Is Drinking Alcohol a Sin?

Those numbers far off the mark, bud. Most communities which only allow beer and wine sales define wine as having no more than 14% alcohol. Certainly it can have a greater content, but 21% is about the highest of available wine anywhere. Almost all distilled liquors are no more than 40% alcohol [80 proof], though raw whiskey is about 70%, but greater than 50% is flammable, and distillers don't want big lawsuits for being responsible for fires [bootleggers, of course, are much less concerned]. And beer is generally between 3 and 5 percent.

 

You ever drink any "white lightening" from the hills of KY? Especially if carbide was used to make it ferment faster?

 

Sure, eat, drink and be merry. You know not what the morrow has in store for you. Take your ease. Give in to that which deceives and mocks. If one lie makes a person a liar in God's eyes, why can't one drink of that which intoxicates make one drunk in God's eyes? Just because man's definition of drunk is .08 or some other point does not mean that God's is the same.

 

Time for another sinner that has confessed the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and also continues to do so.

You sound like you know what you are talking about Brother Bob. I have been there too, but thus far with no ill effects, with drinking or smoking. I smoked for 53 years; one and a half packs a day as far as I can figure. I had a habit and I quit "cold turkey", for the reason I didn't enjoy smoking anymore. I haven't smoked for over 11 years, and have no desire to do so. I didn't have an "addition, but a habit".

I've never had a "cough" or difficulty in breathing, or any other untoward effect that could point to my "smokin' and drinkin', and I don't get drunk. It's all in the wrist as they say. You gotta' know what you are doing, and if you are one that can do it. All others are to "keep away", but I don't believe any have authority from God to say, "you do as I say (not what God will allow) for what we say is exactly what the world says. There are just so many of them, surely they must know what they are talking about." We have word in the Bible giving warnings, so we must take heed. But we can't be running around calling such things as smoking, drinking, or picking our nose, sin just because the world tells us so. We take orders from God, and not man.

I'm sure at age 100 someone will say, "Didn't anyone ever tell him that smoking would kill him someday". The same with drinking. I've had friends that were "very heavy drinkers', and a couple died of "cirrhosis of the liver", and I have seen others. Six years ago the father of one my sons-in-law died of "cirrhosis of the liver", and did not or ever would touch any kind alcoholic beverage or tobacco. I've see people die of "lung cancer", "cirrhosis of the liver", and just about every other ailment that brings death to us. It comes to everyone of us, in one form or another, and there is not one thing we can do about it by eliminating smoking, or drinking, or anything else. He tells us that in His Word. Don't all the other books we read tell us something else?

This is not written in "flippancy, or distain", but from what we find in His Word. The Christian just will not allow "sin" to take us over. If we do, He will take us in one of those sins, and if not we are taken in another for we have all sinned. I speak here in this language and forthrightness, for surely there are no "babes" here to offend. Just those seeking to understand what He tells us in His own Words.

 

There is a difference of what I said from His Word. The Psalmist says "And wine that maketh glad the heart of man. We find the Psalmist is the opposite of the "foolishness" we find in Ecclesiastes of they that eat too much, and those that drink too much and become merry.

 

You are, like Helen, grasping.

It has been shown over and over in the Word of God that not all wine in the Word is intoxicating wine. It is not all alcoholic. Wine that maketh the heart glad is not the intoxicating wine that we are warned to have no experience with.

 

It's grasping to claim wine is anything but intoxicating.

 

funny, these verses prove that the word "wine" can mean fresh grape juice, the fruit of the vine: De 11:14; 2Ch 31:5; Pr 3:10; Isa 16:10; 65:8.


Wine being brought in from the fields? Wine still in the cluster? No, my friend, it was pure grape juice. So was the wine Christ made, pure and non-alcoholic

 

taken from a study by Bruce Lackey:

5. Jesus did not drink or make alcoholic wine. Here are ten proofs from Scripture.


The first reason is because of His holy nature. In Heb 7:26, we read that the Lord Jesus is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." No doubt, the Saviour, being God in the flesh, had an air of holiness about Himself that could be seen by even the most casual observer. For instance, the profane soldiers, who were sent to arrest Him, gave as their reason for returning without Him, that "never a man spake like this man." (Joh 7:46) The words of Jesus were different; He, no doubt, had a very holy appearance, character, and speech. Why is this so important? Consider this illustration. The word "cider" may mean an alcoholic beverage, or plain apple juice. Suppose we lived during the 1920s, prohibition days, and were approached by two people offering us a drink of cider. One of the persons, we knew to be one of the holiest men in town, faithful to the house of God, separated from the world, diligent in prayers, always witnessing to others; the other was a known liquor dealer. If each one offered us a drink of "his very own cider," we would assume that the holy person's was no more than apple juice, but there would be no doubt about our opinion regarding the liquor dealer's cider! Obviously, the character of a person influences what that one does. Since the Lord Jesus Christ was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," we may safely assume that He would not make that which is called in Scripture a mocker and deceiver of man, causing untold misery.


A second reason: He would not contradict scripture. In Mt 5:17-18, Christ made this clear, saying, "Think not that I am come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Therefore, Christ could not have contradicted Hab 2:15, "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!"
Certainly, Jesus knew that this verse was in the Bible; He was well-acquainted with Scripture, since it is His Word and was written about Him. He did not come to violate Scripture, but to fulfill it. He could not have done so, if He had made alcoholic wine and had given it to his neighbor.
Some people object to the use of this verse by saying that it would apply only to one who would give his neighbor drink for the purpose of looking on his nakedness. But we must remember: when one gives his neighbor something which will make him drunk, he is putting himself in the very class of those who do so in order to look on their nakedness. And since the Scripture commands us to "abstain from all appearance of evil" (1Th 5:22), we can be sure that the Lord Jesus would not have done something that would have been associated with such an evil practice as that described in Hab 2:15. For the same reason, no Christian should be engaged in the selling of alcoholic beverage.


The third reason is that Le 10:9-11 commands the priest of God, "Do not drink wine nor strong drink ... 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 statues which the Lord hath spoken..." Now, since Heb 2:17 calls Christ "a merciful and faithful high priest," we would expect Him to obey all Scriptures pertaining to that office. If He had made or drunk alcoholic wine, He would have disobeyed these verses and would have been disqualified from teaching the children of Israel the statues of the Lord.


The fourth reason is found in a passage which we have already considered: Pr 31:4-5 prohibits kings and princes from drinking alcoholic wine or any other strong drink. If they had done so, their judgment would have been perverted. It was necessary for Christ to obey these verses also, since He was Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6) and King of Kings (Re 19:16). In Mt 27:11, He admitted to being the King of the Jews. He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey's colt, to fulfill Zec. 9:9, which prophesied that Israel's king would enter the city in just that way. Undoubtedly, He was king, and as such, would have had to obey Pr 31:4-5.


Reason five: Christ did not come to mock or deceive people, yet Pr 20:1 says that wine does both. Rather than coming to mock or deceive he came to save!


Reason six: He did not come to send people to Hell. We have already seen that Isa 5:11-14 teaches that Hell had to be enlarged because of the drinking of alcoholic beverage. Christ did not come to send people to Hell; listen to Joh 3:17: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."


Reason seven: Christ did not come to cast a stumbling block before anyone; yet, Ro 14:21 teaches that a person who gives another alcoholic wine does just that. "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." Everyone who has studied the problem of alcoholism has learned that some people cannot handle any amount of alcohol, while others may drink one or two "social" drinks and stop. Experts do not know why this is true; various theories have been propounded, but nothing has been proved to be true regarding every person. Some say it is chemical; others insist that it must be psychological. The fact is, we do not know for certain. In any given group of people, there would be several potential alcoholics. What a shame it would be for a person, who is a potential slave to it, to get his first taste at the Lord's table in church, then proceed down the road of misery to an alcoholic's grave!
I certainly would not want my children to get their first taste of alcohol at the family meal; nor would I want them to get it at church. One or more of them could well be potential alcoholics. As evidence that this is possible, we should consider that some denominations which serve alcoholic wine in their religious services also operate homes for alcoholic priests!
But we can be absolutely sure that Christ did not come to cause others to stumble!


The eighth reason: John 2, the miracle of turning water into wine, does not require that it be alcoholic. Many insist that it was, on the basis of verse 10, which says, "Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until now." They would say that, in those days, it was common to serve the best alcoholic wine at first, saving the worst until later, when men's tastes have been dulled by much drinking. But the point is just the opposite here! These people could definitely recognize that the wine which Jesus made was much better than what they had been served at first. This could not have been possible if they were already well on their way to becoming intoxicated! The fact is, neither the wine which they had at first, nor that which Christ made, was alcoholic.


Reason nine is found in the same passage: the Lord Jesus Christ would not have gotten glory from making drunk people drunker. Verse 11 is most important when it states that, by this miracle, Jesus "manifested forth his glory." Verse 10 indicates that the people had drunk quite a bit of whatever kind of wine they were drinking. If it had been alcoholic, they would have been intoxicated, or nearly so. Had Christ made alcoholic wine, He would have made drunk people drunker, or almost-drunk people completely drunk! Such a deed would certainly not have manifested any glory to Him!


This chapter also gives us the tenth reason: making drunk people drunker would not have caused his disciples to believe more strongly on him, yet verse 11 says that, as a result of what He did in turning the water into wine, "his disciples believed on him." Joh 1:41 shows that they had already believed on Him as Messiah; this was a deepening of their faith and a proof that they had not been wrong. Would making drunk people drunker inspire such faith? The opposite would be likely! They were not looking for a Messiah who would pass out free booze! Thus, because of the description of this miracle and its result, we can not conclude otherwise than that this wine was non-alcoholic.

 

further reading from the study by Bruce Lackey:


In closing, we must consider two things. One passage, we have already seen. Ro 14:21 clearly teaches that Christians should totally abstain, the reason being that 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." We have already seen that people may be potential alcoholics. By the social drinking of alcohol, one might encourage a person to start drinking, who would not be able to stop. Missionaries and tourists to foreign countries, where alcohol is a common table beverage, should remember this. We should also wake up and realize that, in such countries, alcoholism is also rampant. Let us totally abstain, so that we might not encourage someone to drink and go down the road to alcoholism.
The last consideration is 1Co 6:9-10. Here, the Bible teaches that drunkenness will send a person to hell. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."
This does not mean that a drunkard can never be saved, because the next verse says that some of the Corinthians committed these very acts before they were converted. A person can be gloriously set free from drunkenness, by receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and by following His teachings. Many people have experienced such a release! But the tragedy is that if a person continues in drunkenness, refusing to let Jesus be the Lord, preferring rather to let king alcohol rule, that one can look for nothing but a drunkard's grave and eternity in the lake of fire. "Be not deceived," the Bible says "the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
If you are having trouble with this sin, let me encourage you to realize that you can ask Jesus Christ to be the Lord of your life and Saviour from all your sins, and to set you free. You can know what it means to be free in Christ! The Bible says, "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (Joh 8:36). Realize that you are a sinner in God's sight, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Ro 3:23). Repent of your rebellion against God, surrendering to His authority. "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Lu 13:3). Receive Christ as your Lord and Saviour. "As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God" (Joh 1:12).




WHAT ABOUT 1Ti 5:23? "...drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities." Many insist that here the Bible gives the privilege, if not a command, of using alcoholic wine as a medicine. However, this cannot possibly be referring to alcoholic wine, because he specifically says that it is to be taken for Timothy's stomach. He obviously had some kind of stomach disease and any doctor will tell you that such a person must abstain from alcoholic beverage. This author has had much stomach trouble through the years and has consulted various doctors, observing various dietary restrictions. In every case, they warned against drinking any alcoholic beverage whatsoever. If we know that today, surely the Holy Spirit of God knew that when He inspired this verse! We do not know what Timothy's specific infirmities were, nor do we know what kind of healing properties there were in grape juice. Maybe Paul was saying that Timothy should not drink the water, since in many parts of the world it is not pure and would cause a healthy person to have trouble from amoebas, etc. One who already had stomach problems would only multiply them by drinking impure water. Paul might have been recommending that Timothy drink grape juice only. In any case, we can be positive that he was not telling him to put alcohol in a bad stomach!

 

Thank you for your advice good Pastor, and I know you mean well, and are concerned about my soul, as you pronounce ignorance of me in His Word. You honestly believe what some blues artist says, that the devil can kick God out of my heart? What logic is it you use placing me with the philosophy of the foolish of this world, when all I did was inform of what I thought you knew, but had just never really given it much thought. I gave you truth and you assign to me "vanity", instead of "understanding".

My doctrine and faith is to believe what His Word tells me. Why would a man of God deny scripture I presented? I thought with prodding you could fill me in on what the Garden looked like, and if there was really an "apple" tree there.

But I see you are as some others here that seem not to notice or care of scripture that tears down man's logical conclusion's founded from the beginning. When presented with truth our natural instinct is to divert attention in another direction. I presented in my Post what I believe, viz. " "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
15. And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart," Psalms 104:14-15."

I believe the whole of Psalms 104 showing the Love of our Lord God in His Greatness, clothed in Honor and Glory. The Lord will "rejoice in His Works", and I find it difficult to amusing how Christians say they believe His Word, but then do not believe even such things as He "laid the foundations of the earth"….."fowls of the heaven He furnished their habitation"………;or (forgive me for laughing)………… "appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down." Boy, this Psalmist must have been "drunk" when he wrote this one. If only He had left out He gave us that nasty blood looking repulsive stuff He called wine, I could believe this Psalms.

I find judging people by the commodities they use, as intended, conflicts with what Jesus says," Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man", Matthew 15:11.

Is the judgment you make of me true and of righteousness on your part? Does the "bread" He gives control me; the meat and potatoes, chicken, Escalades with rice and beans, and the noodles and sausage? You bet for they sustain me. He says it is He that gave it to me, and I say, "thank you my Lord, for without you I cannot survive. I will accept with praise and thanksgiving, every gift you give, and with Paul, I'll let no man judge me in what I eat and drink, as such are a shadow of things to come, for today "the body is of Christ.

I'm in the "Body Church", and he left me what He said He gave to us. I'm so glad he told me all He gives to us.

 

Man, Bruce Lackey sure can distort Scripture...ten times at that!

 

Furthermore..........................

Drunkenness is definitely a sin and can be sustained by many Scriptures (e.g. Luke 21:34; Romans 1`3:13; Galatians 5:21). He also said that whatsoever is not of faith is sin too.

 

Because you are using the Scripture to deceive. Remember, the devil also used Scripture to try to deceive Christ. And He denied their authority in the context they were used.

 

If I remember right from college- Everclear is 180 proof... and yes it will burn.

 

There are no direct scriptural prohibitions for drinking alcohol as a beverage without becoming drunk. I have not read all the posts in this long thread but suspect this has been sufficiently demonstrated by now.

OTOH, there are a couple of good scriptural reasons not to do it.

First, your testimony. Your testimony isn't about who you think you are and how consistent you think you are... but what your unsaved neighbor thinks. If he takes comfort in his drinking and drunkeness because his Christian neighbor drinks or shares drinks with him then a wrong has been done.

Second, Do we ask ourselves "Is there a better, safer option?" Do we drink in spite of the risks of mistakenly over-drinking? Do we do so in spite of the risky example it sets for others? Do we do it simply to satisfy the flesh without proper regard for the effects it may have?

I suspect that alcoholic wine was consumed in Christs day and by Him. The very small amount of alcohol would have been necessary to purify what they were drinking. We don't have that concern and therefore a good practical reason for assuming the risks.

 

That admonition could go either way, though.

Regrettably I have not read all of the postings in this thread. However, isn't Paul's suggestion for Timothy (I Timothy 5:23) using the same word for wine that is used in Romans 14:21?

My apologies if that had been posted previously.

 

It is the same Greek word, "oinos".

Why would Paul prescribe alcohol for Timothy's stomach problems? Any doctor worth his or her salt would tell you if you have stomach problems one of the most important things to stay away from is alcohol.

They will tell you, OTOH, that there is medicinal properties in grape juice.