What does the Bible Teach about Alcohol?

Verses Against Drunkeness

Proverbs 23:20–21 (ESV)

Be not among drunkards

or among gluttonous eaters of meat,

for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,

and slumber will clothe them with rags.

Don’t be around drunkards

Isaiah 28:7–8 (ESV)

These also reel with wine

and stagger with strong drink;

the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,

they are swallowed by wine,

they stagger with strong drink,

they reel in vision,

they stumble in giving judgment.

For all tables are full of filthy vomit,

with no space left.

Those who are drunk live in filthy environments (physically / spiritually)

1 Peter 4:3 ESV

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

Gentiles get drunk

Romans 13:13 ESV

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

Don’t walk in darkness of drunkeness

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 ESV

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Drunkards don’t go to heaven

Verses That Seem to Teach Against the Use of Alcohol in General

Proverbs 20:1 (ESV)

Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,

and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

Doesn’t talk about total use

Does not mention drunkeness

Refers to anyone led astray

Studies show that only one drink affects good decision making

Leviticus 10:9 NKJV

“Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations,

Priests were not allowed to drink alcohol under pain of death.

Why?

So they could tell the difference between the sacred and the secular.

Once son put to death

Ellen white adds he was drunk

Proverbs 23:29–35 (ESV)

Who has woe? Who has sorrow?

Who has strife? Who has complaining?

Who has wounds without cause?

Who has redness of eyes?

Those who tarry long over wine;

those who go to try mixed wine.

Do not look at wine when it is red,

when it sparkles in the cup

and goes down smoothly.

In the end it bites like a serpent

and stings like an adder.

Your eyes will see strange things,

and your heart utter perverse things.

You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,

like one who lies on the top of a mast.

“They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt;

they beat me, but I did not feel it.

When shall I awake?

I must have another drink.”

It says not even to look at wine when it is red and causes these problem.

That is a reference to not looking at alcoholic wine

Hosea 4:10–11 (ESV)

They shall eat, but not be satisfied;

they shall play the whore, but not multiply,

because they have forsaken the Lord

to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine,

which take away the understanding.

Wine takes away the understanding

Isaiah 5:21–24 (ESV)

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,

and shrewd in their own sight!

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,

and valiant men in mixing strong drink,

who acquit the guilty for a bribe,

and deprive the innocent of his right!

Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,

and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,

so their root will be as rottenness,

and their blossom go up like dust;

for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts,

and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Those who drink have rejected God’s law...

Micah 2:11 (ESV)

If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,

saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”

he would be the preacher for this people!

If false preachers talk about drinking alcohol you know they are false.

Deuteronomy 29:5–6 ESV

I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.

They didn’t drink

“so that they would know that God is Lord”

Isaiah 5:11–12 (ESV)

Woe to those who rise early in the morning,

that they may run after strong drink,

who tarry late into the evening

as wine inflames them!

They have lyre and harp,

tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,

but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord,

or see the work of his hands.

This seems to be a general statement about those who pursue alcohol beverages

Verses That Seem to Permit Alcohol Use

Ephesians 5:18 ESV

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

Is this really permitting drinking

Or it is contrasting

those who drink alcohol

with those who seek God?

Proverbs 31:4–7 (ESV)

It is not for kings, O Lemuel,

it is not for kings to drink wine,

or for rulers to take strong drink,

lest they drink and forget what has been decreed

and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.

Give strong drink to the one who is perishing,

and wine to those in bitter distress;

let them drink and forget their poverty

and remember their misery no more.

People say this is giving permission to use alcohol

Really?

Give to fools

What is being suggested here?

Alcohol for medicinal use?

Does God really want people to bury their grief with alcohol?

1 Timothy 5:23 NKJV

No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities.

Deuteronomy 14:26 ESV

and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household.

How to explain this?

God permitted something

that was not his will.

Other examples

polygamy

slavery

some forms of rape

Concept of Wine in the Bible

Genesis 9:21 ESV

He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.

Numbers 15:5 ESV

and you shall offer with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, a quarter of a hin of wine for the drink offering for each lamb.

Yanin

Ezekiel 44:21 ESV

No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court.

Yanin

Priests were given best wine

but not allowed to drink it?

Which is it?

clearly two different

types of wine called by same name.

Isaiah 65:8 ESV

Thus says the Lord: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,’ so I will do for my servants’ sake, and not destroy them all.

New Wine

tiros

1 Timothy 5:23 ESV

(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)

Greek

Oinos

good

Stories of Alcohol Use

Noah

Genesis 9:20-26 sdf

Genesis 19:30-38 Lot

Leviticus 10:9-11 - Priests cannot drink

Aaron’s son later killed

EGW says he was drunk

Deuteronomy 21:20 - Drunk and Rebellious son publically killed

1 Samuel 25:32-38 – Nabal died after a drunken spree.

2 Samuel 11:13 – By getting Uriah drunk, David hoped to cover his sin.

2 Samuel 13:28-29 – Amnon was drunk when he was killed.

Daniel 1:5-17 – Daniel refused the king’s intoxicating wine and was blessed for it along with his abstaining friends.

Daniel 5:1 – Belshazzar and Babylon’s final judgement come when they drink out of God’s holy vessels

Modern Anecdotal Evidence

60% of fatal accidents involve alcohol

~ 50% of Violent crimes involve alcohol

5% of all children born have FASD

50% of special needs birth - alcohol

60% of domestic violence involve alcohol