It is profitable for me to consider the opinion of the people in my life and how they view this… just one personal example is a friend of mine who I know would be offended and it would be a distraction in my attempts to disciple him if he knew I drank. He is a new believer who quit drinking and I see it as a small thing to pass on a freedom to remove it as a distraction. He knows me well and would have more of an opportunity to explain it to him if I did drink so I would actually be more concerned about all people who are more at a distance and may be affected with out me knowing or really being in a position to explain.

I believe if we are attempting to walk in the Spirit we do look at what the Scripture expressly forbids and allows but we don’t stop there we ultimately make choices out of love for others, Christ and the gospel. Please don’t take that as me thinking I am more in the Spirit than you. I don’t at all doubt your love for Christ and burden for souls. I have no doubt that you would be able to see areas where I need to be challenged as well. I appreciate you pointing out the sin of drunkenness and how our thirst should be for God.

For sure there are those who are legalistic in their outright condemnation of alcohol, but legalism can rear it’s ugly head on both sides of an issue like this. Ultimately we can not act as the Holy Spirt and restrict things that God does not clearly restrict or on the other side we should not try to act as the Holy spirit and free someone’s conscience of something that the Holy Spirit has not. It’s just as easy to mandate my conviction to abstain on everyone as it would be to mandate a conviction to freedom. I know you stated you were not wanting to do that, but I think your approach (certainly in this article) resulted in belittling and mocking a valid conviction. Please consider whether you are exercising your freedom or flaunting it in light of Romans 14. You do invest a lot in the promotion of Christians drinking alcohol. Please take this as a challenge, You did recognize you wrote this in anger and I don’t want to beat it down, but maybe there are some further things worth considering than just the anger.

I’m not arguing for Christians to ignore their conscious and slam a few cold ones in the name of mission. My main argument in this post was that we should use scripture to determine what our freedom is and let culture determine how we present the truth to them and not a poll on a Christian website. Scripture is clear that drinking is ok. In both resources you provided, Piper states this is clear. While he personally has convictions against drinking alcohol (and therefore I wouldn’t argue with him about that), he clearly states, “I could easily fall into a trap of ruling out for everybody what God has given as a precious gift.” In his words, it is a precious gift…but more importantly, according to God, it is a precious gift. The weight of scripture is far more in favore of alcohol than opposed to it. In fact, I’ve yet to come across one verse that says alcohol itself is evil (only the abuse of it).

Therefore, it is our job as those that have the freedom to drink to use it to the glory of God and in the gospel proclamation to the lost. That is my stance. To use another Piperism…Don’t Waste Your Freedom to Drink.

Once again…thanks for adding to the conversation, and I truly hope to see around the site some more.

Piper interview
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/resources/is-it-ok-to-drink-alcohol

Piper Addressing Alcohol and church membership
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/total-abstinence-and-church-membership

Romans 14 address this issue of what we have a freedom in… we don’t flaunt it or judge the person who has yet to have faith that what they are doing is right. The example in Romans the person was used to not eating meats or wine because just prior he had been restricted from it through Ceremonial law and associated it with sin and was not comfortable. We do live in a different culture where we have to consider how others will view it (believers and unbelievers) and if it is a hinderance to the gospel or our testimony with another brother.

You reference Piper’s quote, what he has written on the subject for why he has chosen to completely abstain and how that relates to our culture and what the bible clearly states. Would be a helpful read. I think you have basically said Piper is “hurting his testimony by Not drinking.”

http://thebeerean.com/2008/05/preaching-to-the-chior/

If I used the same logic/scriptural interpretation that you did in your article there would be so many things that I couldn’t do that God has clearly given me freedom in scripture to do (eating pork, watching TV, sex with my wife, ect.).

Now I’m cool with you not drinking alcohol, but please don’t say that there is, “abunadant[sic] biblical reasons to abstain.” You insult our church fathers (Calvin, Luther, and Spurgeon to name a few) and Jesus who all drank alcohol to the glory of God.

I just found your site today. I compliment you. You might be interested in a series of posts on my blog regarding drinking and idolizing of the weaker brother. Cheers!

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But I will say that we are moving in a positive direction in America as a church on the topic of drinking. Gen xer’s and younger are more concerned with Gospel truth than American moral tradition