Let's have a little fun with that wackiest of prot sects, the Baptists:
Is Mandatory Abstinence from Wine Biblical?
Question: Most Baptist churches require that members abstain from alcohol. Is this Biblical?
Not really. Most Baptist churches do in fact require their members to abstain from wine and other alcoholic beverages. In doing so, they stand in direct contradiction of the Biblical instruction, "let no man judge you in food or in drink" (Col. 2:16), and expose their requirement of abstinence as a "doctrine of men" (Col. 2:22) from which Christians ought rightly to be set at liberty.
Baptists will point to Paul's comment that "it is good to neither eat meat nor drink wine" (Ro. 14:21), but do they require their members to abstain from meat as well? To do otherwise is hypocrisy! More discerning Baptists will point out that Paul goes on to say that "it is good to neither eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles," and thence claim that they insist on abstinence in order to prevent their brothers from stumbling. But they forget that Paul also counsels, "Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him" (Ro. 14:3). What's more, in practice, some Baptists use the consumption of alcohol as a test by which to discriminate sinner from saint, and saved from unsaved. And this is not causing one's brother to stumble! Have they forgotten Paul's admonition "why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother?" (Ro. 14:10).
Do Baptists wish to make a sinner of our Lord Jesus Christ, who both made wine (Jo. 2:3-10) and drank wine (Mat. 11:19, Lk. 7:34)? Did Jesus come to cause the Christian to stumble? Out of the question! Do the Baptists forget that the Apostle Paul counseled his protégé Timothy to drink wine (1 Tim. 5:23)?
Some Baptists will point out that they, as a church, seek to follow the example of John the Baptist, who did not drink wine. Do they forget that the baptism of John the Baptist was superseded by the baptism of Jesus Christ (John 3:22-4:2, Acts 19:3-5), who made and drank wine, and whose disciples drank wine?
Finally, Baptists make themselves, and by implication Christ, a target of mockery by imposing such a requirement on their members. For example:
Question - "What are the principal differences between the religions?" Answer - "Jews don't recognize Jesus, Protestants don't recognize the Pope, and Baptists don't recognize each other in the liquor store."
