More Alcohol, Less Brain (Part 2)

Everything revolves around Jesus Christ and His church, which is known as the bride of Christ.  Everything is for His sake and, because the BORN AGAIN are known as the body of Christ, it follows that everything is for our sake as well.  This includes the devil, whose job is to try the righteous, and the Antichrist, who leads the one-world rejection of Jesus Christ which opens the door to the world-ending battle of Armageddon where Jesus Christ returns with all the saints to destroy the wicked. ALL these things are for our sakes.  I Corinthians 3:19-23:

19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;

22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

23 And ye are Christ''s; and Christ is God''s.  

Fear not the world’s fear! Isaiah 8:11-13:

11 For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,

12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

13 Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

Be of good cheer, saints, everything is for our sakes!

Everything revolves around Jesus Christ, and He is the singularity the world of science is looking for, and hallelujah! we have found him! Everything revolves around Christ because this pleases the Father.  Colossians 1:19:

For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;  

Have you yet to be BORN AGAIN as Jesus says in John 3:3?

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Are you ready to shed the confusion that resides between your ears?  In just a few moments, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt, and if you do, your confusion will be replaced with single-eyed singularity.  Everything changes today! Today, all your sin and shame will be forgiven as the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. Today, all of Satan’s bondages will be broken.  Today, you will become a new creature with the full power to live victoriously in Christ.  Today, you are in the valley of decision…life or death, which will it be?  Here is the simple prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry in the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 23:29-35:

29 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

30 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

34 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.

35 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.

GOD SAID, 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!

GOD SAID, Proverbs 20:1:

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

MAN SAID: A little moderation! A little bit of wine, a little bit of beer, a little whiskey, marijuana, cocaine!  Whatever you want, just a little! Hey, Jesus made wine, didn’t He?!

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1111 that will, for the 1111^th time, certify the perfect, supernatural inerrancy of God’s beautiful Book, the majority-text Holy Bible.  All of these chapter-and-verse features are archived here in text and streaming audio for the defense of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to be used as Holy Ghost battering rams against the very gates of hell. Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.

Thank you for visiting.  Be of good cheer! Jesus Christ is the Lord of Glory!

This is the second feature in this two-part series regarding alcohol and the Bible’s direct condemnation of it.  We pulled foundational information from previous GodSaidManSaid features regarding alcohol and Christians, and have added some of the latest research. 

1. Last week, we discovered that in the Old and New Testaments, both the unfermented and fermented juice of the grape is called wine. In one passage, it is called wine when the cluster is still hanging on the vine. 

2. We discovered that the first occurrence of drunkenness in history will participate in instigating the world-ending battle of Armageddon. 

3. We discovered that Jesus did not create deadly, intoxicating wine.

4. The much ballyhooed research regarding the supposed “health benefits” of drinking fermented wine has been seriously defrocked and replaced with “NO SAFE LEVEL”of alcohol! The very good news is that the “great benefits” they once promised in fermented wine is fully present in grape juice, the unfermented wine, and without the life-destroying side effects. 

Several paragraphs follow from last week’s feature:  

When God condemns an action, wise men and women take heed.  Years ago while working in the prison ministry, I met a man named Victor.  Victor was an alcoholic and was incarcerated as a result of deeds spawned by his bondage.  Victor had all the necessary tools to succeed in life, but in his approximate 60 years, success was absent.  Poor Victor’s life was wasted, and many other lives affected.  Family members, friends, loved ones, employers, tax payers, etc., were directly damaged by his actions.  I asked Victor when he became an alcoholic and he said, “My first drink.”  Moderation didn’t work for Victor.

The devastating effects of alcohol are, in fact, like an Armageddon on the world’s population.  Statistics from the National Institution on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism will give you a feel for the horrors of alcohol:

🍻 In 2019 in the United States, 25.8% of individuals 18 and older reported that they engaged in binge drinking in the past month.  Binge drinking is defined as having 4 or more drinks for a female, and 5 or more drinks for a male, in around 2 hours.  We expect the global percentage to be higher.

🍻 In the United States, 14.5 million people 12 years of age and older have AUD—alcohol use disorder.  AUD is defined as a chronic brain disorder marked by compulsive drinking, loss of control over alcohol use, and negative emotions when not drinking.  We estimate the number globally to be in excess of 319,000,000. 

🍻 In the US, an estimated 95,000 people die from alcohol-related causes each year.  That’s about 3,000,000 globally.  In the US, this is the third-leading cause of preventable death. 

🍻 Leading causes of alcohol-related deaths are alcohol-associated liver disease, heart disease, stroke, unspecified liver cirrhosis, upper aerodigestive throat cancers, liver cancer, supraventricular cardiac dysrhythmia, AUD, breast cancer, and hypertension.

🍻 Over one out of four driving deaths in the US are a result of alcohol-impaired driving.

🍻 In 2010, alcohol misuse cost the United States $249 billion.  Globally (22x249 billion), the cost is $5,478,000,000,000. Seventy-five percent of that cost is attributed to binge drinking.  You pay for this regardless of whether you drink or not. Figure the cost to be about double in today’s money. 

🍻 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2014, alcohol was the leading factor for premature death and disability for people ages 15 to 49.

🍻 In 2016, 134 million disability-adjusted life years was attributed to alcohol consumption worldwide. That’s 134 million years of life lost to disability caused by alcohol consumption.

🍻 In 2018, the World Health Organization reported that alcohol contributed to over 200 diseases and injury-related health conditions.

🍻 Approximately 10.5 percent—that’s 7.5 million—of US children ages 17 and younger live with a parent with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).

To quote from the NHS report on “Alcohol Facts and Statistics:”

🍷 Research has shown that people who misuse alcohol have a greater risk of liver disease, heart disease, depression, stroke, and stomach bleeding, as well as cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus, larynx, pharynx, liver, colon, and rectum. These individuals may also have problems managing conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, pain, and sleep disorders.  They may increase their likelihood of unsafe sexual behavior.

Fetal alcohol syndrome is the number one cause of birth defects and renders children born with IQs 13 to 16 points lower than other children.  It can be caused by as little as a mother consuming one drink during pregnancy. Moderation, right?

Why is there even an argument in Christendom—or in carnaldom, for that matter—regarding drinking alcoholic beverages? 

Drinking kills neurons, causes cancer, destroys livers, damages the ability to discern between right and wrong, and so on. 

With this phenomenal weight of witnesses testifying against the consumption of alcohol, why does so much Biblical confusion appear to exist?

The Christians'''' motto should simply be, "We drink no wine that’s past the line," and of course that includes all fermented or distilled alcoholic beverages. [End of quotes]

The research is in.  The June 11, 2021 issue of The Week presented the following on their “Health and Science” page under the title, “No ‘Safe’ Level of Drinking:”

You might think there’s no harm in relaxing with a single glass of wine or a beer in the evening.  But when it comes to brain health, a new study suggests that the only “safe” level of alcohol consumption is zero.

“The more people drank, the less the volume of their grey matter,” lead author Anya Topiwala tells CNN.com.  “Brain volume reduces with age and more severely with dementia.  Smaller brain volume also predicts worse performance on memory testing.”  

NO SAFE LEVEL!! [End of quotes]

The March 4, 2022 headline of Science Daily read, “More Alcohol, Less Brain: Association Begins with an Average of Just One Drink a Day.”  The article goes on to state:

Even light-to-moderate drinking is associated with harm to the brain, according to a new study.  Researchers analyzed data from more than 36,000 adults that found a link between drinking and reduced brain volume that begins at an average consumption level of less than one alcohol unit a day—the equivalent of about half a beer—and rises with each additional drink. [End of quote]

More alcohol, less brain.  Sound interesting? 

It cannot be done.  God’s cardinal law of sowing and reaping cannot be circumvented, yet men by the billions have tried.  The world’s citizens will continue to try and will continue to fail miserably, and these failures bear deadly, even eternal, consequences.  Galatians 6:7:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Inherent within God’s every commandment and precept is a blessing or a curse.  Because the Word of God is the perfect and inerrant truth, obeying it yields the fruit of doing the right thing (the blessing).  Because the Word of God is the perfect and inerrant truth, disobeying it yields the deadly fruit of doing the wrong thing (the curse). Inherent within each commandment and precept is a blessing or a curse, and this law cannot be circumvented. 

🍷 The following information is from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Wine is a Mocker; Strong Drink is Raging:”

Brother David Wilkerson’s research on the wine issue adds solid historic information to this subject.  It must be noted that wine by Biblical definition is either fermented or unfermented juice of the grape.  Past GodSaidManSaid features establish this finding with chapter and verse.  The following excerpts are from Wilkerson’s 1978 book, Sipping Saints:

The word “juice” does not appear in the New Testament and only once in the Old.  All fruit of the vine was called wine, whether it was fermented or not.  There are thirteen different words used in the Bible which are interpreted as wine, nine in Hebrew and Chaldee, and four in Greek. 

The distinction between fermented and unfermented wine is cited by ancient writers.  Again from Wilkerson’s Sipping Saints:

Even classical writers spoke of unintoxicating “wine.”  Horace, in 65 B.C., says: “Here you quaff under a shade, cups of unintoxicating wine – this day sacred in the revolving year, remove the cork fastened with pitch from the jar which was set to fumigate.

Drinking was referred to “without passion.”  Plutarch, in 60 A.D., writes: “That filtered wine neither inflames the brain nor infects the mind and the passions, and is much more pleasant to drink.”

Aristotle says of sweet wine called “glukus” that it would not intoxicate, and the wine of Arcadia was so thick it was necessary to scrape it from the skin bottles in which it was stored and dissolve the scrapings in water.

Virgil, in 70 B.C., says: “Or of sweet ‘must’ boils down the luscious juice.”

Homer, in his Odyssey, Book IX, tells us that Ulysses took in his boat a goat skin of sweet, black wine, and that before it was drunk, it was diluted with twenty parts of water.  [Being thick, it required water to prepare it for drinking.]

Varro speaks of “gathering wine;” Cato of “hanging wine;” Ovid, “And scarce can the grapes contain the wine they have therein.”  Columella and other writers who were contemporaries with the apostles inform us that in Italy and Greece, it was common to boil the wines [which, of course, they would not have done if the alcoholic content was desired].

Archbishop Potter, born A.D. 161, in his Grecian Antiquities, Edinburgh edition, 1813, vol. ii, p. 360, says, “The Lacedaemonians used to boil their wines upon the fire till the fire was consumed; then after four years were expired, began to drink them.”  He refers to Demoncritus, a celebrated philosopher, who traveled across the greater part of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and who died in 361 B.C., also to Palladius, a Greek physician, as making a similar statement.  These ancient authorities called the boiled juice of the grape “wine.”

“The Mishna states that the Jews were in the habit of using boiled wine.” – Kitto, vol. ii, p. 477.

Concerning boiling the juice, Wilkerson weighs in with the following:

It is an unchangeable law of nature that vinous fermentation requires temperatures between 50 degrees and 75 degrees F.  Fermentation in climates above 75 degrees F would be acetous (vinegar-like).  Fermentation may be prevented by boiling, by filtration, by excluding air, and by adding sulphur.  Grape juice boils at 212 degrees F; alcohol evaporates at 170 degrees F – which is 42 degrees F below the boiling point – the object of boiling being to preserve the sweetness of the juice.

Columella, and other contemporary writers with the apostles, recorded that, “In Sicily and Greece, it was common to boil their wines.” –Dr. Nott.

Horace, born B.C. 65, said, “There is no wine sweeter to drink than Lesbian; that it was like nectar, and more resembled ambrosia than wine; that it was perfectly harmless and would not produce intoxication.”

I am convinced, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Jesus turned water into new, sweet wine—unfermented.  It was the same kind of sweet, unintoxicating wine that is still produced today in many southern Asian and European countries. [End of quote]

Concerning the Marriage Supper and Jesus:
In the first article on this subject, we explained the miracle of turning water into wine, performed at Cana by Jesus.  We fully dispelled the notion that this wine would cause drunkenness.  Here’s more on this subject.  John 2:9-10:

9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,

10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. 

Concerning the words good wine in verse 10, ancient writers Pliny and Plutarch stated that “good wines” were those which would not intoxicate, having had their alcoholic content removed.  Concerning “good wine,” Dr. S. Bacchiocchi of Andrews University, author of Wine In The Bible, said:

Scriptural and moral consistency requires that "the good wine" produced by Christ was fresh, unfermented grape juice. This is supported by the very adjective used to describe it, namely kalos, which denotes that which is morally excellent, instead of agathos, which means simply good.  [End of quote]

Concerning Timothy’s Stomach:
Much to-do has been made about the instructions that the Apostle Paul gave Timothy in I Timothy 5:23:

Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.

Again, from A Preview of Wine In the Bible:

Ancient writers such as Aristotle, Athanaeus, and Pliny indicate that unfermented wine was known and preferred to alcoholic wine for medical purposes, because it did not have the side effects of the latter. In the light of these testimonies and of the other Biblical teachings regarding wine, it is reasonable to assume that the wine recommended by Paul for medical use was unfermented grape juice.

The conclusion of this whole study on the Biblical teaching regarding the use of alcoholic beverages can be summarized in one sentence: Scripture is consistent in teaching moderation in the use of wholesome, unfermented beverages and abstinence from the use of intoxicating fermented beverages. [End of quote]

Alcohol consumption is Satan’s snare.

The May 23, 2022 headline of Science Daily read, “Alcohol May be More Risky to the Heart than Previously Thought.” Excerpts from the article follow:

Levels of alcohol consumption currently considered safe by some countries are linked with development of heart failure, according to research presented at Heart Failure 2022, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). 

“This study adds to the body of evidence that a more cautious approach to alcohol consumption is needed,” said study author Dr. Bethany Wong of St. Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.  “To minimize the risk of alcohol causing harm to the heart, if you don’t drink, don’t start.”

In the pre-heart failure group, compared with those with no alcohol use, moderate or high intake was associated with a 4.5-fold increased risk of worsening heart health. 

Dr. Wong said: “Our study suggests that drinking  more than 70 grams of alcohol per week [the equivalent of 5 standard drinks in the US] is associated with worsening pre-heart failure or progression to symptomatic heart failure in Europeans. We did not observe any benefits of low alcohol usage. [End of quotes]

Alcohol is deadly.  You have certainly heard of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.  It’s a devastating attack on the unborn and all it takes is as little as one alcoholic beverage during pregnancy.  It is a public health crisis.  The following excerpt is from BrainFacts.org, and was published August 23, 2018, under the title “What is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and How Does it Affect the Brain?”

A recent study found that between 1.1 and 5 percent of children in the US have symptoms of FASD [Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders], and others estimate that FASD may be the leading cause of intellectual disability in the Western world.  FASD is a public health crisis, not just in the US, but globally. [End of quote]

An April 26, 2019 headline of Science Daily reads, “No Safe Amount of Alcohol During Pregnancy, Suggest Researchers.” Excerpts from that article follow regarding the research conducted by the American Institute of Physics:

An international group of researchers has taken one of the first major steps in finding the biological changes in the brain that drive fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).  New work using chaos theory to analyze brain signals, discussed this month in the journal Chaos, from AIP Publishing, shows the long-term effects.

Researchers found that teenagers who were exposed to alcohol while in the womb showed altered brain connections that were consistent with impaired cognitive performance. Their findings were reached by measuring the responses from a brain imaging technique called magnetoencephalography (MEG) and then analyzing them with tools developed using chaos theory.

FASD  (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder) is one of the leading causes of intellectual disability worldwide and is linked to a wide array of neurological issues, including ADHD.  While the prevailing theory links expectant mothers’ alcohol consumption to cognitive impairments for children, questions about the extent of this effect remain.  Despite the known link, researchers are uncertain about the precise mechanism by which alcohol alters the developing brain.

Subjects who were exposed to alcohol in the womb were more likely to have issues with connections through their corpus callosum, the band of brain tissue that connects the left and right halves of the brain. Deficits in this area have been reported in people with schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, autism, depression, and abnormalities in sensation.

“This work presents major evidence that children exposed to alcohol prenatally are at risk of suffering from impaired cognitive abilities and other secondary factors,” said Lin Gao, an author on the paper.  “Our study … shows that there is no safe amount or safe stages during pregnancy for alcohol consumption.”  [End of quotes]

NO SAFE LEVEL!

The following information is from the Radiological Society of North America and was published by Science Daily on December 1, 2021:

In the first MRI-based study to investigate pre-natal alcohol exposure, researchers found significant changes in the brain structure of fetuses exposed to alcohol compared to healthy controls.  Results of the study are being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

“Fetal alcohol syndrome is a worldwide problem in countries where alcohol is freely available,” said Gregor Kasprian, MD, associate professor of radiology at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria.  “It’s estimated that 9.8% of all pregnant women are consuming alcohol during pregnancy, and that number is likely underestimated.”

Fetal alcohol syndrome is the most severe form of a group of conditions called fetal alcohol spectrum disorders that result from alcohol exposure during pregnancy. Babies born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders may have specific physical features, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, or speech and language delays.  According to Dr. Kasprian, one in 70 pregnancies with alcohol exposure results in fetal alcohol syndrome. [End of quote]

God has lifted His Word above all His name (Psalm 138:2), and the claim of the Book is that it is true and righteous altogether (Psalm 19:9).  The world’s champions have attacked God and His Bible incessantly, ever since time began, and without one victory to their credit.  It is true, the Word of God stands unscathed…not even a mild abrasion!

God’s Word is supremely true:

✔ Historically;
✔ Anatomically;
✔ Neurologically;
✔ Geologically;
✔ Astrologically;
✔ Biologically;
✔ Psychologically;
✔ Sociologically…

You get the idea, and this most certainly includes the miracles!

Galatians 6:7:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

You cannot disregard God’s Word without suffering the curse of doing the wrong thing.  Disobeying God’s condemnation of alcoholic beverages is a very clear example.  In its wake is global desolation of Biblical proportions. 

GOD SAID, Proverbs 23:29-35:

29 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

30 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

34 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.

35 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.

GOD SAID, 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!

GOD SAID, Proverbs 20:1:

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

MAN SAID: A little moderation! A little bit of wine, a little bit of beer, a little whiskey, marijuana, cocaine!  Whatever you want, just a little! Hey, Jesus made wine, didn’t He?!

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

American Institute of Physics, “No Safe Amount of Alcohol During Pregnancy, Suggest Researchers,” ScienceDaily.com, April 26, 2019

European Society of Cardiology, “Alcohol May Be More Risky to the Heart than Previously Thought,” ScienceDaily.com, May 23, 2022

Gadye, L., “What is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and How Does it Affect the Brain?,” BrainFacts.org, August 23, 2018

GodSaidManSaid, “Wine is a Mocker; Strong Drink is Raging”

Radiological Society of North America, “MRI Reveals Altered Brain Structure in Fetuses Exposed to Alcohol,” ScienceDaily.com, December 1, 2021

• Go Further With Christ
• Email To a Friend
• Comments or Questions?