Brad's question brings up a lot of interesting thoughts.  As
it would appear, the question boils down to just one and that is,
where do you draw the line.  Regardless of how one was raised,
therefore, the Bible gives a whole lot more leeway than a first
glance would produce.  I, for example, was raised by parents who
didn't get born again until in the mid to late twenties.  Well, at
least my dad.  Mom was born again when she was little and was
raised in a Mennonite home.  My dad was led to Christ by a pastor
here in Denver long before I was born.  Growing up in Iowa,
therefore, I never saw any type of alcoholic drink in our home.
Dad was a Baptist preacher himself by this time and there was a
lot of things we just did not do.  I did not play with friends on
Sundays.  We did not go out to eat on Sundays.  I wasn't allowed
to ride my bicycle on Sundays.  We never missed church services
unless we were too sick to walk.  Chewing tobacco was sin,
swearing, and even using slang words was considered to be sin.

     After a pastor finished teaching his Sunday school lesson one
morning, I was about 40 years of age at the time and he was in his
mid sixties, he dismissed the class and everybody me left.  My
children's class had not gotten out yet so I was waiting for my
kids so we could all go into the auditorium together.  Sandy
wasn't with me but she might have already left because she played
on the worship time so I think that's why I was alone after class.

     The pastor came over and sat down and began visiting.  His
lesson that day had been on this very type of question, where do
you draw the line.  We began talking about our childhood.  He came
from a very strict Pentecostal home so he naturally didn't do
anything on Sundays as a kid either.  As we compared childhoods,
he finally said, "I don't think it really hurt us any, do you,
Phil?"  I laughed and said, "No, pastor, I don't think it did."

     During our after Sunday school chat, I pointed something out
to the pastor about a recent Wednesday evening film the church had
played.  It was an older produced James Dobson film, well, older
now, but not so old then, and it was mostly directed toward
teenagers and young people.  Frankly, the whole film was why young
unmarried people shouldn't have sex.  I listened very carefully to
how things were worded throughout the entire film.  I was looking
for one word in particular.

     After Sunday school, as the pastor and I sat and talked, I
made mention of this film we had just seen a few days earlier.  I
told him that the film bothered me.  He asked why.  I told him
that the film focused on frightening people, especially, it seemed
to me, young women.  why?  The film hammered away on all the
sexually transmitted diseases one could get and how some could
never be cured.  I told the pastor that the medical information
they gave was good and should be made know to the youth.  I
pointed out, however, rather than use the bible, they used fear.
I also mentioned that, as a teenager, what kept me from becoming
more involved as a teen than I did, was the fear of sin.  Yes,
this meant I was concerned about what God thought.  Even then, I
drew the line lower on the scale than I should have.  Finally, I
asked the pastor if he could recall the word "sin" ever once being
used in the Focus On The Family film.  He thought for awhile and
said, "You know, Brother Phil, I can't remember that word being
used."  I said, "Well, I can because I waited for it and it was
never spoken once.  Yes," I said, "the Bible was often mentioned,
although not as much as I thought it might have been, and even
reference was made to the bible concerning this issue but," I
said, "the word sin was never once used."

     We are back to the same question, then, and that is, where do
you draw the line.  Did I raise my kids the same way I was raised?
No, I did not.  Although not wrong, and certainly not sinful, some
of the rules I was made to live by were unnecessary and quite
frankly, a little ridiculous.  Regardless, it never hurt me.
Personally, and this is what I told my pastor that day, I think it
helped me.  He agreed that he felt the same way.  So, where do you
draw the line?

     I wasn't even going to comment on this topic because, quite
simply, I don't know the answer.  I know that I still draw the
line in much different places than others but that doesn't mean
what others do I consider sinful in nature.  The Bible, in this
instance, certainly isn't silent but based upon Brad's two part
question, the Bible only says not to get drunk and is totally
silent on either question he raised.  So that means we have to
draw the line.  We can, and should, apply other relevant
Scriptures to try and determine where to draw the line, we can,
and should, attempt using common sense, we can, and should, look
to other Christians we admire and respect to see how they live,
and we can, and should, pray and ask the Lord what He thinks.  Why
do all this?  It sounds like a lot of work to me.  When I was born
again at age five, I had no idea what the virgin birth was.  This
did not mean I didn't believe it was true, it simply meant I was
too little to understand the theological ramifications of that
doctrinal truth.  I understand it now and that makes my
responsibility to it different than before.

     We know the Bible specifically tells us not to get drunk.
So, if we do, what happens?  Hopefully, all that happens is that
we have committed sin and not hurt anybody else in the process.
As a born again Christian, sin is easily dealt with according to
First John 1:9 so that problem is immediately solved.

     We also know the Bible talks about not defiling the temple of
God, our bodies, which He has given us.  A lot of preachers say
they know what that means and they include a whole host of "sins"
as they preach to make sure you know what it means.  We also know,
in context, that we are to glorify God with our bodies and with
our spirits.  Aa, ha, the circle narrows.  You can, using the
Bible, narrow that circle so much, it becomes a noose and you'll
end up hanging yourself and probably a whole lot of other people
as well, unnecessarily I might add.

     The Bible also makes it pretty clear that we are not to
offend a brother and to live peaceably with all men, saved or not,
in our every day living.  So, dad gum it, where do you draw the
line?

     Sandy and I draw the line at a different place when it comes
to alcohol.  First, I never have liked the taste of anything that
had alcohol in it.  I have had a half a beer on two different
occasions as a teenager and gave them back for someone else to
drink because I hated it.  LSD, hash, marijuana, speed, and the
like were my preferences for a period of my youth but nothing with
alcohol in it.  Sandy, on the other hand, was well on her way to
becoming an alcoholic due to loneliness when she got saved.  She
quit drinking.  Neither one of us have any desire for any
alcoholic drink to this day.  We have friends who do, Christian
friends, and we have children, now grown and raising their own
families, and some of them will drink wine with meals or for a
night cap before bed.  It was also available at their weddings.
Yes, it made me feel uncomfortable.  Although my 4th grade teacher
said I was the best dancer in the class, and she even asked me and
two girls to stay after school in order to learn new dance steps
so she could teach the other children, my father put a stop to
that immediately and I never once danced again.  I did not,
therefore, dance at my children's weddings.  I did preach one of
them but no dancing or drinking for me.  Again, yes, it made me
feel a little uncomfortable and I was against it as far as my own
part was concerned.  What if my kids would have asked me to
conduct a toast?  I would have politely declined.  Why?  I drew
the line a long time ago in a different place for me personally
and I have lived by that standards based upon what I believe.

     Let me put the shoe on the other foot.  Years ago, some
friends, a pastor and some of his church members, called and made
arrangements for all of them to come and sleep on our floors
because of a meeting in town.  I called my kids together and sat
them down and explained to them that we would not be using our TV
that week, unless, I said, the people were not here.  Nor would we
be playing any of their video games.  I explained to them that
these people did not believe in watching television and they
considered it to literally be sin.  they would, therefore, be
offended if we turned our TV on.  My kids wanted to know, if it
was our TV and our video games, why these people just couldn't
accept it since it was in our home.  Good question.  I explained
we would respect their feelings in this case.

     Over the years, I have been in a number of situations where
people drank, not to get drunk, but as a part of the meal.  In the
case of office parties, I imagine some were drinking to get drunk
but in such cases, I would leave before things developed that
far.

     As far as drinking wine at a Bible study, I am wondering to
myself, why would someone want to do that.  then again, I measure
such things based upon where I have drawn the line.  Do I judge
others who feel differently?  I used to because I didn't know any
better.  In fact, I thought I was better because I had a quote
higher standard unquote than they did as a Christian.  that was
silly, of course, and I know better now.  I do know one thing,
however, and that is, everybody has to draw the line some where.

Phil.



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