To
the surprise of many the Bible completely condones the use of cannabis. Before
you sit back in shock and call me a blaspheming heretic, I would ask you to put aside the traditional teachings of evangelical
Christianity and formed biases. Without meaning to take a swipe at the Catholic
Church, evangelicals believe in ‘Sola Scriptura’, or Scripture Alone. Therefore
any views on morality must be backed with scripture, not on the vain traditions of men or church leaders. My view can be backed up with Scripture and as I will show, the prohibitionists arguments cannot-who is
the more evangelical may I ask;)
Genesis
Declares Green Plants to be Very Good
In
the Book of Genesis (whether you wish to take it literally or symbolically is of no concern to me here), God created all the
plants on Day 3 and proclaimed them to be very good:
‘Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation:
seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so.
The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according
to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.’ Genesis 1:11, 13 (NIV)
Cannabis
is a green plant. It does not take an outstanding logician to assume that cannabis
is therefore good in the eyes of God! So much for the devil’s weed….
Our Parents
were Given All the Plants for the own use
God
then creates Adam and Eve and declares that all the plants He has created, they can use:
‘And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth…’
Genesis 1:29
(NIV)
Again,
God does not say that every plant can be used apart from cannabis. He says He
gives us every ‘herb bearing seed’.
That includes cannabis. And what God has given let no man take away.
You see God created the world perfectly in the beginning. He gave humanity
Paradise but He also created plants
for them to use, eat and enjoy. Cannabis was one of these.
Medicinal
plants may have prolonged life after the Fall
Of
course, sin then came into the world and death by sin. Adam and Eve were thrown
out of the Garden of Eden but God did not forget them, and made them clothes from animal skins. If you continue to read Genesis you will see that their desecendents lived for a long time, often hundreds
of years. Now this could be attributed to a variety of reasons but I would submit
the possibility that all the plants God had created were around this area, and these plants had great medicinal qualities
(such as the ones we have discovered and are still looking for in the rainforest). Now
is it not possible that one of these medicinal plants was cannabis? It is a fact
that cannabis has medicinal qualities and many sufferers of MS, PTS, epilepsy, schrizophenia, depression, tinnitus, migraines
and Aids will back this up. Cannabis is a medicine folks and the sooner the Government
realizes this, the sooner a lot of people will be in a lot less pain.
Cannabis was
a multi-purpose plant used by the Jews
So
we have seen that cannabis can be used for medicine (as well as the obvious relaxation).
But the plant can also be used for (and was used for by the Jews) clothing, paper, fish nets, sails and food. This is a plant which has tremendous qualities.
So many are its qualities that mary argue that following plant was the cannabis plant:
‘"I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land,
neither bear the shame of the heathen any more." Ezekiel 34:29
Ok, I admit it is a long-shot but a plant with such
useful properties was obviously created by God to be used. So why on earth does the Government keep it illegal?
Must
Christians obey the Government?
However, evangelicals
will say, aren’t Christians commanded to obey the Government? After all,
Romans 13 says that we must submit to the ‘higher authorities’. Well,
first of all I disagree with the common (usually American I must say) interpretation of Romans 13. Submission is not the same as obedience. Paul is actually
telling the Christians to submit themselves to persecution for their beliefs (this was Rome,
the city of the Colosseum). However,
even if you disagree with my interpretation you must accept that when the Government disobeys with God, it is God who Christians
must obey. And God gave us the green plants so (and without condoning any illegal
activity-we are not commanded to use cannabis in any way) the Government is wrong on this one.
Does Cannabis abuse a temple of God?
The last argument I hear from evangelical Christians is that 1 Corinthians 6 claims the body of a Christian is a Temple of the Holy Spirit and should be honoured,
not abused. Well, that verse is actually talking about sexual immorality (sleeping
with prostitutes to be exact). And secondly, the Christians who say that smoking
cannabis (or tobacco or drinking alcohol in moderation) for that matter seem to forget that God created it for us. He obviously disagrees that using them count as abusing the ‘Temple of the Holy Spirit’ otherwise
He would not have told us Genesis that we could use them!
And
that’s my argument on why the Bible does not prohibit the use of cannabis. Please
feel free to read the rest of my site and visit my links page for proper information, rather than the nonsense spouted by
the Tories or Daily Mail.
