Questions People Are Asking About Alcohol

“WISE men do not drink wine at all.” So declared a Nigerian clergyman. Not long ago, such a statement would have been dismissed as intolerant and narrow-minded. Today, though, an antialcohol sentiment is growing in some parts of the world.

A recent Reader’s Digest/​Gallup survey (U.S.), for example, revealed that “Americans have started drinking less.” Time magazine similarly reports that “America is tapering off [alcohol consumption], and doing so at a faster pace than at any time since Prohibition took effect in 1920.” France reports a decrease in wine consumption.

The reason for this trend toward temperance? Some have raised a hue and cry over the terrible carnage on public highways due to drunken drivers. “In 1983,” claimed Reader’s Digest, “alcohol . . . cost the [United States] $89.5 billion in lost employment and productivity, health care, property loss and crime, as well as immeasurable damage to the family lives of those involved.” No wonder, then, that the UN’s World Health Organization recently recommended that governments ‘restrict the availability of alcohol in the interest of the health and welfare of their populations.’​—New Nigerian, March 16, 1983.

Some are even arguing for abstinence. The above-quoted Nigerian clergyman claims: “Proverbs 20:1 says specifically that those who drink wine are not wise.” And asserts yet another preacher: “The Holy Scriptures condemn alcohol in the Book of Isaiah,” referring to the texts at Isaiah 5:11, 12, and Isa 5:22.

In view of such claims, people wonder: What do such Scripture texts mean? Does the Bible really categorically forbid the consumption of alcoholic beverages? Did not Jesus himself drink wine, or was nonalcoholic grape juice involved? In view of the obvious dangers involved, might it be best for Christians to abstain from the drinking of alcohol? The answers to these questions can be found by looking into the Bible itself.