Scripture and the Church

Church Leaders In An Alcoholic Fog

By Dr. Paul M. Elliott
Today growing numbers of "conservative" church leaders engage in a sinful indulgence that scorns Christ, tramples His Word underfoot, and defames their high and serious calling.

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

 

Today growing numbers of "conservative" church leaders engage in a sinful indulgence that scorns Christ, tramples His Word underfoot, and defames their high and serious calling.

The minister of a reputedly conservative Presbyterian church came to his installation service intoxicated. He repeated this sinful behavior on subsequent Lord's Days. The elders of the church were alarmed by the obvious effect on the man's conduct and preaching - and on the congregation. They confronted him, but he showed no willingness to repent.

The elders therefore brought the matter before their presbytery. The presbytery ruled that the man was not guilty of an offense against God. It took the position that it could no more admonish the man for coming into the pulpit intoxicated than it could admonish him for taking a prescription tranquilizer.

Alcohol-Influenced Ungodly Decisions

Increasingly, men entrusted with the leadership of self-identified Bible-believing churches routinely conduct the worship and business of the church in an alcoholic fog. Examples abound.

I have become aware of multiple cases in which pastors and elders, gathering at a restaurant for dinner before a church session, presbytery, or general assembly meeting, have consumed alcohol heavily and then conducted the business of the church under its influence. It is no coincidence that these men often make ungodly decisions.

I have learned of these events from other elders or church members who contacted our office for counsel. They want to know how to deal with the un-Biblical decisions that men under the influence of alcohol have made, undermining the doctrine and spiritual life of the church. Those decisions include protection of heretics, the introduction of ungodly elements in worship, and ruinous over-extensions of church finances.

Wine, Bourbon, and Theology

A man who is a follower of a notorious promoter of the heresy of justification by faith-plus-works once told me that he and his mentor, who was his professor of theology in seminary, still get together periodically to "drink a couple of bottles of wine and talk about theology."

In the same vein, the gathering of men for the annual theological conference of a reputedly conservative seminary includes a regular meeting of what is called the "Cigar Caucus." One participant described it thus: "We sit around, smoke cigars, drink bourbon, and talk theology long into the night."

I also recently read a posting on an Internet theological discussion board where the topic was, "How to avoid bringing theological error into your sermon preparation." One of the respondents, a minister, said this in all seriousness: "Find another minister you trust. Get together and have a good cigar and a few beers, and talk about it. Hopefully any bad theology you may have been entertaining will go away in the fog." That will only happen when snakes sprout wings and learn to fly. An alcohol-induced fog is the fertile breeding ground of ungodly judgments.

All of these examples and many more I could cite are thoroughly ungodly. Scripture repeatedly calls drunkenness sin, and God clearly holds those whom He places in positions of authority and service - both in the church and in other realms - to a particularly high standard of sobriety.

Distinguishing the Holy from the Unholy

In Leviticus chapter 10, Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded. They had brought one of the trappings of paganism into the worship of God, and into the sacrificial system which prefigured the final high priesthood of Jesus Christ. In an ultimate sense, these men - who were commissioned to lead Israel in worship and instruct them in God's Word, and to function as the types and symbols of their Lord - had blasphemed the name of Christ. Their egregious offense required immediate judgment: The Lord in His holiness killed Aaron's sons with His own fire.

In this unmistakably "teachable moment" the Lord immediately instructed Aaron about the significance of the drastic object lesson:

Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying: "Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between clean and unclean, and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses" (Leviticus 10:8-11).

Justice and Wisdom

In the same vein, we read this in Proverbs 31:4-5:

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink; lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted.

And this, earlier in Proverbs:

Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1)

The sense of the original Hebrew is this: Alcohol by its very nature mocks orderliness and incites foolish disorder within the mind of the one under its influence, and thus in his dealings with others; the one who comes under alcohol's influence forfeits the ability to act wisely.

Clearly, when men dare to conduct God's business in an alcoholic fog, the results are ungodly. Christ is blasphemed. The law of God is flaunted. The justice of the afflicted flock of God is perverted. The distinction between the holy and unholy is scornfully disregarded.

Watchfulness Demands Sobriety

In the New Testament the Greek verb, nepho, and the related verbs sophroneo and sophronizo, are used to denote two intimately related imperatives: freedom from the influence of alcohol, and watchfulness over the welfare of the church and the purity of its doctrine and life. The two are inseparable. Spiritual sobriety requires physical sobriety. The words translated "sober" and "watch" or "watchful" in the following verses are all from this group of verbs:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. (Romans 12:1-3)

You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:5-11)

This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:1-7)

Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:2-5)

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind [literally, keep your mind in a state that is always ready for spiritual action], be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:13-16)

But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. (1 Peter 4:7)

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. (1 Peter 5:8-9)

The true Church of Jesus Christ must never be governed by men who demonstrate that they are not fully in submission to the Word of God in this matter. Their sinful indulgence scorns Christ, tramples His Word underfoot, and defames the high and serious calling of a pastor or elder. May those who love Christ and His Word never fear to mark out men who thus

cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly [which could literally be translated, "the pleasures of their own palates"], and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. (Romans 16:17-18)

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