~ A place to find answers to gnawing spiritual questions ~
Question: What does the Bible say about Drugs?Answer:
Your question is a bit too general for me to be certain exactly what you are asking. I will, then, give some brief answers to each of the two questions that you might have intended to ask.
THE FIRST QUESTION -- What does the Bible say about the use of drugs by medical professionals?
The Bible actually makes no definite moral statement about this subject. Isaiah told Hezekiah to place a lump of figs on his boil. See Isaiah 38:21. It is unclear, though whether this was an actual medical cure, or whether it was only a symbolic act of obedience that was prerequisite to a divine miracle in Hezekiah's life.
The disciple Luke was a physician. No doubt, though, he prayed the prayer of faith and saw the sick miraculously healed as did the seventy sent out by Jesus in Luke 10:1.
The woman with the issue of blood "had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse" (Mark 5:26).
The consensus is this... the medical profession is not prohibited (even implicitly) in the Bible, but it is clearly shown to be inferior to the healing power of the Creator as it operated through Jesus Christ and His followers (even to this day)!
THE SECOND QUESTION -- What does the Bible say about the use of illegal drugs (esp. to "get high")?
#1) The Bible teaches us not to destroy our body, since it is the temple of the Holy Ghost!
#2) Alcohol, a milder drug than many, is explicitly prohibited in a proliferation of Bible verses -- Proverbs 20:1; 21:17; 23:31; 31:4; Isaiah 5:11; 28:1,7; 56:12; Hosea 4:11; Habakkuk 2:5; Ephesians 5:18.
#3) Finally, (believe it or not) drugs ARE MENTIONED in the Bible! Notice the forms of the word "sorcery" in the following verses:
Revelation 9:21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Revelation 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Revelation 22:15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
These words are derived from the Greek word "pharmakeia." This Greek term is a root of our words "pharmacy," "pharmaceutical," etc. They refer variously to a) the use of drugs, b) poisoning, c) magical arts [esp. as drugs were used to produce the "aura" surrounding such witchcraft], and d) magical remedies.
IN CONCLUSION -- this has by no stretch of the imagination been an exhaustive answer to your question. I suppose it would take volumes to address all the issues at stake here. But... perhaps I've given you a starting point from which you can gather further knowledge!
