Wine
Over the past few weeks we have been discussing Jesus' first miracle in Cana and how it relates to the social drinking debate (see "Jesus and Social Drinking" and "Kool-Aid or Cana Cocktail?"). While we have disagreed on many points, it has been the consensus of our little corner of the blogosphere that this debate cannot be settled on the grounds of what Jesus created in John 2. For that reason, I thought I would answer a few questions that are more relevant to the discussion at hand.
1. Is alcohol really all that harmful? Yes! The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) reports that alcohol use is implicated in 50% of all homicides, 50% of all fatal car accidents, 41% of all crimes, 33% of all suicides and a large proportion of drowning, boating and aviation deaths. Also the substance is responsible for health problems such as cancer, heart disease, brain damage, and cirrhosis of the liver (Isadore Rosenfeld, "Think Before You Drink," Parade Magazine, April 6, 2003, p. 8).
2. Are any risks involved when a person drinks in moderation? According to the NIAAA, “moderate” drinking is defined as no more than one drink a day for most women, and no more than two drinks a day for most men. Even this low level of alcohol consumption poses dangerous risks, like strokes, motor vehicle crashes, harmful interactions with medications, birth defects, and shifts to heavier drinking.
3. But have studies not proven that light to moderate drinking can be good for your heart? Recent research has revealed that the drinking of wine in moderation reduces the risk of heart disease. However, that one benefit is not worth the risks involved. Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld advises against its use. “Alcohol’s downside far outweighs its benefits,” he says, “Alcohol as a nonprescription drug legally available to anyone over the national drinking age...is a sedative-hypnotic with a tranquilizing effect. It has no significant nutrients, vitamins or minerals. Alcohol is mainly empty calories—and its abuse can cause big trouble" ("Think...," p. 8).
4. Doesn't the Bible use "wine" in the alcoholic sense, even approving its use in some of those cases? Yes, but drinking alcoholic beverages in the first century does not justify drinking alcohol in the twenty-first century. Two things...
First of all, in biblical times wine was sometimes used for medicinal purposes (1 Timothy 5:23). Today, however, we have better drugs to treat our ailments effectively.
Secondly, comparing the wine of biblical times to its modern-day counterpart is like comparing apples to oranges. Not until the Middle Ages did the world know of concentrated alcohol. R. Laird Harris writes,
Wine was the most intoxicating drink known in ancient times. All the wine was light wine, i.e. not fortified with extra alcohol. Concentrated alcohol was only known in the Middle Ages when the Arabs invented distillation ("alcohol" is an Arabic word) so what is now called liquor or strong drink (i.e. whiskey, gin, etc.) and the twenty per cent fortified wines were unknown in Bible times. Beer was brweed by various methods, but its alcoholic content was light. The strength of natural wines [those used in Bible times, D.K.] is limited by two factors. The percentage of alcohol will be half of the percebntage of the sugar in the juice. And if the alcoholic content is much above 10 or 11 percent, the yeast cells are killed and fermentation ceases...To avoid the sin of drunkenness, mingling of wine with water was practiced (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, p. 376).
Alcoholism was rare until the Middle Ages. Even when drunkenness occurred, deadly phenomena like drunk driving were impossible. If the Bible writers saw fit to warn readers of drunkenness in those days (Prov. 20:1; 23:29-35) how much more emphatic should these warnings be today!
Christians ought to "abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul" (1 Pet. 2:11) and from "every form of evil" (1 Thes. 5:22). Knowing what we do about today's alcohol, certainly these things would apply to the question of social drinking.
