Wine drinking
Further investigation in the Bible, does Jesus has anything to do with wine drinking?
In Gospel of John, chapter 2, Jesus changes water into wine in the wedding in Cana, what kind of wine Jesus made for the people there? It was the best old wine! Listen to the guests who drink the wine. John 2:10, after the guests drunk the wine Jesus made for them, they acclaimed it was a choice wine, and said "Everyone bring out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink, but you have saved the best till now." The wine Jesus made is the best wine! The guests said, the men usually have first "well drunk with choice wine," "getting drunken because of the choice wine........;" what does this means? "well drunk what kind of wine?" There are evidents indicating the "choice wine" here is a type of fermented wine. (Referring the word "have well drunk" "methuo" is used in Matthew 24:49, Acts 2:15, 1 Cor 11:21, 1 Thes 5:7)
Jesus had made the best wine for them, from the quest's conversation, it is normal for them to drink much better wine in the first place in the wedding. Many did this kind of drinking at Jesus' time. Question is what kind of wine? What kind of wine is called as the better wine. The word "wine" is "oinos" in this verse, what kind of wine is that? We cannot tell merely from this word, because this word "oinos" has two kind of meanings, may be it is a kind of fermented strong drink or maybe a kind of fresh press grape juice.
It is impossible Jesus had made those 120 gallons of best wine for them? The guests in the wedding said the wine Jesus made is the best wine, the better wine, the choice wine, the good wine! Which kind of wine is called the better wine? The new wine or the old wine? Jesus Christ gave us the answer in his parable! What is the meaning of better old wine in Jesus' understanding? Listen to Jesus Christ in judging the wine and his wine grading, in Luke 5:39, Jesus said, "And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, "The old is better." The fermented wine is the better wine! Who said this, Jesus did!
Jesus tells us that the old wine is the better wine, naturally it becomes the choice wine, the older is the better, the best wine in the Cana wedding was made by Jesus Himself! Jesus made the better, old wine, the fermented wine in Cana. Does Jesus forbid people from drinking choice and better wine, in this case, ironically, no. He made it for them! Indeed, in Luke 5:37, "And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined." The new wine is the still fermenting wine, for sometime they put the fresh press grape juice in the wineskin, after sometimes in the skin, it will ferments, that is why the skin burst! What about the old wine? The old wine is fermented wine! Contents alcholol!
How much best and choice wine Jesus made for them? According to John 2:6, it is about 120 to 180 gallons! And you may argue and fight with one another, what is the wine is all about, it is alcoholic? Intoxicating? If you asked the VPP theologians! They will write a tone of thesis for you. My important question is, wine made from many grapes, what we had transformed them within us? What is the meaning in taking wine in New Testament? In the early Christian Church, it was usual to mix the sacramental wine with water. Wine is figurative of the blood of Christ. (Matthew 26:27-29) But the scriptures forbid drunkenness! Some Christians do drink, moderately! And this become a debate in Christendom, over the drinking habit and the split began. They forgot to read, 1 Timothy 5:23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.
What about wine drinking in Old Testament
There is many proofs that indicate Israelite drink until they drunk. Did they split into pieces? Did they really drunk? Drunk until they lost their balance and sound mind, babbling and fallen asleep at the road side?
In the Old Testament time, Eli thought Hannah was getting drunk when she came to pray in the temple, it was seen even often in Old Testament time, wine causing Israelites women into troubles, reading 1 Samuel 1:13b-14, Eli thought she was drunk, and said to her, "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine." God heard Hannah's prayer, and gave her a son, and later Hannah brought a skin of wine to the temple in 1 Samuel 1:24. It is normal in those days the wine were being brought to the temple.
Dr Luke wrote about wine drinking in his journal, it is mentioned at the time when some of them spoke in tongue at Pentecost, at that time they were speaking in some human languages, Act 2:11, "we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God." the speakers never learn that languages before, but they utter with the help of the Holy Spirit, someone understood what they had spoken, the tongue here is different from Corinthians's tongue, Corinthian tongue is not a human language, reading from 1 Corinthians 14:2, "For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no on understands him....." No one understand him....surely this is not a human language. But the tongue in Pentecost is a kind of human language where some people can understand what they were uttering.
Forbid not those spoke in tongue in Corinthians, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:39, " ...do not forbid speaking in tongues!" Do not stop or attack anyone who is speaking in a strange tongue even though no one understand him, or no one knew what he was saying!
The VPP theologians had spend times, writing papers and wasting much inks in attacking the fundamentalists! They even mocked them! This article is written to refute the VPP theologians who attack those fundamental moderate wine drinker and tongue speaker in this Far East!
When the Israelites spoke in tongue, in human languages in such of strange manner in Act 2:13, "some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much new wine."
They mocked those who spoken in tongue! New wine is also has intoxicating nature. Ironically, Dr Luke and others knew what is the effect of too much wine, so too much new wine may cause a man to get drunk. The wine at Jesus' time is actually a tonic which has alcohol causing drunkenness. It is often not grape juice, or wine deluded with water! Drunkenness is seen too often in Jesus' time. The theologians does not make a fine study about speaking in tongue and wine drinking in New Testament, but they have already getting drunk with the false accusation given to brother in Christ!
What is the lesson for us to learn from the wine drinking and tongue speaking practices?
John Calvin wrote in his commentary about the wine skin in Luke 5:39...he wrote,"I take it simply as a warning to the Pharisees not to attach undue importance to a received custom. For how comes it that wine, the taste of which remains unaltered, is not equally agreeable to every palate, but because custom and habit form the taste? Hence it follows, that Christ’s manner of acting towards his disciples is not less worthy of approbation, because it has less show and splendor: as old wine, though it does not foam with the sharpness of new wine, is not less agreeable on that account, or less fitted for the nourishment of the body." John Calvin meant we better don't behave and think like a Pharisees.......! We better stop attacking those who are speaking in tongue, and those who are drinking moderately.
Summary
Do I encouraging you to speaking in tongue, yes, if that tongue you spoke can edify you and you did not disturb the peace in the church and family, referring to 1 Corinthians 14:4, "He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself." Do I encouraging you to drink wine? No, I do not, stop your drunkenness, quit it! Stop being a drunkard! What I pursue until now is that, it is better for us to stop being a Pharisee. Moderate drinking of wine and controlled speaking in tongue are not forbidden by scripture! Likewise speaking in tongue, even though there is no evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit! That is human spirit who is praying in tongue, when I am speaking in tongue is because my spirit prays, do not react over sensitive about this phenomena. And fight over it. (1 Corinthians 14:14, ... For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth...) Give some places for wine and tongue if they are scriptural and biblical! Drink in the Spirit, is what matter most, what I meant the Holy Spirit, drink in the Holy Spirit, the tongue and wine become the things in the past and secondary!
There is place for the responsible and temperate usage of wine and tongue, rather, we must forbid the abuse or incessant use of them, that an individual who always has a bottle on the table and so addiction, or an individual always pray with tongue without orders in the church. Paul laid down, as a simple but infallible test, the witness which such an utterance bears to Jesus: "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthian 12:3) John later insisting in 1 John 4:2, "every spirit which confessed that Jesus Christ has come in the fresh is of God." Remember Christ is both God and man. Any effort to mix the kingdom of God with the old legalistic system is self-defeating.
Revelation 6:6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. Isaiah 5:11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!
happy father day!
Written for the VPP drunkard
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