No, absolutely not, to get right to the point! How can I love my neighbour
as myself by selling him something that may destroy his life and family?
Booze has a tainted track record. Alcohol has claimed many victims. I want
no part of that!!! No Sir, not me, no way! As far as I'm concerned, selling
someone booze speaks loud and clear that you DON'T love them. God loves you
friend! And I love you because I have God's Holy Spirit living inside me as
a born-again Christian. I'm not going to do anything that may lead to your
demise. Companies, like K-mart, who require liquor licenses for their
cashiers, only want to make money. There are more important things in this
world than making money, and loving God and your neighbour are the most
important of them. It is my humble opinion that if you truly love your
neighbour, you won't sell alcoholic beverages to them. I love you too much
to sell you booze!!!
Biblically speaking, can a Christian businessman serve alcohol? Should a
store cashier apply for an ABC (alcohol beverage control) license to sell
alcohol? Should a Christian work at a business that sells alcoholic
beverages? When should we take a stand for God, and when is it Ok to
tolerate booze? I'm going to give you some Scriptures, and then I'm going to
give you my sincere Christian opinion, and then you hopefully will have
enough information to make your own decision. I think the answer is clear,
but I need to show you a few things to help you understand. Please, read
on...
Proverbs 23:29-35, “Who
hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath
wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine;
they that go to seek mixed wine.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the
cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and
stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine
heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down
in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They
have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me,
and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.”
In ancient times, people drank naturally
fermented grape juice, which unless you drank a gallon, it was difficult to
get drunk. Even children drank wine back then, as during the Roman empire.
That's how hard it was to get drunk with naturally fermented grape juice.
Notice in the preceding Bible passage from Proverbs 23:30 that the only way
to get drunk was to “TARRY LONG AT THE WINE,” or “SEEK MIXED WINE.” Aromatic
spices were sometimes added to wine to increase its stimulating properties.
Naturally fermented grape juice has a maximum alcohol content of about 12%
to 15% (basically like cooking wine). In many cases, wine was mixed
(diluted) with water (as much as 20-to-1), which greatly reduced the alcohol
content of the beverage. Our text Bible verse very clearly discourages
anyone from drinking wine and strong drink (not just strong drink, but also
wine).
Proverbs 20:1, “Wine is a mocker, strong
drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” The
Bible says you are not wise if you drink wine. That's what God said. I have
always had a big problem with the claim that Jesus turned water into strong
drink, or even moderate wine, because that would have made Him “unwise”
according to Proverbs 20:1. There is an inherent deceptive nature in
drinking alcohol, evidenced by the horrifying statistics and untold
destroyed lives. Please take a close look at the photos below from Skidrow
in Chicago. This is where booze can lead. Not one of these men thought this
could ever happen to them. There are also women on Skidrow, as seen in the
last sad photo. Let the pictures speak for themselves. Alcohol is a gamble!
Some people can handle it and some people can't, but from the horrible
statistics it is obvious that no one knows who can and who can't...
Proverbs 21:17, “He that
loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not
be rich.”
The following passage of Scripture from the
book of Isaiah accurately describes the United States today. All across our
once great nation, the court system is ruling in favor of wickedness and
against righteousness:
Isaiah 5:20-23, “Woe
unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light,
and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe
unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
Woe unto them that are mighty
to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the
righteous from him!”
Alcohol Historically Has Always
Been Associated With Wickedness
Again, we notice the Scriptural warning how
alcohol brings mighty men low, becoming their weakness. During The
Prohibition Era (1919-1933) alcohol was rightly termed “BOOZE” by preachers
like Billy Sunday, God's man! I grew up around Skidrow in Chicago, tagging
along with my father who was a minister to Skidrow. I saw thousands of
drunks, bodies laying in the streets, in the cold, being loaded into police
paddy-wagons, et cetera. I stood by my father's side as a young lad at
several dozen funerals, where it was just myself, my father and the corpse
(who had died a lonely drunkard's death on Skidrow). Having seen all that, I
could never take a liquor license in good conscience. I fully realize that
95% of the people who I would be serving or selling alcohol to, would be
just fine and not become a casualty, but then there is that 5%, isn't there?
Alcohol-Related
Deaths:
Nearly 88,000 people
(approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes
annually, making alcohol the fourth leading preventable cause of death in
the United States. In 2014, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities accounted
for 9,967 deaths (31 percent of overall driving fatalities).
SOURCE:
National Institute On Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
It may not seem like a big deal to most people,
reading that 88,000 victims die every year because of alcohol; but God
cares! I care! And this is just deaths in the United States. Have you ever
seen a large church auditorium packed full with 7,000 people? I have, many
times. Now multiply that times 12 1/2, and that's how many people die every
year in the U.S. from alcohol-related deaths. That's an unthinkable
unnecessary loss! But that's just deaths. God only knows how many assaults,
rapes, foolish talking, molestations, beatings and other forms of wickedness
happen while people are drunk.
It is also a woeful sin to offer someone
alcohol in an attempt to get them drunk, to extract personal information
from them, or to take advantage of them. Habakkuk 2:15, “Woe unto him
that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest
him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!” This
Scripture refers to drugging a victim to have sex with him, her or them.
We've heard much in recent years about the popular nightclub drug,
Ecstasy (also known as the “date rape” drug). Alcohol is the much more
conventional drug that evil people choose to victimize others. Alcohol is
dangerous. I refuse to ever drink alcohol, for many reasons. It is for the
same reasons why I don't drink alcohol as a Christian, that I would never
take a liquor license (aka, an ABC license).
Why a Christian Should Never Drink
Booze or Get A Liquor License
- Alcohol has a
deceitful nature to it (Proverbs 20:1). The more you
consume alcohol, the more you get used to it, so the less danger you
feel while drinking it, and the more likely you are to abuse it over
time!
The Devil has
ruined many people's lives with alcohol. I could spend hours
telling you about the evils I have seen in my life from alcohol. I stood
over the graves of a pregnant mother and her baby, both murdered by a
drunken driver (he survived). There were two caskets. I'll never forget that
small white casket being lowered into the earthly grave. It was a sad thing.
Oh, how the Devil is a beautiful liar! Young person, decide in your soul
that you will never drink booze! I've never drank a drop and never will.
- Someone is always watching
you.
When you drink beer, you're sending a message to others that it is an
acceptable thing to do. When you take a stand and refuse to drink
alcohol, people see that. I recently went into Chili's restaurant with
my family (I like their new beef enchiladas, and I love their sizzling
beef fajitas), and the waitress directed us toward the bar area. I
immediately said, kindly, “We are Christiana and don't drink alcohol,
could we please sit over there instead?” And so we sat away from the
bar. I wanted her to know where we stood. I took that opportunity to
take a stand against booze. They know in that restaurant that I am a
Christian, and I don't approve of alcoholic beverages. Amen!
- The Holy Bible commands us
to abstain from all appearances of evil.
Alcohol has the appearance of evil. If you don't believe it, take a good
look at the Jim Beam photo below. They don't call it “DEVIL'S CUT” for
no reason. I never go into taverns and bars, because I don't want people
(who are my neighbours) seeing me in a place like that. I avoid places
that have reputations for being evil. When's the last time you read or
heard about a bar fight breaking out at the Outback Steakhouse? I go to
the steakhouse about once every 6 to 12 months. I don't eat there so
often that it doesn't mean something special to me. I go there seldom
enough so that I always feel blessed to be there, buying a steak dinner.
I love their clam chowder at Outsteak Backhouse! (That's what my
daughter used to call it). We are blessed in America to have so many
restaurants, which didn't exist a century ago. We are a truly blessed
people in history, yet we treat God so poorly, and forget about Him.
Proverbs 30:9, “Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the
LORD?”
- By taking a license you are
sanctioning the dirty liquor traffic.
Evangelist Billy Sunday (1862-1935) was right to preach hard against
gambling, dancing and booze! Billy Sunday was right to take a stand for
God against the dirty liquor traffic! By taking an ABC license, your
cash register effectively becomes a tavern. Do you know that when I was
a kid in the 1970's, alcoholic beverages were only sold in the back of
grocery stores and pharmacies. All alcoholic beverages were only sold in
brown paper bags for purposes of modesty, so that children wouldn't see
the booze. People still cared about raising up decent children in the
1970's. We still had a sense of shame as a society. People drank booze
with the attitude that it wasn't something best, not something that they
wanted children to see and emulate. We've lost that in America today.
Now, booze is sold at the checkout counter, right in front of the
children. There is no shame anymore. Booze is no longer sold modestly in
brown paper bags, but openly, as soda and milk are sold. During The
Prohibition Era (1919-1933), booze was something illegal, bad and
shameful. Wicked people broke the law. The places that broke the law,
illegal barrooms called “speakeasies,” were notorious for also being
brothels, gambling houses and entertaining all manner of sin. Chicago
gangster, Al Capone, was infamous for his wickedness. Trafficking
alcohol in the 1920's was as the illegal drug-trafficking today (and
today, just as then, most gang murders were related to the trafficking
of illegal substances).
- God deserves better than
that from us.
Don't pull on the same rope as the Devil by taking a liquor license!!!
As Christians, God wants us to be holy, pure and excited about good
works. Titus 2:14, “Who gave himself for us, that
he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself
a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Although a person doesn't
have to forsake sinful bad habits to receive the gift of eternal life
and forgiveness of sins, God still expects every believer to depart from
sinful bad habits as His redeemed child. Unsaved people are held
responsible for their sins by God as their eternal Judge (James 4:12;
Revelation 20:11-15); but the Christian is held responsible for their
sins by God as their heavenly Father (2nd Corinthians 5:9-11). God
deserves better from His children than for us to take a liquor license
and pull on the same rope as the Devil by selling booze!!! No Sir, I
won't do it! It'll be a cold day in Hades before I ever apply for an
alcohol beverage permit. K-mart, you can stick your license where the
sun doesn't shine!
- You are an accomplice
to any bad thing caused by the booze you sold. If you
sell someone booze, chances are that you'll never find out about the bad
things caused by it. When you hear about a drunk driver murdering a
small child with their car, you never find out who sold them the
alcohol. And brother, I am so sick and tired of hearing about
“responsible drinking.” That's like a responsible game of Russian
Roulette! That's like a responsible Oxycontin pill-popping party! That's
like responsible residential drag-racing in a local neighborhood! IT
CANNOT BE DONE!!! There is no such thing as “responsible” drinking of
alcohol as a beverage.
- God has made us as kings
and priests, and we shall reign with Christ.
The Bible teaches that born-again believers
will one day reign with Christ during the time of the millennium. The
Bible says that we are as kings and priests unto God. Consuming alcohol
is an irresponsible thing to do, which is why the Bible teaches for
leaders never to do it! Proverbs 31:4, “It is not for kings, O
Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong
drink.” I happen to believe that as a child of God, who does God's
work, that what I do for the Lord in my online ministry is far more
important than what some worldly king or president does. The position of
being U.S. President is just a title, nothing more. I am going to reign
with Jesus Christ one day when He reigns. Revelation 5:10, “And hast
made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the
earth.” If secular leaders ought not drink alcohol, then neither
should God's children. Shame on any preacher who drinks booze, or
permits drinking it. Only a wicked person would claim that Jesus turned
water into intoxicating booze, risking the woes common to booze
drinking. Jesus wouldn't provide the booze necessary to help people get
drunk at a wedding. Jesus made wine, grape juice, but it was not strong
drink, nor even alcoholic wine. Proverbs 20:1a teaches that “WINE IS
A MOCKER!!!” The Lord knew the Old Testament very well. Why would
Jesus give people something that mocked them?
- Worldly companies like
K-mart only care about making money, not morality.
Just because K-mart is open on Sunday, doesn't make it right to
dishonour the Lord's day once a week. In the old days of America, store
owners pulled their store blinds, so that people couldn't window-shop on
Sundays, out of respect for God. Businesses were closed on Sunday,
people went to church, and America still had backbone and decency back
then. Hollywood has ruined the family in America! And may I say, just
because secular companies like K-mart don't honor the Lord, choosing to
sell booze to the public, doesn't make it right! We need to give up our
WRONGS in America, not our RIGHTS! I am against the sale of alcohol as a
beverage! Why? Simply because historically alcohol has earned a very bad
reputation, has a horrible track record, and oftentimes a destructive
outcome!
- Don't follow the world.
James 4:4, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the
friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be
a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
Before there was ever the evil of so-called
“Christian rock and roll,” there was the world's rock and roll. Rock
music began with the sexually immoral crowd. Due to its popularity, such
wicked music has crept into the churches. Rock music is of the Devil.
There's no such animal as “Christian rock and roll,” just as there is no
such thing as “Christian embezzling” or “Christian adultery.” Likewise,
there is no such thing as a Christian tavern or a Christian disco.
There's no such thing as a Christian brother or a Christian bottle of
booze. Liquor is of the Devil, and always has been of the Devil. God
never instructed any man to produce booze! In fact, because Samson was
dedicated to serve the Lord, he was forbidden from drinking any alcohol.
You'll find booze, tobacco, gambling and tattoos in worldly
establishment, not a New Testament church. Friend, the truth is that
many of you would never even consider getting a liquor license if it
weren't for the love of money, which is the root of all evil (1st
Timothy 6:10). But you say, “I need a job!” That is what the love of
money means. You are placing your need for money as a higher priority
than the things of God. Even a little child knows that beer is not a
good thing. Beer makes people go out of their minds. Beer causes men to
beat their wives. Beer causes many car accidents and murders!!! Beer
causes fathers to molest their children. Beer causes much violence and
foolish jesting. Beer causes evil, everywhere that you find it!
- Jesus never got
drunk! You can never get drunk if you don't drink alcohol
at all. The Bible teaches that drunkenness is a sin (1st Corinthians
6:9-11). Jesus never got drunk, nor did He help anyone get drunk. There
is not enough preaching today about the evils of drunkenness. What is
drunkenness? It is losing control of your own mind to a substance. When
you get drunk, you are under the influence of a substance. You are
intoxicated with alcohol or some other drug (or drugs). It is a common
thing for young people today, particularly college students, to drink
booze with the intention of getting buzzed or drunk. This is wickedness!
I believe it is wrong for a person to drink an alcoholic beverage,
knowing that it will make them sedated and topsy-turvy. We live in a
wicked and irresponsible society today, who drink alcohol with no way of
knowing when they've had too much. And in fact, MOST alcohol related car
accidents involve beer drinkers WITHIN THE LEGAL LIMIT of .08 BAC. That
speaks volumes right there! People with a BAC (blood alcohol
concentration) of between .04 or .07 oftentimes murder other people,
when they run over them!!! Wicked, greedy, rotten, beer executives,
lawyers, legislatures and judges keep the BAC at .08!!! It ought to be
.01!!! No one should be behind the wheel of a 5,000 car whose BAC is .04
or .05!!! Most companies will fire you if your BAC is .01!!! What an
ungodly hypocritical legal system!!!
- Worldly music always
glorifies booze, but never in Christian hymns.
I've never heard any Gospel hymns that praise
drinking alcohol, and neither have you! But we've all heard dozens of
worldly music praising and glorifying the sin of drunkenness and
drinking booze. The fact that the heathen world sings about booze is
another reason why we as Christians ought to avoid it. James 4:4, “Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the
world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the
world is the enemy of God.” Nearly hard core rock and roll band,
like Van Halen and AC/DC, glorify booze in their satanic music. Bon
Scott, original lead singer of AC/DC, choked on his own drunken vomit
and died. On January 27, 1980, the final show of the Highway to Hell
tour took place at the Gaumont Theatre in Southampton, U.K. This would
be Bon Scott’s last show. Bass player, Rick Danko, of The Band,
died from heart failure after years of alcoholism. Sadly, ten years
earlier his son, Eli, also drank himself to death. Liquor license? I
don't think so Devil! Oh, how the Devil is a beautiful liar!
- I've Seen Too Many
Horrible things Happen Because of Booze. I remember going
fishing at Olive Park in Chicago. One summer night (many years ago) some
guys passing by warned us that we might snag a dead body. I thought they
were kidding. Then saw a rescue helicopter hover above, and the fire
department arrive. I walked down to the balcony which overhung the lake.
Some people had been drinking booze and one of the men jumped over the
balcony at Olive Park. He couldn't swim, because he was intoxicated with
alcohol. I watched fire department scuba divers search the water,
looking where the man had jumped in. Sure enough, about 45 minutes after
he entered the water, rescuers pulled his dead corpse from Lake
Michigan. His body was pickled, puffed up in size from absorbing water.
He was dead. As the paramedics desperately tried to resuscitate the man,
people where standing around, some laughing. I couldn't believe their
lack of reverence for what had just happened. A man had drowned to
death! The laughing spectators couldn't have cared less.
I knew another woman, at church years ago, whose boss drank booze on the
job. While working, she was required to go somewhere with her managers,
but because he had been drinking he crashed. She was permanently injured
and lost her left eye when the car's steering column went through her
head. She was in a coma for 6 weeks in the hospital. The man fled the
area for fear of prosecution when she revived. She is blind in one eye
for life. This is the horrifying reality of alcohol!!!
Perhaps you ask, “Where in the Bible does it
say that it is wrong to get a liquor license?” I'm glad you asked!
Ephesians 5:11, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them.” 1st Thessalonians 5:22, “Abstain from
all appearance of evil.” Alcohol is always associated with evil. Alcohol
causes evil. Noah wouldn't have become drunk if he hadn't drank wine. Lot's
daughters wouldn't have become pregnant from incest if booze had not be
involved. Oh, how the Devil is a beautiful liar! All of Satan's apples have
worms!!! You can never take two drinks of beer if you don't take the first
drink! That is wisdom!
I long for judgment day, when God judges the
legislatures, judges, lawyers and prosecutors for their utter hypocrisy and
wickedness! The same corrupt court system that sentences a man to 7 years in
prison for stealing $200, allows people to murder their children by
abortion. When Scott Peterson murdered his pregnant wife, he got two life
sentences in prison! That's utter hypocrisy! It is a wicked thing for men to
do right only when they feel like it. Marijuana is illegal one day and legal
the next. Homosexuality was a punishable crime in all 50 states in 1962.
Now, in this perverted country in 2016, same-sex perversion is legal in all
50 states. Truly, the end of America is near! God's hand of blessing is
being removed. God is merciful and slow to anger, but His judgment will not
rest forever. We are all sinners and have made foolish decisions; but the
wicked parade in their filth, defying God, justifying their evil deeds,
calling evil good and good evil, tempting the hand of God's judgment. Sin
always undermines a nation! If we don't repent as a nation, America is
headed for the dust!
Statistically, 80% of Prison
Inmates are There Because of Alcohol
The media is largely to blame, for refusing to
be truthful about the evils of alcohol, and refusing to warn people about
the problem and dangers of booze. Tragically, alcohol is to blame for 80% of
the people incarcerated behind bars in the United States...
ALCOHOL, DRUGS and
CRIME
Alcohol and drugs are
implicated in an estimated 80% of offenses leading to incarceration in the
United States such as domestic violence, driving while intoxicated, property
offenses, drug offenses, and public-order offenses.
Our nation’s prison population has exploded beyond capacity and most inmates
are in prison, in large part, because of substance abuse:
- 80% of offenders
abuse drugs or alcohol.
- Nearly 50% of jail
and prison inmates are clinically addicted.
- Approximately 60% of
individuals arrested for most types of crimes test positive for
illegal drugs at arrest.
The Impact of Alcohol
Because alcohol use is legal and pervasive, it plays a particularly strong
role in the relationship to crime and other social problems. Alcohol is a
factor in 40% of all violent crimes today, and according to the Department
of Justice, 37% of almost 2 million convicted offenders currently in jail,
report that they were drinking at the time of their arrest.
Alcohol, more than any illegal drug, was found to be closely associated with
violent crimes, including murder, rape, assault, child and spousal abuse.
About 3 million violent crimes occur each year in which victims perceive the
offender to have been drinking and statistics related to alcohol use by
violent offenders generally show that about half of all homicides and
assaults are committed when the offender, victim, or both have been
drinking. Among violent crimes, with the exception of robberies, the
offender is far more likely to have been drinking than under the influence
of other drugs.
Alcohol is often a factor in violence where the attacker and the victim know
each other. Two-thirds of victims who were attacked by an intimate
(including a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend) reported
that alcohol had been involved, and only 31% of victimizations by strangers
are alcohol-related. Nearly 500,000 incidents between intimates involve
offenders who have been drinking; in addition, 118,000 incidents of family
violence (excluding spouses) involve alcohol, as do 744,000 incidents among
acquaintances.
SOURCE:
https://www.ncadd.org/about-addiction/alcohol-drugs-and-crime
God only knows the untold evils caused by
alcohol. Do you want that kind of blood on your hands? Getting a liquor
license is the same as working at a dirty-magazine stand, a brothel, or as a
janitor in an abortion clinic. I would never work at 7/11 or any store that
sells smut-filled fleshly magazines! I couldn't work there in good
conscience, selling somebody a Penthouse magazine. It would never take a
liquor license, not even if you paid for it and gave it to me!!! I would
never apply for any kind of a job at any abortion clinic. I would never
drive a beer truck. I know a professed Christian man who chose to drive a
beer truck. I might drive it into the river! Oops! I think it is wrong for a
Christian man to drive a beer truck, because you're helping the Devil
destroy lives. Most of the worst things in history have been done with the
best of intentions.
Most state lotteries (which is nothing more
than evil gambling) were started with the bogus claim that it would finance
the schools, benefiting the children. That's how we humans operate, always
looking for lame excuses to justify our sinful choices in life. Look at
those states today, who take in billions of dollars in lottery profits. Look
at their schools. Look where the money is going. What a bunch of thieves and
liars! But even if the money goes to good causes, the lottery is evil,
because it does not involve honest labor. The lottery is gambling, preying
upon citizen's covetousness and greed. It is blood money! No Christian
should sell lottery tickets. I realize that many Christians do some of the
things I am mentioning, because they need to pay their bills and jobs are
becoming scarce these days, but I am not going to trim my preaching to fit
the wicked agendas of our generation.
A godly married couple in Oregon refused to
bake a wedding cake for two lesbians. The state punished them, finding them
guilty of discrimination, and they were fined $136,927. That blood money
which the lesbian couple received will cost them more than they could ever
imagine in eternity! God will punish the wicked (Isaiah 13:11). Let them
fine me $100,000,000,000, I'll never bake a cake for two wicked homosexuals!
Thank God that there are still God-fearing Christians in America, who are
willing to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus Christ! The good thing is
that the couple who were sinfully fined,
received $515,000 in sympathy donations from angry Americans who are
sick of the homosexuals forcing sex on everyone! That's what the homosexuals
did in Sodom, forcing Lot's door open, trying to rape the two angels from
Heaven! Homosexuals today are FORCING their perversion on the rest of us!
By Taking a Liquor License You
Could Open a Tavern
When
you obtain a liquor license, you are sanctioning the dirty liquor traffic!
You are getting into the same boat as the tavern owner. Literally, with your
ABC license you could open a bar and serve alcohol legally. If you think
about what I just said, it should become obvious why you SHOULDN'T get a
liquor license as a Christian. But you say, “I need a job, where else will I
work?” My friend, whom do you serve, God or man?
If you serve the Lord, then you need to
SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES (John 5:39) for an answer. Where in the Scriptures
are we taught not to get a liquor license? There are many principles to
guide our decision making. James 2:8, “If ye fulfil the royal law
according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do
well.” Applying for a liquor license risks hurting my neighbour, and the
people that they hurt, by consuming alcohol. In America, alcohol is being
sold as a Madison Avenue product, widely marketed as a fun thing to do in
our irresponsible American culture. Sadly, booze is largely promoted at all
major American sporting events.
The statistics available (irrefutable facts)
evidence that alcohol has a big element of DECEPTION in it. Things don't
just happen when it comes to beer, they are made to happen! Drunk driving is
never an “accident,” because you have to make the choice to drink the booze
first before you drive your car. Never trust a drunkard! Never trust a
drug-addict! When a man becomes an addict, he will do unthinkable things to
obtain more of that which he is enslaved to. Liquor enslaves! Booze
enslaves!
No one ever says, “When I grow up, I want to be
a drunken bum laying in the gutter.” Yet it happens! Look at the photos I
shared with you earlier. My father took these pictures on Skidrow, working
as a rescue mission director for four decades in Chicago. Satan always shows
you the tavern's bar row, he never shows you Skid Row! The Devil shows you
the neon lights of Broadway, but he doesn't show you the highway to Hell.
They call it “Liquid Devil” for a
very good reason! Alcohol historically has been associated with all manner
of wickedness. Wherever you find sexual immorality, you'll find booze.
Wherever you find casino gambling, you'll find booze. Wherever you find
dirty dancing and filth, you'll find booze!!! As a born-again Christian, I
don't want to be associated with alcohol. I absolutely refuse to take an
Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) permit to sell booze!!! I've never had one,
and never will. I'll die first! The fact that you need a license is proof
that something is very dangerous about alcohol. You have to be trained,
legally restricted from selling alcohol to minors. Alcohol by definition is
a narcotic drug! It is a Schedule I type drug! That is, it is a highly
addictive drug, but has no medical purpose. As Christians we ought to keep
our mind set on Heaven (Colossians 3:1-4), and there's no booze in Heaven!
I'm sick and tired of the liquor
traffic making lame excuses to manufacture, sell and drink booze. They use
farfetched scenarios, like the fact that in many poorer nations the water is
unsafe to drink, so it's better to drink canned beer. Well, we have plenty
of clean, pure and uncontaminated water to drink in the United States, so
the argument is void if you live here. There is no good excuse to drink
beer. The dirty liquor cartel and their greedy lawyers don't care if 100,000
people are murdered by booze every year. They couldn't care less!
Tens-of-millions of crimes each year are committed because of alcohol. The
best policy is abstinence. Praise God, I have drank one drop of booze my
entire life.
I watched a co-worker, a big 250 lb. man from
Iowa, cut his thumb nearly off while intoxicated. He was cutting a rubber
hose with a pocket knife and ran it across his thumb. I watched a drunken
neighbor one fourth of July beat his wife, terrorize his kids, and smash out
all the glass windows in front of his apartment. When I lived in Chicago, it
was a common sight to see smashed cars at the end of the alley, where drunks
hit parked cars. It was common to see street utility poles knocked down in
Chicago. Where I live now in the tropics, due to typhoons the utility poles
are 3 feet thick concrete. So, now it is commonplace to see flowers
displayed alongside dozens of utility poles at any given time, where drunken
loved ones have died when they struck an immovable object. I've seen the
damage and consequences of drinking BOOZE! That's what alcohol is...
BOOZE... LIQUID DEVIL!!!
Do we really have to ask ourselves as
Christians if the Lord would approve of us applying for a liquor license?
Not me buddy! Kindly, I want no part with a substance that is known to
causes misery, death, sexual immorality and death. Noah was the captain of
his ship, until he made booze, then he became a drunken sailor! Righteous
Lot was delivered from Sodom by angels, but he foolishly took booze with him
as he fled the coming judgment upon Sodom. Lot's daughter's took advantage
of Lot, because he was drunk, and they all commit incest together, and two
illegitimate pregnancies resulted. Oh, how sin thrills and then it kills!
Oh, how the Devil destroys so many lives with alcohol. By the way, by
definition, alcohol is a narcotic drug (a Schedule I drug, that is, alcohol
is highly addictive but has no medical use). A Schedule II drug (like
Percocet or Oxycontin) is a highly addictive substance with a medical use.
What About Alcohol in Food
Flavorings?
Now, I believe that it's Ok to use vanilla
extract, which contains a small amount of alcohol. I'm not saying that we
should become paranoid about the substance alcohol. NyQuil helps people
sleep at night, because it contains alcohol. I use NyQuil when I need it, as
a medicine to help me sleep. I love cooking and use vanilla extract in my
Swedish pancakes and cheesecake. But it'll be a cold day in Hell before I
ever drink an alcoholic beverage! Using alcohol as a medicine or food
flavoring is very different than drinking it recreationally. I've never
heard of anyone wrecking their car, smashing into a group of grade school
kids, because they overdosed on cheesecake containing vanilla extract. I
know there will be differing opinions on this subject, but this is mine.
I'm not saying it is Ok to have a glass of wine
with dinner. For me, it would be a sin to drink even a drop of alcohol. I
believe that! I know me. I am an intense person. When I'm sad, I get very
down. When afflicted I pray, as the Bible teaches in James 5:13. When I'm
happy, I give things away. When I'm angry, I get vocal and have to be very
careful not to sin. I love music, because I am a deeply emotional person.
And so I already know, that if I ever drank beer, I would take it to the
limit and become a drunk! I heard Brother Lester Roloff talk about a man who
never drank alcohol, but he started drinking a small glass of wine with
dinner, after he attended a cooking class. In time, that small glass of wine
was the door that led to him becoming a full blown alcoholic! It ruined his
life! So we need to be careful and stay as far away from sin as possible. I
decided as a teenage that I would never drink any alcohol, and I've kept
that covenant with myself.
I don't think that using vanilla extract in a
recipe is a problem, unless you feel that it may be for you, then don't use
it. If you are a recovery alcoholic, then you probably need to avoid vanilla
extract. I've seen alcoholics drink containers of vanilla extract, who were
staying at a rescue mission. They are addicts. They will drink ANYTHING with
alcohol. I have never had a problem with alcohol. I hate it. I avoid it. I
don't drink it. The alcohol in a teaspoon of vanilla extract has never made
me want to go buy a bottle of booze. The toxic substances in a Totinos
pizza is worse for you than vanilla extract. For example: Sodium aluminum
phosphate will do more to hurt you than vanilla extract will. But again, it
depends on you, if you've had problems with alcohol. Everyone has different
areas of weakness, and you are wise to know what yours are, and take the
appropriate precautions. If a man has a problem with gambling, he needs to
ask his wife to handle the finances. If a man has a problem with lust, he
should avoid beaches. And may I say, you don't know who (or who doesn't)
have a problem with alcohol, and by selling booze, you may be enabling
someone to destroy their life.
I realize that someone could go home and cut
their hand off with an electric saw. So should we not sell saws? But alcohol
is something that we don't need. We need tools. We need chemicals for around
the home, such as drain cleaners. There is no need for beer! There is no
need for wine! The risks are too great. Perhaps you have drank beer your
whole life, and nothing bad has happened yet, but I can show you thousands
of people who after 20 years were sorry they ever drank the first drink. I
won't name the names of umpteen celebrities who were arrested for drunk
driving, but there are hundreds. You may get lucky, or you may become a
victim. Why take the chance! Why drink alcohol when you don't need to? Most
people that I've known in my life drank alcohol to get buzzed. That's why
they drink it, to get that topsy-turvy feeling. That is a very foolish thing
to do when you operate machinery or drive a car, or have children to raise,
or a dear wife to love, or want to God faithfully!
Alcoholic Beverages are Something Better Left
Alone
I speak to Christians who want to please God.
If you are a worldly heathen, then why would you care? Alcohol is just one
of those things that we never find out until it's too late, who can handle
it and who cannot. I'm not willing to take that risk. And since I don't know
who I would be selling liquor to if I worked as a cashier, I could never in
good conscience sell alcohol to anyone. If your pastor says that it is Ok to
drink alcohol and get a liquor license, find a better church! I want a
pastor who loves me, and doesn't want to see anything bad happen to me, and
warns me not to drink booze! I'm sure many people would agree. And what
about our youth? Do you want them to have a quack for a pastor who doesn't
warn them about the dangers of drinking booze! And that what we ought
to call alcoholic beverages... BOOZE (which has negative implications). Dr.
John R. Rice rightly called alcohol... LIQUID DEVIL!
Drinking alcohol is like grabbing a stray dog
by the ears! Sadly, many professed Christians drink alcoholic beverages and
use the Bible to justify it. You cannot show me anywhere in the Bible where
someone got drunk and did something good. But I can show you where Noah got
drunk and naked, and it strained his relationship with his son forever. I
can show you where Lot got drunk and committed incest with his two
daughters, impregnating both of them. These were Christians who made bad
decisions! Drinking alcohol is a bad decision! I can show you where
Christians showed up drunk at the Lord's Supper in the church at
Corinth (I Corinthians 11:21). Granted, I cannot show you a Bible verse that directly says
drinking alcohol is a sin, but we can discern from numerous Scripture
passages that God wants us to live holy as Christians, and dulling our minds
with booze is not a holy thing to do! This is acquired knowledge,
searching the Scriptures for godly answers.
There is also perceived knowledge, where
we see what booze has done to destroy other people's lives. Hopefully, we
won't end up having experiential knowledge, where we personally
suffer because of the evils and consequences of booze. I believe God would
be disappointed in any child of His that's takes a liquor license. God hates
booze! Proverbs 20:1 teaches that drinking wise is unwise. I once looked up
the Hebrew meaning of the word “deceived” in Proverbs 20:1, which comes from
the idea of a fishing reel, being lured in for the kill. Satan reels his
victims in. That hungry fish doesn't see the shiny hook ready to ensnare
him. The fish only sees the bait! Wine mocks its victims, because it's just
a matter of time unto you get burned. When you drink booze, you are playing
with the Devil's fire! The Holy Bible says if you are DECEIVED, you are not
wise!!!
A liquor license makes you a third party to the
Devil's game. Please don't play ball with the Devil. Don't help the Devil
hurt children and families. Don't help the Devil make drunken drivers.
Please don't help the Devil ruin lives. I want to leave you with one final
thought. Someone, somewhere, sold the booze to the man who caused the worst
alcohol related crash in U.S. history.
Worst Highway Accident in U.S.
History Caused by Booze! (27 dead)
One of the
deadliest bus disasters in U.S. history happened in May 1988 in
Carrollton, KY. The youth group of the Assembly of God in Radcliff, KY, was
traveling to an amusement park north of Cincinnati. A drunk driver was
driving a pickup truck in the wrong direction on an interstate highway when
it collided head-on with the church bus. The gas tank ignited immediately,
and the fire blocked the bus’s front door. Twenty-seven (27) people were killed
and 34 injured. ALCOHOL WAS INVOLVED!!! THE DRIVER WAS DRUNK. HIS BAC LEVEL
WAS THREE TIMES THE LEGAL LIMIT!!! The drunk driver only got 16 years in
prison... not bad for murdering 27 people!!! There are many people serving
life prison sentences for selling marijuana.
There is a man rotting in an Arizona prison,
who was sentenced to
200 years in prison for downloading 20 dirty pictures. What injustice!
No one should go to prison for 200 years for downloading dirty images!
That's cruel and unusual punishment. Yet, a drunkard murders 27 people and
is now enjoying life after having
served only 9 years of his 16 year sentence (which ended in 1999). The
U.S. court system is insane! I didn't mention any names here, because I am a
sinner like anybody else, and I am not judging anyone. I think it is wrong,
unbiblical and cruel for our nation to encage anyone in a 6' x 8' cell for
any length of time, let alone for the rest of their life. If I had my way,
I'd house prisoners in their own towns, living inside like a normal human
being. I believe in the dignity of man, even for the worst of us.
Biblically, capital punishment is God's way to deal with the worst of
criminals. But for those criminals who are not executed, they are still
human beings and ought to be treated with dignity. Locking someone in a cell
is torture, and it hasn't deterred the crime rate at all. Prisons are a
money making scam for the wealthy elite.
I hope something that I've said in this article
will deter you from taking a liquor license. Tell the Devil what he can
do with his license to sin! Now, I'm against drinking booze, but if you do
choose to drink it, let it be for yourself alone! Don't take the burden upon
yourself of risking the judgment of God one day, having to give account for
the evils caused by booze that you sold to someone. Ultimately, we all have to give
account as individuals to God (Romans 14:10-12). God won't hold you
accountable for what other people did while drunk. Albeit, I believe God will hold you
accountable to a degree, because you sold them the alcohol, especially when you were warned not to.
Now that you've read this article, consider yourself warned! Alcohol has a
very bad reputation, and everyone knows that, which is enough reason alone
to refuse a liquor license. If you have a restaurant, lose money if you
must, but don't sell booze! That is my opinion as a Christian who loves God.
I detest our American beer-guzzling perverted culture. Cops arresting drunks
is just another way for the legal system to keep making money, but the
problem is as worse as ever. They don't care about stopping it, they want to
keep making money from it, which makes them a bunch of evil hypocrites!!!
The same is true of neo-evangelical pastors all
across America, who've been warned not to use or promote the modern corrupt
Bible revisions. Those pastors won't be held responsible for the people who
reject Christ. However, those pastors will be held responsible for their
part in blinding people from the Gospel. The new Bible revisions are
sinister—perverting the meaning of repentance, attacking Christ's deity,
adding and removing words from what God said, diminishing the doctrine of
Christ, watering down the authority of God's Word, et cetera. I've warned
umpteen Baptist pastors, who don't care, and won't repent. They will be held
accountable by God for all the people they've led in error. Many people
today are coming to religion, but they're not getting born-again. Satan's
greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever
getting born again. We are seeing this a lot today because of the
watered-down modern Bible revisions. I have more respect for a street pimp,
than I do for any pastor who uses multiple Bible versions! Get right with
God you sorry rascal!!!
If you love the Lord Jesus Christ and your neighbour as
thyself, please refuse to sell them alcohol. It's better to be safe than
sorry.
