|
Alcoholic
beverages have become America’s number one public health problem,
costing over $117 billion a year and claiming at least 100,000 lives
per year, 25 times as many as all illegal drugs combined.
Christian churches are partly responsible for
the alcohol epidemic raging in America today, because since the
repeal of Prohibition in 1933, most of them have abandoned their
stand for total abstinence, encouraging instead moderation in
drinking. Moderation has led millions to become immoderate drinkers.
The gradual abandonment of total abstinence by
many well-meaning Christians has been encouraged by the belief that
the Bible sanctions a moderate use of alcoholic beverages. This
belief has provided millions of Christians with an alleged biblical
justification for drinking alcohol.
In Wine in the Bible Dr. Samuele
Bacchiocchi boldly challenges prevailing thinking and scholarship.
His painstaking research compellingly shows that the Bible
consistently teaches total abstinence as a divine imperative. This
teaching has been obscured by many modern Bible versions which
mistranslate as "temperance" or "sobriety" some
of the clearest biblical admonitions to "abstinence." A
thoughtful reading of this book may well provoke a revolution in the
attitude of many Christians toward alcoholic beverages. |
