“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” Proverbs 20:1.

There was a time in my life that satan would tell me if I didn’t have that drink I would die. Happy hour could not get here soon enough at one point in my life.  To be frank and honest, many of those “good times” I can barely remember.  25+ years of my life are not very clear.

There are many who belong to certain churches or denominations that believe drinking alcohol is acceptable according to the Word of God.  I disagree.  The word wine is used for any fruit of the vine in the Bible.  It wasn’t until prohibition in 1929 that the word wine was separated for use as fermented fruit of the vine. Why would Jesus go to such great lengths to eat unleavened bread at the Lord’s Supper (Exodus 13:7) and then partake in decaying “fermented” fruit of the vine (wine)?  Furthermore, when the Lord turned water into wine and the men were already “well drunk” (John 2:10), would He not have been breaking His Own Law against temperance if the wine had been fermented?

My point is this, if a person who claims to be a Christian chooses to partake in “strong drink”, that is between you and God…not you and me.  As long as we (whoever we may be) look for and search out ways to continue in our worldly ways, God will see to it that we get that in which we seek.

“¹⁰ And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the Truth, that they might be saved.

¹¹ And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

¹² That they all might be damned who believed not the Truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.

However, I want you to know when that babe in Christ who is struggling with alcohol sees you with the glass of wine in your hand and thinks drinking strong drink is acceptable and falls back in to bondage the Bible says your better off with a millstone around your neck and drowned in the depth of the sea.

“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:6.

Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).  Deny yourself efforts, pick up your cross and follow Jesus Christ (Luke 9:23).  Until we deny our vain attempts at righteousness which fall out to self righteousness and pride, we are unable to pick up our cross (the victory which Christ afforded us on Calvary’s Cross) and follow Jesus.

“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 idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.”  1 Corinthians 5:11.

Until those who no longer have to yield their members to unrighteousness come out from among them who continue to yield their members to unrighteousness, the lost will not know the difference in the world and the church.  We are not told to join the world to overcome the world.  We are told to go ye out into all the world and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Who He is and what He has done on Calvary’s Cross to set the captives free.  Whether they believe or not is between them and God.

-Donna Clark Warren