Whether or not Christians should or even may drink alcohol is a hotly debated subject these days. In this post, I offer my testimony concerning this issue. I hope that it will strengthen other brethren to continue to refrain from drinking alcohol.
Before My Conversion
As an unsaved college student at Western Illinois University, I had many opportunities to drink alcohol in social settings. Although I also encountered suggestions that I should drink alcohol on at least a few occasions, I never drank alcohol throughout my years of being an unbeliever.
In my thinking then, alcohol was a toxic substance that was not at all necessary for life and posed a serious risk of harming my body and enslaving me. I had watched some of my friends suffer harmful consequences of their drinking and had no desire to experience any of what they did.
In fact, I do not recall ever having in any context even the slightest desire to try alcohol, cigarettes, or any other such substances. As a very health-conscious person majoring in Fitness Instruction and Human Performance, I thought that it would be foolish for to me to drink alcohol.
For me it made perfect sense that if I never tried alcohol, there would be no possibility that I would ever become an alcoholic. Nor would I ever drive under the influence or engage in immoral behaviors under the influence of a mind-controlling substance that has destroyed the lives of millions of people throughout the world.
After My Conversion
After becoming a Christian, I devoured the Bible and much other Christian literature. Nothing that I read in those early years of my being a believer signaled to me that I should change any of my thinking about drinking alcohol.
Over the rest of the years that I have been a believer, I have not heard or read anything that suggests to me that there is any value for me as a believer to drink alcohol. Moreover, my present belief that abstaining from alcohol consumption is the right position on this issue is even stronger than when I was an unbeliever who abstained from drinking alcohol.
My Encouragement to Other Brethren Facing Pressure to Change Their Views
If you are a believer who has abstained from alcohol consumption in the past, I encourage you to stand fast against any pressure you may be facing to change your position. If you never try alcohol in the first place, you will never become an alcoholic. If you never try alcohol, you will never become drunk.
Even some unbelievers recognize the value of not ever drinking alcohol and resist the pressure to do so; we who have the Spirit of God in us have incomparably greater resources and motivation to do so!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
