Drinking Alchol is Inconsistent With Faithfulness
This is an except from chapter 5 of the book Conformed or Transformed: Issues Hindering the Church by R.D. Beavers and Matt McBrayer, Ironworks Press, 2022.
www.ironworkspress.org/ourbooks
Consistency matters. Over the course of this book, we have aimed for consistency in our study and application of the Scriptures. Neither this chapter nor the subsequent will be any different. However, this subject is one of the most inconsistently applied among brethren by my estimation. I read a deeply discouraging account of an “elder” of a congregation in Missouri who has made it his regular practice to frequent drinking venues in his effort to “shepherd” 20-somethings. He emphasized that drinking was not absolutely necessary but a way to relate to them. This sounds like a very condescending approach to young people. Honestly, it is out of touch with the reality of this current generation.
Men say many things. They express feelings and thoughts on subjects that have eternal consequences. When the elders of a congregation will not hold to what is good and are self-willed, they are disqualified, and the congregation suffers. What good can come if we cannot prove accurately what we assert to be in line with what God has taught on the matter? Alcohol drinking is a serious battleground for the Lord’s church, and we must not be persuaded to let a vile, poisonous, homewrecker upset the faith of our dear ones. The New Testament Christian must be willing to let go of anything we believe that cannot be proven to be true by God’s Word. In this chapter, we will seek to prove from the Scripture that consuming alcohol is a sin.
JESUS DID NOT MAKE ALCOHOLIC WINE
The darling assertion of alcohol proponents is that our Lord made alcoholic wine as His first miracle as recorded in John 2:1–11. On this occasion, Jesus and His disciples had been invited to attend a wedding in Cana when the unthinkable happened, they ran out of wine. Perhaps you are thinking that this was like many modern weddings that have alcohol present. This is certainly not the case in the first century and even before. The word for wine used in John 2 is the Koine Greek word, οἶνος, (oinos). This word is the common word for wine, both alcoholic and mere grape juice. Isaiah 65:8 speaks of, “the new wine is found in the cluster.” The word in the Hebrew (ושֹירִ ּת (tirosh can also indicate fermented, non-fermented wine, or even grapes themselves.
Next, consider the sheer amount of oinos that Jesus miraculously made. John 2:6 reads, “Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.” Based on the amount given here, that would mean that Jesus miraculously made 120-180 additional gallons of oinos for the guests of the wedding. If this were to be the fermented variety, Jesus, the Son of God who never sinned, would have sinned by contributing alcohol for the guests to indulge in after they had already exhausted the supply of wine. The text says that Jesus said, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast. And they took it (John 2:8).” If we try and suggest Jesus made alcoholic wine, we make Jesus a sinner by giving alcohol to not only man but a man who would have been well under the influence of alcohol if that were the case. Regardless of what they drank before, it is impossible that our Lord would give alcoholic wine to drunk or sober people and cause them to sin.
If there is no explicit command in the New Testament stating “you shall not drink” then how can you say one beer or glass of wine at dinner, a wedding, or a barbecue is a sin? Brethren, appreciate that the Bible does not specifically say to not add a piano to the worship assembly, but we understand the commands expressly given in Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19. So, with the very same application, we look at the previous verse, and we must conclude that the Spirit intended us to understand the prohibition is not limited to drunkenness but alcohol of any amount. “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, (Ephesians 5:18).” The word in Koine Greek is μεθύσκεσθε (methyskesthe). Strong’s Exhaustive concordance notes this to be the prolonged (transitive) form of methuo, drunk.3 For a transitive verb, the action of the verb is carried over into (or onto) an object of the verb. So, when we read Ephesians 5:19, we understand the prohibition of the Spirit clearer, that being simply do not begin to become drunk because in this is dissipation, or, as the ASV renders it, riot. The Greek uses the word ἀσωτία (asotia), meaning without saving. When one begins to get drunk, they start to lose all inhibitions. Guy N. Woods said, “Drinking of alcoholic beverages is wrong, because indulgence therein prompts one to throw off inhibitions, disregard moral and spiritual restraints and engage in acts one would never dream of doing otherwise.”4 How many teenagers have ended up sexually active or even pregnant based on one drink that led to another? How many lives have been lost at the hand of a buzzed driver? How can the source of such riot ever be in the consideration of the church of God? It always starts with one sip.
Why would we try and twist the Scriptures to seemingly allow for social drinking when the Word is so blatantly true regarding the subject of drinking any amount of alcohol? God made it clear by utilizing this word in this form in Ephesians 5:18. The evidence in the realm of health confirms further the danger of alcohol. In 2016 the worldwide deaths related to alcohol was 3,000,000 people. 5Now consider that many of our brethren spent 2020 doing everything they could do to avoid Covid-19, a virus that is estimated to have killed 3,000,000 worldwide. 6 Is it logical that one would justify imbibing a poison that is seen, studied, and evidenced by years of statistics as causing countless pains, murders, rapes, and broken homes when we hid from a virus we could not see? Consistency is key.
There have been some who have cited studies suggesting that a glass of red wine is used for heart health. This claim has been easily debunked because, ‘the substances believed to provide much of red wine’s heart benefits, resveratrol and flavonoids, are also found in grape juice, especially the variety made from red and dark purple Concord grapes.”7 In addition, “the World Heart Federation (WHF) recently released a policy brief that suggested: “No amount of alcohol is good for the heart.”8
So what do we do with a passage such as Paul’s instruction to Timothy in 1 Tim 5:23? “No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities.”If no amount of alcohol is to be consumed, then why did Paul tell Timothy to use a little wine? If one uses this verse to justify social drinking, they have failed to understand the verse. Paul’s suggestion of oinos was for the treatment of a medical ailment that Timothy was ongoing. This again illustrates the wide-ranging definition of oinos. Is it the strongest of wine? It is likely not. Would the strongest amount of wine help a stomach? Not hardly. At times, our medical doctors prescribe medicine that affects us in a slight way to help our illness. This oinos had some minor amount of alcohol in it, and, in that day, this was the medicine. There is nothing wrong with using medicine. When I had surgery on my knee, they gave me morphine. Should one use a moderate amount of morphine for social interaction? No; we use medicine when necessary, and there is nothing wrong with medicine for a real injury/illness. Moreover, Paul had to evidently convince Timothy to take some oinos for the purpose of a bodily ailment. This is not a license to drink with your friends after work. What it is a license for is to, if necessary, take a little Nyquil when you are sick to help you sleep and recover. Timothy evidently had a much stronger conscience than many brethren today. We must recognize the use of alcohol for recreation is alcohol abuse just like any use of medicine for recreation is drug abuse.
THE CONSISTENT MESSAGE ON ALCOHOL IS FOR ALL
A common argument made is the apparent inconsistency of the Scriptures. Most brethren will affirm the inerrancy of the Scripture but there is a persistent faction that attempts by untaught and unstable people to twist the scriptures (Paul’s epistles) to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. (cf. 2 Peter 3:16). In 1 Timothy 3:3, some of the qualifications of Bishops (Elders) are given. It is written that the elder is not to be given to wine. Yet, in verse 8, we find that for a deacon to be qualified, he must be not given too much wine (cf. 1 Timothy 3:8). This presents a potential problem for many who are confused.
If we go a little further in 1 Timothy 3, we find a description of the godly wife of a deacon. “Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things” (1 Tim 3:11). This is similar to the commands regarding the aged men in Titus 2:2, “that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience;” If we read verses 3-4 of that chapter, we find instructions for aged women and what they are to teach the younger women, as well as how the young men must live.
The older women, likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. (Titus 2:3-6).
When the whole of the qualifications of elders and deacons, their wives are considered what is evident? What about when considering the lives of older women and men? Certainly, there are behaviors that are inconsistent and disqualifying for servants of God. God did not mean to have varying drinking permissions given to different groups of Christians. For if that is what is found in the Scripture, then elders cannot drink but deacons can. Deacons’ wives and older men can’t drink, and older women can.9 What is even more glaring, is the suggestion that older women who allegedly can drink a little wine, can teach the younger sisters to be sober-minded. It simply does not make any logical sense that God would allow some to drink while others would abstain.
This is another attempt by many unstable in the faith to suggest that we need to do things that are not authorized and even sinful to reach young people or the “unchurched.” We have tried if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands, we have tried mechanical instruments, and praise teams, we have tried denominational literature, so why not try alcohol? This is blatantly absurd. God has given all we need “as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,” 2 Peter 1:3. If we will rely on God’s revealed word, we cannot fill our lives with alcohol for the sake of relating better to one another. We can rather heed the divine instruction of the Holy Spirit,
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:8-9).
3 “Methusko” https://biblehub.com/greek/3182.htm accessed 6/4/2021
4 Woods, Guy N. “Alcoholic Beverages,” in the Essence of Guy N. Woods, ed. by Johnie Scaggs Jr. (Jacksonville, FL: Basic Bible Truths Publications, 2012), 190.
5 “Alcohol Facts and Statistics.” National Institute of Health, 12 Mar 2022, https:// www.who.int/data/stories/the-true-death-toll-of-covid-19-estimating-global-ex cess-mortality
6 “The true death toll of COVID-19: estimating global excess mortality.” World Health Organization, 12 Mar 2022, https://www.who.int/data/stories/the-true-de ath-toll-of-covid-19-estimating-global-excess-mortality.
7 https://www.eatthis.com/side-effects-drinking-wine-every-day/
8 https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/health/23real.html
9 Blackwell, Don, “The Truth About Moral Issues” (Maxwell, TX: World Video Bible School,2014), 504.
