Some of the infamous violent people who give religious ‘fundamentalist’ people a bad name are drinkers themselves – not teetotallers! Yet certain media reporters may have forgotten this. If a terrorist be Islamic and a non-drinker, then secular media may be tempted to sneer at teetotallers generally or Christian ‘fundamentalists.’ Many Christians frown on drinking (not only Moslems). Besides, alcohol often leads to wives being beaten up by their husbands – a more common tragedy than the terrorism of those who drink the same thing. This violence is always tragic. It was never justified – whether the perpetrator be drinking or not, male or not, terrorist or not, Islamic or not. (Clearly, the final example below was not associated with Islam.) Continue reading “Terrorists Who Drink Alcohol”
The Fence or the Ambulance
JOHN N. HURTY, M.D.
‘Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed,
Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant.
But over its terrible edge there had slipped
A duke and full many a peasant.
So the people said something would have to be done,
But their projects did not at all tally,
Some said, ‘Put a fence ‘round the edge of the cliff’;
Some, ‘An ambulance down in the valley.’ Continue reading “The Fence or the Ambulance”
Thomas Welch: Wesleyan Methodist, Anti-Alcohol, Anti-Slavery
Throughout his late teens, Welch was active in the Underground Railroad that transported escaped slaves from the south into Canada. In fact, he was not the only Wesleyan Methodist connected to the “Underground Railroad.”
At age 17, Thomas Welch joined the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion, founded the same year (1843).
From its beginning, the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion strongly opposed (1) the “manufacturing, buying, selling, or using intoxicating liquors”, and (2) “slaveholding, buying, or selling” of slaves.
With the first edition of their Discipline, the Wesleyan Methodists expressly required for the Lord’s Supper that “unfermented wine only should be used at the sacrament.” This requirement was about 25 years before Welch used pasteurization. So it is clearly evident that pasteurization was not the only method used to prepare it unfermented. There were traditional methods to prepare unfermented wine (juice) for use at any time during the year, e.g. to reconstitute concentrated grape juice, or to boil raisins, or to add preservatives that prevent juice from fermenting and souring.
Water to wine miracle: NO REASON to assume it’s ALCOHOLIC wine
NOT ALL oinos wine is alcoholic. (See also: broad meaning of wine (oinos) – documented.)
‘The burden of proof here rests with the advocate of alcoholic wine…’
—Frederick Richard Lees & Dawson Burns, The Temperance Bible-Commentary
When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine [oinos]… the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk [are satisfied], then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”
John 2:9-10 NKJV.
See also: Bible says be sober again and again.
Oinos a generic word: NOT ALL oinos wine alcoholic (water to wine)
…oinos is used in the Septuagint for both fermented and unfermented grape juice. Since it can mean either one, it is valid to insist that in some cases it may simply mean grape juice and not fermented wine.
…the Roman writer Cato, in his treatise On Agriculture, gave this prescription: “If you wish to keep new wine sweet the whole year round, put new wine in a jar, cover the stopper with pitch, place the jar in a fishpond, take it out after the thirtieth day; you will have sweet wine all the year round.” Continue reading “Water to wine miracle: NO REASON to assume it’s ALCOHOLIC wine”
Total Abstinence: Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia (2016 Handbook)
See also: Bible says be sober again and again.
‘…We believe that the sale and trafficking of tobacco, alcohol and other nonmedicinal drugs is a social evil which is draining and corrupting to society, and thus we believe that the best position is to practice total abstinence, protesting both the legal and illegal trade of such substances.’
Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia, 1997, ‘Statement on Social Issues’, National Conference Minutes, p. 104.
‘alcohol, tobacco, other harmful drugs … we deplore the industry created by the production of these substances and believe that even where these substances are legalised – total abstinence is the appropriate response. Eph. 5:15-18; Prov. 23:31-32; Prov. 31:4‘
Handbook of The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia (2016), 187:2‘Only unfermented grape juice shall be used in observing the Lord’s Supper.‘
Handbook of The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia (2016), 1693.‘No alcohol is permitted during group functions as all activities are to be “dry”.’
Handbook of The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia (2016), 1379, Club Solo Small Groups.
Continue reading “Total Abstinence: Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia (2016 Handbook)”
Alcohol: What is Use? What is Abuse?
Alcohol: What is Use? What is Abuse?
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Alberta Christ granted permission for anyone to freely reprint this article.
Drinking Not Safe For Anyone – General William Booth, Salvation Army, 1888
‘the thing is an evil in itself’ ‘Make your children understand that it is not safe for them or anybody else to take strong drink in what is called moderation’
—General William Booth, Salvation Army, who cares about his example to others!
1. Ought not children to be instructed in the evils attendant on the use of intoxicating liquors?
Yes. As soon as children can understand anything at all, they should be made to understand the evil consequences which follow the use of strong drinks, and the importance of abstaining from them altogether. No parent can tell how soon his children may be tempted on this subject, and to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Therefore the children should be instructed in this matter very early in life. Parents will not find any difficulty in explaining this evil in a simple fashion to their children, and they will readily and sincerely pledge their little hands and hearts before God not to use that which they see to be the wicked drink. Continue reading “Drinking Not Safe For Anyone – General William Booth, Salvation Army, 1888”
Duty to denounce alcohol: ‘by forces, both moral and legal’, Adam Crooks, Wesleyan Methodist Church, 1870
‘We may not innocently stand by and permit the infliction of injuries by others’ ‘by forces, both moral and legal, we prevent all others from the worse than murderous traffic in liquors that can intoxicate’
—Adam Crooks, 1870, Wesleyan Methodist Church.
If Orange Scott can be called the founder of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection, Adam Crooks would have to be named its perpetrator.
Lee M. Haines & Paul W. Thomas, 1990, An Outline History of the Wesleyan Church, Wesley Press, Indianapolis, p. 74.
“Now that the Heaven-insulting and Manvictimizing crime of chattel slavery has been abolished in this Country, the patriot, philanthropist and Christian can bestow more exclusive attention upon the soul-and-body-destroying evil of the rum-traffic. Human duty is one of the greatest thoughts that can occupy human attention. And duty respecting the temperance movement is well worthy the most candid and careful consideration. Continue reading “Duty to denounce alcohol: ‘by forces, both moral and legal’, Adam Crooks, Wesleyan Methodist Church, 1870”