We are to be vigilant and sober (1 Pet 5:8) to protect ourselves from being devoured by evil. How sober and how vigilant? Totally sober and totally vigilant. The best protection against destruction is with perfect cognition and no dimness of vision. How clouded can our thinking be and still be safe? Perfect harmony with God is safety. A great suggestion is to be as clear-minded as possible in facing the adversary.
Alcohol and other drug use is chancy. I would never face the devil sober let alone inebriated, even a little. Courage doesn't come from a bottle, but from God. When facing his "lion" - Goliath - David never picked up a wine-flask but the whole armor of God (the five smooth stones). If it had been the wine-flask, David may have lost and the Son of David never been born.
Abstention is not for salvation; it is for our own safety. Christians don't need wine; we need God. Paul suggested a little wine use:
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. (1 Tim 5:23)What is a "little wine"? Enough to settle the stomach and when something goes wrong. With the amount of alcohol used in the world, people must have really sick stomachs and must be extensively unhealthy! With modern medicine, we no longer need a little wine because we have medicines which target the malady. The danger with alcohol consumption is that people us it for emotionally reasons - it comforts.
God in His wisdom took care of that as well: "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever"(John 14:6). A danger for Christians is that if we have alcohol we may not need Jesus within us since the Holy Ghost's role is to comfort.
Alcohol is a tool, not for medicine or thirst, but to remove inhibitions. Christians who consume alcohol may use it to mellow out and as a precursor to sleep. I would rather mellow out with Scripture and pray as a precursor to sleep and do so soberly. Life is just too short to spend it in a daze or not fully aware. We should enjoy life. Perhaps if alcohol is your way of enjoyment that you may have a false perception of what joy is!
I have no need for alcohol. I have been quite content facing life with only God and pleasuring in knowledge and my family. I don't need clouded vision or deceptive pleasure for a lively existence. I contend that my life has been better without consuming alcohol than yours has been by consuming it. If God is our fortress, why would we need alcohol? I submit that people use alcohol to appease their other god. Of course, I am referring to pleasuring themselves.
I often hear, "Well, Jesus drank wine." Did he truly?
Michael Jackson drank "Jesus juice" - wine with underage boys. Why do you suppose he did that? To remove inhibitions for himself and the children so that they could do what they wanted to do. If you recall, that has always been mankind's problem (Deut 12:8).
For the record, I challenge anyone to provide Scripture where Jesus drank wine. He was accused of being a wine-bibber, and he made wine, but he likely did not drink wine because he had no need of it! Neither do we.
Of course, Jesus did turn water into wine. Why would he do that? Because wine wasn't important to him, and he didn't come to keep people from drinking wine but to consume living water (John 4:10). "Drinking" Jesus results in an outpouring of living water (John 7:38). From consuming alcohol comes tribulation and waste.
While they were pleasuring themselves, Jesus sat there all alone. Jesus made the wine but the owner of the household was credited with it (John 2), Not by chance, Jesus used the holy water pots to make the wine. Rather than using what the pots normally held for cleansing from sin, the pots were used to provide pleasure. Two chapters later, Jesus was teaching about living waters with the woman at the well. He wasn't telling her about the benefits of wine!
Jesus tolerated the things of the world, but did not participate in them. He wasn't partying at the wedding but was there for one thing: to present himself to the world. He did that by miracles. (It would have been a greater miracle if the partiers had used the pots for cleansing rather than recreation.) God understood the flesh; that's why he put on flesh - to feel what we feel and to be tempted by what we are.
Nazarites set themselves apart from the world to please God and be holy. A Nazarite is described in the Book of Numbers:
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord. He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes... All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord he shall come at no dead body. (Num 6:3,5-6).
I believe that John Baptista and Jesus were both Nazarites. There is no evidence that Jesus drank wine, cut his hair during his ministry, nor even touch the dead, although he did heal them. Jesus could do none of those things or break the vow of the Nazarite. He would be unclean. I propose that we all are called to be Nazarites. The New Testament refers to that as "sanctification":
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thes 5:23).Sanctification is being set apart from the things of the world. As you can see, we are all called as Christians to be like Jesus. To the best of our ability, we are to be like Christ. Well, how about the long hair? It is better to be concerned about the head of God and it's thorn-laced crown than styling one's own hair. If we were entirely devoted to God, perhaps we would dress like John the Baptist! Perhaps we would live austerely like John and Jesus who didn't even have a home to call his own!
My point is that the consumption of adult beverages is all about us, and abstention is more about Jesus. I abstain, not because it gains me brownie points with God, but I believe it pleases Him!
There are many pragmatic reasons for abstaining. For instance, my son used my smoking cigarettes to defend his usage of drugs. He was entirely correct. The moment he did that, I quit smoking cigarettes! That was 34 years ago and I have been a tobacco Nazarite ever since!
I had already done that with alcohol 48 years ago. Does that gain Heaven for me? Not at all but I know it pleases God! Many people defend their drug addictions by rightfully pointing out the habits of smokers and drinkers. How much cocaine is acceptable? How much heroin or meth? I suggest none! Likewise, I believe that zero consumption of alcohol pleases God and is more safe than ingesting any.
Can users go to Heaven? They certainly can if the Devil doesn't devour them first, but I suggest that insobriety makes it easier for Satan to devour! I will never shoot myself in the head because I don't play Russian Roulette. I like knowing that the gun chamber is not loaded, not testing it on myself. I like knowing the Devil can not devour me, not testing him by insobriety. Both are wisdom. God warns people not to be foolish. I will never be addicted to alcohol because I don't consume it. That is pragmatic and wise. Scripture seems to recommend the same for all Christians.
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