All Things Expounded

This post is a continuation in the last post, in which I began a survey of post-Biblical voices advocating the legitimacy of moderate consumption of alcohol for the Christian.  To see the other figures mentioned, please refer to Part Two.

Witness Seventeen: Susanna Wesley (1669-1974)

The mother of Charles and John Wesley.

At dinner their little tables and chairs were set by ours, where they would be overlooked; and they were suffered to eat and drink [small beer] as much as they would

(from Charles Wesley: The First Methodist, by Fredrick Gill)

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Witness Eighteen: John Gill (1767-1770)

John Gill was a Calvinistic Baptist expositor.

The wine is another part of this ordinance, and of the matter of it, and one of the outward elements of it, a symbol of the blood of Christ…It is also a question, whether the wine used was mixed or pure; since it was usual with the Jews, whose wines were generous, to mix them, Prov. 9:2. But there is no need to dilute them in our climates; and as the quantity is so small drank at the ordinance, there is no danger of intoxication in those who are least used to it

(A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity; p. 918)

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Witness Nineteen: G.I. Williamson

G.I. Williamson is a Reformed theologian, retired pastor, and author

The result of our survey is this: wine is clearly shown to be an intoxicating drink in the Bible. It is a thing  that man can easily abuse to his own destruction. Yet Scripture says it is also a blessing when it is properly used by those who understand and believe the truth.

(from Wine in the Bible & the Church, p15)

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Witness Twenty: Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Charles Wesley was a great hymn author and leader of Methodism.

Charles  also drank ale

(Drinking with Luther and Calvin, Jim West, p102)

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Witness Twenty-One: John Elliot (1604-1690)

Puritan missionary to the American Indians

Wine, ’tis a noble, generous liquor, and we should be humbly thankful for it.

(from Drinking with Calvin and Luther, Jim West)

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Witness Twenty-Two: Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Charles Spurgeon was a great Baptist preacher and evangelist, known as “the prince of preachers”

Charles Spurgeon was clearly a drinker, so much so that Charles Spurgeon biographer Arnold Dallimore says the following regarding Spurgeon’s drinking:

I have reported these matters regarding Spurgeon with much reluctance. They seem sadly regrettable in the life of so righteous a man”

(from Dallimore’s excellent biography of Spurgeon)

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Witness Twenty-Three: Gresham Machen (1881-1937)

Gresham Machen is best known for his fights against liberalism in the early 1900’s.

When the vote was taken, Machen voted against the Presbytery’s resolution. As a result of his dissent, Machen was pilloried by his liberal enemies as both “loose” and sympathetic toward drunkenness.
(Drinking with Calvin and Luther, Jim West, p114)

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Witness Twenty-Four: Cornelius Van Til (1895-1987)

Cornelius Van Til was a Reformed theologian, philosopher, and apologist.

Rousas J. Rushdoony reports that he and Dr. Cornelius Van Till would meet to discuss theology and philosophy over beer

(Drinking with Calvin and Luther, Jim West, p114)

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Witness Twenty-Five: The Scottish Book of Discipline (1566)

“breid and wyne aucht to be thair”
(speaking of the Lord’s supper)

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Witness Twenty-Six: The Geneva Bible (1599)

We drink well when we drink to the glory of God and when our drinking does not exceed the limits of moderation

(notes in the Geneva Bible for John 2:10)

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Witness Twenty-Seven: D.A. Carson

D.A. Carson is a noted Canadian New Testament scholar.

The wine was not grape juice, though it was customary to cut the wine with a double or triple quantity of water

(The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 1984)

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Witness Twenty-Eight: Cyprian (200-258AD)

Cyprian was the bishop of Carthrage and a profilic writer.

But when the blood of grapes is mentioned, what else is shewn than the wine of the Cup of the Blood of the Lord?

(The Epistles of St. Cyprian; Epistle 63.4)

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Witness Twenty Nine: Philip Schaff (1819-1893)

Philip Schaeff is a noted Protestant Christian History.

The expression the “fruit of the vine” is employed by our Savior in the synoptical Gospels to denote the element contained in the cup of the Holy Supper. The fruit of the vine is literally the grape. But the Jews from time immemorial have used this phrase to designate the wine partaken of on sacred occasions, as at the Passover and on the evening of the Sabbath. The Mishna (De. Bened, cap. 6, pars I) expressly states, that, in pronouncing blessings, “the fruit of the vine” is the consecrated expression for yayin… The Christian Fathers, as well as the Jewish rabbis, have understood “the fruit of the vine” to mean wine in the proper sense. Our Lord, in instituting the Supper after the Passover, availed himself of the expression invariably employed by his countrymen in speaking of the wine of the Passover. On other occasions, when employing the language of common life, he calls wine by its ordinary name

(A Religious Encyclopedia of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal and Practical Theology, 1887., p.2537-2538)

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Witness Thirty: George Whitefield (1714-1770)

George Whitefield was a famous preacher and evangelist.

Give my thanks to that friendly brewer for the keg of rum he sent us.
(from one of his letters, Drinking With Calvin and Luther, Jim West, p106))

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Witness Thirty-One: Charles Hodge (1797-1878)

Charles Hodge was a great theologian and principal of Princeton.

The wine of the Bible was a manufactured article. It was not the juice of the grape as it exists in the fruit, but that juice submitted to such a process of fermentation as secured its preservation and gave it the qualities ascribed to it in Scripture. That oinos in the Bible when unqualified by such terms as new, or sweet, means the fermented juice of the grape, is hardly an open question. It has never been questioned in the Church, if we except a few Christians of the present day

(Systematic Theology, Vol3, p616)

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Witness Thirty-Two: London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689)

The Lord Jesus hath, in this ordinance, appointed his ministers to pray, and bless the elements of bread and wine

(Chap.30,sect.3)

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Witness Thirty-Three: Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)

The Lord Jesus hath, in this ordinance, appointed His ministers to declare His word of institution to the people; to pray, and bless the elements of bread and wine(29:3)

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Witness Thirty-Four: Southern Baptist Abstract of Principles (1859)

The Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of Jesus Christ to be administered with the elements of bread and wine, and to be observed by His churches till the end of the world

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Witness Thirty-Five: A.A. Hodge (1823 – 1886)

A.A. Hodge was a theologian and Princeton principal.

It is evident from the usage of this word in the New Testament that it was designed by the sacred writers to designate the fermented juice of the grape – Matt. 9:17; John 2:3-10; Rom. 14:21; Eph. 5:18; 1 Tim. 3:8; 5:23; Titus 2:3. This is established by the unanimous testimony of all competent scholars and missionary residents in the East… That wine and no other liquid is to be used is clear from the record of the institution, Matt. 26:26-29, and from the usage of the apostles

(Outlines of Theology, p633-634)

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Witness Thirty-Six: William W. Stevens

William W. Stevens is a Southern Baptist theologian.

The bread used by Jesus was doubtless the unleavened bread of the Passover meal, as the wine he used was doubtless the fermented juice of the grape

(Doctrines of the Christian Religion, 1967, p. 344)

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Witness Thirty-Seven: Philipp Melanchton (1497-1560)

Philipp Melanchton was a German professor and theologian. He was Luther’s successor.

..was his custom to have a glass of wine before retiring..before his death..was given soup made from Hamburg beer

(Drinking with Calvin and Luther, Jim West, p45)

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Witness Thirty-Eight: Cotton Mather (1663-1728)

It is an honest and a lawful, though it may not be a very desirable employment, that you have undertaken: you may glorify God in your employment, if you will, and benefit the town considerably.

(Here Cotton is speaking of the owner of an ale house, Drinking with Calvin and Luther, Jim West, p95)

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Witness Thirty-Nine: Thomas Shepherd (1605-1649)

After Thomas Shepherd was ordained in the church at Newtowne, Massachusetts, the celebrants feasted for hours, and as Samuel Eliot Morrison described the scene, “the special brew of ‘ordination beer’ passed about freely in leather jacks, while the clergy and gentry put away choice Canary sack. Then a farewell was said to the guests, some of whom may have mounted their horses unsteadily.”

(Drinking with Calvin and Luther, Jim West, p88)

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Witness Fourty: Francis Higginson (1588-1630)

Rev. Francis Higginson, a Salem minister, made the voyage to the New World in 1629 aboard the Talbot. To acclimatize himself as comfortably as possible, he imported cargo of five tuns of beer and 20 gallons of brandy.

(Drinking with Calvin and Luther, Jim West, p80)

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Witness Fourty-One: R.C. Sproul

R.C. Sproul is a Reformed Presbyterian theologian and pastor.

Wine also is associated with joy, and for that reason people drank wine at wedding feasts and other celebrations. Drunkenness was forbidden, but it should be noted that wine was regarded as one of God’s great blessings

(from Before the Face of God, Book Two)