Question #3

"Should Christians drink Wine Coolers?"

 

Answer #3

Perhaps some of you were hoping that this question didn't come up. "Should

Christians drink Wine Coolers? Let me give you just a brief response to

that.

A Wine Cooler is an alcoholic beverage. It is my own personal conviction

that I do not drink alcoholic beverages, of any kind, at any time. And there

are several reasons why. And they are not in a particular spiritual order.

Reason number one is the fact that, I believe the Bible warns very, very

strongly about drunkenness, and very, very strongly about losing control and

dissipation, Ephesians 5:18, "Be not drunk with wine, in which is dissipation,

but be filled with the Spirit." If I am going to be under the control of

something, I want it to be the Holy Spirit, not some substance.

Beyond that, I am convinced after studying the Word of God and studying the

backgrounds around the Word of God, that the wine which was imbibed in the

time of the New Testament, and even in the Old Testament, was highly diluted

with water, 5 to 1, 6 to 1, 7 to 1, 8 to 1. They really drank water if you

want to see the true picture, and they simply purified the water, by putting

a little bit of fermented wine in it, because it killed whatever else would

be in the wine, that might cause them some physical problems.

It was not the normal drink of the time of our Lord, for people to drink

unmixed wine. You read in the Bible about two kinds of drink, wine and

"strong drink." "Strong drink" was unmixed, and those who drank "strong

drink" drank it for the purpose of drowning their problems. The wine that

was consumed in the Bible was very definitely mixed with water extensively.

Because you lived in a warm climate, the Land of Palestine was hot, the very

fact of thirst could contribute to a high consumption of wine. In order to

prevent drunkenness, they mixed it with water, so that your body could not

hold the amount that it would take to inebriate you.

So that is simply to point out to you, that I don't think you can advocate

wine drinking from the Bible, unless you have diluted it sufficiently with

water, as they did in Biblical times.

The other reason, that I will give to you, as to why I don't believe that

Christians should drink wine, is simply because of what the Apostle Paul

says, "The Kingdom of God is not food and drink," Romans Chapter 14. And he

says, "If anything that I eat and drink offends my brother, I won't do it."

Now I have lived long enough, to have dragged enough people out of saloons;

to have tried to "patch up" enough shattered devastated lives; to have tried

to put together families and marriages that have been devastated by alcohol,

to have a healthy hatred for it.

And since we live in a culture where alcohol is only an option and not an

necessity, it seems to me, without particular constraint, for us to consume

that kind of beverage. I certainly would not want to be responsible for

giving someone else the idea that it was ok to drink alcoholic beverages and

then watch them, in an out of control way, be destroyed by what they saw me

do.

And so in deference to a weaker brother, and in deference to not making

someone stumble, I choose not to do that. And since there is no compelling

reason to do it, because there are so many other things to drink, it has no

place in my life.

 

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