Articles
The Destructiveness of Alcohol
Prov 23:29-35 – “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine, those who go to taste mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things and your mind will utter perverse things. And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, or like one who lies down on the top of a mast. ‘They struck me, but I did not become ill; they beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.’”
Though the destructiveness of drinking alcohol goes back thousands of years, the horrible affects can still be seen throughout our society:
1) The CDC (Center for Disease Control) reports that ~88,000 per year die from alcohol-related causes.
2) There are ~17.6 million alcoholics in the USA. In 2006, alcohol misuse problems cost the USA $223.5 billion.
3) Alcohol strains family finances, employee efficiency at the workplace, and is the #1 cause of child and spousal abuse.
4) The CDC reports that 1 in 4 college students suffer academic consequences from drinking alcohol. Many of these students will flunk out of school.
5) Alcohol encourages sexual permissiveness due to a lack of self-control. 55% of sexual assault victims have been drinking at the time of the assault as well as 97% of sexual assault perpetrators.
6) Alcohol leads to mental problems, health problems of the heart and liver, and ultimately will lead to the death of many.
7) Over 55% of highway deaths are related to alcohol. Many victims are killed or maimed for life.
Despite these statistics, and more, advertisers will spend $600 million this very year telling you why you should drink. Their ads will be filled with carousing, revelry, and scantily clad women suggesting that the consumption of alcohol opens the door to the good life. Clever slogans are used – “Bring on the night, get some cold refreshment, head for the mountains, it doesn’t get any better than this!” In other words, the people who make the product, and therefore know it better than anyone else, purposefully market it as a stepping stone to the lust of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21) of which the bible makes clear will keep us out of heaven.
This alone should cause every serious Christian whose desire is to be “blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world” (Phil 2:14a-15) to avoid the recreational and social consumption of distilled alcohol. No beverage that the bible says mocks, leads to poverty, woes, sorrows, contentions, babblings, worries without cause, impairs judgment, inflames passions, and enslaves should have a place in the life of a people striving to “cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the spirit of God.” (2 Cor 7:1).
