Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!hedrick From: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu (Charles Hedrick) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Alchohol: Good or Evil? Message-ID: Date: 22 Feb 90 09:04:24 GMT Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK Lines: 68 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article @sun.acs.udel.edu:turtles@sun.acs.udel.edu (turtles) writes: > > >This discussion has leaned more towards the question of wine or grape juice >in communion, but I am wondering what is the general perspective of the >social drink? The Bible clearly condemns drunkenness, but should a >Christian be against the consumption of alcohol in general? Is alcohol >good or evil? > > Tony Tony, The way I look at it is this: I don't know of anything in Scripture that condems a casual drink now and then, but the Bible does remind me of my responsibilities as a Christian to others. By "others" I mean Christians and non-christians. In First Corinthians chapter 8, Paul is dealing with the subject of meat that has been sacrificed to idols. The Corinthian Christians wanted to know if it was O.K. to partake of this food. The word from the Lord (through Paul) is this: I Corinthians 8: 8-13 8 : But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. 9 : But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 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 thins sacrificed to idols? 11 : For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. 12 : And thus, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 : Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, that I might not cause my brother to stumble. We are also warned in First thessalonians 5:22 to avoid even the appearance of evil. But as in the example above, I believe this means "perceived" evil also. If someone, who knows I am a Christian, were to see me taking a casual drink, and through this he derived that it was O.K. to drink and carried it to excess, I believe that I would have sinned because of my bad witness and its result on this person. In my opinion, why take the chance? Scott. cscountr@uokmax.uucp -- The Lord never promised it would be easy. . . In fact, He promised the opposite. Take care. [I'd like to propose the following: I think it's important for the Christian community to include both those who will not consume alcohol as a matter of principle and those who do. It's important to have a large group of people who will not in order to help establish an environment that is supportive of people who can't use alcohol safely. But it's important to have Christians who do use alcohol in order to fight the image of Christians as kill-joys, and make it clear that God is responsible for the whole variety of joyous activities just as much as he is responsible for prayer and fasting. --clh]