Can A Person Be A Smoker & Still Be Saved

[mizpeh]

Originally Posted by Baron1710

Now see you are making me go after a story and a quote from Spurgeon about addictions and the weaker brother...

Do you read Spurgeon as a devotional?

As to the last no I don't believe smoking defiles the temple, the reality is our bodies are dying from the day we are born.

Even though our outward man perishes daily that doesn't mean we should speed the process along and disrespect the tabernacle God has given us to live in on this earth. We are disrespecting what God has made and we are disrespecting the house God has chosen to put His Spirit in by defiling it.

I can't see how you can say smoking doesn't defile or pollute our bodies. I'd rather hear you make a case that God will destroy the body and save the soul than say what you did above "I don't believe smoking defiles the temple". Or make the case that the Bible says EVERY SIN is without the body except fornication......therefore smoking is without the body and is not a sin.
Nor can I agree with Spurgeon that we are glorifying God if we smoke tobacco just because we give thanks and praise Him for tobacco.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. 1 Cor 3:16-17

Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Cor 6:18-20

Now for the stories...

"If I ever find myself smoking to excess, I promise I shall quit entirely."
"What would you call smoking to excess?" the man asked.
"Why, smoking two cigars at the same time!" was the answer.

LOL, legalist!!!!


"

Enjoying your 'bacca again, sir!" said old George, Mr. Spurgeon's tried and trusted servant, one day when his master was lighting a cigar.
"I can do without my 'bacca' a good deal easier than you can, George," said the master.
"I don't believe you can, sir."
"Very well, George, don't smoke again until I do."
"Agreed, sir."
A week passed—a fortnight. Poor old George was dying for his pipe. One was asked to intercede with the master that George might be allowed to have it.
"No, no!" said Mr. Spurgeon. "He made a bargain; let him stick to it."
Eventually George was allowed to smoke, but Mr. Spurgeon did not have a cigar for months after that. . . .
http://www.spurgeon.org/misc/cigars.htm

What's your point? George was bound up by cigars and Spurgeon had control over his own will, 1 Cor 7:37, which is good for Spurgeon and bad for George. But nevertheless, smoking defiles the body. We can live without smoking.

“I neither said nor implied that it was sinful to drink wine; nay, I said that, in and by itself, this might be done without blame. But I remarked that, if I knew that another would be led to take it by my example, and this would lead them on to further drinking, and even to intoxication, then I would not touch it.”
http://trevinwax.com/2006/12/06/spur...-of-the-story/

I agree with Spurgeon on topic.