There may be many good reasons not to practice birth control, smoke cigars, charge interest, grow huckleberries, listen to the Beatles, drink Bushmills Irish whiskey, dance at weddings, drive a convertible, send your daughter to Ivy League colleges, sport Afros, invest in mutual funds, play slots in Las Vegas, watch R-rated movies, learn to whittle, or wear linen sport coats--but none of those reasons have any inherent bearing on sin. If you cannot practice these things in good conscience, then don't practice them (Rom. 14:23). Just don't criticize Christians who do practice them.

In my home, I did not allow my younger teenagers to smoke tobacco or drink alcohol. But I did not shroud my home regulation list in the moral authority of, "God forbids it." I merely said, "Your mother and I are God's delegated authorities in this home and we require you abstain from these acts right now." To enlist divine sanction not merely for parental authority but also for preferential prohibition is to assault the authority of the Bible.

The reason I raise this issue, in fact, has nothing to do with cigar smoking, interest charging condom-wearers and everything to do with the functional authority and integrity of the Bible. God has laid out what He requires. Beyond what He requires, He grants freedom: we term this "Christian Liberty." We could use a revival of it today. Bible-toters and -quoters who forbid what the Bible does not address dilute the authority of the Bible, a serious matter indeed.

The Bible (of course) does not address all issues, we have civil and ecclesiastical and parental authorities that (when necessary, but only when necessary) fill in the legislative lacuna: citizens may not jay walk, members must attend church at 11:00 a.m. and not 3 in the afternoon, and minors may not try alcohol in my house until they are 16.

But these, let it always be understood, are men's permissible laws, not God's prescriptive laws.

We have enough sin around today (homosexuality, slander, abortion, lovelessness, schism, drunkenness, covenant-breaking, unbelief, worry, statism) that we need not add to the list birth control, smoking, and full-bodied merlots.

The bottom line is:

Only God gets to define sin.

P. Andrew Sandlin, an ordained minister, is president of the Center for Cultural Leadership, a Christian educational foundation dedicated to reclaiming contemporary culture for Jesus Christ and teaching elder at Church of the King, Santa Cruz, California. An interdisciplinary scholar, he holds academic degrees or concentrations in English, English literature, history, and political science. He has written several monographs and books, including The Full Gospel: A Biblical Vocabulary of Salvation; Totalism: God’s Sovereign Claims in All of Life; Christianity: Bulwark of Liberty; and hundreds of essays and articles, both scholarly and popular. His book Lord of the Dead and the Living: The Significance of the Christian Resurrection is forthcoming. He was formerly a pastor, Christian school administrator, president of the National Reform Association, and executive vice president of the Chalcedon Foundation. Andrew and his wife Sharon have five children.