DarkSun, are you saying Jesus would not be accepted as Christ because of man's love for wine?
Good question... Would you think that you'd be accepted if you went against something this culturally acceptable, yet culturally damaging?
Besides, as I said in another part of my post, wine was a lot cleaner than water back then. To change water into wine would have been a good thing for the health of the people. You try drinking water from a lake.
I'm sorry, obviously we will agree to disagree,
That we will.
but I have to admit that this is one of the most extreme opinions I have seen on the subject.
It may only be extreme because you disagree... To me it seems perfectly rational.
wine has been sanctified around the Sabbath table by Jews for thousands of years, never with the purpose of getting drunk.
If drinking alcohol isn't done for the purpose of getting drunk, nor for the sake of a good time, then I have no problem. I view it as a completely different matter entirely when it is drunk in small amounts as a part of one's religion. Then it becomes something sacred, and not an intstrument used to inflict harm upon yourself or others for the sake of having fun.
Using alcohol doesn't seem quite as barbaric to me when its used for the Sabbath or for communion, when the alterior option: "Drinking for pleasure"; involves drinking a bucketful of wine and throwing up in the gutter... Nor does it seem as bad as drinking three glasses of wine or so and fooling your mind into having a good time. Again... I think (and this is only my opinion) that when alcohol is used for the sake of fun, it becomes insulting to everyone else with that mindset who has died or suffered. That is just my humble opinion.
Personally, the only times I've ever touched alcohol were during communion. Enough said.
wine is a part of human culture
I've acknowledged this... All I'm saying is that I don't think that it's a good part of human culture, or human nature.
its not alcohol that hurts people its excessive drinking that does.
I agree with you completely. But I don't think that everyone can show as much restraint as you or I, and people suffer because of over-drinking. My point is that drinking
any amount of alcohol (for recreational purposes) is an insult to those who have suffered because of it.
Besides... trading pain for pleasure is a bit barbaric, no matter how you look at it.
When alcohol is absorped into the blood stream it causes irritation and swelling to the lining of your stomach and the gastro-intestinal tract. Once in the blood stream, most of it travels to your kidneys to get eliminated in excretion, but then the rest travels to your brain where it causes all sorts of damage. Your cerebellum is the primary thing that's affected with low BACs (Blood Alcohol Concentrations), and this impairs your conscious cognitive function, as well as your fine and gross motor skills. But as you drink more, you begin to impair the function of every other portion of your brain - until eventually, you lose control of your medulla (Brain Stem). Depending on the BAC, the affects of this vary from unconsciousness and/or death.
And as for the majority of the alcohol eliminated by the kidneys? Well, it irritates and corrodes them just as effectively as it does every other portion of the gastro-intestinal tract until you come across some serious, life-threatening problems.
Next to tobacco, alcohol is a drug with the second highest mortality rate world-wide. This is no small problem that you can shun off by saying "Lol, everyone does it, it's a cultural thing. Lololololol".
But everyone's entitled to their own choice... It's just that if James jumps of a bridge, I'm not going to be jolly enough the jump after him. I'm going to be fairly sad that he jumped, actually... but I'll acknowledge that he was just after a good time and the thrill of falling.
if you take alcohol from people who abuse it, who's to say that it wont be another thing that they will use with harmful results?
This is one of the reasons why prohibition wouldn't work (which I have acknowledged in the OP). Evidently, it is human nature to destroy ourselves... quite sad, really. But still, I know what you mean.
Obviously, Jesus was quite a sells man according to you, promoting his agenda by turning water into wine to buy his way into people's hearts
I think calling Christ a salesperson would've been a harsh way of putting it... I don't even know whether God is/was against alcohol or not. I just know that the only agenda Christ had in mind was our salvation, and if He was against alcohol in the present sense or the modern sense, then voicing that opinion would have been incredibly antagonistic. No one would have agreed with Him, just as you disagree with me. He most likely would have been crucified faster and He would have had less followers, although that's only conjecture.
In case you missed it, my aversion to alcohol has nothing to do with my faith in Christ. Maybe God doesn't mind either way. If you can find me a piece of scripture which expressly forbids my view, then I will acknowledge that I am wrong. As it is, I'm entitled to my own opinion.
