"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".

The Universe Is Against Universalism

"I believe in the fundamental Truth of all great religions of the world. I believe they are all God-given and I believe they were necessary for the people to whom these religions were revealed. And I believe that if only we could all of us read the scriptures of the different faiths from the standpoint of the followers of these faiths, we should find that they were at the bottom all one and were all helpful to one another." M. K. Gandhi

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"And he (God) said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" Exodus 3:14B

"Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.'" John 8:58

"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." John 14:6,7

"Thomas answered him (Jesus), "My Lord and my God!" John 21:28

"For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus..." 1 Timothy 2:5

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"O followers of the Book! Do not exceed the limits in your religion, and do not speak (lies) against Allah, but (speak) the truth; the Messiah, Isa son of Marium (read: Jesus son of Mary) is only an apostle of Allah and His Word...believe therefore in Allah and his apostles, and say not, Three...Allah is only one God; far be it from His glory that He should have a son..." Qur'an 4.171

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"One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires constant self-immolation on the sinner's part. That God's wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son, is divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made." Mary-Baker Eddy, Science and Healing with Key to the Scriptures p. 23:3-7

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Universalism, emphasized by Ghandi's quote above, rests on the belief that all religions are really true and that every one can complement the other. It becomes painfully obvious that such Universalists as Ghandi never took such time in really reading the other "scriptures", as all major religions contradict the other in some way, with Christianity bluntly contradicting all other religions in both who God is and the way by which we are redeemed. The theory becomes nothing more than a wishful fantasy.