August 4, 2024 • 12 mins
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.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, everybody.
Welcome to another edition ofthe Jordan and Kristen Rickards
Show.
Today's topic is whetherChristians should drink alcohol.
But before we get to that,kristen, why don't you open us
up in prayer, please?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
God, we love you, we thank you.
We are so grateful to you forthe very breath in our lungs.
Everything belongs to you, god.
I pray for anyone who's goingthrough a rough time, something
that's just really discouragingor just getting them in that
dark place.
Lord, that you would lift themout.
God, you are the lifter of ourheads, god.
Thank you, lord.
Help us to focus on yourgoodness, today and every day,
(00:33):
and to know that everything isunder your control.
In Jesus' name.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Amen, all right, Well , kristen Jesus' first recorded
miracle was what?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Turning the water into wine.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So what do you have against alcohol?
Was what Turning the water?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
into wine.
So what do you have againstalcohol?
Well, I have a lot againstalcohol, actually, from a
personal perspective, I justhonestly I've always hated
alcohol and what it does tofamilies and how it's ruined
families and how, you know, mygrandfather hated alcohol.
For that reason he paid for alot of divorces and I think his
(01:06):
prayer was probably for me tohate alcohol as much as I do.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
All right, well, that's a good start.
So look, here's the situation.
I mean, jesus did turn waterinto wine and it was undoubtedly
alcoholic wine.
And I know that people say,well, it was different back then
.
But if you actually read theBible, what it says is, when
Jesus turned the water into wine, the host said well, most
people, you know, they bring outthe good stuff first and they
save the bad stuff for later on,when people are drunk and can't
(01:31):
tell the difference, but yousave the best stuff for last.
Okay, so it does imply thatalcohol or that wine back then
did have alcohol in it.
And there's another part of theBible that says be drunk on the
Holy Spirit, not on wine, whichagain implies that you know,
back then wine did have alcoholin it and you could be drunk on
it.
And so the question becomesthen well, if there was drinking
in the Bible back then and infact I think it's either Peter
(01:54):
or Paul who says a little wineis good for the heart, then you
know, is it really a properinterpretation of the Bible to
say that a Christian should notdrink, or is this just sort of
one of these like culturalChristian things where we've
kind of created.
We've created this ethic aroundthe Bible.
That doesn't really reflect it,at least in that respect.
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, you bring up a good point.
I mean, I would say, as much asI personally hate alcohol, I'm
not going to sit here and say ifyou drink alcohol, you're going
to hell.
That's not.
I'm not going to sit here andsay if you drink alcohol, you're
going to hell.
That's not.
You know what, being aChristian, you can be a
Christian and drink alcohol, Ithink, theologically.
However, for me, for you, forour families, we were raised to
(02:37):
not drink alcohol and I'm justgoing to tell you right now, I
think it makes all thedifference.
I think there's such adestructive nature behind
alcohol.
And then people who have atendency 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 thedoor.
(02:57):
I would think, at the veryleast, it's unnecessary.
It's unnecessary to open.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well, I think you hit the nail on the head,
unnecessary.
Now, you've never drank, Ihaven't had a drink in 25 years
because it just seems stupid.
Like my friends would drink andI, you know, I never really got
drunk, but I remember it wouldjust make me sick and I was like
, well, what's what's what?
What's the cost benefit of thishere?
Like what, you know, what did Igain in exchange for feeling
lousy like this, right?
(03:22):
And so it really didn't add up.
Look, you know I deal withalcohol all the time because as
a lawyer, my practice is in twopredominant areas Right.
One is divorce law, and whichhas 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 isnumber one.
You know, drunk drivers kill12000 people a year in the
(03:44):
United States.
Ok, to put that in perspective.
See, is number one.
You know, drunk drivers kill12,000 people a year in the
United States.
Okay, to put that inperspective.
That's usually what we get interms of gun homicides.
So it's pretty much like neckand neck.
Now the gun homicides havegotten a little higher since the
pandemic and, you know, lettingpeople out of jails for no
reason, but it's usually prettymuch neck and neck.
On top of that, you haveanother 80,000 or so people who
die from alcohol relatedillnesses every year.
(04:05):
Now, just to put that inperspective, like 3 000 people
died on 9-11 80 000 die fromalcohol.
It's involved in about half ofall domestic violences.
Okay, it's involved in a lot ofdivorces.
It's involved in a lot of timeswhere people, um, you know,
can't keep their jobs, and whathappens is people take this
attitude like well, there'snothing wrong with drinking,
with drinking, I'm just gonnahave a few drinks, whatever here
.
Their drink socially.
(04:26):
Then you wake up one day andit's more than something social
and you say well, you know, Iwas just a victim, you know, I,
I, I, you know they.
They call themselves, forexample, recovering alcoholics.
They call it a disease.
Now, it's like it's not adisease.
A disease is like something youdidn't do to yourself.
You know what I mean.
This is something that waspreventable and somewhat
(04:47):
predictable, and so I wouldagree with you that it's not
like sin in the sense that likeadultery is a sin.
But if you really understandwhat God's talking about when he
creates something or callssomething a sin, it's like he's
saying this is unhealthy for you.
You know why would you give theenemy any what we'll call
infection site Like he isconstantly looking for
(05:09):
weaknesses.
If that's going to be one ofyour weaknesses, that's
something that's going to getexploited.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, and I know that you, you know people could say,
well, that could be withanything, and yeah, that is true
.
If you have a shopping problem,remove Amazon off of your phone
.
It could be anything, it couldbe any vice.
However, the difference withalcohol, in my opinion, is it's
something that can really skewyour judgment and take you out
(05:38):
of reality and numb you toreality.
And again, there are a lot ofthings like that.
However, the chemical, what itdoes to your body chemically,
and all of that.
And you say, well, if I justtake a little sip, but to me
it's that gateway, again it'sthat gateway.
Why do that?
And to me there's just noreason to there's no reason.
(06:00):
There's plenty of drinks likeShirley Temple's that are
non-alcoholic, that if you enjoy, or coffee or non-alcoholic
beer or non-alcoholic winethere's plenty of drinks?
Yeah, if you say you like winefor the taste, then we had
non-alcoholic champagne at ourwedding.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Nobody seemed to complain.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
There's no reason to have alcohol.
And then you know the healthrisks associated with it.
Otherwise, why can't you drinkalcohol when you're pregnant?
You know, like so, it's like so, there's there are health risks
associated.
And then you have all thesepeople that are not even
Christians saying it's not worthit.
It's not worth it, the money,the expense, everything.
(06:41):
And I can just tell you I donot believe, and I'm sure you
feel the same.
If my parents had been drinkersor whatever, I probably would
have a different view, I wouldhave grown up a different way,
but I'm so grateful that I grewup in a house and we're going to
have that for our childrenwhere alcohol was not present
and it was nothing, where it waseven a temptation for me to get
(07:03):
into, because we didn't grow upthat way.
I had an amazing time withoutit and there's no reason to have
it.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, you know, I think this is part of a broader
problem where the church is soafraid of offending anybody that
you can't even have someone getup in front of a group and say
you know what, you guys, youshouldn't be drinking.
If you're drinking, youshouldn't be drinking, and
here's why you shouldn't bedrinking.
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 reallybad idea and there are a lot of
(07:32):
problems that are going to stemfrom it and you're not going to
get anything.
So, you know, even I think, toallude to something like what
you were saying even if you arenot a Christian, drinking
alcohol is, at best, a reallydumb decision in a simple cost
benefit analysis and as aChristian, where God wants us to
be healthy so that we can, youknow, spiritually, emotionally
(07:52):
and physically healthy, whereasthe enemy wants us to, you know,
lose our jobs and blow up ourfamilies and get divorced and
beat our wives and be crappyfathers to kids and things like
that.
Did I just say crappy on aChristian show?
Can I say that?
It's sort of like a mildwhatever, but you know my point.
It's like people are afraid totalk about this because you
(08:13):
don't want to push people awayand you want to embrace people
and no one who drinks shouldfeel unwelcome in the church but
you should definitely feel like, hey, we are here to help you.
And if this is what you'redoing, it doesn't make you a bad
person, but it is putting youin a bad position, and one in
which, if you don't have someother weaknesses that the enemy
(08:34):
is going to exploit, then he'sgoing to exploit this one, and
that's just how it is and maybe,okay, this is just my thought.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
You know, being drunk is one thing, but yeah, you can
have a sip of wine, or whycan't I just have a little bit
of wine, which I just don't seeany point to.
But let's just say whatever.
Then that would be like sayingI'm not going to commit adultery
or I'm not going to go out withthat girl, but why can't I just
say she's beautiful, why can'tI just send her a message?
Maybe that's being a little toostrict, but in my opinion it's
(09:11):
that gateway.
It's that gateway, it's a vice.
That's saying it's here for mewhenever I need it.
If life blows up, then I haveit there.
Even though I don't let, I cancontrol it now.
But what happens when the enemyuses that as a tool?
You know, that's just myopinion.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Very good, any closing thoughts?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Closing thoughts are we're not trying to look at
people who drink alcohol and sayyou're a terrible person,
you're not a Christian or youare just.
You know, we're so much betterthan you.
Blah, blah, blah.
It is just my opinion thatthere is no reason to drink
alcohol, at best and it can ruinlives and can be very
(09:50):
destructive.
So it can either be terriblydestructive or just have no
point to it at all.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah.
So I think the consensus hereis something to the effect that
this doesn't make you a badperson and it's not like sin in
the same way that something likeadultery or something like that
is sin, and I think you can bea Christian and drink alcohol.
I don't think that's like a barto entry or anything right.
I think the simple issue isthat you're just opening
(10:17):
yourself up to all kinds ofproblems with absolutely nothing
to gain from it, and we didn'teven talk about the financial
aspect of it.
Like honestly, there's otherthings you could be spending
your money on.
Financial aspect of it, likehonestly you know you could.
There's other things you'd bespending 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 (10:32):
Well, you're telling me.
Well, Lord, thank you, god, wethank you that we are yours,
your precious loved ones, god,and that you draw us into you.
And the whole point of whatwe're talking about today is
there are things in our lives,whether it be alcohol or other
things, that you just want toprune us, god, to have our best
(10:54):
lives in you, to have ourdeepest joy in you.
So, god, thank you for pruningus and thank you for just
showing us the best lifepossible in you.
In Jesus name, amen, all rightguys.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
thanks for joining us .
We'll see you next time, asalways, until then, be blessed
and be a blessing.
Bye.
All right, everybody.
Welcome to another edition ofthe Jordan and Kristen Rickards
Show.
Today's topic is whetherChristians should drink alcohol.
But before we get to that,kristen, why don't you open us
up in prayer, please?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
God, we love you, we thank you.
We are so grateful to you forthe very breath in our lungs.
Everything belongs to you, god.
I pray for anyone who's goingthrough a rough time, something
that's just really discouragingor just getting them in that
dark place.
Lord, that you would lift themout.
God, you are the lifter of ourheads, god.
Thank you, lord.
Help us to focus on yourgoodness, today and every day,
(00:33):
and to know that everything isunder your control.
In Jesus' name.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Amen, all right, Well , kristen Jesus' first recorded
miracle was what?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Turning the water into wine.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So what do you have against alcohol?
Was what Turning the water?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
into wine.
So what do you have againstalcohol?
Well, I have a lot againstalcohol, actually, from a
personal perspective, I justhonestly I've always hated
alcohol and what it does tofamilies and how it's ruined
families and how, you know, mygrandfather hated alcohol.
For that reason he paid for alot of divorces and I think his
(01:06):
prayer was probably for me tohate alcohol as much as I do.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
All right, well, that's a good start.
So look, here's the situation.
I mean, jesus did turn waterinto wine and it was undoubtedly
alcoholic wine.
And I know that people say,well, it was different back then
.
But if you actually read theBible, what it says is, when
Jesus turned the water into wine, the host said well, most
people, you know, they bring outthe good stuff first and they
save the bad stuff for later on,when people are drunk and can't
(01:31):
tell the difference, but yousave the best stuff for last.
Okay, so it does imply thatalcohol or that wine back then
did have alcohol in it.
And there's another part of theBible that says be drunk on the
Holy Spirit, not on wine, whichagain implies that you know,
back then wine did have alcoholin it and you could be drunk on
it.
And so the question becomesthen well, if there was drinking
in the Bible back then and infact I think it's either Peter
(01:54):
or Paul who says a little wineis good for the heart, then you
know, is it really a properinterpretation of the Bible to
say that a Christian should notdrink, or is this just sort of
one of these like culturalChristian things where we've
kind of created.
We've created this ethic aroundthe Bible.
That doesn't really reflect it,at least in that respect.
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, you bring up a good point.
I mean, I would say, as much asI personally hate alcohol, I'm
not going to sit here and say ifyou drink alcohol, you're going
to hell.
That's not.
I'm not going to sit here andsay if you drink alcohol, you're
going to hell.
That's not.
You know what, being aChristian, you can be a
Christian and drink alcohol, Ithink, theologically.
However, for me, for you, forour families, we were raised to
(02:37):
not drink alcohol and I'm justgoing to tell you right now, I
think it makes all thedifference.
I think there's such adestructive nature behind
alcohol.
And then people who have atendency 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 thedoor.
(02:57):
I would think, at the veryleast, it's unnecessary.
It's unnecessary to open.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well, I think you hit the nail on the head,
unnecessary.
Now, you've never drank, Ihaven't had a drink in 25 years
because it just seems stupid.
Like my friends would drink andI, you know, I never really got
drunk, but I remember it wouldjust make me sick and I was like
, well, what's what's what?
What's the cost benefit of thishere?
Like what, you know, what did Igain in exchange for feeling
lousy like this, right?
(03:22):
And so it really didn't add up.
Look, you know I deal withalcohol all the time because as
a lawyer, my practice is in twopredominant areas Right.
One is divorce law, and whichhas 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 isnumber one.
You know, drunk drivers kill12000 people a year in the
(03:44):
United States.
Ok, to put that in perspective.
See, is number one.
You know, drunk drivers kill12,000 people a year in the
United States.
Okay, to put that inperspective.
That's usually what we get interms of gun homicides.
So it's pretty much like neckand neck.
Now the gun homicides havegotten a little higher since the
pandemic and, you know, lettingpeople out of jails for no
reason, but it's usually prettymuch neck and neck.
On top of that, you haveanother 80,000 or so people who
die from alcohol relatedillnesses every year.
(04:05):
Now, just to put that inperspective, like 3 000 people
died on 9-11 80 000 die fromalcohol.
It's involved in about half ofall domestic violences.
Okay, it's involved in a lot ofdivorces.
It's involved in a lot of timeswhere people, um, you know,
can't keep their jobs, and whathappens is people take this
attitude like well, there'snothing wrong with drinking,
with drinking, I'm just gonnahave a few drinks, whatever here
.
Their drink socially.
(04:26):
Then you wake up one day andit's more than something social
and you say well, you know, Iwas just a victim, you know, I,
I, I, you know they.
They call themselves, forexample, recovering alcoholics.
They call it a disease.
Now, it's like it's not adisease.
A disease is like something youdidn't do to yourself.
You know what I mean.
This is something that waspreventable and somewhat
(04:47):
predictable, and so I wouldagree with you that it's not
like sin in the sense that likeadultery is a sin.
But if you really understandwhat God's talking about when he
creates something or callssomething a sin, it's like he's
saying this is unhealthy for you.
You know why would you give theenemy any what we'll call
infection site Like he isconstantly looking for
(05:09):
weaknesses.
If that's going to be one ofyour weaknesses, that's
something that's going to getexploited.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, and I know that you, you know people could say,
well, that could be withanything, and yeah, that is true
.
If you have a shopping problem,remove Amazon off of your phone
.
It could be anything, it couldbe any vice.
However, the difference withalcohol, in my opinion, is it's
something that can really skewyour judgment and take you out
(05:38):
of reality and numb you toreality.
And again, there are a lot ofthings like that.
However, the chemical, what itdoes to your body chemically,
and all of that.
And you say, well, if I justtake a little sip, but to me
it's that gateway, again it'sthat gateway.
Why do that?
And to me there's just noreason to there's no reason.
(06:00):
There's plenty of drinks likeShirley Temple's that are
non-alcoholic, that if you enjoy, or coffee or non-alcoholic
beer or non-alcoholic winethere's plenty of drinks?
Yeah, if you say you like winefor the taste, then we had
non-alcoholic champagne at ourwedding.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Nobody seemed to complain.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
There's no reason to have alcohol.
And then you know the healthrisks associated with it.
Otherwise, why can't you drinkalcohol when you're pregnant?
You know, like so, it's like so, there's there are health risks
associated.
And then you have all thesepeople that are not even
Christians saying it's not worthit.
It's not worth it, the money,the expense, everything.
(06:41):
And I can just tell you I donot believe, and I'm sure you
feel the same.
If my parents had been drinkersor whatever, I probably would
have a different view, I wouldhave grown up a different way,
but I'm so grateful that I grewup in a house and we're going to
have that for our childrenwhere alcohol was not present
and it was nothing, where it waseven a temptation for me to get
(07:03):
into, because we didn't grow upthat way.
I had an amazing time withoutit and there's no reason to have
it.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, you know, I think this is part of a broader
problem where the church is soafraid of offending anybody that
you can't even have someone getup in front of a group and say
you know what, you guys, youshouldn't be drinking.
If you're drinking, youshouldn't be drinking, and
here's why you shouldn't bedrinking.
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 reallybad idea and there are a lot of
(07:32):
problems that are going to stemfrom it and you're not going to
get anything.
So, you know, even I think, toallude to something like what
you were saying even if you arenot a Christian, drinking
alcohol is, at best, a reallydumb decision in a simple cost
benefit analysis and as aChristian, where God wants us to
be healthy so that we can, youknow, spiritually, emotionally
(07:52):
and physically healthy, whereasthe enemy wants us to, you know,
lose our jobs and blow up ourfamilies and get divorced and
beat our wives and be crappyfathers to kids and things like
that.
Did I just say crappy on aChristian show?
Can I say that?
It's sort of like a mildwhatever, but you know my point.
It's like people are afraid totalk about this because you
(08:13):
don't want to push people awayand you want to embrace people
and no one who drinks shouldfeel unwelcome in the church but
you should definitely feel like, hey, we are here to help you.
And if this is what you'redoing, it doesn't make you a bad
person, but it is putting youin a bad position, and one in
which, if you don't have someother weaknesses that the enemy
(08:34):
is going to exploit, then he'sgoing to exploit this one, and
that's just how it is and maybe,okay, this is just my thought.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
You know, being drunk is one thing, but yeah, you can
have a sip of wine, or whycan't I just have a little bit
of wine, which I just don't seeany point to.
But let's just say whatever.
Then that would be like sayingI'm not going to commit adultery
or I'm not going to go out withthat girl, but why can't I just
say she's beautiful, why can'tI just send her a message?
Maybe that's being a little toostrict, but in my opinion it's
(09:11):
that gateway.
It's that gateway, it's a vice.
That's saying it's here for mewhenever I need it.
If life blows up, then I haveit there.
Even though I don't let, I cancontrol it now.
But what happens when the enemyuses that as a tool?
You know, that's just myopinion.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Very good, any closing thoughts?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Closing thoughts are we're not trying to look at
people who drink alcohol and sayyou're a terrible person,
you're not a Christian or youare just.
You know, we're so much betterthan you.
Blah, blah, blah.
It is just my opinion thatthere is no reason to drink
alcohol, at best and it can ruinlives and can be very
(09:50):
destructive.
So it can either be terriblydestructive or just have no
point to it at all.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah.
So I think the consensus hereis something to the effect that
this doesn't make you a badperson and it's not like sin in
the same way that something likeadultery or something like that
is sin, and I think you can bea Christian and drink alcohol.
I don't think that's like a barto entry or anything right.
I think the simple issue isthat you're just opening
(10:17):
yourself up to all kinds ofproblems with absolutely nothing
to gain from it, and we didn'teven talk about the financial
aspect of it.
Like honestly, there's otherthings you could be spending
your money on.
Financial aspect of it, likehonestly you know you could.
There's other things you'd bespending 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 (10:32):
Well, you're telling me.
Well, Lord, thank you, god, wethank you that we are yours,
your precious loved ones, god,and that you draw us into you.
And the whole point of whatwe're talking about today is
there are things in our lives,whether it be alcohol or other
things, that you just want toprune us, god, to have our best
(10:54):
lives in you, to have ourdeepest joy in you.
So, god, thank you for pruningus and thank you for just
showing us the best lifepossible in you.
In Jesus name, amen, all rightguys.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
thanks for joining us .
We'll see you next time, asalways, until then, be blessed
and be a blessing.
Bye.
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