Wine or not to wine? Or is that not to Whine?

Was wine served at the Last Supper? Does this mean wine is acceptable for Christians to drink? Was wine served at the Last Supper? Does this mean wine is acceptable for a Christian to drink?

I was a Mormon for almost 20 years, forbidden to drink wine, coffee, tea, or anything else I had enjoyed as a heathen Episcopalian

I became a born-again Christian in a Church that taught wine drinking …and beer and other alcoholic beverages were sins.

Not much of a problem since I had been abstaining for 20 years already.

One day, some years back, I was having a meal with a leader in another mainline church, when the server asked us if we would like a nice wine to go with the meal and he launched into a “That is such a sin!” tirade that I almost got up and left the restaurant.

When I suggested that Jesus drank wine, He claimed quite avidly that the beverage Jesus and the Disciples drank was an unfermented wine. In other words, grape juice.

Recently, the subject came up again and I did some Bible reading.

Wine is mentioned 233 times in the Bible. At no time is drinking wine called a sin any more than money is called sin.

The 233 references deal with the use of it or the abstinence from it for certain men and certain times.

197 Old Testament

36 in New Testament

To believe or declare that Jesus’ first miracle was to convert water to grape juice is to defy the Word of God, and deals with the word fully out of context. That means someone is being a false teacher.

Read the following scriptures and substitute grape juice or unfermented wine?? Silly, isn’t it. What sense would there be in serving the good grape juice at a wedding and then bringing out the cheap juice after the guests have had enough good grape juice to not notice the switch later one. And then the reverse when Jesus filled the jars with the very best grape juice??

I know the scripture about being a stumbling block to others. I have lived with that principle throughout my church leadership and pastoral life. However, to refrain from drinking a glass of wine at dinner because it is sin does not line up with God’s Word.

The scripture clearly explains that moderation is the key to the use of wine. Yet almost every church makes it part of the sinful life from which we must repent and flee.

So, who is right and why?

This is what the Word of God states.

John 2:2

And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.

When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,

And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.

It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

Likewise, must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;

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

For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;

The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

Comments? Let me hear from you.

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