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Beware of Alcoholic Beverage
By Bro. J.T. Honeycutt
It is not my intention to offend anyone but to teach and learn of God's holy
will concerning the use and/or nonuse of fermented wine and alcoholic beverage
in the church and in our lives, as we try to set examples for the world as
Christians.
Thirty years ago, on a Sunday afternoon, I was traveling home from church with
my family. We had just overseen and observed the Lord's Supper, and to our
disbelief, fermented wine was used to represent the pure blood of Jesus Christ.
My wife looked over to me and said, "I am thirty-four years old, and that was
the first drop of alcohol that has ever went down my throat. I got it at
church." With tear-filled eyes, she finished by saying, "I feel so ashamed of
what I have done." Those words continuously weighed heavy on my heart to the
point I began praying to the Lord, asking Him for wisdom and understanding, that
I knew only came from Him, concerning alcoholic beverage. The question was
whether or not it should ever be a part of our lives, as well as in the churches
we would attend. At this point, I started studying God's Word as much as
possible concerning wine and strong drink.
The word "wine" is a generic term. Webster defines generic as meaning, "Of,
applied to, referring to, or characteristic of a whole kind, class, or group:
inclusive or general." There are some people that want us as Christians to
believe that anytime one hears or sees the word "wine" that it means it as
fermented. This is simply not true; as in cider, there are different kinds, such
as hard and sweet, meaning fermented and unfermented. New wine, also known as
sweet wine, is the pure fruit of the vine. Sweet wine was made by preserving
grape juice air tight in new bottles (Bible Laws or the Laws of Fermentation by
William Patton), as stated by Christ in Matthew 9:17, "Neither do men put new
wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the
bottle perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved."
The same message is taught in Mark 2:22 and in Luke 5:37.
New wine is referring to grapes that are still on the vine, as stated in Haggai
1:11, "And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and
upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the
ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of
the hands." The vine never produces intoxicating drink. On the contrary, it is
pure and is a beautiful emblem of the life and strength-giving grace of Jesus
Christ.
Three of the component parts of the fruit of the vine are destroyed by
fermentation: gluten, gum, and aroma. They are replaced with alcohol, glycerine,
and other ingredients. Otherwise, without these replacements, there would be no
alcohol in the "fruit of the vine." Hopefully, this explains the main difference
in fermented and unfermented wine.
Before taking on the subject of what Jesus used, whether fermented wine or pure
fruit of the vine, in the first Lord's Supper, we should next look to God's Word
for what is said concerning alcoholic beverage. In Isaiah 28:7, we read, "But
they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way;
the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed
up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision,
they stumble in judgment." Similarly, Isaiah 5:11 exclaims, "Woe unto them that
rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue
until night, till wine inflames them!" I Corinthians 5:6 states, "Your glorying
is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?"
There are many circumstances and occurrences in the Bible in which temptation
arose and God's people were faced with strong drink and the tribulations it
brought forth. In Luke 1:13-15, "But the angel said unto him, Fear not,
Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a
son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness;
and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the
Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with
the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." Another example is in Mark 15:23
in which the Roman soldiers offered Jesus himself wine: "And they gave him to
drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not."
Many times, the Lord warned His people of the harm of wine and strong drink. In
Leviticus 10:8-10, "And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor
strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of
the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your
generations: And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between
unclean and clean..." Hosea 4:11 firmly states, "Whoredom and wine take away the
heart."
God commanded His called and chosen people not to take of strong drink. In
Numbers 6:2-3, the Nazarite vow was as the Lord asked of Moses: "Speak unto the
children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate
themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord: He
shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of
wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes,
nor eat moist grapes, or dried." I Timothy 3:3 states the expectations of a
bishop: "Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient,
not a brawler, not covetous..." Likewise, in I Timothy 2:9 women are told to
"adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety..."
Though many examples have previously been given from God's Word, perhaps the
most stirring texts regarding wine, strong drink, and alcoholic beverage are
these next following verses. I Corinthians 10:21 states, "Ye cannot drink the
cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakes of the Lord's
table, and of the table of devils." Proverbs 20:1 warns, "Wine is a mocker,
strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Lastly,
Proverbs 23:29-35 asks and answers the following questions and gives warning:
"Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who
hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the
wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is
red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the
last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall
behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou
shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon
the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick;
they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet
again."
Brothers and sisters, there are many more scriptures warning us as Christians of
the harm of strong drink, but these should set as a solid foundation to let us
know how the Lord feels about fermented wine and alcoholic beverage. My question
is that if one believes the scriptures in God's Word, then why anyone would ever
take the first drink of an alcoholic beverage, especially if they have been
saved by the grace of God. Our church covenant states that we are to "abstain
from the sale of, or use of, alcoholic beverage as a drink." I believe when the
scriptures of God's Word tell us not to do something and we then do it, we have
committed sin. The same sin is committed as when we are told to do a certain
thing and do not. I have witnessed personally what alcohol can do to a home, as
I was raised by an alcoholic father. I also have a brother who is now an
alcoholic. Rest assured, the scriptures are true when they tell us the sorrows
of an alcoholic, and not only to the alcoholic himself, but to the family,
friends, and others associated with that person.
There are many who have experienced what alcohol can do to people and their
families. We hear of stories of alcoholics from all across the world. This
particular story was submitted in a past Sunday school literature book:
A young lady had just graduated from high school with honors and was headed for
college on scholarship. Her family was so proud of her. The time then came for
her high school senior prom. Her father received a call; there had been a car
accident involving his very special daughter. When he arrived at the scene, the
officer told him there were strong indications that alcohol had been involved.
The father was irate, as any parent would be, and he wished he could only find
the person that sold her the alcohol. As it turned out, the alcohol had come
from the father’s own personal cabinet, where he had kept it for special
occasions.
Is your house free of alcoholic beverages? I pray that none of us fall into this
same category, in which we might have subjected our families to the tragic
effects of alcohol.
In this day and age, some people will try to tell us that a social drink is
alright if you do not get drunk, but I do not have that same feeling if I am
looking to the Word of God. The truth is the opposite; as quoted before,
Proverbs 20:1 warns, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is
deceived thereby is not wise.” Proverbs 23:31-32 also cautions, “Look not thou
upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it
moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an
adder.”
Questions have risen over the instance in the Bible in which Jesus attended the
marriage at Cana as found in John 2:1-10. Many have suggested that Jesus turned
the water into fermented wine. The same has been said about what Jesus used to
represent his blood in the Lord’s Supper. I believe Jesus turned the water in
those six water pots at the marriage in Cana into new wine (sweet grape juice).
I ask you this question, would Jesus turn the water into fermented wine so that
the people in attendance would drink and get drunk? If so, then all of the
scriptures speaking against the usage of alcohol are in vain, and Jesus has
taken part in a sinful activity. You and I both know that Jesus knew no sin, so
we can be assured that the water was turned into unfermented, sweet wine.
Now, as for what was served in the Lord’s Supper, we will look into the
scriptures. In Matthew 26:26-29, we read:
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and
gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the
cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all of it; for this
is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine,
until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.
Other scriptures also give us the same idea: the fruit of the vine. Mark
14:22-25 and Luke 22:17-18 both state that the fruit of the vine was used. I
Corinthians 11:25 states, “After the same manner also, he took the cup, when he
had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as
oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.” The word “wine” is not mentioned in
any of these passages, and I believe, with good reason, that we must not be
confused on what should be used to signify the Lord’s pure and holy blood. It
should be the pure, unfermented fruit of the vine which represents the pure
blood of Jesus Christ.
It is said that we get our blood line from our own fathers, and if this is true,
I do not believe that Jesus would use any alcoholic beverage to represent the
blood that he got from God the Father. God forbid that men could and would ever
believe such a thing. My earnest prayer is that, in some way, this article will
help someone or all of us to understand God’s will in the matter of alcohol in
his church and in our lives, as we strive to set Christian examples for those
who do not know the Lord.
Prayerfully Submitted,
Bro. J.T. Honeycutt
This site was last updated 07/11/06