Is Smoking a Sin?

https://www.pcog.org/articles/1818/is-smoking-a-sin

God clearly states in the Sixth Commandment: ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Smoking endangers not only your own life, but also affects the lives of others. In this article, we will prove that smoking is a sin!

God’s View of Smoking

What is God’s view of smoking? People who are addicted to cigarettes are quick to point out that the Bible says nothing about smoking. This is simply not true.

Herbert W. Armstrong taught us that the Bible is a book of law. He also taught that the laws, revealed within the Bible, were put there to produce great happiness for man. There are biblical laws that regulate health. There are other biblical laws that regulate farming, diet, child rearing and marriage. If people would follow these laws, they would live an abundant life. Yet mankind consistently chooses to violate these laws!

Now it is true that nowhere in the Bible does God say, “Thou shalt not smoke.” But, with the Sixth Commandment He emphatically states, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13). The question that we need to answer is: Does smoking harm people?

Smoking Causes Death

The clinical facts have been fully tabulated on smoking. There is no doubt that there exists a direct relationship between smoking and lung cancer. Lung cancer does kill people. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Coop warned, “Cigarette smoking is clearly identified as the chief preventable cause of death in our society and the most important public health issue of our times,” A pamphlet issued by the surgeon general’s office stated that smoking “causes more illness and death than all the other drugs.” One of the most current U.S. Surgeon General’s warnings on a pack of cigarettes states: “Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide.” Read that warning again! To inhale cigarette smoke is to inhale carbon monoxide! Nobody in a sane state of mind would purposely inhale carbon monoxide. To put it simply, smoking is suicide.

If you smoke or use any other form of tobacco, then you are doing so contrary to the serious warnings against such habits. When you smoke, you are wrecking your health. Another of the Surgeon General’s warnings on a pack of cigarettes states: “Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health.”

If you smoke, then you are deliberately subjecting your body to serious physical harm. Here is a list of some of the chemicals found in unfiltered cigarette smoke besides carbon monoxide: hydroquinone, methacrolein, methyl alcohol, methylamine, nickel compounds, pryidine, carbon dioxide, crotonomitrile, dimethylamine, endrin, ethylamine, furfural, cadmium, methyl nitrite, ammonia; formaldehyde, hydrogen sulfide, ddt and nicotine. Spilling these kinds of chemicals into a water supply system could carry heavy fines for any business. If you are a smoker, you are seriously polluting your own body, and you will pay a heavy personal penalty.

Besides lung cancer, you could also be subjecting your body to other life-threatening diseases such as bladder cancer, emphysema, high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries which can lead to a stroke. From God’s point of view, is there really any difference between pointing a gun to your head and pulling the trigger or lighting a cigarette? No! Pulling the trigger on a gun usually brings death instantly. But smoking also brings death—slow, agonizing death. Both are suicide! Both are a violation of the Sixth Commandment. If you are smoking, the most important thing you can do for your health is to quit the poisonous habit immediately.

Smoking Harmful to Others

Some argue that as long as my smoking doesn’t harm anyone else it is okay to continue the habit. Scientists now have proven that the secondary smoke produced by smokers is just as lethal for the non-smoker living in a smoker’s environment. It was reported in the Plain Truth magazine that “Cast-off smoke contains twice as much tar and nicotine, three times as much of a certain kind of benozopyrene (a suspected cancer agent), five times as much carbon monoxide (which robs the blood of life-giving oxygen), and 46 times as much ammonia as the smoke the smoker inhales!” (Plain Truth, “New Truth About Smoking,” January 1981).

Many countries and many U.S. states have passed laws banning smoking in public places for this reason. Smokers not only ruin their own health but the health of others as well. Smokers do harm to others—another definite violation of the Sixth Commandment.

Smoking—A Physical Sin

Smoking is also a physical sin! You need to understand why. There are many examples in the Bible where Christ showed people that their health problems were caused by sin. One example of this is the situation of the man sick of palsy.

Jesus was returning home from a preaching tour.People brought to Him a man lying on a bed. Christ healed him by forgiving his sin. “And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee” (Matthew 9:2). What sins were forgiven? The sins that caused the man to have palsy—physical sin.

These Scriptures here in Matthew 9 represent very important knowledge concerning healing. There are many physical laws which God has set in motion. These laws regulate the functions of our bodies—our health. If we break these laws, we sin and get sick. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). This is a difficult truth for most people to accept. Healing is the forgiveness of physical sin. “And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house” (Matthew 9:3-7). If healing is the forgiveness of physical sin, then we must be sure to repent of our physical sins. Christ told the man healed by the pool at Bethesda, “Sin no more” (John 5:14).

If we do harmful things to our bodies like eating improper foods or even too much of the right kinds of foods (gluttony), we sin against our bodies and a penalty is exacted. The penalty is sickness! In some cases the penalty is only temporary—but in other cases it can mean permanent injury and death.

Smoking and other uses of tobacco have been proven to be of definite harm to the body. Smoking will cause permanent damage to your lungs, which God designed and created to give you life-giving oxygen. Jesus Christ was beaten with many stripes so we could be healed of sickness (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24). How can we as Christians justify smoking and then expect Christ to heal us of the illnesses related to smoking? Smoking shows great disrespect for Christ’s sacrifice. If Jesus Christ was willing to be beaten with many stripes so we can be healed, then we should do everything possible to remain in good health! To do otherwise is sin!