You're watching one of a series of videos where Elisa Childers and I respond to 23 progressive

Christian claims, kind of like a progressive Christian manifesto that was written by Ragamuff

and TV. We deal with these claims, some good, some bad, some ugly, and I'm hoping that this

helps you to think biblically. Okay, this next one is these next two are tough. Okay, but I know

you're up to the task. All right. I might get in trouble winning it. I know. Well, I know that

you've recently done a pretty extensive series on one of these, but we'll get to that one in a

second. But honestly, I've been curious about this one myself, number 20. He says it's not a

sin to smoke. Here's one where I think that the typical conservative Christian church has over

reacted. And then my problem is that the response to this is then an underreaction. So I think the

truth is more in the middle. Smoking is a broad term. So what if I said this? Is it a sin to

smoke one cigarette a week? Well, I mean, you're not getting high off. You're not losing your

sobriety. It's not going to cause you any severe harm. It's not really a big risk, actually,

to be honest. Okay, but what about a pack of day? Okay, yeah, you're probably going to die now.

That's probably a bad thing. You shouldn't do that. It's harmful. It brings you under its power.

So if it's it's in it, if smoking is an addictive behavior, if smoking is is going to cause

you physical harm as a pack of day, have it would. But what about a guy that has a smokes a pipe

where he doesn't inhale every night, you know, before he goes to bed or maybe once a week?

Okay, here you realize it's not just a black and white issue. There's an issue. There's a question

of moderation and how damaging and how harmful things are. Now, I think that the black and white

ness of... Well, let me give you an example. Pastor Chuck Smith used to say that he felt so uncomfortable

as smoking that if he was walking through the church parking lot, he saw cigarette on the ground.

He'd feel bad for picking it up to throw it away. Wow. Our convictions can drive a lot of our

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