Comments on: When did fundamentalist Protestants first start believing that the wine in the Bible was grape juice?

By: HelioCentrist

HelioCentrist — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:22:08 +0000

Anyone who has ever made wine knows that if you put fruit juice in a container and walk away from it for a few weeks, it becomes wine. All by itself.
I remember hearing the “grape juice” story in the 1950s.
It’s a matter of extrapolation:
“Jesus was perfect; therefore, Jesus would never have gotten drunk; hence, Jesus wouldn’t drink wine; ergo, the ‘wine’ in the Bible was really just grape juice.”
Problem solved.

Helio “Hey, who drank all the Chardonnay?” Centrist

By: RickySTT, AM, EAC

RickySTT, AM, EAC — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 09:58:05 +0000

Not sure, but it had to have been some time *after* Thomas Welch *invented* grape juice in 1869. Apparently he initiated the practice of using grape juice instead of wine, but the biblical revisionism obviously didn’t start at that time.

N.B. Dr. Welch was Methodist. Fundamentalism wasn’t established until ca. 1910, perhaps enough time to forget that grape juice was a recent invention. Prohibition began in 1919.

By: Diogene's Dog

Diogene's Dog — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:41:50 +0000

All grape squeezings are wine in potential. It is just a matter of time.

It is much like the refinements of oaths and curse language that is found to be expressed by fundamentalists in terms like “Gosh Dern or Gad Dang.” It is a matter of the well crafted fudge factor.

By: Holden Caulfield

Holden Caulfield — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:23:35 +0000

Does it matter? You can interpret anything you like from the bible.

Don’t forget it was written 2000 years ago by people who thought the world was flat and at the centre of the universe.

By: hgarth49

hgarth49 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:56:49 +0000

Wine is grape juice.

By: muinghan

muinghan — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:33:57 +0000

This was actually a much more interesting question than I thought it was…had to do a little research.

It was the Welch’s Grape juice Company!

1869 Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch, a physician and dentist by profession, successfully pasteurizes Concord grape juice to produce an “unfermented sacramental wine” for fellow parishioners at his church in Vineland, N.J., where he is communion steward. His achievement marks the beginning of the processed fruit juice industry.

Welch was Methodist who were at the forefront of the temperance movement and prohibition.

And wine and grape juice is the same thing……one is fermented and one is not. Like a grape and a raison….one is dried and one is not.

But…..You are correct! Wow. Give yourself 10 points!

By: KiraJenLove

KiraJenLove — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:08:44 +0000

No, it’s because the original word used for “wine” in the Bible could mean either grape juice (“new wine), or the alcoholic drink(“old wine”). In light of what the Bible says about the evils of alcohol consumption, it’s not likely that Jesus was an imbiber, but drank grape juice at the wedding, and poured it for His disciples at the last supper, and said that He would not drink the fruit of the vine again until He drinks it again “new” with us in the Kingdom of Heaven. Here, He said He would drink “new wine” with us in Heaven – grape juice.

By: Sam K

Sam K — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:49:59 +0000

As has been said, it is a symbol. It doesn’t really matter what the actual beverage was; what the beverage represents is what’s important.

By: Edward J

Edward J — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:20:28 +0000

There is a verse to that says don’t be drunk with wine wherein is excess. Ephesians 5:18 Doesn’t make sense if you apply it to grape juice. Also in the wedding feast of Cana they said about the wine Jesus had made thatthey saved the good stuff till last. Again it doesn’t make much sense it they were talking grape juice. I don’t thik they had welch’s back then.

By: LadyGod

LadyGod — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:22:54 +0000

lol

good point but even in face of evidence, religion is the stronger shield. shield against reality.