by Eric Karen

Created on: June 15, 2009   Last Updated: June 21, 2009

Envision a nice crate with a shaggy blanket on top of it for a tablecloth. You are sitting there with two friends or three to make a church. You guys have a camping lantern on top of the shaggy blanket for light, and a nice glass of fifteen dollar wine. How many glasses could three people have from a typical bottle of wine?

Did you get my opinion out of the opening paragraph? I'm sure you did. OK, now I will give you my second opinion, no it is not a sin for Christians to drink in the general sense. It is not a sin, but it is not really the best thing to do. I did a text search in a bible study software program and read enough passages to get a good overview. In the Old Testament it seemed people drank for offerings and pretty much to get through doing evil deeds. There were the sisters who lay with their father in Genesis after getting him drunk. I also noticed people drinking and then cursing others' gods which is against the teaching of Jesus. Also in Proverbs I noticed it is said that drinking wine or strong drink is not fit for kings, but rather for those bitter in soul.

In the new testament there are parties and drinking, but they don't always match with good things. Perhaps the top verses I found on the subject are in 1 Timothy 3:1-9 and 1 Timothy 5:19-25. In the first example of Timothy it talks about overseers and deacons. It requires that they not be drinkers as they are positions of responsibility in a church. In the second example in the Word of God it talks about drinking to ease pain again and infirmities of the stomach.

So, it seems pretty much that the Bible says that you can drink to be merry and if you are sick, but if you expect to get anywhere it probably is a hobby best left on the shelf. Albeit I wrote this article while reading the Word, these are just my inadequate opinions. I suggest you find some nice Bible study software and read about the topic yourself. What I use is Xiphos which is a free open source program. It works very nicely.

I'll end this article with my personal experience of drinking. I wrote about being on the street of one of America's biggest cities, one of which was San Diego. I landed in that city and was really enjoying it, despite the struggles to get going financially. I was walking miles every day, but am rather tough and was close to putting everything together. One day though, I drank a few glasses of wine and ended up calling family back home in South Dakota. Being softened up a little I let myself get flown back home on a false promise and have regretted that decision ever since. I probably would be rolling in style by now on the ocean. My advice: it's not a sin to drink, but drinking of the Holy Spirit is so much more. Jesus' Love to any reader of this humble article.

Learn more about this author, Eric Karen.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.