• Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Objections to the Teetotalism view on Alcohol

Status
Not open for further replies.

blessedwife318

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
It is also your Wife's home. It would show your lack of respect for her opinion about drinking and would undermine her in your Stepson's eyes.
I was thinking the same thing.

My husband and I have different standards when it comes to drinking and driving with mine being the higher of the two, since I have personal experience with a drunk driver, so my husband out of love defers to my standard.
 

evangelist6589

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Most likely they did use wine in communion.

There are some Baptist churches that continue to use wine in their observance of the Lord's Supper today. For nearly 50 years, I was a member of two different Baptist churches located in two different continents who both ministered to Americans. They use "intoxicating wine" in their communion observances.

Prior to my receiving Christ as my personal Savior in 1966, I'd never heard of this happening--of course, as a lost person before I trusted Christ as my Savior, I never really cared that much about anything having to do with the Bible. The pastor of the first church of which I was a member produced many Baptist church newspapers that addressed the wine vs. grape juice issue.

The "grape juice side" never produced any NT passages that specifically stated that the contents of the cup that Jesus and His disciples used during their Last Supper--which forms the basis of the NT communion services [See 1 Cor. 11:20,23-29.]. Instead they used extra-biblical arguments taken primarily from the temperance movement, which didn't really take hold in the US until the last quarter of the 19th century. I'm not saying that the temperance movement in the US was anti-scriptural, but that per se shouldn't form the basis of a practice by Jews that extended at least as far back as c. 3,500 BC where one reads in Genesis 9 that after the flood Noah became drunk from the grapes he produced. Most orthodox Jews today still use intoxicating wine as a beverage both in regular social contexts as well as in their religious rites.

Most "grape-juice only" [GJO?] advocates probably have never taken much time to examine the every-day practices of the biblical era. For example, the OT prophet to Judah Zephaniah [c. 640 BC] prior to Judah's being invaded by Babylon, in 1:12 ff, he goes to great lengths to warn Judah that if they repent of their excessive drunkeness, God just might delay the Babylonians from destroying their nation.

The only way I know of how to get drunk from the product of their vineyards [1:13] is to consume intoxicating wine. Throughout the Bible there are warnings--not of merely consuming wine, but consuming it to excess.

I'm not advocating that a Christian should drink wine because of the negative image it presents to most Americans today. OTOH, drinking wine as an after meals beverage is a relatively common practice within the ranks of Christians outside the US.

In my previous posts in this thread, I cited several examples of the use of oinos in the NT where our English Bibles translate that word to mean wine. This very same usage is commonly found even in the LXX as well. While a word study of biblical Hebrew and Greek, will not always by itself solve every theological issue, a good working knowledge of these biblical languages can provide much insight into what the HS directed the men who were the human authors of God's Word. Thankfully in the past few decades there are lexical aids that are keyed to Strong's numbering system that make it a lot easier for laymen (as me!) to pursue some basic word studies.

Hopefully this will help you somewhat in your presentation.


A most helpful post. What are your sources? I do not believe God Gave Wine contains all this info. Did you get this from another book and which one? Thanks.
 

wpe3bql

Member
A most helpful post. What are your sources? I do not believe God Gave Wine contains all this info. Did you get this from another book and which one? Thanks.

My direct sources are the various Bible verses I cited in my post(s) in this thread.

Other indirect sources include The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament by Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D.; (c) 1992 [Rev. Ed., 1993]; Published by AMG International, Inc., Chattanooga, TN; ISBN 0-89957-663-X. (Note: I'm not sure if this dictionary is separately available. My copy is part of a 4 volume set that also included Dr. Zodhiates' Complete Word Study Old Testament, his Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament, and his Complete Word Study New Testament. You may try checking with either Amazon or directly with AMG.)

Other secondary sources would be books on the manners and customs of the biblical era.

The two books on this topic that I most frequently use are James M. Freeman's Manners & Customs of the Bible. Whitaker House (whitakerhouse.com) has reprinted Freeman's classic work on this subject (ISBN 0-88368-290-7).

A newer book on this topic is Victor H. Matthews' Manners & Customs in the Bible, published by Hendrickson Pubs. The original edition was (c) 2006. Its ISBN is 1-56563-704-6.

There's also several useful biblical Greek study resources that are now keyed to Strong's numbering system. They are a real godsend for those who've never taken any seminary-level biblical language courses.

Greek is a very complex language to master because it's a very inflected language--especially its verbs. This can be very important to know in many cases, because English isn't primarily a very inflected language. While Greek verb tenses often will distinguish between a "point action" or a "continuous action," one doesn't usually see that in the English language.

Such a distinction is often helpful when trying to interpret, for example, the usage of our English word "sin"/"sinneth" in First John.
 

blessedwife318

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Indeed but the pastor asked for objections and I will give him plenty.
As you make it clear to your wife, your stepson, your pastor and anyone that finds your posting that you show no respect and no regard for the pastor over you, or the church that you have willingly joined. You knew their stand when you joined, yet said you were willing to abide by those stances as a member. You are showing that your word means nothing since you are going against the church you willingly joined.
 

evangelist6589

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
My direct sources are the various Bible verses I cited in my post(s) in this thread.



Other indirect sources include The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament by Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D.; (c) 1992 [Rev. Ed., 1993]; Published by AMG International, Inc., Chattanooga, TN; ISBN 0-89957-663-X. (Note: I'm not sure if this dictionary is separately available. My copy is part of a 4 volume set that also included Dr. Zodhiates' Complete Word Study Old Testament, his Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament, and his Complete Word Study New Testament. You may try checking with either Amazon or directly with AMG.)



Other secondary sources would be books on the manners and customs of the biblical era.



The two books on this topic that I most frequently use are James M. Freeman's Manners & Customs of the Bible. Whitaker House (whitakerhouse.com) has reprinted Freeman's classic work on this subject (ISBN 0-88368-290-7).



A newer book on this topic is Victor H. Matthews' Manners & Customs in the Bible, published by Hendrickson Pubs. The original edition was (c) 2006. Its ISBN is 1-56563-704-6.



There's also several useful biblical Greek study resources that are now keyed to Strong's numbering system. They are a real godsend for those who've never taken any seminary-level biblical language courses.



Greek is a very complex language to master because it's a very inflected language--especially its verbs. This can be very important to know in many cases, because English isn't primarily a very inflected language. While Greek verb tenses often will distinguish between a "point action" or a "continuous action," one doesn't usually see that in the English language.



Such a distinction is often helpful when trying to interpret, for example, the usage of our English word "sin"/"sinneth" in First John.


I have taken courses in theology in seminary but not in biblical languages. At the undergrad level however I did take two exegesis of Paul's letters and so am familiar with the kinds of books that you cited. Unfortunately post school I do not have access to all these resources. But yes I do have Gowers version of manners and customs of biblical times, and a word study dictionary, vines dictionary, etc.. However all too often it's far easier reading a book on the topic. Less work....
 

wpe3bql

Member
I have taken courses in theology in seminary but not in biblical languages. At the undergrad level however I did take two exegesis of Paul's letters and so am familiar with the kinds of books that you cited. Unfortunately post school I do not have access to all these resources. But yes I do have Gowers version of manners and customs of biblical times, and a word study dictionary, vines dictionary, etc.. However all too often it's far easier reading a book on the topic. Less work....

I never took any foreign languages in either my bachelor or my master's level courses at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville TN. All of my courses were in history at APSU, so I wasn't required to take any foreign languages.

I wish that I would have taken Latin because many European historical figures in the Middle Ages wrote a majority of their works in Latin back then since in those days Latin was considered to be a universal language.

Unfortunately, APSU didn't even offer Latin back in the 1970's, thus, even if I'd wanted to take an instructor-led class in Latin back then, APSU didn't even offer it.

Currently, APSU doesn't even offer a separate graduate major in history. As far as I know, now graduate history courses are combined with philosophy courses.

Thankfully, back in the late 1960's - early 1970's I was a member of an IFBC that offered an introductory course in Biblical Greek.

My pastor at that time was quite a scholar of Kione Greek. He said that if anyone wanted to take his course in introductory Greek at the Bible Institute that was sponsored at the IFBC where he pastored, he'd guarantee that no one would fail the first semester of his two-semester course.

WPE3BQL took his first semester class, but all I ever made was a D minus.

One of the reasons I did so poorly was because the last English course I took was in high school--and that was about 10 years prior to my enrolling in my pastor's Greek class.

Moreover, even in that high school English class, our teacher spent no more than a couple class sessions reviewing English grammar so that she could begin covering literature.
 

wpe3bql

Member
Again.....is this another one of those Fundi churches?

E,W & F ---

Please clarify your statement which is quoted above.

It's a bit unclear--at least to me it is--as to what being a "Fundi" church has to do with the OP?

I've been a member nearly a half dozen of what you appear to describe as a "Fundi" churches since I received Christ as my Savior in 1966. Granted, none of them favored using alcohol as a beverage in any social gatherings but none of them refused membership of a person simply because he might have taken a sip or two on an occasion.

I suppose you must have some kind of beef with churches that identify themselves as, to use your expression, "fundi" churches.

I'll admit that none of the churches God led me to join in my 49+ years as a born-again believer were 100% faultless in every single action they may have taken while I held membership in them, but I appreciated the blessings I received while I was/am with them.

Perhaps your experience(s) with "Fundi" churches were/are different than mine. But, while I didn't always agree 100% of the time with the actions that the IF Baptist church of which I was a member at the time, my experiences of the vast majority of the IF Baptist were overall quite positive.

When it comes to the OP's topic of teetotalism, my previous posts in this thread indicate that the NT nowhere condemns the mere usage of alcoholic beverages per se, none of the IF Baptist churches ever formed any vigilante committees to ferret out any of their members simply because the took of, say, Jack Daniels, or Coors bear, or a bit more NyQuil that the doctor suggested.

Maybe my experiences with IF Baptist churches are different than other BB members who belong to them, but your broad-brush implication of all "Fundi" churches, IMHO, is something that I believe is not only an uncalled for accusation, but quite an affront to the BB members who indentify with IF Baptist churches.
 

Baptist Believer

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
The better question would be why it doesn't bother anyone else to see evangelist6589 constantly bullied?
It bothers me too. But it must be noted that our friend, evangelist6589, has done more than his share of name-calling and accusations.

I would hope that those who are much wiser and more mature in their faith would experience the grace to not react in kind, but to speak more gently as evangelist6589 permits.

I have also noticed that evangelist6589 frequently solicits advice and then when sound (and even unsound) advice is given, rejects all of it without any serious engagement and then tries to portray himself as above the opinions of mere men, while quoting mere men like Ray Comfort, John Piper, and John Macarthur.

It gets maddening.
 

Earth Wind and Fire

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
E,W & F ---

Please clarify your statement which is quoted above.

It's a bit unclear--at least to me it is--as to what being a "Fundi" church has to do with the OP?

I've been a member nearly a half dozen of what you appear to describe as a "Fundi" churches since I received Christ as my Savior in 1966. Granted, none of them favored using alcohol as a beverage in any social gatherings but none of them refused membership of a person simply because he might have taken a sip or two on an occasion.

I suppose you must have some kind of beef with churches that identify themselves as, to use your expression, "fundi" churches.

I'll admit that none of the churches God led me to join in my 49+ years as a born-again believer were 100% faultless in every single action they may have taken while I held membership in them, but I appreciated the blessings I received while I was/am with them.

Perhaps your experience(s) with "Fundi" churches were/are different than mine. But, while I didn't always agree 100% of the time with the actions that the IF Baptist church of which I was a member at the time, my experiences of the vast majority of the IF Baptist were overall quite positive.

When it comes to the OP's topic of teetotalism, my previous posts in this thread indicate that the NT nowhere condemns the mere usage of alcoholic beverages per se, none of the IF Baptist churches ever formed any vigilante committees to ferret out any of their members simply because the took of, say, Jack Daniels, or Coors bear, or a bit more NyQuil that the doctor suggested.

Maybe my experiences with IF Baptist churches are different than other BB members who belong to them, but your broad-brush implication of all "Fundi" churches, IMHO, is something that I believe is not only an uncalled for accusation, but quite an affront to the BB members who indentify with IF Baptist churches.

why are you jumping to conclusions?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top