@BillyRay
No worries, it’s all good. 😃
I only posted the article because of the history behind the Greek word, pharmakia that appears in the Bible at Galatians 5:20 and Revelation 18:23. Terms from the same root word appear in Revelation 9:21, Revelation 21:8, and Revelation 22:15. These are typically translated into English as “sorcery” “witchcraft” or “sorcerer.” There are several websites about pharmakia and the history behind it. Ancient Greek uses of pharmakia closely mirror the generic modern English word drugs; the same Greek root word produced English terms such as pharmacy and pharmacist.
Modern use of the word sorcery evokes images of supernatural power and spells; Biblical use of pharmakia doesn’t fit well with such ideas. Rather, the term suggests various forms of drug abuse. Those might include drug use in pagan worship, as an addiction, or as a poison used to manipulate and control others.
Now don’t get the wrong idea, I’m not saying that everyone that takes prescription medicine is practicing pagan worship, I’m just stating the historical facts behind this practice that’s mentioned a few times in the Bible and it’s connection to sorcery and spiritism.
One of the things that got me interested in looking into this…years ago we had an Awake article 1/8/86 pg. 20-21. This was not long after I quit smoking in 1982. In 1986 this article interested me because it pointed out that nicotine is a drug and the use of is unclean, which I very much agree with.
In the Bible such pharmacy is put in very bad company — “the works of the flesh” whose practicers “will not inherit God’s kingdom.”
Due to the magical use of drugs in Bible times, Galatians 5:20,21 translates pharmakia as “practice of spiritism.” The Kingdom Interlinear shows “druggery” as the literal meaning. Another translation uses “poisoning.”
But now one question that came to my mind was how do you differentiate which drug falls into this category? Ok, they say that drugs that alter the mind and cigarettes are bad but pain killers and such are ok?
Granted, I’m not going to dwell on this because I think that in time we will learn more about this. Also read @Jah-son’s first post in the other thread.
The last part of verse 23, in Revelation chapter 18 says “and by your spiritistic practices ALL the nations were misled.”
Notice that the judgement is on Babylon the Great, not necessarily on those who were misled.
Now I may be totally wrong about this, but it gave me food for thought. And I wouldn’t mind seeing anyone’s thoughts on this.
We all good Billy Ray?