“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” Prov. 20:1
The Body’s ability to fight bacterial infection and virus is reduced by 67% in light drinkers with only two drinks-
Side effects of Alcohol:
• High blood pressure,
• stroke,
• heart problems,
• sexual dysfunction,
• vitamin and mineral deficiency,
• chronic fatigue,
• osteoporosis,
• gout,
• anaemia,
• breast and colon cancer
Twice the amount of stroke in light drinkers
• Grape juice flavonoids fight heart disease
• Inhibit the oxidation of LDL cholesterol
• More potent than Vitamin E antioxidants
• Prevents platelet aggregation clumping
• Associated with decreased incident of coronary heart disease
Dr Neale Neadley from the book Proof positive
Promise of Christ
Matthew 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.
The blessing of Jesus Christ – the grape of the vine would not be enjoyed again by Christ until he is physically reunited with his church at the marriage supper in heaven following His second advent.
John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 15:5 I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Good wine represents His blood, teachings & example of self restraint & sacrifice
‘The wine was a symbol of Jesus blood, shed for the cleansing of the sins of all those who should come unto him for pardon, and receive him as their Saviour.’ Christ began and ended His ministry with wine – His teaching to save humanity was complete. The Bible refers to both types of wine fermented and unfermented by positive and negative comments.
History of the good wine and the wine of Babylon
Two teachings unfortunately emerged when the ark door opened after the flood. One was defiant that God destroyed the world and re-established antediluvian teachings by the descendants of Ham and God’s people descended from Shem. Nimrod the grand- son of Noah established the teachings of Babylon and Shem the son of Noah established the people of God. Tradition says Shem is believed to have been Melchizedek, King of Salem whom Abraham is recorded to have met after the battle of the four kings. Shem was credited with killing Nimrod who was deified by his followers after his death. Nimrod’s teachings led to spiritism’s and paganistic beliefs in the eternal soul which were contra to the Biblical teachings of a second coming followed by the resurrection of the dead.
Satan’s aim was to destroy mankind spiritually and physically to cause moral degradation yet Christ’s word says of his followers ‘Though worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God’ – there will be natural physical laws to abide by in heaven and all the enjoyment that being a physical being entails.
Fermentation is part of a natural lifecycle that returns men and woman back to the dust of the ground. Fermentation represents sin and was a result of sin
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 3:19 …for dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return.
A biblical rule: moderation in all good things not yin and yen or a mixture of good and evil
Fungal products-
Antibiotics- very strong and sterilise the body, this is not the best approach to health as much as it leaves one open to infection after its use, wiping out the good and bad. Antibiotics gave multinational drug companies much support and made it appear to many that natural therapy and products or God’s ways were much less effective. The question is here is how do we build health and body?- I would suggest through many other means other than fungal products and drugs-“ remember” a person is ‘colonised’ according to their nutritional state.
The Bible says there is leprosy of the hair, leprosy of the garment and leprosy of the house or in other words moulds of the hair, moulds of the skin and moulds of the house.
Moulds and fungus of Leviticus 13- Leprosy in the house, a fungus growth on the walls, symbolized the corruption which taints all creation
Wine (many in the church are following the world’s example and voice of moderate or social drinking, this is not the teaching of Christ!)
See Proverbs 23:31-35; Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. “Yeast is used in winemaking where it converts the sugars present in grape juice or must into alcohol. Yeast is normally already invisibly present on the grapes. The fermentation can be done with this endogenous wild yeast;[33] however, this may give unpredictable results depending on the exact types of yeast species present. For this reason a pure yeast culture is generally added to the must, which rapidly comes to dominate the fermentation.”
A little poison is good? Homeopathy ? Alcohol in moderation will decrease our ability to fight infection and the goodness of the grape is outweighed by the badness of a fermented product.
Good wine is not a product of fermentation. Human thought (NIMROD) is that fermentation is better, heavenly wisdom is that fermentation is polluted – second grade, the wine of Babylon. One drink of alcohol starts the process of benumbing the brain
(Lloyd Grolimund) – The Bible and Alcohol
The Bible has a fair bit to say about alcohol and most of it is negative. Consider the following stories: 1. Genesis 9 – Noah gets drunk and is exposed by Ham. 2. Genesis 19 – Lot gets drunk and practices incest with his daughters. 3. 1 Samuel 25 – Nabal dies. 4. 1 Kings 16 – Elah murdered while drunk. 5. Daniel 5 – Belshazzar loses a kingdom. 6. 1 Cor 11 – the Lord’s strong disapproval of drunkenness in the Lord’s Supper
Good bread/Good bread
Yeast, most commonly Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is used in baking as a leavening agent, where it converts the fermentable sugars present in dough into the gas carbon dioxide. This causes the dough to expand or rise as gas forms pockets or bubbles. When the dough is baked the yeast dies and the air pockets “set”, giving the baked product a soft and spongy texture.
‘There is religion in a loaf of bread’- hot bread where fungal forms are still active is not good for the body and will have an adverse effect on the gut flora which maintains our health. There is much more to this but the focus is on leaven here
Of interest- Doctors Qvick, Professor Costantini, Professor Weiland– all departmental heads of the World health organisation found that cancer was caused by a chronic fungal infection. Media refused to publish their findings and extensively referenced research material due to vested interests. Fungi can slice the DNA and cause the cell to grow much like a loaf of bread grows under yeast
Leaven or yeast of sin. The bible represents fungus or yeast as sin:
Matt 16:6 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 16:12 the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 1 Cor 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth.
Do it all for the glory of God 1 Corinthians 10:31
2 Peter 1:5-9……add knowledge temperance – Biblical temperance is moderation in all good things
1 Cor 9:25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. (Temperance is self-restrain) So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.1 Corinthians 10:31.
Alcohol- Jesus remained in control at all times even to the point of thirst and agony when dying on the cross – this was to keep his mind & body under the control of the Father
The following section by Samuele Bacchiocchi
William Terhune makes this point very clear: “Every time you take a drink you are putting some of your brain cells temporarily out of commission. Indeed, if alcohol did not have that effect, you would never drink it.”41 Even one drink is sufficient to weaken a person’s inhibitions, which function as “moral brake,” and to impair the capacity to think critically.
“The brain is the organ most sensitive to the presence of alcohol. The most immediate and dramatic consequence of the ingestion of any amount of alcohol is the impaired efficiency of the brain with its related central nervous system. Such an impairment takes the form of “decreased inhibitions, less efficient vision and hearing, slurring of speech, difficulty in the performance of gross motor skills, deterioration of judgment, increased reaction time, and a general feeling of euphoria.”33
Physical Effects.Ellen White discusses extensively and accurately the various effects of alcohol on the body, without having had the benefit of modern medical research. She says, among other things, that alcohol “corrupts the blood,”58 injures “the digestive organs and the brain,”59 disorders “the nervous system,”60 weakens the ability of the body “to resist disease,”61 “ruins the stomach,”62 causes “mental and physical degeneracy”63 and “produces diseases of every kind.”64 Ellen White stated in simple, non-technical language about a century ago what modern medical research has amply confirmed.
Samuele Bacchiocchi
Mark 15:23 And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received [it] not. Fermentation muddles the mind and destroys the body.
The water turned to wine in the first miracle of Christ, was that good wine of the unfermented grape.
Rationale tells us that good wine of the grape is that which promotes health, but the wine of fermentation is that which people think of as Biblical as it suits ones natural and cultural inclinations. 1 timothy 5:23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
The teachings or doctrines of confusions- ‘parasites to the tree of life’ the Bible speaks of as wine of confusion as it mixes the true and false as fermentation of good wine does Revelation 14:8 …Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Welch’s Grape Juice, Worldly Wisdom, and Wine
Thomas Welch is remembered as the inventor of modern grape juice. He applied Louis Pasteur’s new pasteurization process to grapes: the result was unfermented wine better known as grape juice. But what many do not know is that Welch had a specific reason for experimenting with grape juice. He was a minister who objected to alcoholic wine being used for communion. So much so, in fact that he refused to touch it even though he had been elected communion steward. After developing his unfermented communion alternative, he tried, unsuccessfully to substitute it in his church’s communion. Eventually, however, he convinced his church and many others to use the unfermented wine, furthering his temperance movement cause. The family business soon grew and his son Charles E. Welch developed the business into the large company it is today.
it appears that Welch was moved more by conviction than capitalism (at least initially). And also the fact that Welch invented the modern method of preserving grape juice does not imply that there were no other methods prior to 1869. For instance the link provided here gives some documentation of ancient methods of preserving grape juice which may have been used in Bible times and after.
“The facts relative to Korah and his company, who rebelled against Moses and Aaron, and against Jehovah, are recorded for a warning to God’s people, ……..The testimonies borne against hurtful indulgences, as tea, coffee, snuff, and tobacco, have irritated a certain class, because it would destroy their idols. Many for a while were undecided whether to make an entire sacrifice of all these hurtful things, or reject the plain testimonies borne, and yield to the clamors of appetite.”
SDA message (1863 )has spoken for a long time against the harmful effects of tobacco etc – this is a struggle for many that needs our compassion and positive support!
Human effort is useless without divine support “The strength of the temptation to indulge appetite can be measured only by the inexpressible anguish of our Redeemer in that long fast in the wilderness. He knew that the indulgence of perverted appetite would so deaden man’s perceptions that sacred things could not be discerned. Adam fell by the indulgence of appetite; Christ overcame by the denial of appetite. And our only hope of regaining Eden is through firm self-control.”
And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. {AH 548.2}
Jesus the beginning God- Jesus the great I AM created men and angels and supplied them both physically- that is nutritionally and spiritually
On the point of appetite which man had fallen John clearly outlines 1 John 2:16 For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
Looking at the wilderness of which Jesus had prayed Led us not into temptation in Matthew 4 we see these point illustrated through the temptation of Christ
4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
4:2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered.
4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
Mark 15:23 And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received [it] not.
Matthew 9:17 Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.
Matt 16:12 Then understood they how that he bade [them] not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.