Thanks so much for your last article. I for one don’t think that you are “a fundamentalist” or out of your mind in any way regarding your view on “legal drugs”. I in fact might be a little more “fundamentalist” than you are regarding my views on legal drugs. My view is that we don’t “need” any of them. Even the drugs used for stabilizing chemical imbalances.
Notice of course that I’m putting several things in quotes. I’m doing that because each of these things need to be further defined in the context that I am using them. First of all lets take “fundamentalism”. That is a word, in this context, that I believe is used by people that need a box to put others in to dismiss whatever it is that is being stated. They use this box because they are typical unable to or unwilling to truly describe what it is they believe about a particular topic. These are the same people that often (but not always) say people are too wordy or too verbose when others actually take the time to write out most of what they really believe on a topic.
Next is the phrase “legal drugs”. These are drugs that believers realize change them in such a way as to take away their sobriety and make it difficult for them to be “clear minded and alert”. However those that are either unbelievers or are “tossed back and forth by every waive of teaching by deceitful men” are deceived by these false teachings. They in turn believe the physical/psychological benefits are of greater benefit than the teachings of scriptures that teach them to stay away from anything that would impair their judgment and the clarity of mind that God gave them.
Lastly I have the word “need”. Need is something that I define only the way the scripture defines need. We need only the basic necessities of life. And basic necessities in life are only covered as food, clothing, the need to stay warm, and I’ll possibly add the need to have your thirst quenched which is someone redundant considering the first one. You’ll notice that I didn’t even mention basic housing. That’s because “basic housing” is not listed as a “need” in the scriptures either. I could write several paragraphs about that last observation but that will be for another time.
“Needing” any kind of drug is not necessary. I believe that God has shown a purpose or reason in every kind of mental issue in the scriptures. One involved Nebuchadnezzar, another involved a demon possessed man, and I am sure there are others that I simply don’t have the time to look up at the moment. In any case I am convinced that God has a definite purpose in allowing, or bringing into play things that would cause others to act and feel a way that society would say is not “in their right mind”.
But before I am placed too far on the “left side” I would also add that I do not disregard the scripture that says Timothy should take a little wine for his stomach. Without this scripture, and the fact that Luke was a doctor, there would be no way believers could realize the truth that there is a time for us to take medicine. When is this time? Well the scriptures say in Rom 14:23 that “whatever is not from faith is sin.”. So as usual we can’t be legalistic here and come up with a blanket list of dos and do-nots for everyone. We can only encourage those that have truly laid their lives down due to the life that was laid down for them. Because if they realize how grave in importance is the ransom that was given for them then they would not trade a hundred promises from a hundred physicians in this world for one slight whisper lead by the Spirit.
