Does God's Word Forbid Drinking Any Alcohol?


We once in central Wisconsin which is the the heart of a massive alcohol drinking culture. In fact that state sadly ranks as one of the TOP states for beer consumption nationally. Due to this fact, for the believer it is always a topic of debate or concern and so it must be addressed biblically and not from opinions or traditions of men. We are thankful God delivered us from a life of drunken ways! Today we drink very little alcohol (wine is all, at times) but we find no command against it in scripture. 

What we find is that the Baptist religious places are among the harshest critics of a NO alcohol consumption policy and they say it is per God's Word that they claim this truth. Recently we had a "so called believer" tell us they believe that any alcohol for ANYONE is a sin and not allowed for any believer per God's Word. While we agree that anyone can choose to NOT drink any alcohol, we would totally disagree with that stance biblically for all people as God's Word does not teach that. We offered this man clear biblical proof of that but he chose to stay in his own error filled theology. We thought it would be wise to offer that case here so others can see the biblical truth and not be fooled by such man's error filled ways. We will walk you through his claims for no alcohol, then give you our rebuttal per the Holy Word of God.

Please note: we are not social drinkers nor do we support any Christian who imbibes on a regular basis either. What we will show you here is truth and that God's Word forbids ALL drunkenness but it does also teach some alcohol for medicinal purposes is allowed as well. 
Here are the following claims this "NO alcohol for anyone" man made with our rebuttal back to him from the Word. Let this be as a training exercise on how to discern truth from error on a topic:

1) He argued for NO alcohol and said that the bible talked of ONLY new wine that had no alcohol to it.
Genesis 27:28 Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine
Proverbs 3:10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
The Hebrew word for wine here is tiyrowsh (tee-roshe')
and it means wine, fresh or new wine, must, freshly pressed wine

*We would agree in these verses that is new wine but as anyone who knows about wine also knows you have to have NEW wine before you can ever have fermented wine. It is not true they only drank new wine at all! Let's take more of the scriptures in to see what we find about wine in the Old Testament.
It also talks about wine that could and did get men drunk as well. We see this with Noah in Genesis 9:21  And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
The Hebrew word for wine here is:
yayin {yah'-yin}
effervesce; banqueting, winebibbers
 Clearly we showed him by this that Noah had to drink wine with alcohol to get drunk on it. 

NOTE: He refused that truth of God's Word and could not refute it!

2) Next he tried to use this verse to say that the bible says 'do not drink ANY wine'.

Judges 13:4
Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:

*We refuted that by showing him in context this is a instruction to a specific woman who will bear a son. Also the Hebrew word for wine here is yayin and it means: wine, fermented, intoxication
This again shows some of the wine even in the OT was fermented wine indeed.

NOTE: he totally ignored this truth from God's Word and could not refute it.

3) Next he tried to use this verse to say no man should ever drink alcohol.

Proverbs 20:1Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

*We showed him and refuted his theology by pointing out that this is the same word for wine yayin (wine with alcohol in it) and the verse only means if you're deceived by wine (if you get drunk) it is NOT wise. There is no instruction to not drink it here as we see many verses where they did drink alcoholic wine as we go on.

NOTE: he totally ignored this truth from God's Word and could not refute it.

4) He also tried to use this verse to say that the New Testament teaches NO alcohol at all.

Luke 1:15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.

*We showed him again using context, this verse gives him a real issue as it is all about John the baptist. He was a prophet of God, who had a special Nazarite vow. (They did not eat or drink anything of the grape at all.) We reminded him that John also wore animal skins, lived in the wilderness, ate locust and honey but we don't do that today do we? 

NOTE: he totally ignored this truth from God's Word and could not refute it.

5) He offered us this verse to claim we can NEVER drink alcohol?

Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit

*We showed him that this verse shows the wine they drank INDEED had alcohol and it doesn't say don't drink any it says don't do excess/get drunk! The Greek word here for wine is oinos and it means; wine that had alcohol (just like the wine in the Old Testament)

NOTE: he totally ignored this truth from God's Word and could not refute it.

6) He then offered up a whole bunch of verses (75 of them) referring to wine.

 We showed him that the truth is that not one of them said you can.t drink any wine. They ALL warned about drunkenness! If you read other wine verses in the NT Word we see they did drink alcohol wine (the kind that could get you drunk) but again not one verse that says don't drink any wine at all. We also had to correct him as one of the words added in was changed from saying don't associate with drunkards to read don't associate with drinkers. That is changing God's Word is it not?  The sin of wine is only drunkenness.


NOTE: he totally ignored this truth from God's Word and could not refute it.

7) He also tried to make it a Romans 14 issue about not causing a brother to stumble. 

We told him that we would never have a small glass of wine if he was around us to NOT cause him to stumble but that the text in Romans 14 does not say just because it is a stumble issue for some, that NO ONE can ever have it.  (We all have homes to do things privately in that won't cause others to stumble.)

NOTE: he totally ignored this truth from God's Word and could not refute it.
 
 In the end; sadly he refused to see ANY real biblical truth, he would not even discuss it. We fully support anyone's right to NOT drink any alcohol but they have NO biblical standing to ban it from others as the bible just does not teach that. 

To go deeper on our own with this topic, we offered up to him the verses about qualifications for elders:

In Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3 Paul says this about leaders:
 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous

Now you may say, see it says no to drinking wine at all. Well that cannot be true as why then did Paul say this to Timothy who WAS a leader?

1 Timothy 5
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.

Note: the word for wine here is oinos that comes from the Hebrew word yayin and it means intoxication.
This again shows they drank wine with alochol and all over the bible it is drunkenness that was the sin.
 

By using ALL of God's Word we know that Paul would not say "DON'T EVER DRINK WINE" to elders only to turn around and tell the young pastor/elder Timothy to drink some for his ailments would he?  (We only use wine for that purpose ourselves and yet we would be judged for that by those will ill theology.)

Clearly Paul is telling elders to not be "given to wine" as far as don't drink a lot or get drunk.  Paul says drunkards won't inherit God's kingdom not wine drinkers won't inherit God's kingdom.


1 Corinthians 6:10
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
 

Jesus even made a wine miracle in John 2 that was said to be the best and that wine (oinos) caused intoxication.
We know this as it says " when men had well drunk" and the word in Greek is methuo. It means to drink to get drunk. Does Christ promote drunkenness? NO, not at all but does God's Word show people drinking a type of wine that COULD get you drunk, yes indeed! We are all responsible for our choices and drinking but not getting drunk is clearly one of them.
 

It is clear to see that in the Word we see NO command to not drink wine and we see wine drinking done with limitation. It is the drunkness that is never allowed!

So in conclusion we have shown the truth about drinking wine/alcohol in limitation. We also agree that men have every liberty (Romans 14) to not drink any but they have NO biblical standing at all to forbid wine drinking for others who can do it and not be drunken.
Again we would NEVER use it around anyone if they choose to not drink as to NOT make them stumble.


We hope this article will help you be biblical on your theology regarding alcohol and let it be a example of how to test ALL things (Thessalonians 5:21) to God's Holy Word!

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