Jordan and Kristen Ministries
Join us for life-altering teachings along with prayer for you and your needs! As the Bible teaches us in Matthew 18:19-20: "If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in Heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." So please feel free to submit your prayer requests (preferably through the Facebook page), and Jordan and Kristen will pray over them personally.
Jordan and Kristen Ministries
Should Christians Drink Alcohol?
Should Christians drink alcohol? This provocative question is at the heart of our latest episode, where Jordan and Kristen dive deep into the biblical and personal dimensions of alcohol consumption. Kristen starts with a heartfelt prayer, expressing gratitude and seeking comfort for those in hardship. She then shares her personal disdain for alcohol, highlighting its destructive impact on families and the risks of dependency. Jordan offers a counterpoint by referencing biblical texts that indicate wine in biblical times contained alcohol and was consumed openly. Together, they explore the nuanced view that while drinking may not be inherently sinful, it carries significant societal and personal risks. They discuss the unnecessary dangers related to alcohol consumption and the potential benefits of choosing to abstain.
All right, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Jordan and Kristen Rickards Show. Today's topic is whether Christians should drink alcohol. But before we get to that, kristen, why don't you open us up in prayer, please?
Speaker 2:God, we love you, we thank you. We are so grateful to you for the very breath in our lungs. Everything belongs to you, god. I pray for anyone who's going through a rough time, something that's just really discouraging or just getting them in that dark place. Lord, that you would lift them out. God, you are the lifter of our heads, god. Thank you, lord. Help us to focus on your goodness, today and every day, and to know that everything is under your control. In Jesus' name.
Speaker 1:Amen, all right, Well, kristen Jesus' first recorded miracle was what?
Speaker 2:Turning the water into wine.
Speaker 1:So what do you have against alcohol? Was what Turning the water?
Speaker 2:into wine. So what do you have against alcohol? Well, I have a lot against alcohol, actually, from a personal perspective, I just honestly I've always hated alcohol and what it does to families and how it's ruined families and how, you know, my grandfather hated alcohol. For that reason he paid for a lot of divorces and I think his prayer was probably for me to hate alcohol as much as I do.
Speaker 1:All right, well, that's a good start. So look, here's the situation. I mean, jesus did turn water into wine and it was undoubtedly alcoholic wine. And I know that people say, well, it was different back then. But if you actually read the Bible, what it says is, when Jesus turned the water into wine, the host said well, most people, you know, they bring out the good stuff first and they save the bad stuff for later on, when people are drunk and can't tell the difference, but you save the best stuff for last.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it does imply that alcohol or that wine back then did have alcohol in it. And there's another part of the Bible that says be drunk on the Holy Spirit, not on wine, which again implies that you know, back then wine did have alcohol in it and you could be drunk on it. And so the question becomes then well, if there was drinking in the Bible back then and in fact I think it's either Peter or Paul who says a little wine is good for the heart, then you know, is it really a proper interpretation of the Bible to say that a Christian should not drink, or is this just sort of one of these like cultural Christian things where we've kind of created. We've created this ethic around the Bible. That doesn't really reflect it, at least in that respect. What do you think?
Speaker 2:Well, you bring up a good point. I mean, I would say, as much as I personally hate alcohol, I'm not going to sit here and say if you drink alcohol, you're going to hell. That's not. I'm not going to sit here and say if you drink alcohol, you're going to hell. That's not. You know what, being a Christian, you can be a Christian and drink alcohol, I think, theologically. However, for me, for you, for our families, we were raised to not drink alcohol and I'm just going to tell you right now, I think it makes all the difference. I think there's such a destructive nature behind alcohol. And then people who have a tendency to have an issue with alcohol it's, it's really just, it's a, it's a slippery slope. You just don't want to open the door. I would think, at the very least, it's unnecessary. It's unnecessary to open.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you hit the nail on the head, unnecessary. Now, you've never drank, I haven't had a drink in 25 years because it just seems stupid. Like my friends would drink and I, you know, I never really got drunk, but I remember it would just make me sick and I was like, well, what's what's what? What's the cost benefit of this here? Like what, you know, what did I gain in exchange for feeling lousy like this, right? And so it really didn't add up.
Speaker 1:Look, you know I deal with alcohol all the time because as a lawyer, my practice is in two predominant areas Right. One is divorce law, and which has domestic violence with it, which is a ton of alcohol, right. And the other is with me, prosecuting drunk driving cases. Ok, and so what you see is number one. You know, drunk drivers kill 12000 people a year in the United States. Ok, to put that in perspective. See, is number one. You know, drunk drivers kill 12,000 people a year in the United States. Okay, to put that in perspective. That's usually what we get in terms of gun homicides. So it's pretty much like neck and neck. Now the gun homicides have gotten a little higher since the pandemic and, you know, letting people out of jails for no reason, but it's usually pretty much neck and neck. On top of that, you have another 80,000 or so people who die from alcohol related illnesses every year. Now, just to put that in perspective, like 3 000 people died on 9-11 80 000 die from alcohol.
Speaker 1:It's involved in about half of all domestic violences. Okay, it's involved in a lot of divorces. It's involved in a lot of times where people, um, you know, can't keep their jobs, and what happens is people take this attitude like well, there's nothing wrong with drinking, with drinking, I'm just gonna have a few drinks, whatever here. Their drink socially. Then you wake up one day and it's more than something social and you say well, you know, I was just a victim, you know, I, I, I, you know they. They call themselves, for example, recovering alcoholics.
Speaker 1:They call it a disease. Now, it's like it's not a disease. A disease is like something you didn't do to yourself. You know what I mean. This is something that was preventable and somewhat predictable, and so I would agree with you that it's not like sin in the sense that like adultery is a sin. But if you really understand what God's talking about when he creates something or calls something a sin, it's like he's saying this is unhealthy for you. You know why would you give the enemy any what we'll call infection site Like he is constantly looking for weaknesses. If that's going to be one of your weaknesses, that's something that's going to get exploited.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I know that you, you know people could say, well, that could be with anything, and yeah, that is true. If you have a shopping problem, remove Amazon off of your phone. It could be anything, it could be any vice. However, the difference with alcohol, in my opinion, is it's something that can really skew your judgment and take you out of reality and numb you to reality. And again, there are a lot of things like that. However, the chemical, what it does to your body chemically, and all of that. And you say, well, if I just take a little sip, but to me it's that gateway, again it's that gateway. Why do that? And to me there's just no reason to there's no reason. There's plenty of drinks like Shirley Temple's that are non-alcoholic, that if you enjoy, or coffee or non-alcoholic beer or non-alcoholic wine there's plenty of drinks?
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you say you like wine for the taste, then we had non-alcoholic champagne at our wedding.
Speaker 1:Nobody seemed to complain.
Speaker 2:There's no reason to have alcohol. And then you know the health risks associated with it. Otherwise, why can't you drink alcohol when you're pregnant? You know, like so, it's like so, there's there are health risks associated. And then you have all these people that are not even Christians saying it's not worth it. It's not worth it, the money, the expense, everything. And I can just tell you I do not believe, and I'm sure you feel the same. If my parents had been drinkers or whatever, I probably would have a different view, I would have grown up a different way, but I'm so grateful that I grew up in a house and we're going to have that for our children where alcohol was not present and it was nothing, where it was even a temptation for me to get into, because we didn't grow up that way. I had an amazing time without it and there's no reason to have it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I think this is part of a broader problem where the church is so afraid of offending anybody that you can't even have someone get up in front of a group and say you know what, you guys, you shouldn't be drinking.
Speaker 1:If you're drinking, you shouldn't be drinking, and here's why you shouldn't be drinking. Okay, and it's not even again, it's not even like a judgmental thing, like you're a bad person, you're an awful sinner. It's just like this is a really bad idea and there are a lot of problems that are going to stem from it and you're not going to get anything. So, you know, even I think, to allude to something like what you were saying even if you are not a Christian, drinking alcohol is, at best, a really dumb decision in a simple cost benefit analysis and as a Christian, where God wants us to be healthy so that we can, you know, spiritually, emotionally and physically healthy, whereas the enemy wants us to, you know, lose our jobs and blow up our families and get divorced and beat our wives and be crappy fathers to kids and things like that. Did I just say crappy on a Christian show? Can I say that?
Speaker 1:It's sort of like a mild whatever, but you know my point. It's like people are afraid to talk about this because you don't want to push people away and you want to embrace people and no one who drinks should feel unwelcome in the church but you should definitely feel like, hey, we are here to help you. And if this is what you're doing, it doesn't make you a bad person, but it is putting you in a bad position, and one in which, if you don't have some other weaknesses that the enemy is going to exploit, then he's going to exploit this one, and that's just how it is and maybe, okay, this is just my thought.
Speaker 2:You know, being drunk is one thing, but yeah, you can have a sip of wine, or why can't I just have a little bit of wine, which I just don't see any point to. But let's just say whatever. Then that would be like saying I'm not going to commit adultery or I'm not going to go out with that girl, but why can't I just say she's beautiful, why can't I just send her a message? Maybe that's being a little too strict, but in my opinion it's that gateway. It's that gateway, it's a vice. That's saying it's here for me whenever I need it. If life blows up, then I have it there. Even though I don't let, I can control it now. But what happens when the enemy uses that as a tool? You know, that's just my opinion.
Speaker 1:Very good, any closing thoughts?
Speaker 2:Closing thoughts are we're not trying to look at people who drink alcohol and say you're a terrible person, you're not a Christian or you are just. You know, we're so much better than you. Blah, blah, blah. It is just my opinion that there is no reason to drink alcohol, at best and it can ruin lives and can be very destructive. So it can either be terribly destructive or just have no point to it at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I think the consensus here is something to the effect that this doesn't make you a bad person and it's not like sin in the same way that something like adultery or something like that is sin, and I think you can be a Christian and drink alcohol. I don't think that's like a bar to entry or anything right. I think the simple issue is that you're just opening yourself up to all kinds of problems with absolutely nothing to gain from it, and we didn't even talk about the financial aspect of it. Like honestly, there's other things you could be spending your money on. Financial aspect of it, like honestly you know you could.
Speaker 1:There's other things you'd be spending your money on, so I'll just leave it at that All right, sweetie, why don't you close up Even shoes? Yeah, just kidding.
Speaker 2:Well, you're telling me. Well, Lord, thank you, god, we thank you that we are yours, your precious loved ones, god, and that you draw us into you. And the whole point of what we're talking about today is there are things in our lives, whether it be alcohol or other things, that you just want to prune us, god, to have our best lives in you, to have our deepest joy in you. So, god, thank you for pruning us and thank you for just showing us the best life possible in you. In Jesus name, amen, all right guys.
Speaker 1:thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time, as always, until then, be blessed and be a blessing. Bye.