Smoking and Beer

I would hate for a person that was still unsaved, but asking questions about Christians, and then read some of the posts and

answers that we get on BB. It would make my job so much harder, if I was trying to convince someone to quit sinning and

start going to church and then he reads, well Christians drink and do the things I do, so why should I go to church. I mean

this sincerely. I can assure you that when I was in trouble over my sins, I sure would not of joined myself to a group that

were involved in drinking.

 

How about a felon breaking into your house, grabbing your kid, and cutting his lungs out?

How about if Muslim terrorists hijack 2 DC 10's and this time they do a deliberate mid-air collision? If they're in the cockpit shouting "Allah is great!" they would go quickly-- just like the Twin Towers-- but passenger near the rear would see the ground from inside an inferno.

How about if he went through with one of the many form of medeival torture and execution, such as hanging her up by her 2 feet and sawing her in half lengthwise starting with her groin area?

"Nothing worse than..." Okay, I guess that's opinion.

 

Probably be alright if you went ahead and drink bear and smoke cigarettes.

 

Bob! you stinker!

 

I assure you, cigarettes have destroyed many homes and lives. The last stats I've heard of are that 1,200 people die every day from tobacco use. It has been labeled as "the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries" by the CDC. That sounds pretty bad to me.

 

Well, from what I can tell about history... this is simply a very new idea. The attitude that you just portrayed simply wasn't around much at all until the late 1800's. Before then, nobody thought anything about it. Why is that?

 

Because if you don't constantly preach grace and mercy, and by doing so keep religious people in check about their self-righteousness, they will always go astray and start making up new rules to raise the standard for themselves and for others. That's what the Pharisees did. That's what people do today. It's human nature. There's nothing new under the sun.

 

1Corth 5:
11: But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12: For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13: But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

 

That's cool, but I don't think we're talking about fornicators or drunkards. At least I didn't get that impression.

 

Oh sure, you know all about drinking too, I see. Well, what does not make one person drunk will knock another on ground. One drink, almost always leads to another, and then, maybe just one more. By that time it is the alcohol doing the thinking and the drinking and the talking.

 

Well, I don't smoke and I never get drunk. But I know I can't possibly live up to your standards anyway, regardless. I told you I'm not worthy.

 

You seem to be saying that you do drink though. You need to work on that.

 

Pershonially, I wouldn't (Hic!) want to drink, (PHfft!) if I coulnd n't shmoke when (a-Hic!) at the (Phffew!) sch- schame times.!! "Barkeep! Get me (HIC!) anozher one!"

Ed

 

Yeah, you don't wanna' offend one of them, right?

Ed

 

Good point about the 'relativity', there, Albert E. That would make a good theory scientific theory, you know.

Ed

 

The same people who believe this will also look up to the forefathers of the U.S. and hold them in the highest regard. They drank, even after church, and nobody thought anything about it. Why don't people look down on them for their wickedness due to their drinking? Maybe it was the alcohol taking control of their senses when they wrote the constitution???

George Washington was a huge fan of dark beer and could drink 4 bottles of wine in a single night. Thomas Jefferson was a homebrewer and knew so much about wine that he was the wine advisor for Washington, Monroe, and Madison. Sam Adams wasn't into brewing like everybody thinks, even though his family brewed, but he still drank. The Pilgrims were wicked as well. Why don't we look down on these people in any way? This wasn't just a brief moment in time though, as drinking was acceptable even by churchgoers WELL, WELL before that time period and also well afterwards.

 

It's almost like I never left.

 

:laugh:

Baptist are never changing aren't they?

 

Uh, Bob, I shouldn't even have to tell you this.

We are not supposed to be in the business of getting people to "stop sinning" or in "getting them to start going to church", but in preaching Christ and why He died. If we focus on stopping sinning without focusing on the only way to change our sin nature, then we have accomplished nothing. Man can't stop sinning on his own accord! You can't clean yourself up enough to be acceptable to God.

Once a person is introduced to the Savior and accepts His gift, then those changes can be made.

Now I agree that if you have a group in the church that is going out partying and getting drunk every Friday night, you are going to have reason to complain that they are making it harder to witness. But there is a huge difference in getting drunk and in drinking a glass of wine with dinner. It's time Christians learned the difference.

 

I don't know why I got into this drinking discussion. I usually don't, being it really is beyond me why drinking is ok for some, I totally do not understand it. But for you to tell me, it is not my Job to teach people to stop sinning, is terrible in my opinion. Remember the words of Jesus, "Go and sin no more". Did you teach your children not to sin? Sure you did, you either misspoke or are terrible wrong. If a preacher does not teach people not to sin, he is just not doing his job.

1Ti 2:7Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, [and] lie not a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.

Isaiah, chapter 1
16: Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17: Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18: Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool