Christianity and alcohol

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Jesus making wine from water at a wedding

Christianity and its beliefs about alcohol have changed since Christianity was started about 2,000 years ago.

Wine and Christianity

Wine has always been important in Christianity. Christians believe that Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding where there was not enough to drink (see the picture at the right).

The Bible says that wine was also important at the Last Supper - the last time Jesus ate with his disciples before he was arrested. The Bible's Gospel of Matthew 26:27 says that Jesus held up a cup of wine and told all of his disciples:

"Take this [cup] all of you and drink from it. This is the cup of my blood ... My blood will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven."

Since that time, Roman Catholic church services have always included something called the Eucharist (also called "Holy Communion"). A priest holds up a cup of wine and says a prayer. At that point, Catholics believe the wine is turned into Jesus's blood. They believe drinking the wine is a way of remembering that Jesus was willing to die so their sins would be forgiven.

Early Christian Beliefs

In the first 1,800 years of church history, Christians often enjoyed alcoholic drinks as a part of their everyday life. At church, during the Eucharist, they almost always used wine.[1][2]

Early Christians believed the Bible and Christian tradition both said alcohol is a gift from God. They taught that this gift made life happier, but that drinking too much alcohol and becoming drunk was a sin.[3][4]

Protestant Beliefs

In the early 1500s, the Protestant Church split off from the Roman Catholic Church. Over time, these two Christian churches started to believe some different things.

By the mid-1800s, some Protestant Christians moved away from the traditional belief that drinking a moderate (small) amount of wine was not bad. (This belief was sometimes called moderationism). Some Protestants decided that not drinking wine at all was wisest (this was called abstentionism). Others decided that drinking any alcohol was sinful (this was called prohibitionism).[5]

Beliefs About Alcohol Today

Today, there are many different types of Christianity, with many different beliefs. Most people still believe in the traditional position: that drinking some wine is all right, just not too much. Most Christians' opinions about alcohol depend on how they understand what the Bible says about it.

The Bible often mentions alcoholic drinks. Sometimes it talks about real wine. Other times, it uses the word "wine" to mean something else. The Bible says that alcohol is a blessing from God that makes people happy, but it can also be dangerously and sinfully used.[6][7]

The Bible uses a few different words for alcoholic drinks.[4][8] Though prohibitionists and some abstentionists disagree,[9][10][11][12] most people agree that the words were usually meant to be about intoxicating drinks (drinks that can make a person drunk).[4][7][13][14][15][16]

Wine was an important and common drink in Biblical times. Because of this, the Bible sometimes uses wine as a symbol to teach about good and bad.[17][18] Some parts of the Bible use wine as a symbol for good things, like abundance and health.[19] However, the Bible also calls wine a mocker and beer a brawler (a person who fights too much).[20] Other parts of the Bible use drinking a cup of strong wine and getting drunk as a symbol of God's anger.[21]

Christianity And Alcohol Media

  • Jesus making wine from water in The Marriage at Cana, a 14th-century fresco from the Visoki Dečani monastery

  • The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci Christ administered "the fruit of the vine".

  • Ancient wine press in Israel with the pressing area in the center and the collection vat off to the bottom left.

  • Rembrandt's Belshazzar's Feast (1635) depicts the Babylonian king's drinking party the same night the kingdom fell to the sober Persians. "Lest they drink" (Prov. 31:5) Of course Daniel was absent. (Dan. 5:13) (National Gallery, London)

  • A monk-cellarer tasting wine from a barrel while filling a jug (from an illuminated manuscript of the 13th century)

  • 18th-century Methodist bishop Francis Asbury held that abstinence from alcoholic beverages is "highly necessary for the divine life."

  • William Booth of the Salvation Army

References

  1. ↑ R. V. Pierard. Alcohol, Drinking of (1984). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House. p. 28f. ISBN 0-8010-3413-2.
  2. ↑ Wine (2005)Oxford University Press, USA. p. 1767. ISBN 978-0192802903.
  3. ↑ Raymond, p. 90.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Wine (1897). Retrieved 2007-01-22.
  5. ↑ Kenneth Gentry. God Gave Wine (2001)Oakdown. p. 3ff. ISBN 0-9700326-6-8.
  6. ↑ I. W. Raymond. The Teaching of the Early Church on the Use of Wine and Strong Drink (1970)AMS Press. p. 25. ISBN 978-0404512866.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Ethical Investment Advisory Group. Alcohol: An inappropriate investment for the Church of England (January 2005)Church of England. Retrieved 2007-02-08.
  8. ↑ Fitzsimmonds, pp. 1254f.
  9. ↑ Stephen M. Reynolds. The Biblical Approach to Alcohol (1989). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    • Stuart, Moses (1891). New York: Funk and Wagnalls. p. 621. Quoted in Reynolds, The Biblical Approach to Alcohol.
  10. ↑ Ralph Earle. Word Meanings in the New Testament (1986). Kansas City, Missouri: Beacon Hill Press. ISBN 0834111764.
    • Dave Miller. Elders, Deacons, Timothy, and Wine (2003)Apologetics Press. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
    • Frederic Richard Lees. The Temperance Bible-Commentary (1870). New York: National Temperance Society and Publication House. p. 431–446.
    • William Patton. Laws of Fermentation and the Wines of the Ancients (1871). New York: National Temperance Society and Publication House. p. 79. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
  11. ↑ Samuele Bacchiocchi. A Preview of Wine in the Bible'. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
  12. ↑ John MacArthur. Living in the Spirit: Be Not Drunk with Wine--Part 2. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
    • G. A. McLauchlin. Commentary on Saint John (1973). Salem, Ohio: Convention Book Store H. E. Schmul. p. 32.
  13. ↑ W. Ewing. Wine 2 (1913). Edinburgh: T & T Clark. p. 824. Retrieved 2007-03-14. (Emphasis in original.)
    • Charles Hodge. Systematic Theology (1940)Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 3:616. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
    • A. A. Hodge. Evangelical Theology. p. 347f. Quoted in Keith Mathison. Protestant Transubstantiation - Part 3: Historic Reformed & Baptist Testimony. IIIM Magazine Online 3 (2) (January 8–14, 2001). Retrieved 2007-01-22.
  14. ↑ W. J. Beecher. Total abstinence. p. 472. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
  15. ↑ Archaeological Study Bible (2006)Zondervan. ISBN 9780310926054.
  16. ↑ John F. MacArthur. GC 70-11: "Bible Questions and Answers". Retrieved 2007-01-22.
    • Pierard, p. 28: "No evidence whatsoever exists to support the notion that the wine mentioned in the Bible was unfermented grape juice. When juice is referred to, it is not called wine (Gen. 40:11). Nor can 'new wine' ... mean unfermented juice, because the process of chemical change begins almost immediately after pressing."
  17. ↑ W. Dommershausen. Yayin VI (1990)Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 64. ISBN 0-8028-2330-0.
  18. ↑ Raymond, p. 24
  19. ↑ Ge 27:28; 49:9-12; Dt 7:13; 11:14; 15:14; compare 33:28; Pr 3:9f; Jr 31:10-12; Ho 2:21-22; Jl 2:19,24; 3:18; Am 9:13f; compare 2Ki 18:31-32; 2Ch 32:28; Ne 5:11; 13:12; etc.
  20. ↑ Pr 20:1
  21. ↑ Ps 60:3; 75:8; Is 51:17-23; 63:6; Jr 13:12-14; 25:15-29; 49:12; 51:7; La 4:21f; Ezk 23:28-33; Na 1:9f; Hab 2:15f; Zc 12:2; Mt 20:22; 26:39, 42; Lk 22:42; Jn 18:11; Re 14:10; 16:19; see Ps Sol 8:14
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