Please forgive me of my bad sentence structure.

I would wandering if you could enlighten us on how you came about this conclusion.

abclay

Dawson

I recently obtained access to Teachout’s dissertation and hope to post a critique on my blog before too much longer.

Here’s a brief critique of the foundational point in Teachout’s dissertation:

Teachout examined a Ugaritic cognate of yayin and found that some extant texts used the word without mentioning drunkenness. Based solely on this, he leaps wildly to the conclusion that the Ugaritic cognate sometimes referred to grape juice. From there he concludes that yayin, too, must sometimes mean grape juice. Based only this preposterous logic, he then translates all occurrences of yayin as grape juice unless the context clearly indicates an alcoholic beverage.

LOL is right. Thanks for stopping by and letting me know about the letter you got too.

Mark

Lane,

C’mon, we all know that the wine Paul was talking about wasn’t fermented.

Mark,

I appreciate the way that you showed restraint in your well put response.

ABClay

How does one deal with Psalm 104:14-16 where God makes the wine that gladdens the hearts of men? I deal with it by recognizing that life is hard and that God, in his mercy, has given us a special gift, wine and other alcoholic drinks, that help take the edge off and makes my heart glad. And thankful.

Seems like our Alabama brother is the one who is rather cavalier with the whole counsel of Scripture. Probably thinks smoking and dancing are sins and that Auburn has a good football team.

Of course I read your blog. You have a lot of insight. Although I’m wondering about the caliber of your readership with a fundy Preacher and Lumpy to boot. Lumpy even wants to run your blog for you. Well, that’s our Lumpy. Lovable as ever.

Les

“I believe in total abstinence.”

Paul the Apostle said:

“Drink no longer water only, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent illnesses.” (1Ti 5:23)

This case is closed if one wishes to solve it Biblically and not according to one’s tradition.

Forgive the disrupt sending of the last comment. I made a mistake in the final sentence I wrote and when I pushed “delete” for the sentence I highlighted, the comment posted. Strange!

As I wanted to suggest, the pastor would have done much better had he stuck with the biblical, historical, and ethical patterns of argument concerning abstinence vs. advocacy of drugs for pleasurable purposes, rather than take cow pokes at you. My advice to him is stick with the issue and leave personality out of it (the same advice I’d offer to Les).

Finally, to correct the dubious charge that abstinence has no deeply biblical embeddedness, I think you are on the right track, JohnMark, by pointing others to not only Ken Gentry’s book, but also to Reynold’s as well. Peter Masters has a brilliant little volume too.

And no one has yet to critique Robert Teachout’s exhaustive dissertation on the use of wine in the OT. Ken Gentry is aware of Teachout as can be shown in his volume. Yet not once did Gentry engage Teachout in his book on wine, as I recall. Interesting.

Hoping you have a great day.

With that, I am…

Peter

Greetings this fine Lord’s Day morning. Our brother in Alabama is unfortunately mistaken in his approach here on your site. Though, admittedly, our brother Les fairs no better–”What a jerk.” I should not be surprised. According to Les, I’m a jerk too.

The pastor would have done much better had he stuck with the biblical, historical, and ethical patterns of argument rather than concerning abstinence vs. advocacy of drugs for pleasurable purposes.

I really appreciate you stopping by. I very much appreciate your support. I know you wouldn’t say something just to say it.

It’s nice to hear from a pastor like yourself whom I didn’t know read my blog.

I hope we’ll get a chance to meet again and even fellowship this side of Heaven.

Mark

The comment from the preacher was one of the most ignorant comments I have ever read on a blog. If that is how he handles disagreements in his church, then I would not like to be at his church.

He sounds more independent Baptist than Southern Baptist to me. Maybe he came over with Jerry Falwell.

His elitist view that a pastor is responsible for theology and laypersons are not is not biblical. Also, I would like to see his biblical support for total abstinence. Sorry but it doesn’t exist.

I don’t drink and advise others not to. But I am not going to mishandle God’s Word like this fellow did to support my personal opinion. What a jerk.

Les