This is not a topic that I have specifically blogged on before. Maybe some day I will, but even in just doing this post it should be pretty clear what the Bible actually teaches on drinking wine. To give some context, SDA believe that it is a sin to drink wine or alcohol of any kind. When you are baptized into Adventism you have to sign off on a commitment to abstain from alcohol and tobacco.
Even a casual reader of the Bible would see there are some obvious problems with this teaching. How do you explain Jesus turning water into wine? And a list of other such things. As an SDA I was taught that every single time the Bible mentions wine in a negative light it is talking about alcoholic wine, and every time it is talking about wine in a positive light it really means grape juice. That’s just absurd on the face of it.
Let’s take a look at the texts below from the Holy Bible and compare them to the SDA Clear Word Bible. We should be able to see very quickly if they felt the need to amend verses that didn’t jive with their teaching.
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The Holy Bible
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The Clear Word
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| “And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. ; 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” John 2:8-10 ESV |
“Then He said, “Take a glass of this to the master of ceremonies and set it down in front of Him.” When they poured out what they thought was water, it looked like wine. When the master of ceremonies tasted it, he was so delighted that he didn’t even ask where it came from, though the servants knew, but he immediately went over to see the bridegroom and said, “Everyone knows that at a wedding you serve the best drink first, and when people are happy and enjoying themselves, then you start serving the less expensive drink. But just taste this! It’s the best unfermented wine I’ve ever tasted. It’s wonderful! You’ve kept the best till last!” |
Notice that the Clear Word changed “become” to “looked like”. That’s not even close to the same thing at all. One literally teaches a change in substance and the other only in appearance. In essence, they have removed the miracle entirely. It’s like they are saying Jesus flavored the water like a magician.
Then every time “wine” is mentioned in the Holy Bible the Clear Word replaces it with “drink” and at the end qualifies it with “unfermented” which is a word entirely absent in the Holy Bible.
Something no SDA has satisfactorily answered to me is the following. Why would the master be so thrilled about grape juice? Don’t get me wrong, I love a mean glass of juice with my crackers at snack time but it’s not going to be the first thing I would want to reach for at a wedding feast. Secondly, why change these words if you already believed that grape juice was clear in the text? If grape juice isn’t clear in the text then where did they get the idea that it belongs here anyways?
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The Holy Bible
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The Clear Word
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| “19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. ; 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. ; 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. ; 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.” 1 Cor 11:19-22 ESV |
“I know there are differences among you because some know God better than others. He wants those who know Him better to set an example. But the way you’re acting, how can you then eat the Lord’s Supper together? Some bring food to this common meal and start eating before everyone is served. Soon the whole meal turns into a gluttonous feast. Some even bring in drinks and get drunk, while the poor go home hungry. If you only come together to feast, can’t you do that at home? Don’t you have any concern for the church as a whole? Why humiliate those who are poor? What do you want me to say about this? Do you expect me to praise you? I cannot.” |
Notice in the Holy Bible the subject never leaves communion. The Clear Word adds in this potluck dynamic that is foreign to the text to misdirect the logical conclusion that people were getting drunk on Communion Wine!
It’s clear that Paul is condemning how they are administering the Lord’s Supper in this Church. If you read the overall context you will see he gives them instruction on the proper administration. The proper administration of Potlucks are never addressed at all.
No serious student of scripture is going to deny that the early church used real wine in The Lord’s Supper. However, with SDA alcohol is such a grave sin that real wine in Communion would imply that the early church did not hold to the same views as modern Adventists. In my opinion, this is why they felt the need to tweak the text to add in a potluck dynamic.
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The Holy Bible
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The Clear Word
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| “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit” Eph 5:18 ESV |
“Don’t drink wine, because it’s too easy to get drunk. If you want excitement, let your spirit get excited about what God has done and is doing.” |
Notice the Holy Bible condemns drunkenness, which is a common teaching in scripture. However the Clear Word tweaks this into an admonishment against the drinking in and of itself. Then it adds in an explanation that isn’t in the passage at all. Paul isn’t saying don’t drink it at all, instead he is saying not to get drunk.
Anyone who has ever drank a bit of wine knows that there is a cut off point between drinking and drunkenness. Today we have even broken it down into a science where you can legally define drunkenness on a blood/alcohol level.
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The Holy Bible
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The Clear Word
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| “(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)” 1 Tim 5:23 ESV |
“And take care of your digestive problems, no doubt made worse by the stress you’ve been under. Rather than taking the risk of drinking polluted water, buy yourself some unfermented wine to drink.” |
We live in a day and age here in the United States where it is easy to take clean water for granted. Such a thing was not the norm back then, so it is probably fair that the Clear Word adds in the concept of polluted water if judging it by the standards one would expect from a paraphrase.
The concept of unfermented wine is foreign to the text though. It would actually make more sense that Paul is speaking of real wine because alcohol content would make it more resistant to germs in that day. Also, since real wine was used in administration of the Lord’s Supper, as an overseer, Timothy could be expected to have access to wine. I am not saying that he was sampling the Church’s supply off the clock, but it does stand to reason that he had the means to procure it. Which would also explain why Paul knew he could advise it.
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The Holy Bible
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The Clear Word
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| “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.” Ecc 9:7 ESV |
“So enjoy life with your family and friends. Eat with them and [DELETED BY SDA] be happy. God designed it that way.” |
Wow, looks like they felt the need to delete something over there on that verse to the right? Why would they just axe that out if they didn’t feel this verse contradicted SDA teaching? Does it make SDA uncomfortable to read a verse directing them to drink wine with a merry heart? Is that really such a hard thing on the eyes?
Conclusion
If you are a current or former SDA who has always abstained from wine because you thought the Bible said you had to know that this is a made up law. Clearly, to even support such a view one has to add and remove from the Bible to do it (Rev 22:18-19).
About ACTheologian
I am a layman who blogs my Biblical studies. Enjoy, please read with an open Bible and do double check with your pastor.
Armchair Theologian 
are u nt ashame of what u are sayin abt wine hmmmm…..are u Ok with ur words ….becareful of ur fake teaching
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Please clarify your statement with some supporting examples. I thought my post above was pretty straight forward.
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So your belief is that on Passover the entire meal was to be served without leavening, without yeast, and yet the wine was okay to have yeast and leavening, the symbolic ‘sin’. It seems pretty obvious to me there was no word for juice in the Bible days. You can’t read Proverbs and walk away with the sense that alcohol is a great thing to partake.
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I posted clear scripture that states drinking is okay. In fact Christians universally drank until about the 19th century with the temperance movement. Yes wine was used up until grape juice was invented in the 19th century.
You present an anachronism. Of course they drank wine. Look at how the author of the clear word had to twist the text to sneak his beliefs in. That speaks for itself.
Besides that, nobody said you can’t have yeast in the wine.
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Actually yes, the entire meal is supposed to be free of leaven. Leaven was symbolic of sin, just a small amount of yeast will double and duplicate and infect the entire substance. Just like sin. Nothing was allowed to have any leavening, or ‘sin’, during Passover and the following 7 days known as the Days of Unleavened Bread, nothing at all including the wine. Look who is twisting things, or maybe this is just the problem with most modern Christianity they don’t take the time to understand the Old Testament so they have no hope of understanding the New Testament.
And then yes you are shocked that a paraphrase is a representation of the authors beliefs?!? Oh know, are you know going to start attacking every paraphrase or commentary for ‘changing the Bible’ even if they say upfront it’s a paraphrase or commentary? LOL
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Well you’re going to have to prove to me that unleavened bread equals unfermented grape juice that wasn’t invented until the 19th century.
I’ve told you already why I expose the clear word in this series. It’s to help SDA deprogram their minds that have been brainwashed from birth to twist the Bible.
I do have posts on other heresies that you could have looked up. They don’t focus on SDA. This series is dedicated to SDA, and it is a common theme on my blog. I was raised SDA.
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Wasn’t invented? LOL. Take grapes, squash them, drink the juice. Maybe the name wasn’t thought of, but juice wasn’t invented? You gotta be joking.
You can read about it in Exodus 13:3-16, don’t let me do all you research for you, but focus in on the end of verse 7.
You can also read Acts 2:13 where people mocked Christians for being full of “new wine” freshly squeezed grapes that haven’t fermented yet would be new. Knowing that isn’t alcoholic makes it a fitting mock.
In the end you are going to believe what you believe. No one can convince you of anything but yourself. You have to be willing to understand, to be sanctified. I’ll leave you be, the discussion is fruitless.
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Well for staters it only mentions unleavened bread not wine.
Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord . Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.
Exodus 13:6-7 KJV
http://bible.com/1/exo.13.6-7.KJV
Secondly, the technique for keeping grapes unfermented simply wasn’t invented until the 19th century. Google Welches. No joke. It’s not as easy as you presume.
Lastly, it makes sense for early Christians to be mocked for appearing drunk. Don’t understand your disconnect there.
Also Paul accused the Corinthians of getting drunk on communion wine. That doesn’t work with grape juice.
When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
1 Corinthians 11:20-21 KJV
http://bible.com/1/1co.11.20-21.KJV
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nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.
Seems to say just leaven, makes no mention of where the leaven would be.
And early Christians were mocked for being drunk on “new wine”, fresh squeezed grapes is new wine, not old wine. You can’t get drunk on new wine. The mock was, yeah right you are drinking new wine. Fermentation takes time.
You’ll get it, keep studying Brother. God bless
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Yeah and notice it’s specific to bread. I think you’re eisegeting wine into that text. If they didn’t have wine back then they would have died of dysentery. Besides this Jewish sources indicate that yeast from grapes isn’t considered leaven.
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/508672/jewish/Why-is-it-permitted-to-drink-wine-on-Passover-when-it-is-fermented-with-yeast.htm
Right, they were mocked for behaving drunk. New wine doesn’t have to mean grape juice that wasn’t invented until the 19th century.
With respect, most avoid the use of anachronism. It’s considered anti intellectual. Yet you seem to turn to it as a tactic purposefully. Why is that?
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Lol, you are a funny guy. The invention of juice? Hilarious stuff. Like talking about the invention of rocks, or the invention of clouds. Discovery does not always mean there was invention, and it doesn’t mean they were the first to discover. I can see this discussion is pointless, but the futility of such is a lesson I must learn. Good day Brother, blessings to you and yours.
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I’m sorry history is inconvenient for you here but this is just a fact. If Dr Welch hadn’t invented the process to halt fermentation then there would be no grape juice. It becomes wine almost automatically. You have to intervene to make it juice.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bramwell_Welch
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Hey there you go! You are starting to get it now. Now you see he didn’t invent grape juice, but he invented a process by which new wine will stay unfermented. See if you work through these processes you start to understand better. New wine over time will absolutely ferment automatically, but it still starts as new wine (grape juice). You still need to adjust your wording some because it still started as grape juice if it is freshly squeezed, therefore he didn’t invent it, but he did invent a way to keep it at that stage for longer.
Keep going you’ll understand more as you go. God Bless Brother!
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I think what you’re not understanding is that you’re importing this concept of new wine being juice. There simply isn’t a category, there is just wine. Some of it might be more fermented than another batch. In fact, if you’re asserting that he only drank wine that was recently pressed then it would still have the yeast you were earlier asserting could not be there. Thus you contradict yourself. I accuse you of special pleading.
The concept of avoiding fermentation altogether or it being a sin was invented in the 19th century with the temperance movement in america. Nobody before this even cared, and in fact, they preferred alcohol as it reduced disease. Don’t take my word for it, this is readily available information. You can google it. The church has used wine in communion since the beginning just as the apostles did, and just as Jesus did. There is simply so such thing as the anachronistic paradigm you present.
In my experience, SDA will take any verse that speaks positively of wine and say it is grape juice irregardless of the context. Then any verse that speaks ill of it they will assert its fermented wine, also irregardless of the context. This is special pleading, you don’t get to just pick and choose especially when the framework you start with, the 19th century temperance movement, didn’t even exist when the scriptures were written.
Also you have simply ignored everything I presented to you that contradicted your beliefs. What of Paul talking about people getting drunk on communion wine? How would that work with grape juice anyways? What of old testament passages telling us to drink wine with a merry heart? How is a sugary drink going to help Timothy’s stomach issues when the water back then was very dirty?
With respect I don’t think you’re really thinking this through. Ellen White was simply wrong. Jesus and almost everyone else in the Bible did drink wine and there is nothing wrong with it in moderation. And clearly Jack Blanco saw this as well as he felt the need to alter all of those verses on wine to make them more amicable to SDA beliefs. If he really thought those passages worked for him then why would he change them to begin with?
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The sad thing about the Clear Word is that some unknowingly use it as a study Bible, swallowing those erroneous changes hook, line, and sinker. Heartbreaking for those being misled!
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