BiblicalInsights.net

Earl Edwards recently wrote a lecture for the Freed Hardeman Lectureship held in February, 2018 titled, “Can a Christian Drink Alcohol?”  (Entrusted with the Faith,ed. by Douglas Y. Burleson, 147-155) in which he affirms the moderation view of drinking alcoholic beverages while advising a voluntary abstinence.  I have written a reply to Edwards and put it on my blog under the page Biblical Articles.  Please take the time to read this reply.  Edwards makes the following errors:  (1) he commits the fallacy of selective evidence; (2) he commits the fallacy of analogy by using an analogy falsely; (3) he contradicts the apostle Paul; and (4) he contradicts himself.  In these ways, Edwards has violated the law of rationality in order to reach his conclusions. The reader is asked to weigh the evidence, reason about the evidence correctly, and draw only such conclusions as are warranted by the evidence.

Abraham Lincoln summarized domestic life in Sangamon County, Illinois, “We found intoxicating liquor used by everybody, repudiated by nobody,” he told a temperance meeting in 1842.  He was 33 years old.  “It commonly entered into the first draught of an infant and the last thought of the dying man.” “It was, he said, “the devastator.” (Daniel Okrent, Last Call, p. 9).
Intoxicating liquor, to use Lincoln’s own words, is destroying lives every day.  The opioid crisis in America takes 100 lives every day.  But, 88,000 Americans lose their lives every year to alcohol.  That’s 241 lives every day!  Where is the outrage?  Where are the voices crying out against this devastation?
The case for abstinence regarding the use of intoxicating liquor needs to be made clearly and strongly today.  The Bible does not endorse the moderation view which is now being accepted by many in religious groups.  The Bible condemns the use of intoxicating beverages.  One way to determine this is to consider the difference between good wine and bad wine throughout the Scriptures.
Moses Stuart remarks, “My final conclusion is this, viz., that whenever the Scriptures speak of wine as a comfort, a blessing or a libation to God, and rank it with such articles as corn and oil, they mean, they can mean only such wine as contained no alcohol that could have a mischievous tendency; that whenever they denounce it, and connect it with drunkenness and reveling, they can mean only alcoholic or intoxicating wine” (William Patton, Bible Wine and the Laws of Fermentation, p. 64).  Stuart’s comment recognizes that the word wine in the Bible is generic and may refer to either an intoxicating drink or an unintoxicating drink.  The context will determine which is intended.
Patton, in his book, Bible Wines and the Laws of Fermentation, demonstrates this important distinction.
Bad Wine or Fermented Wine.
One class of texts in the Scriptures characterizes wine as:
1.  The cause of intoxication.  Drunkenness is mentioned in the Scriptures and it is always condemned.  It is a work of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-20).
2.  The cause of violence and woe.  Prov. 4:17 and 23:29-30.
3.  The cause of self-security and irreligion.  Isa. 56:12; Hab. 2:5; Isa. 28:7.
4.  Poisonous and destructive.  Prov. 23:31; Deut. 32:33.  This argument refutes the notion that alcohol is a part of God’s creation and should be received as “food.”  Alcohol does not occur except through the process of decomposition and is not a natural state of the fruit of the vine.
5.  Condemning those who are devoted to drink.  Isa. 5:22, “Woe unto them that are mighty to drink (yayin) wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink.”  I Cor. 6:10.
6.  The emblem of punishment and eternal ruin.  Psa. 60:3; 75:8; Isa. 51:17; Jer. 25:15; Rev. 16:19; Rev. 14:10.
Another class of texts in Scripture speaks of wine as good.  Obviously, this is not the same type of wine.  The good wine is not intoxicating.
1.  The wine to be presented at the altar as an offering to God.  Numbers 8:12, “All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the first-fruits of them which they shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given thee.”  All the best of the wine (tirosh) is associated with the first-fruits.  The Hebrew word tirosh is used of sweet or unfermented wine.
2.  The wine that is classed among the blessings, comforts, and necessaries of life.  Gen. 27:28, Deut. 7:13; Deut. 11:14; Prov. 3:10; Isa. 24:7; Isa. 65:8; Judges 9:13; Joel 3:18; Psa. 104:14,15.
3.  The wine that is an emblem of spiritual blessings.  Isa. 55:1.  This passages teaches the riches of God’s grace.  Milk and sweet wine stand as emblems of spiritual blessings.
4.  The wine that is an emblem of the blood of the atonement.  When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper he spoke of the fruit of the vine as representative of His blood.  Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24.  In I Cor. 10:6, Paul refers to the cup as the “cup of blessing which we bless.”  This cup (fruit of the vine) is the communion of the blood of Christ.  Certainly, this juice must be distinguished from the wine so strongly condemned in God’s Word and designated by Lincoln as “the devastator.”
The correct interpretation of God’s word results in a strong case for abstinence and against the moderation view regarding drinking alcoholic beverages.  God leads us into the paths of righteousness and not into the paths of destruction and devastation.

Christopher Ingraham, in The Washington Post, August 13, 2017 provided the following information about alcohol abuse in the United States.
–A new study published in JAMA Psychiatry this month finds that the rate of alcohol use disorder (alcoholism) rose by a shocking 49 percent in the first decade of the 2000’s.
–1 in 8 Americans, 12.7 percent of the U. S. population, now meets diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder.
–The authors of the study characterize the findings as a serious and overlooked public health problem.  Health issues involved in alcohol abuse are:  fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, liver cirrhosis, several types of cancer and infections, pancreatitis, type 2 diabetes and various injuries.  In another study, The American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research fund have announced the analysis of 119 previous studies involving 12 million women and 260,000 cases of breast cancer.  The study shows that even one small glass of wine or an eight-ounce beer a day causes a 5% greater risk of breast cancer for premenopausal women and a 9% increase for postmenopausal women.  Alcohol triggers DNA mutations and raises estrogen levels which are linked to increased risk for breast cancer.  (Does God Exist?, Third Quarter, 2017, p. 26).
–The CDC (Center For Disease Control) estimates that 88,000 people a year die from alcohol-related causes.  This is more than double the annual death rate of opiate overdoses (100 people a day die from opiate/heroin overdoes in the U. S.).  241 people a day are dying due to alcohol abuse!  Where are the headlines exposing this crisis?
–Nearly 1 in 4 adults under the age of 30 (23.4 percent) met the diagnostic criteria for alcoholism.
A diagnosis of alcohol dependency occurs when any three of the following seven symptoms are present:
1.  Need for markedly increased amounts of alcohol to achieve intoxication or desired effect.
2.  Characteristic withdrawal symptoms (shakes for instance) or drinking to relieve these types of symptoms.
3.  Drinking larger amounts; or, over a longer period of time.
4.  Persistent desire or one or more unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control drinking (out-of-control drinking).
5.  Spending a great deal of time in activities necessary to obtain, to use, or to recover from the effects of drinking.
6.  Continued drinking despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to be caused or exacerbated by drinking.
7.  Important social, occupational, or recreational activities given up or reduced because of drinking.
God’s Word Condemns Drinking Alcohol
Consider the following passages that condemn the use of alcohol.  Proverbs 20:1, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”  Prov. 23:29, “Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling?  Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?  They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine?  Eph. 5:18, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”  “Be not drunk” is an inceptive verb that refers to the entire process of inebriation, from the first drink onward.  There is an alternative to consuming alcohol and that is to be filled with the Spirit.  Rom. 8:13-14, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”  Gal. 5:19-21, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
The sin of drinking alcoholic beverages in our culture and in our churches has become widespread.  The indulgence of the lusts of the flesh are detrimental to the cultivation of godly character.  The use of alcohol lessons our ability to practice self-control.  The result is that alcohol use becomes an avenue for the commission of more sins (fornication, adultery, domestic abuse, violence, death and injury due to drunk driving, murder, and such like).
Paul set forth a clear pathway to God that involves mortifying the lusts of the flesh and pursuing life in the Spirit.  Those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God.

The Columbus Dispatch began a new series several weeks ago called Guide to Life.  This series is available online at www.dispatch.com.  In an article for the series, Allison Ward wrote about how to keep kids off of drugs.  The article was informative.  However, a quotation appeared in it from Dr. Steven Matson, a physician at Children’s Hospital.  Dr. Matson said, “Parents need to remember that it is a treatable disease–and No. 1, that it is a disease.”  “It’s not a mental or moral failure.”  He was speaking about drug abuse.
Is drug abuse a moral issue?  Please consider the following facts.
First, 36% of 12th graders smoked marijuana according to the NIDA (National Institute of Drug Abuse).  Marijuana is an illegal drug.  Breaking the law is a moral issue.Second, 15% used prescription drugs illegally.  Again, breaking the law is a moral issue.
Third, more than 25% had gotten drunk (alcohol is a drug) within the past month.  Drunkenness is a sin (Gal. 5:19-21).  This is a moral issue.
Fourth, 5,000 people younger than 21 die each year of injuries related to underage drinking (underage means it was illegal for them to drink).  This is a moral issue and a social issue.  Under the influence of drugs (alcohol included), individuals lose their power of restraint and control.  Temperance is a virtue (II Peter 1:6).  Is intemperance a virtue too?  This is a moral issue.
Fifth, the age of trial for use is now as early as 10 or 11.  Our young people are struggling with drug abuse and its consequences at an earlier and earlier age.  An eleven- year-old is not equipped to handle the harm to self, to society and to the spiritual aspects of his/her life.  The age of innocency is corrupted by drug abuse.  This is a moral issue.
Sixth, yielding to the lusts of the flesh is a moral issue.  “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:5-6).  The works of the flesh are named by Paul in Gal. 5:19-21.  Paul stated, “…they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
For all of the reasons given above, we must affirm that drug abuse is a moral issue.  All of the statistics given above are from the article by Allison Ward!
A strong faith in moral integrity is a deterrent to drug abuse.  The teaching of God’s Word noted above helps to inform and train the conscience against sinful conduct.  Young people need exposure to the truth in order to internalize its principles by faith and love for God.  Love for God is a deterrent to drug abuse.  Love for God manifests itself in a desire to please God and live for Him.  Self-denial is an important aspect of self-control.  Self-control is a virtue.  Godly character is a deterrent to drug abuse.  To say that drug abuse is not a moral issue is to destroy many of the effective, internal, aspects of deterrence.

Detour is the latest book from the pen of Marilyn Lancelot. It is a sequel to her previous book, Gripped by Gambling which she wrote five years ago. I reviewed that book on my blog and I have reviewed her latest book too. Detour is Marilyn’s story about her struggle with several different addictions inclulding alcoholism and gambling. She relates personal information that helps the reader connect with her and she gives many insights into addictive behavior. This is a story of struggle and triumph. It is a story of despair and hope. It is a story of human weakness and strength. I have uploaded my review under the Book Review page on this blog. I hope you will read the review and then buy the book.

In an interview with the New Yorker’s David Remnick, President Obama said, “As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a y0ung person up through a big chunk of my adult life.  I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol” (Molly Reilly, www.huffingtonpost.com, 1/19/2014 updated: 1/25/2014).
Perhaps we should ask, “how dangerous is alcohol?”  There are approximately 88,000 deaths attributable to excessive alcohol use each year in the U.S.  This makes excessive alcohol use the 3rd leading lifestyle-related cause of death for the nation.  Excessive alcohol use is responsible for 2.5 million years of potential life lost annually, or an average of about 30 years of potential life lost for each death.  In 2006, there were more than 1.2 million emergency room visits and 2.7 million physician office visits due to excessive drinking.  The economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2006 were estimated at $223.5 billion.  (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–Fact Sheet Alcohol Use and Health).
The standard measure for a drink is 0.6 ounces (1.2 tablespoons) of pure alcohol.  Generally, this amount of alcohol is found in:  12-ounces of regular beer or wine cooler; 8-ounces of malt-liquor; 5-ounces of wine; or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits or liquor (gin, rum, vodka, whiskey) (Center for Disease Control and Prevention).  Binge drinking is defined for women as 4 or more drinks during a single occasion.  For men, 5 or more drinks during a single occasion.  Heavy drinking for women is more than 1 drink per day on average and for men it is more than 2 drinks per day on average!  A small amount of alcohol becomes very dangerous very quickly.
Here is a list of the immediate health risks of excessive alcohol use:  unintential injuries, including traffic injuries, falls, drownings, burns, and unintential firearm injuries;  violence including intimate partner violence and child maltreatment.  About 35% of victims report that offenders are under the influence of alcohol.  Alcohol use is also associated with 2 out of 3 incidents of intimate partner violence.  Alcohol is the leading factor in child maltreatment and neglect cases, and is the most frequent substance abused among these parents;  risky sexual behaviors, including unprotected sex, sex with multiple partners, and increased risk of sexual assault.  These behaviors can result in unintended pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases;  miscarriage and still birth among pregnant women, and a combination of physical and mental birth defects among children that last throughout life;  and alcohol poisoning, a medical emergency that results from high blood alcohol levels that suppress the central nervous system and can cause loss of consciousness, low blood pressure and body temperature, coma, respiratory depression, or death.
Some of the long-term health risks of excessive alcohol use are:  neurological problems, including dementia, stroke and neuropathy;  cardiovascular problems, including myocardial infarction, cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation and hypertension;  psychiatric problems including depression, anxiety, and suicide;  social problems including unemployment, lost productivity, and family problems and  cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, liver, colon, and breast.  In general, the risk of cancer increases with increasing amounts of alcohol.  Liver diseases including, alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis, which is among the 15 leading causes of all deaths in the United States, and among persons with Hepatitis C virus, worsening of liver function and interference with medications used to treat this condition. Excessive alcohol use also causes gastrointestinal problems, including pancreatitis and gastritis (Center for Disease Control and Prevention).  I gave this list because I wanted you to read what the President of the United States left out of his statement that marijuana is not any more dangerous than alcohol.  Do you see how dangerous alcohol is?  Do we need another drug that destroys the brain and other vital organs of the body?  Do we need another drug that will rob of life, peace and happiness?  By our choices we reflect a penchant for the indulgence of the flesh at the expense of our own well-being and that of others.  Such self-indulgence leads to self-destruction!  Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is!  The President of the United States was minimizing a grave danger.  Don’t be fooled.

Drug addiction is a difficult problem.  Denial of this problem only makes the problem worse.  What can be done to help in these difficult situations?
1.  Awareness of the problem.  In the parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus relates that the prodigal “came to himself.”  Luke 15:17.  The younger son in the parable came to the realization that he had a problem.  In a previous blog, we examined twenty signs of addiction.  The signs are given to help a person analyze the situation and draw the right conclusion as to whether or not a drug abuse problem exists.  Some professionals (mentioned below can administer tests that diagnose drug addiction).
2.  Breaking through self-denial.  One of the most serious problems confronting an addict is admitting to an addiction.  The addiction to a drug actually interferes with admission to a problem.  Judgment is imparied due to inebriation.  It is difficult to communicate with a person when they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs and it is not recommended to attempt to elicite agreements for changes in behavior while under the influence of a drug.  When a person is sober they think better and are in a position to make good decisions.  Often the first step is detoxification and then professional treatment.  Personal responsibility and accountability are essential to overcoming a drug addiction.
3.  Don’t become an enabler.  Often those who are closely associated with the addict are co-dependent.  Co-dependency means that there is an exchange of needs between the addict and the enabler.  An enabler may lie for an addict to cover up his/her mistakes, missed work, or other failures.  An enabler may pay bills that are encurred due to the addiction.  The enabler may do this to lessen the experience of pain the addict is causing or avoid embarrassment or to continue to recieve some emotional or physical benefit.  When we enable an addict we suspend the law of reaping and sowing (Gal. 6:7-“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”).  The addict will continue to drain the resources of the enabler until there is a crisis.  The crisis is inevitable unless the addict takes action to resolve the addiction.
4.  Seek professional help.  Some professionals that can help are:  doctors, drug counselors, ministers, hospital drug treatment programs and AA (Alcoholilc Anonymous) programs.
5.  Strengthen your own relationship with God.  Most who overcome addictive behaviors credit God with helping them.  Often, when addiction occurs,estrangement from God occurs too.  James states, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you…” (James 4:8).    God’s Word gives us wisdom to guide us along the pathway of righteousness.  We will need His wisdom to make correct decisions that will help us overcome the problem of addiction.  Those who are not Christians should consider surrendering their lives to God (Rom. 12:1-2).  Real change in God’s direction involves repentance from sin and forgiveness from God (Acts 2:38).
6.  Character Counts.  If you’re attempting to help an addict, you will need patience, perseverance, love, determination, self-control, strength, kindness, truth and many other qualities.  Your character will be tested.  Make sure that you define the type of help you are willing to give.  Don’t be afraid to set boundaries.
The coping strategies set forth here are not exhaustive, but they will help you make a start in the right direction.  As you seek more information about the subject of addiction and professional help, you will define a pathway that will focus on a solution.  There is no guarantee that the addict will walk this pathway.  You cannot force him/her to do what is right.  Ultimately, the addict must make the decision to seek help and pursue the means of  hope and healing.