CyberGene @David B , what's your opinion on Jesus being described as drinking wine in the Bible? I remember there were at leat a few occasions where that was mentioned.
That's a good question.
In short, the Bible condemns drunkenness, but doesn't instruct complete abstinence from alcohol for the general population.
There is no record of Jesus drinking wine in scripture, but we could extrapolate the likelihood of it particularly when celebrating the passover with His disciples. There is also the miracle when He changed water to wine. With all that being said, in biblical greek there is one word for wine and it doesn't differentiate between fermented and unfermented (grape juice/fruit of the vine).
Wine started out as pure grape juice that was enjoyed shortly after a harvest and then progressively got fermented through the preservation process as time went on. Since there was no distillation yet, alcohol content was pretty low and wine was diluted or "mixed" with other ingredients to enhance flavor or potency.
In my counsel with people I encourage total abstinence based on three principles in Scripture.
- We want to have clear minds. Romans 12:2 (Alcohol doesn't help that)
- I don't want to lead someone into alcoholism by telling them it's OK to drink moderately. (Rom 13:14)
- Christians should be good examples as much as possible. (Matt 5:14)
Hope this helps.
God Bless,
David
