Here I Blog: SBTS, Mohler & Moore: Alcohol &
Rusty
· 4 years ago
great post red =). I agree with you - the issue of alcohol should be left up to one's own conscience, and drunk in moderation.
johnMark
· 4 years ago
Man, you better get some glasses! And I will tell red to thank you next time he sees you.
Calvinist_Gadfly
· 4 years ago
"It’s almost as if in applying these principles to Jesus Himself that Jesus would not be allowed at SBTS."
DeoVolente places a lock on his humidor ;-)
anoninva
· 4 years ago
that's o.k. if a Christian believes that he/she has the freedom to drink. The problem I see is how people handle that freedom, whether with alcohol or any other gray area (smoking, whatever). some Christians are very PROUD and boastful about their "freedoms." they try and make sure that others hear about or see just how "free" they are. this leads me to what is always (seemingly) left out of these discussions:
Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore do no let your good be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:15-17
It would be instructive for all to read Romans 14 again because it also points out that we are not to judge our brothers if they decide to decline our freedoms.
Micah
· 4 years ago
some Christians are very PROUD and boastful about their "freedoms." they try and make sure that others hear about or see just how "free" they are.
Certainly. I'm quite proud that my Savior has freed me from the laws of false piety created by men to enslave other men and I will most certainly try and make sure that others hear that they too can be freed from their enslavement to legalism... be it through sharing a drink, a pipe or a Pepsi.
As to Rom 14, some use this passage as if Paul was placing imbibing believers under a no-drink policy. Thus the tryanny of the weak becomes becomes the defacto law of the church. Suddenly it is wrong for the pastor or elders or even lay persons to drink alcohol, watch movies or enjoy a cigar because "someone might see them and stumble!"
Paul is specifically talking about eating meat, and elsewhere mentions meat sacrificed to idols. Now surely this principle can carry over to other liberties, but Paul was quite careful to apply the same standard in the opposite direction. Those who didn't eat were not to judge those who did.
Rarely does the Christian person who feels at liberty to drink alcohol try to force or persuade others to do likewise, in fact it is almost always the one who abstains who seeks to enforce his or her will upon the others.
In the end, Luther's little book on Christian liberty nails it:
"Or else we may meet with simple-minded and ignorant persons, weak in the faith, as the Apostle calls them, who are as yet unable to apprehend that liberty of faith, even if willing to do so. These we must spare, lest they should be offended. We must bear with their infirmity, till they shall be more fully instructed.... Thus, though we ought boldly to resist those teachers of tradition, and though the laws of the pontiffs, by which they make aggressions on the people of God, deserve sharp reproof, yet we must spare the timid crowd, who are held captive by the laws of those impious tyrants, till they are set free. Fight vigorously against the wolves, but on behalf of the sheep, not against the sheep. And this you may do by inveighing against the laws and lawgivers, and yet at the same time observing these laws with the weak, lest they be offended, until they shall themselves recognize the tyranny, and understand their own liberty"
All Comments
DeoVolente places a lock on his humidor ;-)
Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore do no let your good be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:15-17
It would be instructive for all to read Romans 14 again because it also points out that we are not to judge our brothers if they decide to decline our freedoms.
Certainly. I'm quite proud that my Savior has freed me from the laws of false piety created by men to enslave other men and I will most certainly try and make sure that others hear that they too can be freed from their enslavement to legalism... be it through sharing a drink, a pipe or a Pepsi.
As to Rom 14, some use this passage as if Paul was placing imbibing believers under a no-drink policy. Thus the tryanny of the weak becomes becomes the defacto law of the church. Suddenly it is wrong for the pastor or elders or even lay persons to drink alcohol, watch movies or enjoy a cigar because "someone might see them and stumble!"
Paul is specifically talking about eating meat, and elsewhere mentions meat sacrificed to idols. Now surely this principle can carry over to other liberties, but Paul was quite careful to apply the same standard in the opposite direction. Those who didn't eat were not to judge those who did.
Rarely does the Christian person who feels at liberty to drink alcohol try to force or persuade others to do likewise, in fact it is almost always the one who abstains who seeks to enforce his or her will upon the others.
In the end, Luther's little book on Christian liberty nails it:
"Or else we may meet with simple-minded and ignorant persons, weak in the faith, as the Apostle calls them, who are as yet unable to apprehend that liberty of faith, even if willing to do so. These we must spare, lest they should be offended. We must bear with their infirmity, till they shall be more fully instructed.... Thus, though we ought boldly to resist those teachers of tradition, and though the laws of the pontiffs, by which they make aggressions on the people of God, deserve sharp reproof, yet we must spare the timid crowd, who are held captive by the laws of those impious tyrants, till they are set free. Fight vigorously against the wolves, but on behalf of the sheep, not against the sheep. And this you may do by inveighing against the laws and lawgivers, and yet at the same time observing these laws with the weak, lest they be offended, until they shall themselves recognize the tyranny, and understand their own liberty"