I was swept away (again), into a fundamentalist feud over alcoholic drink. My ears perked up when I came across a humorous post on teetotaling. I figured that the issue was a current hot button topic at Sharper Iron, and so I went digging.
Turns out, Shelton Smith (The Sword of The Lord) and Robert Sumner (The Biblical Evangelist) rival editors of influential fundamentalist periodicals, have both recently decried a new book from BJU press on the alcohol question. I haven’t read Randy Jaeggli’s book The Christian and Drinking: A Biblical Perspective (he’s a prof at BJU), but from what I am reading at Sharper Iron, he defends an abstentionist position in a biblically defensible way. He is careful with the text and so believes Jesus actually drank alcoholic wine, albeit perhaps with less punch then is available today.
His honest treatment of Scripture is too much for the hard line fndamentalists to swallow. They view his book as only doing lip service to a temperance policy. The alarm must be sounded.
So I’ve had my nose in a few threads over at Sharper Iron, discussing this hot issue. I’m not so much discussing the book, as the merits of a moderationist position. You can find my position outlined in this forum post. And I detail the different discussion thread links, in a forum post over at our own Transformed by Grace forum site.
I’ve had quite a few interesting posts concerning wine on my blog in years past. Click on the wine cateogory for the full list, but here are a few of my favorites:
- “Wine to Gladden the Heart of Man”: Thoughts on God’s Good Gift of Wine
- Welch’s Grape Juice, Worldly Wisdom and Wine
- Will You Be Having Some Wine? (My “conversion” to drinking wine)
Related Posts:
Tags: abstentionist, Abstinence, Alcohol, debate, discussion, drinking, Fundamentalism, fundamentalist, moderation, moderationist, Robert Sumner, Sharper Iron, Shelton Smith, Teetotaler, teetotalism, Wine
I’m very moderate when it comes to alcohol, but I am kind of dogmatically moderate. In other words, I believe it is wrong to take a very strong position against alcohol, in the same way it was wrong for “abstainers” to pass judgment on those who ate meat.
Here is my take on it:
http://founderandperfecter.wor.....k-alcohol/
Good post, Ben. Those who are quick to judge drinkers of alcohol, often have never drank any, and hence can’t understand the experience.
For my part, I think Scripture’s attitude toward alcohol, should shape mine. So I changed my practice to quit treating the substance like it is evil. If God commends the substance, even when He forbids its abuse, surely we can too. Or do we need to add our rules where Scripture remains silent?
If we deduce from the Biblical prohibtion of drunkeness that all alcohol is wrong, do we the deduce from the Biblical proscription of gluttony that all food is wrong? Interesting that these two sins are sometimes mentioned together.
You can add other things to that list too, Randy. Are women (or to be more frank sex) wrong? No, not if enjoyed within the proper Biblical context — marriage. Lust isn’t wrong if its directed at my wife. We can outlaw all food, any communication with the opposite sex, and any taste of alcohol — that won’t curb sin. Sin isn’t in the object or substance, it’s in the heart of wicked men.
Whooweee. You sure do know how to stir a hornet’s nest don’t you Bob? lol. Just to comment on your last statement, I know Luther said something to the effect – “Some men will be tempted to worship the stars, but that doesn’t mean that we should pluck them from the heavens.” Though mentioning the name Mark Driscoll can start another whole controversy on its own, I will say that he preached a pretty insightful (and historically powerful) sermon entitled “Good Wine, Glad Hearts” that I thought put this question in its proper context. You should be able to find that online somewhere.
Hank, thanks for the tip! Hornet’s nests seem to find me… LOL.