Should Christians Drink Alcohol? | Is Drinking A Sin? | ask Theocast

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Should Christians drink alcohol? Even a better question, does the

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Bible tell us that Christians shouldn't drink alcohol? Pretty debated subject. Let's dive into it.

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Stay tuned. I am

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Jon Moffitt, I'm the pastor of Grace Reformed Church and host of Theocast. This is Ask Theocast, where we answer your questions from a

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Reformed and pastoral perspective. Well, that is a great question that we get quite often, and since the

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Prohibition in the United States, the United States has had a different perspective on alcohol for Christians for many years.

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If you go to other countries, you'll notice that they don't really have the same perspective we do, but because of Revivalism and the

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Prohibition, we do not equate the same, we do not equate alcohol and Christian, it seems like that is always to be separate.

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We can't always let culture determine what it is that we believe about the Bible, we need to let God's word dictate that for us, and I will tell you, there are a lot of warning passages in the word of God as it relates to alcohol and the danger of alcohol and how it can be abused in the wrong ways.

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But I will tell you, the Bible has a lot of warnings about a lot of things that can be abused. For instance, money and sex and fame.

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There's so many things, power that can be abused and taken advantage of if we use them sinfully.

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But how does the Bible speak of alcohol? Well, I think it speaks of it in a couple of different ways that we're going to look at, and I'm going to just look at generally what the

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Bible has to say about alcohol, but I will tell you, the command very clear in Scripture is that we are not to be controlled by any substance, and specifically it talks about wine, we shouldn't be a drunk, meaning one that has completely lost its faculties.

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So that is not an argument everyone would completely agree, being drunk is a sin, we should not abuse alcohol in that way, just like we should not abuse money or sex or the internet, or any of that, we shouldn't be lazy.

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So let's just get that out of the way, everybody agrees, drunkenness is wrong. But how else does the

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Bible use it? Well, the Bible also uses wine for the sake of those who are sick or who are not well.

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A couple of passages that are given to us, I always like to ask this question, what does

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Proverbs 31 have to say about drinking? And most people think, well, Proverbs 31 is about the

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Proverbs 31 woman. I said, well, actually, the first few verses are not about the woman, and let me just read to you some passages that I think are helpful in understanding that how the

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Bible has used alcohol and wine in the past, and it doesn't mean non -alcoholic wine, like when it says wine, it doesn't mean grape juice, it means alcohol.

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For instance, when it says Proverbs 31 6, give strong drink to the one who is perishing and wine to those in bitter distress, let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.

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Now in general, we have to be careful when we talk about Proverbs, are they exact, should we take them to the T? No, they're in general good wisdom, they're helpful, but they aren't promises that every single time you do the

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Proverb, God's going to bless it in the way in which it's obeyed. We have to be careful with that in anything. I don't think this would apply, but the general sense of it is that they aren't saying that alcohol is a sin and it should never be consumed, as a matter of fact, it's saying there are times where someone who is suffering about to die, it can ease their pain.

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Paul even tells Timothy the same thing, he says in 1 Timothy 5, 23, Timothy, who is a preacher, it says no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

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So we can see how wine or alcohol is being used as a means to help those who are sick, those for one who is suffering unto death or suffering, as it says here in Proverbs 31, those who are perishing, someone who has ailment, but there's also where it's used as a means of enjoyment or celebration.

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We can see this in Ecclesiastes 9, 7, where it says, go eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart for your

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God has already approved what you do. This is actually a common command in the Old Testament, you can see multiple times, even after victory where Israel gets the spoils of war and God says to go take it and sell it and purchase wine and drink it in front of him in delight.

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So it's not necessarily something that is always condemned, it's definitely condemned if it's abused, and we can see these.

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We can see the warning passages, for instance, when it says Proverbs 20, wine is a mock or strong drink is a brawler and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

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So what he's saying is if someone misuses it or is drawn away, same thing like money, there's nothing wrong in and of itself with money.

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Money is an inanimate object, so is alcohol, but if you use it inappropriately, it can cause, as the

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Bible tells us, all kinds of evil, money can, and so can alcohol. Now there's some other ways in which we are given some warnings.

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Even when Paul says in Ephesians 5, 18, says do not get drunk with wine, he didn't say don't drink it, he says don't get drunk with it and he's using it as an illustration, right?

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Don't be controlled by any substance, doesn't matter what it is, sugar, coffee, sleep, laziness, money, entertainment, the internet, but he says be filled with the spirit, right?

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So we are to be led about, we are to be guided by the spirit, that is what we know the truth of God's word.

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And then one other passage I think is helpful when it's dealing with wine, we need to be careful because there are people who do have a past, who have been controlled by it, and we should be careful of that and we don't want to cause our brothers and sisters to be enslaved to anything, whether it's food, money, sex, internet, entertainment, anything.

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Paul uses this exact language in Romans 14, 21, he says, it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything, okay, that causes your brother to stumble.

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If he specifically meant meat and wine, then we should not eat meat and we should not drink wine, but that's not what he says.

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He's talking about if there's something that's going to cause your brother to stumble back into sin. Now, there's a difference here and I want to be very clear, it isn't meaning someone who is offended.

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I have met people and I love them and I cherish them and they're dear friends of mine, but they think it's a sin to drink alcohol.

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That's not who Paul's talking about. He's talking about the person who legitimately will fall into sin.

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If I am offering them wine, that if they take a sip of it, they could fall back into the addiction of it.

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When it comes to specifically eating of meat to idols, here is what he's referencing in Romans 14, it's those who were struggling with idol worship and they're trying to refrain from going back to trusting those things and they're really bothered by it.

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So Paul's like, I'm not going to eat meat in front of them because I don't want to cause them to stumble. So I think as Christians, we should not flaunt,

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Paul says this, we should not flaunt our freedoms anyways just because we can. Just because we have the capacity to do something, all things are lawful, doesn't mean all things are expedient.

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So I think there are times and places where we have to be careful about using our freedoms. For instance, we are free to watch

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TV and listen to secular music or any kind of music that we want. But I think we also need to be careful about when and where we do this type of things that we aren't abusing them and causing other people to sin.

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So that is, I think, a quick biblical explanation of what the purpose of alcohol is.

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So can a Christian go out with friends and get a burger and a beer and it be not sinful?

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Absolutely. There's nothing wrong with that. I think that we have to be very careful not to put upon the text what the

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Bible does not. I know there's a lot of arguments about whether Jesus made real alcoholic wine or not, but in the context, historically speaking, it wouldn't make sense for Jesus to make non -alcoholic wine when that was a part of the study, sorry, a part of the ceremony and of the wedding.

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So I think, you know, closing it out, Jesus did make alcoholic wine, I think, historically and from the text, we can make that argument.

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And if Jesus had a problem with it, then that would be, if Jesus thought we shouldn't drink wine, that would be a problem for us.

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Lastly, Jesus was actually described as being a drunkard, not because he was seen intoxicated, but he was seen drinking.

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And so it's not only that he made wine, that he drank the wine. And so I just think we need to be careful about where we draw the line.

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If the Bible didn't draw it there, we shouldn't draw it there. Lastly, I will say this and I'll be done. If you choose not to drink, you're not less of a

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Christian. You're not a legalist and you're not enslaved. Everybody has the right to choose whatever it is that they're most comfortable with.

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As long as we aren't judging others based upon our own decisions. I have decisions that I have made about entertainment and things that we do and won't do.

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And these are just my own personal preferences, but I'm not going to put it on in someone else or if they choose to do it, I don't,

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I'm not going to judge them because the Bible says for us not to do that. And not only that, not to let someone else put judgment upon you.

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This is Colossians says, don't let anybody cast judgment upon you or remove your assurance before God based upon what you eat or you drink or what holidays you may keep or not keep.

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