Intoxication

So... whilst visiting a friend I picked up a book Sober Saints by Keith Malcomson and started reading. Basically the plot is that "wine" in the Bible, when condoned, was actually unfermented grape juice. This is not a new idea. I admit that I have not read the whole book - one reason being that, like so many sermons, there is a good deal of padding to make it "book-sized" and thus, I suppose, more saleable. What I did read makes sense and I do not disagree with some of his points - like that wine is a mocker - I know some people who have problems with alcohol and it is not nice.

But my hackles rose a bit when he has a go at C. S. Lewis - he refers to the scene in Prince Caspian where Bacchus and Silenus turns up and asserts that:

"Lewis denied many fundamental evangelical doctrines, smoked, drank, wrote books in bars and strongly promoted social drinking... I'm afraid Mr. Lewis was out of step with the written Scriptures, but strongly influenced by the ideas, ideologies and habits of Bacchus. Hidden beneath the veneer of this 'Christian Classic' and presented by the wise, sophisticated, intelligent and profoundly balanced pen of Lewis, is the practice of social drinking, supported by the fable of the one-wine theory..."

Personally I don't do social drinking, I don't smoke either, but I would not be adverse to a glass of wine or cider with a meal. But that's not my point. Based on my having met Keith briefly and knowing Lewis through his books, at this moment I would rather put my trust in Lewis because he comes across as a man with substance, someone I can identify with. A similar argument is expressed by the apostle James who noted that "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are" or Barnabas and Paul who explained that "We also are men of like passions with you" or Jesus who "was in all points tempted like as we are".

Not that I am condoning Lewis's stance or his lifestyle - I do not necessarily always agree with him, but that does not stop me receiving from and being blessed by him. To agree wholly with him I would have to become a high-church man, a veritable English scholar and a lot besides!

Jonathan Rogers is worth reading on the subject - of the Bacchus scene he observes that:

"Aslan is here, and all that wildness and freedom is an expression of the enlivening, joy-giving, creative energies of Aslan himself. What Lewis says of the God of the Bible is true of Aslan:

It is He who sends the rain into the furrows till the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing. The trees of the wood rejoice before Him and His voice causes the wild deer to bring forth their young. His is the God of wheat and wine and oil. In that respect He is constantly doing all the things that Nature-Gods do: His is Bacchus, Venus, Ceres all rolled into one.

This is not polytheism that is breaking out in Narnia. The little nature gods of Narnia do not set themselves up as rivals to Aslan. They are his servants, just as Trufflehunter and the Pevensies, and now Trumpkin are his servants."

God makes the rules. It was He who forbade certain foods in the Old Testament but then presents Peter with these unclean foods and tells him "What God has made clean, you do not call common."

The catch is being able to discern whether it is God - of all people the Pharisees were well versed in the scriptures so knew all the prophecies pointing the the Messiah - but they couldn't see wood for trees when He appeared before their very eyes. I fear lest I might fall into a similar trap. Keith is right when he says alcohol is dangerous but I wonder if he has missed the point by concluding that we must necessarily be teetotal.