Pubdate: Tue, 14 Feb 2012
Source: Anniston Star (AL)
Copyright: 2012 Consolidated Publishing
Contact:  http://www.annistonstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/923
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v12/n088/a05.html
Author: Judy Lovejoy Elliott

BE WARY OF MARIJUANA TALK

Re "Marijuana and the Bible" (Speak Out, Jan. 30):

My husband and I attended a conference Jan. 28 at Rock Springs 
Congregational Methodist Church in Milner, Ga., where Dr. James 
Merritt was the guest speaker. He spoke, mostly to church leaders and 
preachers, on II Timothy 4:1-5, where Paul warns Timothy, "For the 
time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, 
to suit their desires, they will gather around them a great number of 
teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn 
their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths" (verses 3 and 4, NIV).

I believe that anyone who tries to convince me that the Bible 
supports using marijuana as a medicine and proclaims that the Tree of 
Life is a marijuana plant is taking Scripture out of context, 
teaching unsound doctrine based on the lies of human desire, and is 
scratching the "itching" ears of those who advocate legalizing marijuana.

Letter writer Stan White wrote that all seed-bearing plants are 
"good," and that is true, but not all are good for use or consumption 
by humans. Some of these plants can kill a person, so I disagree with 
the interpretation of the passages in Genesis 1.

In Revelation 22:2, John sees a crystal river flowing from the throne 
of God, "On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing 
twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month." I've never 
seen a marijuana plant in person, but I believe I can say with 
confidence that it doesn't grow 12 kinds of fruit. All of us will be 
held accountable for how we "rightly divide" the Word of Truth. To 
take God's Word and to twist it and misinterpret it in order to 
sanctify sin is close to, if not pure, blasphemy.

Judy Lovejoy Elliott

Alexandria
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