Thank you for tuning in to Apostolic Life in the 21st Century. We're glad you have made listening or watching this podcast a priority. We're thrilled to have you as a member of the audience today. We've got Dr. Bernard here with us, as always, and he's going to answer a question that

sometimes comes up when we talk about vices. Dr. Bernard, apostolic Pentecostals are,

we're known for our strong stands against any kind of substance that would harm our bodies.

So we would preach against drinking alcohol

or using tobacco in any form. Certainly we'd preach against abusing any kind of drugs, whether

legal or illegal. However, anytime this conversation happens, there are always people that it will

point out, and probably fairly so, that if it's

wrong to destroy our lungs by smoking cigarettes, isn't it wrong then to destroy our pancreas or

give ourselves diabetes by drinking sugary sodas or eating twinkies, not to pick on one particular snack because I do like

Twinkies.

And I recognize in saying that, that, of course, every person who has diabetes, it's not their fault.

So I don't mean to imply that.

But guess the question that comes out of this, then, is what guidelines should apostolic pentecostals follow

regarding the stewardship of our physical bodies this question brings up a very important subject

and that is the stewardship of the body so let's start with that god created us as whole beings

with an outward physical nature and an inward spiritual nature.

So the outward physical nature is the body, the inward nature we can use the term soul, spirit,

sometimes interchangeably, sometimes of the distinction, sometimes for the whole person.

But the important point is in scripture, humans are embodied beings. And even in eternity,

when we're redeemed, when we're saved, we're not going to be spirits floating around in the

atmosphere. We're going to be, have glorified bodies. So God's plan for us in the future is embodied so that's the whole person

and so that means we should have respect for our bodies as created by god now the bible also more

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