In med school, I remember the inpatient psychiatry director telling us that alcohol causes as much injury to society (cirrhosis, cancer, stroke, depression, etc,) overall as tobacco does, but we tend to pick and choose our favorite “sins.”
There have been no long-term randomized trials of alcohol consumption on clinical outcomes. It remains possible that many of the health benefits and risks of alcohol consumption represent associations unrelated to the intake of alcohol itself. (See ‘Limitations of the evidence’ above.)
I see so much harm with sedentary lifestyle, obesity, and alcohol, that I need to remember to counsel my patients (and myself) more about everything being in moderation–not just care with regard to cigarettes.
When I was in med school, there were still signs forbidding smoking in class–implying that was at one time more accepted (our school had been there since the 70s, I think). It’s funny how we pick and choose our vices.
Why plant a vineyard if you can’t harvest the grapes, press them, and bottle the juice within a short period of time? Fermentation preserved the juice.
But why not try making some “biblical wine”? Fruit juice that doesn’t spoil or ferment. Maybe fermentation was different back then. Maybe it didn’t produce alcohol.
Why plant a vineyard and build a winepress if you can’t harvest the grapes, press them, and bottle the juice within a short period of time? Fermentation preserved the juice.
But why not try making some “biblical wine”? Fruit juice that doesn’t spoil or ferment. Maybe fermentation was different back then. Maybe it didn’t produce alcohol.
Yeppers. Back as a kid, all the men would go outside and smoke after church. All strict non drinkers. My Dad smoked until he was late 40’s and I was about 9yo. To this day, fresh tobacco smoke is a pleasing aroma to me, though I have never smoked a single cigarette.
Back to alcohol, it was proposed that “if drinking alcohol is a sin” should you then not drink. That leads me to think that if the Spirit has led you to think it is a sin, then, it is a sin for you, so you should not, regardless of what the Biblical argument is, and it is really not relevant as to whether it is a sin for anyone else. So we should not try to argue it is not, either.
Problem: My pastor was asked by a young lady to write a letter of religious exemption for the vaccine as she wanted to go on a mission trip that required vaccination or said letter. He felt there was not real theological reason to avoid vaccination, but to keep the peace, wrote a letter stating that while he saw no valid religious reason, if she felt led by the Spirit to not get the vaccination, then that was enough of a reason to allow exemption.
In discussing it, we touched on the various difficulties we all have in knowing the will of God in our lives, and I mentioned that maybe the Spirit was trying to tell her not to go on the mission trip, rather than telling her to get an exemption. But, as it is essentially the same argument as with alcohol, or smoking, or eating chocolate, what do you guys think?
Children wear Biblical costumes for Purim. At the synagogue service the book of Esther is read. Whenever Haman’s name is mentioned, children age 12 and under make a racket with noise makers!
for those who think that eating in moderation is the same as drinking alcohol in moderation…well heres another proposition for you all to think about:
proposition: Eating in moderation is ok, so drinking alcoholic drinks in moderation is ok…indeed in the case of red wine, even good for us
If the above = true
are we now saying that the social consumption of heroin, cocaine, marijuana etc in moderation are also completely ok?
EDIT…
btw, what did Daniel and his friends request for food and drink in Babylon (water and pulse was it not).
Daniel 1:12 Prove they servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. 13 Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king’s meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.
Guess what? You ARE eating limited amounts of mercury. You are getting a lot more alcohol to be sure.
And too much oxygen? That will kill you. Oxygen is a poison too. Go figure. Good thing you are getting this poison in limited amounts, don’t you think?
I will leave that statement to the crowd for criticism (the academic meaning of the word btw)
“criticism” - the analysis and judgement of the merits and faults of a literary or artistic work.
…the distinction between prescribed medicinal use and social use were clearly outlined on this thread and I do not believe the medical use is a factor here (at least that was my understanding)
Not all drugs are the same, so they can’t be directly compared to one another. We also need to keep in mind that the Bible is telling people to not lose their inhibitions because it can lead to sin or lead others to sin. That’s the standard the Bible preaches, and I think that is the standard Christians could apply to the vast majority of cases. Drugs like heroine cross a line quite quickly because its use can quickly lead to addiction, and it doesn’t take much imagination to understand what types of sin that can lead to. If someone feels they will fall into an alcohol addiction quite easily, then perhaps it would be good for them to completely abstain from its use.
As an example going in the other direction, all soft drinks contain small amounts of alcohol. Should Christians abstain from drinking Pepsi or Sprite simply because a certain chemical is found in the drink?
I had to explain that to my anti-vax relative who came down with Covid who was complaining that you had to get a prescription for oxygen supplementation. Not only toxic of course, but if you have hypoxia driven respiration due to lung disease, too much will decrease your drive to breathe and kill you that way also.
As for arsenic, here is an interesting article on it and other “toxic” elements:
Now, I know of no essential role of ethanol, but it is a natural byproduct of many metabolic processes so it would be impossible to totally eliminate it. And, it is theraputic in some instances. Premature labor used to be treated with alcohol infusions, it can be used to ward off alcohol withdrawal, which can be fatal, though not commonly done if other means are available, it is used as a solvent in many medicinal preparations, and has a somewhat uncomfortable role in the self-medication of many with mental illness who cannot access or afford more appropriate treatment, of course that often leads to disaster. Not to mention hand sanitizer.
And while I am not opposed to moderate ingestion, and enjoy a frozen margarita with salt with my fajitas, I think we as a society have made it a real problem when I see vineyards where peach orchards used to be, and memes for housewives glorying drinking wine. I think if you see something encouraging drinking alcohol just to get the buzz, it is a problem. I like jello, but who makes a bunch of little jellos to serve at a party except as a way to ingest alcohol?
