Topic: Alcohol and the Bible

[H20fowlkiller]

When referring to drunks is that the day in day out drinkers or is this including the occasional over indulgers/ occasionally have one to many

[Deltamud77]

[camlock]

bible talks in depth of bearing christian witness. I think the intent of alcohol and christianity varies as society and cultures. Alcohol is only as poor in the sight of the Lord as it is negative in the eyes of your society. Jesus employees his children to strive for a god like lifestyle that inhibites christianity and bears good witness. If drunkedness is (and it is in our society) thought of as a typical non-chrisitain trait, then a christian person should striving to be a christian person should stay away...I don't think the bible or our saviour at any point called out the physical liquid as a sin...all about intent

Here's a thought to ponder...spend much time around baseball (older than HS baseball) and you will hear this..."shoot I play better when I'm hungover"... athletically we all know that is a stupid excuse for an athlete preferring to party it up and forego the idea he should rest for the next days games, no way you physically perform better hungover and stay partly intoxicated...so comparison to christianity, do you think you are a better christian when you are drunk? Find that answer and it answers the entire thread, God wishes for you as a believer to live your life for him...I believe it's hard to do that when you are influenced by alcohol...

Brother Big Water, please lead us in a closing prayer...

[adame]

[skywalker]

Please define 'drunken'.............yes, I am a 't-totaler'. Upon consuming one drink you are 'drunken' compared to your normal state. The Bible says be filled with the Spirit, not with wine. I am guess, just guessing here, that if we all sought to be full of the Spirit, discussions like this would be a moot point.......just guessing.

[skuna]

I don't view having a few drinks as a sin, but know alot of folks do. Get outside the Bible belt and it is amazing how much differently society and even the church views it. I respect how other's feel about it, but that is my opinion.

Kind of a funny story, but also kind of sad......I was in my buddies wedding and for the reception we went to the groom's families place. His family came over from Greece many years ago and even though are religious, they don't have the same views on alcohol as most southern baptist. When the preacher walked in and saw 6 bud lights sitting in a bucket of ice, he made a big deal about it and left.....embarrassed the family. Now what in the hell kind of sense does that make?

[donia]

i tended bar for one of my best friend's step-brother's wedding (catholic) and i had to look to him to make sure that the priest wasn't just pulling my leg when he asked for a scotch, neat....as i was raised in a southern baptist church (deacon dad and past pres. of wmu mom).....and he had another and another - kinda tripped me out since it was in the reception hall at the church.

mom used to bake a lot of bread and always had to thoroughly explain to the owner of the chinese grocery (yes, small Delta towns always had at least 2) that it was used solely for baking beer bread!.....and she wasn't about to tell her band of church ladies that she drank a glass of wine before bed, upon dr.s orders of course, to help her sleep when the lupus was flaring up bad.

[mudsucker]

Join the Catholic Church. This will not be an issue!

[Deltamud77]

[skywalker]

Understood, we can disagree agreeably.....but when you face a parent whose child was killed in a car accident after another driver had only '1' beer and have to try to comfort their grief........get back with me on 'some people can drink 1 or 3 beers and not feel it'............just different view points. As a minister I take Titus 1:7 literally and do not 'give myself to wine'.

[4dawgma]

So what makes alcohol a sin? Making irrational decisions? With or without alcohol I think we've all done that. Is it the alcohol itself??? In that case does using alcohol to clean a wound or prep aluminum for painting count as sinning?? Can a Baptist drink cold medicine? I'm not saying we should all go out and get plastered tonight (though some may) I dont understand why some people feel God will punish you for drinking.


And no I do not think drink and driving is a good idea skywalker, I agree with you on that.

[southernmallard]

I see nothing in Scripture which forbids the drinking of any alcohol. There are plenty of warnings for over-indulging. Sometimes the decision of whether to drink at all needs to be based on the ability to resist the temptation to drink too much. Some people never really learn to just enjoy a glass of wine or a beer without adding two or three or ten more . Such an individual is better off not drinking at all. (If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, Matt. 5:30.) I'm being very hypocritical by posting that, I have over-indulged many times as I'm sure many others here have. Just putting in my .02

[southernmallard]

But if you look at this issue from another direction, I play the over/unders every Saturday. Which is a sin correct? I also cheated on my fourth grade spelling test, another sin. In the eyes of the lord, a sin is a sin is a sin, correct? I think that's right, someone elaborate.

[DeltaCotton12]

[GulfCoast]

The arguments for "its just grape juice" defy logic, or otherwise there would not be the myriad warnings against drunkeness in the bible. That is simply a straw house built to justify a position, as are the totally convoluted ways people strain to try and translate the greek, hebrew and aramaic to make "wine" unfermented. Unfermented grape juice does not cause drunkeness, which is universally condemned in the Bible. The whole "water was too polluted" thing is unsupported by a shred of real evidence, too. If so, the people would be so weak from giardia/crypto, etc that they could have never mustered an army. Why were the women pulling water out of wells instead of just drinking the uncontaminated wine?

The answer is very simple. There are many liberties we have been given in Christ. We have the liberty in Christ to drink wine (etc.) so long as our excercise of this liberty does not lead to sin, or become a stumbling block to others. If it is a "stumbling block" for you, or leads to sin, don't do it. Likewise, do not condemn others, as forbidden by the Bible, until they reach the point of drunkeness. Its really not that difficult.