Fermented and Unfermented Wines
By Mrs. S. N. Haskell
May We Know Which Is Meant in Any Given Bible Text? — The Wine to Be Used in the Sacrament We judge of the use of the word "wine" the same as other terms, — by the connection in which it is used. "Meat" in Gen. 1: 29 we understand to mean vegetable food, while the same word in Ps. 78: 30 is understood to mean flesh. We know that it was fermented wine that Nadab and Abihu drank, for it made them incapable of discerning between holy and unholy things. Lev. 10: 9. In the death of these men, God gave an object-lesson for all time, that He would have those who serve before Him, free from all fermented liquors. The wine of Dan. 1: 5 was also fermented, because Daniel said that it would defile him if he drank it. Dan. 1: 8. It was of the same character as that served at Belshazzar’s feast, which, as soon as they had drunk, they desecrated the holy vessels of the Lord. Dan. 5: 1-4. Fermented wine dethrones reason and debases the drinker. Unfermented wine "maketh glad the heart of man." Ps. 104: 15. It was unfermented wine with which the Saviour instituted the Lord’s Supper. This is shown from the connection in which it is given. The last supper was eaten by the Lord and His disciples at the time of the Passover. Matt. 26: 17-28. God had commanded that all leaven of any form should be excluded from the homes of His people at this time. Ex. 12: 15-19. Fermented wine, as well as leavened bread, was thus excluded. After the return from Babylonian captivity, the Jews introduced the custom of drinking fermented wine at the Passover feast. This was no doubt included in the "many other such like things" referred to in the Saviour’s rebuke: "Howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do." Mark 7: 7, 8. FOR THE COMMUNION SERVICE
The pure unfermented wine was given to the church as a memorial of the blood of Christ. Through the influence of the earnest efforts of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and other temperance workers, unfermented wine is now used by most churches in the communion service. This is an important reform. The writer was personally acquainted with a reformed drunkard, who fell from tasting fermented wine in the communion service. Surely temptation and sin should not lurk in the cup that represents the most sacred thing ever given mortals, — the redeeming blood of Christ. Pure water and unfermented wine are beverages that the redeemed will drink in the kingdom of God. Rev. 22: 1, 17; Matt. 26: 29. Since the last supper with His disciples, Christ has not tasted of the fruit of the vine. His last words before they sang the closing hymn were, "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom." While unfermented wine has been taken to represent the purest thing connected with the religion of Christ, fermented wine is a representation of corrupt doctrines given to the world by the apostate church. Rev. 17: 4-6. All nations "drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Rev. 14: 8. It is more than a national test, — "the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." Rev. 17: 2. The fires of the last day will sweep from the earth the last trace of sin, and the redeemed of the Lord will "plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them." Isa. 65: 21. Fermented wine will never enter the new earth, for "there shall be no more death." Rev. 21: 4. Fermentation only feeds on decaying matter, and will have no part in the new earth. Throughout eternity, as the redeemed drink of the pure blood of the grape, they will remember that they were not "redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ." 1 Peter 1: 18, 19.