A Refute To: Should Christians Drink
Alcoholic Beverages?
What Does The Bible Say?
Ken Raggio’s comments are in the quotes below.
Here is what the Bible says about drinking alcoholic beverages:
Proverbs 20:1 – “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”
Leviticus 10:9 – “Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations.”
Proverbs 31:4-5 – “It is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.”
Proverbs 23:31-32 – “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.”
Habakkuk 2:15 – “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also…”
Habakkuk 2:15 KJV
Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!
He left out the context of the verse of Habakkuk. This is important for later use.
Isaiah 5:22 – “Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink.”
Isaiah 28:7 – “They also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.”
Ephesians 5:18 – “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”
Proverbs 23:20-21 – “Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty…”
1 Corinthians 5:11 – “But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.”
1 Corinthians 6:10 – “…Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Drunkards and Gluttons
“Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: …Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. …At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.”
Refuse all mind-altering substances. Righteous men must be sober, moderate and temperate.
These verses all seem to point to the state of a person being drunk, not drinking some alcohol.
Proverbs 23:2-3 “And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.”
I believe the Apostolics that eat too much should be reading this one. This verse does not mention drunkenness or wine, though one could take it as both a warning for consuming too much wine and as a warning for consuming too much food. In fact, the verse in Proverbs is really talking about discipline and control in front of your host or a ruler:
Proverbs 23:1-3 NKJV
When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you; [2] And put a knife to your throat If you are a man given to appetite. [3] Do not desire his delicacies, For they are deceptive food.
This ruler could be testing the one eats and may have an ulterior motive. No one would want to annoy someone in such a powerful position, which could lead to fatalities.
God has no use for inebriated “Christians.” No one who is in an unnecessarily altered-state of mind is useful to the Kingdom of God. WE MUST BE SOBER.
Sobriety is one of the great virtues of Godly men and women, as demonstrated throughout the Bible.
Some have argued that Jesus turned the water into wine. But we absolutely MUST deduct that it was NEW wine, NOT fermented. It is inconceivable that Jesus would have contradicted all the Bible’s many teachings against the use of alcoholic beverages.
Jesus would NOT have broken this commandment: “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken…” Habakkuk 2:15.
If Jesus had turned the water into FERMENTED wine, He would have been guilty of giving his neighbor drink, putting the bottle to him, and making him drunken. Jesus would have been condemned by the woes of Habakkuk 2:15.
Thus, we have no choice but to believe that He did NOT provide alcohol to the wedding guests.
Did Jesus turn water into wine to see the nakedness of the guests? Of course not! Therefore, we can throw out the argument that Jesus disobeyed Habakkuk because the verse specifically mentions “…that thou mayest look on their nakedness!“
If you read closely, you will understand that this wine was the best. If Ken Raggio teaches that it was NEW wine, we must conclude that they could’ve still become drunk over it.
Acts 2:13 KJV
Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
The actual history is that they would mix wine together. The Jewish culture did not like drunkenness and there were primarily two beverages, water wine. Water was unsafe to drink so they would mix water and wine together. This prevented most drunkenness and allowed them to safely drink.
NOBODY should drink alcoholic drinks. Neither should you keep company with those who do. That is what the BIBLE says.
That’s NOT what the Bible says:
1 Timothy 5:23 KJV
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
1 Peter 4:3 KJV
For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
Notice it says EXCESS.
1 Timothy 3:2-3,8 KJV
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; [3] Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; [8] Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;
Ephesians 5:18 KJV
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
Don’t get drunk which is excess….
Romans 14:20-23 KJV
For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. [21] It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. [22] Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. [23] And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Objectively, everything is pure (“every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving,” 1 Tim. 4:4). Yet some believers might stumble over meat or wine.
A Christian’s sense of freedom in these matters should not translate into public behavior if another believer finds the freedom scandalous. For instance, a Muslim convert who never ate pork or drank wine might stumble if he saw a Christian doing either of these things.
I have seen virtually every imaginable false doctrine “PROVEN” by its proponents.
It is quite easy to “PROVE” ANYTHING you want to believe, IF you only use one or two or three verses out of context. It is like forcing a piece of a puzzle into the wrong place. It may pass inspection temporarily, but when the ENTIRE PUZZLE is finally assembled, something is going to be shown to be out of place. The piece that is in the WRONG place is going to become conspicuously obvious. And before the puzzle can be truly finished, those pieces that are in the wrong place will HAVE TO BE MOVED into their right places.
Ken Raggio is not a person I can easily agree with. While part of his articles may be truthful, he seems to take things out of context himself, while claiming others do it.
If you want to believe that the Church is going to be caught up in the rapture before the Great Tribulation, you can “prove” it with all kinds of exotic interpretations of scriptures.
While I agree with this, it seems many of his own denomination don’t even agree with him. For a person who claims his denomination is the only right one, what he really means is that he is the only right one in his denomination.