Does Matthew 18:1-35 provide support for banning alcohol and tobacco consumption among Christians? Are Christian alcohol brewers, sellers, and consumers doomed to punishment before a Holy God because they have caused infant Christians to stumble?

Does 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 have something to say about it?

Who is the weak Christian Paul mentions in Romans 14:1-3? Is it the alcohol consumer or the alcohol prohibitionist?

What does Galatians teach us about Christian liberty?

How did Jesus Christ deal with wine? Did Christ live in an environment where alcohol was abused? Shouldn’t he have dealt with wine differently because of that?

Pastor Mark Driscoll asks a pair of poignant questions, “Is it ok if I give up some of my freedom because I love you, and I don’t want you to stumble? Is it ok for you to come and steal my freedom by making legalistic rules that take away the freedom that God has given me?”

“Do you suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused? Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall then we prohibit and abolish women? Some people worship the stars. Should we pluck them out of the sky?” — Martin Luther

Whenever I sit down at a strange computer the first thing I miss is Firefox. I just can’t understand why people would continue to use any other browser. The second thing I miss is Tom Revell’s Stickies. I can’t live without it, and neither can you. Fortunately Stickies is free so you don’t have to. Here is a list of features directly from Tom’s site (please excuse the spelling…Tom is one of Her Majesties subjects):

• Once on screen, stickies will remain where placed until closed, even through reboots
• Stickies appearance can be customised; fonts, colours and buttons may be changed, and styles saved
• Stickies can be resized
• Stickies can snap to each other and to the sides of the screen to keep them neatly lined up
• Stickies can be attached a web site, document or folder so they only show when it’s on screen
• Stickies can be transferred from one machine to another either over a TCP/IP network connection, or by using an SMTP mail server or MAPI client:
  • Hierarchical friends list, which may be automatically transferred from other friends
  • Play a sound file on receive
  • Signature for transmitted or emailed stickies
  • Favourite friends, and custom lists can be made
• Stickies can be hidden for a certain period, until a specified date and time, or to wake every day, week or month, to act as reminders
• Stickies can have alarms set to ensure you notice them at a point you choose
• Stickies can be transferred to and from your Palm or PPC PDA
• International language support
• Stickies is small and simple, it writes to a single text file, and does not alter the registry
• AD network administrators can use Group Policy to control settings

Stickies is beautifully implemented, well-documented and, astonishingly, it’s free. We think you’ll love it. (PC Advisor, August 2003)

I make regular use of a program called Stickies, which puts electronic Post-Its on my screen. (Lee Dembart, International Herald Tribune)

There are other electronic note programs, but none as good as Stickies. If you are not using it you should be.

Another mind boggling story from the Telegraph tells of the role of a Christian Hospice organization that apparently assisted a young man in procuring a prostitute that he might lose his virginity before his untimely death.

Sister Frances Dominica says, “I know that some people will say ‘You are a Christian foundation. What are you thinking about?’. But we are here for all faiths and none,” she said.

I wonder how it is decided which sins are alright to sponsor for the dying? Is there some kind of sliding scale that takes into account how many years you are likely to live, and how emotionally charged your requested sin is?

One of the theological tenets of most conservative (non Reformed) Christians that I am unable to swallow is the total abolition of alcohol and tobacco consumption. It is of the latter that this post is dedicated.Certainly this has been a long journey for me. Having grown up in a house where alcohol was considered evil in and of itself (in practice if not in principle), it has been a long road for my views to change so dramatically. Still, with a little hermeneutics, a little history, and a willingness to admit error (if error exists), I have changed my views. I won’t go into the details here, but if you want to hear the birth pangs of this change you can listen to some of the archives from The Sitter Downers‘ podcasts.

At this point my conclusions are as follows:

1. If you believe alcohol and tobacco consumption to be a sinful activity you should not do it.
2. If you believe alcohol and tobacco consumption to be allowed under certain conditions you are at liberty to consume them in a non-abusive manner.
3. If you believe alcohol and tobacco consumption to be allowed under certain conditions, but you are around those that do not consider it allowable you should not do it.
4. Under most circumstances you should not try to convince someone that believes alcohol and tobacco consumption to be a sinful activity that they are wrong because by doing so you are in danger of committing (ironically) the very sin that one of your supporting texts (I Corinthians 8 ) warns against.
5. If you believe alcohol and tobacco consumption to be a sinful activity and those that disagree do not partake in your presence you should reciprocate by showing them large amounts of the grace for their terribly mistaken interpretation of Scripture, and be careful not to cause division among the Body over matters that are not essential.
6. If you believe alcohol and tobacco consumption are not prohibited by Scripture, but your Father and Mother do not share that view, it may be advisable to give up these freedoms in order to show respect to your parents in the spirit of the fifth commandment.

There may be further points that will develop with time, but for now that is what I have to offer. I will close with a letter written by Charles Spurgeon to the Daily Telegraph concerning some words he had spoken during a sermon he had co-presented some days before.

To the Editor of the Daily Telegraph.

Sir,

You cannot regret more than I do the occasion which produced the unpremeditated remarks to which you refer. I would, however, remind you that I am not responsible for the accuracy of newspaper reports, nor do I admit that they are a full and fair representation of what I said. I am described as rising with a twinkling eye, and this at once suggested that I spoke flippantly; but indeed, I did nothing of the kind. I was rather too much in earnest than too little.

I demur altogether and most positively to the statement that to smoke tobacco is in itself a sin. It may become so, as any other indifferent action may, but as an action it is no sin.

Together with hundreds of thousands of my fellow-Christians I have smoked, and, with them, I am under the condemnation of living in habitual sin, if certain accusers are to be believed. As I would not knowingly live even in the smallest violation of the law of God, and sin in the transgression of the law, I will not own to sin when I am not conscious of it.

There is growing up in society a Pharisaic system which adds to the commands of God the precepts of men; to that system I will not yield for an hour. The preservation of my liberty may bring upon me the upbraidings of many good men, and the sneers of the self-righteous; but I shall endure both with serenity so long as I feel clear in my conscience before God.

The expression “smoking to the glory of God” standing alone has an ill sound, and I do not justify it; but in the sense in which I employed it I still stand to it. No Christian should do anything in which he cannot glorify God; and this may be done, according to Scripture, in eating and drinking and the common actions of life.

When I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm, refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I have felt grateful to God, and have blessed His name; this is what I meant, and by no means did I use sacred words triflingly.

If through smoking I had wasted an hour of my time; if I had stinted my gifts to the poor; if I had rendered my mind less vigorous; I trust I should see my fault and turn from it; but he who charges me with these things shall have no answer but my forgiveness.

I am told that my open avowal will lessen my influence, and my reply is that if I have gained any influence through being thought different from what I am, I have no wish to retain it. I will do nothing upon the sly, and nothing about which I have a doubt.

I am most sorry that prominence has been given to what seems to me so small a matter; and the last thing in my thoughts would have been the mention of it from the pulpit; but I was placed in such a position that I must either by my silence plead guilty to living in sin, or else bring down upon my unfortunate self the fierce rebukes of the anti-tobacco advocates by speaking out honestly. I chose the latter; and although I am now the target for these worthy brethren, I would sooner endure their severest censures than sneakingly do what I could not justify, and earn immunity from their criticism by tamely submitting to be charged with sin in an action which my conscience allows.

Yours truly,
C. H. Spurgeon.
Nightingale Lane, Clapham, Sept. 23.

Note: Upon doing some research I have found that the several stories of Spurgeon giving up tobacco are apocryphal in nature.