For the first 1800-1900 years of Christianity, drinking alcohol in moderation was one more way to enjoy God’s gifts. But a movement in the social politic of America in the early 1900’s suddenly changed some protestant denominations stance on alcohol consumption.
These groups began teaching that drinking alcohol was always or almost always a sin. This was a huge change from historical Christianity.
As a result of this new teaching, we had a lot of people twisting scripture to try and support this idea that Jesus didn’t drink alcohol and that the word “wine” in scripture is actually referring to grape juice.
But this is not supported by scripture, history, or logic.
The Jews, prior to Jesus’ birth, had considered “wine” to be fermented (alcoholic) grape juice. And it was certainly a part of many activities, including weddings, and it was definitely used in the passover celebration.
When Jesus came along there is no indication that He changed or condemned any of these existing practices. In fact, he seems to have encouraged them. His first miracle was turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana (John 2:1-11). And again, the wine that these Jews would have been drinking was fermented, alcoholic wine – not grape juice. And then of course Jesus used wine when he celebrated passover with his apostles and instituted the Eucharist – wine being the object of consecration. Jesus actually humbles himself, taking on the form of wine, so that we can consume Him.
Another point to remember is that back then people had no way of preserving juice. They had no preservatives or other modern processes to keep grape juice from fermenting. So once they harvested the grapes for the year and stored the juice in skins, the fermentation process naturally began. If you put juice in a container and leave it alone for a few months what do you get? Fermented, alcoholic wine. That’s what you get.
The passover feast occurred 6-7 months after the grape harvest. By then the grape juice was surely a nice shiraz, or a pinot (ok…I’m not sure how nice it was). So it would have been impossible to not have alcoholic wine for the passover and really for any occasion during the large part of any year.
And even in scripture the apostles themselves are mistakenly accused of being drunk on wine (Acts 2:13-15). First, this seems to infer that it’s not unreasonable to think the apostles may have been drinking alcoholic wine. And second, Peter responds to the accusers, not by saying that they didn’t drink alcohol or that it was bad. He responds by saying basically, “hey, we’re not drunk, it’s too early to be drinking wine.” The implication is obviously that the apostles did drink alcoholic wine, it was just too early in the day to have done so – and they certainly weren’t drunk.
And the constant teaching of the Church is consistent with all of this. Drinking wine can be a good and holy thing.
All that being said, the Church has also always taught that abuse of alcohol or anything else to the point of impairing your judgment is a serious sin. Just as some groups have taken the use of alcohol to an extreme by prohibiting it, it is just as incorrect and even more dangerous to take it to the other extreme of abusing it.
Many Catholics take the Church’s acceptance of the use of alcohol as a license to get drunk. This couldn’t be further from the truth and is a sin of grave matter. I’ve heard many a Catholic respond to negative inferences of getting drunk by saying, “Oh, I’m Catholic…so it’s cool.”
No, it’s not cool. And it’s not Catholic.
It’s another one of those things where a little common sense goes a long way.
[photo credit]
Related Posts
- But the Greatest of These is…
- Not Just Another Denomination: Part 1 of 2
- What is a Christian?
- Catholics on Faith and Works Clarified
{ 1 trackback }
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Actually, the rejection of alcohol goes at least as far back as the non-conformist movements of the 17th century, including the Quakers and Puritans.
Well, you can blame this one on the Methodists and the other “holiness” movements from the late 1800s. Of course, refrigeration wasn’t invented until this time so even if churches took a stand on alcohol use (which they didn’t) they wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.
Fortunately, within my own confessional Reformed tradition, the use of wine in communion is becoming more and more frequent as the moralism of the Wesleyan’s and Southern Baptists is being seen for what it is.
As Chesterton says, “We should thank God for beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of them.”
Intriguing read. I was an evangelical for a number of years before becoming a Catholic, and from experience, have noted that many evangelicals who indulge in an occational alcoholic beverage, do so with a kind of remorse. In other words, they drink with guilt. On the other hand, there are Catholics who say “hey they thought the 12 on Pentecost were drunk, so let’s drink up” as an excuse to drink beyond moderation. Drinking wine is good, but getting wasted and acting like a jerk isn’t. Good read.
A well explained article. Yes, common sense goes a long way. I wish the youth here in the UK can be tought this way and not overdo it every weekend. Unfortunately the lack of right teaching with lack
of going to church let people not understand the right meaning of what alcohol is all about. I enjoyed your insight and oppinion here.
There are many “fruits of the earth” that God has created. We should be thankful for them and use them for enriching our lives. Alcohol takes the edge off of a hard days work, just as caffeine can get us off to a nice start. I view these things as just a few of the many gifts God has given us. Too much of anything can constitute a problem for us physically or otherwise. How we use God’s gifts is just another “choice” we have to make. Obviously, bad behavior will always be bad behavior. I could just as easily be impatient, crabby, hateful, or mean from NOT partaking in these “fruits of the earth” just as much as if I had. It’s all about how we choose to let it affect our behavior. We should always respect our body, and too much of anything can be sinful in that it can affect the greatest gift of all, our physical body and mind. Keep it in perspective and enjoy the many gifts of the earth that God has given us !
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” – Benjamin Franklin
:)
Actually, that’s a an altered, shortened, and overall rather distorted quote. The actual quote, which is actually a pretty good theological point, is that when people question why water is no longer turned into wine like Jesus did at Cana, he points out that God does indeed send down water, which is in turn “drunk” by the plants, like grapes. The grapes are then turned into wine, which is proof that God loves us and wants to see us happy.
so its a mortal sin to get drunk?
Thomas,
This blog has an interesting perspective on if drunkenness is a mortal sin or not: http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2006/12/is-getting-drunk-mortal-sin.html
So the Evangelicals believe that for Jesus’ first miracle, he turned water into grape juice? He would have better off with a “pick any card…” trick. :)
Did you know that in the Bible wine symbolizes joy, celebration. No feast could be celebrated without it. Just goes to show how wrong the Protestant principle of free examination of the Bible is, that anyone can interpet the Bible. Jesus choose to remain with us in the Eucharist in the form of bread and wine. Bread was the daily food in the Meditaranean of the time, while wine symbolized feasting.
I was raised Protestant and became a Catholic just a few years ago. I love this examination and explanation of drinking as it would be viewed from a Biblical perspective from Christ’s own life and time. I find it interesting also that he would choose to come to earth during a time when this would be recorded as normal. At other times, it would not have been. I think this clears up a lot of left over protestant wonderings and will be the basis of future conversations with believers who feel as though I have backslidden because of my choice to drink from time to time. Thank you.
Iam supporting your teachings
They are true
Ineed more teachings for the passover
George
+254710660301
Omg … As I Have Learned Alcohol is dangerous for health and causes death and other bad things and as far as i thing…Apostles would have never taugth us wrong things.. plz do reply..
Kim,
Alcohol in moderation is healthy:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alcohol/SC00024
“Moderate alcohol consumption may provide some health benefits. It may:
* Reduce your risk of developing heart disease, peripheral vascular disease and intermittent claudication
* Reduce your risk of dying of a heart attack
* Possibly reduce your risk of strokes, particularly ischemic strokes
* Lower your risk of gallstones
* Possibly reduce your risk of diabetes”
Kim can you elaborate on your position a little more?
I am confused at what point you are trying to make in your previous post.
Here is what the good St. Bellarmine said about getting drunk.
Saint Robert Bellarmine Calling Drunkards To Repentance!
Drunkenness where a person says and does things that he or she would normally not is in most circumstances a mortal sin, and for some people, this can result from one or two drinks, so this is really a highly individual matter.
I was a member of an Evangelical Free Church for a time after I regained my faith in Christ, but before I returned to the Catholic Church, and I remember the pastor saying with a straight face that the word for wine actually meant raisin paste.
My Methodist minister brother in law taught at a Methodist college and would go out of town to buy wine so the locals wouldn’t catch him in the act.
I feel it is important to note that there were as many as 4 ways to preserve grape juice during the time of Jesus. These way were: Fumigation, filtration, sublimation, and boiling. Before anyone says I’m incorrect, I encourage you to do some research first. If I must, I will return with a rebuttal to any objections to this fact.
As to adiutricem’s comment, It is not impossible that Jesus turned the water to grape juice. We find in John 5:19 Jesus saying,”Then answered Jesus and said unto them,” Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” We find in nature the grape on the vine; if the skin of the grape is not perforated, the grape will simply shrivel up and turn into a raisin. It requires the external squashing of the grape to obtain the fresh juice which then, over time, will attract yeast cells, whose purpose is to decompose the grape, and eventually ferment. It is neither silly nor completely unlikely that Jesus turned water into grape juice. If further inquiry should be compiled in relation to this comment, I will be happy to share more information about this subject.
Nick, if you can provide links to documentation on the 4 ways to preserve grape juice, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks!
And of course Jesus could have turned water into grape juice…he can do what he likes. But scripture says it was wine…not grape juice. And everywhere else it refers to it, in the context and use of the time, it is understood to be alcoholic wine – not un-fermented grape juice. There are plenty of reasons it is very implausible that Jesus did not drink alcoholic wine.
Nick said: “It requires the external squashing of the grape to obtain the fresh juice which then, over time, will attract yeast cells, whose purpose is to decompose the grape, and eventually ferment.”
Yeasts are naturally present on the grapes, there is no need to attract them(Of course, in modern time we are able to separate strains and use the ones that produce the most desired characteristics.) Fermentation is a type of decomposition and so when you say “and eventually ferment” it has already been fermenting. If the grape were already decomposed by other microorganisms, such as bacteria, then there would be no sugars left for the yeasts to ferment.
I would also like to see some links on the methods of preservation that you offered. I do not believe boiling would be a very good method. It would kill any microorganisms already present, but there are still sugars which would then, in this case, attract yeasts or bacteria unless it were sealed in a sanitized, air-tight container. I would also love to learn a method of filtration that could have been in practice at that time that could help me remove yeasts and bacteria from juice.
A bunch of fisherman sitting around and drinking “grape juice” 2,000 years ago? Yeah, right.
Kevin – that is perhaps the most convincing point of all!