Rastafarianism Pot Church: Where Marijuana is the Sacrament!

Sacrament: A religious ceremony or act of the Christian Church that is regarded as an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual divine grace, in particular.

Excuse me, but dope smoking has nothing to with “spiritual divine grace”!

Grace is the goodness and mercy given by God to undeserving man!

What Pot smoking does have is a “outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual” Demonic possession!

Marijuana is being used to reach a higher consciousness (as you will read below) in this supposed church,  just as LSD and other mind altering drugs are used by the New Agers!

First, read this excerpt below. Then the Rastafarianism and other weirdo churches will be hashed out (pun intended) afterwards! 

11 News Alive – SAN JOSE, Calif. –  Services at the Coachella Valley Church begin and end with the Lord’s Prayer. In between, there is the sacrament.

“Breathe deep and blow harder,” intoned Pastor Grant Atwell after distributing marijuana joints to 20 worshipers on a recent Sunday. “Nail the insight down, whether you get it from marijuana or prayer. Consider what in your own life you are thankful for.”

A man wearing a “Jesus Loves You” baseball cap and toting a shofar, piped up. “Thank you, God, for the weed,” he called out. “I’m thankful for the spirit of cannabis,” a woman echoed from the back. “I am grateful to be alive,” said another young woman, adding that she had recently overdosed — on what, she did not say — for the third time. (Like smoking dope is going to help her with her drug problem!)

The small room, painted black and gold and decorated with crosses and Rastafarian symbols, filled with pungent smoke after an hour-long service of Christian prayers, self-help slogans and inspirational quotes led by Atwell, a Campbell, Calif., massage therapist and photographer.

Despite its mainstream Christian trappings, the Coachella Valley Church describes itself as a Rastafarian church, which is tough to define. Originating in Jamaica and combining elements of Christianity, pan-Africanism and mysticism, Rastafari is a political and religious movement with no central authority. Adherents use marijuana in their rituals. (It is a combination of Catholicism, Witchcraft and Voodoo!)

The church’s leaders claim that religious freedom laws give them the right to offer marijuana to visitors without a doctor’s recommendation or abiding by regulations. Some authorities beg to differ.

As more states ease access to marijuana, churches that offer pot as a sacrament are proliferating, competing with medical marijuana dispensaries and pot shops in the few states that have legalized recreational weed. While some claim Rastafari affiliation, others link themselves to Native American religious traditions. Read the rest here.

What is Rastafarianism?

The word “Rastafarianism” often calls to mind the stereotypical images of dreadlocks (long braids or natural locks of hair), ganja (marijuana), the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, and the reggae rhythms of Bob Marley. Rastafarians have no universally acknowledged leaders, no universally agreed-upon defining principles. It is a black consciousness movement—Afro-Caribbean—and there is a split between the religion and its accompanying social consciousness, so people can appreciate what Rastas are trying to do socially while not embracing the religion.

The movement takes its name from the title “Ras Tafari.” In the Ethiopian (Amharic) language, ras means “head,” “prince,” or “field marshal,” and tafari means “to be feared.” Within the system of Rastafarianism, the term is a reference most particularly to Ras Tafari Makonnen (1892–1975), who became the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I (his Christian baptismal name) upon his coronation in 1930, when Selassie was lauded with the title “Lion of Judah, Elect of God, King of Kings.” This sent a shock wave through Afro-Caribbean culture. In the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, preachers like Joseph Hibbert started declaring that Haile Selassie was the long awaited Messiah, the second coming of Christ. Thus was born one track of Rastafari, which looked to Selassie as the living God and black messiah who would overthrow the existing order and usher in a reign of blacks.

Another track of Rasta has sprung up alongside the messianic track. This group traces its roots to Leonard Percival Howell and has definite Hindu elements. Sometime in the early- to mid-1930s, Howell produced a 14-page pamphlet, “The Promised Key,” which laid the groundwork for a second track within Rastafarianism influenced by Hinduism and Rosicrucianism. Many of the leaders in this track have also been Freemasons. The result has been a sort of Rastafarian pantheism that looks for “the Lion Spirit in each of us: the Christ spirit.”

A summary of Rastafarian theology, as evidenced in the pantheistic track: the belief that “God is man and man is God”; that salvation is earthly; that human beings are called to celebrate and protect life; that the spoken word, as a manifestation of the divine presence and power, can both create and bring destruction; that sin is both personal and corporate; and that Rasta brethren are the chosen people to manifest God’s power and promote peace in the world.

Both tracks of Rasta are in direct contrast to the revealed Word of God in the Bible. First, Haile Selassie is not the Messiah. Those who worship him as such worship a false god. There is only one King of Kings, one Lion of Judah, and that is Jesus Christ (see Revelation 5:5; 19:16), who will return in the future to set up His earthly kingdom. Preceding His coming, there will be a great tribulation, after which the whole world will see Jesus “coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and great glory” (see Matthew 24:29-31). Haile Selassie was a man and, like all men, he was born, he lived, and he died. Jesus Christ, the true Messiah, is alive and seated at the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 10:12).

The pantheistic track of Rasta is equally false and based on the same lie that Satan has been telling mankind since the garden of Eden: “you will be as God” (Genesis 3:4). There is one God, not many, and although believers do possess the indwelling Holy Spirit and we do belong to God, we are not God. “For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me” (Isaiah 46:9). Furthermore, salvation is not earthly, another anti-scriptural, “salvation by works” idea. No amount of earthly works or good deeds can make us acceptable to a holy and perfect God, which is why He sent His holy and perfect Son to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). Finally, Rastafarians are not the chosen people of God. Scripture is clear that the Jews are God’s chosen people and that He has not yet completed His plan for their redemption (Exodus 6:7; Leviticus 26:12; Romans 11:25-27). Source: Got Questions

These are what I call weirdo churches and they are nothing new. But Jesus said the Tares will grow with the Wheat.

They are merely away to skirt around the law and gain tax exempt status, draw in fence straddles, and a way for Lucifer to give True Christianity a bad name.

Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”

What is a church? This comes from dictionary.reference.com with a comment in #4 by me.

1.a building for public Christian worship.
2.public worship of God or a religious service in such a building:
to attend church regularly.
3.(sometimes initial capital letter) the whole body of Christian believers; Christendom.
4.(sometimes initial capital letter) any division of this body professing the same creed and acknowledging the same ecclesiastical authority; a Christian denomination: the Methodist Church. ( My comment; Methodist’s used to be a Godly “Church” but that is now debatable)
5.that part of the whole Christian body, or of a particular denomination, belonging to the same city, country, nation, etc.
6.a body of Christians worshipping in a particular building or constituting one congregation: She is a member of this church.
7.ecclesiastical organization, power, and affairs, as distinguished from the state: separation of church and state; The missionary went wherever the church sent him.

Other definitions just say “a place of worship”, “a body or organization of religious believers” but most associate a Church as being a place for Christians.

Now with the other definitions taken into context, “a place of worship”, “a body or organization of religious believers”, that would mean the places such as the church of satan (COS), and these Atheist churches are actually a religion and worship something.

See another instance of a false weirdo church here.