A Clear Consideration of Wine from a Biblical Perspective

80% of all Americans have drunk alcohol in their lives.

70% have this year. 55% this month ad 25% have binged drunk this month.

According to the CDC, Excessive alcohol use is responsible for more than 95,000 deaths in the United States each year, or 261 deaths per day. These deaths shorten the lives of those who die by an average of almost 29 years, for a total of 2.8 million years of potential life lost. It is a leading cause of preventable death in the United States, and cost the nation $249 billion in 2010. https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/features/excessive-alcohol-deaths.html

In 2010 it cost the United States 250 billion.

MADD also provides the following information regarding drunk driving in the United States[2]:

Drunk driving costs each adult in the United States almost $500 per year. An average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before his or her first arrest. One in three people will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime.50 to 75% of convicted drunk drivers continue to drive on a suspended license.Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens and one out of three of those is alcohol relatedKids who start drinking young are seven times more likely to be in an alcohol-related crash[MS1] .

There were 200,000 DUI arrests in 2010 in California alone.

The nation averages 1.5 million DUI arrests a year.

I could go on and on – but – we know that from statistics on how bad Alcohol is.

But that has been accepted by Americans and society in general and even more and more churches today.

One of the dividing lines within various denominations is the question as to whether to abstain completely from drinking or simply from drunkenness.

No doubt, that the majority of Christianity believes that drunkenness is a sin

I would like to show you the overriding teaching of the word of God as to the danger and sin of alcohol use.

We can make many logical arguments, humanistic arguments, and if we have some time towards the end of the message we may address some. We could look at the heartbreak from each person in here, who has lost someone to drinking, including my father who was murdered at a bar. But we all know people close to us, but we are not going to really get into that.

We know that historically, Bible Believers have stood against drinking entirely:

Baptist pastor Charles Spurgeon said, “Next to the preaching of the Gospel, the most necessary thing to be done in England is to induce our people to become abstainers” (1882), and, “Those beer shops are the curse of this country--no good ever can come of them, and the evil they do no tongue can tell ... the beer shops are a pest ... the sooner their licenses are taken away, the better” (1884).

Evangelist John R. Rice warned, “A trail of poverty, broken homes, fornication, accidents and crime follow drinking. So the Christian sins who, claiming liberty, sets a bad example and leads others to ruin.”

But really matters is what God says, what Jesus Exemplified and what the principles of God’s Word overwhelmingly teach us.

I will show you from the Bible, that it is sin.

With that said, the Bible teaches us, that a wise man will receive instruction. Great peace have they that love thy law. If you are a Christian, mature and wise, then whether you agree with me or not right now, you will go home and chew on this message and consider in prayer and in your meditation upon the Word of God.

I. Did Jesus Christ approve of Alcohol?

There are several key verse that declare to us that He never did nor would He ever encourage it.

A. The command to Kings and Princes to abstain from it

Proverbs 31:4; Ecclesiastes 10:17; 1 Timothy 6:14-15; Revelation 17:14, 19:16; Isaiah 9:6

Proverbs 31:4 AV

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:

Ecclesiastes 10:17 AV

Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!

Jesus Christ the anointed one, the Lord of all, certainly fits in the realm of being a prince or a king.

1 Timothy 6:14–15 AV

That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;

Revelation 17:14 AV

These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

Revelation 19:16 AV

And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

Isaiah 9:6 AV

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

B. Christ did not make alcoholic wine at the wedding in Cana

John 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Just because Jesus was said to turn the water into wine, does not mean that He made alcoholic wine. In the Bible, wine is a generic term, that is, a general term for a whole group or class of grape-related products.

If Jesus had made alcoholic wine for a bunch of people who had already been drinking so much of it that they had run out of it, then He would have been helping a bunch of drunk people get more drunk.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 – drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God

So in Christ’s first miracle, which no doubt and implications as to his power and his direction, there is no way we he made a way for a large wedding to be drunken, which goes against all the principles of the Word of God.

And the compliments from the ruler of feast would have been mockery of Jesus’ miracle if he was already drunk.

II. Defining Wine in the Bible

Many Christians will excuse their drinking by making the argument that they will drink one beer or glass of wine weekly or occasionally.

Now, I cannot speak for anyone else, but I would doubt that I would ever do that. I doubt if most people do it.

Why do people drink at all? They like the feeling. One glass probably won’t do it.

These same people say that they would never touch the hard stuff though.

A. The alcohol content of modern wine

“A one-ounce ‘shot’ of whiskey (50% alcohol) contains as much alcohol as one glass of modern wine (10-23% alcohol) or as one can or bottle of beer (4-6% alcohol). Should a Christian drink a shot of whiskey? If not, why would it be acceptable to drink a glass of wine or a can of beer?” (“The Bible and Use of Alcoholic Beverages,” GospelWay.com).

All that American’s drink today would be considered hard drink as the Bible defines it.

B. Bible Wine had three forms:

1. Grape Juice - Mark 14:25

Some times it is called new wine, describe as sweet wine; is also the fruit of the vine.

2. Wine Proverbs 9:2, 5

This would be your fermented juice or simply unfermented wine

Proverbs 9:2 AV

She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.

Proverbs 9:5 AV

Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.

3. Strong drink

Drink containing alcohol

Please note, there only a few Hebrew or Greek words for wine, and they don’t delineate between the different types accept for when the Bible says strong drink - then that was full content alcohol drink that if consumed in large enough amount would lead to drunkeness.

The only way we can determine if at all is by comparing Scripture with Scripture and looking at the context.

C. They had 3 ways of preventing fermentation

1. They would boil to a syrup to mixed later with water.

2. There was a filtering technique during stomping

3. They could keep it refrigerated

below 45 degrees.

D. Bible wine contained one part wine with three parts water

“Many wine-drinking Christians today mistakenly assume that what the New Testament meant by wine is identical to wine used today. This, however, is false. In fact, today’s wine is by biblical definition strong drink, and hence is forbidden in the Bible. ... Even ancient pagans did not drink what some Christians drink today” (Norman Geisler, Focus in Missions, Sept. 1986).Alcoholic wine in Bible times was often weak. It was not uncommon to mix one part wine with three parts water.

“To consume the amount of alcohol that is in two martinis today, by drinking wine containing three parts water to one part wine (the biblical ratio) a person would have to drink over twenty-two glasses” (Robert Stein, Ibid.).

III. Are there health benefits of drinking wine?

1 Timothy 5:23; Leviticus 10:9-10; Revelation 1:6; 1 Peter 2:9

1 Timothy 5:23 AV

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

What was this wine, well it was the only drink of luxury that was found in the Middle East at the time, certainly milk was good, but you didn’t get that often, it would spoil, wine would keep longer.

But if you kept it too long, then it would become an intoxication beverage.

Now, Christians in this day knew the luxury that wine (grape juice) was. Paul was encouraging Timothy that it was good for him, not to always sacrifice, but to have some wine, it has health benefits.

Also concerning the leadership principles we talked about earlier, should Timothy be drinking alcohol that corrupts his decision-making capabilities.

Leviticus 10:9–10 AV

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;

The priesthood was to be especially separated and Holy in the day of Tabernacle, a Christian minister should not be less holy than a Jewish priest

But wait, who are the priests to day, God says every believer is a priest, so do we not have a high calling?

Revelation 1:6 (AV)

And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. - see 1 Peter 2:9

That verse even teaches us that we are priests and kings, so doubly we are to abstain from alcoholic beverage.

In a study published in 1999 in the journal Circulation, researchers at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison

Grape juice can also lower the risk of developing the blood clots that lead to heart attacks, according to unpublished findings from Georgetown University researcher Jane Freedman, M.D. So can red wine, but in this case grape juice is the more practical way to go: "Wine only prevents blood from clotting (when it's consumed) at levels high enough to declare someone legally drunk," says University of Wisconsin researcher John Folts, Ph.D. "With grape juice, you can drink enough to get the benefit without worrying about becoming intoxicated."

So where does this leave us, there are no real significant health benefits that are found in wine that cannot be found somewhere else.

What about Vicks, and Robitussen cough syrup, don’t they have alcohol. Yes, but you are not prescribed to drink a bottle a day. Two tables spoons a couple of times a day, that’s it.

IV. According to Bible Principles, drinking is sin for the Believer

This does not make allowances for the world or cultural reasons to drink or to fit in, the Bible forbids and give us numerous reasons not to partake.

2 Corinthians 6:17 AV

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

Ephesians 5:18 AV

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

Isaiah 5:22 AV

Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

2 Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 5:18, 20-23; Proverbs 20:1;Proverbs 23:31-35; Titus 1:7; 2:3; Micah 2:11; Ecclesiastes 10:17; 1 Peter 5:3; Luke 1:15;