Is it ok for Believers to drink alcoholic beverages
by: Rev. Randy Parrish,
Deaf Pastor, Berean Baptist Church
Adrian, Michigan.
Today, many "Christians" consider it all right to have a social drink or two; some even think nothing is wrong with drinking. In this study, we will show what the Word of the Lord says about Wine and Drinking. The word, "wine" in the Bible is an generic term. Sometimes it means fresh grape juice, other times it means alcoholic drinks. The context always shows when "wine" refers to Alcoholic drinks. How does it do that? For example, in Genesis chapter 9, God shows Noah's experience with wine. God shows that Noah "drank of the wine, and was drunken", showing the bad effects of the wine and the results of his drinking it. The context will always show if it is wine by the warnings or results that are listed by the Lord.
A. Wine= fruit of the vine.
Deut. 11:4; 2 Chr. 31:5; Neh. 13:15; Pr. 3:10; Isa. 16:10, 65:8; 1 Tim 5:23.
All of these verses show that the context shows wine is grape juice.
Christians often use 1 Tim. 5:23 as an excuse to drink. Paul
was advising Timothy to drink GRAPE JUICE to help his troublesome stomach.
Clearly, Timothy had stomach problems. Any Doctor will tell you
a person with stomach trouble needs to avoid alcohol; it will make it worse.
Would Paul want to hurt him? or make him violate Scriptures?
B. Wine= alcoholic drinks.
In the following verses, a lengthy list, we will see something interesting.
Proverbs 20:1: "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and
whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise."
We notice the word "deceived" in this verse. Wine
is deceptive; but how? In the very way that people advocate today,
that drinking a little bit will not hurt. Everyone readily admits that
drinking too much is bad; even the alcohol companies tell us not to drink
and drive, but they advocate that "a little bit won't hurt!" This is
deceptive. How? No one knows how much is a little bit for each
person. Each person is different. Even the "experts" differ on
how much is a "little bit". When a person drinks, the alcohol causes
them to make rather bad decisions, do things that they would not sober. In
this way, it is deceptive. It makes you think you are making good choices
when you are not. Drinking and Driving is not a good choice, but many
people do. Noah is an example of this. Would he normally
be laying in his tent naked? No. A person in a tent keeps their
clothes on - who knows who will walk in? Noah got drunk, uncovered
himself (no doubt because he was hot), and the rest is history. Wine
deceives us into doing foolish things; therefore it says "whosoever is deceived
thereby is not wise."
Proverbs 23:29-32: "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath
contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness
of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed
wine. 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 an serpent, and stingeth like an adder."
Clearly, from these verses, this is alcoholic wine.
Grape Juice does not cause woe, sorrow, contentions (fighting), babbling,
imagined slights, or red eyes. Alcohol does. All of us
know someone who has lost family or friends due to drinking through liver
damage, drunk drivers, alcohol poisoning. Alcoholic has brought more
untold sorrow and grief than all the wars in the world. Clearly, the
context here is alcoholic wine, and God warns against it!
Proverbs 31:4-5 "It is not for kings. O Lemuel, it is not for
kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink. Lest they drink
and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the
afflicted."
The danger for kings and princes is clear. If
they drink, they will forget the law, and make wrong judgments. The
only accepted use of alcohol in the Bible is verses 6 and 7 of the
same chapter: "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish,
and wine to those that be of heavy hearts.” "Let him drink,
and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." That
is to those who are perishing and heavy hearted. This clearly means
those who are dying and are in pain. This would be using it as an anesthetic;
a pain killer. In those days, they did not have the range of
painkillers and anesthetic we have today. Back then the only
thing they had was alcohol, to be giving to those who are ready to die, who
have no hope of survival. All that would be possible for such a person
is to ease his pain and misery.
Isa. 5:11 "Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning,
that they may follow strong drink; that continue till night, till wine inflame
them!"
Why woe unto them? Notice verse 12 that "they regard
not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands."
Everyone knows that a person who drunks will not be spiritual, nor
will they desire to learn the Word of the Lord. The opposite is true!
They will be cold toward the Lord and His Works, utterly unspiritual.
We notice from verses 13 and 14 also, that people become captives (slaves)
to drink, and hell hath enlarged herself! The drinking of alcoholic
drink has caused hell to be enlarged! God does not want anyone to go
into hell; He sent His beloved Son to ransom us from Hell! Clearly, this
is a warning from God not to drink alcoholic beverages.
Isa. 28:7, 8: "But they also have erred through wine, and through
strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred
through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of
the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there
is no place clean."
This is another warning against alcoholic drink. What
a tragic thing, that even in the days of Isaiah, the priests and prophets
engaged in drinking of alcoholic wine! Those who do, err in judgment,
in vision, in example and in guidance.
C. Making of Alcoholic drink.
The making of Alcoholic drink is not strictly a natural
process. Many take for granted that if you take the juice of
a grape, and let it sit, not refrigerating it, it would automatically
turn into wine. This is not true. It takes more than time to
make wine. People try to defend drinking with the idea that since God
made grapes, alcoholic drink must be OK. But the fact is, God did not
make alcohol! Man has learned how to make alcoholic liquors through
processes that he has invented. Wine makers know that one must have the correct
amount of water, sugar and temperature to make wine. Keeping
grape juice in a refrigerator would prevent fermenting, because the temperature
is not right. Likewise, hot, tropical temperatures would prevent
fermentation. In ancient days, before we had refrigeration, people
learned how to preserve the juice of the grape without turning it into
alcoholic wine. Many people boiled it down into a thick syrup, preserving
it for long periods of time. When they got ready to drink it, they
would simply add water to the consistency desired, in much the same way we
take frozen concentrates and add water. In Bible days, contrary to
what most believe, it was not necessary for everyone to drink alcoholic wine
as a table beverage. The making of wine, therefore, requires
input from man. It requires certain additives, such as sugar, and the
control of temperature, etc. The natural processes will produce
fermentation under certain circumstances, that is true, but those processes
lead quickly to turning the wine to vinegar. The natural process is
perverted by man. Alcoholic drinks must be produced by man, using invented
processes, not natural processes.
D. Jesus did not drink or make alcohol.
Jesus did not drink alcohol or make alcoholic drinks.
Here are ten proofs from Scripture.
1. Heb. 7:26. "For such an high priest became us, who is holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;"
The first reason is because of His Holy Nature.
No doubt, the Saviour had an air of holiness about Himself
that could be seen by the most simple of people. The words
of Jesus were different; He had a very holy appearance, character and
speech. Why is this so important? Consider this illustration.
Suppose we lived during the 1920's prohibition days, and were approached
by people offering us a drink of cider. Now, "cider" may mean
an alcoholic drink, or plain apple juice. One of the persons, we knew
to be one of the holiest men in town, faithful to the house of God,
separated from the world, diligent in prayers, always witnessing to others;
the other was a known liquor dealer. If each one offered us a
drink of "his very own cider", we would assume that the holy person's
cider was no more than apple juice, while there would be no doubt about the
liquor dealer's cider! Clearly, the character of a person influences
what he does. Since Jesus Christ was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners", we may safely assume He would not make what is called in Scripture
"a mocker and deceiver of men," causing untold misery.
2. He would not contradict Scripture. To do so would make Him a sinner, thus incapable of being the Saviour. He made this clear in Matthew 5:17-18: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Therefore, Christ could not have contradicted this verse, Hab. 2:15: "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!" Certainly, The Lord knew this verse was in the Scriptures; for He knew them well, since it is His Word and written about Him! He could not come to violate His Word, but to fulfill it. He could not have done so, if He made alcoholic wine and had given it to his neighbour.
3. Lev. 10:9-10: "Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou,
nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation,
lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations:
And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between
unclean and clean;"
Now, since Scripture calls Jesus Christ "a merciful and
faithful high priest" (Heb 2:17), we would expect Him to obey all Scriptures
pertaining to that office. If He had disobeyed any of those laws
pertaining to priests or prophets, He would have been disqualified from teaching
the children of Israel the statutes and commandments of the Lord.
4. Proverbs 31:4-5. In this passage that we have already considered, Proverbs 31:4-5, the Scriptures prohibit kings and priests from drinking alcoholic wines or strong drinks. If they had done so, their judgment would have been perverted. Since Jesus is the King of Kings (Rev. 19:16), Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6), He could not have drunk alcoholic drinks or strong drink. In Matthew 27:11, He admitted He was the King of the Jews. He rode into Jerusalem in fulfillment of Zech. 9:9, which prophesied that the King would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey's colt! If He violated Prov. 31:4-5, He could not have done any of these things, or been given any of these titles.
5. Prov. 20:1. Christ Jesus did not come to mock or deceive men, yet Prov. 20:1 says that wine does both! Rather than coming to mock or deceive, He came to Save!
6. Isa. 5:11-14. He did not come to send people to hell. We have already seen that Isa. 5:11-14 teaches that hell had to be enlarged because of the drinking of alcohol. Christ did not come to send people to Hell; John 3:17: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." Therefore, He could not have given or made alcoholic drink.
7. Romans 14:21. Christ did not come to cast a stumbling block in violation of Romans 14:21: "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." Anyone who has studied alcoholism has learned that some people cannot handle any amount of alcohol, while others may drink one or two drinks and stop. No one knows the reason why. Various theories have been put forth, but none proven to be the correct one. What a shame it would be for a person, who is a potential alcoholic, to get his first taste at the Lord's Table in church, then proceed down the road of misery to an alcoholic's grave! We can be sure that Jesus did not make or serve alcohol to people, or drink Himself! To do so, would to violate this verse!
8. Turning water to wine. John 2, the miracle of turning water to wine, does not require that it be alcoholic. Many insist that on the basis of verse 10 in that chapter, that the wine must have been alcoholic. They would say that, in those days, it was common to serve the best alcoholic wine first, saving the worse until later, when men's tongues have been dulled by much drinking. They miss the point here! The words, "well drunk" in this passage mean, "to be filled up", such as "well drunk up". They show their ignorance of Scripture and Old English language meanings, as well as today's word meanings! The fact is, neither the wine which they had at first, nor the one Christ made, was alcoholic. Would Jesus join with Evil? Or violate the verse , "Abstain from all appearance of evil" in 1 Thess. 5:22?
9. John 2:11. This next reason is found the same passage as #8. In verse 11, Jesus "Manifested forth his glory". Would Jesus have gotten more glory by making people drunk? If they had indeed been already intoxicated as the people mentioned in #8 advocate, would He have gotten more glory by making them more drunk?
10. The result. This reason is found in the passage mentioned in #8 also. In verse 11, we notice that as a result of what He did, "the disciples believed on him." Would making alcoholic drink do that? Since John 1:41 shows that they already believed on Him as Messiah, this must mean a deepening of their faith and a proof that they had not been wrong. Would getting people drunk do this? On the contrary! Thus, because of the description of this miracle and it's result, we cannot conclude otherwise but that this wine was non-alcoholic.
E. 1 Cor. 6:9-10. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, or effeminate, or abusers of themselves with mankind,
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners,
shall inherit the kingdom of God."
God makes His position clear; drinking alcoholic wine
and strong drink is against His Word. It is Sin, pure and simple. "Social
drinking" is but one part of this sin.
NOTE: Permission granted by Randy Parrish. For the original go to: http://www.ifbaptist