Alcohol: A Biblical Case For Abstinance

[TheSword]

In the thread started in the genearal Lounge section on whether Christians who drink are saved has gone in many directions. In a post in response to the moderationist view point, I posted a Biblical case for abstinance in outline for but it was never responded to by anyone for or against; perhaps because there were so many conversations going on by the time I came in. I would like to give moderationists the opportunity to correct or otherwise refute the Biblical case or even for proponents of abstinance to weigh in on the argument's strengths and weakness.

 

This thread is intended only to interact with Biblical evidence and interpretation. Please do not comment with points on wine vs. grape juice, legal definitions of drunkenness, or personal examples as I would like to keep this strictly to Biblical study and interaction with the Scriptural text and none of the following argument, I believe, can stand on its own without including such points.

 

To all, if you disagree with any point below, please give a Biblical reason where I have erred and why. If you can show me how this argument is flatly wrong and make an equally strong Biblical case for moderation, I will happily concede the point and change my position.

 

I.  Make God the centerpiece of your life.  Do things His way and you will be blessed.  Do it not, and you will have strife/struggle (Pro 3:5-7; Psa 1)

 

II.  God’s word is clear that He does not want His people to drink.

     A. Be not drunk with wine (Eph 5:18)            

     B.  Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging (Pro 20:1)

     C.  It is unwise to drink alcohol (Pro 23:19-35)

           i. Causes poverty (v 21)

          ii. Causes woe, sorrow, fighting, babbling, wounds without cause, red eyes (vv 29-30)

         iii. Don’t even look at it! (v 31)

         iv. Causes the drinker to have strange and adulterous thoughts, produces willfulness, and prevents reformation. (v 33)

          v. Makes one unstable and insensitive to pain, habit forming (vv 33-34)

         vi. Takes away intelligence (Hos 4:11)

     D.  Abstinence is the standard for serving God.

           i. Not given in the wilderness (Deu 29:5-6)          

          ii. Priests and Nazirites prohibited (Lev 10:9-11; Eze 44:21)

         iii. It’s not for rulers/leaders (Pro 31:4-5; Ecc 10:17)

         iv. Pastors/Deacons and their wives prohibited (1 Tim 3:2-3, 8, 11; Tit 1:7-8)

     E.  Sobriety commanded for everyone (Tit 2:1-8; Rom 13:13; 1 Thes 5:6-7) so that:

          i. We keep the temple of God (our bodies) pure (1 Cor 3:16, 5:6, 6:19)   

         ii. We will not cause anyone else to stumble or ruin our testimony (Rom 14:21; 1 Cor 5:6)

        iii. Be ready for the Lord’s return (Matt 24:48-51; Luke 12:45, 21:34; 1 Thes 5:6-7)

     F. Drinking incurs God’s judgement (Psa 1; Isa 5:11-12, 22-23, 28:3; Joel 1:5-7; Nah 1:10; Amos 2:8, 12; Hab 2:5, 15-16; 1 Cor 6:9-10; Gal 5:21)

 

III. So what are we to do?

    A. Turn away from the old/sinful ways and live like the Christians we profess to be (Rom 12:2; 1 Pet 4:3-7; Eph 4:22; Col 3:9; 2 Cor 13:5; Jam 4:4; 1 Thes 5:6-7, 22)

    B.  Do not be around people when they are drinking, especially if they claim to be Christians (Eph 5:11; 1 Cor 5:11; 2 Thes 3:6) **This is not to be construed as being around people who drink period, simply not while it is occurring.**

 

Regardless of whether one thinks drinking alcohol in moderation is, in and of itself, a sin or not, based on the above outline of Biblical principles it is clearly not what God would have His people do and most certainly not His way of living a holy and separated life.   Even though an individual drink may not be considered a sin in itself, the very moment it damages God’s name and our ability to witness or causes someone to stumble into sin themselves, then it becomes sin for us regardless of the amount. 

 

A Christian who engages in its use should no more expect the blessings of God than if he or she were smoking marijuana, gambling their earnings away, engrossed in ungodly forms of music, or living in an adulterous relationship (see Psalm 1).  Nor should they expect to be used in great ways for the Kingdom of God.  Since all Christians are expected to be holy and do His work (i.e., priesthood of all believers and the Great Commission) and they are His temple, the standard set for pastors and deacons equally applies to the individual believers.  A standard is something to be strived for and maintained, not merely looked at as something that applies to other people.  Biblical principle outlines God’s mind on the issue and I believe it clearly points to abstinence.

[Standing Firm In Christ]

Of late, more and more “Christians” are espousing a doctrine that teaches that it is OK to drink in moderation.  They use the same old arguments, “Jesus drank alcohol.”  “Jesus gave alcohol to guests at a wedding.”  “The Bible teaches we are not to get drunk, but it says we can drink in moderation.”

What is moderation?  Can anyone tell us what moderation is when it comes to alcohol?  Is it one beer? Two? Three?  How much can one drink in moderation? 

One might answer that one needs to stop drinking once one begins to feel a buzz, or once one begins to feel light-headed.

News flash!!  If you feel a buzz, if you feel light-headed, there is only one reason…

YOU’RE DRUNK!!!

After just one beer, drank over a half hour period of time, a 225 pound man will register a 0.01%  BAC via a breathalyzer test administered by police or authorized emergency personnel.  Just one twelve ounce beer.

Now, one may ask, “What is the big deal about 0.01%?  The state does not recognize one to be DUI until that one registers 0.08% BAC.  You are straining at a gnat!”

Am I?  Am I really straining at a gnat?  Not really.  If one is to research, one will find that at 0.01% BAC, a person is at a low level of drunkenness.   At 0.01% BAC, a person is more relaxed and his or her inhibitions are lowered.  They are more apt to make mistakes because of their relaxed state.  That one beer has attacked their cerebral cortex and their previous level of alertness is diminished by 10%

In short, they are impaired and don’t even realize it. 

That is how deceiving alcohol is to the human body.  The wise king Solomon wrote

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1)

Wine and strong drink have the ability to cloud the mind, making the one drinking it to be at a level of drunkenness without the one drinking even realizing that he/she is drunk.

And this is exactly why Solomon instructed his son

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.  (Proverbs 23:31)

The instruction is not to drink in moderation.  It is not “stop after you have had a drink.”  No, the instruction is not to even look upon it when it is fermented.  The word “after” is not found in the above verse at all… but the word “when” is. 

When signifies a specific point in time.   It simply means “at such time as”.  Given this truth, the honest reader can easily see that Solomon was teaching abstinence “when” the wine is fermented.

Did Jesus drink alcohol?  Given the fact that just 12 ounces of beer (the equivalent of 5 ounces of wine or 1 ounce of whiskey) would have caused Him to be at a low level of drunkenness, I can emphatically and without reserve say absolutely not!  He would not have drank alcohol. 

Did He give alcohol to party guests?  Again, no!  He came to seek and save that which was lost… not to assist them in their sin.  Not to help them further down the road to destruction.  Had He created alcohol and gave it to people who had already “well drunk,” He would have forfeited His sinlessness.  He would have been found a sinner Himself in His Father’s eyes because He would have been contributing to drunkenness.

Shame on those who profess to be of Christ who malign His character by accusing Him of drinking and condoning the drinking of beverage alcohol.  If they don’t repent of this their wickedness, they will hear the harshest words man could ever hear…

DEPART FROM ME, I NEVER KNEW YOU!

 

[No Nicolaitans]

A 12 oz. beer, 5 oz. of wine, and 1 oz. of liquor all contain the same amount of alcohol.  Every time someone consumes any one of those; roughly, 10,000 brain cells are killed...never to be replaced.

 

Brain scans have been performed on alcoholics; in which, black-empty spaces appear in the scan...sections of their brains are gone from the constant use of alcohol.  This is happening EVERY TIME someone takes a drink...you are losing your mind...slowly but surely.

 

1 Peter 1:13-16 

13  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

14  As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

15  But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

16  Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

 

We are to protect our minds...we are to be sober-minded...

 

You may not "feel a buzz" until you've drank a certain number of drinks, but you've killed THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of your brain cells...you haven't protected your mind.

 

After all, if we're talking about someone doesn't "get drunk" until they've drank 6 beers, we could rightly say that they are 1/6 drunk when they drink the first one.

[TheSword]

A 12 oz. beer, 5 oz. of wine, and 1 oz. of liquor all contain the same amount of alcohol.  Every time someone consumes any one of those; roughly, 10,000 brain cells are killed...never to be replaced.

 

Brain scans have been performed on alcoholics; in which, black-empty spaces appear in the scan...sections of their brains are gone from the constant use of alcohol.  This is happening EVERY TIME someone takes a drink...you are losing your mind...slowly but surely.

 

1 Peter 1:13-16 

13  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

14  As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

15  But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

16  Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

 

We are to protect our minds...we are to be sober-minded...

 

You may not "feel a buzz" until you've drank a certain number of drinks, but you've killed THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of your brain cells...you haven't protected your mind.

 

After all, if we're talking about someone doesn't "get drunk" until they've drank 6 beers, we could rightly say that they are 1/6 drunk when they drink the first one.

 

The mention of 1 Pet 1:13-16 is another good representative passage as a case for abstinance. Sober does not simply mean the absence of drunkenness. Rather, it indicates a total absence of the cause of drunkness, particularly in the unerlying Greek, nepho, which carries the meaning of restraint, self-control, and "drink no wine" in virtually every lexicon available. In English, sober originally carried these meanings with it. Only in recent history has it been taken simply to mean "not currently drunk."

[Standing Firm In Christ]

Why TheSword, I am surprised that you don't understand that "drink no wine" actually means "drink some wine."


You are correct.  The primary meaning of the Greek word "nepho" is "abstain from wine."

My question is how does one abstain and drink moderately at the same time?

ROFL

[TheSword]

Why TheSword, I am surprised that you don't understand that "drink no wine" actually means "drink some wine."


You are correct.  The primary meaning of the Greek word "nepho" is "abstain from wine."

My question is how does one abstain and drink moderately at the same time?

ROFL

 

I cannot make the logical leap between the two, myself.

 

Also, I appreciate the enthusiam, but please try to keep the posts non-contentious, combative, or dismissive.  I want to make sure this thread stays open and free for moderationists to interact with the above argument and present their case without getting sidetracked with non-essential points of contention.

[robmac68]

1 Corinthians 10:31

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

 

Whether you call drinking a sin or not, how do you drink that small glass of wine to the glory of God?  Just on this board, alcohol has caused problems, at least the topic of alcohol has caused problems and contentions.  If something causes so many problems, how can it ever be done to the glory of God? 

 

FYI...holding your breath under water also kills thousands of brain cells...I guess swimmers don't protect their mind.

[Standing Firm In Christ]

According to research, a swimmer would have to hold his breath for three minutes or longer in order to starve the brain from oxygen.

Normally, swimmers do not hold their breath that long.  The body begins screaming for oxygen long before 3 minutes is reached.

[John81]

Habakkuk 2:5

King James Version (KJV)

⁵ Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:

 

 

Habakkuk 2:15

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁵ Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!

 

[ASongOfDegrees]

I Corinthians 6:12- All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

 

I Corinthians 10:23- All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

[swathdiver]

 

I Corinthians 6:12- All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

 

I Corinthians 10:23- All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

 

 

What's the context?

[John81]

What's the context?

Even if one believes they have liberty regarding something, that doesn't mean the something is the right thing to be doing, or the best thing to do, or edifying, or something that would not serve as a bad witness to others.

 

Say a person argues that they are at liberty to smoke, for example. Even if they really believe this, the question they are to ask themselves is if they practice that liberty and smoke, will that be viewed by others as a positive, negative (or possibly neutral) thing when folks consider that you are a professing Christian. Other questions to ask is whether or not exercising such liberty would be beneficial, harmful or neutral to their life.

 

No matter what we do, we are to remember we are representatives of Christ and we are to consider how what we do, or don't do, impacts our walk with the Lord and our witness to others. If a matter is beneficial, praise God and continue in His leading! If a matter is harmful to self or causes others to think ill of Christ or our representation of Him then we should be willing to lay it aside for the sake of Christ. If whatever it is happens to be of a neutral nature, then proceed (or not) after prayerful consideration with the Lord.

[swathdiver]

Ok John, now what is ASongOfDegrees' context for posting this?

[SouthernGal]

1 Corinthians 10:31
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
 
Whether you call drinking a sin or not, how do you drink that small glass of wine to the glory of God?  Just on this board, alcohol has caused problems, at least the topic of alcohol has caused problems and contentions.  If something causes so many problems, how can it ever be done to the glory of God? 
 
FYI...holding your breath under water also kills thousands of brain cells...I guess swimmers don't protect their mind.

I could not agree more. Because drinking among Christians is so much more acceptable compared to even the 70's when I was a teen, I searched out a book that includes a lot of scripture pertaining to this subject. A great book to read is "Sober Saints" by Keith Malcomson. I would encourage anyone to read this book prayerfully & with an open heart as he gives great explanations and detail. Amazon is one source. Very well worth reading!

[Standing Firm In Christ]

Since one can of beer puts a man in a state of drunkenness, I highly doubt that Paul was saying it was lawful to partake of alcohol.

If "all things" is all inclusive, do you think one can take heroin in moderation?  Crack cocaine in moderation?  LSD in moderation?