DiscipleOfIAm
17th January 2007, 11:12 PM
First, let me clarify, I do not use tobacco, drink alcohol (other than maybe twice a year), or any other drug. Very important you understand this.
Is it a sin to use tobacco or other vices? Up until recently (recently because the world has been around a long time) when we discovered the ill health effects of the use of tobacco and too much alcohol, it was very common for people to smoke and drink socially, etc. The use of cocaine was very common 400 years ago. But, now if someone even saw a preacher at say an Applebees drinking a beer with his meal and later lighting up a cigar, the stuff would hit the fan in that congregation!
So, what changed? Does the verses about not defiling the Temple of the Lord, aka your body, hold up for the argument not to smoke, drink, use drugs, etc? We know the tobacco plant has been around for ages. Grape juices naturally ferment. Coca plants have been around, etc, etc! Did Moses wander around the wilderness having a wad of chewing tobacco to chew on to pass the time? This is far fetched, but still just a thought.
Someday when I'm seriously telling my kids about not using tobacco, drinking, drugs, etc I want to be able to use the Bible as a defense as well.
I do not believe in the use of these things for the health effects, except the medically proven one drink a day of an alcoholic beverage for better heart health even though I don't do it.
God Bless!
Is it a sin to use tobacco or other vices? Up until recently (recently because the world has been around a long time) when we discovered the ill health effects of the use of tobacco and too much alcohol, it was very common for people to smoke and drink socially, etc. The use of cocaine was very common 400 years ago. But, now if someone even saw a preacher at say an Applebees drinking a beer with his meal and later lighting up a cigar, the stuff would hit the fan in that congregation!
So, what changed? Does the verses about not defiling the Temple of the Lord, aka your body, hold up for the argument not to smoke, drink, use drugs, etc? We know the tobacco plant has been around for ages. Grape juices naturally ferment. Coca plants have been around, etc, etc! Did Moses wander around the wilderness having a wad of chewing tobacco to chew on to pass the time? This is far fetched, but still just a thought.
Someday when I'm seriously telling my kids about not using tobacco, drinking, drugs, etc I want to be able to use the Bible as a defense as well.
I do not believe in the use of these things for the health effects, except the medically proven one drink a day of an alcoholic beverage for better heart health even though I don't do it.
God Bless!