Booze and Believers
Image via WikipediaToday I want to discuss the issue of alcohol.
Christian Perspectives
Christian perspectives on alcohol range from “the Bible commends the consumption of alcohol so drink in moderation” to “the Bible strictly forbids alcohol so God commands you to abstain.” Those perspectives exist even within this little Reformed segment of the Christian world. As far as I understand it, R.C. Sproul believes alcohol is a gift of the Lord; his dear friend John MacArthur regards the consumption of alcohol as unbiblical; their mutual friend John Piper believes that even if drinking is not a sin, it is very unwise. Three men, three leaders, three perspectives.
In the young, restless and Reformed part of this Christian world, it seems that the majority of people tend to believe that there is nothing inherently wrong with consuming alcohol. There is no disagreement over excess—everyone agrees that drunkeness is sinful. But the younger crowd tends to find freedom of conscience; if they do not drink, they at least do not consider it a sin and do not consider it even unwise.
Contemporary Considerations
I believe there is an issue we need to be aware of that goes beyond the simple issue of whether or not alcohol is forbidden by the Bible. The bigger issue, at least in my assessment, is what people do with the freedom they have found. We saw this recently in a series of blog posts written by John MacArthur. Dr. MacArthur was criticized far and wide for discussing alcohol; in my understanding, though, his discussion of alcohol was secondary to his discussion of the nature of the freedom for those who consume it.
We saw this in his opening statement in the now-infamous post “Beer, Bohemianism, and True Christian Liberty.” He wrote, “If everything you know about Christian living came from blogs and websites in the young-and-restless district of the Reformed community, you might have the impression that beer is the principle symbol of Christian liberty.” We all know that Dr. MacArthur is opposed to the consumption of alcohol; but what he said from the outset of that post is that those who consume are making it more than it ought to be. This point seemed to get lost.
What I saw as I read that post is the reality that this older generation sees the younger crowd as celebrating freedom by rubbing it in their face. They hear us saying, “We are liberated by grace; you are bound by law.” They are convinced that instead of respecting them and honoring them, we are sneering at them and looking down at them. Instead of using our freedom in love and respect, we are using our freedom carelessly and even spitefully.
So forget for a moment whether alcohol is good or bad or indifferent. Instead, think about how you regard those who believe the opposite of what you believe.
I am convinced that the consumption of alcohol is a Romans 14 kind of issue that falls within the bounds of Christian liberty. This necessarily means that one abstains because he believes that this is what the Lord requires while another partakes because he believes that the Lord has given him this kind of freedom. Both do it based on their understanding of Scripture and both do it to heed conscience. Even though one has a better understanding of what the Lord demands of us, neither one is sinning and both are required to obey conscience.
This then calls all of us to tread very, very carefully. Thankfully, the Lord has given us clear instruction on what to do in just this kind of circumstance. What we cannot allow ourselves to do is to be seen as despising or condemning the other. The one will be prone to see the other as bound by legalism or immaturity and will, in turn, find anger or hatred welling up within his heart. The other will be prone to see the other as going far beyond what the Lord allows and he will then condemn this freedom as lawlessness. These are the particular temptations laid out in Romans 14. If alcohol truly is this kind of an issue, we do well to think about which sin we will struggle with.
My challenge, then, for those of us who are young(ish) and/or restless and/or Reformed is to use our freedom wisely and to use it respectfully. Somehow Dr. MacArthur and many others like him are perceiving that we are using our freedom unwisely; that we are using it disrespectfully; that we are making it a mark of Christian maturity (which necessarily implicates them as being spiritually immature). We owe it to them in Christian love, we owe it to the Lord in humble submission, to search our hearts to see if this may be true.
