What does God, the loving Creator, say about ALL of humankind?

• Grace: You have been saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a gift of God. Read Eph. 2:8-9
• Mercy: Confess and forsake your transgressions and sins so that you will obtain mercy. Call addictive choices sin (not a disease), and God provides mercy. Read Prov. 28:13
• Truth in Love: “All have sinned…” (Romans 3:23) We all sinned before we even knew what a drug was. We chose our own way before we chose any drug or alcohol to satisfy our desires. How loving of our Father to reveal Himself to us and to instruct us.
• Justice: God is not mocked; what you sow, what you do, etc will end up giving you what you deserve. Read Gal. 6:7 But justice has been served at the cross of Christ for all those who place their faith in Christ for salvation. Rom 5:16-18.
• Hope: You can confess your sins of choosing to ingest, imbibe, inject, or snort, or breathe in chemicals and substances no matter the type. You can confess Jesus is Lord while believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. You can call upon the Lord and be saved, you can cease from practicing that sin in this life by the power of the Holy Spirit, and you can live forever in the next life eternal. Read Romans 10

God Doesn’t Use Stigmatizing Language

People might end up experiencing the suffering of being physically dependent or addicted because of a tolerance built up with repeated use. But everyone who chooses substances or alcohol needs to know that this is a spiritual heart issue first. It is an important matter of the soul to be addressed and answered by God who created mankind for His good purposes and pleasure.

Categorizing people into one big group based on perceived outward behaviors and actions fails on so many levels. What God our Father offers His children far exceeds what the world tries to offer. Substance abuse treatment and rehab facilities stigmatize people with lifelong labels. Furthermore, changing the label “substance abuse” (to use an example from the 1990’s) to the modern term “substance use” gains no ground.

Meanwhile the one true God has always offered all who will come to Him so much more:

• The Word of God taught and treasured…
• in the context of the body of Christ which is expressed in a local church of believers…
• who are speaking the truth in love to one another and…
• caring for each soul in an individualized manner.

Biblical Residential Addiction Programs: Destigmatizing Addiction

The grace, mercy, goodness, truth in love, justice, and hope of Jesus Christ are taught at the biblical programs in the network of The Addiction Connection. People are being transformed by God’s power through his Holy Spirit’s transformation – not by works of anyone’s doing! Man’s short-sighted wisdom is not needed for this type of godly turnaround from what the world formerly called “addict” or now refers to as someone with a “Substance Use Disorder” — we call it being transformed into a follower of Jesus Christ.

“…for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8 ESV

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence…” 2 Peter 1:3 ESV

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…” 2 Cor. 5:17a ESV

Truth in Love About What the World Calls “Addiction”

More truth in love about addiction is explained in the book Destigmatizing Addiction: Hope Through the Gospel (Bemidji: Focus, 2023). From Appendix B:

“Creating sets and subsets of disorders is the way to claim exclusive rights to treat them. The mental health addictions system of labels attempts to make [themselves] the only provider of care through treatment and rehabilitation. But is the multi-billion-dollar treatment and prevention business effective at bringing sobriety and changing lives? … over 93,000 overdose deaths were reported in 2020… [and] over 100,000 drug overdose deaths during the 12-month period ending in April 2021. That’s nearly a 30% increase in less than 5 years! The current approach is clearly not working. The label of a disorder stigmatizes this group of truly hurting people who need genuine help! Calling their struggle a chronic illness or disorder of brain chemistry renders anyone else useless in the battle to help them obtain freedom and gives no hope for permanent change. The world’s system created its own lie and now they want to make it better. They created the term “alcoholic” and then just a few decades later turned around and declared it to be stigmatizing…They want to de-stigmatize all their other words! But there is no way to improve a falsehood without rejecting it altogether and repenting by going back to a biblical perspective and foundation. Adding truth to a lie does not make the lie any better. Only the truth is pure. Only the truth replaces a lie.”

-Dr. Mark E. Shaw, Destigmatizing Addiction: Hope through the Gospel, pp 49-50.

A Spiritual Heart Issue First and Foremost

We want you to know there is hope for the addicted. It’s not a lifelong disease. At the heart, it’s no longer a medical issue. It’s a spiritual heart issue first and foremost.

All the factors, including social and biological, are important but secondary to the spiritual problem at the heart level of addiction. Where will you spend eternity? Christ enables His people’s souls to live forever with Him in glory, and He transforms them all on their way home to Him.

Unique and Eternal Value of Each Individual Soul

God hates stigma.

“It attacks God’s unique image-bearing creation and lumps a person into a category of people using lazy descriptions that magnify particular characteristics… We really have no right to stigmatize anyone because people belong to God. Stigmas often come from a prideful heart that wishes to demean another person for superficial reasons. Stigmas are a direct attack upon a person’s character. Stigmas are ultimately an attack upon the Creator God who fashioned each image-bearer…” (Shaw, pp4-6).

Stigmatizing labels bring harm to the individual and fail to recognize that all people are made in the image of God. The world’s language of disorder, disease of addiction, addict, junkie, or any other demeaning language is to be rejected altogether. Every single soul is of unique and eternal value and can be transformed by the power of Christ.