Sermon Tone Analysis

! THE BIBLE AND INTOXICATING BEVERAGES

!

David G. Shackelford, Ph.D.*[1]*

*April 27, 2008*

* *

!! Introduction

 

!!! John 2:1-10

 

2:1 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: 2 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.

3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.

4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee?

mine hour is not yet come.

5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do /it/.

6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.

7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water.

And they filled them up to the brim.

8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.

And they bare /it/.

9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, 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.

!!! 1 Timothy 5:23

 

Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.

These verses and others have been used so often as an excuse for social drinking that virtually no one believes the Bible teaches total abstinence any more.

Yet they never really try to reconcile their position with firm axioms of Scripture that tell us, “Wine is a mocker; strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1).

Proverbs 23:31 tells us that we are not to even look on the cup when it is red, “when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright” and that beverage alcohol bites like a serpent.

One church in town, where I was serving as pastor, purchased a liquor license.

The pastor of that church actually said that Jesus was the first bartender.

I would go so far as to say that most evangelicals tend to fall into two camps at this point.

Some of the most significant evangelical preachers do not believe a Christian should drink, but also do not believe that abstinence can be soundly defended from Scripture.

The most common principle used by this group is usually drawn from Romans 14:21 that teaches us that we should not do anything that would cause someone else to stumble -- and drinking does.

Many other evangelicals believe that drunkenness is condemned in Scripture, but maintain that moderation is allowed.

I respectfully disagree with both positions.

Of course, if the only reason that a person has for abstinence is Romans 14:21, that is enough.

But evangelicals who deny that the Bible teaches abstinence have no solid biblical base for dealing with the moderate use of beverage alcohol.

I believe that the biblical position is quite strong.

One of the comments that I’ve heard many times through the years is,

 

“Moderation is the answer.

Drunkenness is excessive and you should never do

 

anything to excess.

After all, it’s wrong to over-eat.”

Now, gluttony in eating is

 

definitely a sin.

But you see, comparing eating to the drinking of intoxicating

 

beverages is not valid.

For example, I don’t take my life and the lives of others in my

 

hands if I drive after I’ve eaten.

And while I’ve heard of people being arrested for

 

driving drunk, I’ve never heard of anyone being arrested for driving fat.[2]

What I am

 

saying is that there are some things that are either right or wrong and moderation is

not an issue.

The truth is, alcohol is a drug much like heroin and cocaine.

We might

 

as well endorse the moderate use of heroin as the moderate use of beverage alcohol.

I want to say that I believe that the Bible does in fact teach total abstinence—clearly and without compromise.

I believe that I am by far in the minority at this point, but I hold to it strongly.

There is a major principle of evangelical hermeneutics that comes into play.

It is the principle of the analogy of Scripture.

If you hold to an interpretation that contradicts the clear teaching of the Bible at any point, it’s wrong.

I know that most today teach that the Bible allows drinking in moderation.

But if you hold to drinking in moderation, you wind up contradicting the Bible at some point /somewhere./

And, of course, one of the biblical arguments is that Jesus turned water into wine.

We will deal with that passage presently.

But by way of background, I want us to examine some of the biblical terms involved.

!!!

A Translation Problem

 

            I believe that the primary reason for all the confusion is a translation issue.

In the original Hebrew and Greek Bibles there are eleven different terms used.

Their original meanings include "hard liquor," "fruit juice," "unharvested grapes (still in the cluster)," "grape juice in the press," or  "grape juice freshly taken from the grapes or press."

In our English Bibles, these words, regardless of meaning, are translated as "wine," "new wine," "sweet wine," "liquor" (1x in KJV), or "strong drink."

In English, these phrases /only/ mean intoxicants; or at least they are taken as such.

We shall see that, truly, we have lost something in the translations.

* *

!! Old Testament Terms

            The most significant reason that we have such confusion is that, in the Bible, there are several terms that are translated “wine,” “new wine,” and “strong drink.”

Some of these terms refer to that which is intoxicating, and some of these terms refer to that which is not intoxicating.

However, the only wine that you and I know in our language is intoxicating wine.

In the English language, “wine” /only /refers to an intoxicant.

I ran some searches and discovered that there are eight Hebrew words that are

 

translated “wine,” “new wine,” or “strong drink.”

We’re going to focus our attention

 

on the three main OT words that are used more than the others because they also

 

involve the verses on “wine” with which we are most familiar.

These three words are

 

also found in the verses that are almost always used to justify social drinking.[3]

* *

 

!!! שֵׁכָר (/shekar/)*[4]*

 

            One OT word that is used is שֵׁכָר ((/shekar/).

It is the root word from which

we get our word “sugar.”

It is usually translated “strong drink” in the KJV.

From its translation, you can tell that it always refers to an intoxicant.

And almost without exception, its use is condemned in Scripture.

One exception is in a hypothetical situation found in Deuteronomy 14:26:

26 And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for *strong* *drink*, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household,

 

            I remember when I mentioned that  שֵׁכָר((/shekar/) is condemned, a friend mentioned this verse to me and said that here, drinking is not condemned.

Actually, I didn’t have to go do a lot of Hebrew exegetical analysis to work this out.

It has been

wisely said that any text without a context is but a pretext.

And that is surely true in this passage.

All I did was read the context.

There are three points I want to make concerning this verse:

1.

If this allows for drinking alcoholic beverages, then we run afoul of numerous passages of Scripture that are abundantly clear.

So, an interpretation allowing for social drinking is immediately suspect.

2.                  This passage is speaking about the tithe.

If this endorses the drinking of intoxicating beverages, then it also says that we can use God’s tithe for anything our soul lusts after; even my friend admitted that.

Yet the Bible is abundantly clear that the tithe belongs to the Lord.