Category: Drunkenness
Subject: Drunkenness
The Foolishness of Intoxicants
Another sign that society is deteriorating is the continuing legalization of marijuana use in various states. One big indication that you have crossed the border from Texas into Oklahoma is the proliferation of “head shops” where the drug can be purchased in various forms.
In Proverbs 20:1, the wise man wrote, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray is not wise.”
Whether alcohol or marijuana, or any other drug which alters the mind and looses the natural inhibitions that govern sober decisions, it is foolish to imbibe.
It is disheartening for Christians to defend intoxicants as relatively innocuous. The reality is far different. They destroy families, scar society, and have ruined the lives and health of untold millions. No one denies this is true, but many foolishly think they are immune to the dangers, and that such warnings as Proverbs 20:1 is not needed for them. I wonder the percentage of those who social drink, but who have never gotten drunk? I imagine it is very small.
Consider carefully the words of Peter, “For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries” (1 Peter 4:3).
The Christian walk is one of sobriety and holiness. When we stoop to the moral practices of the ungodly, we compromise our ability to walk the path of righteousness as God requires.
Sermon: The Benefits of a Moral LIfe
Regardless of the consequences, we must live a moral life. However, God intends for our lives, lived well, to bring us benefits. We are better if we are sober, monogamous, and compliant with authority.
Sermon: Social Drinking
The sermon examines the use of alcohol, seeking to answer from the scriptures whether it is sinful to drink what is commonly claimed to be moderate amounts of alcohol in a social setting.
Immorality Rages
From 1920 until 1933 it was against the law in the United States to manufacture, sell or transport alcohol. This time was known as Prohibition , and it was a wildly unsuccessful experiment, as laws were continually broken, especially in urban areas. People wanted to drink alcohol, and rather than making a large segment of the population criminals, Prohibition was repealed.
Today, not only is the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol legal, it is big business. Only the most radical of religious conservatives hold to abstinence as a moral conviction. In fact, the manufacture and consumption of marijuana is also legal in Colorado, and nationally 53% of all Americans support its legalization. Among 18-34 year olds that number rises to 68%.
Sermon: A Covenant with My Eyes
In Job 31:1, a “covenant” with the eyes is mentioned. By application, we submit that we should not look upon the darkness of sin, or lustful sights that might lead to adultery, alcohol use or the observance of irreverent things.
In the News: Lutheran Leader Drives Drunk
Last Tuesday Reuters reported that the head of the Lutheran Church in Germany, Margot Kaessmann, 51, the Lutheran Bishop of Hanover, was cited for running a red light while driving under the influence of alcohol. A state prosecutor told the German Newspaper Bild that Kaessmann had a blood alcohol level that was three times the legal limit. She is under investigation, and could lose her driver’s license for a year.
The Reuters article also noted that Kaessmann was a controversial choice to head the Lutheran church, because she had had a divorce.
(Protestant Leader Regrets Driving Drunk, 2/23/10, Christopher Lawton)
Continue reading “In the News: Lutheran Leader Drives Drunk”
In the News: New Orleans – Super City
It’s Superbowl Sunday and for the first time in the history of the franchise, the New Orleans Saints will be playing for the NFL Championship. The game has been referred to time and again as a needed balm as the city of New Orleans continues its recovery from hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
New Orleans is a city of sin. It is a party city, with its famous Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, and the Mardi Gras celebration. It is a mixture of French decadence, Southern hospitality, voodoo, narcissism and Roman Catholicism. Mardi Gras is an interesting example of these influences. The word Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, referencing the common Catholic practice of eating rich and fatty foods in the days before the fasting of the Lenten Season, starting with Ash Wednesday.
Podcast: It Still Says Wine!
Podcast Number 34
Social Drinking apologists sometimes point to the wedding feast at Cana (where Jesus turned the water into wine) as justification for social drinking. An examination of the context, as well as the greek word for wine show this argumentation to be without merit.
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Sermon: The Lust of the Flesh
(Gospel Meeting: Mark Mayberry) Fifth in a series of nine lessons based on 1 John 2:15-17. The lust of the flesh is examined, as gluttony, drunkenness and sexual immorality are cited as common examples of said lust.
Sermon Audio: Click Here .
Strong Drink
“Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, And whoever is led astray by it is not wise”
~ Proverbs 20:1
We live in a time where social drinking is considered acceptable by the worldly, and is even championed by some in the Lord’s church. There has been much said and written about the words used for wine in both the Hebrew and Greek language, but I have read little about the phrase “strong drink” found several times in the Old Testament, and once (with regard to John the Baptist) in the New Testament, in Luke (1:15).
The Hebrew word shekar, is found 24 times in the Old Testament (according to Strong’s Concordance), and is translated “strong drink” (22 times), “strong wine” (1 time), and “drunkards” (1 time). The word is defined by Genesius in his Hebrew Dictionary as “strong drink, intoxicating liquor, whether wine or intoxicating liquor like wine made from barley, or distilled from honey or dates.” Strong defines the term as “an intoxicant; i.e. intensely alcoholic liquor.
The root from which the term shekar derives, (shakar), means “to become tipsy; to be filled with drink abundantly; to become drunk” (Strong’s); and it shares it’s root with Hebrew terms shikkerown, the name of a town in Palestine which literally means drunkenness, and shikkarown, translated drunkenness.
