Should Christians really totally abstain from alcoholic drinks? Or does God tell us we can drink moderately?
In the 1800�s and early 1900�s the church in America took a bold stand for total abstinence. People read research about the word "wine;" Bible studies showed the truth about alcohol. The result was Prohibition with its great benefits. But the prohibition amendment was repealed, and the church began to weaken its conviction against alcohol. Today some pastors say, "What�s wrong with a six pack? Why get hung up on a little wine at a wedding?"
The Bible is the same "yesterday, today, and forever." What godly Bible teachers said in the past is true today. Dr. Robert Teachout, A Semitic scholar who, in 1979, wrote his doctorate on The Use of Wine in the Old Testament, stated, "Alcohol is never approved by God in any amount for the obedient Christian."
Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, author of Wine in the Bible, 1989, says, Drinking Alcohol is...a moral issue. It is...a transgression of God�s law."
FACTS TO KNOW
1) The Bible does teach total abstinence from alcohol. Both the main Hebrew word for wine and the Greek word for wine can mean either fermented grape juice or intoxicating wine. The English word wine originally had two meanings also - unfermented juice or alcoholic drink.
2) In the Bible, verses to show God approves of wine are speaking about unfermented juice. Verses that expose the evils of wine are speaking about intoxicating wine.
3) The Bible says alcoholic drink is evil. It is not just the amount one drinks that makes drinking a sin. God condemns the drink itself. (Prov 20:1 KJV) Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
4) God does not lead us into evil; He delivers us from it. He does not teach us to practice evil in moderation. Jesus did not make, use, approve, commend, or tell us to use intoxicating wine.
5) God made man to have fellowship with Him. Alcohol goes directly to the brain, the communication center of the body. It interferes with God�s purpose for mankind.
75 WARNINGS
There is more Scripture condemning the use of alcoholic beverages than will be found on the subjects of lying, adultery, swearing, cheating, hypocrisy, pride, or even blasphemy.
1) Genesis 9:20-26 - Noah became drunk; the result was immorality and family trouble.
2) Genesis 19:30-38 - Lot was so drunk he did not know what he was doing; this led to immorality
3) Leviticus 10:9-11 - God commanded priests not to drink so that they could tell the difference between the holy and the unholy.
4) Numbers 6:3 - The Nazarites were told to eat or drink nothing from the grape vine.
5) Deuteronomy 21:20 - A drunken son was stubborn and rebellious.
6) Deuteronomy 29:5-6 - God gave no grape juice to Israel nor did they have intoxicating drink in the wilderness.
7) Deuteronomy 32:33 - Intoxicating wine is like the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.
8) Judges 13:4, 7, 14 - Samson was to be a Nazarite for life. His mother was told not to drink wine or strong drink.
9) 1 Samuel 1:14-15 - Accused, Hannah said she drank no wine.
10) 1 Samuel 25:32-38 - Nabal died after a drunken spree.
11) 2 Samuel 11:13 - By getting Uriah drunk, David hoped to cover his sin.
12) 2 Samuel 13:28-29 - Amnon was drunk when he was killed.
13) 1 Kings 16:8-10 - The king was drinking himself into drunkenness when he was assassinated
14) 1 Kings 20:12-21 - Ben-Hadad and 32 other kings were drinking when they were attacked and defeated by the Israelites.
15) Esther 1:5-12 - The king gave each one all the drink he wanted. The king was intoxicated when he commanded the queen to come.
16) Psalm 75:8 - The Lord�s anger is pictured as mixed wine poured out and drunk by the wicked.
17) Proverbs 4:17 - Alcoholic drink is called the wine of violence.
18) Proverbs 20:1 - Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging.
19) Proverbs 23:19-20 - A wise person will not be among the drinkers of alcoholic beverages.
20) Proverbs 23:21 - Drunkenness causes poverty.
21) Proverbs 23:29-30 - Drinking causes woe, sorrow, fighting, babbling, wounds without cause and red eyes.
22) Proverbs 23:31 - God instructs not to look at intoxicating drinks.
23) Proverbs 23:32 - Alcoholic drinks bite like a serpent, sting like an adder.
24) Proverbs 23:33 - Alcohol causes the drinker to have strange and adulterous thoughts, produces willfulness, and prevents reformation.
25) Proverbs 23:34 - Alcohol makes the drinker unstable
26) Proverbs 23:35 - Alcohol makes the drinker insensitive to pain so he does not perceive it as a warning. Alcohol is habit forming.
27) Proverb 31:4-5 - Kings, Princes, and others who rule and judge must not drink alcohol. Alcohol perverts good judgment.
28) Proverbs 31:6-7 - Strong drink could be given to those about to perish or those in pain. Better anesthetics are available today.
29) Ecclesiastes 2:3 - The king tried everything, including intoxicating drink, to see if it satisfied. It did not. (Ecclesiastes 12:8)
30) Ecclesiastes 10:17 - A land is blessed when its leaders do not drink.
31) Isaiah 5:11-12 - Woe to those who get up early to drink and stay up late at night to get drunk.
32) Isaiah 5:22 - Woe to "champion" drinkers and "experts" at mixing drinks.
33) Isaiah 19:14 - Drunken men stagger in their vomit.
34) Isaiah 22:12-13 - The Israelites choose to drink; their future looks hopeless to them.
35) Isaiah 24:9 - Drinkers cannot escape the consequences when God judges.
36) Isaiah 28:1 - God pronounces woe on the drunkards of Ephraim.
37) Isaiah 28:3 - Proud drunkards shall be trodden down.
38) Isaiah 28:7 - Priests and prophets stagger and reel from beer and wine, err in vision, and stumble in judgment.
39) Isaiah 28:8 - Drinkers� tables are covered with vomit and filth.
40) Isaiah 56:9-12 - Drinkers seek their own gain and expect tomorrow to be just like today.
41) Jeremiah 35:2-14 - The Rechabites drank no grape juice or intoxicating wine and were blessed.
42) Ezekiel 44:21 - Again God instructed the priests not to drink wine.
43) Daniel 1:5-17 - Daniel refused the king�s intoxicating wine and was blessed for it along with his abstaining friends.
44) Daniel 5:1 - Belshazzar, ruler of Babylon; led his people in drinking.
45) Daniel 5:2-3 - The king, along with his nobles, wives, and concubines, drank from the goblets which had been taken from God�s temple.
46) Daniel 5:4 - Drinking wine was combined with praising false gods.
47) Daniel 5:23 - God sent word to Belshazzar that punishment would be swift for the evil he had committed.
What you have shown is the the Bible condemns the sin of getting drunk, NOT drinking alchohol.
Paul Told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach.
Jesus turned water into REALLY GOOD wine at the wedding in Cana.
Yes, the sin of drunkeness leads to many other kinds of sins.
But Christians can drink in moderation.
What about one of the rules of choosing deacons and elders?
We are not supposed to choose one who is "addicted to wine", well you can't very well become addicted to it, unless you drink it very regularly first.
So, drinking wine is not forbidden.
And the Bible says that KINGS, should not drink strong drink.
Well, yes, because entire nations could suffer because of a drunken king, or a kind who makes laws while drinking.
And this is pentecostal legalism here also.
Instead of even admitting HOW we are saved, or focusing on what Jesus said, etc, here we are talking about rules for Christians that are not even IN Scripture.
Look, I understand that almost everyone has a relative that was a drunk, and if you grew up around it, and because of bad memories you have as a child even the smell of alcohol brings back bad memories, then YOU will ALWAYS be against drinking.
I am not trying to tell you to feel differently.
I am just saying don't let your feelings steer your theology.
But I know in the case of Elisha, and PJ, who both are members of a Pentecostal church, that they are taught this in church.
It is bad theology, and it is just not true that Christians are forbidden alcohol.
If you look at ALL of church history, and you have two thousand years of it.....you will find that the vast majority of Christians disagree with you on Alcohol usage, and that ALL Christians agree that drunkenness is a sin.
Paul Told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach.
In the 70's, I was in down town Athen's Greece in a travel agency purchasin a ticket to the states, when the travel agent began rebuking us american for our drunken slopy eating habits. We don not have wine as an alcoholic beverage, we drink it because the water is not good to drink, which was the case everywhere you went in europe the rule was never drink the water.
That statement is of course one scripture and the precept is to not establish any truth on one scripture.
James when I was saved I foundof tjhe many things I was delivered from was the tags and title of man. Typically speaking some use the term of pentecost's , in the act of pride and not humility, for pride always put's it's opinion to the word of God.
I really have no memory of ever hearing a message in church against drinking, but withing in a month I did have one from the Spirit of Truth, and from that day forword I was liberated from that bondage, never to put it to my lips, and you can find it in the word of God if you desire truth.
I personally would not submit myself to a pastor that rejected The gift of The Holy Ghost, that would not be of faith, thus not pleasing to the lord. When the Holy Spirit is not in charge of any assembly it is nothing but the works of the flesh, and the spirit of truth will have no part of it.
This staement is not one in agreement of one In Christ, my foremost source of Church history is the bible, not the word's of men.
@ James PJ is right, I loved to drink before I got saved I had been drinking the night before I got saved, now if it were true that you can be a christian and still drink I would still drink, I have never hear a sermon preached on drinking either, but I dont need one the Holy spirit tells me not to, I dont even want to!!! if someone wants to drink or bring up little bible verses where wine is used then they are twisting the fact is in the new testement wine is anything of the vine so what he told him to drink was grape juice, at the wedding Jesus did not make new wine as it is called in acts when they said these men are not drunk on NW WINE, it just said wine, which is grape juice , there is a big difference,
