Fermented or Unfermented?

Does God ever contradict Himself? You say no, of course not; but that’s exactly what He would have to do because of what many Christians believe about what the Bible teaches concerning wine. The word wine in the Bible can be defined as either fermented or unfermented and in many places does not differentiate between the two. So the only way to tell which is which is to compare Scripture with Scripture and understand the context before we make a determination.

There are many church congregations that celebrate the Lord’s Supper by using fermented wine in their services, and many figure that if it’s all right to use it during a sacred service, why wouldn’t it be all right to drink it at other times as well, after all, didn’t the apostle Paul tell Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach? [1 Timothy 5:23] And didn’t Paul also say that elders and deacons shouldn’t be given to much wine [1 Timothy 3:8], implying in many minds that it’s ok to drink as long as one doesn’t drink too much?

Well what about these things? Is it acceptable to God to drink fermented wine, or is there something not quite right about this? First of all let’s look at what the Old Testament says about wine; and remember, Christ was the God of the Old Testament as well as the New [1 Corinthians 10:4] and He wouldn’t condone it in one place and condemn it in another, because the Bible says God doesn’t change or alter the things that have gone out of His lips. [Malachi 3:6; Psalm 89:34]

Please consider prayerfully the following Bible verses. Proverbs 20:1 says, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”

Also Proverbs 23:29-35, “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright (or is bubbly). At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.”

Is not this description true to life? Does it not represent to us the experience of the poor, besotted drunkard, who is plunged in degradation and ruin because he has put the bottle to his lips, and who says, “I will seek it yet again”? Just remember this; moderate drinking is the school in which men are educated for the drunkard’s career, and no one knows if they have a weakness for it until they take that first drink.

Isaiah 5:11, 20-23 “Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!. . . Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!”

Proverbs 31:4, 5 “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.”

Isaiah 28:1, 7, 8 “Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! . . . But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.”

Leviticus 10:8-11, “And the LORD spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.”

Someone might say, “that’s fine for religious leaders, but that doesn’t affect me because I’m just a lowly lay member in the church.” But notice what the apostle Peter declares referring to every Christian, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people.” [1 Peter 2:9]. It may be true that you are not an ordained minister, but you are a royal priesthood nonetheless, no matter your position in the church. If you are a Christian, you occupy the position of a priest in that you are able to go directly to the throne of God without a mediator. Therefore God expects you to be able to “put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean”, and that is not possible for the one whose mind is dulled by alcohol in any form.

Now one might read this and think you shouldn’t go to church when you’ve had alcohol, but that’s not implied here at all. God simply says that religious leaders should not drink because if they do their judgment will be impaired, and if that’s true for religious leaders, certainly it’s true for everyone.

Habakkuk 2:15, “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also.”

When God uses the word “woe”, it’s not a good thing. It means he’ll have heartache, problems and troubles of many kinds.

Ephesians 5:18 “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”

Titus 2:3, 4 “The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children.”

There are several examples in the Bible of those that drank fermented wine with bad results. The first example is in Genesis 9 where Noah got drunk and one of his sons was cursed because he uncovered his father’s nakedness. Then in Genesis 19 we have the story of Lot’s two daughters who got him drunk and became pregnant by their own father. Then there was Belshazzar’s feast in Daniel 5 when the kingdom was lost because of the drunkenness of the king and his lords. And remember what happened when King Herod got drunk? He was fooled into granting the request of his evil wife to give her the head of John the Baptist on a platter. And by the way, John was one who drank no wine [Luke 1:15]. Then in Jeremiah 35 we have the story of the Rechabites who were blessed of the Lord because they obeyed the instructions of their father and drank neither wine nor strong drink. Then there was Daniel who refused to defile himself with the wine the king drank. In Daniel 1:8 it says, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” And then in verse 20 it says this of Daniel and his three friends, “And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.”

So, if fermented wine is not sanctioned by the Lord as a beverage for Christians to drink, then what kind of wine is? Isaiah 65:8 has the answer, “Thus saith the LORD, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, destroy it not; for a blessing is in it.”

Nowhere in the Bible does God tell us that there is a blessing in fermented wine, only in a cluster of fresh grapes that are turned into juice can the blessing be found. And that brings us to the reason the apostle Paul told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach and often infirmities.

As it turns out, grape juice has what’s called phenolic compounds which are soothing to the stomach and intestines, and as the juice is allowed to ferment the phenolic compounds are diminished and less effective. This being true, wouldn’t it seem reasonable that Paul’s suggestion for Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach make more sense for the wine to be fresh grape juice rather than spoiled grape juice?

“Well,” someone says, “wasn’t it fermented wine that Jesus made from water at His first miracle in Cana?” As already mentioned, why would Jesus warn of the dangers of drinking fermented wine in the Old Testament and then later supply it to guests at a wedding feast? Something is wrong with this picture.

The story is found in John 2:1-11 and from the context it is quite clear that it was fresh juice, because the guests at the marriage feast were able to discern between the quality of the drink that the Lord had made and that which had already been served. If intoxicating wine had been served, and people “well drunk” or drunk freely of it (verse 10), then they would not have had such keen discernment. Though the amount is not specified as to what they had previously drunk, if they consumed the six water pots that Jesus had the servants fill with water and which contained “two or three firkins apiece” (verse 6), then they would have consumed somewhere between 106 to 162 gallons of booze! This is far more than enough to make the most casual drinker drunk. Those who twist this account to condone social drinking say the term “well drunk” refers to the idea that the crowd was so drunk that they could not distinguish. However, the point of “the governor of the feast” to the bridegroom is that the guests were able to discern between the “worse” and the “good wine.” If it’s the case that these wedding guests were so drunk that they could not distinguish, then the Lord made the six pots of alcoholic beverage for those who were already strongly under the influence, which caused them to be even more drunk!

No, friend, the wine which Christ provided for the feast, and that which He gave to the disciples as a symbol of His own blood, was the pure juice of the grape, because as Isaiah says, “Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it.”

It was a command by God that during the Passover, which was symbolic of the communion service, that the bread be unleavened, why? Because leaven causes fermentation and was strictly forbidden during that sacred service because symbolically it represented sin, and if it wasn’t to be used in the bread, certainly fermented wine was forbidden also. Christ did not contradict His own teaching. The unfermented wine which He provided for the wedding guests and the Lord’s Supper was a wholesome and refreshing drink.

I don’t know of even one good thing that has resulted from the use of alcohol in any form, not one! All a person has to do is look around at all the ruin and degradation it has caused to know that the Bible is true when it says, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” It’s a proven fact that a very high percentage of murders, rapes, auto accidents, and a whole host of other crimes are the result of drinking intoxicating beverages of some kind, and God would never condone anything like that.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

Please notice that Paul here refers to those that “were”, or used to live worldly lives, which included drinking alcohol, but as Christians they stopped doing that, among other sinful practices.

Remember, the Lord is not mocked. In other words, you better not laugh at Him when He tells you not to do a certain thing, because if you do, you will surely suffer the penalty for disobedience. Rather than being drunk with wine, be filled with the Spirit and you will surely inherit the mansions that Jesus has gone to prepare for us. May this be your experience.