Jesus, according to the Bible, turning water into wine.

Recently, he stood on the truth of the Gospel when he thundered, "The very idea that the Holy Spirit of God is moved by the use of alcohol is contrary to God's Word and sacrilegious." 

Reynolds' righteous indignation was caused by some so-called preachers who dared to proclaim "moderation" as the appropriate response to drinking. 

According to Reynolds: "Not long after the [Southern Baptist] Convention, one of them went on to say that he went to share Jesus with someone, had a meal with her and asked her for wine at the meal. She was so moved that a Baptist preacher would ask her for wine that her heart just opened up to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ, and she got saved."  

How dare one even think that the Spirit can work the miracle of grace through partaking in the spirits!

It is a slippery slope, my fellow Southern Baptists, to advocate moderation in drinking. One day you allow adults to sip wine and before you know it there will be drunken, homosexual orgies in church. 

Professor Reynolds says it is sacrilegious to combine alcohol with the movement of the Holy Spirit. I will go even further, and I hope Professor Reynolds would agree: All those leftist, commie-loving liberals who are advocating "moderation" in drinking should be drummed out of our convention. 

After all, we didn't kick out heathens during the '80s and '90s just to surrender the soul of our convention to a new crop of Bible-hating liberals. It doesn't matter how high the chain of command we have to go to save our convention.  If they advocate combining alcohol with doing God's work they should be excommunicated (or whatever Baptists do to get rid of undesirables.)

Immediately I can think of two individuals who should immediately be disfellowshipped. 

One had the gall not only to drink wine, but to actually make it during a party. Obviously this preacher does not know God's Word as well as professor Reynolds. 

This preacher, who for his own protection will remain nameless, was at some wedding. At one point, the party ran out of wine. His mother asked him to make some more wine, instructing the servants to follow his instructions. Through some work of trickery (no doubt due to Satan, because we know the Holy Spirit would never partake in such a sacrilegious act) this preacher turned water into wine. 

It gets even worse. At another event, some final dinner, this preacher took some wine, blessed it in God's name (can you believe it?) and gave it to his followers, commanding them to drink. He even said that if they refuse to drink this alcohol, they can have no part of him. 

Well, I don't know about you, but I would rather stand with Professor Reynolds than some self-proclaimed Messiah who commands his followers to drink. Because of his actions, this preacher is not worthy to be called a Christian.

The second person that should no longer have any say in the Southern Baptist Convention is a one-time dear elder. In a letter to a young man he has been discipling for some years, he blatantly led him astray. 

This young man, Timothy, was very impressionable and has always admired his mentor. So it is a shock that this elder tells Timothy to have a bit of wine with his dinner, for it is supposedly good for the digestion system. 

What more can I say. Both these men, the self-proclaimed preacher and the elder, should immediately be expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention, and we should have nothing more to do with them. 

Unfortunately, some believe these two men have long left. 

Now if you will excuse me, I will return to my glass of Chablis--and continue with my armchair-quarterback blogging.

Miguel A. De La Torre is director of the Justice & Peace Institute and associate professor of social ethics at Iliff School of Theology in Denver.

Click here to order Miguel De La Torre's Doing Christian Ethics From the Margins from Amazon.com

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