Social drinking?

[Ferd]

i do not drink. I do cook with alcohol.

I think it is problematic to say that all drinking is sin because we have enough scripture to see that consumption of some alcohol was within a certain acceptance in the NT.

However there are things that ought to be understood before leaning on those passages to come to the conclusion that drinking is fine.

First, being drunk is a sin. period. there is no way around that. if the alcohold affects your judgement, you are under its influence. period. Scientists are clear that you are affected by it far before you are legally drunk. period.

Second, When Paul told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach, what he was saying was "take you stinking medicine dude, your sick" We know this because we have the writings of the two Pleny's. At that particular time wine was used as a treatment for various ailements.

Least you think that this means you can go get a nice Merlot because you dont "peel-so-purdy-dood", you need to think again.

Pleny tells us that these medicinal wines were brewed v ery particularly for the various alements they were used to treat. So something for some stomach issue was nowhere near a wine used to treat a blood issue, or a cancer, or headaches etc... and one should also note that medicine at the time was quite inneffective...

So. No. dont drink wine because Paul told Tim to imbibe. And dont drink wine because you have a tummy ache... unless you have the recipe for a medicinal wine for stomach aches from 2k years ago....i bet it tastes bad...

Now i will say that it is utter hogwash to sugges that wine in the bible was some "non-alcoholic" version. that aint true. making wine was the way they preserved the fruit of the vine. and the alcohol was very necessary to survival (more on that in a sec)

The next thing you should know is that the typical Roman or Greek or Jew or Syrian etc would be aghast at the way wer consume wine today. They didnt drink wine to drink wine. They drank it because drinking water would kill you. dead. period. Wine was never consumed straight. In fact we know from Pleny the Elder that there was a raging debate between the Romans and the Greeks because one group mixed their wine 1 part wine to 3 parts water. the other went 1 part wine to 4 parts water.

I am not sure which group was which, but the one mixing in 4 parts water thougth the 3 parters were just a bunch of drunks. No kidding. NOBODY drank their wine straight. they cut it. In fact, the purpose of the wine was to make the water safe for drinking. Thats why they drank so much wine. they had to, to not get disintary.

So, this is what i teach. I dont need to call drinking alcohold a "sin" to be able to clearly show that the bibles use of the material was out of a necesity that simply does not exist today, and considering the biblical stand on drunkeness there simply is no need.

I have no need go beyond Pauls position that all things may be lawful, but not all things are expedient.

so if you get stuck in the jungle with no way to make fire to purify water, but you have a nice riesling, use it to keep your drinking water safe. 1 part to 4 parts should do it.

if you get sick and your doctor prescribes medicine that contains alcohol, it is utterly reasonable to take the medicine. Especially if there is no alternative.

Never, ever allow anything to be an excuse to abuse medicine...that will distroy your life.