Proverbs 31:6-7 , “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.”
23rd February 2007 is the date when all Session Members of Calvary Pandan Bible-Presbyterian Church made a covenant with God to practise total abstinence. This milestone in our church is the beginning of a serious step taken by God’s under-shepherds against the deadly sin of drinking. The Bible does not teach Christians to drink in moderation. The Bible warns us of the pitfalls of drinking, and those who get drunk and the consequences they have to live with afterwards. Men like Noah ended up naked in his own bed and caused his son to sin, and then he had to curse his son’s descendants afterwards. Lot was made drunk by his two daughters, and they committed the sin of incest and Lot ended up with two sons or rather grandsons! IF ONLY they had not ended up as drunkards, then the events in their lives and that of the world would have been quite different.
But the sad reality is that no amount of tears and sorrow can undo what has been done when in a state of drunken stupor. Innumerable numbers of women all over the world and throughout the ages end up in a stranger’s bed because they drink and became drunk! Their lives changed forever because of one stupendous carnal act! Many men have taken lives or crippled others because they drink and drive. Will these warnings of impending dangers be good enough reasons for Christians to stop drinking? Most unlikely! For every bad example, another good example could be made to counter or neutralize these points in favour of total abstinence. Medical science tells us that drinking a glass of red wine once in a while is good for one’s health. Therefore many Christians continue to drink . . . FOR MEDICAL REASONS, they claim! Medical reasons cannot be used to stop an act of the will or to support an action when it comes to the Christian. Smoking has been proven by medical science to cause cancer and other deadly diseases but it has not stopped millions of young and old people all over the world from smoking! Medical science is helpless against a person’s will. If one chooses to drink or smoke or eat any thing, medical science is helpless against a rebellious will. Moreover, for the Christian his guide for life and practice must not be medical science. Medical science cannot be appealed to, to dissuade or support his behaviour and manner of life. The Bible, God’s perfect Word, should be and IS his infallible rule for life and practice.
We know that medical arguments change time and again. Once we were told that margarine is better than butter. Now some assert that butter is better than margarine because it has been reported that eating margarine is very much like eating plastic! All fields of science are fallible. But the Bible is perfect, constant, unchanging and forever relevant! When a Christian begins to use medical science to support his way of life, he has sinned against God. It is not of faith but of science! Romans 14:23b says, “And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
It is admitted that many drink out of ignorance. Some say: “My parents drink, my colleagues drink, my culture drinks, all my friends and buddies drink, so why can’t I drink too? Everyone seems to be doing it. They look all right to me!” The Bible does not condemn drinking the way it condemns adultery! There is no verse that says “thou shalt not drink!”
Time and time again it has been the argument of drinkers of wine to use Jesus’ first miracle in Cana of Galilee as a licence to drink wine. Did Jesus not turn water into wine? Yes Jesus did turn water into wine and the people who tasted it called it “good wine.” (see John 2 ) But the wine then was not the wine of today which is processed by the method of distillation. Most likely it was normal grape juice or the fruit of the vine which the people in those days would regard as “wine.” Barnes explained it well when he wrote, “We should not be deceived by the phrase “good wine.” We often use the phrase to denote that it is good in proportion to its strength and its power to intoxicate; but no such sense is to be attached to the word here. Pliny, Plutarch, and Horace describe wine as good, or mention that as the best wine, which was harmless or innocent— poculo vini innocentis. The most useful wine — utilissimum vinum — was that which had little strength; and the most wholesome wine— saluberrimum vinum— was that which had not been adulterated by “the addition of anything to the must or juice.” Pliny expressly says that a “good wine” was one that was destitute of spirit (lib. iv. c. 13). It should not be assumed, therefore, that the “good wine” was stronger than the other: it is rather to be presumed that it was milder. The wine referred to here was doubtless such as was commonly drunk in Palestine. That was the pure juice of the grape. It was not brandied wine, nor drugged wine, nor wine compounded of various substances, such as we drink in this land. The common wine drunk in Palestine was that which was the simple juice of the grape. We use the word wine now to denote the kind of liquid which passes under that name in this country—always containing a considerable portion of alcohol —not only the alcohol produced by fermentation, but alcohol added to keep it or make it stronger. But we have no right to take that sense of the word, and go with it to the interpretation of the Scriptures. We should endeavour to place ourselves in the exact circumstances of those times, ascertain precisely what idea the word would convey to those who used it then, and apply that sense to the word in the interpretation of the Bible; and there is not the slightest evidence that the word so used would have conveyed any idea but that of the pure juice of the grape, nor the slightest circumstance mentioned in this account that would not be fully met by such a supposition. No man should adduce this instance in favour of drinking wine unless he can prove that the wine made in the” water-pots” of Cana was just like the wine which he proposes to drink. The Saviour’s example may be always pleaded JUST AS IT WAS; but it is a matter of obvious and simple justice that we should find out exactly what the example was before we plead it. There is, moreover, no evidence that any other part of the water was converted into wine than that which was drawn out of the water-casks for the use of the guests.”