New Wine?

10-09-2008, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diligent

Earlier in this thread (before you joined the forum, I think), I asked someone to explain this verse:

Romans 14:21-22 It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

Now, if any time the Bible says "wine" in a permissive sense it is meant "grape juice," what is it that Paul is trying to teach here? If wine doesn't mean wine in this verse, what exactly is the offense?

Since Paul is our apostle, I consider what he says first (2Ti 2:7) before I try to understand other passages, such as the ones you have quoted. Paul seems to have a very permissive attitude about wine compared to you (we've already gone over the specific verses and why they mean wine, i.e. "much wine" and "drunkenness", earlier in the thread). So I have to "interpret" the Old Testament verses you quote in the light of Paul's teaching on the matter.

Anyhoo, Romans 14 seems to be the "prevailing authority" here since he directly addresses the issue of consuming wine when it may offend another. (Surely grape juice is not offensive!?) So as long as a brother is obedient to Paul's clear command, what business is it of yours to tell him, to mandate, that he abstain from all alcohol?

It was Paul who wrote to the young Timothy that "all Scripture is given by inspiration... that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto every good work." Paul, in another epistle wrote that he did not receive his doctrine from men, but from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

That said, since it was the Holy Spirit that inspired man to write that we are not to even look upon the wine in its fermented state, we must compare that with that which Paul received of the Lord and wrote in Romans 14:21,22.

Since Scripture clearly tells us to abstain in Proverbs 23, Paul would not tell us differently in Romans 14. So, what then is Paul saying? Certainly not to go against that which God has already given to man!

Quote:

Romans 14:21 [It is] good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor [any thing] whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.

Does not alcohol make people weak? Paul was clearly declaring one should abstain in this passage, for it does indeed cause many to stumble.

Paul was just agreeing with that same statement written in Proverbs 23, that one is not to look upon fermented drink for it causes great woes and sorrow.

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