Question:  Dear Greg,

            If you don’t mind, I would like to solicit your opinion about the subject of drinking wine.  Our pastor seems to teach that what the Bible mentions as wine is actually grape juice, especially what Jesus and the apostles drank.  They pointed out that in the Last Supper, the Bible did not mention “wine” but instead used the phrase “fruit of the vine. 

            In my opinion, wine is actually grape juice that is fermented.  Therefore, we can consider it as liquor (please correct me if I’m wrong).  My church believes that just a little wine often leads to abuse later on.  Our congregation also teaches us that to drink even just once would give a bad example to others, especially to young people, as they would tend to misunderstand that it is OK to drink liquor.

            What do you think about the wine that Jesus drank.  Is it really unfermented?  How about our position not to drink liquor at all?

            I want to be sure what I am teaching to others is accurate.  Thank you very much.

            Truly yours,

            Hanzel

Answer:  Dear Hanzel,

            The majority of Christians do not have a problem with alcohol that is consumed in moderation.  Episcopalians, Anglicans, Lutherans, Catholic, and Orthodox all accept alcohol being taken moderately, and accept no biblical teaching as prohibiting it—other than clear biblical commands against abuse and drunkenness.

            Most fundamentalist and holiness traditions teach that Christians should abstain from alcohol, with a few such churches saying that if Christians do have an occasional drink, it should be in private so that others do not get the wrong idea and so that a bad example is not set, etc.?!

            The first miracle of Jesus was changing water into wine—not grape juice.  Yes, there are some who jump through exegetical hoops trying to change the wine that Jesus created into grape juice, but the fact remains that he changed water into wine.  No Christian has yet been able to change that wine into grape juice.

            This issue should not be made into a test of Christianity—as if those who occasionally drink could not possible be Christian.  For there is no biblical position to support such a view, rather it is a human tradition that smacks of legalism.  On the other hand, those who do believe that they can drink alcohol in moderation are not free, in Christ, to demand drinking of those who believe that they should abstain.  Romans 14 has a great deal to say about this.

            Fact is, the judgment and condemnation usually comes from those who decide to abstain, and pronounce all those who take any alcohol at all to be outside the body of Christ, or at the best, extremely weak, on the fringe, and barely Christian.  There is no biblical warrant for this judgment, while there is much in the Bible, from the mouth of Jesus, against such criticisms and exclusive opinions.

            Biblical conclusion: no one needs to drink in order to be a Christian.  No one is excluded from Christianity, or becomes a weak or fringe Christian simply because they do drink, in moderation.

            Some choose not to drink because of their pasts—and they have every right to make such a decision.  Some are recovering alcoholics, and of course should not drink. But to simply condemn all who ever take any alcohol is unbiblical, and those who do so have no biblical authority for doing so—in such cases they are teaching human tradition and reason, not what the Bible says.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht