"If you talk about "God" in a deist-physics-behind-everything-pantheistic-feel-good-collective-consciousness sort of way then it's not really a conversation. That version of God is benign and a sort of mental exercise that an intelligent person performs to feel warm and fuzzy. But that's not what Mark Driscoll or most believers are referring to here. The Bible makes very clear claims about the nature and will and intervention of a personal God in this 3D (quite possibly many more dimensioned) reality. A God is presented that listens and responds to prayers, has a "plan" for you, created the whole universe and all life forms (99 percent of which are already extinct) for the benefit and enjoyment of humans. Not only this, you must take care and watch out because one day you'll stand before the judgment seat of this God and he'll cast your soul into a lake of fire to be forever tormented if you don't believe that he impregnated a 12 year old Jewish girl and sacrificed himself to himself as an atonement offering. Infinite punishment is threatened for finite offenses. Human sacrifice is presented as a benevolent act. Broken from Birth is the lynchpin of this whole worldview. I'm just saying it's garbage. Not enough people are speaking plainly about this."

This was a post by a guy in response to an article Mark Driscoll did for the Washington Post. See Here. While obviously some of his perceptions are off, probably due to some emotional response (like 99% of species being extinct), I find it amusing that even this guy, non-Christian, can figure out that the Bible says things that some Christians and Christian pastors don't (or don't want to) admit exist within the pages of scripture.

I've bold-highlighted the areas that in particular stand out.

I could go on a rant, but I'm tired, and I think 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 covers it better than I ever could.

Smoking and 1 Corinthians 6:19

Now, I admit I'm coming at this from a biased perspective, being a smoker. But, being a smoker, I am a common recipient of an argument of this type:

"You know, the Bible says that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and so you shouldn't smoke because you're damaging the temple. Tsk tsk."

The "tsk tsk" is never added, but always subtly implied. The "temple of the Holy Spirit" quote comes from 1 Corinthians 6:19. This is the "go-to" verse for nearly every argument that smoking is a sin. But what people who quote that verse never seem to consider is the verse before it.

"Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body." (v. 18)

So, if you contextualize the verse, what actually damages the "temple" in that regard is sexual immorality. Not smoking, not alcoholism, not gluttony and ensuing obesity, and the last two are actually mentioned as sins in scripture.

So if someone you love smokes, then don't call it a sin and try to guilt them with out-of-context verses. You can call it what it is, an admittedly stupid habit that does damage health, and you can express your concern, but as someone who even now is working towards kicking the habit, you do NO GOOD by throwing accusations at people who smoke, especially Christianized accusations wrapped up in a poorly-used verse. Love them, help them, encourage them, don't nag, don't patronize, don't look on them judgingly, especially because for some smoking is an escape from other issues in their lives, and what they need is the love of Christian community to show the gospel and help them heal in Christ, not people wagging the finger because of their "dirty habit".