What's the big deal?

No, JerryL, I do not smoke.

But I do have family members who smoked around me when I was growing up and I smoked for many years before I was saved.

 

No, I don't either. My daughter's grandmother just found out she had COPD and she is a heavy smoker. I just wondered if it was only caused by smoking.

 

COPD can also be caused by second-hand smoke. We have a friend 17 miles from us that has COPD that never smoked a day in her life. But her husband smoked around her for 30 years.

Other airborn bacteria may have a small role in the COPD as well.

 

The thread seems to be veering off of its original intent, but yes, it is possible, I would think.

COPD... Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease could be brought on by anything that is breathed into the lungs that was never intended to be there.

 

I believe that all substance abuse is sin: alcohol, cigarettes, illicit drugs, etc. All of it.
I didn't get saved until I was an adult, but I never drank, never smoked, never had drugs. As I grew up as a teenager I was involved in various different sports. I knew that these various substances, including alcohol and cigarettes would destroy my body, and wasn't stupid enough to take them in my venture in atheletics. When I got saved I knew right away that these things were wrong. It was a no-brainer.

For years people have considered them not only wrong, but against the law.
There was the Temperance Movement.
There was the Prohibition Era. Then, of course, it was agaisnt the Law.
Through various preachers, like Billy Sunday, as a result of his Spirit-filled preached, bars were shut down.

Ironically, to save money in our health care system it is against the law to smoke in any public building. It is also against the law now to smoke in cars where there are children, and in your own house if there are children present. Smoking is a drain on the health care system.

But alcohol related accidents, disease, etc. put just as much burden on the health care system as cigarettes do, if not more, and no one would ever think of banning drinking in this day and age. We live in a very corrupt society today.

 

IMHO while having one glass of wine, or one beer is not necessarily sinful, it is wiser for people to not drink. About ten years ago I personally decided to no longer drink at all because it might be a stumbling block to others. Also I felt it could be a poor witness to some that are not saved, or might even by explaining why offer an opportunity to witness. What I don't understand is your zeal for insisting everyone agree that there is nothing wrong with moderate drinking, and your hostility to those that believe that it is sinful.


1Cr 8:9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
1Cr 8:10 For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?
1Cr 8:11 For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.
1Cr 8:12 And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
1Cr 8:13 Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.