FAQ 317
A Question About Wine
NCW 71, May - June 2001
Q. You have completely avoided addressing the fact that Christ himself turned water to wine for a wedding in John 2: 1-11. If it is so clearly wrong to consume alcohol in moderation, please explain how the ultimate example of how we are to behave performed a great miracle by using alcohol intended for a social function?
A. The Greek for all kinds of wine - freshly pressed grapes (grape juice) and fermented alcoholic wine is oinos. "New wine" always refers to unfermented grape juice because it was newly pressed.
The word "wine" in those days referred to alcoholic as well as unalcoholic wine just as "meat" in Jacobean times (when the KJV was written) referred to both animal flesh and vegetables. Language usage changes. And because the people in Jesus' time did not have separate words for "alcoholic wine" and "grape juice" doesn't mean that all references to "wine" were to the alcoholic variety.
Why a Christian would wish to defend one of the most dangerous and addictive drugs of modern society which has destroyed more homes and befuddles people's thinking generally than any other substance beats me, I must say. The statistics say it all. Better to remove the stumbling block of serious sin than keep on trying to justify it.
This page was created on 1 July 2001
Last updated on 1 July 2001
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