”The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply find unbelievable.”

I know Christians who are doing this right now. Sad really.  Take this (fictional) story as an example of truth in this statement.  You know people like this don’t you?

A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.

He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, ‘I’m very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him.’ I noticed the ‘What Would Jesus Do’ bumper sticker, the ‘Choose Life’ license plate holder, the ‘Follow Me to Sunday-School’ bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk; naturally…I assumed you had stolen the car.’

One of my biggest problems with many organized religions is that they love to take scripture out of context, or twist it to something that suits their own personal beliefs or values, regardless of what the scripture actually says.

One argument you hear a lot from Church of Christ preachers is “Jesus did NOT turn water into WINE.  He turned it into GRAPE JUICE.”  In other words, it is a translation error.  Now remember, these are the same people who will argue with you that the Bible has no errors.

So this guy, Don Blackwell decided to take a similar, but just as illogical approach, by saying that the word “drunk” in the bible actually means “starting to drink”.  He even quotes translations of the Hebrew words original meanings.  Now, I for one will tell you, the Bible is a difficult book to translate, because Hebrew words generally have many meanings for the same word.  For example, Heaven, Sky and Cloud are all the same word in Hebrew.  When the Bible says “We will meet him in the heavens.”  It could actually mean meet on earth, meet in the stars, meet in literal heaven, or meet in the clouds/sky.”  Which one do you think it means?  The good news is that this man can not possibly be correct on his translations from Hebrew, as the same word that describes Noah being drunk is the same word that is used when Jesus is drinking wine.  You do the math.

Now, let’s give him that one and say for the sake of argument he has a point.  If you’ve watched his videos then by now you know that he chose only to cover the verses he could twist.  He chose not to cover, or even mention to you or I that there are verses that are much more direct and much less prone to the spin doctor.  Let us examine those.

Luke 7:33-35 points out that Jesus drank as the Bible describes him as hanging out with prostitutes and other evil doers.  Now, the point of this verse wouldn’t make any sense if the Bible was referring to GRAPE JUICE would it?  What if the Bible had said “Jesus eats strawberries while hanging with prostitutes.”

For John the Baptist didn’t spend his time eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ ³⁴ The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ ³⁵ But wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it.”

1 Timothy 4:3 seems to be highly appropriate, as it is a warning about false teaching.

They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten with thanks by faithful people who know the truth. ⁴ Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks. ⁵ For we know it is made acceptable by the word of God and prayer.

Ecclesiastes 9:7 says we should drink and be merry!

So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this!

Psalms 104 says that God sent us wine to make us glad.

You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home,
and you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor.
¹⁴ You cause grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for people to use.
You allow them to produce food from the earth—
¹⁵ wine to make them glad,
olive oil to soothe their skin,
and bread to give them strength.

Judges 9:13 says that wine even makes GOD happy!

But the grapevine also refused, saying,
‘Should I quit producing the wine
that cheers both God and people,
just to wave back and forth over the trees?’

And finally, Mathew 15:11:

“It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”

I could go on and on…  but I’m running out of time for this post.  There are other scriptures that refer to Jesus abstaining from drinking in the days/hours before his death, and there was a prophecy in Genesis where the Bible says the Messiah will drink wine and be merry.  Look them up if you don’t believe me.

What we need to understand, is that nothing is inherently evil! 1 Timothy 4:4 tells us this is the case!  Everything God created is good!  The problem all boils down to one thing:  The trap that has been laid for us.  That trap is the temptation of using God created things in God forbidden ways.  And people, this isn’t just for drinking!  It’s a world wide problem!  Think about over-eating, over-spending, sexual promiscuity, or others!

Sex is not a sin!  It was created by God!  We are to enjoy it!  He WANTS you to enjoy it.  Within his boundaries (marriage for example).

Eating is not a sin!  God made all this food and he made it taste good!  He could have made it mechanical, where you just put it in and swallow it.  But he gave you the ability to taste and enjoy your food!  But he told us not to over-eat.  Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us not to eat or drink to much (funny, weren’t we just talking about wine?  If wine weren’t alcoholic, would there be a need to warn us to use it in moderation?).

By now I think you get the point.  Now go, eat, drink and be merry, within the boundaries that your creator has laid out for you.  But do not drink around people who can not follow those same rules, as the Bible warns us not to cause our neighbor to stumble.

Clarification of Religion

In the end.. What makes a person a Christian, Muslim, or Jew? All of the religious texts can be contorted to fit just about any thing you want them to be. So what really determines if you are a Christian or not? Honestly, it depends on who you ask. Which proves my point. That is why there are so many denominations of Christianity, Islam, Catholicism, etc. There is nothing in the Bible that clearly says “You will be a Christian if you…” and then some kind of checklist. In fact, the word Christian is hardly even mentioned in the Bible. I think 3 times is the magic number. So how can one person sit there and tell me I’m not a Christian because I don’t believe X, Y, and Z? If they do I ask them to define what a Christian is according to the Bible. Most people will say it has to do with Jesus Christ and if he is your savior. Other people think it is if you’ve been baptized, other people think it is if you have spoken in tongues. Other people have all kinds of requirements. So I feel I can just as easily say that I believe the earth is 4 Billion years old, the first chapter of the book of Genesis is hogwash, and we should not persecute homosexuals.  And I can still call myself a Christian and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.