WINSTON TASTES GOOD LIKE A CIGARETTE SHOULD

Most Americans born in the generations that came after the Baby Boom have lived their entire lives knowing that smoking can cause lung cancer. But that's not always been well-known – and at one time it wasn’t known at all.

Actually, it wasn’t until cigarettes were mass-produced and popularized by manufacturers in the first part of the 20th century that there was cause for concern. Prior to the 1900s, lung cancer was a rare disease. Changes that came with the 20th century brought a time of rapidly increasing lung cancer rates. New technology allowed cigarettes to be mass-produced. Then, movies, TV, and advertising glamorized smoking, making it cool, something that beautiful women, leading men, and tough guys did. Bing Crosby, Ronald Reagan, Lucille Ball, Basil Rathbone in encouraged us to light up. The military got involved – giving, not selling, cigarettes to soldiers during World Wars I and II.

So, when, exactly, was there proof that smoking caused lung cancer? Can we date it? Yes. In the August 7, 1954, Journal of the American Medical Association, the conclusion from years of research was clear: “Men with a history of regular cigarette smoking have a considerably higher death rate than men who have never smoked."

Immediately the tobacco industry went into high gear. We saw ads featuring "doctors," i. e. distinguished-looking men in white coats, recommending this or that brand of cigarettes with various highly-touted filters. Another ad, this one for Chesterfield Cigarettes, cited a 6-month medical study, complete with X-rays, which "proved" that the throat, nose, and the ears were unharmed by smoking that brand. One magazine ad featured a full-color drawing of a dentist in his white coat saying, "As your dentist, I recommend Viceroy."

A TV commercial began by saying, "Follow your doctor around during the day and you'll see how busy he is and you'd find him taking the time to enjoy a Camel because more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette." At that point in the commercial, the scene switched to the doctor in his white coat sitting in his office puffing away, his office nurse, also dressed in her professional white uniform and cap, standing nearby.

Advertising trotted various professional athletes into our homes via magazine back covers and inside pages. On TV, one ad featured singers implating a catchy tune in our minds, so catchy, it would be in there forever: "Winston tastes good like a (clap, clap) cigarette should." (Pardon the poor grammar of the jingle, it should be "as a cigarette should). We saw Hank Aaron, Frank Gifford, Jesse Owens, Paul Hornung, and Joe DiMaggio over the decades in our periodicals or in our dens, all holding cigarettes and telling us of the great taste and flavor they were enjoying.

The popular "Dick VanDyke Show" of the early 60s featured Dick and his wife Laura relaxing at home while smoking and bragging on their choice, Kent Cigarettes.

"LSMFT," "Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco," was drilled into our minds so that 70 years later, we still can recite those letters and their meaning in the proper, tobacco-ordained order with no vowels to help us.

There were scientific-sounding ads pontificating, "Although there is research that has shown thus and so, there is some doubt as to thus and so." What was happening was the planting of confusion in the viewers' and readers' minds about the harmful effects of smoking. Why? Because confusion sells. The intent was to cause people to ask: is smoking really bad? Doctors smoke, there are many of them puffing away on TV. Some scientific reports say it's safe, and then what about the filters? Aren't they beneficial?

Satan knows all about the ploy of confusion. He's the master implanter of it. He confused and deceived  Eve about the goodness of God and the infallibility of His Word of God by telling the first lie on our planet, a pattern he's never stopped. Christ called him, "A liar and the father of lies" because he told the first one and continues right on.

If there's one primary mission for the devil, it's to confuse people about the gospel although it's both simple and clear: faith alone in Christ alone. Yet, the Old Deluder as the Puritans called him has infiltrated the gospel with the chaos of works to the extent that the simple, crystal clear message of faith alone in Christ alone has been loaded down with "Forsake sin," "Give your life to Christ," "Change your geographical location," i. e. "Walk down an aisle," "Repent," AKA "Feel sorry for your sins," and "Be baptized."

The Gospel of John is in the Bible to bring people to faith alone in Christ alone. Ninety-nine times in that book, God conditions salvation on faith alone in Christ alone. There are 15,635 words in the Greek of John's gospel and not a single one of them is "repent." Over 150 times in the New Testament, faith alone is the sole condition for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

If you're confused, the confusion isn't coming from God; He's not the author of confusion. Read the Gospel of John, begin to do so immediately; you don't have all the time in the world to settle the question the jailer in Philippi asked Paul, "What must I do to be saved?"