What is the sin of smoking called? Smoking is a sin or not? How does the church feel about bad habits? Why do so many people smoke in today's world?

About the dangers of smoking right in Holy Scripture really doesn't say anything. Tobacco appeared in our world many centuries after the creation of the Bible. However indirectly the sin of smoking is still spoken of in the Holy Scriptures. God created the first people healthy and took care of their physical and spiritual perfection. Everything that is given to man by God should be used for good. Bodily health is a priceless gift, and every action of ours that causes harm to health is a real sin before the Creator.

The date of "discovery" of smoking is known very accurately. " On October 12, 1492, the expedition of Christopher Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador.- wrote Bishop Barnabas (Belyaev). - The sailors were amazed by an unprecedented sight: the red-skinned inhabitants of the island released clouds of smoke from their mouths and noses! The Indians celebrated their sacred holiday, where they smoked a special herb. Her dried and rolled leaf, like today's cigar, they called "tobacco", from which the current name of tobacco came from.

The natives smoked "tobacco" to the point of complete stupefaction. In this state, they entered into communication with certain "demons", and then they told about what they were told " Great Spirit". Smoking was part of the worship rituals pagan gods Aztecs, who were brought, among others, and human sacrifices.

The sailors of Columbus took the mysterious herb with them to Europe. And very quickly, the new "pleasure" became widespread. As Bishop Barnabas wrote: And so, with the benevolent participation and secret prompting from demons, a literally general fever of tobacco smoking began throughout Europe and even Asia. Whatever the government and the clergy did to stop this evil, nothing helped!»

Not only Christians, but also Muslims tried to actively fight against smoking. In 1625, in Turkey, Amurat IV executed smokers, and flaunted severed heads with pipes in their mouths. In Persia, Shah Abbas the Great ordered to cut off lips and noses as a punishment for smoking, and burn tobacco dealers along with their goods. Even in always free Switzerland in 1661, the Appenzel magistrate considered the tobacco trade as a sin, tantamount to murder!

In Russia, smoking has become a custom since Peter I, who himself smoked and even dared to fold smoking pipes in the manner of the hierarchal dikiriya (two-candlestick) and trikiriya (three-candlestick) and “blessed” the people with them during his drunken “assemblies”. But this is Peter, and before him, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich in 1634 ordered "smokers to be executed by death." Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1649 ordered smokers to “smack their nostrils and cut their noses”, and then “exile them to distant cities”.

We will talk about the assessment of the patristic spiritual thought of the sin of smoking later, but for now we note that in fact, indirectly, the sin of smoking is still spoken of in Holy Scripture. God created the first people healthy and took care of their physical and spiritual perfection. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” says one of the commandments of Christ. From this it follows that before you love your neighbor, you must "love yourself." To love and take care of the gift of life, which is given to all of us from God. And what kind of “careful attitude” is there to a smoker’s health, if everyone knows that tobacco contains more than 30 harmful substances. The most dangerous of them is the nicotine alkaloid.. There are especially many patients among smokers bronchopulmonary diseases. And the most formidable consequence of smoking is cancer of the larynx and lungs. The fact is that tobacco smoke contains carcinogens that cause cancer. it benzopyrene and its derivatives.

... It is no coincidence, as experts have calculated, that every minute in Russia three (!) People die from diseases caused by smoking ...

Everything that is given to man by God should be used for good. Bodily health is a priceless gift, and every action of ours that causes harm to health is a real sin before the Creator. Many holy teachers of the Church point to this. Here are the words of St. Nektarios of Aegina: In order for a person to be blissful and worthy of his calling, it is necessary that he be healthy both in body and soul, because without the well-being of both, neither bliss nor capacity to fulfill the appointment can be acquired. A person should take care of strengthening both the body and the soul so that they are strong and strong.».

« Don't you know that you are the temple of God, - said the Apostle Paul, - and the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will punish him: for the temple of God is holy; and this temple is you". For a smoker, this temple is smoky and smoky, and Christ cannot move into this temple. It is not human nature to smoke. Breathe air, eat, drink, sleep - yes. But smoking, poisoning your body with poison, breathing fetid smoke is a requirement of sin, and not a requirement of nature.

Medicine says a lot about the dangers of smoking for bodily health. But nothing mentions that the fetid smell of tobacco covers up the smell of spiritual decay. It has been established that negative mental states lead to a change hormonal background person. Formed during stress and other internal conflicts chemical substances excreted from the body, and these secretions have a very heavy odor. Tobacco use makes it impossible to recognize spiritual state other people at the deepest biological level. Smoking is licentiousness not only of the body, but also of the soul. This is a false calming of your nerves. Many smokers refer to the calming of the nerves after smoking a cigarette, not realizing that nerves are the carnal mirror of the soul. Such reassurance is self-deception, a mirage. This narcotic sedation will be the source of soul torment. Now, as long as there is a body, this “calming” must be regularly renewed. And then it will become a source of hellish torment. It must be remembered that after death, after the separation of the soul from the body, the passions that manifested themselves in bodily life do not leave the human soul. Not freed from this or that passion, the soul will transfer it to another world, where in the absence of the body it will be impossible to satisfy this passion. The soul will languish and burn with an unceasing thirst for sin and lust. He who is insatiable in food will suffer after his death with the inability to fill his belly. The drunkard will be incredibly tormented, not having a body that can only be soothed by alcohol. The fornicator will experience the same feeling. Selfish too, and a smoker too. If a smoker does not smoke for several days during his lifetime, what will he experience? Terrible torment, but torment softened by other aspects of life. But that is two days, and the deceased has eternity ahead. And eternal torment...

Meanwhile, the army of smokers is rapidly getting younger. The age of initiation to smoking in Russia has decreased to 10 years for boys and 12 for girls. On the children's body smoking has a particularly detrimental effect. Among other things, smoking adolescents form a complex of neuropsychic abnormalities. As a result, attention, memory, sleep suffer, mood “jumps”. Teen smoking has a devastating effect on reproductive function. It is no coincidence that today more than 70 percent of boys and girls by the age of 15 have serious problems for this "part".

If we return to the "spiritual component" of the harm from smoking, then we should dwell on the lack of freedom of the smoker. Many of the smokers (especially in adulthood) would like to quit smoking. According to sociologists, 100 (!) percent of smokers after 30 would like to give up a harmful and sinful habit. Alas ... Smokers develop nicotine syndrome . This is the same dependence as on alcohol and drugs, only less damaging to health. Although, how to say: lung cancer, cancer of the larynx - the argument is not at all in favor of the harmlessness of such a harmful addiction as smoking.

Lungs of a smoker and a non-smoker

It would be useful to mention that in new classification diseases, which came into force in 1999, tobacco addiction officially recognized as a disease. And we will add - a sinful disease. Smoking is self-indulgence, a form of self-indulgence. It is no coincidence that in Russia there has long been a saying: "Smoking - demons incense".

When a person smokes, they say Orthodox priests, his soul is captured by demonic forces. And he adds another heavy link to the chain of slavish attachments; his will is weakened, and behind all the excuses for smoking, the voice of a weak-willed person is heard. Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote in The Brothers Karamazov: I ask you: is such a person free? I knew one “fighter for the idea” who himself told me that when they deprived him of tobacco in prison, he was so exhausted by the deprivation of strength that he almost went and betrayed his “idea” just to give him tobacco. But this one says: "I'm going to fight for humanity." Well, where will he go and what is he capable of?»

Do you smoke? Realize your sin

Medical statistics have calculated that Every cigarette smoked shortens a person's life by at least seven minutes.. In general, smokers in Russia live five years less than non-smokers. Most of smokers know this. Nevertheless, he cannot leave the sinful habit. Here is what the well-known wrote about the state of the smoker Orthodox writer S. A. Nilus in the first part of the book "On the Bank of God's River."

«… July 7, 1909 I had a severe attack last night. choking cough. Serves right! - this is all from smoking, which I cannot quit, and I have been smoking since the third grade of the gymnasium and now it is so thoroughly saturated with nicotine that it has already become, probably, integral part my blood. It takes a miracle to pull me out of the clutches of this vice, and I don't have the will to do it. I tried to quit smoking, I didn’t smoke for two days, but the result was that such melancholy and bitterness came over me that this new sin became bitterer than the old one. Father Barsanuphiy forbade me even to make such attempts, limiting my daily portion of smoking to fifteen cigarettes. I used to smoke without a bill…»

« Your hour will come- said Father Barsanuphius, - and smoking will end». « Hope, do not despair: in due time, God willing, you will quit”, - about the same smoking, from which I could not fall behind in any way, Father Joseph told me. And a miracle, according to the word of both elders, happened to me. And it was so.

We live with my friend, my God-given wife, as they say, soul to soul, in the full sense of the Gospel word, so that we are not two, but one flesh. This great mercy of God, bestowed on us from above, is due to our deep and convinced faith in the Sacrament of Marriage, which we both at one time approached with fear and trembling. And so, in June 1910, my wife fell ill with some strange disease, which neither the paramedic of Optina nor the invited doctor could determine: in the morning she is almost healthy, and in the evening she has a temperature of up to 40. And so the week, and another, and the third! I see my joy melting before my eyes, like a wax candle, and is about to flare up in last time and will go out. And then my orphaned heart was filled with great, immeasurable great anguish and sorrow, and I fell down on my face before the icon Mother of God Hodegetria of Smolenskaya, who was standing in the corner of my office, and I wept before Her, and was horrified, and yearned, and told Her, as if alive: “Mother Queen, my Most Blessed Mother of God! You, I believe, gave my angel's wife, You save her for me, and for that I give you a vow never to smoke again. I make a vow, but I know that I won’t be able to fulfill it on my own, and not to fulfill it is a great sin, so You Yourself help me!” So it was about ten o'clock in the evening. After praying and somewhat calming down, he approached his wife's bed. Sleeping, breathing is quiet, even. He touched his forehead: his forehead was moist, but not hot - my sweet dove was fast asleep. Glory to God, glory to the Most Pure! The next morning the temperature was 36.5, in the evening - 36.4, and a day later she got up, as she did not hurt. And I forgot that I smoked, as I never smoked, and I smoked for exactly thirty years and three years, and my whole body was so saturated with damned tobacco that I could not live without it not only a day, but even a minute».

In this whole story, I would like to focus not so much on the miracle that happened, but on the hero's awareness of sin itself. Without such awareness, a miracle would not be possible. And hence it follows the first rule for those who want to quit addiction: you need to realize the sinfulness of smoking. Actually, the overcoming of any sin begins with such a step ...

"Before you smoke, pray"

Now let's stop at the place in the reader's letter where he says that the church fathers did not say anything about the dangers of smoking. It's not like that at all. Another thing that you should know is that in the Russian Orthodox Church there are no boundaries of patristic instructions. Say, until some relatively old time - these are patristic instructions, and the instructions of those who, say, are ranked among the host of saints in last years, is something lacking authority. In Russian Orthodox Church there are no such boundaries. Today's ascetics often absorb and develop the teachings of their predecessors, and every word of every holy ascetic is valuable in itself. Here are just some of the sayings of the Holy Fathers about the sin of smoking.

« Man has perverted the very pleasures of the senses. For smell and taste, and partly for breathing itself, he invented and burns almost incessantly pungent and odorous smoke, bringing this, as it were, a constant censer to a demon living in the flesh, infects the air of his dwelling and the external air with this smoke, and first of all is saturated with this stench himself, - and here you are, the constant coarsening of your feelings and your heart by the constantly absorbed smoke cannot but affect the subtlety of the heart's feelings, it imparts to it carnality, rudeness, insensitivity».

Saint righteous John Kronstadt: " Tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys health by slow death. Irritability and melancholy are a consequence of the sickness of the soul from smoking».

Saint Ambrose of Optina: In 1905 Athos elder Silouan spent several months in Russia, frequently visiting monasteries. On one of these train journeys, he took a seat opposite the merchant, who, with a friendly gesture, opened his silver cigarette case and offered him a cigarette.

Father Siluan thanked for the offer, refusing to take a cigarette. Then the merchant began to say: “Isn’t it because, father, you refuse because you consider it a sin? But smoking often helps in an active life; it is good to break the tension in work and rest for a few minutes. It is convenient when smoking to conduct a business or friendly conversation and in general in the course of life…” And further, trying to convince Father Siluan to take a cigarette, he continued to speak in favor of smoking.

Then, nevertheless, Father Silouan decided to say: “Sir, before you light a cigarette, pray, say one thing: “Our Father.” To this the merchant replied: Pray before you smoke, somehow does not go". Father Siluan remarked in response: “ So, it is better not to do any work before which there is no undisturbed prayer.».

Now about the Bible quote from the book of Solomon's Proverbs, "Smoking makes the heart happy." Of course we are talking It's not about smoking tobacco. Smoking in ancient times was called the burning of aromatic substances and fragrant oil. People in all ages have loved incense, and in ancient times fragrant incense was added to the sacrifices. Fragrant plants and exotic incense were highly valued in religious ceremonies. They were worth their weight in gold and silver. So, the Queen of Sheba brought aromatic substances to Solomon as a gift. Incense was kept in the royal treasury. This is the kind of “smoking” that the Bible talks about. Smoking pleases the heart, and a friend's heartfelt advice is sweet - this is how this quote from the book of Proverbs looks like. Today, "smoking" in the temple can be called censing - when the priest passes through the temple with a censer, from which incense is burned. " Incense is incense burned at Divine services, how can the slaves of sin not invent a kind of incense?- said Saint Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer. - The first is pleasing to God, the second should be pleasing to the enemy of God - the devil».

Today, many experts say that in recent times the global sales center for cigarettes is increasingly shifting to Russia. In the USA and in Western Europe thanks to the measures taken, the number of smokers is annually reduced by tens of millions of people.

What are these measures? Smoking bans in in public places- in restaurants, airplanes, on the street, in clubs, offices, etc. No less effective is the promotion of the dangers of smoking. Posters about the dangers of tobacco are placed literally everywhere. Plus, the tobacco companies literally overwhelmed with lawsuits those who fell ill due to smoking. The claims amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, and the courts very often satisfy such claims. Perhaps even more important in the West is high price for cigarettes. A pack of cigarettes in Europe costs at least five euros, that is, 160-180 rubles in terms of the Russian ruble. Be like this price policy in Russia, a lot of people would think about whether it is worth blowing that kind of money into the smoke.

In Russia, it's a completely different matter. Due to the extremely low excise taxes, our cigarettes are quite inexpensive. They are accessible to everyone and, unfortunately, even to children. In Russia, global tobacco companies feel like a businessman. At the same time, foreign tobacco companies are trying in every possible way to create for themselves in Russia the image of firms that are extremely concerned about negative influence smoking for health. Abroad, this is impossible according to the laws. There tobacco companies It is prohibited by law to participate in charity events, sponsorship of sports and all other events.

... In Los Angeles, on Santa Monica Boulevard, there is a scoreboard counting the number of deaths from addiction to cigarettes. In Russia, there is no such scoreboard in any city yet ...

It is not surprising that such a situation has caused serious criticism from Russian public organizations and government officials. In particular, they propose to bring the inscriptions on cigarette packs warning about the dangers of smoking into line with Western standards. First of all, it is proposed to make this inscription (as well as abroad!) not in some inconspicuous size, but in half a tobacco pack. And here it makes sense to return to where we started, to the fact that smoking is not only harmful to health, but is a serious sin.

Warning labels on cigarette packs can be of very different content. Abroad, such inscriptions warn potential buyers that smoking is fraught with cancer. That smoking is extremely harmful to pregnant women. The fact that for young people smoking often turns into impotence. It seems that the Russian Orthodox Church will in every possible way support the proposal of the newspaper “ Honestly"that one of the inscriptions read: "The Russian Orthodox Church warns: smoking is a sin." The wording of such a warning can be specified, but there is no doubt that it is appropriate (and necessary!).

On the one hand, the voice of the Church today is very significant for many, on the other hand, very few (especially among young people) are aware of how (and why) the Orthodox Church treats tobacco smoking. And such a warning, no doubt, will bring positive results.

Alexander Okonishnikov
Orthodox View

Prayer from the passion of smoking to the Monk Ambrose of Optina

Reverend Father Ambrose, you, having boldness before the Lord, begged the Greatly Gifted Vladyka to give me ambulance in the fight against impure passion.

God! With the prayers of your saint, Saint Ambrose Cleanse my mouth, make my heart chaste and saturate it with the fragrance of Your Holy Spirit, so that the evil tobacco passion will flee from me far away, to where it came from, into the womb of hell.

Everyone knows how dangerous smoking is for physical health. Is there a spiritual danger? Why is this bad habit considered a sin? Look, in Orthodox Greece, even priests smoke. For clarification, we turned to the pastors of the Russian Church.

nicotine smoke occupies a place in the soul God's grace

Undoubtedly, smoking is a sin. I will share my priestly experience: I communed the dying, attended funerals and saw that the death of many people was directly related to smoking. And it is very difficult to get rid of this evil. Once I gave unction and communion before her death to a woman who was dying of cancer of the larynx, and in this state she could not quit smoking. Even before Communion, I took a few puffs! But since she was dying, I could not help but give communion to her. And how many people die from lung cancer caused by smoking! But not only the respiratory organs are destructively affected by tobacco - others too.

If you get up at night to smoke, if you take a drag in the morning, then how will you go to Communion later?

The perniciousness of this habit, which causes serious addiction, is also in the fact that many smokers cannot take communion because of smoking. If you get up at night to smoke, if you take a drag in the morning, then how will you go to Communion later? Or even you endured, took communion, and then what? When you leave the temple, do you greedily inhale? So this sinful pleasure deprives the smoker of the Sacrament.

The inability to quit smoking is a myth. I personally know several people who, being smokers with serious experience - 30-40 years, managed to quit smoking. With God's help, everything is possible. If a person turns to God, He helps him to quit this infection.

Elder Siluan: “It’s better not to do any work before which there is no undisturbed prayer”

Even on the packaging of cigarettes they officially write: "Smoking kills." How is it not a sin that kills, that torments, deprives of health, causes suffering to the smoker himself and upsets people close to him?

All our sins are divided into three types: sins against God, against neighbors and against ourselves. So smoking is, of course, a sin against oneself, a conscious shortening of one's life, that is, the destruction of the priceless gift of God given to us for the salvation of our souls. But in a sense, it is also a sin against neighbors who are forced to inhale cigarette smoke in public places.

Smoking is an addiction. It enslaves the will of a person, makes him again and again seek his satisfaction. In general, it has all the features sinful passion. And passion, as you know, delivers only new torments to the soul of a person, deprives it of its already small freedom.

Sometimes smokers say that a cigarette helps them calm down and focus internally. However, nicotine is known to be damaging to the brain and nervous system. And the illusion of calm arises because nicotine also has an inhibitory effect on brain receptors. Not a single person has ever benefited from smoking even a minimal amount, and I am sure that there is no such smoker in the world who, at least once in his life, has not regretted that he was so addicted to nicotine.

To justify smoking, they often refer to Orthodox Greece, where even priests smoke. Indeed, in Greece the most high level in the world consumption of cigarettes per capita. But there is nothing good in this. Perhaps smoking spread there under the influence of Islamic traditions that allow smoking. But if we look at Athos, this example of a strictly spiritual life both for Greece and for everything Orthodox world we will see that there is no smoking there. The Monk Paisios the Holy Mountaineer was unambiguously negative about smoking. And the venerable elder Silouan of Athos, too.

Is smoking a sin? - Oh sure. Although now in Greece smoking is not considered a sin. Yes, what is there to be wise! Even intuitively, smoking is perceived as something negative: smoke, stink, harm to health ... And most importantly - it's a passion, and there can be no doubt about it. To be honest, I used to smoke when I was younger. Not for long, about five years, but so thoroughly that even "Belomor" smoked, "Prima" did not disdain. Who knows - he will understand ... So, having been drawn into this pernicious passion, I very soon felt: it is necessary to tie up with this matter - although I was not yet baptized at that time. But conscience felt. And out of the five years of my smoking, I “quit” for three years and could not quit. I distinctly remember my feelings. I woke up in the morning good mood with the determination not to smoke anymore, but by dinnertime the mood goes out, the world around grows dim, and everything without smoking seems empty and meaningless - the first and sure sign of the action of passion. So after dinner you wash and wash and ... oh, just one! - you smoke with pleasure, “you will enjoy life”, and after a minute you already think with longing: well, you broke again. And indeed - you start smoking again. Or it even happened like this: you can last a week or two without smoking and already feel like a “hero”, and then you find yourself somewhere in a company, relax and allow yourself the thought: “One cigarette does not solve anything”, smoke it - and then you understand: everything , broke. And for sure - you start smoking again and suffer from the fact that you cannot cope with this destructive passion. Moreover, even when I quit smoking, I dreamed for several years: I lit a cigarette - and with horror and longing I understand that now, I broke loose and everything starts all over again. This suggests that passion continued to nest in the soul. So how can you say after that that smoking is not a sin?

The Apostle Paul says: “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial; everything is permissible to me, but nothing should possess me” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

Smoking is contrary to God's plan for man, like any nonsense

Of course, smoking is a sin. Like all meaningless things. What's the point of smoking? What good does a person get from him? No sense and nothing good. And the Lord created everything wisely and meaningfully. “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). This means that smoking is contrary to God's plan for a person, like everything that is senseless and unnecessary.

Let's not forget that smoking brings many different harms to a person. And everything that harms a person, torments him, is also displeasing to the Lord. What harm it is, we all know very well. This is the destruction of health, given by God for the work of saving our souls, and material damage when we spend money on nonsense, but we could spend it on good things, for example, give alms.

But main harm smoking is, of course, spiritual. “Tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys bodily health by slow death. Irritability and melancholy are a consequence of the sickness of the soul from smoking,” St. Ambrose of Optina teaches us. And yet we become slaves of this sin. “Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin” (John 8:34). And we are called to freedom in Christ: “And you will understand the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The Gift of Love can only be accepted by a free person in Christ.

Therefore, help us, Lord, to get rid of everything harmful and unnecessary, so that we can be in joy and love, and not in torment here and in eternity. And they depended only on the Holy God, and not on cigarettes, sinful pleasures and, ultimately, on the devil, who is behind all this.

Who are you if you deliberately destroy the gift of God?

Each of us roughly knows what a pack of cigarettes looks like. It says in large letters: "Smoking kills." From this we can already conclude whether it is a sin to use something that kills us. Of course it is.

Often people turn to the Lord with a request for health. And most of our prayers are also about health to some extent. And we wish each other good health. And do we keep the health that the Lord has given us? How many of us go in for sports, do exercises in the morning? I think few. We eat before bed, although we know that this should not be done. We consume food in excess, realizing that this will lead to overweight and to health problems. And we must keep what the Lord has given. The health that is. Smoking will not improve your health.

If a smoker turns to the Lord with a request: “Lord, give me health!” Who will he look like in the eyes of God?

We all understand perfectly well what risks accompany a person who smokes: this and oncological diseases, and diseases gastrointestinal tract, and violation brain activity... It was before smokers did not know how tobacco undermines health. And if you know that smoking harms you, but you smoke, you are committing a sin: you are deliberately destroying your health. And if a smoker turns to the Lord with a request: “Lord, give me health!” Who will he look like in the eyes of God? And how to ask God for health with the same lips with which you just smoked a cigarette? This is some kind of nonsense. A glaring contradiction. And the Lord calls us to integrity, integrity of thinking above all. Why do we read the Gospel? So that our mind thinks according to the gospel, so that we are in Christ.

So smoking is a sin. Moreover, a terrible sin, causing damage to God-given health.

The sin of smoking has gripped almost everyone in our time - from young to old.

Flocks smoking children sitting on benches, walking along the streets, standing near the subway - they are barely visible behind the clouds of tobacco smoke. Data latest research terrifying: average age introduction to smoking in boys - 10 years, in girls - 12 years. Young mothers who carry babies in strollers smoke, even grandmothers who walk their grandchildren on playgrounds with a cigarette in their mouths are not uncommon.

Just think: the rules of conduct for a student at school no longer say that a student should not smoke, he just should not smoke inside the school!

We did not even notice how a man smoking a cigarette in our face became the norm of public consciousness. Smoke? Well... If he wants it, if he needs it...

But where did this need come from? It's not human nature to smoke. Breathe air, eat, drink, sleep - yes. But smoking, poisoning your body with poison, breathing fetid smoke is a requirement of sin, not a requirement of nature.

Many consider this sin to be a venial, petty, "immortal sin." And this "immortal sin" captures a person so much that he becomes a real slave of him, or, to be more precise, a slave of the devil. You woke up in the morning, and the first desire that covers you is to smoke. You don't overshadow yourself sign of the cross don't pronounce morning prayer and smoke a cigarette. “At Divine services they burn incense, how can the slaves of sin not invent a kind of incense?” Saint Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer says on this occasion. “The first is pleasing to God, the second should be pleasing to God’s enemy, the devil.”

Smoking is truly a diabolical invention. It arose in the perishing cultures of Central America long before the era of the Columbus discoveries, as part of the rituals of worship of the pagan gods of the Aztecs, to whom, among others, human sacrifices were made. Christians know perfectly well what these gods are. This ungodly action was brought to Europe, and then to Russia, precisely during the discovery of new lands by Columbus. Here is what Bishop Varnava (Belyaev) writes about the history of the spread of the sin of smoking: “When on October 12, 1492, Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador, he and his companions were struck by an unprecedented spectacle: the red-skinned inhabitants of the islands released clouds of smoke from their mouths and noses!. The fact was that the Indians celebrated a sacred holiday, on which they smoked a special herb (its folded dried leaf - a kind of present-day cigar - it was called "tobacco", hence the current name came from) - to complete stupefaction, one must add, and in this state, they entered into communication with demons and then told what the "Great Spirit" had told them.

Upon arrival in the homeland of our navigators, those who whispered in the ears of the Indians whispered to these too, so that they would introduce the European public to a new "pleasure".

And so, with the favorable participation and secret excitement from demons, throughout Europe and even Asia, a literally general fever of tobacco smoking began. Whatever the government and the clergy did to stop this evil, nothing helped!"

Today, hundreds of millions of people around the globe voluntarily sacrifice themselves to the devil. “Oh, how carefully the devil and the world sows with his tares the field of Christ, which is the Church of God,” wrote the holy righteous John of Kronstadt. “Instead of the Word of God, the word of the world is zealously sown, instead of incense, tobacco. Poor Christians! They have completely fallen away from Christ.”

Burning incense to demons of passions that we breed and nest in the dwelling of our body, the smoker betrays, thereby, the image of God in himself, imbued with the spirit of stench and slow physical suicide. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God,” said the apostle Paul, “and the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will punish him: for the temple of God is holy; and this temple is you” (1 Cor. 16-17). Are there words more convincing than these?

Everything that is given to man by the Lord should be used for good. Bodily health is a priceless gift, and every action of ours that causes harm to health is a real sin before the Creator. Many holy teachers of the Church point to this. Here are the words of St. Nektarios of Aegina: “In order for a person to be blessed and worthy of his calling, it is necessary that he be healthy both in body and soul, because without the well-being of both, neither bliss nor capacity to fulfill the appointment can be acquired. to take care of strengthening both the body and the soul, so that they are strong and strong ... "And one more statement of the same saint: "Health in any business is like a self-propelled chariot that carries the athlete to the finish line." The fact that smoking is detrimental to health is proved by all modern medical research. There is not a single organ that does not suffer from the effects of tobacco. Carcinogenic substances, irritating the mucous membranes, accumulating in the body, cause lip cancer, oral cavity, larynx, esophagus. Respiratory organs - bronchi, lungs become especially vulnerable. Evidence, facts, arguments and convincing examples that smoking only brings harm and death are countless. Smokers develop nicotine syndrome. This is the same addiction as alcohol and drugs.

The tobacco market occupies one of the most significant places in world trade, and every year millions of people work to ensure that other millions inhale harmful smoke, poisoned their head and the whole body with poison.

It is surprising why the use of drugs in the form of cocaine is prohibited by law, but in the form of tobacco is encouraged? Tobacco, that "little cocaine", is allowed, like a little lie, like an imperceptible untruth, like murder in the womb. But medicine tells us about the dangers of smoking only for bodily health. Even on any pack of cigarettes you will find the inscription: "The Ministry of Health warns: smoking is dangerous for your health." We must remember the most important harm of this bad habit. fetid odor tobacco covers the smell of spiritual decay. It has been established that negative mental states lead to a change in the hormonal background of a person. Chemicals formed during stress and other internal conflicts are excreted from the body through the outer covers; the discharge has a strong odor. Tobacco use makes it impossible to recognize the spiritual state of others at the deepest biological level.

Smoking is licentiousness not only of the body, but also of the soul. This is a false calming of their nerves, so many smokers believe, not realizing that the nerves are the carnal mirror of the soul. Such reassurance is self-deception, a mirage. Therefore, this narcotic calm will be a source of torment for the soul. Now, while there is a body, this tranquility must be renewed constantly. And then this calm will be a source of hellish torment. You can calm yourself against passion only by refraining from it. Only by rising above your passions, you can enter the bright spiritual world.

It is impossible to pray with the spirit while smoking a cigarette or a cigarette. Such people cannot partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, which means they cannot be saved.

It must be remembered that after death, after the separation of the soul from the body, the passions that manifested and realized themselves in bodily life do not leave the human soul, enslaved by them during life. Not freed from this or that passion, the soul will transfer it to other world where, in the absence of a body, it will be impossible to satisfy this passion. The soul will languish and burn with an unceasing thirst for sin and lust. An insatiable need for food will be tormented after his death by those who previously thought only about food. The drunkard will be incredibly tormented, not having a body that can be calmed only by drinking alcohol. The fornicator will experience the same feeling. Selfish - too, and a smoker - too. Here is a good example: if a smoker does not smoke for several days, what will he experience? Terrible torment, but still mitigated by the other amusements of life. It is not so much the body that suffers, but the soul. So already here on earth every soul, having any passion, suffers. Knowing this, is it possible to be indifferent to your passions? To this terrible fire?

How can one overcome the demon of this ungodly passion in oneself? Of course, first of all, the desire to get rid of this vice and fervent prayer can help. If a person has already decided to take this step and has prepared a place in his soul for the grace of God, then he will feel in himself its amazing effect, its invisible help. Ask sincerely, unceasingly, the Lord, Holy Mother of God and saints of God, and you will certainly receive healing.

Smoking, thus, alienates a person from the mountain spiritual world, serves as one of the serious obstacles in the way of saving one's own immortal soul, inclining her to sin and subordinating the self-will of corruptible flesh.

“If you embark on a task and do not see the will of God,” admonishes St. Gregory the Theologian, “do not do it for anything. Do not leave the will of God to do the will of people.”

So, dear reader, before you smoke again, remember the advice of St. Silouan and think about whether you could first read "Our Father" or mentally take a blessing on this, undoubtedly, an important matter for you.

"You write that you cannot stop smoking tobacco.

What is impossible from man is possible with the help of God; only one has to firmly decide to leave, realizing the harm to soul and body from it, since tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys bodily health by slow death. Irritability and melancholy are the consequences of the sickness of the soul from tobacco smoking.

I advise you to use spiritual medicine against this passion: confess in detail all your sins, from the age of seven and throughout your life, and partake of the Holy Mysteries, and read daily, standing, the Gospel chapter by chapter or more; and when anguish sets in, then read again until the anguish passes; attack again and read the Gospel again. “Or, instead, put, in private, 33 big prostrations, in memory of the earthly life of the Savior and in honor of the Holy Trinity,” such an answer was received from St. passion. After reading the letter, he lit a cigarette, but suddenly felt a strong headache and at the same time an aversion to tobacco smoke - and did not smoke at night. The next day I automatically lit a cigarette several times, but the pain returned and did not allow me to swallow the smoke. So I quit. Some time later, this man came to the elder to personally thank him. The Monk Ambrose touched his head with a wand - and the pain has not returned since then.

Prayer from smoking to the Monk Ambrose of Optina

Reverend Father Ambrose, you, having boldness before the Lord, begged the Greatly Gifted Vladyka to give me an ambulance in the fight against impure passion.

God! Through the prayers of Your saint, Saint Ambrose, cleanse my lips, make my heart chaste and saturate it with the fragrance of Your Holy Spirit, so that the evil tobacco passion will flee from me far away, to where it came from, into the womb of hell.

Everyone, without exception, knows that smoking is a bad habit that negatively affects human health. However, few people thought about whether the use of tobacco is a sin. Many people believe that smoking is okay because the Bible does not specifically forbid it. As for Christianity, any church, no matter what denomination it belongs to, speaks negatively about smoking. For example, the priest John of Kronstadt argued that a burning cigarette symbolizes eternal torment in hell, which awaits all smokers who have not given up their sinful addiction. Another famous minister said that when a person smokes, tobacco smoke takes a place in his heart that is meant for God's grace.

The answer to the question of whether it is a sin or not to smoke will be given by a story from the life of St. Silouan. The attendant was on the train. A merchant entered the carriage with a cigarette in his mouth and offered tobacco to Silouan, but the priest refused. The sinner began to wonder why the fellow traveler did not want to smoke, and began to tell how smoking helps in business affairs. With a cigarette, it is easier to resolve issues, it is easier to relax and it is more fun to communicate with friends. In response to such statements, the minister suggested that the merchant read the Lord's Prayer before each puff. The man thought and said that prayer and smoking are incompatible. Then Silvanus concluded that it is necessary to refuse any deeds that are not combined with prayer.

According to all church canons, smoking - terrible sin, because, first of all, it is a passion that will not allow a person to follow God's path, deprives him of forgiveness, salvation, and the most important thing - eternal life.

According to the clergy, smoking is the same destructive passion that leads to new mental illnesses.

For example, tobacco can cause the formation of selfishness. This is clearly expressed in smoking parents. Fathers and mothers, following their desires, poison children tobacco smoke. Many allow themselves to smoke even on playgrounds, thereby poisoning themselves, their own children and other playing kids. And how many women who do not even try to quit smoking during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.

Another sin that provokes the use of tobacco is discouragement. The smoker, unable to inhale, falls into real depression. This is due to a lack of the hormone of joy and psychological dependence from nicotine. Despondency leads to spiritual and physical illness. A person begins to apathy, all duties are performed "slipshod". This is also a sin.

Hostility and anger can also result from tobacco use. When a person wants to smoke, he becomes irritable and aggressive. These manifestations Orthodox church considers it a sin.

Another reason why the Church has a negative attitude towards smoking is that this habit leads to self-justification. Moreover, a person creates the illusion of independence, claiming that he can give up cigarettes at any time. Pride appears. Orthodoxy calls the inability to plead guilty a sin.

A Christian must give up cigarettes, because the use of tobacco products will sooner or later cease to deliver the former pleasure, and one will want something new.

Addiction to pleasure is a terrible sin. Christianity believes that it is this weakness that gives rise to drunkenness and gluttony. It turns out that cigarettes provoke insatiability in food, alcohol and sexual pleasures.

Body destruction

smoking man allows himself immorality and allows the appearance of other weaknesses, but most importantly - he does not give a damn about his own health. The Bible says that whoever destroys God's temple awaiting punishment from God. God created people in his own image, so the body is the temple of the Lord. By consuming cigarettes, man destroys God's creation.

According to the church, harm own body is great sin. Many priests even talk about possession in such cases. Orthodoxy believes that having smoked a cigarette, a person settles a demon in himself. With each puff, the monster becomes stronger, and it is more difficult to drive the monster out of the soul. The demon controls the smoker through addiction to nicotine. The essence dictates to a person when it is necessary to feed it, that is, to smoke.

Smoking is considered a meaningless act, and everything that does not bring benefits is called empty and sinful in the temple. If you think about it, really, what are the benefits of cigarettes? Nerves do not calm down, they only loosen them, make them addicted, and require large financial costs.

Separation from God

According to ministers, smoking is a terrible sin that separates a person from God. According to church canons, every believer must take part in the sacraments. This is confession and communion. Last action done only on an empty stomach. The parishioner must defend the entire service and only then accepts the "supper", the so-called church wine, symbolizing the blood of Christ and unleavened bread, personifying the body of the Messiah.

It is clear that smoking before communion is not allowed. But for a smoker accustomed to starting the day with a cigarette, this is impossible to do. A person deliberately refuses the sacrament in favor of smoking.

The Church imposed a ban on tobacco also because God commanded man to keep holiness, purity of soul, conscience and body. The cigarette does not allow you to comply with this prescription. On the physical level cigarette pollutes the lungs, liver, stomach. Toxic resins settle on the walls of blood vessels. On the energy level Smoking destroys the soul and gives rise to a bunch of spiritual diseases.

Basic explanations for the sinfulness of smoking

The Orthodox Church is extremely negative about smoking. According to the priests, the sinfulness of this act lies in the fact that:

the smoker deliberately destroys himself, undermines the health of others;
the will and spirit of a person are subject to nicotine addiction;
personality degradation occurs;
after death, the soul of the smoker continues to suffer.

Priests about tobacco addiction

The sin of smoking in Orthodoxy is strongly condemned, the priests unanimously call this addiction pernicious weakness and indecency, and tobacco itself is often called the "gift of the devil."

Here are the main theses that reflect the attitude of the church towards smoking:

Every passion is generated by the sinful nature of man and the influence of the devil;
Habit brings a person to a spiritual fall, brings physical death closer;
Smoking weakens the soul;
The smoker will be able to cope with sin only when he realizes that the habit destroys him;
You can get rid of sin only with the help of God, which is why, having decided to give up cigarettes, you need to confess and take the sacrament. In addition, a person should pray every day and ask God to help get rid of addiction.

Was smoking always a sin?

Smoking began to be considered a sin not so long ago. In tsarist times, especially during the reign of Peter I, this tradition was supported by the church. That is why now many people are asking the question why it was possible before, but now it is not possible. After all, even those who are revered as saints, such as Nicholas II, smoked.

The fact is that science does not stand still. Knowledge becomes available to everyone. Now there is not a single person who would not know what harm tobacco does to health. This was not known even 100 years ago.

Modern scientists have completely dispelled the myth about the benefits of tobacco. As for the smoking saints, the leaders of Orthodoxy explain this by the fact that every person can have weaknesses. Do not forget that Nicholas II was canonized for patience for the sake of the Lord.

Greece is another stumbling block. In this country, almost everyone smokes, including church ministers. Such a massive spread of bad habits is associated with the influence of Muslim culture, where there is no ban on smoking.

Fairly loyal to nicotine addiction at the Catholics. Catholicism considers this problem not a sin, but a disease that a doctor should treat. That is, hope is not on God's help, but on a specialist and medicines.

Here is how one Catholic priest answered the question of whether it is possible to smoke: “If a doctor tells a person that cigarettes are harmful to health, then the habit must be abandoned, since the destruction of the body is a sin. If there are no health problems, then you can continue to use tobacco products farther. It is only necessary to mention this during every confession.”