The recent TIME article on “The Science of Addiction” has touched raw nerves in those who sense that “the gospel of Christ ... is the power of salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). “Investigators have begun to figure out exactly what goes wrong in the brain of an addict, ... how deeply and completely addiction can affect the brain, by hijacking memory making processes and by exploiting emotions ... the craving that drives an addict irresistibly toward relapse—the greatest risk facing even the most dedicated abstainer” (emphasis added).
The writer of the article probably does not realize that he is commenting on “the science” of the gospel of Jesus Christ; it is the only ultimate solution to the addiction problem that captivates so many millions. In God’s plan, the church in the last days, “the remnant,” is to plumb these depths of gospel understanding, to proclaim to “every nation” of those “who dwell on the earth” a special understanding described as “the everlasting gospel” (Rev. 14:6, 7). It is to culminate in a message that “lightens the earth with glory” (18:1-4), in the process preparing a people to stand in the close of human probation, face and challenge the final “mark of the beast,” endure “the seven last plagues,” and constitute the welcoming committee who will greet the Son of God upon His return to earth.
Nothing short of this is worthy to be called “the gospel.” But God’s church in the last days, the seventh of the historical series of Revelation 1-3, has disdained this deeper understanding of the “everlasting gospel,” resting upon her self-appointed laurels as “rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing” (3:14-21).
The TIME article makes clear that addiction is a love affair with death. Christ in Proverbs 8 says, “All who hate Me love death” (the final thing; vs. 35). There is where we find addiction; the cure? Nothing short of “the mind of Christ” (cf. Phil. 2:5-8). To have the mind of Christ means that we are “crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20). The addict would fellowship with Christ as He dies on His cross; experience with Christ what the second death is (by faith); “taste death” with Him “for every man” (Heb. 2:9). Thus the addict “comprehends” the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the agape of Christ that passes knowledge” (Eph. 4:17-19, KJV). The addict will hear some rare preaching of “Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:1, 2).
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