The Christian, the Bible, and Alcohol (Part 3)

In today’s posting on the Christian and his thinking on the subject of alcohol consumption, I want to spend a few paragraphs synthesizing the 3 primary views most Christians fall into when it comes to alcoholic consumption.

View 1 – Prohibition. This view proposes that all alcohol and all drinking is a sin. Seventh-day Adventists, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and more traditional Southern Baptists hold to this view. Those that hold this position would see all “positive” references to alcohol in the Scriptures are referring to fermented grape juice only and not wine. And then proponents of this view switch back to seeing alcohol as the references when drunkenness condemned.

View 2 – Moderation. This view proposes that alcohol may be consumed wisely and moderately and not be shunned or prohibited just because some abuse it. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, some Lutherans and some Reformed denominations hold this view. Alcohol is sees as a gracious gift of God. Even John Calvin seemed to hint that wine could and should be used during the Lord’s Supper

View 3 – Abstention. This view proposes that that all Christians should avoid drinking out of love for others and a desire to not cause anyone to stumble. In other words, it may be consumed but it is not always the wisest choice of beverage. The Salvation Army and other evangelicals such as John Piper, Albert Mohler and John MacArthur hold to this view. Supporters would say that the risk of offending another often drives this position, and because drinking alcohol is never commanded in Scripture and only an issue of Christian liberty, the risk of offending another should always outweigh the consumption of alcohol.

There are variations of each of these views, but generally speaking most people who profess the name of Christ will fall into one of these three camps.

Without hesitation, I would say the second and third views seem to have the most warrant as there are too many occasions when the Scripture does not “frown upon” alcohol.

But the question remains, what should we do with alcohol? I believe the issue at hand to be one of Christian liberty. In other words, a biblically informed conscience will guide you to what position you should hold. Thus, my counsel would be to carefully study this subject in God’s Word, petition God for wisdom and discernment on how to believe and react to the issue and seek godly counsel from others who have dealt and thought though the issue.

Now, there is one more issue I wish to present and it lays at the very heart of why I am writing all of this. As I said in the first posting, there are a growing number of Christians and churches who are using, consuming and encouraging alcoholic use during and outside church functions.

So is there anything to be concerned about with this rise of consumption in the church today? So in the final section I wish to directly address the professing Christians who drinks alcohol regularly and tend to react more negatively toward those who question the validity of their drinking it.

In others words, here is some advice I would strongly encourage you to consider if alcohol is going to be something you are not embarrassed to consume and let others know you drink. Oh, wait! That’s tomorrow’s section. Come back then and let the controversy begin.