Beer, Bible, and Baptists

Like any good preacher, I am always thankful when I can pull off the skill of alliteration without really trying. The B’s that I am blogging about today, however, may not seem to be very preacherly (pretty sure that is not a word). I am writing about the subject of alcohol hopefully to clarify some issues. Quintillian (no, he is not a quarterback), a Latin philosopher of the first century, offered the following advice to writers: “Write not so that you can be understood but so that you cannot be misunderstood.” Quintillians’s advice is especially pertinent to the area of alcohol, because there is an abundance of misunderstanding.

Let me, first of all, come out and state directly that I am emphatically not opposed to alcohol, and the church I represent is not collectively opposed to alcohol, either. In fact, the truth is that alcohol is not evil in and of itself, just like food is not evil in and of itself (but the sin of gluttony is). This is very important to state at the beginning of this, because unfortunately the Southern Baptist Convention does not agree with me. In fact, the majority of the messengers of the Convention voted in June to oppose anything having to do with alcohol (including servers who make their living by bringing food and alcoholic beverages to customers’ tables). Thankfully, this proposal is tantamount to saying that our country is in favor of the troops staying in Iraq- in other words, there are many dissenters and the issuance of this has no power over me or my church, and we will continue to make decisions about what we perceive is right.

Rather than go off on a rant about the foolishness of this “Let’s boycott-Disney-like” proposal, though, I would like to give several reasons why beer is okay in the bible. I will start it off really simple, and then hopefully progress to more complex thoughts:
(1) The Gospels indicate that Jesus drank wine. It is actually an awesome thought to know that Jesus did indeed drink alcohol. Don’t misunderstand me: I do not believe that Jesus Christ ever sinned, but I think it can be proven that he drank wine. Therefore, drinking wine is not a sin, since Jesus did it, and since Jesus did not therefore sin. I do believe that the abuse or excess of alcohol, i.e. in the form of drunkenness, is a sin, and Jesus also never became drunk. Jesus’ drinking wine is seen by several examples: (a) He drank it the night he was crucified (c.f. Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; and Luke 22:18) The “fruit of the vine” here is considered to be the raw elements of the wine itself. Virtually no one disagrees with this fact. It is no accident that the Corinthian church just a few years after this was practicing the Lord’s Supper by using real wine. It is doubtful that they used anything other than what Jesus actually used, since it is so close to the time of the original Lord’s Supper. The Corinthians’ use of real wine is incontestable, since they were actually abusing it and getting drunk (if it means anything, they were also using the same type of unleavened bread that was used for Passover) in their worship services.

(b) Jesus was accused of being a drunkard. It says in Matthew’s gospel, “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and ‘sinners.’” If Jesus never drink alcohol, then it would be very difficult for anyone to accuse him falsely of drunkenness. In fact, Jesus says the reason for their accusation is that He did, in fact, partake in drinking, just like he ate food (the other ground of their accusation).

(c) Jesus created hundreds of gallons of wine. This fact is seen in his miracle of John chapter two, in which he caused hundreds of gallons of water to turn into wine. There are two logical conclusions to this fact: (1) If Jesus was totally opposed to the drinking of wine, it is not feasible to consider his providing the wine for a multitude of others to sin by drinking. Therefore, Jesus was not against wine itself. (2) Since Jesus did provide hundreds of gallons of wine, and since that means he was not against wine itself, and since he was falsely accused of being a drunkard in another passage, it is probable that Jesus and his disciples drank the wine at this wedding.

(2) The Bible condemns drunkenness, not drinking. A lot of the commentary about the texts under this point is plagiarized from Mark Driscoll’s book, Radical Reformission, because he says some things better than I can. Psalm 104:14, 15 says “God makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate-bringing forth from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread sustains his heart.” If wine is evil in and of itself then God is evil for making it, and Jesus is evil for drinking it. I don’t think anyone is willing to suggest they are holier than God. Wine is for celebration in (Genesis 14:17-20); wine is for medicinal purposes in (Proverbs 31:6) and (1 Timothy 5:23); wine is for worship in (Exodus 29:40) and (1 Corinthians 11:25, 26); wine is for thanksgiving to God in (Proverbs 3:9, 10); and wine is for happiness in (Deuteronomy 14:26).

Why do I bring up all of this? Because we need to understand our culture and not oppose the things it does just because we were not brought up that way, or just because we are not comfortable with it. Don’t oppose cultural things just because you don’t like it. Martin Luther (who was a regular beer drinker, along with his wife) argued against the prohibitionist mentality during the Reformation and said, “Do you suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused? Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women?” Mark Driscoll has said about this, “People worship rock stars, but we should not abolish music. People worship food, but we should not abolish grocery stores.”

Maybe if my SBC friends were so consistent, they might suggest these measures, or better yet they might actually throw out their cough syrup (which contains alcohol), and no longer order the popular (and delicious) dishes at restaurants which are saturated in alcohol these days. They would certainly object to this as “nitpicking,” but I guess I can object to their hypocrisy, as well, and ask them to stop trying to be holier than Jesus and the Apostle Paul. In fact, true holiness might be actually trying to win our neighbors for Christ’s sake, rather than hold on to moral straw men that affect nothing for the kingdom of Christ. So, what am I saying? I am saying let us become “all things to all men, that we might by all means save some.” Since drinking is not a sin, then let us build all of the bridges necessary to the drinking culture in which we live, holding out to those who are immersed in the bondage of this world system the truest and most satisfying treasure of Jesus Christ.