Featured The Lord Jesus Christ drank new wine.

It is not my logic that is incorrect. It is your understanding that is incorrect.

Jesus revealed the man had not been keeping the commandments at all. The man was covetous. The man also was a liar, for he said he had been keeping the commandments.

Jesus gave him the option of life, which he rejected in favor of earthly gain.

 

I didn't say it was in Scripture. I said that is what He would have told them. You guys who think Jesus was a teetotaler haven't any biblical grounds to stand on. It's your preference not to drink. Fine. Don't drink. Don't try to hold us to your standard, however, when it isn't a biblical standard.

There is only one group of people who are explicitly told in the Bible to never drink wine/alcohol, and that is the Nazirites (Numbers 6:1–4). Jesus was not a Nazirite; He was a “Nazarene,” a native of the town of Nazareth (Luke 18:37). Jesus never took the Nazirite vow.

Christ’s first miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana almost certainly involved a fermented beverage. According to Jewish wedding tradition, fermented wine was always served at weddings; if Jesus had provided only grape juice, the master of the feast would have complained. Instead, he said the wine was better than what was previously served; it was apparently a “fine” wine.

John 2, NASB
9 When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom,
10 and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now."
11 This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. [Emphasis added] ​

The Greek word for “drunk” in John 2:10 is methuo, which means “to be drunken” or intoxicated. It is the same word used in Acts 2:15 where Peter is defending the apostles against accusations of drunkenness. The testimony of the master of the feast is that the wine Christ produced was able to intoxicate.

Of course, just because Jesus turned water into wine doesn’t prove that He drank the wine at the wedding, but it would have been normal for Him to do so. What it does prove is that Jesus doesn’t condemn drinking wine any more than He condemns eating bread. Sinful people abuse what is not inherently sinful. Bread and wine are not sinful, but gluttony and drunkenness are (Proverbs 23:2; Ephesians 5:18).

In Luke, Jesus contrasted how the Pharisees spoke of John the Baptist, and Himself.

Luke 7
33 "For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, 'He has a demon!'
34 "The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'​

Jesus goes on to say the religious leaders falsely accused Him of being a drunkard. Jesus was never a drunkard, any more than He was a glutton. He lived a completely sinless life (1 Peter 2:22); however Luke 7 strongly suggests that Jesus did indeed partake of alcoholic wine.

The Passover celebration would also have commonly included fermented wine. The Scriptures use the term "fruit of the vine" (Matthew 26:27–29; Mark 14:23–25; Luke 22:17–18). Of course, Christ participated in drinking from the Passover cup (Mark 14:23).

All Christians would agree drunkenness is sinful, and Christ Himself warns against it (Luke 12:45). However, a biblical view of wine is that it is given as something to delight in.

Psalm 104
14 He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the labor of man, So that he may bring forth food from the earth,
15 And wine which makes man's heart glad, So that he may make his face glisten with oil, And food which sustains man's heart.​

Seems like those who would claim Jesus is a teetotaler always manage to overlook this and other verses which proclaim the health benefits of wine, but you sure can find the ones which condemn drunkenness -- which of course isn't the same as simply partaking in wine.

There are plenty of warnings against alcohol abuse, in texts like Proverbs 20:1, because sinful men are more likely to abuse wine than to use it in moderation. Those who try to use Jesus’ probable use of wine to excuse their drunkenness should heed the warning in Luke 12:45. Christians who want to keep a biblical view of drinking wine should either drink in moderation, never to drunkenness, or abstain totally. Those who abstain totally, more power to you. That doesn't make you any more holy than those of us who occasionally engage in a drink in moderation. You keep to your practice, we'll keep to ours, and no one will judge the other.

 

The fact that Jesus did not tell them to drink in moderation at the wedding feast proves your assumption wrong. The governor of the feast admitted that the guests had already "well drunk".

Yet, even though the guests had "well drunk", Jesus provided more.

So much for your "Jesus would have told them to take in moderation theory.

 

Why don't you try reading the rest of the post before going off half-cocked? You're wrong. Deal with it.

 

Jesus provided more wine for guests that had already well drank.

That is not moderation.

You deal with it.

 

I've never seen so many Christians argue trying to justify your drinking! You guys sure do love your booze! Sad.

 

The arguing is not being done to justify drinking, it's being done to correct error.

Maybe I should start a thread about how drinking coffee is a sin. Then when people object I can claim they are simply trying to justify their habit.

 

Would you say this is the actions of a teetotaler?

 

You really need to deal with text:
John 2:10 And saith unto him, 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.

The word "well drunk" literally refers to "inebriated."
So what choices are we left with here in the interpretation of this passage?

1. Jesus made fermented wine. He therefore sinned by making them further drunk and brought a curse upon himself:
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!
--not a likely option.

2. The word in verse three, that Mary used, is oinos which can refer to either fermented or unfermented wine, which is simple grape juice. This is my belief. I believe he simply made grape juice. It is a new creation. He created juice from the vine.
In that way, there is no possible way that he could have taken part in any man's sin.

3. However, there still is another option. Westerners try to impose their wine of this century back 2,000 years ago, and think it is still the same wine. They tend to think that cultures were the same.
If it wasn't grape juice what was it? The most common practice was to mix wine with water, anywhere from 3:1 to 8:1. IOW three parts water to one part wine. Sometimes it was so weak it was mixed at a ratio of eight parts water to one part wine. If it was 1:1 it was frowned upon by Jewish society.
Now, at a ration of 3:1 you would have to drink 22 glasses of wine to obtain enough alcohol in your system in order to get drunk. An impossibility! Why? The other functions of your body, like your bladder, would take over well before you would be able to consume that amount of wine. It was too weak for one to get drunk on.

Jesus did not make wine as we know it today. It would have been sin.
It would have been against their cultural norms and an offense to those whom he was with.

 

Option #4. Jesus made grape juice that tasted like really good fermented wine. Miraculous.

 

To play the devil's advocate here, doesn't it? I mean, depending on the attitude? If someone is abstaining in order to be closer to God or to be more effective for God, wouldn't that make them more holy? In a "set apart for service" way?

 

It could. Just as if someone were to abstain from chocolate cake.

 

Point made, and taken.

 

Geesh, least you could do is give the Gotquestion folks credit for that.:smilewinkgrin:

So in today's United States, how does it benefit the Christian witness to drink?

 

What error? The only error seems to be in folks saying that Jesus drank wine when Scripture doesn't say that.

It really comes across as idolatry. It's kinda odd how so many in the church try to defend the use of this stuff. Is it beneficial?

Should Christians smoke?