Boozing and the bible.

I've been discussing a number of things over at the Christian musician's forum, and one of the issues that seems to have caused the most arguements since the US election is the consumption of alcohol by christians. As a teenager (below the legal drinking age!) I can remember being convicted to give up alcohol, however once I was over 18 it became a non-issue, and I felt released to enjoy a drink.

However, since it's a big deal to many of these guys, and not wishing to be insensitive to the Holy spirit (if He's using them to make me re-think) I've been reading around the area. On CMF one of the guys posted a link to this page. I felt free to disregard it because both the science and theology seemed to have been carefully sourced and re-interpreted to match an opinion. So out with the concordance.

Basically working through all the references to 'wine' this morning in my NIV study bible, the whole emphasis was that over-indulgence was a problem. Wine gets mentioned a number of times in a positive context that acknowledged the effects of alcohol. The most curious of these is at the end of Proverbs (a proverb of Lemuel) where kings are forbidden to have wine (so they don't forget they need to uphold the law) but the poor and those in distress should be GIVEN wine to forget their circumstances!

It seemed to me that to suggest wine was expressly forbidden would be to interpret these scriptures through a specific position, rather than trying to see what they really meant then and might mean for us now. If I had time and inclination I'd write it up in a bible study. But frankly, I don't see the point, and life is too short.....

BTW I have to say that the attitude of those that posted condemning alcohol was so rude and at times petty and childish that it was very difficult to even consider their opinions might even be valid. Mind you, I may have been guilty of similar bad behaviour on forums at times :( It does strike me as odd that someone should try to persuade another Christian of something you feel deeply by abusing them. But hey ho, different cultures.

Any thoughts?