Sorcery = Pharmakeia

by KerryKing 33 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  KerryKing

  Rev18:23 '....you deceived the nations with your sorceries'.

  The interlinear for sorceries reads Pharmakeia.

  Bible Hub has some interesting definitions, I'll try to share screenshots below.

  The gist of it is that sorcery involves drugs/medicines/poisons, with or without spells, sorcery is not the same as witchcraft or divination, or white/black magic.

  I have long wondered about the connection between the medical/pharmaceutical industry's symbol of the serpent wrapped around a pole/stake, and the use of the word pharmaceuticals/pharmacy.

  Considering the common use of fluoride in public drinking water, NSAIDS with side effects such as depression, brain fog, dizziness, and opioids, mrna gene therapy, vaccines and so on, I wonder am I going mad, are these all coincidences?? Most of these are mind altering drugs to varying degrees, not to mention the anti depressants and hormone treatments which are very commonly used.

  And what about food colourings and additives which are known to cause hyperactivity and even stimming in children especially. Mind altering substances.

  Illegal drugs are of course well known to cause hallucinations and even permanent brain damage.

  As the verse above says, are we all being deceived?!

  It seems like too many coincidences for my liking.

  I welcome polite debate on the subject!
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  KerryKing

  
  
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  KerryKing

  
  
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  KerryKing

  
  
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  blondie

  Actually, in the WT 6/1/1973 on page 338-339, the WTS connected that word with smoking, using tobacco, coca leaves and betel nut, and how jws had to stop using them or be df'd. "15. Even though tobacco is not specifically referred to in the Bible, how do Bible principles provide an answer to this issue?

  15 The Scriptural evidence points to the conclusion that they do not. As has been explained in other issues of this magazine, the Greek word phar·ma·kiʹa used by Bible writers and translated “practice of spiritism” or “spiritistic practices” has the initial meaning of “druggery.” (Gal. 5:20; Rev. 9:21) The term came to refer to spiritistic practices because of the close connection between the use of drugs and spiritism. Tobacco was also used initially by the American Indians in this way. It can properly be placed, therefore, in the category of addictive drugs like those that provided the source for the Greek term phar·ma·kiʹa. The nicotine in tobacco does not have the same mental and emotional effects produced by “hard” drugs such as heroin or the so-called psychedelic drugs like LSD; yet nicotine addiction does definitely affect the mind and exercises a strong enslavement. In Europe at the close of World War II, in some instances cigarettes were worth more than money. Reportedly, prostitutes sold themselves for a few cigarettes, and ordinary people sacrificed even food ration coupons to obtain tobacco." Many jws, even ex-jws never knew this, it was not just health issue.
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  KerryKing

  That's interesting that they made that connection in the past, but obviously not in recent years and definitely not in connection with medicines.

  Another case of telling 99 truths to sell the 1 lie.
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  blondie

  Yes, that is a technique of the WTS, stop mentioning a teaching so jws forget they said it, Never take it back.
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  blondie

  Kerry, the last time I found searching their publications was Awake 7/8 p.26-27 "In recent years it has become common for health practitioners in some lands to recommend hypnotism as a treatment. For instance, the magazine Psychology Today states: “Hypnotherapy can treat headaches, ease labor pains, help you quit smoking, replace anesthesia, and improve study habits​—all without side effects.” On the other hand, many associate hypnotism with spiritism and the occult."
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  Balaamsass2

  The Snake on a pole symbol? Caduceus? Very Ancient origin "Pagan", yet the Jews used it.

  Numbers 21:8-9 Amplified Bible (AMP)

  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent [of bronze] and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten will live when he looks at it.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze and put it on the pole, and it happened that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived."

  "oldest imagery of the caduceus is rooted in Mesopotamia with the Sumerian god Ningishzida; his symbol, a staff with two snakes intertwined around it, dates back to 4000 BC to 3000 BC."

  
  

  "The caduceus (☤; /kəˈdjuːʃəs, -siəs/; Latin: cādūceus, from Greek: κηρύκειον kērū́keion "herald's wand, or staff")[b] is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology. The same staff was borne by other heralds like Iris, the messenger of Hera. The short staff is entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings. In Roman iconography, it was depicted being carried in the left hand of Mercury, the messenger of the gods."

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus
  
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  Balaamsass2

  Healing plants? What about the "Tree of Life" in Eden? Or the Prophecy in Revelation the 7th day Adventists featured? Rev. 22. [2] In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

  Opium Poppy was prized since ancient times. Alexander the Great used it for his armies. It not only stops pain, it also stops dehydrating and dying from uncontrolled diarrhea common from polluted water in ancient times. Common in medicine cabinets around the world until modern times.