I quoted from the book What Would Jesus Drink? by Brad Whittington during my teaching on 1 Corinthians 8 this past weekend at Riv and got a lot of positive feedback regarding both the message and the excerpt I read.  Since many people wanted to know how to get a copy of the book, I figured I’d throw a review up here on the blog.

Overview

“Most likely any of us who have been Christians for very long have come across someone who has attempted to modify our behavior based on the claim that what we do offends them. These people interpret the word ‘offended’ to mean ‘an insult or affront.’”

Nowhere is this more prevalent than with the topic of alcohol.  Just this weekend at Riv, someone told me that their friends are upset because they are attending “the church with a brewery in the basement.”  (For the record, we don’t have one, although that would be really cool.)  Because we advocate for the responsible consumption of alcohol in the life a Christian, many Christians gossip and spread untruths about our church.  (We do feel like we are in good company, though – Matthew 11:19)  I have often considered writing a book on the topic, but haven’t because I don’t want to add fuel to the fire.

That’s why I was delighted a few years ago when I stumbled onto a paper by Brad Whittington on the topic of alcohol (which was an early draft of this book).  The author claimed to have studied every single verse (there are 247 of them) in the Bible regarding wine and strong drink.  I dove right in and was impressed right out of the gate with his biblical fidelity.  He categorized each verse as “positive,” “negative,” or “neutral.”  This approach paints a compelling picture because 59% of the verses were positive and more shockingly, 19% declare that an abundance of wine is a sign of God’s blessing.

With this as his launching pad, Whittington’s book carefully studies the relevant passages and proceeds to answer every single objection to the responsible use of alcohol I have ever heard.  His bottom line conclusion is this:

“The Bible has several warnings against drunkenness, but only one caution against the responsible use of alcohol in celebration and with meals. That caution is to be careful when we are in fellowship with Christians with a weaker conscience. A weak conscience is defined in the Bible as a conscience that sees prohibitions where God has not made them or feels judgment where God has not judged. We are to be careful that we don’t cause a brother to stumble. The one thing I didn’t find was a prohibition against the use of alcohol.”

What did I like most about the book?

Instead of forming his conviction about alcohol on culture, family history, or in reaction to someone else’s position, Whittington gets his from the Bible.

Would I recommend the book?

This book is a must-read for teetotalers and frat boys alike.

Key Quotes

“For my purposes, culture was not relevant to the inquiry, whether the prevailing culture of society or the culture of the church. Especially the culture of the church, because often it is difficult for insiders to differentiate between what the Bible says and what church tradition says, and these two are not necessarily the same thing.”

“Legalism is actually the result of a weak conscience, not a strong conscience developed from spiritual maturity.”

“Some denominations believe it is a sin to wear makeup. Will we all agree to forgo makeup? Some denominations believe it is a sin for women to cut their hair or wear jeans. Will we all conform to this regulation on the off chance that we might be imitated by someone who really thinks she shouldn’t do these things? What about wearing shorts, mixed bathing, wearing jewelry, buying anything on Sunday, playing cards, playing dominos, listening to James Taylor, using Celtic words for bodily functions instead of Latin words? The list goes on and on.  Practically every part of our culture that we take for granted is considered a sin by some segment of Christianity. Are we prepared to alter every aspect of our behavior in deference to weaker brothers who have problems with things we do every day?A more reasonable interpretation is that if you know someone who believes something is wrong but is tempted to do it anyway, you should abstain for the sake of that person. Otherwise, we would have to live in constant apprehension that some completely innocent action might be imitated by a complete stranger and thus find us in violation of this verse.”