[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by Pookie

At the time, any mind altering substance would have been sorcery (a drug). There weren't chemically manufactured drugs around then. You're confusing this meaning of pharmaceutical with the modern meaning which has pretty much come to mean chemical drugs.

I'm afraid you can't alter the meaning of the text to suit your bad habits. That would be WRONG.

no, there is no confusion, pharmakia is a greek concept of mixing plants and substances together for the purpose of incantation and spirit possession.



In this regard, the Apostle Paul condemned the practice as "witchcraft" which was blasphemous to a christian community which was supposed to turn inward for spiritual and physical healings, and not to seek outside help.

further, even the most conservative definition of the term implies mixing plants, not using them in the raw form. It implies human manipulation.. herb is straight from the earth, in its raw and unadulterated form. this is why the term was applied to pharmacy, because it involved human manipulation, often of perfectly natural substances into different forms.

Only the Jehovah's Witnesses practice what they preach in this regard, and they live a life devoted to prayer and abstainant of medicinal help.