There is a whole arm of the technological industry dedicated to helping bloggers increase the traffic on their blogs. However, I think I may have found an option they have failed to identify.

In recent weeks I have taken the opportunity to interact with legalistic positions on alcohol, specifically within the Southern Baptist Convention, as a result this blog’s traffic has dramatically increased. (see the following posts and comments here, here and here)
So for all of the gadgets and toys that the experts say to add to your blog to make it more attractive let’s add another:

Jesus drinking and making wine and the Christians who think it is sinful to do so.

This seems to get folks excited and reading.

However, this site’s aim is not controversy, numbers, or traffic, but rather edification. My goal here is to spend time with Jesus and his Word and then share it with you. To fill my own heart with love and esteem and then live and interact with life while (hopefully) providing edification.

Therefore, I’m looking forward to getting back to affection stirring biblical devotion on this site. You know the kind of affectionate praise that causes your heart to beat faster and your eyes to water as you read and interact with the Word!! This is where its at for me. Thanks for joining me as I try to learn and love Jesus more.
by grace,

erik

In light of all of the discussion surrounding alcohol and the Bible I wanted to make some resources available. Included here is a helpful series done by my Senior Pastor Patrick Abendroth of Omaha Bible Church during a sermon series last July.

This is a thoughtful and distinctly biblical study as we as chruch worked through the issues. Pat deals with topics ranging from wine in the Old Testament, at the time of Jesus and for usage in the church for communion. Additionally Pat deals with the issue of the ‘weaker brother’ in accordance with Romans 14-15.

Enjoy this helpful resource!! And if you want to argue, email Pat…just kidding! I’ll put on the headgear and take the lumps…

Wine or Welch’s Part 1

<Listen> <Download>

Wine or Welch’s Part 2

<Listen> <Download>

Relating to the Spiritually Weak

<Listen> <Download>

Last week I wrote an article entitled “Could Jesus be Jesus and a Southern Baptist?” to the recent resolution by the Southern Baptist Convention that encouraged all of its members to advocate complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages based upon the ‘damaging’ effects of such a ‘drug’.

Well right on the heels of that posting, Paige Patterson, the President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX, wrote an article promoting the total abstention from anything alcoholic. Whereas Akin was more emotional Patterson comes out with some Jedi mind tricks and voodoo hermeneutics to arrive at his conclusion that it is sinful for the Christian to drink.

I am definitely not on an alcohol crusade over here, but I am firmly committed to following what the Bible says and trying to make sure that I do my best to ensure that people are not lied to about what the Bible says. Paige Patterson is a leader in the largest evangelical denomination in the world and he is twisting the truth like a clown making balloon dogs at a toddler’s birthday party. It is just out of line.

Why is it alcohol that the SBC is going after? Why not gluttony? I’m not picking on the denomination here but there are two things I have experienced in every Southern Baptist Church that I’ve been to, 1) a hug from a male (not very comfortable with this, but try to be all things to all men), 2) a potluck. These people love to eat, and many of the pastors at these churches were not exactly in shape either. Something is out of line about a guy who’s suit jacket won’t stay buttoned telling me that I cannot drink alcohol because it is sinful.

I am not the only one upset. Even Southern Baptists are voicing their frustration. For a thoughtful response to Patterson’s article see this Southern Baptist.

Patterson says that “Strong drink is prohibited for those in leadership.” Well I guess Jesus didn’t get this memo since he drank alcohol! Or does Jesus not count? How about the Apostles did they refuse to drink the wine at the Last Supper? Can you imagine the Lord’s reaction if Andrew (we always pick on Peter, let’s try someone else) would have said, “uhh, Jesus, is that grape juice fermented? ‘Cause, you know, we want to make sure that we don’t give the wrong impression…you know how those Pharisees are. I’ll just hold off. I actually have some water left from lunch, I’ll have that.”

Concerning the miracle in John 2 (the first public miracle noted by John by the way) in which Jesus shows his winemaking skills, Patterson says, “The text nowhere indicates that Jesus participated.” Are you kidding!?! He made the wine!! How much more participation do you need? How about this, if Jesus had not participated there would have been no more wine!

Further Patterson says concerning John 2:

“From a standpoint of logic, the “oinos” that Jesus produced was more likely pure, rather than fermented, grape juice, since that which comes from the Creator’s hand is inevitably pure. Also, there was no time for fermentation to take place subsequent to the miracle.”

No time for the fermentation? I think that is the point, this is a miracle. Jesus doesn’t need fermentation time, just like he didn’t need time to plant the seedlings to grow the grapes, or go and pick the grapes, or smash the grapes into juice with his feet, or pour the concoction into the washing pots…it was a miracle!!

Patterson also contends that the wine used by those in Bible times was so watered down that it would not be even close to what we have today. This argument gets tossed around quite liberally. If this is true one must wonder why there was ever so much abuse of wine in Bible times.

We see passages where wine is mixed with spices (SoS 8.2) and with other wine (Is. 65.8), but the Scripture does not make a distinction between watered down and regular wine (or cut vs. uncut wine). The one and only passage that refers to wine being diluted with water is Isaiah 1.22: Your silver has become dross, Your drink diluted with water.

The nation of Israel had become the “harlot” who was abominable to the Lord. They were “murderers” (v.21) who were guilty of increasing or inflating the cost of products while decreasing their value. So just as they added dross to the silver (fraudulently increasing its weight) they also “diluted” their wine with water thereby increasing the amount of wine they could produce while decreasing the value of it (kind of like American Lite beer 8^B…). So as Kenneth Gentry observes, “Ironically then, the only biblical reference to water-diluted wine appears in a context of rebuke!”

Patterson also says that “wine has one, unqualified, good use in Scripture and that is as a metaphor for the wrath of God.”

As previously stated Ps. 104 sees wine as a blessing from God to make our “hearts glad.”

• It must have also been seen as a good thing in the view of Melchizedek as he brought it out to Abram as part of his blessing and honor to him (Gen. 14.18-19).
• In Deuteronomy we see wine associated with the blessings of God (7.13, 11.14, 12.17, 14.23) and then the removal of wine as the act of God’s cursing of the nation (Duet. 28.51).
• Wine is enjoyed within the context of biblical romance (SoS 5.1; 8.2).
• Jesus used wine for the Last Supper (Luke 22.20).
• Jesus promises that in the Kingdom we’ll drink wine with him (Matt. 26.29).

These are just a few example of where wine is seen as favorable.

In a bizarre point Patterson says that the first reference to wine is bad (Noah’s drunkenness). Does this mean that wine is bad? Noah sinned and abused a good gift of God. Noah was not attacked by a foaming cup of wine and forced down into submission until he was drunk. No, he abused wine and was drunk. The subtle reference here to wine as bad portrays an unbiblical worldview, somehow imputing sinful characteristics to things that God has created. This wrong-headedness serves to deflate our view of God’s providence and inflate our view of ourselves. It is germane to the same seeds of thought that plagued the Colossian church (cf. Col. 2.16-23) and what Paul warned Timothy to stand against (1 Tim. 4.1-3).

Finally, Patterson urges Christians to avoid alcohol because of alcoholic industry’s negative contributions to society. I wonder if Patterson is serious and consistent about his convictions. Would he also be willing to never shop at Wal-Mart, wear Levi’s, wear Nike’s or use Bank of America, eat Pillsbury dough or eat a Girl Scout cookie?

All of the above named corporations are on the Boycott List for Life Decisions International (LDI) due to their financial contributions to Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion advocacy group in the world. If Patterson is consistent he’ll be in a Montana cave herding goats and making his own pants and biscuits.

I do not know what the motives are for these men. However, I know that they are telling you and me to avoid something the Bible does not tell us to avoid, they are telling us that something is bad when the Bible says that it is good and they are challenging those who enjoy alcohol to the glory of God as being sinful. This is legalistic. Adding to the Bible only takes away from the Bible. I’ll take the Bible at face value, apply what it says and try to obey it. There is enough in it for me to worry about without having to have the SBC add an appendix for me.

At their annual convention Southern Baptists passed a resolution that urges complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages. Some of the reasoning for such a stance includes confirmed research “that alcohol use leads to physical, mental, and emotional damage”, the destruction of families through alcohol use, the addictive nature of alcohol, and the current trend of religious leaders advocating moderate drinking based upon “a misinterpretation of the doctrine of ‘our freedom in Christ’”.

The SBC went all out and expressed “total opposition to the manufacturing, advertising, distributing, and consuming of alcoholic beverages” while also advocating “Southern Baptist to be actively involved in educating students and adults concerning the destructive nature of alcoholic beverages.” Finally, they resolved that “organizations and ministries to treat alcohol-related problems from a biblical perspective and promote abstinence and encourage local churches to begin and/or support such biblically-based ministry.”

Biblically based ministry?

In reading this you would almost think that someone could be converted if they would just stop drinking. Is this really the mission that the SBC wants to pursue: the opposing of the production, advertisement and distribution of alcohol? Is this the main thing? Better yet, is this even biblical?

Immediately my mind thinks of the Savior and the first public miracle that he conducted….He made wine!! And it is not like he made a bottle or two, but he made an excessive amount of wine!

John chapter two tells us that: “there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each” ok..so that is a conservative 120 gallons of wine. There are generally 25 fluid ounces in a bottle of wine. This means that if Jesus made bottled wine he would have made over 600 bottles of wine for this wedding!! This is a lot of wine for a wedding in any culture!

There are a couple of interesting points in the story, 1) the wedding party had already been drinking (cf. John 2.10), and so then Jesus was meeting the crowds desire for more wine. and 2) Jesus wanted to make sure there was a legitimate 120 gallons in those pots: John 2:7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim.

Jesus did not seem too ashamed of an association with wine; perhaps he would have acted differently if he had access to the piles of medical research currently at the fingertips of the SBC.

Some say that this was not real wine citing historical evidence that the wine was watered down. This would seem to have been a pretty good answer to the ultra-pietistic religious hypocrites that accused Jesus of being a drunk because he drank wine. In Luke 7 we read of Jesus interacting with these guys saying:

Luke 7:33-35 ³³ “For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ ³⁴ “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ³⁵ “Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

Did you notice that one phrase in there: “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking”. Jesus drank. Jesus had a reputation for drinking.

Danny Akin (a man I respect greatly and truly appreciate), the president of Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, NC, recently wrote that he would demand abstinence from alcohol for all church leadership.

Could Jesus be a leader in a Southern Baptist Church? Could he go to a Southern Baptist Seminary?

Does the Bible teach that Alcohol is bad?

It seems to me from a normal reading of the Bible that a distinction is made between alcohol and the abuse of alcohol. Drunkenness is a sin, it has always been a sin (Eph. 5.18; Rom. 13.13; Gal. 5.19, 21; 1 Cor. 6.10; Prov. 23.20).

But does sinful abuse impugn a good gift of God?

Alcohol, specifically wine, in the Bible is a gift of God to be enjoyed:

Psalm 104:14-15 ¹⁴ He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the labor of man, So that he may bring forth food from the earth, ¹⁵ And wine which makes man’s heart glad, So that he may make his face glisten with oil, And food which sustains man’s heart.

Ecclesiastes 9:7-9 ⁷ Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works. ⁸ Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. ⁹ Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun.

Alcohol also seems to be associated with divine favor, even a special blessing:

Deuteronomy 7:13 ¹³ “He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you.

Deuteronomy 11:13-14 ¹³ “It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, ¹⁴ that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil.

Proverbs 3:9-10 ⁹ Honor the LORD from your wealth And from the first of all your produce; ¹⁰ So your barns will be filled with plenty And your vats will overflow with new wine.

(now I’ve heard this used in a Baptist church for a text on tithing, but never with the blessing of verse 10…8-D)

In reading the SBC statement and Dr. Akin’s article it seems that the frustration over the admittedly horrific and devastating effects of the sin of drunkenness is overshadowing the divine design in giving us a good gift to be enjoyed.

Akin anticipates objection and attempts to diffuse the arguments asserting that we should also elimate food and sex to prevent glutteny and lust. “There is however a significant difference. We must eat to live. We must engage in sex to procreate. Alcohol is not a necessity for life or good living.”

I don’t think there is a significant difference. Food comes from God and is not only to be consumed but also enjoyed and received with thankfulness, with recognition that it is a gracious God who has provided food for his creation, even good tasting food. Sex is not just for procreation. This would be a Catholic viewpoint; Dr. Akin could have quoted Pope Benedict for support on this one. Sex is for procreation, but it is also for enjoyment!! With a quick run through The Song of Solomon it appears that biblical sex is to be enjoyed. What has God made that is not to be enjoyed? Not abused, but enjoyed?

I get nervous anytime anyone starts advocating abstaining from foods or drinks considering the solemn warning of 1 Tim 4:

1 Timothy 4:1-5 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, ² by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, ³ men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴ For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; ⁵ for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

In conclusion Danny Akin tips his hat to legalism saying that he is not being legalistic. But a passing reference and a personal denial is just not enough. They are advocating abstinence from something that God has not!! And the support for doing so does not come from the Bible but from tradition, research, tragedy and personal experience. Legalism is making yourself more narrow than what the Scripture says. While Danny Akin says that he would not prevent membership if someone drank only leadership it still smacks of the same problem that Jesus was dealing with when he answered the religious leaders of his day in Luke 7.

Akin writes, “I am in total agreement with my spiritual hero Adrian Rogers who said, “Moderation is not the cure for the liquor problem. Moderation is the cause of the liquor problem. Becoming an alcoholic does not begin with the last drink, it always begins with the first. Just leave it alone.”

No sir, moderation is not the problem…sin is the problem. And the answer is not moderation…but salvation. There are no Christian alcoholics, but there are Christians who used to be drunks!! We should stop preaching sanctification to the world and start preaching the gospel. Abstinence will not reform anyone. Instead, people need to be converted, learn self-control and enjoy the good gifts of God, whether it is sex, food, a Sam Adams or a glass of Shiraz all to the glory of God, even thanking Jesus who suffered, bled, cried, and guzzled and satisfied the wrath of God in the place of sinners like me.