Scripture against Smoking

[CHRISTINE77]

Okay, so I didn’t find any scripture directly against smoking, but I have heard that many people used to smoke because there were spiritual beliefs behind it. I wanted to view it from that angle. After all, Christians need to be careful of things that are related to the occult and such.
The article I read said that smoking originated as a religious practice.
“The history of smoking can be dated to as early as 5000 BC, and has been recorded in many different cultures across the world. Early smoking evolved in association with religious ceremonies; as offerings to deities, in cleansing rituals or to allow shamans and priests to alter their minds for purposes of divination or spiritual enlightenment. After the European exploration and conquest of the Americans, the practice of smoking tobacco quickly spread to the rest of the world. In regions like India and Subsaharan Africa, it merged with existing practices of smoking (mostly of cannabis). In Europe, it introduced a new type of social activity and a form of drug intake which previously had been unknown.”
It specifically says here that smoking was used as a form of divination. So I NEED to quit, and not only for my physical health. Thanks for you help though.

That’s actually very intereting about the history of smoking and its use in various religions. I know the American Indians used the peace pipe, and also sent smoke signals.

I don’t think smoking is a sin, just a bad habit. It’s hard to quit, but I did it a few years ago, and I asked God to help me, and sure enough He did. You can do it too.

 

[CopticChristian]

Okay, so I didn’t find any scripture directly against smoking, but I have heard that many people used to smoke because there were spiritual beliefs behind it. I wanted to view it from that angle. After all, Christians need to be careful of things that are related to the occult and such.
The article I read said that smoking originated as a religious practice.
“The history of smoking can be dated to as early as 5000 BC, and has been recorded in many different cultures across the world. Early smoking evolved in association with religious ceremonies; as offerings to deities, in cleansing rituals or to allow shamans and priests to alter their minds for purposes of divination or spiritual enlightenment. After the European exploration and conquest of the Americans, the practice of smoking tobacco quickly spread to the rest of the world. In regions like India and Subsaharan Africa, it merged with existing practices of smoking (mostly of cannabis). In Europe, it introduced a new type of social activity and a form of drug intake which previously had been unknown.”
It specifically says here that smoking was used as a form of divination. So I NEED to quit, and not only for my physical health. Thanks for you help though.

Friend,

General Semantics operates on a principle that humans and only humans time bind. What is time binding? We add information to the present from the past as we learn more and more…So…to your history of smoking you add based on what was done, based on what we know…those that smoked before were not aware that animals will not eat tobacco and that tobacco is a natural insecticide…had they know that it may have deterred these practices…

 

[CopticChristian]

That’s actually very intereting about the history of smoking and its use in various religions. I know the American Indians used the peace pipe, and also sent smoke signals.

I don’t think smoking is a sin, just a bad habit. It’s hard to quit, but I did it a few years ago, and I asked God to help me, and sure enough He did. You can do it too.

Chris,

The effects of Nicotine are gone in 72 hours and the desire is then no longer related to the Nicotine but rather to the ingrained habit. Good for you.

 

[Jesusismyfriend]

Well, I think with me smoking is a problem that can bind me spiritually. A lot of people start to look cool or because their parents smoked, or some became curious because friends introduced them. In my case, a baby sitter smoked, not in my parents house, but when we’d go out for ice cream she’d smoke in the car. Her boyfriend would smoke when we visited her house.
When I started, I didn’t really have the typical reason to start. I wasn’t a teenager or child. I was an adult. I more or less just decided one day, “I should start smoking.” Totally random. No reasonable explanation. I don’t remember ever trying a cigarette before that.
When I do smoke, i smoke about 4 cigarettes a day. The problem is the first thing (and pretty much only thing) I think about is when I will have my next smoke. So I definetely get distracted from God and the things of God.

 

[RICKY_RASPER]

I know about the verse that says you should treat your body as the “Temple” so that verse would be prohibiting smoking. A lot of Christians believe and state that believers will smoke will “go to Hell.” Are there any beliefs that state that? If so, what are the verses in the Bible that completely forbid it?

Since tobacco only naturally occurs on the American continent it would not have been available to or known to anyone outside of the Americas until the fourteenth century.So the bible is silent on the subject of smoking. Though I doubt that it would merit an eternity in hell. I even doubt that it’s a sin. :hey_bud:

 

[CopticChristian]

Since tobacco only naturally occurs on the American continent it would not have been available to or known to anyone outside of the Americas until the fourteenth century.So the bible is silent on the subject of smoking. Though I doubt that it would merit an eternity in hell. I even doubt that it’s a sin. :hey_bud:

Rick,

So the bible is silent on Tobacco. This would indicate that the Bible does not have all the information you need unless you reference something other than tobacco/nicotine in the Bible. This indicates something extrabiblical. Aids is not mentioned in the Bible either.

A Protestant source says this…

God pleads with men to abstain from those fleshly appetites that dull their spiritual senses. “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). Both the distractions from real values and the carnal pleasure sought in the use of tobacco identify it as an agent that “wars against the soul.” The use of tobacco is an effort to satisfy the fleshly nature. The Bible says, “'They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5).

Tobacco is a plant. Plants without use are plants. Plants do not merit anything. Plants are not sin.

 

[Jesusismyfriend]

Well, now I realize it is prohibited. Satan just has his sneeky way of making something seem innocent and “not against the Bible’s teachings.” I had to do a lot of spiritual searching and questioning to discover the truth. Smoking has questionable origins, so it might do spiritual harm. Smoking is poisonous, so it will do harm to your body. I guess I was falling into the belief that you can do all you want to your body, because you will get a new one in heaven if you trust Christ as your savior, and He won’t care that you destroyed the one one he gave you when you were born. Of course He’d care.

 

[Jesusismyfriend]

Friend,

General Semantics operates on a principle that humans and only humans time bind. What is time binding? We add information to the present from the past as we learn more and more…So…to your history of smoking you add based on what was done, based on what we know…those that smoked before were not aware that animals will not eat tobacco and that tobacco is a natural insecticide…had they know that it may have deterred these practices…

Oh I know. Previously there was little or no knowledge of the dangers of smoking. Now people are learning. So it’s a good thing people are trying to ban cigarettes again because it IS harmful in every way you view it. Maybe we can understand those who had no knowledge. But now that I am maturing, I need to give it up. I am gaining the knowledge of how harmful it can be. So I can’t allow myself to do it anymore.

 

[Jesusismyfriend]

I just wanted to say that I’m sorry if anyone felt I was trying to mislead them. I don’t think the issue was that the answer I was looking for did not exist in the Bible. I think I was blinded to the point I didn’t or couldn’t relate what I’d read bto smoking at the time. I was looking for something specific, and A lot of God’s word does require you to reflect and think about WHAT a verse means and applies to. Sorry I was not doing this.
I am very immature in my faith in many ways. When it comes to most things of Satan, such as Ouija boards, horoscopes, etc., I learned they were wrong by talking to other believers. I should have tried to find the answers in the Bible because you cannot always trust the words of others. I do believe those things are wrong now, more because I have experienced enough and heard enough to know they are not okay to get messed up in.