This one about the grape juice is news to me. Growing up Catholic it was never taught to me that the "wine" was not "wine". Seems silly to require Jesus to have been a teetotaller in order to admonish the faithful to avoid drunkeness.

I guess twisting the "good book" to suit one's agenda is a Protestant propensity just as it has been for the Catholic church.

 

No doubt many people come up with an idea or belief, either one they heard in church or from a friend or a parent, or maybe one they came up with all by themselves, and then go about "proving it" by finding scripture that will support it.

The strange thing is that on some subjects it looks like you can. Perhaps it was done on purpose so that we could interpret the bible ourselves rather than rely on some other group or church to do it for us.

One of the guests said, and I'm paraphrasing, most people serve their best wine first (while we can still taste it) but you served the best wine last (when most people are too drunk to notice). Therefore I'd have to assume the wine was the real thing. I have also read, however, that it was a custom to "water down" the wine so it was only one third as potent as the original wine. Therefore, although the wine could make you drunk, you'd have to drink an awful lot of it to get the job done. Apparently the guest who commented on the good tasting wine was not himself drunk, otherwise he wouldn't know the wine was good.

As far as I'm concerned a drink now and again, in moderation, is okay, but anything done to excess is bad. The safest course of action of course is to not drink at all

willowbilly3 (you mean there are 2 more of you floating around somewhere?) is right about the overweight preachers. I've seen quite a few in my time and it is hypocritical to preach abstinence while stuffing your face full of food.

 

It helps to know that in those days water was not easily purifed - if at all. People would make wine as usual - go through the fermenting process and so forth - but would take the wine "up" before it became strong in order to drink it in place of water. They would drink this wine much as we do tea today. This is called "new wine" and it was a more acceptable drink in those days instead of the stronger, more intoxicating wine. But, it was wine nonetheless.

Taking the Bible in its literal sense can make you doubt other elements/scriptures when you research these things - so doubting in that sense is not a bad thing...as long as you pursue the truth.

 

Now that's funny. So you're saying every overweight preacher out there is a hypocrit? If so, then you are so ridiculously wrong. Of course, I don't think that's what you're trying to say at all. I can understand that if you don't "practice what you preach," you are a hypocrit. My dad is a preacher. He's been overweight since his late teens. He never stuffs his face with anything. He's just big-boned, and his metabolism isn't up to par. He's been on a diet for I don't know how long, but he is definately no hypocrit.

Bubba Shrimp: I really hope that was spoken for a specific people and not for stereotypical purposes.

 

True, I said it was hypocritical of a preacher who stuffs his face full of food to preach against drinking, and I think it is. Should we take them out and string em up? No. I didn't say he was a hypocrite. I would reserve that word for someone who is doing some heavy duty sinning like the child molesting priests that we've been hearing about lately.

If you are doing anything that you are preaching against then you are being hypocritical and if you are preaching that our body is a temple and we should keep it holy then that would include drinking, drug use and overeating IMO. I wouldn't feel right myself preaching against drinking if I was killing myself by overeating. Now if you're just naturally a big man and eat proportionally to your size, that's different.

 

This is true of anyone no ? You could insert any faith into the statement above. Not just Protestants and/or Catholics, although I guess we see more Catholics/Protestants here in the US but I would guess that every religion has hypocrits that use the 'good book' (whatever book that may be) for personal gain or to put down the masses. It's sad though, but still happens.

 

From what I have read about Jewish custom I would agree about the watered down wine. Also it wasn't unusual for these partys to go on for a week or so.
Bubba there used to be three of us. See my last post under " I still think of him" in the pigpen for an explanation

 

Sorry I didn't read that post or I wouldn't have said what I did and remind you of this tragedy. Sorry for the loss of your friend.

 

No problem Bubba, I just thought you wanted to know. There is more to it. We had Willowbilly hats and the other remaining Willowbilly and I were wearing them around Willow and everyone thought they were cool so people that we thought worthy would get one. Now there are a couple dozen official willowbillys that have hats, but the name has become a mantra for local yokels as opposed to weekenders (ditchriders). My body is in Texas but my heart will always be in Willow, Alaska.
By the way I think of my old friend often but I rarely think of the tragic part. God has a way of filtering out your memories and leaving the best part on the surface. Peace