 
IS IT WRONG TO USE ALCOHOL IN MODERATION?
Hi, John:
I was told that drinking alcohol in moderation is not a sin. Is it wrong to drink beer or wine if you keep it in moderation? Thanks in advance for the advice. Dessie
Dear Dessie:
In response to your question about the use of alcoholic beverages, it is commendable that your use of alcoholic beverages has been with moderation thus far. But given the danger that alcohol consumption poses, I personally think that Christians should abstain from such beverages.
I see it not as just a matter of sin but of danger. It would be very much like taking a medicine or drug that carries high risks, or driving habits that place one at high risk, or frequenting certain unsavory parts of town where there is high risk of harm. Few things have wreaked as much havoc on personal lives, families and society as has beverage alcohol. Thirty-nine percent of all traffic fatalities involve drinking drivers (over 25,000 annually). Over 50 percent of all criminal activity involves the use of alcohol. Most domestic violence involves alcohol. Twenty-five percent of all divorces can be blamed on alcohol. Add to the above the ravaged lives of those who become addicted to alcohol and you begin to see the destructive nature of this product. "Alcohol constitutes the country's greatest mental health problem. It accounts for about 25 percent of the patients in mental hospitals" (Dr. Karl Menninger).
- The Bible nowhere says "Thou shalt not take a drink," but it does give us numerous warnings about the dangers of alcohol. "Wine is a mocker, strong drink a bawler; and whosoever erreth thereby is no wise." (Prov. 20:1). " Be not among wine bibbers..." (Prov. 23:20). "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup...at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder" (Prov. 23:31-32).
- Without dispute, alcohol is the cause of great evil, but Christians are to abstain from the very appearance of evil (I Thess. 5:22).
- Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. If we defile or destroy the temple of God (our bodies), God will destroy us ( I Cor. 3:16-17).
- The danger of alcoholic addiction is real and large. Roughly 10 percent of those who use alcohol will eventually become problem drinkers. Paul writes "All things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of any" (I Cor. 6:12).
- Our influence on others should prohibit our drinking. "It is good not to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby thy brother stumbleth" (Rom. 14:21).
- We are to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul (I Pet. 2:11). Beverage alcohol wars against the soul by destroying our inhibitions to sin and leads unto into the company of worldly companions who turn our heats away from God. "The higher qualities of the mind are the very first to be rubbed out by alcohol. The delicate capacities of intellectual decision and choice and discretion and will power are those faculties which are first dulled and then wiped out by alcohol..." (The Problem: Alcohol-Narcotics, p. 14).
- Like other narcotics, alcohol has medicinal uses (I Tim. 5:23). Some doctors prescribe its moderate use for neural and circulatory problems. To justify social drinking by its medicinal use is the same as justifying social use of drugs by their use in medicines.
While I have never known a Christian who was made better by drinking, I have known several who have lost their good influence and interest in heavenly things because of alcohol. Christians who do not social drink never have to apologize for so doing. I have never met a person who regretted not using beverage alcohol but I have met many who rued the day they took their first drink. I am thankful that most of Christians live lives of total abstinence.
JHW
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