On Addictions

An "addiction" is a strong need to have something or do things on a regular basis which may be dangerous or cause harm to the person, or more specifically,  "A state characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences." per Wikipedia referenced to six different psychological resources.

Are addictions modern? Not at all! Modern people have just recently started referring to them as "diseases"!

Matthew 26:41 "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

"The flesh" is human desire. It's our instinct to provide pleasure to our self. It can be anything which causes one or more of the senses of self-gratification; it causes a person to "feel good". It's our addictions!

Galatians 5:19 "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

 The most notable of these acts of self-gratification is drunkenness. This is one of the most practiced and acceptable forms of self-worship in existence. It, being linked to insobriety, would include drug use of any nature when those drugs are used to altar the state of consciousness. Throughout history drunkenness has been a sinful behavior. Now it's a mere disease! Oh, how we fool ourselves! Our gods are easily deceived.

"People with alcoholism — technically known as alcohol dependence — have lost reliable control of their alcohol use. It doesn't matter what kind of alcohol someone drinks or even how much: Alcohol-dependent people are often unable to stop drinking once they start. Alcohol dependence is characterized by tolerance (the need to drink more to achieve the same "high") and withdrawal symptoms if drinking is suddenly stopped. Withdrawal symptoms may include nausea, sweating, restlessness, irritability, tremors, hallucinations and convulsions.
Although severe alcohol problems get the most public attention, even mild to moderate problems cause substantial damage to individuals, their families and the community." (American Psychiatric Association [APA], underlines mine).

The American Medical Associattion (AMA) declared in 1956, and again in 1991, that alcoholism is a disease of the brain and as such is an illness.  It is "The Disease Theory of Alcoholism".

It seems odd that a behavior which God expected people to refrain from doing, suddenly, in 1956 becomes a disease. Many Christians accept  the disease theory as fact and by implication, minimizes the omniscience of the Creator!  Their god becomes the wise one and the One True God becomes the fool!

First off, "theory" is little more than a "guess". Scientists develop a  generalized "theory" based on an anecdotal situation and then proceed to test it by one or more hypotheses. Oftentimes, they just stand back, look at the body of knowledge and believe what they choose to believe based on observation, even without testing. At best, even if the hypotheses are "tested", the conclusions can be no more than "failing to disprove" one or more of the hypotheses.  In other words, theories are not provable, but yet, people accept educated guesses without question!

Secondly, if an addiction is a "disease" that is fatalistic. Many diseases can never be cured, but merely minimized so life can go on. "The Disease Theory of Alcoholism" promulgates the notion that once a person has that disease, they will always have it! In other words alcoholism is incurable and thus, is fatalistic in nature!

On the other hand "God's Declaration" is that drunkenness, as is murder and many other activities, is not a disease, but a sin; not withstanding that all men have a propensity to sin. This is human nature and is a result of "original sin". We all inherit a desire to satisfy or pleasure ourselves!

Romans 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned..."

The "other god besides me" as I often attest to is our "self(s)". When we pleasure ourselves with fornication, lasciviousness, drunkenness, etc. we are appeasing our idol. Our "Self" wants things and we give things to our "Self". In comes to the point where our god gets greedy. He wants more and more and can't be appeased! Then we respond in kind. We give "the Self" more and more pleasure until our god is an addict! We may even come to the point where we tire of appeasing our god and want out, but he is a selfish god. He requires more and more tribute to keep the pleasure coming. What's strange is that those who live to appease their god, their "Self", are no longer free. They become slaves to their god and their entire life is all about providing pleasure to keep their god happy.

It's not just drunkenness, but any sin is slavery. Those who are slaves to any sin are addicted to whatever sin which their god prefers. Some gods prefer lasciviousness. Others prefer drunkenness. Some even are serial killers and get happiness from pleasuring their thrill-seeking god!  Any sin is an addiction when the sinner can't quit although he (or she) has a strong desire to quit sinning. "The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!"

Some say homosexuals are born that way. Not so! Like any other person, they are born with a desire to pleasure their god; their "Self". It just so happens that their god is a little on the queer side. It titillates!. For one reason or the other, this is the type of pleasure the homosexual god desires. They are born with rebellion in their heart. Their god must be appeased! It just so happens that lasciviousness is their addiction!  They are slaves to same-sex gratification to the extent that that's what they live for! It becomes of utmost importance because their god craves that pleasure.

Because God calls it a sin, homosexuality is neither specifically genetic nor is it a disease. It's an acquired behavior, and I will present "Herrin's Theory": "Since I have seen normal people 'turn', they weren't that way in the first place!" The body of knowledge is with me! "Girls Gone Wild" weren't all born lesbians; they merely seek to provide more intense pleasure to their gods. If they continue in their behavior, they become addicted to that behavior. Their Spirit might be willing, but their flesh is weak. Their flesh becomes their god and they must appease their god!

Nowadays, progressive apologists have labeled most sins as "diseases". People are no longer responsible for their behaviors. They are merely suffering disease symptoms. The thief is is a cleptomaniac, the adulterer has sex addictions, those who cause strife have anger management issues, and so forth! All they need to do, according to psychobabblers, is to quit feeling guilty and go through some ten or twelve step process and voila, they will never be cured, but can manage their disease!

On the other hand, with God all things are possible. He can cure the behavior of anyone, if that person has enough faith. God is a healer, but the disease he heals with grace is "sin". We all have that disease and we have our individual addiction of choice as carriers of that disease. This disease and all it's symptoms has a great prognosis! Everyone who believes can be saved from sin!  All disease is curable, but there is only one disease, but many addictions. Our addiction, whatever it is, is symptomatic of that disease!

Sin is not fatalistic and addictions are certainly not fatalistic because they are merely the symptoms of the disease!

Romans 3:25 "Whom (Jesus) God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God..."

The blood of Jesus is the cure! Addictions no longer are necessary to appease our old god, because as a new creation, our God is, well, God!