SEVENTY-FOUR REFERENCES AGAINST DRINKING WINE

AND STRONG DRINK

By HERB EVANS, Ltt.D.

157 PATTIES PLACE -- PORTERSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA 16051

E-Mail: herbevans@juno.com

1. The first drunkenness and the attendant immoral behavior. -- Gen. 9-20-26

2. Drinking results in Lot’s debauchery of his own daughters. -- Gen. 19:30-38

3. Isaac was drinking when he mistakenly blessed Jacob. -- Gen. 27:25

4. An express command not to drink. -- Lev. 10:9

5. The vow of the Nazarite. -- Num. 6:3

6. Drinking leads to stubbornness, rebellion, gluttony, brings dishonor to parents. -- Deut. 21:20

7. Abstinence assures a closer walk with God. -- Deut. 29:2-6

8. Samson’s mother, an example of all womanhood, was commanded not to drink. Was alcohol recognized even then as a protoplasmic poison, injuring posterity? -- Judges 13:4, 7, 14

9. Hannah, an example of honored motherhood, was a total abstainer. -- I Sam. 1:14-15

10. Nabal, died after a drunken spree, after already lost his wife’s respect. -- I Sam. 25:33; 36:38

11. Only by strong drink could David lead Uriah into a fatal trap. -- II Sam. 11:13

12. Amon, in a drunken brawl, was murdered by his brother Absalom. -- II Sam. 13:28-29

13. While a king was "drinking himself drunk,” one of his captains slew him. -- I Kings 16:8-10

14. While Ben Hadad and 32 other Kings were drinking in their pavilions, a small band of Israel’s men fell upon them and put them to flight. Drink and war. -- I Kings 20:13-21

15. King Ahasuerus drunkenly tried to subject his queen to the beastly gaze of inebriated nobles, causing the wreck of home and separation of the husband and wife. – Est. 1:5-22

16. Job’s children were feasting and drink­ing when blown away in a cyclone. -- Job 1:18-19

17. Violence results from drinking. -- Pr. 4:17

18. No wise men will indulge. -- Pr. 20:1

19. Drink leads to poverty. -- Pr. 21:17, 23:21

20. The body rebels after drinking. -- Pr. 23:7-8

21. Strong drink produces sorrow, contentions, wounds without cause, babblings, redness of eyes. -- Pr. 23:29-30

22. Do not be tempted by intoxicants. -- Pr. 23:31

23. God’s Word warns that liquor eventually harms all who drink. -- Pr. 23:32

24. It produces a willfulness and prevents refor­mation. -- Pr. 22:23

25. It fills men’s minds with adulterous and impure thoughts. -- Pro. 23:33

26. It brings on insecurity. -- Pr. 23:34

27. Insensibility follows drinking, rendering a man into a clod. -- Pr. 23:35

28. Habit forming. One drink calls for another. -- Pr. 23:35

29. Kings and all other rulers or officials with the weight of human lives in their control should not imbibe. -- Pr. 31:4-5

30. The only sanctions for the use of strong drink were uses as a medicine or anesthetic for the dying. We now know better medicines and anesthetics than whiskey, wine, or beer. -- Pr. 31:6-7

31. The writer of Ecclesiastes tried strong drink, but in the end was forced to admit that it too is vanity. -- Eccl. 2:3 (Eccl. 12:8)

32. Blessings are promised to the temperate and abstaining nations. --Eccl. 10:17

33. More woes to them who drink. -- Isa. 5:22

34. Drinking and carnality go together. Leaves men hopeless. --Isa. 22:13

35. Drink is bitter to them that drink it. -- Isa. 24:9

36. Woe to the drunkards of Ephraim. -- Isa. 28:1

37. The pride of drunkards will be trodden down. -- Isa. 28:3

38. Prophets and priests erred through drink. -- Isa. 28:7

39. Those who drink are set aside as useless. -- Isa. 28:7

40. Prophets and priests finally swallowed up by drink. -- Isa. 28:7

41. Drinking brings on spiritual blindness. -- Isa. 28:7

42. Rebuke to drinking church members -His watchmen. -- Isa. 56:9-12

43. Total abstinence of the Rechabites cited as example of obedience on the part of God’s people. -- Jer. 35:5, 6, 8, 14

44. Priests are not to drink wine. -- Ezek. 44:21

45. God honored Daniel because he abstained from the King’s wine. Daniel the man was true to the home training he had received as a boy. --Dan. 1:5, 8, 16; 10:3

46. Belshazar’s exampled a leader who drank and taught his people to drink. -- Dan. 5:1

47. A nation whose women drink. -- Dan. 5:2, 23

48. Ruin and downfall for nations whose rulers/leaders cause them to drink. -- Dan. 5:5-9, 25-28

49. Belshazzar’s sacrilege in using scared temple vessels for liquor. --Dan. 5:3

50. Part of the degrad­ation of Hosea’s wife induced by drink. -- Hos. 3:1

51. Strong drink and Immorality go hand in hand. -- Hos. 4:11

52. Kings and people re­proved because of drinking. --Hos. 7:5

53. Drunkards to awake from their drinking. -- Joel 1:5.

54. Young virtue sold for the price of drink. -- Joel 3:3

55. Wine of the con­demned. -- Amos 2:8

56. Pollution of the innocent. -- Amos 2:12

57. Dissolute women, oppressors of the poor, call for their liquor. --Amos 4:1

58. Drinkers not concerned about God nor the welfare of others. --Amos 6:6

59. Drunkards to be destroyed. -- Nah. 1:10

60. Arrogance inflamed by drink. -- Hab. 2:5

61. Wrong to give one’s neighbor drink. Social drinking. -- Hab. 2:15

62. Drink leads to shame and humiliation. -- Hab. 2:16

63. Drunkards warned about the return of Christ and Ills judgment. --Matt. 24:48-51

64. Greatness of John the Baptist linked with his total abstinence. --Luke 1:15

65. Christ warns against being enmeshed in drink evils. -- Luke 12:45

66. Warning against drunkenness and the cares of this life which follow, keeping one occupied to the exclusion of the Spirit. -- Luke 21:34

67. All are admon­ished to walk honestly, not in rioting and drunkenness. It is not honest to be less than men, created in the image of God. -- Rom. 13:13

68. Drinking causes a brother to stumble. Im­portance of example. --Rom. 14:21

69. No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God. (Therefore the preach­ing of the Gospel must include alcohol education.) -- I Cor. 6:10

70. The Lord’s Supper no place for wine. Word “wine” not even used. Instead all accounts say “the cup or “fruit of the vine.” -- I Cor. 11:25

71. Revelers in drunk­enness shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. --Gal. 5:21

72. Direct command that exhilaration shall be of the Spirit and not by wine. -- Eph. 5:18

73. Sobriety enjoin­ed the Thessalonians. Children of light must not be overcome by darkness. -- 1 Thess. 5:7

74. Church officers must not drink; neither should their families. -- Tim. 3:3, 8, 11, 12 -- copied from The Baptist Echo, April 1976, p.3