Our favorite self-appointed savior to Africa and 305 Caucasians has always imagined himself as an authority on all kinds of subjects, and as the dumb sheep he expects us all to be, we are supposed to believe that he has the way to stop smoking, drinking, and other indulgences that cause the body harm.
The Great Bwana writes:
Should Christians smoke?
Does smoking show love to self or neighbor?
No.
Smoking is bad.
Moses said, “be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).
You do not “get away with” smoking.
Smoking is dangerous and hurts the smoker and those around the smoker.
Notice some of what the New Testament teaches:
19. WHAT! Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which you have within you from God, and you are not your own? 20. For you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, AFV)37…”‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40, NKJV)
Consider that smoking does not glorify God in your body–it harms your body. Consider that smoking also does not show love towards one’s neighbor–it harms your neighbor. Smoking is a sin against the body, and sometimes more than that.
Don’t deceive yourself that smoking is not a sin...
Can or should smokers quit?
Yes.
As hard as it seems to be, smokers can change. Notice that the Apostle Paul taught:
13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
Jesus can help the smoker.
While that statement may well be true for many Christians who actually follow Christ, the problem arises when an Armstrongite minister utters this phrase, it comes with a lot of baggage.
Because Armstrongism and the Church of God is NOT centered upon Christ but upon the law, members have no real relationship with the one who could help them. They have been raised and weaned on the law. Under the backbreaking weight of the law, members can NEVER measure up to the high standards it demands and will NEVER meet those expectations in this lifetime.
Church members have had it beaten into their minds that every time they sin they are automatically abandoned by God and left at the side of the road till they repent, COG style. Church members have been taught over and over that they are rooted in sin and are continuously attracted to sin and thus will always be just outside the boundaries of God's love. Add to that the constant threat of the lake of fire for every imaginable indiscretion and members are in a constant state of helplessness, ripe for addiction.
Christians can ask God for assistance in stopping smoking. Christians need to have faith in God (see also the free pdf booklet Faith for Those God has Called and Chosen).
But what if you make mistakes and stumble?
If you stumble get up!
James was including himself in that. The New Testament says we ALL stumble in one thing or the other.
If you stumble, you need to get up.
Endure.
Be careful that you are not trying to get along with the smoking crowd.
Physical ways to “bear it” would include changing what you are doing when you are tempted to smoke. Do something else! Like go to another room. Start reading the Bible. For some, perhaps taking a walk or doing more vigorous exercise. Et cetera.
Buying some of the fake prophets holistic pills will also help solve the problem:
Nicotine seems to have some temporary effects on the body, like the necessary thyroid hormone triiodothyronine. Nicotine is highly addictive and comes along with a range of negative chemicals in tobacco products that are harmful to human health. Nutritional support for the thyroid can help some break their addiction to nicotine.
Consider the analogy of getting air out of a glass. On our own, without equipment, we can’t make it a vacuum. But if we change the glass by pouring water in, the air leaves.
Be filled with the Holy Spirit:
18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, (Ephesians 5:18)
If you do not want to stumble and wish to be better filled with the Holy Spirit
Not that it is easy, but the Bible says that if you endure, humble yourself, resist Satan, and draw near to God you can get to the point you would not stumble in your efforts to stop smoking.
You may have tried to stop smoking many times. You may have prayed about it.
You should not give up. In the Old Testament we read of God telling the children of Israel to punish the Benjamites in Judges 20:12-20, and those who tried to do so failed and suffered loss (Judges 20:21). Then, God told them to do it again (Judges 20:23), and they suffered loss again (Judges 20:25). The children of Israel wanted to give up (Judges 20:26-28), but God said to try again (Judges 20:28), and that time they succeeded Judges 20:29-46). What happened to the children of Israel was more difficult than not lighting up a cigarette.
Endure and overcome! The promised benefits are better than the “passing pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25)–which in the case of smoking also has serious health consequences.
Smoking is wrong and it kills people. God wants people to change/repent (Acts 17:30)–which means that, despite its difficulties it can be done (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13).
The sooner one starts the better off one will be. Christians should strive to not smoke and should strive to be healthy.
With God’s help, yes, you can quit smoking or overcome other sins in your life.
No one and I repeat NO ONE should ever go to a COG minister to deal with an addiction, whether it is smoking, alcohol, or any other addiction. None of them have any real training in therapeutic counseling with people in the first place and especially on these topics. The only ministers who can deal with alcoholism as those that have actually joined AA and practiced its priciples. Those I would trust, not some self-appointed know-it-all prophet who has spent a lifetime being deceptive and lying about their placement as a COG leader. When they lie about this they are deceptive in other areas of their lives and can not be trusted.
When is Bobby going to tell us that we should wear seat belts and floss our teeth??
ReplyDeleteThe Prophet is enlightening us with very important, and little known health information, like "smoking is bad"!
The "Unpardonable Sin" is obviously smoking, while watching NFL Football!
It's a trait of ACOG ministers to claim to have the wisdom of king Solomon and the practical counseling advice of Dr Phil. But they have neither. They lie using guile. In elementary, high school and college, the teachers know their stuff. New members assume this about their ministers as well, but it's one of the rare cases in society where it's not the case.
ReplyDeleteThe ministers are frauds.
Btw, HWA must have been aware of this, so he used his marketing skills to convince members that their AC educated ministers were taught "how to live." Yeah sure, believe the nice words rather than the reality.
Delighted to hear again from Dr Rabbi, Amos, Elijah, Bob Spongepants, One of the Two Witnesses, Prophet, Saviour of all Africa etc etc etc………………..but……….smoking is a bast**d and hard to kick.
ReplyDeleteAnd kicking an addiction often requires specialist help of which the ‘ministry’ were not qualified to and ill prepared to provide.
That includes Dr Bobby.
There are many excellent counseling services out there including some first rate Christian qualified counseling centres.
Avoid Dr Bob and his ‘magic pills’ and advice.
That aside, one looks with eager anticipation for his ‘New Year’ predictions.
He's just repeating Herbie's ancient script, with a few of his own little embellishments.
ReplyDeleteBest thing you can do for someone close to you who smokes is don't ride their back about it. Constantly harping on it seems to make people all the more determined to continue, just to spite the person(s) presuming to tell them what to do.
I don't know whether culties approve of nicotine patches, nicorette gum, or smoking cessation classes, but they've all been proven to boost the success rate for those who want to quit.
From personal experience, I found that if your only reason for not smoking is that your church forbids it, when you quit the church, you will probably start smoking again. So, it's best to have a deeper reason than just church or your minister, apostle, or prophet.
By the way, you can actually be a recovered smoker for upwards of forty years, but when someone fires up a cigarette close by, the smoke still smells so damned good! Happened once again just today!
I worked in an office where nearly everyone smoked. One time, a buddy who also didn't smoke told me he was sick and tired of people coming into his office with a lit cigarette. He asked me to make a no smoking sign. Instead, I drew a circle, drew a lighted cigarette in the middle, and then a red bar through the circle and cigarette. I captioned it below with "If you smoke, I'll fart!"
ReplyDeleteHe was apparently more uptight about office smoking than I had imagined. Next morning, I saw that he had reproduced the sign on the office copier and had simply littered all of the office walls with them. The boss (a smoker) didn't approve and ordered them taken down.
A quick question. Which is worse? Smoking a cigarette on the Day of Atonement, or watching an exciting NFL football game on the sabbath?
ReplyDeleteBob isn't much of a Bible scholar. His OT god fully approves of smoking. In fact, the OT god smokes:
ReplyDelete2 Samuel 22:9. "Smoke went up from His nostrils, and devouring fire from His mouth"
For further growth, Bob should do a Bible Study on God's view of burning fragrant plants as incense.
ReplyDeletePeople often decide in their teen years, or even earlier, whether or not they are going to become smokers.
Those who choose not to smoke can always take up smoking at any time later on.
Those who choose to smoke have made a lifetime decision, whether or not they realize it. The chemicals in the tobacco mess with their developing little brains and decide for them from that point on how much they are going to have to smoke for the rest of their lives.
Bob wrote Consider that smoking does not glorify God in your body
ReplyDeleteAnd taking his holistic pills does?
I remember at a FOT some young guys talking about what nutritional supplements they take, and this was after an anti-meds, anti-docs healing sermon.
ReplyDeleteIn the late 1970s, Herbert W. Armstrong used his newfound apostolic authority to officially decree that smoking is a sin.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteA quick question. Which is worse? Smoking a cigarette on the Day of Atonement, or watching an exciting NFL football game on the sabbath?
==============================
Watching Football when eating a ham sandwich on Atonement and smoking when it falls on a Saturday. :)
Someone once asked me why an alcoholic can be put out of the church without help but an obese person, who Proverbs said "And put a knife to your throat if you are a man of great appetite" got to stay. All I could think of was that I would rather see an obese person coming at me on the road than someone drunk.
As weird as it may seem, it was my time in WCG that caused me to take up smoking. I had to have something to take the edge off.
ReplyDeleteThese things were filtered through the personalities and opinions of the leaders, Dennis, and yet were presented to us as if they had been edicts from Father God and Jesus Christ. Most of us recognized the inconsistencies, but repressed them and remained silent because we believed we were relying upon God's ministers from God's church,...................until we didn't
ReplyDeletePeople accept and or repress so many ridiculous aspects in their COG beliefs under the guise of church authority. And then there are folks like us who need so much more from our beliefs!
Back in the '80's after I left, a woman in the Peoria, Il. WCG was nearly driven to suicide because she had a hard time giving up smoking. The ministers, who's initials are J.E. and G.S., kept hounding her without mercy because she was having a hard time quiting. She attempted suicide, but thankfully she failed. Sadly the ministers kept hounding her about her smoking, and see contemplated suicide again. Thankfully, she decided to leave the WCG, and saved her life. BTW, if anyone wishes to know the names of the monsters who nearly killed this poor woman, go to the ministerial hall of shame section of the Painful Truth, and you'll find them soon enough.
ReplyDeleteHere's a great question! If the guy you want to be your new guru tells you you have to quit smoking before he will let you become a member of "God's" Church, and if you then need to successfully complete a smoking cessation class, and you have no healthcare insurance to cover it, can you deduct the costs of the class from your tithes?
ReplyDeleteIf the guy you want to be your new guru tells you you have to quit smoking before he will let you become a member of "God's" Church, and if you then need to successfully complete a smoking cessation class, and you have no healthcare insurance to cover it, can you deduct the costs of the class from your tithes?
ReplyDeleteThat's just silly. It's like saying that if I don't have my morning coffee I'll curse God and maybe even murder someone, I should be able to deduct the cost of my coffee from my tithes.
4:17 wrote "That's just silly. It's like saying that if I don't have my morning coffee I'll curse God and maybe even murder someone, I should be able to deduct the cost of my coffee from my tithes."
ReplyDeleteAbsolutley a member should deduct food and sustenance BEFORE any money is given, even if it is for coffee. Tithing is not a New Covenant command.