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  • Georgia Pastor’s Anti-Moderationism | Alcohol in the Bible | Video

Georgia Pastor’s Anti-Moderationism | Alcohol in the Bible | Video

Joshua —  May 3, 2012 — 4 Comments

Pastor Brad Whitt, co-pastor of Abilene Baptist Church (ABC) in Martinez, Georgia, preached a sermon in view of a call last month at ABC on 2 Samuel 6:1-15. During the sermon, Whitt speaks momentarily regarding the church becoming worldly in its dress and music. Whitt further recalls a story regarding a church near his now previous pastorate in South Carolina where a young man was killed in a drunk driving accident. 

The death of anyone in such a preventable event as drunk driving is terrible and the families involved will never be the same. I feel for those involved in this particular case. However, Whitt’s conflation of moderate alcohol use and outright drunkenness is not fair to the case in view nor what is the Bible’s teaching on alcohol consumption.

Let me say up front that I do not drink and I think there is much wisdom in avoiding alcohol altogether. I was saved and delivered from abusing alcohol on a regular basis and I have no agenda to “push” alcohol onto others. That said, I also have no agenda to further mere tradition to the neglect of the clear teaching of Scripture.

There are three problematic issues that seemingly always accompany an anti-moderation position:

  1. An inconsistent hermeneutic that is not forced to be applied to other Scriptures
  2. A strong emotional appeal (see video below)
  3. Playing semantic gymnastics with biblical words for wine (Another helpful read here)

I appreciate Pastor Whitt’s ferver for saving lives through abstinence, however, shaming and defaming our moderationist brothers is unwarranted and unfortunate.

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Joshua

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I am a disciple of the risen Christ Jesus, husband to Libby, grad student, blogger.
  • http://www.seektheholy.com/ Chris Roberts

    Not entirely applicable, but this brought to mind something I read from Spurgeon earlier, from The Soul Winner:

    But, still, we must mind how these emotions are caused. Do not play upon the mind by exciting feelings which are not spiritual. Some preachers are very fond of introducing funerals and dying children into their discourses, and they make the people weep through sheer natural affection. This may lead up to something better, but in itself what is its value? What is the good of opening up a mother’s griefs or a widow’s sorrows? I do not believe that our merciful Lord has sent us to make men weep over their departed relatives by digging anew their graves, and rehearsing past scenes of bereavement and woe. Why should He? It is granted that you may profitably employ the death-bed of a departing Christian, or of a dying sinner, for proof of the rest of faith in the one case, and the terror of conscience in the other; but it is out of the fact proved, and not out of the illustration itself, that the good must arise. Natural grief is of no service in itself; indeed, we look upon it as a distraction from higher thoughts, and as a price too great to exact from tender hearts, unless we can repay them by engrafting lasting spiritual impressions upon the stock of natural affection. “It was a very splendid oration, full of pathos,” says one who heard it. Yes, but what is the practical outcome of this pathos? A young preacher once remarked, “Were you not greatly struck to see so large a congregation weeping?” “Yes,” said his judicious friend, “but I was more struck with the reflection that they would probably have wept more at a play.” Exactly so; and the weeping in both cases may be equally valueless. I saw a girl on board a steamboat reading a book, and crying as if her heart would break; but when I glanced at the volume, I saw that it was only one of those silly yellow-covered novels which load our railway bookstalls. Her tears were a sheer waste of moisture, and so are those which are produced by mere pulpit tale-telling and death-bed painting.

    • http://www.thedailybleat.com/ Joshua Breland

      Chris.

      Wow, I will be posting that in the future. That hits at the core of so much of the shifting in SBC tradition right now.

      Many are finding that their SBC traditions are not supported by meaningful exegesis but mostly mere emotional appeal. Such traditions lead to legalism, not gospel powered renewal. Spurgeon knew it, and so should we.

      • http://www.seektheholy.com/ Chris Roberts

        All I read today is chapter 1 of Soul Winner but it had a number of things relevant to the current climate of the SBC. Well worth a read.