"Lo, this have I found," saith the wise man (Ecc. 7:29), "that God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions."
The things created for food, and which are to be received with thanksgiving, are those which are in their natural and wholesome condition, and which nourish and strengthen the body, and not those which are in the process of decomposition.
Rotten fruits of all kinds are rejected as innutritious and unwholesome. So also are decaying meats. It is a strange perversion of all science, as well as of common sense, to rank among the good creatures of God alcohol, which is found in no living plant, but which is to be found only after the death of the fruit, and is the product of decomposition
Now, what if there is another kind of wine spoken of in the Word of God that cannot possibly be intoxicating, where fermentation and the consequent presence of alcohol are out of the question—what then?
Why, is it not reasonable and consistent, the demand alike of common sense and common conscience, to regard this as the wine commended in Scripture as a blessing making glad the heart of man?
To the law and the testimony: God, threatening Moab with desolation, said, Isaiah 16:10, 'In the vineyard there shall be no singing and shouting, the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses. I have made their vintage—shouting to cease.'
And again, Jer. 48:33, 'I have caused wine to fail from the winepresses; none shall tread with shouting.' Again, Gedaliah, made governor by the King of Babylon over the cities of Judah, thus commanded the Jews, Jer. 40:10, ‘Gather ye wine, and summer fruits, and oil, and put them in your vessels.' And the record is, "They gathered wine and summer fruits very much.' the Bible also speaks of ‘presses bursting with new wine,' of ‘wine found in the cluster'; and it says of this wine, and of this only, and in this very connection, ‘a blessing is in it.'
Here is frequent reference to the pure, unfermented juice of the grape as just trodden out of the presses, just gathered from the vintage, and even as found in the cluster. And here this grape-juice is repeatedly, and by the Jews themselves, in their own Scriptures, called wine, both yayin and tirosh.
"There is no exploit of logic that can make any sane man believe this to be the very same wine elsewhere called 'a mocker.'
The deceitful, subtle, serpent element has, not yet entered it; for alcohol requires time and a process for its formation.
It is the simple, unfermented juice of the grape, just as cider right out of the press is the simple, unfermented juice of the apple.
And as such, God says, a blessing is in it. Here, then, is the scriptural distinction between wine and wine.
Satan has tried to and has been mostly sucessful in convincing man that wine is Always Alcoholic in Scripture Don’t fall for the LIE.
Portions are from Bible Wines by William Patton.