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Pastor Mike Davidson People’s Baptist Church Alcoholic Beverages
Question: Should social drinking be considered acceptable behavior among Christians? Another way to phrase that question would be to ask, is it alright for a Christian to drink as long as he doesn’t get drunk?
Selected Scripture Passages Dealing with Alcohol:
Biblical Position: 1. Medicinal Usage Is Allowed: 1 Timothy 5:23 does not support using alcohol as a beverage but does permit alcohol for medicinal usage; in Timothy’s case it was for his “stomach’s sake and [his] often infirmities.”
2. Leadership Is Specifically Warned In Scripture against Using Alcoholic Beverages (Priests, Kings, and Church Leadership): Using alcohol as a beverage disqualifies a man from church office here at PBC (as it does also at most independent fundamental Baptist churches). Character qualities and life practices which qualify a man for church office should be sought after by all Christian men.
3. Scripture Gives Strong Warning against Alcoholic Beverages Citing Effects and Consequences
Modern sociological studies have only confirmed the biblical warning concerning the injurious personal and social consequences of using alcohol as a beverage. Note: it is not necessary for drunkenness to occur before a person’s behavior choices are negatively impacted by the use of alcohol as a beverage.
A Snapshot of Annual High-Risk College Drinking Consequences The consequences of excessive and underage drinking affect virtually all college campuses, college communities, and college students, whether they choose to drink or not.
Death: 1,400 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes (Hingson et al., 2002). Injury: 500,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol (Hingson et al., 2002). Assault: More than 600,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking (Hingson et al., 2002). Sexual Abuse: More than 70,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape (Hingson et al., 2002). Unsafe Sex: 400,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 had unprotected sex and more than 100,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 report having been too intoxicated to know if they consented to having sex (Hingson et al., 2002). Academic Problems: About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall (Engs et al., 1996; Presley et al., 1996a, 1996b; Wechsler et al., 2002). Health Problems/Suicide Attempts: More than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem (Hingson et al., 2002) and between 1.2 and 1.5 percent of students indicate that they tried to commit suicide within the past year due to drinking or drug use (Presley et al., 1998). Drunk Driving: 2.1 million students between the ages of 18 and 24 drove under the influence of alcohol last year (Hingson et al., 2002). Vandalism: About 11 percent of college student drinkers report that they have damaged property while under the influence of alcohol (Wechsler et al., 2002). Property Damage: More than 25 percent of administrators from schools with relatively low drinking levels and over 50 percent from schools with high drinking levels say their campuses have a "moderate" or "major" problem with alcohol-related property damage (Wechsler et al., 1995). Police Involvement: About 5 percent of 4-year college students are involved with the police or campus security as a result of their drinking (Wechsler et al., 2002) and an estimated 110,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are arrested for an alcohol-related violation such as public drunkenness or driving under the influence (Hingson et al., 2002). Alcohol Abuse and Dependence: 31 percent of college students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 6 percent for a diagnosis of alcohol dependence in the past 12 months, according to questionnaire-based self-reports about their drinking (Knight et al., 2002).
Task Force on College Drinking: http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov Copyright © 2002
4. Personal Bondage & Control: The believer has been set free by Christ to serve the Lord with joy and zeal under the control of the Holy Spirit. Alcohol (even a single drink) lowers a person’s inhibitions against evil and opens the door to being ensnared once more by fleshly desires and being brought back into bondage.
5. Personal Influence: All of us have circles of influence and will be held accountable for how salty our salt is and how bright our light is. We have a responsibility to all men, both lost and saved. We ought to bring the lost to Christ, yet most unsaved people normally consider social drinking to be hypocritical for a Christian. A Christian’s drinking would hinder the gospel message being received. Toward Christians, we ought to provoke one another to love and good works, yet the results of alcoholic beverage evidence the works of the flesh and not the fruit of the Spirit.
6. The Example of Christ: Does Christ’s miracle of transforming water into wine give warrant for Christians to be involved in social drinking? No, it does not. Even if we concede that the wine was fermented, it would almost certainly have been mixed with water before being taken as a beverage. (cf. below for further discussion of the ancient’s practice of mixing water with wine) So, even if the wine were fermented, the situation would still be a far cry from social drinking as it is practiced today.
But it is not necessary to concede that the wine was fermented. The word “oinos” may refer to both fermented and unfermented wine. The text itself gives no indication one way or another. Noted Bible scholar, William Pettingill, wrote, “I do not pretend to know the nature of the wine furnished by our Lord at the wedding of Cana, but I am satisfied that there was little resemblance in it to the thing described in the Scriptures of God as biting like a serpent and stinging like an adder (Prov. 23:29-32). Doubtless rather it was like the heavenly fruit of the vine that He will drink new with His own in His Father’s kingdom (Matt. 26:29). No wonder the governor of the wedding feast at Cana pronounced it the best wine kept until the last. Never before had he tasted such wine, and never did he taste it again.” [William L. Pettingill, Bible Questions Answered (Weaton, Ill.: Van Kampen Press, n.d.), pp. 223-224]
Cultural Insight: “In ancient times wine was usually stored in large pointed jugs called amphorae. When wine was to be used it was poured from the amphorae into large bowls called kraters, where it was mixed with water...From these kraters, cups, or kylix were then filled. What is important for us to note is that before wine was drunk it was mixed with water. The kylix were filled not from the amphorae but from the kraters....
The ratio of water to wine varied. Homer (Odyssey IX, 208f.) mentions a ratio of 20 to 1, twenty parts water to one part wine. Pliny (Natural History XIV, vi, 54) mentions a ratio of eight parts water to one part wine...
In one ancient work, Athenaeus?s The Learned Banquet, written around A.D. 200, we find in Book Ten a collection of statements from earlier writers about drinking practices. A quotation from a play by Aristophanes…[says] “the ratio of water to wine is 3 to 1.”
Sometimes the ratio goes down to 1 to 1 (and even lower), but it should be noted that such a mixture is referred to as “strong wine.” Drinking wine unmixed, on the other hand, was looked upon as a “Scythian” or barbarian custom…
It is evident that wine was seen in ancient times as a beverage. Yet as a beverage it was always thought of as a mixed drink. Plutarch (Sumposiacs III ix), for instance, states. “We call a mixture ‘wine, although the larger of the component parts is water.” The ratio of water might vary, but only barbarians drank it unmixed, and a mixture of wine and water of equal parts was seen as “strong drink” and frowned upon. The term “wine” or oinos in the ancient world, then, did not mean wine as we understand it today but wine mixed with water. Usually a writer simply referred to the mixture of water and wine as “wine.” To indicate that the beverage was not a mixture of water and wine he would say “unmixed (akratesteron) wine.”
One might wonder whether the custom of mixing wine with water was limited to the ancient Greeks. The burden of proof would be upon anyone who argued that the pattern of drinking wine in Jewish society was substantially different from that of the examples already given. And we do have examples in both Jewish and Christian literature and perhaps in the Bible that wine was likewise understood as being a mixture of wine and water. In several instances in the Old Testament a distinction is made between “wine” and “strong drink.” In Leviticus 10:8, 9, we read, “And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, ‘Drink no wine nor strong drink, you nor your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting....'" Concerning the Nazarite vow Numbers 6:3 states that the Nazarite “shall separate himself from wine and strong drink.” This distinction is found also in Deuteronomy 14:26; 29:6; Judges 13:4, 7, 14; First Samuel 1:15; Proverbs 20:1; 31:4, 6; Isaiah 5:11, 22; 28:7; 29:9, 56:12; and Micah 2:11.
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia (Vol. 12, p. 533) states that in the rabbinic period at least “‘yayin [or wine] is to be distinguished from ‘shekar’ [or strong drink]: the former is diluted with water (‘mazug’); the latter is undiluted (‘yayin hai’).” In the Talmud, which contains the oral traditions of Judaism from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 200, there are several tractates in which the mixture of water and wine is discussed. One tractate (Shabbath 77a) states that wine that does not carry three parts of water well is not wine. The normal mixture is said to consist of two parts water to one part wine. In a most important reference (Pesahim 108b) it is stated that the four cups every Jew was to drink during the Passover ritual were to be mixed in a ratio of three parts water to one part wine....
In ancient times there were not many beverages that were safe to drink. The danger of drinking water alone raises another point. There were several ways in which the ancients could make water safe to drink. One method was boiling, but this was tedious and costly. Different methods of filtration were tried. The safest and easiest method of making the water safe to drink, however, was to mix it with wine. The drinking of wine (ie., a mixture of water and wine) served therefore as a safety measure, since often the water available was not safe.” [Robert H. Stein, “Wine-Drinking in New Testament Times,” Christianity Today (June 20, 1975): 9-11]
Conclusion: The Christian living in 21st century America has neither reason nor need to drink socially. He does have biblical example and warning for him not to do so. While there is no spiritual good that comes out of it, there is potential for much spiritual harm. As in most areas of spiritual endeavor, the real battle ground is in the heart. Will I serve self and seek fleshly pleasure, or will I submit myself to God and lay my will before a loving and sovereign Lord? Praise God for the victory we have in Christ!
Selected Passages on Alcohol as a Beverage
Leviticus 10:8-11 "And the LORD spake unto Aaron, saying, 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; And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses."
Proverbs 20:1 "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise."
Proverbs 23:21 "For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags."
Proverbs 23:29-35 "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 a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. 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."
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."
Romans 14:16-21 "Let not then your good be evil spoken of: For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. 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."
1 Corinthians 6:10 "Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."
Ephesians 5:18 "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;"
1 Timothy 3:2-3 "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, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;"
1 Timothy 3:8 "Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;"
1 Timothy 5:23 "Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities."
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