"… We should watch and we should BE SOBER. For those sleeping, sleep by night; and those BECOMING drunk, get drunk by night. But we being of the day should be BE SOBER…" (1 Thessalonians 5:6-8) Sober – Nepho: "to be free from the influence of intoxicants." (Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words)
Tolomeo founded the Olivetan order of Benedictine monks. A late critic asserts: ‘They were also fanatical total abstainers … vineyards were rooted up and the wine-presses and vessels destroyed.’
Olivetans, Catholic Encyclopedia.
Benedict himself (480-543) had noted that in earlier times it was ‘not at all proper’ for monks to drink. Still he said abstainers ‘will have their special reward’.
1. Are you a man? God made you a man; but you make yourself a beast. Wherein does a man differ from a beast? Is it not chiefly in reason and understanding? But you throw away what reason you have. You strip yourself of your understanding. You do all you can to make yourself a mere beast; not a fool, not a madman only, but a swine, a poor filthy swine. Go and wallow with them in the mire! Go, drink on, till thy nakedness be uncovered, and shameful spewing be on thy glory! [Hab. 2:16] Continue reading ““Word to a Drunkard” & John Wesley on alcohol”
standard of abstinence on our church members… By abstaining we express our liberty, purity, testimony, and community… Our standards … tell the weakest saint among us that we care enough for him to banish even the possibility of our causing him to stumble.
Separated Unto the Gospel: Abstinence, Free Presbyterian Church
Practical Separation is grounded in, flows from, and is impossible apart from, Ecclesiastical Separation (II Cor. 7:1). This means that we believe Christians should lead holy lives of moral purity, separated from worldly activities that stimulate the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (I John 2:15-17). Because certain things clearly defile the body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, it has historically been, and continues to be, our strong conviction that the drinking of beverage alcohol, and the use of tobacco in any of its forms is sin.
Continue reading “Do Presbyterians Drink? Presbyterian Church vs Alcohol”
The head of WA’s [Western Australia’s] Aboriginal Health Council is calling for alcohol to be made illegal in indigenous communities across the State as the Government considers implementing liquor bans in at least three more townships.
Henry Councillor said the early success of a complete alcohol ban imposed on the remote east Kimberley outpost of Oombulgurri should be held up as a model of what could be achieved in other communities [comment: indigenous or not].
Continue reading “Complete alcohol ban: violence out, schools up”
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”