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john said:
I will point out that, according to my pastor, the church does not believe drinking to necessarily be a sin (although it seems smoking is). So there is a difference between your situation and mine.
John,

The situation which I was in and yours may indeed be different to some degree, but I think they share a common and serious error, which is that they require man-made rules to be adhered to as qualifications for membership in the household of faith. The Scriptures know of no such requirements whatsoever. The items which CovenantInBlood listed do exist in Scripture and are therefore acceptable. By denying someone membership because they cannot in good conscience bind themselves to non-biblical rules/regulations, they are in essence saying that you do not belong to Christ, although they would doubtless deny any such thing. But in fact, it is true. By denying membership to someone, the church as holders of the "keys", are declaring that the person is not qualified/worthy to be deemed a child of God and thus the means of grace are not open to them (baptism and/or the Lord's Supper), they are prohibited from serving in any official office or capacity within the body of Christ and lastly, if found to violate any of these "rules", they would be subject to discipline. The only way anyone can be disciplined by the church is if the person is guilty of sin; doctrinal error or in life.

One of the other questions I posed to the pastor of that Presbyterian church was, If Christ was here on earth, would He turn away someone who occasionally drank a glass of wine, smoked a cigar, engaged in ballroom dancing with their spouse or played "Fish" with their children and/or require that they denounce such things before they could be united to Him? Of course, he was noticeably disturbed by my question, but it certainly made the point. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/evilgrin.gif" alt="" />

In His grace,

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simul iustus et peccator

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