Christians and Alcohol
Hermano Cisco BABYLONFALLS.ORG
Table of Contents
The question of alcohol consumption has been
problematic for believers from the beginning.
The first recorded use of alcohol in the Bible, by Noah in Genesis 9,
led to his shameful drunkenness. And of
course Christians in Corinth were reprimanded by Paul for getting drunk at love
feasts associated with the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:21).
Given the Bible’s clear stand against drunkenness
(i.e., drunkards will not inherit the
In this paper we examine the nature of alcohol; using
biblical context, we demonstrate that there are distinctions in wines; we also
consider the high calling God has placed on kings, priests, and
Christians.
We conclude that the permissibility of drinking is
not even the right question to focus on; rather one should honestly address
whether or not he personally believes God capable of contradicting His Word.
Where Alcohol Comes From: The
Process of Fermentation
Alcohol’s Notorious Impact on
Health
Two Kinds of Wine in
Scripture
Generic words for wine
In modern times, when we hear the word “wine” we
automatically think alcohol; that’s because nowadays we speak
specifically of “juice” when referring to an unfermented fruit drink. However,
in Bible times, the same generic words were used for both
fermented (alcoholic) wine and unfermented (non-alcoholic, sweet)
wine. Consider the Old Testament Hebrew
words yayin and shakar,
and the New Testament Greek word oinos6.
Hence, context plays a central role determining which
type of “wine” is under discussion in a given Bible verse. This can be a very liberating truth for
modern Christians, who may be perplexed about seeming contradictions in the
Bible’s stance on alcohol.
The role of context in distinguishing which
kind of wine
I. Fermented
wine
Regarding the importance of context, consider these
references to what is obviously fermented wine:
Proverbs 20:1a
Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler.
Proverbs
23
31
Do not gaze at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles [effervesces?] in the cup,
when it goes down smoothly!
32
In the end it bites like a snake
and poisons like a viper.
II. Unfermented
wine
On the other hand, the following are unmistakably references to unfermented
wine:
Isaiah 65:8
Thus says the LORD,
"As the new wine is found in the
cluster,
And one says, 'Do not destroy it, for there is
benefit in it,'
So I will act on behalf of My
servants
In order not to destroy all of them.
Isaiah
27:2-3
In that day,
"A vineyard of wine, sing of it!
"I, the LORD, am its keeper; I water it every moment so that no one will
damage it, I guard it night and day.
Isaiah 16:10
Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards; no
one sings or shouts in the vineyards; no one treads out wine at the
presses, for I have put an end to the shouting.
Jeremiah 40:12
And they harvested an abundance of wine
and summer fruit.
Jeremiah 48:33
Joy and gladness are gone from the orchards and
fields of
Matthew 26:29, Mark
“I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of
the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my
Father's kingdom."
Kings and Priests (kingdom of priests)
God’s people are identified in the Old Testament as
“a kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6), and in the New Testament as “kings and
priests” (Revelation 1:6;
What implication does this have on Christians
regarding the use of alcohol? Can any
counsel or exhortation be inferred?
Consider:
Timothy and alcohol
That Timothy totally abstained from all wine products
can be concluded from Paul’s exhortation: ”No longer
drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your
frequent ailments" (1 Timothy
What cannot be concluded is that Timothy
subsequently began to use alcohol. (He
may have originally been using only water precisely to avert supposition that a
wine he drank might be of the fermented variety.)
Elders and alcohol
1 Timothy 3:2-3a (KJV)
“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one
wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to
hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine….”
“Not given to wine. --The Greek is mee-paroinon: ...Literally, not at, by, near, or
with wine. This looks considerably like total
abstinence…’Not given to wine’ is certainly a very liberal translation, and
shows how the usages of the day unconsciously influenced the translators.”6
The symbolism at the Wedding at Cana
What was Jesus saying through this event? We read in the account of Jesus’ first
miracle (John 2), that he employed six stone water jars on hand--jars normally
used “for the Jewish rites of purification.”
We Christians recognize that rituals with water cannot purify us. Only the blood of Jesus can truly cleanse
from sin (see, e.g., Hebrews
So was not “the blood of the grape” (Gen. 49:11,
Deut. 32:14), offered to the invited guests from those purification jars,
symbolic of our need to be purified in Jesus’ (soon to be shed) Blood? Was it not symbolic of the Blood necessary to
qualify for entrance to The Wedding of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7)?
If this is so, then consider further: in Exodus 34:25
the Lord commanded, "You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with
anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the
Passover remain until the morning.”
Knowing this, would Jesus, our Passover Lamb, have
created alcoholic (leavened) wine for this important symbolic event?
(And what if a pregnant
woman were in attendance at the wedding that day; would the omniscient
God create and offer her alcohol, which could be harmful to her fetus?)
The symbolism at Passover and The
Lord’s Supper
The Old Testament does not mention a cup for
Passover--only the lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. Nevertheless
the Israelites received a clear injunction against having yeast (which causes
fermentation in both bread dough and fruit juice) anywhere in their
houses during the celebration; the punishment for disobedience was to be “cut
off from
Recall that during the Last Supper (a Passover meal), Jesus describes the beverage as “the fruit of the vine,”
instead of referring to it with only a generic Greek word for “wine,” like oinos.
And when Paul examines the elements of the Lord’s
Supper--the bread representing Christ’s body, and the cup, His blood (1 Cor. 11), he says “the cup,” instead of using a generic
Greek word for “wine,” like oinos.
Remember that Acts
A final, but most important point for this
section: At the Last Supper, “Christ,
our Passover Lamb” (provided by God himself) knew he was about to be
crucified. But Exodus 34:25 says
"You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or
let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning.” If Christ had had leavened wine in
his body from that meal, he would have been disqualified as our Passover
sacrifice.
Now to the true crux of this matter, which is (as is
often the case) not related so much to the weight of the evidence, as to
the attitude of the heart.
Let us be honest: the taste for alcohol is an
acquired taste.
Let us be honest: one must allow that God can
contradict His own Word if one accepts as divine, on the one hand, the
warning not to gaze at (alcoholic) wine; that (alcoholic) wine “bites like a
snake and poisons like a viper”; that it is a “mocker”; and yet on
the other hand maintains that Christ—“the Word made flesh”—produced or
consumed alcoholic wine.
To brethren caught in this position we lovingly say,
“Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar…”(Romans 3:4).
1”In
fact, no level of alcohol use during pregnancy has been proven safe. Drinking
alcohol during pregnancy can cause physical and mental birth defects.“ (http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/14332_1170.asp)
2“Alcohol
itself is toxic to the liver, even when nutrition is adequate.” (http://www.medhelp.org/NIHlib/GF-173.html)
3"Alcohol and the Brain." British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 1997;
57: 543-51. ( See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurotoxin)
4
1) World Cancer Research Fund: “A pint of beer a day
increases liver and bowel cancer risk by a fifth.”
(http://www.wcrf-uk.org/audience/media/press_release.php?recid=9)
2)
(http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE57M2AZ20090823)
5Professor
Ira Goldberg, American Heart Association. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/health/1130591.stm
6Bible
Wines: Laws of Fermentation. Rev. William Patton, D.D.
Kessinger Publishing Company Whitefish, MT
2003.
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