A godly man writes:

The brother asks, "Did Jesus make alcoholic wine at Cana?" Occasionally the Bible words for wine (yayin and oinos) refer to grape juice (Isaiah 16:10; Joel 2:24; Matthew 9:17; Luke 5:37-38), but most of the time they refer to fermented grape juice, that is, alcoholic wine (Genesis 9:21; 19:32; Ephesians 5:18: Revelation 17:2). In every instance the context tells the reader what is meant.

At the wedding in Cana, if Jesus turned water into grape juice, it is difficult to understand why "the governor of the feast" thought that Jesus’ grape juice was better than the grape juice that the bridegroom had provided (John 2:9-10). This difficulty shows that the wine which Jesus provided was not simply fresh grape juice.

The brother asks, if Jesus made alcoholic wine at Cana, "would this not violate Habbakuk 2:15?" No, what Habbakuk condemned was not moderate drinking, but making a neighbor "drunken… that thou mayest look on their nakedness." Similarly, what Isaiah condemned was not moderate drinking, but the conduct of "the drunkards of Ephraim … overcome with wine" (28:1). Moses had already shown that moderate drinking of "wine," or even "strong drink," was God approved (Deuteronomy 14:26).

The brother asks, "is there anything in 1 Thessalonians 5:6, 8 where the word ‘sober’ is in the KJV, that might indicate to be free of intoxicants?" No, but 1 Thessalonians 5:6, 8 teaches that Christians must not be "drunken."

If 1 Thessalonians 5:6, 8 teaches complete freedom from "intoxicants," then the passage condemns Jesus: "For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine," but Jesus came "eating and drinking" (Luke 7:33-34).

If 1 Thessalonians 5:6, 8 teaches complete freedom from "intoxicants," then the words about deacons and aged women, allowing some but not "much wine" (1 Timothy 3:8; Titus 2:3), will have to be rewritten.

If 1 Thessalonians 5:6, 8 teaches complete freedom from "intoxicants," then Paul’s instruction to Timothy "no longer" to drink "water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities" (1 Timothy 5:23), is not correct.

The "fruit of the vine" (Matthew 26:29) used at Corinth in the Lord’s Supper caused some to be "drunken" (1 Corinthians 11:20-21), which means alcoholic wine. However, since the "fruit of the vine" can also mean fresh grape juice, wise and cautious elders today in most places use grape juice. In one place, where wine is used, we were told that the elders keep the storeroom locked!

Thus the Bible does not teach a complete freedom from "intoxicants" in either the Old or New Testament (Deuteronomy 14:26; 1 Timothy 5:23). But I am a complete abstainer, and I teach all Christians to be "teetotalers." Why? Two reasons: (1) I do not know my own strength, and (2) my example might cause someone to drink moderately who might become an alcoholic.

My father (Charles Stuart McCord, a Georgia-Robertson Christian College student at Henderson, Tenn., and later a church pillar at Caruthersville, MO.) thought he could control his drinking, but wound up an alcoholic and withdrawn from the church. "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise" (Proverbs 20:1). If my well-intentioned father did not have enough self-control, I had better not be too confident: "Let the one who thinks he stands be on guard, so that he does not fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12).

If the youth minister, about whom the brother is worried, knows his own strength, he yet must decide how his teaching and conduct will affect the young people whom he loves. If he denies himself (Matthew 16:24), and is an "example" to the young people "in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, impurity" (1 Timothy 4:12), I believe he will accomplish more good by being a total abstainer, and that he will teach the young people that a "teetotaler" will never have any regrets.

This old man has known many church leaders in many countries, but I have never seen a moderate drinking Christian on his knees at a Wednesday night prayer service.

Oh! How much better the world would be today if everybody was a total abstainer! As godly as was Noah, surely he repented of his drunkenness (Genesis 9:20-21), and was forgiven (cf. Psalm 32:5), but he has not forgotten his sin, and he never will. If the daughters of Lot had learned at home that their father would not take a drink, they would never have thought of their incestuous sin (Genesis 19:30-38).

I enclose two paragraphs from a letter to another godly brother: