Letters    

USE OF WINE (Con't.)

Dear J. Z.                                                                                                        October 9, 1984

      I received with interest your last letter. I felt as though you were trying to stone me to death with popcorn. If I am to be convinced I am in error, my arguments must be more than dismissed as being "novel."

      The problem lies in seeking truth from an unbiased source. It is certain that someone who wants to excuse their drinking of alcohol will attempt to justify their position. Until we can honestly settle the point in question we will appear like the elephant and the whale trying to fight each other: both full of splash and roar, but neither making much impression on the other.

      If alcohol is a dangerous substance, why fool around with it? It is not necessary, whereas food is. ...On the eve of the Battle of Dunbar, Cromwell exhorted the Scottish presbytery, "I beseech ye, brethren, by the bowels of Christ, that ye consider that ye may be wrong." Perhaps you should reconsider the fact that the antinomian writers you have ingested know little of true Biblical holiness. "May God Smile On You"—Bach.

Dear G. T.                                                                                                        August 20, 1992

      ...I was disappointed in the last Reformation Today that E. H. encouraged people to use wine in the Lord's Supper. When we are forbidden to look upon the wine "when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright" (Proverbs 23:31) it seems rather an anomaly to say we ought to drink it. "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted" (Proverbs 31:4,5). It would seem, therefore, that the wisest policy would be not to drink it.

      A few years ago, I was in an automobile with 5 grace preachers when the subject came up of using wine in the Lord's Supper. One brother pretended to be offended that we do not use wine in the service. I told my Baptist brethren the Lord's Supper was instituted at the close of the Passover Feast at which all leaven was to be purged from the dwellings of the Jews. They were speechless when I reminded them that wine is leavened juice. Must go.

Dear J. Z.                                                                                                 September 22, 1987

     ...Regarding the use of wine, and particularly the passage in Psalm 104, consider l.) that the wine used in Bible days was so watered down that a person had to "tarry long" to become intoxicated. The wine used then would hardly meet the classification of an alcoholic beverage by today's standards.

      2.) The Lord forbade the priests in Israel to drink wine or strong drink when they went into the tabernacle of the Lord upon pain of death (Leviticus 10:8-11).

      3.) "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted" (Proverbs 31:4,5).

       4.) Is it the best thing to do to drink wine or strong drink? William Law makes a strong case that the godly man does not ask what is pardonable, or allowable, but what is commendable, and praiseworthy.

     5.) Is the drinking of alcohol offensive to members of the household of faith? "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak" (Romans 14:21). "But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died" (vs. 15).

     6.) People drink alcohol because they want to drink. Among the household of faith, however, many saints have a conscience against it; therefore when they imbibe, they must attempt to justify it—"and he that doubteth is `damned' (judged) if he eat" (Romans 14:23a).

USE OF WINE

Dear D. S.                                                                                                  September 16, 1992

       ...I was disappointed to read E. H.'s defense of using wine in the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper was instituted at the close of the Jewish Passover. Jews are so solicitous of obeying the law prohibiting the use of leaven during Passover, that many families keep a set of pots and pans exclusively for use during Passover. Wine is leavened juice. It seems very improbable to me that Israel was forbidden to eat leaven, but was permitted to drink it.

     Personally, soon after I was converted, I made a vow to the Lord that I would never knowingly consume wine or strong drink.

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