Featured RC Sproul and Alcoholic Beverages

Those who oppose drinking alcohol do so based on extra-biblical reasons. Even when they use scripture it is to support their view that drinking is bad, not prohibited. What they do not have is a biblical command. That is what makes this entire discussion difficult. If someone is not willing to submit to the clear teaching of scripture then what else can be said on the matter?

 

I am hoping your not contacting your wifes church.....you will be divorced in a month! NO NO NO!!!

 

Now there's the spirit. Lead a little secret life of fleshly indulgence. It's a gift from Gawd! :laugh:

 

And you make that sound like a bad thing. :laugh:

 

I remember my days as a fundamentalist Baptist. My church taught that drinking was a sin. The funny thing was the reasons given were not from scripture. Instead the argument was made using all the negative aspects of alcohol. When I started to challenge the whole of fundamentalism I started asking questions like, "What is the biblical command for abstaining from alcohol?" There was none. I had one person tell me that a biblical command was not needed. All I had to do was open my eyes to the world around me. Wow. That is egalitarianism.

 

Not at all....remember who you are talking about {and be forewarned}

 

OK....pardon me & remember it is Friday!

 

Ahhhh..... NO. But they have their own point of view. remember its a view from a point. :smilewinkgrin:

 

Dont you remember (or maybe you were to young to recall) Y2K.

There were alot of professing Christian that got suckered into the fear of the sky falling.

Its a different millennium ..... but the same God. Then Id tell them to read John 3:16 & trust in God. Still allot of people prepared for doom's day. Image their surprise! A ton of people at Home Depot the next day, I can tell you.

 

Bull. If he died of alcohol poisoning five times and was revived each time that would not make a buzz equal drunk.

That's ridiculous.

A buzz is a buzz and drunk is drunk. You don't get to SAY they are the same thing if they are not.

Saying a buzz is drunk is like saying when a man takes off his suit coat he is naked.

It is utterly ridiculous and I suspect the only reason you think there is any merit to such nonsense is a emotional link that you have to his claiming to have been a drunk since you have dealt with that in your own home.

Emotional links do not equal facts.

Buzz is not drunk.

And the most important point here is that Mitchell JUST STATED IT WITHOUT SUPPORT like is God Almighty and thus does not HAVE to make a case for it.

Like God himself he can just SAY it and the saying of it makes it so because it came from HIM.

Look man, I was raised in a drunkard home. I have drug my vomit covered mother in the front door more times than I can count. My father died a drunkard homeless on the street. I signed the paperwork to shut down life support.

I HATE- literally HATE the emotional bull that people spew out like it changes facts and like their experiences forces everyone to give way to them.

I don't care if drunkenness killed your father, mother, all your brothers and sisters and cousins and wife and children- IT DOES NOT MAKE A BUZZ EQUAL DRUNK AND IT DOES NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT DRINKING IN MODERATION IS COMMENDED BY GOD IN THE SCRIPTURES!!!

So what moron on EARTH ENCOURAGES a weaker brother to DRINK?!!?

Not me.

How does that statement have anything to DO with drinking in moderation?

 

If you can make "baptist" mean anybody who dunked believers regardless of the fact that none of the distinctives that make a baptist and baptist exist in those people- sure, there were a very few.

But every reputable historian on earth knows the John Smythe was the first Baptist and that modern Baptists trace their origins to his General Baptists and Spilsbury's (who came along a few years later) Particular Baptists.

 

That is the middle of the 19th century genius!

 

Were you there?

Eph. 5 is an illustration. It doesn't say Jesus drank wine.

There is nothing to suggest that Abraham brought forth fermented wine. It is doubtful that he did, since the word had both meanings: fermented and unfermented.

Your proof-texting from a parable??

Metaphors.
I don't use oil to make my face shine.
And it is not bread that strengthens my heart.
They are metaphors, as often are used in poetical literature like Psalms.

Same as above.

A verse taken out of context, as most verses in Ecclesiastes are.
The author is being sarcastic. But unless you study the context of the book you wouldn't know that. Vanity of vanities said the preacher; all is vanity.

This passage condemns you.
When they had well drunk. The word for "well drunk" means "intoxicated."
To be consistent with your interpretation: After they were at the point of intoxication Jesus sins by giving them more alcohol putting them well beyond their limit.

Habakkuk 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!

You ought to read MacArthur on this.

(Pastoral Ministry, page 76)


In another link I urged you, especially Luke, to read, here is the argument (and it is a strong one:

Grape juice (as yogurt does today) is a great remedy for some stomach ailments. Even today, in third world nations, one of the biggest problems of sickness, poison and even death, are home-made stills. It is doubtful that Paul would have been telling him to take an alcoholic beverage for a stomach ailment. I have never heard that remedy from a doctor in my lifetime.

Jesus drank unfermented wine. If he didn't then John 2:11 would make no sense at all, and would not even belong in the Bible.

In Eph.5 the command is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Concentrate on that. We are to allow the Holy Spirit to so control our lives, that even as the wine that makes a man say and do things he wouldn't ordinarily say and do, those under the influence of the Spirit will say and do things he wouldn't ordinarily say and do.

 

Yes, early to middle. He was the first that came to my mind. I haven't had the time to look up many others.