Wester, you don't really care what sort of influence you are, do you? As long as you get to "win" a point.
Yes, there is a difference between wine drinking and drunkeness. Drunkenness is prohibited in the bible, wine drinking is not. Satisfied?
NOW, let's get real about a few other things:
1. The moderators have asked for this subject to be cooled down. Respect for them basically means to leave things alone and let the conservative side have the last say.
2. They gave you the reason -- alcoholism is a growing problem among people of all ages and we in no way want to encourage it or seem to encourage the use of alcohol on this board, for THAT reason.
3. Yes, water in the ancient Middle East WAS sanitized by the addition of wine.
4. The fact that the master of the wedding in John commented on when the best wine was introduced did NOT mean the guests were drunk! He was simply commenting on the custom and why it was that way.
5. Wine for one's stomach's sake has two possibilities: stomach pains due to tension may be what Timothy was dealing with. He had quite a load on his shoulders for a young man. Yes, a small amount of wine does relieve tension. Secondly, in the days before antibiotics, one of the only ways to sanitize injuries was by putting alcohol on them. There are bacterial infections of the stomach, one of which is known to cause ulcers. It may be that wine was considered a possible cure for that, and it may have been since alcohol kills bacteria. (Beer would not have done it.) Antibiotics today are much faster and safer and target the specific bacteria rather than simply bombing the system.
6. There are plenty of ways to prevent heart attacks other than wine.
7. Yes, wine still has medicinal uses, as I can testify. I -- and it runs in the family -- have something called paradoxic drug reactions -- most cough syrups will leave me wide awake and higher than a kite. For me, a little wine is safer and just as effective. More than a tiny amount, though, and I'm wired for light and sound again and can't sleep. The medicinal use of alcohol is, as it is with me, used in rather small amounts. This is not the same as drinking a glass of wine, whether one agrees with drinking a glass of wine or not.
8. We live in a time of accumulated mutations in the human genome. As an entire population of people, I would not be at all surprised if our ability to tolerate alcohol has suffered a severe decline since early days. I worked in a long-term hospital when I was in my early 20's. We had a lot of alcoholic patients. It shocked me to see that some of the most intelligent people I had ever met in my life were part of this alcoholic population. Are mental 'sensitivity' and physical sensitivity linked? I don't know, I just mention what I saw. But if there is anything to it, then it is even more imperative that intelligent people DON'T drink!
9. Our country (USA) has laws about minors and alcohol. Arguing that wine drinking is not prohibited by the Bible then is not the point, really. The point is that we don't want to seem to encourage drinking among minors who are also part of this forum.
10. Simple courtesy on Wester's part, and the part of those arguing with the moderator and administrator (Clint and Barnabas) would be to accede to their wishes no matter how one feels about it personally.
