Is drinking alcohol “safe”? Are you one of those who only drinks in ‘moderation’? Does the Bible allow Christians the liberty to drink alcohol just as long as they don’t get drunk? Is abstinance the best policy? Is abstinance the Bible’s policy?
The drinking of alcoholic beverages by over 100 million Americans is rightly regarded by social analysts as America’s number-one public enemy. This “beloved enemy,” as Jack Van Impe calls it, claims at least 100,000 American lives per year, 25 times as many as all illegal drugs combined. The economic cost to the American society of the use of alcohol is estimated by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at $117 billion a year. The real human cost of alcohol, however, transcends any statistical estimate of deaths, disabilities or dollar figures. A 1987 Gallup Poll indicates that 1 in 4 families are troubled by alcohol. This means that more than 61 million Americans are affected by some alcohol-related problems such as retarded children, divorce, violence in the home, crime, sickness and death.
Traffic crashes are the greatest single cause of death for persons aged 6–33. About 45% of these fatalities are in alcohol-related crashes. The shocking truth that few people realize is that most alcohol-caused accidents involve people with BAC’s within the present acceptable legal limit of .08.
Is drinking alcohol safe? No! In fact, to even drink alcohol in ‘moderation’ is a very risky thing indeed. I wonder how many of these ‘victims’ were figuring they were just drinking alcohol in ‘moderation’?…..
In the early part of this century evangelical churches played a major role in influencing the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States on January 16, 1919, outlawing the “manufacture, sale or transportation” of alcoholic beverages.
Since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, however, most churches have abandoned their stand for total abstinence, encouraging “moderation” instead.
Do you whine about wine?
Doesn’t the word ‘wine’ in the Bible always refer to an alcoholic drink? No.
The word wine in the Bible is a generic term; sometimes it means grape juice; sometimes it refers to an alcoholic beverage. Here are two verses showing it as non-alcoholic:
Wine can be found fresh in the cluster; right on the vine; unfermented!
Isa 65:8 Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
“But, what about Paul’s advice to Timothy?….”
Did you know that alcohol is very irritating to one’s stomach;
1 Tim 5:23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
Thus, the context infers that this was wine that did not contain alcohol. Alcohol is very irritating and toxic to the GI system. Also, grape juice is known to be beneficial to some GI conditions and promotes cardiovascular health.
-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (1948) and Webster’s New International Dictionary (1951): Wine: The fermented, or
loosely, the unfermented juice of any fruit or plant used as a beverage.
Wine can sure be referring to alcoholic wine:
Proverbs 23:31-33,35 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
Thus, wine can be ‘unfermented’ non-alcholic, or fermented alcoholic wine. The context will always show when “wine” refers to alcoholic beverages. In such cases, God discusses the bad effects of it and warns against it.
When the Bible refers to alcoholic wine, it is referring to a very low alcoholic content wine. You would have to consume over 22 glasses of this wine in order to equal the alcohol in just 2 martini’s. Our beer today would be considered by Bible standards as very, very potent wine indeed.
Jesus and wine
“Didn’t Jesus’s first miracle involve making alcoholic wine?”
John 2:10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.
The “good wine” Jesus made at Cana was “good” not because of its high alcoholic content, but because it was fresh, unfermented grape juice. The more alcohol content in wine the less ‘good taste’ there is. Grape juice has much more taste than standard alcoholic wine. Moral consistency demands that Christ could not have miraculously produced between 120 to 160 gallons (8 firkins x 4) of intoxicating wine for the use of men, women and children gathered at the Cana’s wedding feast, without becoming morally responsible for prolonging and increasing their intoxication, for it was near the end of their long celebration. It would be like Jesus attending a big wedding reception today in America and getting 4 more kegs of Budweiser, because the other kegs have run dry!!!
Are you a ‘moderate’? Do you believe ‘everything in moderation’?
Doesn’t the Bible support drinking alcohol in ‘moderation’?
Titus 2:3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
1 Timothy 3:8 Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;
These two passages are dealing with very godly, holy, separated Christians. If this is talking about alcoholic wine, then it is saying to these very godly, holy, separated Christians that they can drink a moderate amount of an alcoholic beverage, but don’t drink ‘much’, or a lot of it. Could you picture a grave, holy, separated deacon or aged woman of God drinking a few beers at home after work?!!!
The context lends that it is non-alcoholic wine and that they are not to be given to partying; grape juice was used for all festive occasions; they weren’t to be ‘given to’ this sort of lifestyle.
Eph 5:17-18 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
The analogy here is of being filled with wine, controlled by the alcohol. How much does it take for you to be drunk? Do you know when to say ‘enough’? Have you ever seen someone who is ‘drunk’ keep asking for more alcohol and tell the bartender that he’s ‘just fine’? These are two total opposites in the teaching here: there are two spectrums here – one side is alcohol control in your life, and the other side is dealing with Holy Spirit control in your life. If one goes towards God it will lead you further away from any control of alcohol, presumably. Do most Christians that drink plan to get drunk? No. But, do some get drunk? Yes.
Don’t we have ‘liberty’ as a Christian to drink in moderation?
Gal 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
The ‘liberty’ here is talking about our freedom ‘from sin’, not ‘for sin’! We have been freed from the bondage of sin… like alcohol consumption! It is not a freedom for an occasion to the flesh…which alcohol drinking would surely be.
To say that alcoholic beverages can be consumed in moderation sounds reasonable, but very few drunks have ever set out to become a drunk in the beginning; and a man that does not drink at all will never get drunk one time and will certainly never become a drunk. One who drinks ‘occasionally’ and in ‘moderation’ might not become a ‘drunk’, but, might, on one occasion, drink a little too much and do something very shameful or tragic! You just never know where that ‘moderation’ so-called liberty will lead you!
Could God legitimately recommend the moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages while knowing of their harmful effects? Moderation reduces, but does not eliminate, the toxic effects of alcohol. The same is true with tobacco. “I smoke in ‘moderation’”…. Smoking only half a pack instead of two packs of cigarettes a day reduces, but does not eliminate, the harm of nicotine and the 700 other chemicals in cigarette smoke. It is absurd and dangerous to imagine that God would have approved and encouraged the moderate use of a substance which intoxicates our organism, and impairs our mental judgment, irrespective of the amount consumed.
Does this sound right to you?: Use marijuana in ‘moderation’… don’t get ‘stoned’; make sure to be moderate with your snorting of cocaine…for you don’t want to get too ‘high’; only do ‘meth’ in moderation…for it is very addictive; just make sure that when you inject heroine that it is in moderation… you don’t want to hallucinate too much!!!!
Rom 14:23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Have a firm conviction on this topic. Unless you are firmly convinced and convicted that it is ok to drink alcohol, then
don’t, or it will be sin. If there is even a little doubt, don’t.
Don’t let alcohol cause a person to ‘stumble’
Rom 14:19-23 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
A person could eat meat offered to an idol and not be sinning. But, there is more to it than that simple statement. A goal for the Church member should be to make sure they don’t offend another, and make for peace always. If something can be disruptive to the unity of the Church body, then it should be removed (except if removing it would be sinful). So, if drinking alcohol was actually ok (which I firmly disagree with), then a mature Christian needs to consider if it would offend a weaker brother. One can still “believe it is ok to drink moderately” and can keep that between he and his God, but should not drink because it can hurt the “body”. If there is “any” doubt about whether drinking alcohol is God’s will for a person, then that person must not drink it, “for whatsoever is not of faith is sin”.
Where is most drinking done at? Bars. Do bad things go on at bars? Oh yes! They are very wicked places!
How can you go through the check out stand with a 12-pack of Budweiser and then tell the ‘register lady’ about a holy God who hates sin who desperately wants to save her from Hell if she would only repent of her sin and ask Jesus to save her???
Wouldn’t it be strange to have the preacher and his wife over for a ‘few’ beers Sunday night?! Wouldn’t it be ridiculous to offer your 7 year old daughter some beer or wine after dinner…of course, only in moderation!….
1 Thess 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Might holding a beer in your hand possibly look inappropriate for a God-fearing, sin-hating, soulwinning Baptist to be doing? You might say that you are just having 1 beer, but, does everyone else know that? Sitting in that restaurant with a bottle of beer in front of you might cause others to think that possibly you are a heavy drinker, a drunk, a lush. Buying that 12 pack of Budweiser might cause all in Walmart that see you to think evil of you. What happens if you saw the pastor of a church drinking a beer at a BBQ at the park? Evil?
Wise up about Wine
Here’s what God had the wise Solomon say about ‘wine’:
Prov 20:1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
This verse needs to be taken literally and at full face value. It makes an incredibly bold statement about alcohol. This first statement is a “truism”: that wine is always a mocker. It is a factual statement and not a statement with a disclaimer clause in it like: if you drink too much wine it becomes a mocker…it “is” a mocker. The clear teaching here is that this “wine” is alcoholic wine, and that “whosoever is deceived” by it is not wise. Not being “wise” here implies that since you now know that alcoholic wine is a mocker, whoever partakes of it and believes that it is “not” “bad”, is deceived and is thus not wise. That which is not wise pertaineth to “fools”. Don’t be deceived into thinking that alcoholic wine is not dangerous for you! Be wise! Oh how many have been deceived by it in thinking that they could ‘handle it’…it ended up ‘handling them’:
alcohol-related car accidents, marital abuse, crimes, loss of job, disease, etc., etc..
God is an extremist when it comes to alcohol!
He commands that we are not only suppose to not drink alcohol, we are not even to look at it!
Proverbs 23:31-33,35 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
There is a lot in this verse. The first point is that “wine” can be very “desirous”…even just to “look upon”. Secondly, the word “red” here refers to the changes in the grape when it ferments. Thirdly, there is a stern warning to all concerning this “wine” (fermented): the warning is not to even “look upon” it for if you do it draws you in to partake of it, much like a drug addict is drawn to his heroin when he sees a full vial. Fourthly,wine here must be referring to alcoholic wine, for how would unfermented wine “bite” and “sting”. These words speak of sudden imenant danger and death. Thus, alcoholic wine is not even to be looked upon for it can bring sudden danger and death to the drinker. You just don’t know when it will strike! The bite or sting can be subtle at first but then later the effects take over the person and are irreversible. Fifthly, alcohol causes one’s senses to be numbed (little by little) and often they aren’t aware of things they’ve done to their body, or with their body. Sixthly, alcohol often leads to violence, fights, trajedy. Seventhly, alcohol can quickly become something that you keep going to day after day to ‘help you cope’ even though it causes so many problems (you’ve become an alcoholic).
Take this risk analysis
*Would it be a sin for you to abstain from alcohol? Could it potentially be a sin for you to drink alcohol? The worst that
can happen with abstaining is ‘inconvenience’. The worst that can happen with drinking is………..
*Would you concede that there is a lot of danger with drinking alcohol?
*Is it wise to voluntarily do something that can easily cause one to sin, can hurt one’s health greatly, can potentially cause
great harm to others, can potentially ruin one’s life (jail, poverty,etc.), and is usually considered a very poor Christian
testimony?….
*Do you want your kids to drink alcohol? “Like father, like son”.
*Would it be ok for your 9 year old daughter to have a beer with you in the evening? Why not?
Many Christians want to live a life that is pleasing to themselves; a life of compromise; a life of carelessness; a life of “fence straddling”; a life that is at best lukewarm for God. The Christians that want to be holy and separate for the Lord’s use must abstain from worldly, questionable, harmful, dangerous practices…like drinking alcohol. Remember, why do people want to drink an alcoholic beverage? For the taste? No, hardly. It’s for the effect! It’s for the drug! They like the way it makes them feel. A very dangerous practice indeed! Ask any drug addict!
What harmful worldly indulgences are you playing around with?……..
