There are a lot of self-righteous people running around these days. Some of them declare that they are going to heaven because they believe in Jesus, and I am going to hell because I drink beer and tequila. So I remind them that the Messiyah turned perfectly good drinking water into wine. So they counter with: "Back then wine was a non-alcoholic food, similar to what we call grape juice."

How could they come to such a conclusion? Is that what their priest said? The traditions of men? Perhaps they don't read the scriptures? Because, it seems to me that the scripture defines itself. If the scriptures say wine is alcoholic, not grape juice, then I must think the Messiyah is saying to us that it is okay to drink and be merry! And why not? Don't you think Yahwah wants us to be happy?

Obviously, drunkeness is bad. The scriptures do, on several occasions, tell us to avoid drunkeness. Drunk is when you've had too much to drink, and now the alchohol is in control of you. Drunkeness is when you are repeatedly drunk, day after day. That is obviously bad. Being drunk puts you into a state of mind where satan can get in. And, hang-overs are no fun.

But a small amount of drinking makes for happy people. So if the Messiyah turned perfectly good drinking water into an alcoholic wine, then I must assume it is okay to drink alcohol. He did not sin. So I did read the scriptures, and here is what I found:

Leviticus 10:9 Drink no wine nor strong drink, [associates wine and strong drink together, as if both are alcoholic, and shows that they did have drinks much stronger than wine. They were familiar with alcohol.]

Micah 2:11 I will prophesy to you of wine, and of strong drink.

1Samuel 1:14 How long will you be drunken? Put away your wine from you. 15 I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, [associates drunkeness with drinking of wine. Notice that these quotes are from way back into the early old-testament times. Wine was alcoholic! And they also had stronger drinks.]

Proverbs 20:1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whosoever errs thereby is not wise.

Proverbs 23:20 Be not among winebibbers, among gluttonous eaters of flesh, 21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty.

Proverbs 23:29-35 Who has woe? Oh! Who has redness of eyes? 30 Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine.

Judges 9:13 And the vine said to them: Should I leave my new wine, which cheers Yahwah and man? [does grape juice cheer men up?]

Jasher 85:60 Then they gave him wine, and he drank, and became intoxicated. They placed a beautiful damsel before him, and he did with her as he liked, for he did not know what he was doing, as he had drunk plentifully of wine.

1 Ezra 3:10 The first wrote: Wine is the strongest. [but only if it has alcohol]

Titus 1:7 not given to wine,

Twelve Patriarchs: Yahudah: 12:3 Being drunk with wine, I did not recognize her.

The Testament of Yahudah [Judah] 14:1 My children, I say to you, do not be drunk with wine. For wine turns the mind away from the truth, 2 inspires the passion of lust, and leads the eyes into error. For the spirit of fornication has wine as a minister to give pleasure to the mind. For these two also take away the mind of man. 3 For if a man drink wine to drunkenness, it disturbs the mind with filthy thoughts leading to fornication, and heats the body to carnal union. 4 And if the occasion of the lust is present, he works the sin, and is not ashamed. 5 Such is the inebriated man, my children; for he who is drunken reverences no man. Lo, it made me to err also, so that I was not ashamed of the multitude in the city. Before the eyes of all I turned aside to Tamar, and I wrought a great sin: I uncovered the covering of my son's shame. 6 After I drank wine I did not reverence the commandment of Yahwah, and I took a woman of Canaan to wife. 7 For much discretion needs the man who drinks wine, my children. And herein is discretion in drinking wine: a man may drink so long as he preserves modesty. 8 But if he go beyond this limit the spirit of deceit attacks his mind, and it makes the drunkard to talk filthily, to transgress and to not be ashamed, but even to glory in his shame, and to account himself honorable.

Psalm 104:15 And wine that makes glad the heart of man,

Sirach 31:25 Do not show your valiantness in wine, for wine has destroyed many. 26 The furnace proves the edge by dipping, so does wine the hearts of the proud by drunkeness. 27 Wine is as good as life to a man, if it is drunk moderately. What is life to a man that is without wine? It was made to make men glad. 28 Wine measurably drunk in season brings gladness of the heart, and cheerfulness of the mind. 29 But wine drunken with excess makes bitterness of the mind, with brawling and quarrelling. 30 Drunkenness increases the rage of a fool till he offend. It diminishes strength, and makes wounds. 31 Do not rebuke your neighbor at the wine, do not despise him in his mirth, give him no despiteful words, do not press upon him with urging him [to drink.]

Tobit 4:15 do not drink wine to make you drunken, neither let drunkenness go with you in your journey.

Acts 2:13 But others, mocking, said: They are filled with new wine. 15 For these are not drunken, as you suppose. [this makes it obvious wine makes you drunk, even "new" wine.]

Proverbs 31:4-7 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes to say: Where is strong drink? [if wine was nothing more than grape juice, then it would be good for food; and therefore there would seem to be no reason to abstain from it]

Ecclesiastes 2:3 I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine.

Ecclesiastes 10:19 A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes merry.

Judges 13:4 Now therefore beware, I pray you, and drink no wine nor strong drink, and do not eat any unclean thing.

Judith 12:20 Holofernes took great delight in her, and drank more wine than he had drunk at any time in one day since he was born. 13:2 Judith was left alone in the tent, and Holofernes lying unconcious upon his bed, for he was filled with wine.

Genesis 19:32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 33 They made their father drink wine that night, and the first-born went in, and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down, nor when she arose. [the wine was pretty strong, apparently. He got drunk the next night also]

Hosea 4:11 Whoredom, wine, and new wine, take away the understanding. 7:5 inflamed with wine,

Isayah 5:11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; who tarry late into the night, till wine inflames them!

Isayah 28:1 those who are overcome with wine! 7 And even these reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink: the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they stagger with strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

Isayah 29:9 they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

Yeremyah 23:9 I am like a drunken man, like a man whom wine has overcome,

Yeremyah 51:7 made all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine, therefore the nations are mad

Yoel 1:5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep. Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine [a drunkard is a person who is drunk a lot of the time.]

Luke 1:15 and He will drink no wine nor strong drink [why should he not drink wine if it is just grape juice?]

Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot,

Genesis 9:21 He drank of the wine, and was drunken. 24 Noah awoke from his wine,

1Samuel 25:36 Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken. 37 And it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal,

Esther 1:10 when the heart of the king was merry with wine,

2Samuel 13:28 when Amnon's heart is merry with wine,

Revelation 17:2 the inhabitants of the earth are made drunk out of the wine of her fornication. [although used figuratively, it still shows once again that wine gets you drunk]

1Kings 4:20 Judah and Israel were many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating, drinking, and making merry.

Use of wine and even "strong drink" was allowed for the Israelites during the annual Festivals: Deuteronomy 14:26 and you will bestow the money for whatsoever your soul desires, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever your soul asks of you. You will eat there before Yahwah your Father, and you will rejoice, you and your household.

Numbers 6:3 he will separate himself from wine and strong drink; he will drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither will he drink any juice of grapes, nor eat fresh grapes or dried.

The previous verse shows that "grape juice" is NOT wine! Wine is and has always been an alcoholic beverage. Wine is grape juice with a preservative (alcohol).

Luke 7:33-34 For Yahchanan the Immerser came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say: He has a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking, and you say: Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!

Nazarenes 16:6. For Yahchanan the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, and you say: He has a devil. The Son of Man comes eating and drinking the fruits of the earth, the milk of the flock, and the fruit of the vine, and you say: Behold a glutton and wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.

Although Yahushua Himself apparently drank wine, He was without sin. He was not a drunkard. It should be plainly obvious that Yahwah and Yahushua Messiyah allow and encourage us to drink alcohol and be merry - just don't over-do it and be drunk. In Genesis 27:25 we learn that even Isaac drank wine. Solomon, the wisest man of all time, apparently also came to this conclusion:

Ecclesiastes 2:24 There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of Yahwah.

Ecclesiastes 3:13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of Yahwah.

Ecclesiastes 5:18 Behold, what I see to be good and to be comely is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor wherein he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which Yahwah gives him: for this is his portion.

Ecclesiastes 8:15 Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, to drink, and to be joyful.

Ecclesiastes 9:7 Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for Yahwah has already accepted your works.

And the best reference of all is the first one I didn't give. Yahushua the Messiah turned perfectly good drinking water into wine, and Yahchanan proves it was alcoholic: Yahchanan [John] 2:1-10 and he said to him: Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when they are drunken, then the inferior. You kept the excellent wine until now!

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