“To be a Christian, do I have to quit ‘drinking’?”; “Does God forbid the consumption of alcohol?”; “Where does the Bible say that ‘drinking’ is a sin?” Many people ask these and other questions at the moment of entering the life of the Kingdom of Heaven. Some come into the church and persist in their habits, hoping that God will one day, supposedly, “take them away”; others, sadly, react like the rich young man and turn away from the Way, grieved, because they are so attached to alcohol that they are not willing to pay the price of abstinence (Matthew 19:22).
But, truth be told, God has no problem with alcohol; the serious problem is us. The Bible speaks of new wine as a divine blessing (Genesis 27:28; Amos 9:13-15); something that cheers both God and men (Judges 9:13), just as wine was one of the most prized offerings to Jehovah in the Old Testament (Numbers 18:12). Likewise, one of the celebrations of the church that remember the second coming of the Son of God is the Lord’s Supper, and in it the wine represents the blood shed by Christ (Matthew 26:27-29). However, now the new wine has dried up and the wine has fermented, and so it dulls the senses (Psalms 107:27), puffs up with pride and stupefies (Isaiah 28:1,3), and no longer cheers or encourages, but embitters and destroys man.
We human beings, by our carnal, sinful, and corrupted nature, have turned something that represented joy, gladness, and prosperity in the eyes of God, and that was given to us for our delight and satisfaction, into one of the tragedies of today that is doing the most damage to the family and to society, regardless of country, sex, or age. Alcoholism is no longer a simple bad social habit, but a compulsive and progressive disease that only God can cure. Man seeks in alcohol relief from his anguish, release from repressed desires, and even attributes aphrodisiac properties to it (sexual stimulant), but the reality is totally the opposite and tragic. Today, scholars have said that alcohol is responsible for 40 to 50% of traffic accidents, 15 to 20% of workplace accidents, and 50% of homicides. Now, you be the judge. The Bible says:
Hosea 4:11
“Fornication, wine, and new wine take away judgment”
Proverbs 21:17
“He who loves pleasure will be a needy man, And he who loves wine and ointments will not be rich”
Matthew 26:29
“And I say to you, from now on I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom”
Romans 13:13
“Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in gluttony and drunkenness, not in lust and lewdness, not in strife and envy…”
1 Corinthians 5:11
“But rather I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who, calling himself a brother, is a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a thief; with such a person do not even eat”.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor those who lie with men, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God”.
Galatians 5:19
“And the works of the flesh are manifest, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, (…) idolatry, sorceries, enmities, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, contentions, dissensions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; concerning which I warn you, as I have told you before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” .
Ephesians 5:18-20
“Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but rather be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, with hymns and spiritual songs, singing and praising the Lord in your hearts; giving thanks always for all things to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”
