IS IT WRONG FOR CHRISTIANS TO SMOKE?
Actually, yes, for the following reasons.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:16-17
16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
EPHESIANS 5:29
29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does
the church.
Paul states plainly that our bodies are temples for God, and we are not to defile that temple. If
anyone, including we ourselves defile that temple, God will destroy the one responsible.
Nicotine is known to be a powerful poison, and the body fights vigorously to rid itself of it. It's
detrimental effects on the human body are also well known. Emphysema, cancer, heart failure,
nicotine addiction, etc. All of these symptoms point to the fact that cigarettes and cigars are not
healthy either to the one smoking them, nor to the ones who have to inhale the second-hand
smoke.
Look at it from God's point of view. Would you like to go into a church that reeked of
cigarette smoke? Seeing walls stained with a yellow/brown film of nicotine? If you smoke,
that's what the Holy Spirit has to endure. Can such a church glorify God?
And for those who might say that God created tobacco plants, so it must be ok to smoke.... God created fire also, and yet men corrupted it's use by sacrificing children to demon gods by burning them to death before their idols (called "passing through the fire").
DEUTERONOMY 18:9-13
9 “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.
10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,
11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you.
13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.
JEREMIAH 32:30-35
30 because the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil before Me from their youth. For the children of Israel have provoked Me only to anger with the work of their hands,’ says the Lord.
31 ‘For this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My fury from the day that they built it, even to this day; so I will remove it from before My face
32 because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
33 And they have turned to Me the back, and not the face; though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.
34 But they set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.
35 And they built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.’
Note in verse 35 that God states that such acts never came into His mind for men to do them. The same goes with smoking. God never intended for men to smoke, testified by the very fact that smoking wreaks such havoc on the human body. And if God had intended for us to smoke, he would have to resurrect and apologize to everyone who has died of smoke inhalation in house fires.
God never intended for men to smoke, testified by the very fact that smoking wreaks such
havoc on the human body. And if God had intended for us to smoke, he would have to
resurrect and apologize to everyone who has died of smoke inhalation in house fires.
Remember your first drag from a cigarette? What happened? You probably nearly turned blue
from coughing, as your lungs tried desperately to rid themselves of the poisonous intrusion. Yet
we keep doing it, until the body tolerates and finally becomes addicted to nicotine. We keep
smoking, knowing that we're killing ourselves, but we can't seem to stop. Or we don't want to
quit. I have heard of people who have emphysema who still smoke, as they either can't or don't
want to give up smoking. And I don't think that any of us who have seen the television ad
featuring the woman who lost her larynx to cancer will ever forget the sight of her smoking a
cigarette through the hole in her throat.
For those of you who smoke, sit down and figure how much you spend on cigarettes or
cigars during a month. Adds up fast, doesn't it? And yet you are paying good money for
something that will destroy your health, run up costly medical bills and will eventually kill
you, and through second-hand smoke, will ruin the health and kill others as well! And if
your smoking leads to the death of another, God will not hold you guiltless for their death!
I am an ex-smoker myself, and was up to 2.5 packs a day when I quit, so I know how hard it is to
stop. And while some fortunate people can wean themselves from smoking by cutting back
slowly, I had to go "cold turkey", going from 2.5 packs a day to nothing. Granted, it wasn't easy,
but I persevered and won. And I am much better for it, believe me! And you will be too.
How effective do you think you're Christian witness is going to be, when you're talking to
someone about Jesus with a cigarette hanging from your mouth, or you're reeking of cigarette
smoke? Would you want to worship a God who smoked, standing before His throne and seeing
Him chomping on a cigar? Or go to a heaven which was blue with smoke and had a nicotine film
over everything, with cigarette butts littering the streets? Not for me, thanks.
Remember, as a Christian you're essentially living in a fish bowl. Non-Christians are going
to watch you to see what makes you different from them, and are watching to see if you live
according to what you preach.
Many people view Christianity as a religion, but don't understand that it is a lifestyle. We are not
to practice Christianity, we are to live it. And if people see no difference between your lifestyle
and theirs, what is going to make them seek the Lord?
Your body is a temple. Keep it clean and holy as God expects it to be! Remember, your
body houses His Spirit as well as yours!
Questions? Comments? E-mail: watchmen_777@yahoo.com