“the Bible condemns intoxication”?
Didn’t Jesus drink wine?
Let me help you with your response ...it was grape juice, it’s not “wine” in the fermented state, something got lost in the translation from ancient Aramaic to the English King James version.
Let me help you with your response ...it was grape juice, it’s not “wine” in the fermented state, something got lost in the translation from ancient Aramaic to the English King James version.
Hardly. Those folks knew how to get smashing drunk.
Rather than consult teatotallers for their opinions, it is much simpler to find relevant passages in Scipture. Proverbs 31 prohibits the king from wine and princes from strong drink, yet encourages losers to get blitzed so that they can forget their pain.
The theme regarding intoxicants in Scripture have to do with the association with recklessness and debotchery. In Mark 6 the drunks at the party thought it would be a great idea to lop the head off of John the Baptist. How can anyone forget Balshazar's last party? Then we have fun passages like this:
Isaiah 28:7-8 "But they also have erred through wine, And through intoxicating drink are out of the way; The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink, They are swallowed up by wine, They are out of the way through intoxicating drink; They err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filth; No place is clean."
Which doesn't exactly sound like a ringing endorsement for intoxication.
The prophet Hosea said "Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart." Aaron was warned in Lev 10 that intoxication makes one unable to distinguish between what is "holy and unholy, between clean and unclean." And so my argument against intoxicants has been that it is incompatible with civilization. If you want to live like crude, selfish, barbarians then load up on what ever screws you up, and proudly proclaim the "Allah Ahkbar" of the Darwin Award candidates - "Hold my beer and watch this."