On Wednesday Night, February 10th, at 6:30pm, we will study the topic “Christians and the Social Drinking of Alcohol.” I was recently asked the question “Is it OK for Christians to drink alcohol as long as they don’t get drunk?”

The Southern Baptist position is that consuming alcohol is sinful and should be avoided. At Northlake, our Constitution and Bylaws contains “The Church Covenant” which is shared by most SBC churches and it says that we should “abstain from the sale and use of intoxicating drinks and beverages except when prescribed for medical reasons.”  Also in our Bylaws there is a reference to 1 Timothy 3 which says that Pastors should be “not given to wine” and Deacons “not given to much wine.”

Wikipedia gives a good overview of how Christians have dealt with this issue in Church History – “Christian views on alcohol are varied. Throughout the first 1,800 years of church history, Christians consumed alcoholic beverages as a common part of everyday life and nearly always used wine (fermented grape juice) in their central rite — the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper. They held that both the Bible and Christian tradition taught that alcohol is a gift from God that makes life more joyous, but that overindulgence leading to drunkenness is a sin. In the mid-19th century, some Protestant Christians moved from this historic position of allowing moderate use of alcohol (sometimes called moderationism) to either deciding that not imbibing was wisest in the present circumstances (abstentionism), or prohibiting all ordinary consumption of alcohol because it was believed to be a sin (prohibitionism). Today, all three of these positions exist in Christianity, but the historic position remains the most common worldwide, due to the adherence by the largest bodies of Christians including Anglicanism, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and significant segments of Protestantism.”

So, as you can see, when it comes to drinking alcoholic drinks, the Southern Baptist position (prohibitionism) is a minority opinion.  What do you think? Please vote your opinion in this weeks poll and as always, feel free to comment.

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