Christian Answer To Drug Addiction

Drugs, Faith, and the Christian Answer to Addiction

At Calvary, the people aren't fighting a war on drugs, they're fighting addiction. And their biggest weapon is faith. But why can't drugs and faith coexist?

There's no communication with God through the means of a substance. The only way, the Bible speaks, to get reconciled to God and have communication with Him, Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No man comes to the Father but by me.

What about, for instance, Native American tribes who actually use drugs to, at least in their terms, find God?

A lot of times what people have done in history is they've even used mind-altering substances, which the Bible would refer to as, in some translations, witchcraft, in some translations, sorcery. Here's the Christian perspective.

Addiction as Worship and Idolatry

This is it, in a nutshell. You don't have so much of a drug and alcohol problem as you do a worship problem. We switch God for an idol. And here's the thing, Dean.

And the idol is sometimes alcohol or drugs, is what you're saying.

Yeah, and Dean, when I pass by a liquor aisle in a store, what do I see? A sanctuary with idols.

Alcohol is the result of grain and yeast interacting with sugars in a process called fermentation. It's the most popular drug in the world, and today about 140 million people suffer from alcohol-related disorders.

So are there any biblical figures who speak about drug abuse specifically?

One of the best you can go to would be the Apostle Paul, who dedicated his whole life to Christ, wrote much of the New Testament. He says, now the deeds of the flesh are evident, here are some, he says, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, sorcery, idolatry.

False gods never satisfy real spiritual needs. You can chase that all you want. You will always come back broken, shattered, and crawling.

Early Christian Self-Denial and the Immorality of Drugs

So from a Christian perspective, drugs were always false gods because it distracted people from the real God they're supposed to be worshiping. But what compelled the first Christians to decide using substances was somehow anti-Christian.

What's wrong with allowing the body a little pleasure every now and then? After all, Jesus drank wine.

It wouldn't be inappropriate to use the term puritanical in association with some of the early Christian views. This sense of self-denial was an important part of at least an idealized early Christian spirituality.

And one thing you see emerging from this period is, for the first time in history, a view of drugs as an immoral activity.

Christianity, Ecstasy, and the Jewish View of Moderation

All morality aside, drugs pale in comparison to what Christians believe is the ultimate high. At some level, you can feel that ecstasy feeling or the feeling you try to get when you take drugs in church or in Christ.

Absolutely, no question. And it's real, Dean. It's for real.

So Christianity has stood firmly opposed to drugs since the beginning. But Judaism has a different take.

While there is some anxiety expressed in rabbinic texts, there was a celebration of the possibility of physical pleasure, whether it be sex or intoxication, in moderation. Everything in its proper place in moderation, but all an important part of the way we live this life, in this body, in this world.