Audio Transcription:
Let me start by talking about my personal disposition. My background, my prejudices, because everybody has influences, right?Family, experiences you’ve had? I’m usually abstinent. This means that if I have a choice, I don’t drink, but I might drink to be a good guest. This is my little experience of freedom in Christ. If I’m in Germany, I won’t be rude. If they put something on the table, I’ll try to honor them as a guest.
- I want love to be the guide and love is what keeps me away from alcoholic beverages every day.
- But here’s the most detailed answer.
- Which explains a little bit why I chose this path.
- Even if I don’t make it a requirement for everyone.
The first answer I would give to the question “it is sin to drink alcohol” is the same answer I would give to the question “it is sin to drink water”. And the answer is “it can be. ” It is a sin to drink water when water must be given to someone who needs it; drinking water while listening with respect to the preaching of God’s Word is sin; Drinking water after someone has told you that it is contaminated and can kill you is a sin Therefore, drinking water can be a sin and drinking alcohol can also be a sin.
But that can’t be the case either. Jesus made wine for the wedding party in Cana of Galilee and I suppose He made wine for people to drink and not cooperate with their sin. Paul told Timothy to drink wine for medical reasons. you can’t “receive too much wine,” which I think suggests moderate use.
Psalm 104:15 says that it is a gift from God: “The wine that delights the heart of man, and the oil that makes his face shine. “Therefore, I believe that it is not possible to defend, on the basis of the scriptures, this abstention is obligatory.
If you choose not to drink alcohol, as I did, like your lifestyle, this should be based on a principle that goes beyond what the Bible requires of us.
So what would that principle be? It’s really amazing to see how many warnings in the Bible regarding alcoholic beverages, I’ll mention some of them here.
“And don’t you get drunk on wine?” Ephesians 5. 18
Romans 14: “It’s good not to drink wine or do anything your brother might fall on.
Osas 4. 11 😕 You came and you must take away the understanding. ?
Ezzekiel 44. 21: No priest will drink wine when he enters the inner courtyard.
Proverbs 20. 1 😕 Wine is a drinker and a strong drink, a cry; anyone who is defeated by them is not wise. ?
Proverbs 21 😕 Anyone who loves wine and oil will never get rich
And proverbs’ longest statement reads in chapter 23: “For those who are late to drink wine, for those seeking a mixed drink. Do not look at the wine, when it is red, when it shines in the glass and because it bites like a snake and it stings like a basil; your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will say evil; Will you be like the one lying in the middle of the sea and the one lying at the tip of the mast?Excellent comparison! And you will say, They beat me, and it did not hurt; they beat me and I didn’t feel it; When am I going to wake up?So I’ll drink again. ? It’s in Proverbs 23. 30-35. ” Don’t look at the wine when it’s red. ‘I don’t know what that means, except there may be a kind of drink that’s too dangerous. Isn’t that right?”
Proverbs 31 also says: “It is not of kings, O Lemuel, it is not of kings to drink wine, nor of princes to desire a strong drink. So that they do not drink, they forget the law and pervert the right of all the afflicted.
Or Deuteronomy 29: “Did you not drink wine or cider to know that I am the Lord?They didn’t drink wine in the desert because it would help them know God completely.
So the impression is that although wine was allowed and was a blessing, there were dangers associated with it.
And I would add that the situation that I live in the United States is why it does not motivate me at all to try to enjoy alcoholic beverages, I feel very satisfied without them and my thoughts are: I was a minister for 30 years in Bethlehem, a few blocks from Desafio Jovem and practically every Saturday night some of those guys who were trying to break free from their alcohol addiction came to receive a prayer and their stories were just tragic. He was delighted with his release. I have seen how drinking destroys lives and I have seen those lives rebuilt without alcohol.
Yesterday I did a Google investigation: $200 billion a year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is that the cost to Americans?$750 per U. S. is spent on health care due to alcoholic beverages. A third of all deaths on the road are from the consumption of alcoholic beverages, as are most of the problems of our culture. You can read the statistics about divorces, abuses, etc. , not forgetting those who babble like fools on planes and become very, very irritating.
So, considering that there is no order for me to drink, in fact, the drink of communion is never called wine in the New Testament, that was probably the case. I’m not saying no. This was probably the case, but it’s not interesting that communion isn’t called “wine” anywhere. Is it often called one? Calice? And it is called the “fruit of the vine,” so no one can insist that there be an order to drink wine to participate in the Lord’s Supper.
Considering that the Bible is particularly cautious about alcohol consumption, considering that I don’t feel like drinking and that God has given many other drinks that don’t have the same kinds of addictive and destructive side effects, what I like to say is that I leave the best for the end, I leave the best for when I know how to handle it, it’s easy for me to get hooked. I buy a pack of gum and finish in 5 minutes, because I know myself and I know this culture that is being destroyed, partly by alcohol, I don’t feel motivated to do something I don’t want to do.
And I want to end by saying that I don’t condemn those who make other decisions, I don’t intend to throw a crusade for others to join me, I’m just explaining why I’m positioning myself like this.