What Does The Bible Say About Alcohol?
by Garland M. Robinson
        The word "alcohol" is not found in the Bible though many of its companion words are: drink, strong drink, drunk, drunken, drunkenness, drunkard, winebibber. Though alcohol can be used in many medical applications, it is its use as a beverage that is condemned in the Bible. Read what the Bible says and take heed!
        Alcohol Is Deceitful. "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise" (Proverbs 20:1). Lot's daughters deceived him by getting him drunk so they could have children by him. "Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose" (Genesis 19:32- 36). How low alcohol brought this man to commit such a devious act of incest! Multitudes have been deceived through the centuries by alcohol. Are you being deceived thereby?
        Alcohol Causes One To Live An Excessive Lifestyle. "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess ..." (Ephesians 5:18). "Excess" is defined as: "incorrigibleness, debauchery, dissipation, profligacy, an abandoned, dissolute, life." This text is not saying that drinking alcohol is only wrong when one drinks to excess, i.e., drinks too much. One who is excessive has abandoned all principles of right conduct. Drinking alcohol encourages and promotes such conduct. This verse condemns the so-called "social drink," even the first drink, because it begins the process of an abandoned, dissolute life! There's certainly no room here for anyone to say that drinking alcohol in moderation is alright as long as you don't drink too much. Such thinking is nonsense! The Bible is right because it is from God. When God says a thing is so, it is so! Are you living excessively?
        Alcohol Enslaves The Will And Makes One Forget God. "Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! ...but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands" (Isaiah 5:11,12). Men and women alike are mesmerized and captivated by its addiction. "Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart" (Hosea 4:11).
        Those who drink can and must repent (1 Cor. 6:10-11).
        Alcohol Deadens Judgment. "But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean" (Isaiah 28:7-8). Alcohol is a depressant. Its affect deadens the senses. It slows down one's reaction to everything around them. Under its influence, moral judgments are greatly suppressed so that what one would not normally do is deemed proper. One often awakens the next day to not remember their actions the night before. Shame, disgrace and regret follow in the wake of alcohol, not only before men, but especially in the sight of God! The Lord will not hold one guiltless who partakes of it. The Bible commands us to be alert-- sober (1 Thessalonians 5:6,8; Titus 2:6; 1 Peter 4:7; 5:8).
        Alcohol Inflames Lust. "Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things" (Proverbs 23:33). King Ahasuerus, after his heart was made "merry with wine," summoned for queen Vashti to come and display her beauty before the people and princes (Esther 1:10-12). Jesus says lusting is punishable by damnation in hell. "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). Lusting is impure, immoral, licentious. Alcohol goes hand in hand with it!
        Alcohol Causes One To Transgress God's Law. "Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine..." (Habakkuk 2:5). Under the influence of alcohol, Lot committed fornication (incest) with his two daughters (Genesis 19:30-36). Alcoholic drink was forbidden the priests who officiated in the tabernacle (Leviticus 10:8-11). "Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! ...they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands" (Isaiah 5:11-12). "Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him" (Isaiah 5:22- 23)!
        Those Who Drink Can And Must Repent (1 Cor. 6:10-11).
        Alcohol Leads To Poverty And Rags. It is a well-known fact that the families of those who are drunkards often suffer, having little food and clothes because of the sinful practice of drinking alcohol. Those who are addicted to this insidious evil will forfeit all they have to continue in it! As long as alcohol has a hold on them, there's no way but down. The Holy Spirit said, "Be not among winebibbers; ...For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags" (Prov. 23:20-21).
        Alcohol Corrupts Courts And Govern- ments, And Brings National Destruction. By inspiration, the wise Solomon said, "...It is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted" (Proverbs 31:4-5). The governments ("powers that be", Romans 13:1- 7) are for the help and protection of its citizens. When its rulers withhold proper judgment, they are not fulfilling their role. Alcohol certainly turns away the heart of a person from following the right ways of the Lord. "Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him" (Isaiah 5:22). These verses prove alcohol corrupts one's proper judgment. There's no justice with those who are not thinking soberly.
        Drunkenness Leads To Adultery, Incest, And Illegitimate Children. Concerning Lot, the nephew of Abraham, the Bible says, "...and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters." The daughters said, "Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us... Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose." The next night they got him drunk again and "...the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father" (Genesis 19:30-36). Drinking has led to this diabolical act again and again.
        Those who drink can repent. Stop drinking and be forgiven!
        The Curse Of God Rests On The Drunkard. "Woe to the...drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! ... The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet" (Isaiah 28:1-3). The tribe of Ephraim had many sins for which they were guilty, but drunkenness was certainly one of them for which they would pay a severe price. God would not bring them a blessing, but rather a curse!
        Alcohol Brings Woe, Sorrow, Conten- tions, Babbling, Wounds, And Inflamed Eyes. "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine...Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again" (Proverbs 23:29-30,34-35). These verses describe well the pain and misery that an individual brings upon himself by drinking alcohol. One will go so far as to lie down in his own vomit or take a beating and never even know it! The first drink is a step in that direction. Multitudes are fooled thereby!
        Alcohol, At First, May Be Pleasing With Some But In The End Is As Poison As A Rattlesnake! "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder" (Proverbs 23:31-32). For the moment, many delight in the feeling received from alcohol, but when tomorrow comes, the affect of misery and pain is felt in full force.
        The Curse Of God Is On Every Man, Every Business, And Every Government That Provides For Or Sells Booze. " Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD'S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory" (Habakkuk 2:15-26).
        Those who drink can repent. Stop drinking and be forgiven!
        Alcohol Causes One To Have No Shame And To Do Things That No Right-thinking Person Would Do. "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness" (Habakkuk 2:15)! Read Proverbs 23:29-35 and Genesis 19:30-39. Terrible wickedness accompanies alcohol!
        Christians Are Not To Associate With Drunkards. "...I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat" (1 Corinthians 5:11). Proverbs 23:20 instructs, "Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh."
        Those Who Imbibe Alcohol Shall Not Enter Heaven. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:19-21). "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Could it be any clearer?
        Christ Can Save Drunkards When They Repent. Some of the members of the church of Christ in ancient Corinth had been drunkards but had repented and been forgiven. The text says, "...drunkards...and such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). You too can be forgiven of the sin of drinking/drunkenness if you REPENT. Repentance is a change of mind which leads to a change of action. To those in Acts 2:38 we read, "... Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins ...." There is hope for the drunkard/alcoholic. He/she can be forgiven. Won't you obey the gospel today (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)?