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.

Religious Zealots

These are people who are convinced that their religious beliefs are correct, and they’ll do anything to enforce that on the rest of the world, even murder. All religions are guilty of this from time to time. Lately the Muslim religion has been in the hotseat about this, but Christians and Catholics have been just as guilty in years past. Examples would be the spanish inquisition, or witch hunts, or the many wars that we’ve had for thousands of years. But it can also apply to smaller things like anti-abortion activists. Basically anytime somebody believes that somebody else is doing something that is forbidden by God, and they feel the need to impose God’s law on somebody else, even if the local government has no such law against it. my opinion is, if it is not illegal then feel free to abstain from it yourself. For example, you can choose not to have an abortion, or seek out prostitutes, or drink beer, or have premarital sex, or be a homosexual. But unless you can get a law passed, then don’t try to force your beliefs on other people. That may sound strange coming from me, being that I share many of those beliefs. But if I choose to follow those beliefs out of obedience to God, then good for me. But if those aren’t your beliefs and I try to force them on you, I am not doing God’s will. God will judge everyone in his own time.

Religion as a Hobby

Everybody has something they are passionate about, and something that they are good at. I’m passionate about science and technology, some people it is cars, others it is football. Of course, some people it is religion. Now, in their mind they feel like they are just doing as the Lord commands, by reading the Bible constantly, going to church all the time, watching TV shows about God, talking with people on the internet about religious matters, etc. But the truth is, most people who do this are not motivated by a sense of a commandment by God, rather because they actually enjoy it. And you know what, that is fine with me. The problem is, not everybody is like that. And sometimes people confuse this enjoyment with loyalty to God or being a better person. For example, you might have one person who is very “into” his religion and another person who goes to church occasionally, or maybe never, but is still a firm believer. The second person may spend his time engaged in sports or working on cars in his garage. But put those same two people to the test and see where their convictions lie such as finding a wallet on a park bench, or helping others in need, or having somebody place a gun to their head and say “do you believe in God?” Then I think you’d find very little correlation between the results of these tests and how often they went to church. So why is it that the people who’s hobby is religion have to always look down on the people who do not have such a hobby? By the way, people like that are often social outcasts, sometimes even at church. Yes, it is possible to be too religious even at church. if your only hobby is religion, and that is all you can talk about, it is hard to form relationships with other people, even other people of your same religion.

Cults

Most people know what a cult is, but it is actually very difficult to put into words. The dictionary defines a cult as “a religous group with relatively few adherents whose beliefs or practices are regarded by others as strange or sinister.” I’ve always thought of a cult as a small religion based on a larger religion that believes they are the only ones who will go to heaven, whereas everyone else is doomed to hell because if their incorrect beliefs. Often they are based around the beliefs of a single man who uses their position in the cult as a means of power to get things they want. It could be anything from money, sex, or just the feeling of power in general. However, the sad part is, most of these attributes could be applied to nearly any religion on earth, depending on what spin you put on it. The only real qualifer seems to be the size. For example, if a 20-person cult continued to grow and a century later had 2 billion followers, I guess it couldn’t be considered a cult anymore. but the truth is, most of us know what cults are, and most of them are bad, very bad. And these cults could not exist without the sheep I mentioned earlier.

Manipulators

There’s nothing I hate more than a person who uses scriptures in the bible to manipulate people. These people tend to be well-versed in the scriptures and they prey on people who want to be good Christians (or Jews, or Muslims) but they aren’t as firmly set in their beliefs and knowledge of the scripture. And since the bible, the Qu’ran, Book of Mormon, etc, are very large books you can find scriptures to support nearly any belief you wish to impose on somebody. Often the scriptures are taken out of context, but in many cases they are just more examples of contradictions in these books. Sometimes these manipulators are just individuals in group settings who try to control people just to get their way. Other times they are people in an authority position in a church, or more often some kind of cult, who influence dozens or hundreds of people to believe as they do.

Churches

Churches are run pretty much like a business corporation. The leadership is like the board of directors and the members and visitors who show up are like the consumers. Long-term members who donate large amounts are like large corporate contracts that no business wants to loose, and the visitors are like potential new customers. The main goal of a church, when it comes down to it, is to keep its members happy and try to attract new ones. Which means walking very fine lines on ideology. If they say or do something that people disagree with, they might loose members. And loosing members means loosing money. In many ways this is good for the people attending because the church provides what its members want just like a business provides what its customers want, and therefor the system works. The problem is, it is impossible for a church to challenge common theological beliefs, even if there are good grounds for doing so, because it will upset the system. Many theological or scientific issues which are hotly debated are ignored completely for fear of offending one side or the other. The hope being, by ignoring the issue, they will keep both sets of customers happy. Then there is the issue that some people go to church out of guilt. They thing God has some holy calendar where he places check marks for every time you went to church and it will be part of your final judgement when you die. Other people go just to socialize and make friends. That’s fine with me but I realized long ago that the friends I make at church are just like the friends I made in school, work, and all the other churches I’ve been to. Once one of you moves on to a different church, you’ll likely never see them again. So what’s the point?