#CHURCHTALK 02: ALCOHOL: Why Do Most Christians Preach Against It?

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Therefore, whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (ICorinthians 10:31)

It goes without saying that drinking alcohol is popularly condemned in several evangelical churches today, both in Nigeria and beyond. This clear stand against consumption of alcohol in any amount, or under whatever branded name, might appear preposterous to some believers and non-believers alike, but it is not without reason.

Why do most evangelical churches preach and teach against alcohol consumption? Has this always been the case throughout church history? Is there any scriptural warrant for this teaching, or doctrine? [In the scriptures, the word 'doctrine' simply means “teaching”, or more specifically, "instruction", although the meaning today has been narrowed down to certain specific cardinal teachings held by a particular Christian group or organization] A coincise and comprehensive response to each of these questions will be given in this article.

As a rule, #ChurchTalk articles are not long, but for reasons that will later become clear as you read, this particular #ChurchTalk will be lengthy.

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TWO SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

There are a number of scriptures used by some denominations to argue that the drinking of alcohol has no effect on the Believer's nature or state, because he is born of God, not of his works, but of Grace.
Scriptures pertaining to Wine, Eating and Drinking work for them in this argument.

1 Corinthians 8:8
But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

By this verse, there is a claim that the man who drinks alcohol and the man who doesn't drink, neither of them is saved. A man is only saved by his faith in Christ Jesus.

Romans 14:17
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

By this scripture, they claim that eating and drinking is not a yardstick in the kingdom. They maintain that alcohol is not a factor to salvation.

Colossians 2:16
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

By this, they believe they cannot be condemned by any because they drink alcohol or not.

Mark 7:18-20
“Are you so dull?”, He asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.”

In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.

And he said, "That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man."

These verses, they claim, prove that it is not the consumption or intake of alcohol that defiles a man but the things that come out from his heart.

1 Timothy 5:23
Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

Their king-backup scripture is that if drinking wine was wrong, then why would Paul tell Timothy to drink a little? They debunk the argument of many who say that the wine mentioned was fruit wine because Paul used the word "little", showing that he was preventing excess and drunkenness (which are clearly prohibited as sinful).

But inspite of these verses and arguments, many denominations agree that Grace saves, and not works. But that restrictions also abound in the Epistles.

Galatians 5:13
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

The underlined instruction is that love must be the governing factor in every action the believer takes or subscribes to.

1 Timothy 3:2-3,8
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine...
Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre.

A person who did not completely abstain from wine was restrained from being a Bishop or a Deacon. lf drinking alcohol does not count, it would not have been a yardstick for picking church overseers and leaders.

Titus 1:7
For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;

The same yardstick for picking a Bishop that Paul wrote about to Timothy, he repeats to Titus.

Romans 14:15
For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.

As you drink alcohol in liberty, the unbelievers who do not understand on what liberty you operate will give themselves to it, until they become difficult to recover! Many of them will go on to drunkenness and addiction. The church should not share in the responsibility for making that happen. Rather, she should be calling a sinful and profane world to repentance and holiness.

Romans 14:21
It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

Love is the singular governing factor that restrains the believer from doing certain things, even things which may not be wrong in themselves, but which could promote wrongdoing.

1 Corinthians 8:13
Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

As long as people are bound to misinterpret a believer drinking alcohol and fall into debauchery, for the sake of such, in love and for Christ's sake who died for such, the believer should not drink alcohol. Not so that he may not go to hell, but for the sake of the ministry of Christ.

Why do most evangelical churches preach and teach against alcohol? 
The simplest answer to this question is that they are convinced that the teachings of the scriptures, particularly the New Testament, when applied to the question of alcohol consumption, demand total abstinence from alcohol consumption.

The teachings often referred to are centered on the issue of propriety, acting in love, and for the sake of the ministry of Christ on the earth.

Has this always been the case in church history? 
The answer is that it cannot be seen in church history that the church has unanimously said no to every drop of alcohol. This clear condemnation of alcohol usage is one of the fruits of the temperance movement in the 19th and 20th centuries.

This movement was not strictly a Christian movement. It was a social reform movement that was also promoted and heavily supported by churches, especially throughout the English-speaking world.

Prior to this movement, it was drunkenness, not necessarily alcohol consumption that was condemned as a sinful practice by Christians in general.

This is not to say that there were no churches that condemned alcohol consumption prior to the temperance movement, but it was during the temperance movement that many churches made a clear united stand against alcohol, and this has continued ever since. Anyone interested in more details could search the web for articles on the temperance reforms of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Charles Spurgeon 

You will find that some notable thought-leaders of the 19th-century church, whose works continue to speak volumes till this day, did in fact take alcohol, and some smoked too. For example, you will be surprised to find out that a man like Charles Spurgeon, known for opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day, did in fact take alcohol and smoked cigars too. Quite ironic, some may say.

Another was C. S. Lewis. He also drank. In his book 'Mere Christianity', he says, "It is a mistake to think that Christians ought all to be teetotallers. . .Of course it may be the duty of a particular Christian, or of any Christian, at a particular time, to abstain from strong drink, either because he is the sort of man who cannot drink at all without drinking too much, or because he is with people who are inclined to drunkenness and must not encourage them by drinking himself. But the whole point is that he is abstaining, for good reason, from something which he does not condemn and which he likes to see other people enjoying. One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting everyone else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons–marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning."

"One great piece of mischief has been done by the modern restriction of the word Temperance to the question of drink. It helps people forget that you can be just as intemperate about lots of other things. A man who makes his golf or his motor-bicycle the centre of his life, or a woman who devotes all her thoughts to clothes or bridge or her dog, is being just as ‘intemperate’ as someone who gets drunk every evening. Of course, it does not show on the outside so easily: bridge-mania or golf-mania do not make you fall down in the middle of the road. But God is not deceived by externals." (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, HarperCollins, 1977, pp. 72-3)

While it is clear that the Bible, not these two men or others, is the final authority on what constitutes correct Christian conduct, it is helpful for the purpose of study to put their lives into perspective for obvious reasons.

C. S. Lewis

Is there any scriptural warrant for this teaching, or doctrine? 
This is, of course the crux of the matter. It is at this point that the writer would plead that whoever reads will continue patiently to the end.

As hinted earlier, there are several teachings in the scripture that lead inevitably to this conclusion. It is not herein maintained that the apostles emphasized in each church they planted, the doctrine of total abstinence from alcohol. Many have tried to strain out such a notion from their own ideas of propriety, but there is no real evidence for such in the written word.

It is important to keep in perspective the fact that the earliest church was made up of both Jews and Gentiles. The Jews had no specific instruction from God through Moses to completely abstain from alcoholic drinks. But there was a commandment through the prophets against drunkenness. Consequently, Jews drank alcohol with a clear conscience, except when they descended into drunkenness. The Gentiles, of course, had no rules against drinking alcoholic drinks.

For the Jews who converted to Christianity, as with the issue of circumcision (which is another Jewish way of life), they received the apostolic teaching that 'drinking or not drinking did not recommend them to God, but only their faith in Christ did'. However, it is proper to note that this particular teaching specifically addressed the question of salvation through faith in Christ.

This can explain why it is factual that some members of the early church did drink alcoholic drinks at all. This is deduced both from Apostle Paul's usage of the word "little" when advising Timothy to take some wine for the sake of his stomach. And also, from Ephesians 5:18, which says, "Do not be intoxicated with wine...", suggesting that the problem was probably the intoxication, not the drinking at all.

The Cross
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In fact, some people say that Christ Himself instituted the use of alcoholic wine for the most symbolic Christian rite of holy communion. However, a closer look at the scripture reveals something different.

When Christ administered the passover to his disciples on the Passover night, all accounts of the gospels say, "And He took the cup...". The content of the cup was not mentioned specifically, except in Matthew where it says, “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29).

This "fruit of the vine" referred to grape fruit juice, not wine. Many who hold the view that wine was used by the Lord during the communion actually got that notion from Apostle Paul's rebuke to the Corinthian church over the manner in which they handled their cummunion services.

In 1 Corinthians 11:20-22, he rebuked some of them for getting "drunk" from the wine. Meaning that the early church did use alcoholic wine during communion. It is clear, therefore, that whereas the Lord instituted the holy communion using a non-alcoholic drink, the people of the early church, who were Jews and Gentiles, out of their tradition, used wine subsequently to conduct the rite.

Also, at a wedding feast in Canaan earlier, Jesus did turn water into wine. The scripture usage of the word “wine” both in our English language and in the original languages, do not show a very clear dinstinction between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. However, we wish to maintain in this article that: While the early apostles did not emphasize in each church they planted the doctrine of total abstinence from alcohol, the body of their teachings as a whole lead the careful mind to abstinence from alcohol in general via the following scriptures:

1)   In Mark 9:42-49, Our Savior, Jesus Christ, established the very important doctrine of removing, and separating from all sources of temptation; using ‘the eyes’, ‘the hand’, and ‘the feet’ to indicate that even apparently very useful things that make us sin should be renounced if we must eventually enter into His kingdom. It is a known fact that alcoholic beverages have a great potential for becoming addictive, and can easily lead to intoxication or loss of control. Hence, all such easily fall under this category. The person who loves his drink, would not like to admit this, but it is easy for the clear-minded to see that this scripture forbidding what is as valuable as a hand or a feet must necessarily forbid what can be easily done without. This teaching was emphasized by the apostles in several passages such as: 1Peter 2:11, Titus 2:12, 1Timothy 3:3, etc.

2)   Admittedly, that there are many folk who, as they say, drink responsibly, hence may declare that Mark 9:42-49 does not strictly apply to them, but the scripture also teaches that our liberty must not be an occasion for stumbling of others. As long as something, which is not strictly indispensable, is an occasion for the stumbling of the weaker brethren, it is our duty to give up the practice, or indulgence in such. This is precisely the teaching in Romans 14 and 1Corinthians 8. Indeed the inspired apostle declared “Therefore if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble”. This is true selflessness, and it is the spirit of the gospel. It is the life we are called to live in this new dispensation of grace.

A JUXTAPOSITION

We shall juxtapose three scriptures:

Leviticus 10:8-11 [ESV] 
And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying,
“Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.
You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean,
And you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.”

Luke 1:13,15 [ESV] 
But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
...For he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.

Ephesians 5:18 [ESV] 
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

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From the Luke and Ephesians passages, a relationship appears to be made between abstinence from wine and being filled with the Spirit.

Once the issue of salvation through faith in Christ, whether one drinks or not is settled, we see clearly from all three passages above that in the matter of the service and oracles (works/ministering) of God, drinking, not just drunkenness, is banned because of the Holy Spirit. The old testament is a shadow of the new.

In Leviticus, God specifically instructed Aaron and other Levites to abstain from alcohol "when you go into the tent of meeting". The reason, He said, was "You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean", and that "you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses". This is very strategic!

The first reason bordered on the issue of setting an example of propriety and holiness. The second reason suggested that doing otherwise would interfere with their spiritual service and ministry of teaching the statutes of God.

These explain why later on, in the new testament, John the Baptist had the same instruction to abstain from wine, and the Bishops (or overseers) of the church were to be chosen based upon adherence to that criterion, among other things.

Apparently, the only time in the new testament that we see an express allowance given, and to no less a person than Bishop Timothy by Apostle Paul, to take some alcohol, it was on health grounds.

According to Dr. Bola Ehinmoro, a medical doctor in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, who is also a Christian, the prevailing medical position on alcohol intake is this:
1.   That too much alcohol is very detrimental to health.
2.   That taking a little alcohol is better than none at all.

However, she says, "no doctor will advice anyone to take alcohol because it is addictive, and no one can predict who will be addicted; and weighing the few benefits of alcohol with the negative effects of too much intake resulting from addiction, it is best to err on the side of caution".



Chukwubuikem Paul Anunaso, Pastor Mark Desmond, Dr. Bola Ehinmoro, and an anonymous contributor all contributed to this article.

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