Subject: making wine.Did Jesus make a mistake. |
Bible Note: retxar, Your insight to this thread has clearly answered some old questions of "to drink or not to drink". I have included a small portion from my notes on this topic: The word, "wine" in the Bible is an generic term. Sometimes it means fresh grape juice, other times it means alcoholic drinks. The context always shows when "wine" refers to Alcoholic drinks. How does it do that? For example, in Genesis chapter 9, God shows Noah's experience with wine. God shows that Noah "drank of the wine, and was drunken", showing the bad effects of the wine and the results of his drinking it. The context will always show if it is wine by the warnings or results that are listed by the Lord. A. Wine - fruit of the vine. Deut. 11:4; 2 Chr. 31:5; Neh. 13:15; Pr. 3:10; Isa. 16:10, 65:8; 1 Tim 5:23. All of these verses show that the context shows wine is grape juice. Christians often use 1 Tim. 5:23 as an excuse to drink. Paul was advising Timothy to drink GRAPE JUICE to help his troublesome stomach. Clearly, Timothy had stomach problems. Any Doctor will tell you a person with stomach trouble needs to avoid alcohol; it will make it worse. Would Paul want to hurt him? or make him violate Scriptures? B. Wine - alcoholic drinks. In the following verses, a partial list, we will see something interesting. Proverbs 20:1 "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." We notice the word "deceived" in this verse. Wine is deceptive; but how? In the very way that people advocate today, that drinking a little bit will not hurt. Everyone readily admits that drinking too much is bad; even the alcohol companies tell us not to drink and drive, but they advocate that "a little bit won't hurt!" This is deceptive. How? No one knows how much is a little bit for each person. Each person is different. Even the "experts" differ on how much is a "little bit". When a person drinks, the alcohol causes them to make rather bad decisions, do things that they would not sober. In this way, it is deceptive. It makes you think you are making good choices when you are not. Drinking and Driving is not a good choice, but many people do. Noah is an example of this. Would he normally be laying in his tent naked? No. A person in a tent keeps their clothes on- who knows who will walk in? Noah got drunk, uncovered himself (no doubt because he was hot), and the rest is history. Wine deceives us into doing foolish things; therefore it says "whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Proverbs 23:29-32 "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? "They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine." "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright." "At the last it biteth like an serpent, and stingeth like an adder." Clearly, from these verses, this is alcoholic wine. Grape Juice does not cause woe, sorrow, contentions (fighting), babbling, imagined slights, or red eyes. Alcohol does. All of us know someone who has lost family or friends due to drinking through liver damage, drunk drivers, alcohol poisoning. Alcoholic has brought more untold sorrow and grief than all the wars in the world. Clearly, the context here is alcoholic wine, and God warns against it! |