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers” (Malachi 3:5). Being moved with godly fear, we repented. So when we now hear from a new generation that does not know the Lord as we knew Him, say that marijuana is harmless when used “in moderation” and is “equivalent to alcohol” in its effects, we recoil from such sayings as much as we would if it were to be said that it is now accepted as Biblical teaching that oral sex is not fornication or adultery.
There is no doubt in my mind that the traditional teaching as regards pharmakeia and marijuana – as well the other drugs in this particular class – is sound explication of God’s word and appropriately applied to a cultural issue of especial significance for these and coming days.
Given such certitude in the matter, my approach is as Paul’s concerning
Should I not take this stance on a Biblical matter, even if others do not agree? I won’t take a stand like this with regard to things like baptism, or Bible versions, or eschatological views (excepting “Theonomy”), as godly men may differ in good conscience. The drugs are a different matter entirely, profoundly affecting the purity of the church for the worse.
Leveled as arguments against the view that marijuana is a “sorcerous” drug – that is, being in the condemned pharmakeia category, are the following:
a) It is no different than alcohol.
b) As with alcohol it may be abused, but if used in moderation it is neither sinful nor harmful.
c) Medicinal use of marijuana has been proven beneficial, without ill effects.
d) If it is used for mere pleasure / recreation without any intent to access the occult or engage in occult activities, then it does not fall into that class; in other words, the purpose or intent determines the nature of the experience.
e) As it is not prohibited by Scripture, it is sheer legalism to prohibit it to Christians on that basis.
f) To say it should not be legalized is to multiply criminal and civil laws which are both expensive to maintain and oppressive to the population, and besides, the government should not interfere in the lives of its citizens by multiplying laws governing so many aspects of their lives.
g) It is mere superstition to attribute demonic (sorcerous) qualities to it, another example of over-the-top “pentecostal demonism”.
h) This view is generalizing from one’s personal experience and saying it must be so for others as well, which is fallacious.
i) Marijuana is not to be considered in the same class of drug as LSD, Peyote, Mescaline, Hashish, etc.
j) No drugs in this class should be prohibited in the church or made illegal in the civil realm as God made them all, and all have their proper uses.
k) The Genesis 1:29 argument, that God made it for human consumption.
Responses to above arguments:
a) With regard to alcohol, it is an intoxicant that depresses the central nervous system and can lead to a temporary loss of control over physical and mental powers (cf. link: alcohol). Marijuana, on the other hand, is not a CNS depressant, but a psychoactive agent increasing awareness, and is classified as a hallucinogen. Those who say the effects of these two substances, alcohol and marijuana, are equivalent are ignorant of at least one of them, and betray their lack of qualification to discuss this knowledgably.
b) This assertion will be answered when responding to item d), as they are related.
c) First, I will post links to two articles which call this assertion into serious question, and then comment:
The Medical “Benefits” of Smoking Marijuana (Cannabis): a Review of the Current Scientific Literature
“Medical Marijuana” TRUTH AND LIES #1
Anecdotally, a recent NYTimes online ran an article titled, In Nederland, Colorado, Marijuana’s a Point of Pride, and a state official said, with regard to the high use of medicinal marijuana in the state, that there’s
These folks are no fools. They know the score, and how the “medicinal option” is – in the main – really being used.
I will mention again here, as I did in the disappeared thread, that while psychically “elevated” by marijuana one may experience a sense of detachment from the bodily source of pain, and thus a decrease in the sensation of its intensity, still, the very action that detaches from the pain will open one to other aspects of the “high” such as consciousness in a dimension not usually entered in the normal state of mind, that dimension spirits inhabit. Even were I (speaking personally) in extreme pain I would not opt for marijuana relief, as the “cure” would be far worse than the ailment: making myself vulnerable to demonic activity. More on this in the response to item d).
d) This is an interesting argument. Concerning any other drug and its effects on the human system, can it be said that those effects depend on the intent / purpose of the user? Or do the chemical properties of the drugs determine their effect? It is clear that people do smoke or ingest marijuana for different reasons, as is the case with other psychedelics; some for pleasure / recreation, some for spiritual / religious purposes, and some for the ability to function in the occult realms, and yet others for supposed medicinal purposes.
Jumping ahead to item h) for a moment, the psychopharmacological (the study of the affect certain drugs produce in the human psyche) effect of marijuana is similar to the other psychoactive drugs of this class – i.e., mind- or consciousness-expanding agents – and any difference is of degree and not of kind. They all are used as aids to give entrance to the dimension of spirits, and this is their primary use in certain religions and cults. Today the potency of some strains of marijuana are such that they may be on a par with the other drugs.
When the generation that was lured en mass into taking these drugs, some simply for pleasure, and some for the promise of spiritual illumination, became aware that there was far more to them than initially disclosed, they began to study the history and prior uses of the drugs – from marijuana and LSD (this latter a newcomer but similar) to mescaline and mushrooms – to try to gain an understanding of what they had done. Many who had commenced using marijuana, and the others, just for “recreation” but finding themselves open and vulnerable to occult forces, continued exploring this phenomenon of greatly heightened consciousness, some going on to the other drugs in the same class, while others became increasingly destabilized psychologically.
Those who used marijuana “recreationally” didn’t do so merely for the heightened taste of food or other sensual experience, but also for the much-touted enhancement of their mental powers and psychic abilities or intuition. They didn’t – at first – question where these enhancements came from, thinking it was perhaps just the properties of the drug – the active ingredient in it, THC – but experience quickly showed it was the nature of the psychic realm newly entered – or possibly forces within that realm – that was the source of the great increase of consciousness. The drug was an agent that transported the user into another dimension, and the dimension itself was the source of the new powers manifest both within and external to the user. These were, very many of them, initially “recreational” users, but now in over their heads. When these users began to be contacted by spiritual entities – some claiming to be ascended masters or other types of wise spirits, though others were openly malevolent – they realized they were out of their depth. They then pursued the knowledge of other religions and spiritual paths in attempts to get their bearings. Many of them were lured into Eastern spirituality or “earth spirituality”, such as Gaia. Multitudes were enveloped in the “strong delusion” (2 Thess 2:11) of the New Age paths. And many of these had just started out “recreationally” – curious about the heightened awareness promised. Others were more interested in finding a living and vital spiritual path – disgusted with the drug of the older generation, alcohol – and so pursued this as a religious quest. Sorcery or the occult were the farthest things from their minds!
When we found ourselves – the studious among us – in these depths, we began the study of comparative religions, from the known ones such as Buddhism, Zen, Hinduism, and Theosophy to the more obscure, such as the shaman ways of the Native Americans and other indigenous “primitive” groups, as certain South American tribes. Poets and adventurers among us trekked into South America to sample their wares and learn of their paths. It was, for many, the search for authentic spiritual paths, though others went over to the “dark side” and Satanism, voodoo, or Santeria.
We buried ourselves in books and studies about these substances that had propelled us into worlds unknown, unprepared for what came upon us, seeking understanding. The teachers that had appeared among us, such as Tim Leary of Harvard and Allen Ginsberg the poet, introduced us to the Eastern ways, with Leary translating Lao Tse’s The Tao into Psychedelic Prayers from the Tao Te Ching and The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Tibetan Buddhism) into “psychedelese”, to help those floundering in these new worlds become stable. In fact, multitudes were lost eternally, and were it not for the Lord Jesus wading into our midst and calling His own to Himself out of this satanic whirlpool dragging souls into the maw of the devil, we also had been eternally destroyed.
But to us whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, it was on this wise: “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). He appeared to us, cutting through the bands of darkness with His presence, and we acknowledged to Him, “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple” (Ps 119:130). We cleaved to Him as unto life itself, multitudes of us from that generation. And we learned from His word understanding of the realm we had been rescued from.
So when I hear young people of today gainsay what we know of the word of God, and of the destruction He saved us from, I am obliged to bear witness to his saving power and wisdom, that yet another generation fall not into those pits. At least not from the body of professing believers.
e) This is a very serious argument, and it is eminently valid to raise the concern over it. Is it really not prohibited by Scripture? Proceeding on the understanding that pharmakeia in the law of Moses is identical with pharmakeia in the New Covenant of Christ – which we shall here establish – we see that the death penalty was mandated in Ex 22:18 LXX for one who was a pharmakos (AV “witch”, NASB “sorceress”), and in Deut 18:10 it is written, “there shall not be found among you . . . a pharmakos (AV “witch”, NASB “sorcerer”). The meaning of this word in both Hebrew and Greek is that of one who practices the magic arts by use of drugs and potions. This is why both the Jews and the apostles used that specific word for this particular activity, rather than another word. In the OT a pharmakos was to be destroyed from among the people, and in the NT excommunicated – the NT spiritual equivalent of death – from the life of the church, except there be repentance. In the NT it is explicitly said that the pharmakos (“sorcerers” Rev 22:15 AV, NASB) had no place in eternity’s city of God , and the destiny of the pharmakeus (also “sorcerers” Rev 21:8 AV, NASB) was to be the lake of fire. This is explicit prohibition sufficient to make it a Biblical command, and not a law of man. Those who would say I am “stretching the meaning of the Greek words” need to back up their claim with more than empty sound-bites.
f) With regard to marijuana’s legalization: in a republic such as ours we can vote over such things. And have I not the right to persuade voters against such a course by reasoned argument? I agree that our government – and not only the present administration – seems to be given over to the desire to regulate the very minutiae of our lives, which is a great danger. But consider, when sexually immoral people try to make laws enabling them to teach and promote their immorality in our children’s schools – discipling our children in their pernicious ways! – is it not appropriate to use the law, and the electoral process, to thwart their designs? Of course it is.
The same applies to laws on drugs such as we are discussing. Would it be to a society’s health to have LSD legalized? Given sufficient dosages it is more potent than marijuana, and people talking it can easily lose control and run amok, though on a low dose it is not so dangerous in that respect. Yet it still, even in low dosages, gives the user – regardless of their intent when taking it – direct entrance into the presence of demons. [I shall deal with the allegations of delving in superstition and “pentecostal demonism” when we get to the next item, g) !] In that respect it is tremendously dangerous, 1) to individuals who may go to places in their spirits multitudes of people have not returned from whole, and 2) to society, which would have to absorb and deal with the high velocity psychic power such individuals would be vessels or channelers of. As with LSD, so with marijuana, though perhaps (I say perhaps, as the potency of modern grass is far greater than it ever used to be) slightly diminished, yet still conducing to societal chaos. That’s what some people want!
We don’t want debauchers promoting their ways among our children, and we don’t want open occult madness arising in our cities and towns. As citizens we have the right to vote concerning those things which affect our society. I can make more of a case for this, but not now. I’m eager to get to the next item.
g) I do seem to notice an aversion to the general topic of the occult, sorcery, witchcraft, etc., and discussions concerning it – in which they are taken seriously – being likened to “pentecostal demonism” and superstition. Actually, it is right and fitting to be averse to such stuff! But it will not do in this day and age to run from them – or to denigrate those who focus vitally needed attention on the present threat of them! – when the need is to firmly and without fear confront them. Let me elaborate.
First, of all people, Christians should be aware of the growing threat of occult activities in the culture. Or are we going to be the last to acknowledge these things, like the proverbial frog boiled in the pot who couldn’t tell the water was getting hot? I call this “the New York Times mentality” which is oblivious to the reality of God – hostile to those who mention it approvingly – and of all spiritual things: Heaven, Hell, salvation, angels, and demons.
But we should not be so. We should be aware: “There is no need for ignorance concerning the devices of the devil, for they are set forth plainly in the Word of God, and they are also visible all around us.” –Donald Grey Barnhouse. Visible in the “works of the flesh”, among which Paul singles out pharmakeia as a notable one (Gal 5:20), even in his day.
These then are the issues: how continually do we abide in the presence of our Lord, and how alert are we to the temptations sent our way (or arising from within), and the tactics of the powers of darkness in affecting our immediate lives, our families, churches, neighborhoods, towns, cities, and nations? Are we awake, or asleep? Do we just pretend the Deceiver and Murderer of souls and of cultures is far from us? Can it be we have drunk too deeply of Babylon’s wine, anesthetized by our televisions, movies, tech toys, cool lives, and are now at ease in Zion (Amos 6:1)? It is a fault of the Reformed – some of them anyway – to deny or minimize the activities of the demonic world, lulled perhaps by the genuine truth that the preaching of the gospel is the most formidable weapon in the church’s armory, and they then just let the preachers preach and forget about the ravaging of the culture they are in, and supposedly not of. Nor is it only the culture being ravaged by the antichrist spirits and other demonic attacks, but the church of Jesus Christ is now beset by myriads of deceiving spirits bringing all sorts of diabolic doctrines and accompanying psychic phenomena into the very precincts of God’s temple. Now in this, the Reformed, being confessional, have a strong bulwark of defence many churches do not have; what I think is that some have been, as I said, lulled – into a blind complacency that just because they have confessional standards there is no more need for vigilance concerning those things the word of God says exist.
So when I talk of the present activity of psychedelics / hallucinogens being Biblically-defined sorcery in the culture of the world – and seeking entrance into the church – I am told this is fostering “pentecostal demonism”! What a dark retort! This brings to mind the dread warning given the gainsayers in Isaiah 30:8-11.
Fie on such a calumnious slur! It really is a cover – a smokescreen – to whitewash a sinful activity behind deceiving (albeit possibly ignorant) words. Out of charity I will grant that.
Do those who coin such slurs even know what “pentecostal demonism” is about? It is the seeing a demon behind every tree, as it were. It is the so-called “sanctification by exorcism” craziness, which bypasses moral responsibility with supposed “power deliverances” – the which falsities David Powlison of CCEF refutes nicely in his, Power Encounters: Reclaiming Spiritual Warfare. The Pentecostal / Charismatic “spiritual warfare movement” is indeed a bane to the church, but discernment of spiritual activities in modern-day Babylon and their threat to the church – many professing sectors of which are now of Babylon! – is not part of that. When even true sectors of the church become complacent and anesthetized, they bristle when discernment ministries sound their alarms. But the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
I agree that superstition is a thing which ought have no place in the people of God.
To enter into the record at this point a definition:
It would seem to me that not only those who believe in so as to practice such ungodliness fall under this definition, but those who have an unreasoning fear of such things do as well. The people who know their God accept the testimony of Scripture concerning what is real, and are able to stand firm and fearless against any works of darkness in His name and by His word. We do not fight shadows, but know how to stand in the evil day (Eph 6:13).
h) There is also empirical data with regard to the affect of marijuana in the systems of those taking it, and many corroborating testimonies to that effect. It is not a valid objection in light of the “personal experience” of multitudes who have taken marijuana and like drugs – many for pleasure and recreation – only to find they have unwittingly entered a realm of danger and horror. There are others who have taken the drugs and had a great time, with no apparent deleterious effects, who found themselves strangely and increasingly estranged from the idea of the Christian God and moved toward the spiritual paths of the East, and of the occult. Those who say drugs, marijuana included, are spiritually harmless, seek to generalize from their deceived experience (or just hearsay) and deceive the unwary with false reports of it being harmless to all who take it recreationally and “in moderation”.
i) There are so many variables here with regard to doses and quality. Some marijuana is more potent than some LSD; eaten marijuana, when rightly prepared, can be tremendously potent as a hallucinogen. Hashish is just concentrated resin from the marijuana plant and has the exact same chemical basis. Marijuana is as capable of enabling users to come into the presence of spirits as are LSD, Peyote, and Mescaline, and it has been used so by many spiritualist religions and cults. Comparative religion studies and historical studies of its use bear this out.
j) Why then had God explicitly prohibited their use for the nation of Israel, and condemned the users to capital punishment, if they are good? One could as well say, “Why has God allowed the existence and the presence of the devil and his hosts to remain in the world, if there was not some good to be gained from them?” The answer is that we are called to have our “senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb 5:14), and to “put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean” (Lev 10:10). We are no longer in Paradise, and some plants and elements are poisons to our bodies, and some to our souls.
The government may rightly restrict the availability of poisons, given the treachery of human nature in using them. The church may (and should) prohibit that which God has prohibited in His word.
k) Genesis 1:29, when speaking of “herbs” (AV), says, “to you it shall be for food”. That does not given any warrant for smoking or ingesting marijuana, apart from nutritional purposes, but for altering the state of consciousness. It is precisely this altering of consciousness by means of a drug, and with the result of facilitating communion (intended or not) with God’s enemies – the demons – that is the condemned pharmakeia in God’s word. This is not food.
In the sixties and onward we often heard the phrase, “the politics of consciousness.” This is the issue again with regard to the same drugs. LSD is once again being used (under special license) by the therapeutic community, there being a resurgence now of this supposed “therapeutic” use, per (among other sources) the NY Times of Apr 11, 2010: “Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again”.
What some folks are saying is that they have the right to do what they will with their state of awareness. This sounds good enough, but in fact they are desiring to enter and commune with the denizens of a forbidden realm, the matrix of evil: the lair – indeed the heart – of Satan. Awareness in this realm may not always appear to have anything to do with spirits or that evil one; they may be disguised as “angels of light” (2 Cor 11:14), or they may only manifest as benign impersonal spiritual illumination and energy, or as pleasure enhancers (for the “recreational” fools). The world may well obtain enough votes to pass this pharmakeia into law. The Trojan horse of “medicinal marijuana” has already gotten its foot in the door.
But in the communion of Christ we are not unaware of satan’s devices, that he should gain an advantage over us through deception.
I’ve titled the thread this way as evidently “sorcery” is a buzz-word that gets folks defensive and overheated. So I’ll just stick with the NT Greek word that’s usually translated into English as “sorcery” or “witchcraft” – the LXX likewise using pharmakeia and its cognates when referring to persons or activities in the OT involving the magic arts (cf. Ex 7:11, 22; 8:7, 18; 9:11; 22:18; Deut 18:10; Isa 47:9, 12; 2 Chr 33:6; 2 Kings 9:22; Dan 2:2; Mic 5:12; Nah 3:4; Mal 3:5). Commenting on this last verse, Malachi 3:5,
“And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers [pharmakos], and against the adulterers, and against false swearers”, [emphasis mine –SMR]
Calvin says, “as the word is found here all by itself, the Prophet no doubt meant to include all kinds of diviners, soothsayers, false prophets, and all such deceivers: and so there is here again another instance of stating a part for the whole”, saying of the Jews of that time, “they were then so given up to gross abominations, that they abandoned themselves to magic arts, and to incantations . . . of the devil.” (Calvin’s Commentaries; Vol 15, p. 577).
Very often we find, in both the OT and the New, this use of synecdoche (stating a part for the whole) when the word pharmakeia and its cognates are used, the use of drugs as the essential and common component in almost all of the “magic arts”. Consider, the Jews who translated the OT into the LXX invariably used a word signifying “drugs used as magic potions” whenever referring to the magic arts and its practitioners. Why would they do that – use that particular word – were it not actually so?
If anyone wonders why I am referencing the LXX (given my AV priority views), I quote from a previous thread,
“. . . in the Septuagint, God provided a commentary and word study . . . The work of the early Greek translators of the Old Testament provided a ready made translational database for Jesus and the writers of Scripture”. (Emphasis mine –SMR)
Likewise with the apostles – Paul and John – we see them using the words pharmakeia and its cognates as such drugs are always connected by them with the magic arts, and in fact stand for them, even as Washington stands for the United States. Drugs stand for the magic arts – by synecdoche – being an essential ingredient in their activities.
As an example, I quote from the old ISBE,
“The word translated in the AV ‘witchcraft’ in Gal 5:20 (pharmakeia) is the ordinary Greek one for ‘sorcery,’ and is so rendered in the RV, though it means literally the act of administering drugs and then of magical potions. It naturally comes then to stand for the magician’s art, as in the present passage and also in . . . the LXX of Isa 47:9 . . . translated ‘sorceries’.” (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, James Orr, Ed., Vol. 5, p. 3097.)
In Acts 8 and 13 Simon and Elymus are respectively called “sorcerers”, and the underlying Greek there is mágos, a magician or sorcerer, a practitioner of the magic arts.
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Why this background information, and, some of you may say, why belabor this topic by going over it again? In a recent thread on marijuana (that “disappeared” due to the volatility of the issue) and the vote for and against it in California, when I took the position that, a) it should not be legalized, and b) it should continue to be prohibited in Christ’s church, I met with much opposition on both counts. Perhaps some of it was honest misunderstanding. So I will seek to be clearer in how I present the matter here.
In this aforementioned thread I expressed surprise, and then some shock, to see what we in the churches in the last century held in consensus to be the Biblical view on marijuana and other drugs of that class, which was that it and they were classified as pharmakeia, and those who used them as pharmakeus, sorcerous drugs and sorcerers respectively, and as such strictly and incontrovertibly condemned by Scripture.
Perhaps a factor in this is that I’m 68 years old – not to suggest that my brain is addled (though some might disagree!) – but rather that in the 60s through the 90s of the last century the church’s testimony to the culture was quite different than what it is today. I came of age – and later, was converted – in those days. Back then, we had to stand against the drug use of the hippie / Woodstock counterculture and its actively seeking to lure souls into its false visions and promises through the use of a certain class of drugs, the psychedelics or hallucinogens, of which marijuana was a primary component, along with Lysergic acid diethylamide 25, or LSD, and others.
Most of the people on this board are a good bit younger than this, or if around my age, perhaps did not have direct involvement in or with the counterculture. At any rate, it’s a different world now than it was then! Two generations have sprung up with no knowledge of our struggles against the storm of false teachings, false spiritualities, and states of consciousness resulting from the use of those drugs, marijuana included.
When the Lord’s elect were confronted with exegetical evidence from Scripture concerning the drugs we took, we were convicted we were committing the sin of pharmakeia – knowing full well from our experience that the word of God was true, and that the Lord had begun to fulfill His promise in our own generation: “I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers” (Malachi 3:5). Being moved with godly fear, we repented. So when we now hear from a new generation that does not know the Lord as we knew Him, say that marijuana is harmless when used “in moderation” and is “equivalent to alcohol” in its effects, we recoil from such sayings as much as we would if it were to be said that it is now accepted as Biblical teaching that oral sex is not fornication or adultery.
There is no doubt in my mind that the traditional teaching as regards pharmakeia and marijuana – as well the other drugs in this particular class – is sound explication of God’s word and appropriately applied to a cultural issue of especial significance for these and coming days.
Given such certitude in the matter, my approach is as Paul’s concerning
“some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds);
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:2-5).
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds);
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:2-5).
Should I not take this stance on a Biblical matter, even if others do not agree? I won’t take a stand like this with regard to things like baptism, or Bible versions, or eschatological views (excepting “Theonomy”), as godly men may differ in good conscience. The drugs are a different matter entirely, profoundly affecting the purity of the church for the worse.
Leveled as arguments against the view that marijuana is a “sorcerous” drug – that is, being in the condemned pharmakeia category, are the following:
a) It is no different than alcohol.
b) As with alcohol it may be abused, but if used in moderation it is neither sinful nor harmful.
c) Medicinal use of marijuana has been proven beneficial, without ill effects.
d) If it is used for mere pleasure / recreation without any intent to access the occult or engage in occult activities, then it does not fall into that class; in other words, the purpose or intent determines the nature of the experience.
e) As it is not prohibited by Scripture, it is sheer legalism to prohibit it to Christians on that basis.
f) To say it should not be legalized is to multiply criminal and civil laws which are both expensive to maintain and oppressive to the population, and besides, the government should not interfere in the lives of its citizens by multiplying laws governing so many aspects of their lives.
g) It is mere superstition to attribute demonic (sorcerous) qualities to it, another example of over-the-top “pentecostal demonism”.
h) This view is generalizing from one’s personal experience and saying it must be so for others as well, which is fallacious.
i) Marijuana is not to be considered in the same class of drug as LSD, Peyote, Mescaline, Hashish, etc.
j) No drugs in this class should be prohibited in the church or made illegal in the civil realm as God made them all, and all have their proper uses.
k) The Genesis 1:29 argument, that God made it for human consumption.
Responses to above arguments:
a) With regard to alcohol, it is an intoxicant that depresses the central nervous system and can lead to a temporary loss of control over physical and mental powers (cf. link: alcohol). Marijuana, on the other hand, is not a CNS depressant, but a psychoactive agent increasing awareness, and is classified as a hallucinogen. Those who say the effects of these two substances, alcohol and marijuana, are equivalent are ignorant of at least one of them, and betray their lack of qualification to discuss this knowledgably.
b) This assertion will be answered when responding to item d), as they are related.
c) First, I will post links to two articles which call this assertion into serious question, and then comment:
The Medical “Benefits” of Smoking Marijuana (Cannabis): a Review of the Current Scientific Literature
“Medical Marijuana” TRUTH AND LIES #1
Anecdotally, a recent NYTimes online ran an article titled, In Nederland, Colorado, Marijuana’s a Point of Pride, and a state official said, with regard to the high use of medicinal marijuana in the state, that there’s
“. . . a disproportionate amount of debilitating pain diagnosed in men in their 20s, state records show. ‘Who would think there would be such severe pain among young men in Colorado?’ said Ron Hyman, the state registrar of vital statistics . . .”
These folks are no fools. They know the score, and how the “medicinal option” is – in the main – really being used.
I will mention again here, as I did in the disappeared thread, that while psychically “elevated” by marijuana one may experience a sense of detachment from the bodily source of pain, and thus a decrease in the sensation of its intensity, still, the very action that detaches from the pain will open one to other aspects of the “high” such as consciousness in a dimension not usually entered in the normal state of mind, that dimension spirits inhabit. Even were I (speaking personally) in extreme pain I would not opt for marijuana relief, as the “cure” would be far worse than the ailment: making myself vulnerable to demonic activity. More on this in the response to item d).
d) This is an interesting argument. Concerning any other drug and its effects on the human system, can it be said that those effects depend on the intent / purpose of the user? Or do the chemical properties of the drugs determine their effect? It is clear that people do smoke or ingest marijuana for different reasons, as is the case with other psychedelics; some for pleasure / recreation, some for spiritual / religious purposes, and some for the ability to function in the occult realms, and yet others for supposed medicinal purposes.
Jumping ahead to item h) for a moment, the psychopharmacological (the study of the affect certain drugs produce in the human psyche) effect of marijuana is similar to the other psychoactive drugs of this class – i.e., mind- or consciousness-expanding agents – and any difference is of degree and not of kind. They all are used as aids to give entrance to the dimension of spirits, and this is their primary use in certain religions and cults. Today the potency of some strains of marijuana are such that they may be on a par with the other drugs.
When the generation that was lured en mass into taking these drugs, some simply for pleasure, and some for the promise of spiritual illumination, became aware that there was far more to them than initially disclosed, they began to study the history and prior uses of the drugs – from marijuana and LSD (this latter a newcomer but similar) to mescaline and mushrooms – to try to gain an understanding of what they had done. Many who had commenced using marijuana, and the others, just for “recreation” but finding themselves open and vulnerable to occult forces, continued exploring this phenomenon of greatly heightened consciousness, some going on to the other drugs in the same class, while others became increasingly destabilized psychologically.
Those who used marijuana “recreationally” didn’t do so merely for the heightened taste of food or other sensual experience, but also for the much-touted enhancement of their mental powers and psychic abilities or intuition. They didn’t – at first – question where these enhancements came from, thinking it was perhaps just the properties of the drug – the active ingredient in it, THC – but experience quickly showed it was the nature of the psychic realm newly entered – or possibly forces within that realm – that was the source of the great increase of consciousness. The drug was an agent that transported the user into another dimension, and the dimension itself was the source of the new powers manifest both within and external to the user. These were, very many of them, initially “recreational” users, but now in over their heads. When these users began to be contacted by spiritual entities – some claiming to be ascended masters or other types of wise spirits, though others were openly malevolent – they realized they were out of their depth. They then pursued the knowledge of other religions and spiritual paths in attempts to get their bearings. Many of them were lured into Eastern spirituality or “earth spirituality”, such as Gaia. Multitudes were enveloped in the “strong delusion” (2 Thess 2:11) of the New Age paths. And many of these had just started out “recreationally” – curious about the heightened awareness promised. Others were more interested in finding a living and vital spiritual path – disgusted with the drug of the older generation, alcohol – and so pursued this as a religious quest. Sorcery or the occult were the farthest things from their minds!
When we found ourselves – the studious among us – in these depths, we began the study of comparative religions, from the known ones such as Buddhism, Zen, Hinduism, and Theosophy to the more obscure, such as the shaman ways of the Native Americans and other indigenous “primitive” groups, as certain South American tribes. Poets and adventurers among us trekked into South America to sample their wares and learn of their paths. It was, for many, the search for authentic spiritual paths, though others went over to the “dark side” and Satanism, voodoo, or Santeria.
We buried ourselves in books and studies about these substances that had propelled us into worlds unknown, unprepared for what came upon us, seeking understanding. The teachers that had appeared among us, such as Tim Leary of Harvard and Allen Ginsberg the poet, introduced us to the Eastern ways, with Leary translating Lao Tse’s The Tao into Psychedelic Prayers from the Tao Te Ching and The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Tibetan Buddhism) into “psychedelese”, to help those floundering in these new worlds become stable. In fact, multitudes were lost eternally, and were it not for the Lord Jesus wading into our midst and calling His own to Himself out of this satanic whirlpool dragging souls into the maw of the devil, we also had been eternally destroyed.
But to us whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, it was on this wise: “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). He appeared to us, cutting through the bands of darkness with His presence, and we acknowledged to Him, “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple” (Ps 119:130). We cleaved to Him as unto life itself, multitudes of us from that generation. And we learned from His word understanding of the realm we had been rescued from.
So when I hear young people of today gainsay what we know of the word of God, and of the destruction He saved us from, I am obliged to bear witness to his saving power and wisdom, that yet another generation fall not into those pits. At least not from the body of professing believers.
e) This is a very serious argument, and it is eminently valid to raise the concern over it. Is it really not prohibited by Scripture? Proceeding on the understanding that pharmakeia in the law of Moses is identical with pharmakeia in the New Covenant of Christ – which we shall here establish – we see that the death penalty was mandated in Ex 22:18 LXX for one who was a pharmakos (AV “witch”, NASB “sorceress”), and in Deut 18:10 it is written, “there shall not be found among you . . . a pharmakos (AV “witch”, NASB “sorcerer”). The meaning of this word in both Hebrew and Greek is that of one who practices the magic arts by use of drugs and potions. This is why both the Jews and the apostles used that specific word for this particular activity, rather than another word. In the OT a pharmakos was to be destroyed from among the people, and in the NT excommunicated – the NT spiritual equivalent of death – from the life of the church, except there be repentance. In the NT it is explicitly said that the pharmakos (“sorcerers” Rev 22:15 AV, NASB) had no place in eternity’s city of God , and the destiny of the pharmakeus (also “sorcerers” Rev 21:8 AV, NASB) was to be the lake of fire. This is explicit prohibition sufficient to make it a Biblical command, and not a law of man. Those who would say I am “stretching the meaning of the Greek words” need to back up their claim with more than empty sound-bites.
f) With regard to marijuana’s legalization: in a republic such as ours we can vote over such things. And have I not the right to persuade voters against such a course by reasoned argument? I agree that our government – and not only the present administration – seems to be given over to the desire to regulate the very minutiae of our lives, which is a great danger. But consider, when sexually immoral people try to make laws enabling them to teach and promote their immorality in our children’s schools – discipling our children in their pernicious ways! – is it not appropriate to use the law, and the electoral process, to thwart their designs? Of course it is.
The same applies to laws on drugs such as we are discussing. Would it be to a society’s health to have LSD legalized? Given sufficient dosages it is more potent than marijuana, and people talking it can easily lose control and run amok, though on a low dose it is not so dangerous in that respect. Yet it still, even in low dosages, gives the user – regardless of their intent when taking it – direct entrance into the presence of demons. [I shall deal with the allegations of delving in superstition and “pentecostal demonism” when we get to the next item, g) !] In that respect it is tremendously dangerous, 1) to individuals who may go to places in their spirits multitudes of people have not returned from whole, and 2) to society, which would have to absorb and deal with the high velocity psychic power such individuals would be vessels or channelers of. As with LSD, so with marijuana, though perhaps (I say perhaps, as the potency of modern grass is far greater than it ever used to be) slightly diminished, yet still conducing to societal chaos. That’s what some people want!
We don’t want debauchers promoting their ways among our children, and we don’t want open occult madness arising in our cities and towns. As citizens we have the right to vote concerning those things which affect our society. I can make more of a case for this, but not now. I’m eager to get to the next item.
g) I do seem to notice an aversion to the general topic of the occult, sorcery, witchcraft, etc., and discussions concerning it – in which they are taken seriously – being likened to “pentecostal demonism” and superstition. Actually, it is right and fitting to be averse to such stuff! But it will not do in this day and age to run from them – or to denigrate those who focus vitally needed attention on the present threat of them! – when the need is to firmly and without fear confront them. Let me elaborate.
First, of all people, Christians should be aware of the growing threat of occult activities in the culture. Or are we going to be the last to acknowledge these things, like the proverbial frog boiled in the pot who couldn’t tell the water was getting hot? I call this “the New York Times mentality” which is oblivious to the reality of God – hostile to those who mention it approvingly – and of all spiritual things: Heaven, Hell, salvation, angels, and demons.
But we should not be so. We should be aware: “There is no need for ignorance concerning the devices of the devil, for they are set forth plainly in the Word of God, and they are also visible all around us.” –Donald Grey Barnhouse. Visible in the “works of the flesh”, among which Paul singles out pharmakeia as a notable one (Gal 5:20), even in his day.
These then are the issues: how continually do we abide in the presence of our Lord, and how alert are we to the temptations sent our way (or arising from within), and the tactics of the powers of darkness in affecting our immediate lives, our families, churches, neighborhoods, towns, cities, and nations? Are we awake, or asleep? Do we just pretend the Deceiver and Murderer of souls and of cultures is far from us? Can it be we have drunk too deeply of Babylon’s wine, anesthetized by our televisions, movies, tech toys, cool lives, and are now at ease in Zion (Amos 6:1)? It is a fault of the Reformed – some of them anyway – to deny or minimize the activities of the demonic world, lulled perhaps by the genuine truth that the preaching of the gospel is the most formidable weapon in the church’s armory, and they then just let the preachers preach and forget about the ravaging of the culture they are in, and supposedly not of. Nor is it only the culture being ravaged by the antichrist spirits and other demonic attacks, but the church of Jesus Christ is now beset by myriads of deceiving spirits bringing all sorts of diabolic doctrines and accompanying psychic phenomena into the very precincts of God’s temple. Now in this, the Reformed, being confessional, have a strong bulwark of defence many churches do not have; what I think is that some have been, as I said, lulled – into a blind complacency that just because they have confessional standards there is no more need for vigilance concerning those things the word of God says exist.
So when I talk of the present activity of psychedelics / hallucinogens being Biblically-defined sorcery in the culture of the world – and seeking entrance into the church – I am told this is fostering “pentecostal demonism”! What a dark retort! This brings to mind the dread warning given the gainsayers in Isaiah 30:8-11.
Fie on such a calumnious slur! It really is a cover – a smokescreen – to whitewash a sinful activity behind deceiving (albeit possibly ignorant) words. Out of charity I will grant that.
Do those who coin such slurs even know what “pentecostal demonism” is about? It is the seeing a demon behind every tree, as it were. It is the so-called “sanctification by exorcism” craziness, which bypasses moral responsibility with supposed “power deliverances” – the which falsities David Powlison of CCEF refutes nicely in his, Power Encounters: Reclaiming Spiritual Warfare. The Pentecostal / Charismatic “spiritual warfare movement” is indeed a bane to the church, but discernment of spiritual activities in modern-day Babylon and their threat to the church – many professing sectors of which are now of Babylon! – is not part of that. When even true sectors of the church become complacent and anesthetized, they bristle when discernment ministries sound their alarms. But the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
I agree that superstition is a thing which ought have no place in the people of God.
To enter into the record at this point a definition:
Superstition: 1 a. A belief, conception, act, or practice resulting from ignorance, unreasoning fear of the unknown or mysterious, morbid scrupulosity, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation. . . <superstitions such as child-sacrifice, divination, soothsaying, enchantments, sorceries, charms, (by magic knots, spells, incantations), ghosts, spiritualistic mediums, necromancy> . . . b. an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature, or God resulting from such beliefs, conceptions, or fears. 2 a. Idolatrous religion. . . 3: a fixed irrational idea : a notion maintained in spite of evidence to the contrary. (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 1971, p. 2296)
It would seem to me that not only those who believe in so as to practice such ungodliness fall under this definition, but those who have an unreasoning fear of such things do as well. The people who know their God accept the testimony of Scripture concerning what is real, and are able to stand firm and fearless against any works of darkness in His name and by His word. We do not fight shadows, but know how to stand in the evil day (Eph 6:13).
h) There is also empirical data with regard to the affect of marijuana in the systems of those taking it, and many corroborating testimonies to that effect. It is not a valid objection in light of the “personal experience” of multitudes who have taken marijuana and like drugs – many for pleasure and recreation – only to find they have unwittingly entered a realm of danger and horror. There are others who have taken the drugs and had a great time, with no apparent deleterious effects, who found themselves strangely and increasingly estranged from the idea of the Christian God and moved toward the spiritual paths of the East, and of the occult. Those who say drugs, marijuana included, are spiritually harmless, seek to generalize from their deceived experience (or just hearsay) and deceive the unwary with false reports of it being harmless to all who take it recreationally and “in moderation”.
i) There are so many variables here with regard to doses and quality. Some marijuana is more potent than some LSD; eaten marijuana, when rightly prepared, can be tremendously potent as a hallucinogen. Hashish is just concentrated resin from the marijuana plant and has the exact same chemical basis. Marijuana is as capable of enabling users to come into the presence of spirits as are LSD, Peyote, and Mescaline, and it has been used so by many spiritualist religions and cults. Comparative religion studies and historical studies of its use bear this out.
j) Why then had God explicitly prohibited their use for the nation of Israel, and condemned the users to capital punishment, if they are good? One could as well say, “Why has God allowed the existence and the presence of the devil and his hosts to remain in the world, if there was not some good to be gained from them?” The answer is that we are called to have our “senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb 5:14), and to “put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean” (Lev 10:10). We are no longer in Paradise, and some plants and elements are poisons to our bodies, and some to our souls.
The government may rightly restrict the availability of poisons, given the treachery of human nature in using them. The church may (and should) prohibit that which God has prohibited in His word.
k) Genesis 1:29, when speaking of “herbs” (AV), says, “to you it shall be for food”. That does not given any warrant for smoking or ingesting marijuana, apart from nutritional purposes, but for altering the state of consciousness. It is precisely this altering of consciousness by means of a drug, and with the result of facilitating communion (intended or not) with God’s enemies – the demons – that is the condemned pharmakeia in God’s word. This is not food.
In the sixties and onward we often heard the phrase, “the politics of consciousness.” This is the issue again with regard to the same drugs. LSD is once again being used (under special license) by the therapeutic community, there being a resurgence now of this supposed “therapeutic” use, per (among other sources) the NY Times of Apr 11, 2010: “Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again”.
What some folks are saying is that they have the right to do what they will with their state of awareness. This sounds good enough, but in fact they are desiring to enter and commune with the denizens of a forbidden realm, the matrix of evil: the lair – indeed the heart – of Satan. Awareness in this realm may not always appear to have anything to do with spirits or that evil one; they may be disguised as “angels of light” (2 Cor 11:14), or they may only manifest as benign impersonal spiritual illumination and energy, or as pleasure enhancers (for the “recreational” fools). The world may well obtain enough votes to pass this pharmakeia into law. The Trojan horse of “medicinal marijuana” has already gotten its foot in the door.
But in the communion of Christ we are not unaware of satan’s devices, that he should gain an advantage over us through deception.