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120,000 unnecessary deaths from
heart trouble in the United States
every year!
If you' re a smoker, you also face a
risk of death four to 25 times greater
than nonsmokers from chronic bron–
chitis and emphysema.
And finally, even if by sorne
freak chance you don't develop can–
cer of sorne sort, you automatically
shorten you r life by nearly
nine
years- almost
a full decade! And
al! this for a quarter century of
wheezing daily through only two
packs of cigarettes.
This evidence has resulted in the
ban of cigarette advertising in Aus–
tralia, the Soviet Union, Norway
and severa! other countries. These
governments realize the danger to
their ci t izens from smoking.
1
f a smoker says he or she
smokes because of e nj oyment ,
that' s the saddest form of self–
deception there is.
Let 's face the truth!
If
you're a
smoker, do you really enjoy the
thrill of waking up in the morning
hacking and cough ing? Or the
bird-cage taste of accumulated tars
thickly coating your tongue?
Or gasping for breath as you run
for the morning bus whi le up to 12
percent of your red blood cells are
rendered useless- tightly bound by
carbon monoxide from cigarettes?
If you ciaim to enjoy smoking ,
then you must also enjoy being
shackled and physically addicted to
nicotine. Because those powerful
urges you experience each morning
are the mimicry of addiction!
No, any rational, honest person
admits that habi t ual smoking is a
perverted pleasure. We speak from
experience. Editor-in-chief Herbert
W. Armstrong, once a light smok–
er, squarely con fronted the ques–
tion almost 35 years before the
1964 U.S. antismoking report:
"1 then asked myself:
'Why
do 1
smoke? l s it to express outgoing
!ove to God?' Most assuredly not!
'Am I smoking to express outgoing
!ove and concern for the welfare of
other humans?'
1
had to answer in
the negative."
Mr. A rmstrong ri ghtly con–
cluded that smoki ng is "a form of
se/f-desire."
And this self-desire pulls mil–
lions of people into what many
authorities cal! the number one
drug addiction problem.
A Prosmoking Soclety
A smoker starts his (or her) habit
chiefly through
conformity.
One
cigarette advertisement unwittingly
tapped th e t rut h when it said :
"This is your wor ld. This is your
[cigarette brand]. Taste it al!."
Today's world is largely pro–
smoking. Despite the aforemen–
tioned bans on cigarette adver–
tising, nearly one in three in Aus–
tral ia remains a confi rmed smoker.
The number of smokers in the
United States is slowly declining
(but cigarette cons umpt io n is
actually
up).
Prosperous J apanese
are adding daily to their smoking
number.
The reason? Because a hypocriti-
cal society portrays smoking as a
mature, social ly acceptable trait.
Every year, in the absence of
sound parental advice and guid–
ance, young teenagers fall prey to
this false concept. They want to
look mature and grown-up, so they
endure the initial unpleasant physi–
cal reactions. They cough, endure
raw throats, spray perfume to mask
smoke residue-unti l finally their
young bodies succumb.
Later, they fi nd it near ly impos–
sible to quit! After they become
educated to the dangers of smok–
ing , millions find themselves
gripped in a classic addiction!
But the good news is that mil–
lions wor ldwide are waking up!
More than 30 million have smashed
the li teral yoke of nicotine addic–
tion. They understand that "a man
is a slave to whatever has mastered
him"
( 11
Pet. 2:19, New Interna–
tional Yersion), and have quit!
How did editor-in-chief Arm–
s trong rightly deduce smoking was
wrong
decades
before scientific
evidence confirmed it? Through
the knowledge and appl ication of
broad spiritual principies!
Few real ize the awesome pur–
pose of the human body! " Do you
not know that your [human] body
is the temple of the Holy Spir-
i t ... a nd yo u are
not
yo u r
own? .. . therefore
glorify God in
your body"
(1 Cor. 6:19-20, New
King James Yersion).
Ask yourself: can a smoker hon–
estly ful fill this? Is r isking lung
cancer,
thro~t
and mouth disorders,
WARNING- SMOKING CAN BE DAN
HEALTH
UNBORN CHILD