James MacDonald - Wise Up About Alcohol - Part 3

Today I will continue to interact with Pastor James MacDonald's sermon called "Wise Up About Alcohol" (here and here). Here is his fourth reason for his belief that total abstinence is the wisest choice for all believers.

4. Because alcohol is destructive.

I disagree. Alcohol is NOT destructive. The ABUSE of alcohol is very destructive. This is an extremely important distinction that unfortunately Pastor MacDonald does not make. The wine sitting on my kitchen counter right now has never rose up and punched me in the face. If I drank a whole bottle of it in an hour I might rise up and punch myself in the face, but this would stem from my own stupidity and not alcohol in and of itself. Alcohol has zero power to do anything unless I choose to give it that power through my destructive use of it.

Pastor MacDonald gives many statistics about the abuse of alcohol, but again, he does not qualify these statements as abuse, but rather, as alcohol in general having the power to do these things. But in response to these stats, I could give you many counter examples of the healthy use of alcohol from my life and the lives of many of my Christian friends. Again, alcohol has no power for destruction in an of itself.

The problem with the statement, “Alcohol is destructive” is that is fails to make careful distinctions. What would you think if I said, “Sex is destructive”? I hope you would pause and think about that for a second. It seems that sex taken out of it’s God-ordained context is very destructive, but sex in the right context is very beautiful and affirming.

So if we are going to say that alcohol is destructive then we better not stop there. That would be way too short sighted. We should add sex to the top of the list and abstain from that as well because the destruction done by it in our society dwarfs that of alcohol. We would have to add eating at McDonalds to the list (ever seen the movie, Super Size Me?). And who in their right mind would ever set foot in an automobile again? Just because some people use something amoral for destruction does not mean that is should be outlawed for all Christians.

I fully recognize that the abuse of alcohol does great damage in our society. The Bible clearly affirms this and so do I but from the example of Jesus alone we can know that responsible use of alcohol is clearly within the bounds of Christian freedom.

Pastor MacDonald cites the text below to support his view that the wisest choice for all Christians is to completely abstain from all alcohol.

Proverbs 23:29-35 -

29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
30 Those who tarry long over wine;
those who go to try mixed wine.
31 Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup
and goes down smoothly.
32 In the end it bites like a serpent
and stings like an adder.
33 Your eyes will see strange things,
and your heart utter perverse things.
34 You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
like one who lies on the top of a mast. [8]
35 “They struck me,” you will say, [9] “but I was not hurt;
they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
I must have another drink.”

He sees this text as an argument for total abstinence but it seems that the Proverbs speak here of drunkenness and not wine in general. The key verse is verse 30 where is says, “tarry long over wine”. What does “tarry long over wine” mean? It means drunkenness. Causal drinking is not tarrying long over wine. If you read this text to the end it’s clear that the description given in this section of Proverbs is one of drunkenness.

So in sum, alcohol in and of itself is not destructive and the Bible does not teach this. It does certainly teach that drunkenness is a sin but this says nothing to the inherent power of alcohol in and of itself. This distinction is vital.

The previous two posts can be found here and here.