Praise God, I look foward to seeing you there and believe me I could never be good enough without Christ to stand there when He appears.
I would totally agree with you here, but my years in dealing with TSDA theology makes me hesitant. I know how loaded terms 'without Christ' can be. Quite often the intended meaning is not the same as I understand it.
That being said, if you are contending you could never be good enough without Christ's imputed righteousness in your place, then I would agree.
Statements like this is not from the Lord as they are designed to anger or cause negative responses. You can do better than this brother, rise above this sort of thing.
I had no such intentions. You assume too much and already cast my motivations in the worst possible light.
Martin Luther wanted to appease God by purifying himself of his sinfulness. After he read Romans, he realized nothing he could do would ever influence God in any way. That includes fasting. That includes maintaining a strict diet. That includes abstinence. That includes anything one does with the intention of making oneself 'worthy' of facing Jesus, which your previous post clearly implied. Such obedience Christ considers filthy rags.
The Bible tells me that what ever I do including eating or drinking do all to the glory of God. Do you think you can take a shot of whiskey or drink a beer to the glory of God?
Actually, I don't drink (unless you consider 2 glasses of red wine with dinner in the last 14 years qualifying me as a 'drinker'.) But it says volumes that you assumed I do. Regardless,
Proverbs 31:4 recommends strong drink for those with heavy hearts to lift thier spirits. The Bible clearly does not prohibit the occasional use of wine for special or specific occasions.
Deuteronomy 14:26: "Use the silver to buy whatever you like; cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice." And since there are health benefits to drinking the occasional glass of wine, you certainly could drink it to the glory of God:
http://www.pursuingthetruth.org/studies/files/wine_consumption.htm
Neither is polygamy but I can show that it is not what God planned for us to do.
That is an absurd comparison.
Why persue a course of action that is against the creator's plan or wishes?
Since I do not believe the Bible teaches abstinence, I am advocating nothing that I am convicted or aware of that would displease God.
The Bible speaks of eating to drunkedness too but I don't know of anyone who has been literally drunk from eating too much. Drunkedness in the Bible is intemperance or mistreating the body temple which is not yours to begin with.
You have yet to show from the Bible that an occasional glass of wine qualifies as intemperance or drunkeness. Furthermore, I have linked to an article that clearly shows the health benefits of the moderate use of wine, hardly 'mistreating' the body.
Regardless, it is not my intention to start yet another discussion on this topic. We already have three threads in the archives and we certainly don't need another one to show we can go in circles and come right back to our firmly held positions.
My thread here has completely and hopelessly been derailed it seems.