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Douglas Wilson drinks. He's a drinker. He imbibes. He's into alcohol. He's a Christian. He'll let you know that Christians can drink alcohol. Various brews. Dark. Light. Stout. Lager, Amber. The Bar. The Pub. Tip them back. Nurse them. Marijuana, however, no. He says, no way. No tokes. No drags. No puffs. Grass is bad. Uh-huh.
With a classic Wilsonesque title, "Two Birds With One Stoner," he writes on June 11 about his beloved alcohol:
Now while Scripture warns us against the abuse of alcohol, that same Bible sets alcoholic gifts before us as legitimate gifts from God—aesthetic gifts, gifts for your thirst, sacramental gifts, and so on.
"Alcoholic gifts." You won't find anything close to that in the Bible. Alcohol isn't called a gift. The only reference to actual alcohol in the Bible, since there was no word for alcohol available for the biblical writers, is in Proverbs 23:31:
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright."When it is red" and "moveth itself aright" are descriptions, since a word didn't exist. They mean "alcoholic." "Look not thou upon the wine when it is alcoholic." My favorite gift in his list is "and so on," equal to the others in his list in veracity. Wilson's next line reads:
It is noteworthy that the only thing that pot does for you—get you buzzed—is the one use prohibited concerning alcohol.I'm sure marijuana users could also speak of aesthetics at least, and so on.
I would argue that alcohol is as much or more a problem than pot. Maybe pot smokers violently beat their wife and children. I hadn't heard. I know alcohol users do in great numbers. Murderous alcohol users, also the ones who drive their cars into innocent victims like heat seeking missiles. And the statists redistribute their alcohol tax in exponentially greater amounts than the cannabis cash.
Belly up to the hypocrisy.
4 comments:
It would be interesting to see Mr. Wilson explain how wine would be a gift to Aaron & his priestly sons, according to Leviticus 10:8-11:
8 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Aaron, saying,
9 Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations:
10 And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;
11 And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.
This was not even Russian roulette, since God would kill the priests ... they did not even have a "chance" of surviving.
Gary, what a sad event. Two Godly young men, whose presence God had specifically requested in Exodus 24, who had seen the Lord and eaten before him, undone by booze. I use that example when someone cites Psalms 104:15, "And wine that maketh glad the heart of man". If this is booze in Psalms 104, how glad did it make Aaron's heart, or Aaron's wife's heart? How glad did it make Eleazar and Ithamar, their younger brothers, or Moses their uncle? How glad did it make Lot or Noah or Ham?
Then there is this? Proverbs 31:4-5 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: (5) Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
The response is usually some variation of, "I am not a king." So who are you that is fine for you to forget the law or to have perverse judgment? And what kind of good gift from God causes you to forget God and become perverse? I would rather not have a gift like that. Sounds like Mr Wilson is not wise, being deceived by booze.
I agree with what both of you are saying, Gary and Farmer. Thanks.
I'd add, in addition to the thoughts that Farmer wrote about kings, that Peter and John, in I Peter and in Revelation, both make it clear that believers are a "royal priesthood" and "kings and priests," notably the two classes of people singled out in the Old Testament with strong prohibitions against the consumption of alcohol, for largely the same reasons.
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