{"id":1515,"date":"2013-01-13T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2013-01-13T15:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=1515"},"modified":"2013-01-13T11:48:59","modified_gmt":"2013-01-13T17:48:59","slug":"to-drink-or-not-to-drink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=1515","title":{"rendered":"To Drink or Not to Drink"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"No<\/a>Before the holidays I listened to a radio-preacher tell people it was a sin to drink alcoholic beverages. This educated, well- respected minister seemed pretty well versed in the Bible and has a fairly large following. I found his message most disconcerting. It always bothers me when Christians try to support personal philosophies biblically. This tactic tarnishes the credibility of the Christian community.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not suggesting we take tequila shots every time we see the word \u201cwinebibber\u201d as we read the Bible; although, this might encourage some to search the scriptures. But to condemn those who drink a glass of wine with dinner goes to the other extreme. And that seems to be the problem with people \u2013 they tend to go to extremes. Many who drink aren\u2019t satisfied unless they are drunk; many who don\u2019t drink aren\u2019t satisfied unless they convince others they shouldn\u2019t drink either. We tend to make our standard, God\u2019s standard. What we like, God likes \u2013 whether it be music, clothing, hairstyles, food, or drink. Thus we make God over into our image, instead of the other way around.<\/p>\n

God has given us many blessings. But every blessing can be a curse if not used properly. The following can be blessings or curses, depending on how they are used: food, sex, money, and, yes, wine, beer, and other forms of fermented beverages. Not everyone who eats is a glutton. Not everyone who has sex is an adulterer, fornicator or pervert. Not everyone who drinks is an alcoholic. The sin lies within abuse of the blessing \u2013 not the blessing itself. Why else would wine be spoken of as both good and bad in the same texts in 1 Samuel 1:14, 24 and Joel 1:5, 10?<\/p>\n

Martin Luther summed it up well: \u201cDo not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we prohibit and abolish women? The sun, moon, and stars have been worshipped. Shall we pluck them out of the sky?\u201d<\/p>\n

God gives us the freedom to choose whether to drink alcoholic beverages or not to drink them. What we do with that freedom is up to us. But let\u2019s not make the mistake of condemning those who do not choose the same way we do.<\/p>\n

(Next time we\u2019ll delve a little more into what the scriptures say about this subject.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before the holidays I listened to a radio-preacher tell people it was a sin to drink alcoholic beverages. This educated, well- respected minister seemed pretty well versed in the Bible and has a fairly large following. I found his message … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}