I will be publishing a series of posts on wine and the Bible in the next couple weeks. These will be divided by Torah, rest of the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Then I will make some conclusions.
My initial interest comes from the fact that I think many things in modern Christianity are based on tradition or opinion rather than on Scripture - how we dress in church, wine, etc. Part of this was inspired by a friend's love of wine and it's benefit to community and conversation and a rich sense of enjoying life.So I want to study wine in the Bible and make comments underneath each passage of Scripture of what it seems to be saying about wine and its use. I will attempt to avoid making strong conclusion until the final post.
I also am coming from the point of view that wine is an alcoholic beverage even if it is referred to as new wine or fresh wine or else the people in the book of Acts would not have thought they were drunk on new wine.
Acts 2:12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" 13But others mocking said, "They are filled with new wine." (ESV)
You can see that I have some sense of a presupposition if I think that the negative view of wine might be based on tradition and opinion, but I will be very honest throughout the study.
Also, it must be known that I adamantly believe that drunkenness and too much drinking is definitely a sin and is wrong. I also believe that Christians must obey the law of the land and so underage drinking and drunk driving are completely sinful and wrong as well. These topics will come up within the study as well. I also am not advocating the use of wine by anyone who has issues with alcoholism or those who do not have issues and simply choose not to use it. I am not advocating alcohol in any way. I am simply taking a look at the appropriate biblical understanding of wine.
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1 comment:
YES!!! The conversation I've been waiting for.
I like how you're going at this topic with so much scripture. What stands out to me is that there is appropriate and inappropriate use of wine. Used inappropriately, there are some very bad consequences, but used properly, wine is a great blessing - not just for the way it makes you feel, but as a part of the spiritual life.
Other gifts from God are like this too - the Sabath. Once a week, rest is so critical for us, but too much rest is likely to make one slothful.
Anyway, I'm really stoked that you're on this journey and I think you're an encouragement to those stuck in tradition or opinions about wine.
Salut.
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