Subject: making wine.Did Jesus make a mistake. |
Bible Note: Dear Hank, Rom 14:16 Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; As I have repeatedly stated on this thread, I am not advocating the use of alcohol but defending my liberty in Christ. Rom 14:14 I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. I am sincerely sorry that your son was killed by a drunk driver. I have children as well and can appreciate the pain and suffering you have had to endure. But the villain was not alcohol. The one that caused your terrible loss was a sinfull man who had sinned against God by getting himself drunk. That man was the villain. To shift the blame from him to an inanimate substance is to mitigate his responsibility. No! That person through his lust for sin bears all the blame. He willfilly chose to disregard the comand of God and got stinking drunk. I cannot answer your question regarding why christians would deliberately get drunk. Becoming addicted to booze does not happen overnight but is a result of ingesting great quantities of alcohol over a period of time. From what I know from Scripture, this deliberate and willful type of sinning is not consistant with faith in Christ. We all sin, I know, but the bible says: Matt 7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Brother Hank, even in AA they did not blame the drink. If drunkards are not to blame but are victims of an evil substance, then they must be innocent in the eyes of God. They are not innocent, they are guilty! 1 Cor 6:10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. You asked: "Explain how it is that alcohol for these people provided, to quote you, "a useful purpose, which is the enjoyment of one of God's gifts." ..... " The only explanation I can offer is that these people turned "liberty" to drink into "liscence" to sin. We are not free to abuse the gifts that God has given us! Should we abstain from lawful sexual union with our wives because it may lead to sexual "addiction"? Of course not. But the Shakers of New England thought it to be a good idea. "But they became addicted to a substance that carries a high risk of addiction." Hank it takes a lot of alcohol before one becomes physically addicted. In most cases I have known it is the "last gaspers", the ones who through continuous, daily drunkeness finally reap the fruit of their sin. Occasionaly I would get a "12 step" call in the middle of the night from the "hot line" asking me to pick up a person who was in urgent need of detox. Me and another AA would pick the fellow up and take him to a state asylum for medical attention. Ironicaly, we were told to keep a bottle of wine in the car to give the guy in case he he began to have dellerium tremons. He might die on us before we got him help if we did'nt minister some booze to him! (this was back in the mid- 70's prior to reforms and clinics. In fact we would take drunks off the street to live in our house from time to time). I have great compassion for drunkards ( it was my favorite sin at one "dark" time in my life), but I always stressed that it was their own fault. Sinners always want to shift the blame elsewhere. I'm sure that after your work with these folks that you understand this to be true. They are terrible liars as well, and will tell you just what they think you want to hear. You asked: "You say you would warn anyone who considers alcoholic drinks as unclean not to partake of them? Why? Does considering them unclean make one any more likely to become addicted than considering them clean? ... Rom 14:14 I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. I would think that the answer would be obvious. To deliberately do what you consider to be sin (even if it is not really sin) is to actually commit sin. When a person sets off on a course he knows to be wrong, there is no telling at where he will arrive. I have to get to work. Thanks for your post, it is good to hear from you again. John |