(The following article is an excerpt from a book entitled "Drinking with Calvin and Luther" by Rev. Jim West, Oakdown Press, Lincoln, CA, pp. 169-175. In his book, Rev. West sets forth an aspect of Christian liberty that is often abused with either a lack of toleration or moderation. Both are wrong. However, there is a proper use of God's gifts – ­even alcoholic beverages. In his book he demonstrates that the false concept that the sin is in the substance and not in the heart, was clearly rejected by such men as John Calvin and Martin Luther.)

The Other Five Points of Calvinism⤒🔗

First, Calvinism is a complete worldview. It is the exact opposite of a Roman Catholic or fundamentalist-type of monasticism. Mon­asticism is otherworldliness. But it was the Cal­vinist Abraham Kuyper who wrote that there is not a square inch on this terrestrial ball where Christ does not say, "It is mine." It was Satan, that usurper, who claimed that this world belonged to him (Matthew 4:9). We dare not believe his lie. The Scriptures teach that "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." (Psalm 24:1) This includes all the vineyards of the world, too.

A good example was, paradoxically, the Roman Catholic Church during the end of the Reformation. Pope Clement VIII who reigned from 1592-1605, and who ushered in many clerical improvements, was confronted with the threat of Islam from the Ottoman Empire. The Muslims were anti-wine and had substituted another beverage in its place — coffee. The priests called upon Clement to condemn this idolatrous drink that had replaced wine. They sought for a holy edict to ban coffee from the empire! But the ever-careful Clement first requested that a cup be brought to him. To the horror of the priests, Clement was enthralled by the aroma and raised the cup to his lips ­sampling the Muslim brew. He was not suddenly transformed into an ayatollah, nor did he sprout horns. Instead, he praised the drink in the presence of the astonished priests.

As Norman Kolpas notes in The Coffee Lover's Companion, Clement then said, "We cannot allow this beverage to become the liquid of Satan. No, we have more power than Satan and we shall make coffee our own." Thus coffee was sanctified by Pope Clement, whom we may dub "The Coffee Pope." Likewise, our charge in this world is to Christianize every nook and cranny for Christ.

The unbeliever most certainly has a worldview that he applies, even to his food and drink. The thing to recognize is that believers do as well — and a task on top of it: Our duty is to transform his worldview, not to board the unbeliever's zeitgeist express or to buy into his premises about innate evil in grapes or fermentation. Neither can we adopt the Epicurean philosophy of "let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." Its modern expression is summarized in the Andrew Lloyd Webber production, Aspects of Love. His bacchanal reads:

Hand me the wine and the dice.
I want my carnival now,
While I have thirst and lust for living!
You gather all you can reap,
Before you're under the plough.
The hand of death is unforgiving!

We must hew the biblical line and glory in God's creation while responsibly and moderately partaking in it.

Second, beyond being simply a worldview, Calvinism is a consistent worldview. It is inconsistent for a Christian to tolerate wine in the Lord's Supper, but to condemn its consumption in other culinary contexts. We dare not adhere to a nature-grace dichotomy, to pit secular drinking against sacred. For the Calvinist all drinking is sacred.

Christ's crown hovers above all the suppers of the world. Every cup filled with wine is the King's cup. But this does not mean that every supper is "the Lord's Supper," even though we must eat every supper to the Lord (Romans 14:6). The sacrosanct character of the Lord's Supper does not demean or profane the sacredness of all the suppers of the world. Martin Luther used to pray, "Come Lord Jesus be our guest, and may our meal by Thee be blest." A consistent worldview does not abandon one crumb or one drop to the devil.

Third, Calvinism is also a system of theology that addresses the whole man – both body and soul (1 Corinthians 6:20). The emphasis of some Christian institutions resides more in the winning of souls, to the point of saving disembodied spirits, or viewing salvation in terms of fire-insurance, instead of a call to a holy life that results in glorifying God in body and spirit. Redemption is a "package deal," resulting in the redemption of our bodies. Our bodies are not chunks of meat, carcasses, or mere containers of the soul. The Platonic notion that the body is the "prison" of the soul is untrue and even heretical. If there is any prison, it is the grave (which is overcome by the resurrection). The Lord is for the body. While our bodies must not be defiled with fornication, they are to be nourished by drink and meat. Often the demeaning of wine stems from a subtle shift of emphasis from the Christian's body to his soul. Such an emphasis may be influenced by a tinge of Gnosticism.

Because of the physical implications of redemption, the belief that the earth is the Lord's, the Calvinist does not resort to sleight-of-hand Scripture interpretations. For example, Proverbs 31 reads that "strong drink" is to be given to him that is "ready to perish," and "wine unto those of a heavy heart." Some try to allegorize the meaning, even speaking of the wine as the Gospel and "those ready to perish" as hellions (verse 6). This is more than a stretch; it's bad interpretation. The Gospel is a cornucopia for the whole man and for the whole earth. As the famous carol has it,

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground;
he comes to make his blessings flow,
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found."Joy to the World"

Fourth, the Calvinist pinpoints worldliness. The "world" is not rocks and grass, or amber waves of grain and vineyards; the world is "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). We do not invent new sins, nor do we impugn the goodness of God's creation. We begin with the presupposition that wine (like creation) is "very good" (Genesis 1:31). Christ is the Creator of vineyards, who commands us to plant vineyards in the fear of him. Thus the "proverbial wife" of Proverbs 31 uses her hands to plant the vineyard (Proverbs 31:16). This proves both her virtue and her fear of God (Proverbs 31:10, 30).

Fifth, the Calvinist acknowledges the abiding authority of the "Dominion Covenant" of Genesis 1:26, where God commanded man "to have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." The Great Commission does not invalidate the Dominion Covenant. The reason is that the Gospel is "the Gospel of the kingdom," that is, the worldwide empire of the Lord Christ (Mark 1:14, my emphasis).

When we come to Christ, we become united with the God-man, who was made to have dominion over the works of God's hands, God having "put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen — even the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the seas" (Psalm 8:6-8; Hebrews 2:6-8). Evangelism and conversion restore us to the purpose for which we were made: To fulfill the Dominion Covenant, not tyrannically, but with a spirit that reflects the ethical image of Jesus Christ. This explains why the humor of the natural man characteristically glorifies the abuse of drink. The dominion of the natural man is satanic; it is a "dominion" that issues forth in the prostitution of God's marvelous gifts. The unbeliever confuses dominion with domination. But the two are not the same. Only the regenerated man can exercise a dominion that is truly paradisiacal and Christ-centered.

It is sometimes maintained that Paul in Romans 14 clearly places "meat and drink" outside the parameters of Christ's Lordship and dominion.

Did not Paul write, For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit?
Romans 14:17

The answer to this thoughtful question is that there are two features of the kingdom of God. The first is that the "kingdom of God is within" (Luke 17:21). This is clearly what Paul is addressing. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit are distinguished from the externals of meat and drink. But the Bible also teaches that there is an outward dimension of Christ's kingdom, too. This latter is the kingdom in the broad sense. The former is the kingdom in the narrow sense. Christ is the exalted King of the cosmos who rules over all. There is not so much as one maverick molecule or raindrop in the universe. All vegetation is also subject to his sovereign command (Psalm 29:5ff; Psalm 104:14; Jonah 4:6).

Testify!←⤒🔗

Finally, we must remember that the apostles were predestinated to "eat and drink with Jesus after his resurrection" (Acts 10:41). They drank the "fruit of the vine." The drinking was not only the Lord's Supper, but included all other meals (for 40 days). What is more, it was not the drinking of a mere 11 or 12 — but exceeded 500 disciples at once in Galilee (1 Corinthians 15:6). Christ appeared to witnesses "chosen before of God, to us who ate and drank with him..." These chosen witnesses were hosted by the resurrected Christ who ate and drank with them (Luke 24:34-35).

Jesus "made himself known" by eating bread and drink­ing wine. Thus the disciples were chosen to testify about the Christ with whom they ate and drank. Jesus revealed himself in weekly viniferous situations. Consequently, one aspect of the Great Commission for the Apostolic Church was to tell the whole world, "I ate bread and drank wine in the presence of the resurrected eating and drinking Christ."

Paradoxically, we often hear the refrain that the Christian must renounce alcohol to be a good witness. If the Apostolic Church followed this anti-sensual counsel, her salutary witness would have been reduced to the vanishing point. For her message was not merely that Christ arose according to the Scriptures on the third day, but that the Church feasted with Christ in his banquet hall for 40 days! The disciples were chosen to witness his drinking "the fruit of the vine"; they were eyewitnesses and drinkwitnesses of the fulfillment of his own prophecy (Matthew 26:29).

Cheers, Literally←⤒🔗

Our God-given task is to cherish God's gifts. This is not easy to do — that is, to be happy. Happiness is against our nature! We live in a world of sin and misery, and Christians often check into Bunyan's "Castle of Giant Despair." This is why Martin Luther threw his inkwell at the Devil in Wartburg Castle! Luther's triple antidote to depression was: the love of one's wife, holy anger, and Christian song. We can add a fourth: drinking wine to God's glory! (Psalm 104:15)

God's will is for us to rejoice and to sing and to celebrate! Just as God forces us to be free, he also forces us to be happy. Habitual unhappiness is not a mere pitiable condition that demands sympathy. It is sin. Christ is the sovereign Lord of two vineyards: the Church and all literal vineyards (Isaiah 5). He has blessed us richly, so that our presses break out with new wine, full garners affording all store, oxen strong to labor, sheep that bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets, so that there might be "no complaining in our streets."

Happy is that people, that is in such a case:
yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.Psalm 144:15