Subject: making wine.Did Jesus make a mistake. |
Bible Note: Dear Ed, You asked: "Show me the fault in the my reasoning. If all leaven is removed from the house before Passover and alcohol wine contains leaven can we not use deductive reasoning and come to the conclusion there would be not alcoholic wine in the house." Not being an expert on the ceromonial law, I could not give you a definitive answer to your question. However, I think it would be a stretch to conclude the nation of Israel were all tea-totalers. I would think that if alcohol was prohibited, the Scripture would say so on no uncertain terms. What is clear is that the abuse of alcohol ( as well as food, sex, liberty, worship etc) is prohibited. My point about tha sausage factory is: Just as the fermentation of wine may be considered noxious by fastidious spectators, the process of making sausage would also digust many who witness it for the first time. We used to go out to the coop and wring the turkeys neck and then chop it's head clean off! Yuch! But we sure enjoyed eating "old tom"(especially with mom's sausage dressing). It seems implausible to me that a sophisticated society would have the same term for for a staple food item that describes two very different beveridges? "Wine" by itself would mean two different things. One would think that somewhere along the line a modifier would be added (such as "strong wine" as opposed to "wine"). If I were to visit someone's home in bible times, and was offered "wine" I would have to ask if they were offering me alcoholic wine or non-alcoholic wine. This makes no sense to me. But perhaps they automatically knew the difference because of a cultural factor that I am unaware of. Do you know? Ed, you stated: "Do I think an occasional drink will condemn someone to hell? No. But I also know what started the drunkard that is condemned to hell was one drink, then another, then another, then another, then another." I am gratified to know that you do not consider an occasional drink to be a sin. But I disagree with your conclusion that it was drink that caused the drunkards damnation. Tea- totallers go to hell also. It is sin that brings the judgement of God on fallen mankind. We are concieved in sin and born to sin. We all sinned in Adam and entetr life under the curse of God. I have heard many a wife complain that her husband was a better man drunk than he was sober. I've known men, who after being freed from alcohol have divorced their wives for other women! And this after the wife suffered for years with this bum and supported him as he went through the horrors of "drying out" and years of helping him be restored to respectability. I was a rotten sinner when I was a drunk and I was a rotten sinner after my sobriety. You asked; "would the world be a better place if everyone drank alcohol or would it be better if no one drank at all? 17,000 people died last year because of drunk drivers." This world is doomed either way. People will always find ways to kill themselves as well as others. The only answer is the elimination of sin. You mentioned 17,000 deaths due to drunken driving. As terrible as that is it pales in comparison to abortion (in the millions!) and wars, and starvation, and drugs, and terrorism. And hundred of other ways that people perish.Romans Chapter One and following. The answer to sin is Jesus Christ not sobriety. Believe me Ed, I know. John |