New Wine
The most common objection to fundamental Protestant doctrine is their
requirement that no Christian can drink alcohol. Perhaps the
objector can understand the prohibition against drunkenness and strong
liquor, but wine was in the Bible and even Jesus turned water into wine
they say. So they reason that they can get by drinking
moderately. Can they really?
The first thing to observe is that the Greek word for wine,
oinos, includes the whole concept
of grape juice from its first unfermented state to that of actual
wine. The very words of Jesus affirm this fact by referring to
unfermented grape juice as new wine.
Neither
do
men
put
new
wine
into
old
bottles:
else
the bottles break, and the
wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into
new bottles, and both are preserved. (Matt 9:17)
Here new wine in old bottles bursts because the yeast in the old
bottles vigorously ferments the unfermented grape juice. Then the
statement that the new wine will not burst in new bottles is due to the
absence of yeast in them.
In view of God's commands, the exercise of moral will is a necessary
part of living a righteous life. Alcohol acts to subvert moral
will long before many would consider themselves drunk. Consider
how many drink moderately to "loosen their inhibitions." Loosened
inhibitions lead to sin, however. The
righteous man in ancient times would have guarded his use of the grape
to avoid moral peril. New wine would be kept from spoiling as
much as possible and consumed before it became an intoxicant.
Only the wicked would use the grape to their moral peril. Thus
new wine or grape juice would have virtue and actual wine would be a
vice.
When the headwaiter tasted the that Jesus made from water, he said
Every
man
at the beginning doth set forth good wine;
and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast
kept the good wine until now. (John 2:10)
According to the moral worldview of that time this good wine would be
unfermented and that fermented to any degree as poorer. Wow,
Jesus turned water into grape juice!
As to morality, the righteous man abstains from wine completely,
fearing
to endanger his soul by releasing his moral inhibitions . As a
practical matter, beyond the moral boundary, everyone knows how
destructive alcohol is; the existence and activity of Mothers
Against Drunk Driving shows even secular concern for these dangers.
Avoid these perils.
Document History
February 3, 2011 Created.
February 3, 2011 Improved grammar, added another sentence, and
changed version of scripture accidentally quoted in another version to
KJV.
