Liberty's Library

Originally Written 4/10/2001

Introduction
It’s no secret that Christians face tough decisions everyday. Jesus warned his disciples that the road less traveled by would be filled with potholes and snags along the way. He encouraged them by explaining that a life lived for Him would not be an easy one. However, if you obey His commandments and stand the tests of sin, persecution, and the devil, you will be given a home with Christ for all eternity (Matt. 5:12). For some Christians, tough decisions come in the form of political partisanship. They have a hard time deciding what party a well respecting Christian should join. For others, whether or not to send their child to a Christian university is a tough choice. They don’t want to be any less of a Christian by sending their child to a state college.

We want to make the kinds of choices that reaffirm our love for Jesus and our will to follow Him. But sometimes, deciphering Biblical teachings is easier said than done. The right choice is not always the easiest to execute nor is it the easiest to find.

One of the toughest decisions to make, especially if you are a parent, is the issue of Christian consumption of alcohol. Can one decide to drink wine and still be in accordance with the scriptures? Scores of misinformed Christians have insisted that the Bible prohibits all forms of alcohol consumption excluding medicinal purposes. What they have done is transposed Biblical truth and inserted their own opinion. However, I intend to restore Biblical truth. By looking at the opinions of Bible professors, reading articles, and searching the Bible, I will disprove the common misconceptions about alcohol created by well meaning, yet paranoid, Christians. I will present some points that will shock some readers, while other points are commonplace. I intent to say that the Bible allows alcoholic consumption and those who consume alcohol should not be looked down upon for responsibly acting on this truth. Supported only by the Bible, I will defend these two cases.

Speak Where the Bible Speaks…
Before I begin pleading my case, let’s look at what the Bible teaches about drinking wine or alcohol. Drunkenness is a sin no matter how you slice it (Eph. 5:18). Galatians 5 lists Drunkenness as an act of sinful nature. Christians are to separate themselves from drunkards at all times (I Cor. 5:11). One must remember that these two items deal with the over consumption of wine and not drinking in moderation. It must be clear that the intent of the writers is to shy away from drunkenness, not the drink.

In the Old Testament, the term that is used is “drinking to excess”. The OT says over-drinking leads to all kinds of sin including sexual perversion (Hab. 2:15). Another example of over-drinking is found in Esther the first chapter. King Xerxes and his servants drank to excessive levels and engaged in sexual perversion (Esther 1:10).

Church leaders are to drink in moderation as stated in I Timothy. What you must understand is if simple consumption of wine and alcohol were indeed wrong, the Holy Spirit would have told Paul to admonish the deacons to abstain (I Tim. 3:8). Therefore, one cannot interpret the verse in I Timothy to prohibit moderate drinking, only drinking to the excess.

Wine was considered valuable for it’s medicinal properties, both in Biblical times and in today’s world. Not many Christians object to this usage, as anything used as medicine is intended to help the ailing. Paul told Timothy to use a small amount of wine to help in his digestion process (I Tim 5:23). The writer of Proverbs suggests wine was used as a sedative and a pain-killer (Proverbs 31:6). And finally, the Good Samaritan used it as an antiseptic to heal the wounds of the injured man (Luke 10:34).

Now that we’ve looked at what the Bible says let’s move on. Since New Testament Christians are no longer subject to OT law, citing OT scriptures as commandments would be useless. Therefore, I’ll only use NT scripture to argue my case concerning the twenty-first century Christian and alcohol. Several scriptures, articles, and myths surrounding alcohol usage will be discussed in this section.

The Percentage Rule
Norman L. Geisler, in his article, “A Christian perspective on Wine-Drinking”, gives many conditions upon which NT Christians drank wine. The first one I shall address is what I call the “Percentage Rule”.

He argues that the alcoholic content of wine today is stronger than wine of the New Testament, thus you cannot justify social drinking today but you can justify drinking in those times (Geisler, 50). Today’s wine would be considered “Strong Drink” because it is not diluted with parts of water. Classic Greek writers spoke of mixtures: Euenos writes of three parts water, one part wine; Hesiod – three to one, water to wine; Alexis – four to one; Diocles and Anacreon – two to one; and Ion – three to one. The average was about three or four parts of water to one part of wine (Geisler, 50). Geisler goes on to say that only Scythians drank “Strong wine”, one part of water mixed with one part wine.

All this says is that in Biblical times, one would have to drink more to get drunk then today. Nothing in this mixture description has been said to make one believe drinking is wrong. The opposition, who believes all forms of drinking is sinful, has failed to prove it with this argument. What is has proven is that it is okay to drink a small percentage of wine. They have excused early Christians for drinking wine in smaller amounts. Is this not hypocritical? If drinking were a sin, which it is not, would drinking in diluted forms be a sin just the same? One cannot say all drinking is a sin and then justify drinking in small amounts. That, in essence, is justifying a sin just as long as it is small or insignificant. Sin is sin according to the Bible (I John 3:4). Degrees of sins are a moot point, and so is the “Percentage Rule”.

Jesus Drank Wine
When I have asked people their opinion about alcohol and wine drinking, one of the most popular responses has been, “Jesus would never do a thing like that”. What will shock these people and others as well is the fact that according to the New Testament scriptures, Jesus drank wine on several occasions. In Luke, the followers of John the Baptist ask Jesus if He is the one whose coming had been foretold. He told them to go back and report what they had seen, that He had healed the sick, the blind, and the lame. Then Jesus speaks to the crowd considering John the Baptist. “I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John…”(Luke 7:28). But the Pharisees and experts of the Law didn’t like what Jesus was saying; John hadn’t baptized them. Jesus then makes this statement towards the Pharisees, “For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He is a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners” ‘(Luke 7:33-34).

The Pharisees would not call Jesus a drunkard if they hadn’t seen Him drink anything. You don’t call people names and hurl insults without having something to back it up, in this case seeing Jesus drink. Also, as Harding University Bible professor Ken Neller said in a recent interview, the Greek word for wine used in Luke 7:33 is the word Oinos, which means fermented juice extracted from grapes. Neller went on to say that Onios is the most used word for wine in the New Testament. Jesus said that John came drinking Oinos, and in the following verse, he make an allusion to that word by saying, ‘He came drinking’ (Luke 7:34). Since they called John a drunkard, it’s not hard to know what kind of drink Jesus meant when He said the word, “Drinking”, in verse 34. This same account is also told in Matthew 11:18-19, therefore it’s hard to ignore. It is important to note that Jesus was not a drunkard, nor was He ever drunk. Drunkenness is a sin and Jesus never sinned, on this we all agree. Therefore, we can see these allegations by the Pharisees of Christ being a drunkard were false.

The Wedding Feast in Cana
The other case in which Jesus is introduced with wine is in John the second chapter. The text says that Jesus and His mother attended a wedding feast in the city of Cana in Galilee. At this party, Mary is told that the wine supply had run out (John 2:3). Mary tells the servants of the house to do whatever Jesus tells them (John 2:5). However reluctant He may have been, Jesus tells them to fill six stone jars of water, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons (John 2:6). He then turned the water into wine, and was even praised for bringing out the best wine last (John 2:9-10). This is the account according to the Gospel of John.

This story seems to prove many things in favor of my argument. First, the Greek word for wine in the text is the same as in Luke, Onios. Onios has been defined in the previous account as fermented juice extracted from grapes. Harding University Bible professor Joe Jones said in a recent interview that the Greeks added small amounts of wine to purify the water to be suitable for drinking. Some people have come up with the notion that Jesus turned the water at the wedding feast into purified water.

My response to that is, “Give me a break”! Jews didn’t drink water at a wedding party, they drank wine…and incidentally lots of it as is indicated in John 2. Also, The International Standard Bible Dictionary says that it was custom for both Jews and Greeks to drink wine at all kinds of parties and gatherings, weddings was just one example (1068-1070). Secondly, if the opposition insists that the people in John 2 drank water purified with wine, then I keep coming back to the Percentage Rule. You can’t justify drinking in small amounts if you believe drinking in any amount is wrong.

The second proof this account makes has to do with the supplying of alcohol. Jesus is the character in this story that supplies the multitudes with wine for their pleasure and recreation (John 2:1-12). Since we have already seen that Jesus can do no sin, we can therefore conclude that supplying more wine to people who have already consumed is also not wrong. It is safe to say that Jesus would not have supplied wine to those who were drunk, mind you, because drunkenness is sinful. However, since the account in John says He did indeed make it possible for those in attendance to enjoy wine, can it not be said that social drinking is not sin? Is it not true that Jesus can do no sin (I John 3:5)?

Geisler Makes His Thirteen Points
In defending the opinion that a Christian should not consume alcohol, Norman Geisler says that before a person decides to drink or to continue drinking, he should be fully aware of the following facts about alcoholic beverages and their effects today (Geisler, 52).

1. An estimated ten million problem drinkers or alcoholics are in the United States adult population.
2. Of adults who drink, 36 percent can be classed as problem drinkers
3. In addition, an estimated 3.3 million young people ages 14 –17 are problem drinkers.
4. Alcohol-related deaths may run as high as 200,000 per year. In two years’ time there are as many alcoholic-related deaths as there were in the entire Vietnam War!
5. Alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States about $50 billion in 1975. That figure has risen considerably since then.
6. Between 1966 and 1975 the percent of high school students who said they had been drunk increased from 19 percent to 45 percent.
7. Alcohol is one cause of cancer.
8. Fetal alcohol syndrome is the third greatest cause of birth defects.
9. Evidence exists that social drinking impairs one’s social and intellectual capacities. Rather than getting sharper, people who drink get duller.
10. Half of all traffic fatalities and one-third of all traffic injuries are alcohol related. Whereas a person has the legal right to drink, he does not have the right to endanger the lives of others on the highway by his drinking.
11. A high percentage of child-abusing parents have drinking problems.
12. A relatively high correlation exists between alcohol consumption and robbery, rape, assault, homicide; and more than one-third of suicides involve alcohol.
13. Taxpayers pay $11 to offset each $1 paid in liquor revenue (Geisler, 52).

While traffic deaths are tragic and child abuse is no laughing matter, some things need to be said about the list provided by Geisler. This list has plenty of useful information confirming the effects of alcohol abuse but only one item listed deals with drinking for pleasure and recreation. Let’s look at the first item…”An estimated ten million problem drinkers or alcoholics are in the United States population”. This concerns alcohol abuse…”Problem drinkers”…it does not say that there are ten million social or occasional drinkers in the nation. At my count, item numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 12 all deal with alcohol abuse and drunkenness, not social drinking.

Looking at Item numbers 3 and 6, we see my next point. Item number 3, “In addition, an estimated 3.3 million young people ages 14-17 are problem drinkers”, deals with illegal use and consumption of alcohol by minors or those under the legal drinking age. These two items are not concerned with social or casual drinking; they are talking about the unlawful use of a controlled substance. You cannot entertain adolescent drinking when you are considering the Biblical truth of adult Christian usage.

The remaining two items, number 7 and 9, are to be considered faulty in their presentation and wording if they are to be taken as evidence supporting alcoholic abstinence. Item number 9 has to be my favorite in the whole list. “Evidence exists that social drinking impairs one’s social and intellectual capacities. Rather than getting sharper, people who drink get duller (Geisler, 52). Let me just say that one doesn’t usually drink socially on the sole bases to better outwit one’s friends. If exhibiting a dull personality is a sin, then I know several people who have no hope for eternal life.

Cancer is a horrible disease and it claims thousands of live every year. I think, however, that saying a cancer-causing agent is sinful is disrespectful of those who have the disease. Cellular phones cause cancer as well, are we to conclude that cell phone usage is sinful? What about saccrin? Should all products containing saccrin be pulled from the shelves because it’s ingestion is sinful? The point I’m making is quite simple. Just the introduction of saccrin or alcohol or any other carcinogen does not cause cancer. The prolonged exposure to and ingestion of carcinogens result in the contraction of cancer. Which supports the already proven point that alcohol abuse and over-drinking is sinful not social, recreational, or occasional drinking.

The Christian and Social Drinking
Harding University Bible Professor Joe Jones wrote a sermon called, “The Christian and Social Drinking”. In a section of his sermon called ‘Wine in the First Century, the third point says the Greek word, “Oinos”, refers to both a fermented and an unfermented beverage (Jones, 2). Here, Jones is mistaken. Ken Neller told us that Oinos always refers to a fermented beverage of juice extracted from grapes. There is a Greek word for wine that Jones could be confusing with Oinos. The Greek word, “Gleukos” (Gleukos) means sweet or new wine (Jones, 1). New Wine, as Ken Neller tells us, has not quite finished the fermenting process; it is fermented, but not fully as Oinos. Neller, in the transcripts of our interview, states that both Oinos and Gleukos are capable of making one intoxicated.

Conclusion
The use of alcohol can clearly be prohibited in several areas. Those who are not of legal age cannot partake; neither can those who drink to get drunk. Those who have conscious objections should not drink to avoid sinning (James 4:17). One should avoid drinking when in the presence of a weaker brother (Rom 14:21). We as Christians should be considerate of those who object to drinking.

At the same time, those who oppose drinking should not prohibit those who wish to drink for the same reason. The opposition should be considerate of those who wish to observe a Biblical freedom, and should not be called “sinners” (Rom 14:21). The Bible approves of wine-drinking (Geisler, 51). Christians who choose to see this truth differently should be respectful of those who wish to drink socially.