Juice or Wine?

Ok, I am cheating today and posting something that I did not write. Here is an article from a newsletter that I receive and I wanted to share it with you. It should be discussion inducing; just keep it nice please. If you are interested in signing up for this newsletter just click on the graphic.

Jesus, the Scriptures tells us, served “the fruit of the vine” (Matthew 26:29, Mark 14:25) and ‘the cup” (Luke 22:20). We could break down the common usage of these expressions in this time, flipping pages in our word study books until we are blue in the face. Others have done so. The evidence is overwhelmingly one sided. I’d commend to your reading by Ken Gentry, published by Oakdown Press. Or we could start from the other direction and ask this question, “What do we want it to mean?” That is, are people on my side of this issue eager to take flimsy evidence to conclude that it was wine as some sort of justification for our sin, or, are the people on the other side eager to take flimsy evidence to conclude that it was grape juice, or unfermented wine, in order to hold on to the notion that the moderate consumption of alcohol is at best unwise and at worst a sin. That is to say, the question really isn’t about the Last Supper (nor, for that matter is it about the wedding feast at Cana, or the wine Paul encourages Timothy to take, nor the wine and strong drink we are encouraged to buy with our tithes in Deuteronomy 14:26.) The real question is this, is it permissible for the Christian to consume alcohol in moderation?

 

Whenever there is a close call in terms of understanding the Bible, when men of good will and obvious Christian faith disagree, one of my convictions is that it is always wise to look to the wisdom of the church over the ages. Has the church spoken to issue x, and has it given a consistent answer? On this issue we have to begin by noting that while there is in our day some level of disagreement, that this isn’t at all what one would consider to be a close issue. Until 150 years ago, virtually no one in the church ever took the position that drinking alcohol in moderation is a sin. No one. There are no ancient exegetical studies of these accounts of Jesus and wine breaking down the words because no one bothered to do so. Everyone knew it was wine. The question simply wasn’t asked, because there was no reason to ask it.

 

Remember the RC Sproul Jr. principle of hermeneutics- whenever you see someone doing something really stupid in the Bible, do not say to yourself, “How can they be so stupid?” Instead say to yourself, “How am I more stupid?” The same thing applies to church history. When we look at all the foolish distortions of the faith brought into Roman Catholicism when she added tradition as a second source of revelation, we ought to be on guard for our own ways of doing so. The only difference is that our traditions are younger, and thankfully, we can get rid of them. “Consuming alcohol is a sin” is a tradition, a foolish, albeit well-meaning one, in the modern evangelical church. Like the doctrine of purgatory, it has no Biblical support. Like Roman Catholics and their traditions, evangelicals cling desperately to this tradition, against all Biblical evidence.

 

To reject this tradition isn’t, as those who created it will tell us, to start down the road to worldliness. It isn’t to creep toward a life of self-destruction. It is instead to humbly submit to the plain teaching of Scripture. That same Scripture has strong words about abusing strong drink. It likewise has strong words about adding to the law of God. May He give us the grace to submit to Him, and to drink the cup, the fruit of the vine, confessing our sin, rather than trying to be more pious than He.