Many people call alcoholism a disease. If it is a disease, then it is the only disease without germ or virus, the only one that is bottled and sold over the counter for a profit and brings in tax revenue for the government, state, county and state. If it is a disease, then it is the only disease that turns our boys into criminals and our girls into prostitutes, the only one that has the official approval of the Congress of the United States which passed a resolution to enact the 21st Amendment bringing an end to the Prohibition era, thus allowing the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.
While there are those who call alcoholism a disease, God still calls it sin. In Proverbs 23:29-31, we find that it is wrong to drink an alcoholic beverage: 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. Not only does God say that it is wrong to drink alcohol, it is equally wrong to give or sell it to someone. Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness. (Habakkuk 2:15).
Those who have become alcoholics did not become so overnight it all started by taking that one drink, and that put them on the road to drunkenness. They thought they could get away with it, but, Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1).
There probably has never been a franker advertisement in the world than that which was made by one James M. Lawrence, who opened “The Naked Truth Saloon” in Boise, Idaho on February 24, 1886, and who ran an advertisement in the Boise Democrat of that date as follows:
“Friends and Neighbors: Having just opened a commodious shop for the sale of liquid fire, I embrace this opportunity of informing you that I have commenced the business of making drunkards, paupers and beggars for the sober, industrious and respectable portion of the community to support. I shall deal in family spirits which will incite men to deeds of riots, robbery and bloodshed, and by so doing diminish the comfort, augment the expenses, and endanger the welfare of the community.
I will on short notice, for a sum, and with great expectations, undertake to prepare victims for the asylums, poor farms, prisons and gallows.
I will furnish and article that will increase accidents, multiply the number of distressing diseases and render those who are harmless incurables.
I will deal in drugs which will deprive some of life, many of reason, most of property, and all of their peace, which will cause fathers to becomes fiends and wives widows and children to become orphans and all mendicants.
I will cause many of the rising generation to grow up in ignorance and prove a burden and a nuisance to the nation. I will cause mothers to forget their offsprings, and cruelty to take the place of love.
I will sometimes corrupt the ministers of religion, define the purity of the Church, and cause temporary spiritual and eternal death; and if any be so impertinent as to ask me why I have the audacity to bring such accumulated misery upon the people, my honest reply is Money. The spirit trade is lucrative, and some professing Christians give their cheerful countenance.
From the U.S. government I have purchased the right to demolish the character, destroy the health, and shorten the lives and ruin the souls of those who choose to honor me with their custom.
I pledge myself to do all that I have promised. Those who wish any of the evils before specified brought upon themselves or their dear friends, are requested to meet me at my bar where I will for a few cents furnish them with the certain means of doing so.”
If these words applied then, they apply equally today.
While there are grave consequences for indulging in alcohol, the devils brew, there is a way of escape. You see my friend, If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. (John 8:36). While A.A. may be of some Help, Jesus Christ is the ultimate help, for not only is He able to give deliverance from the bondage of alcohol, He is also able to save your eternal soul for all eternity. Perhaps you didn’t know it, my friend, but when Christ died on the Cross and shed His blood, He was in fact paying your sin debt in Himself He was literally your substitute (Hebrews 9). Having been bodily raised from the dead by the power of God, Christ is now in Heaven, and because He lives, each one who places his faith in Him for forgiveness of sin and eternal life will also live eternally with Him. (I John 5:11-13). Friend, will you now repent (turn from) of your sin, and by faith alone admit to God that you are a sinner, ask for His forgiveness and for Christ to come into your heart and be your Saviour? The forgiveness of sin can be yours Eternal life can be yours. Deliverance from alcohol can be yours–but only in Christ!
Receive Christ as Saviour–TODAY!
– Richard A. Ciarrocca
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