Adventist Teaching: Yes
Biblical Teaching: No
The Adventist Church forbids any sort of alcoholic consumption, regardless of how much. This is due to their message of health reform which is a result of a supposed vision that was given to Ellen White—who the SDA Church teaches was divinely inspired and correcting of inaccurate interpretations of scripture. This message is a part of their “everlasting gospel message” and must be heeded in order to be fitted for translation into the New Heaven and Earth.
In her book Ministry of Health, Ellen White wrote:
The Bible nowhere sanctions the use of intoxicating wine. The wine that Christ made from water at the marriage feast of Cana was the pure juice of the grape. This is the “new wine … found in the cluster,” of which the Scripture says, “Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it.” Isaiah 65:8.
Ellen G. White, Ministry of Health, pg. 333 (MH 333.1)
The Greek word translated “wine” in John 2 is oinos, which was the common Greek word for fermented wine. Oinos is also what is used in Ephesians 5:18 where Paul says to not be drunk on it. Furthermore, unfermented wine did not exist in Jesus’s day and is an invention of 1869 by Thomas Bramwell Welch, a Methodist who was involved in the temperance movement. It was this movement that influenced Ellen White and the SDA message of health reform.
Ellen White should have also been more careful because in Deuteronomy 14:26-7, God commanded the Israelites to consume, in His presence, whatever they purchased for food or strong drink and wine with the festival tithe money. This is a bit of an odd command from God if He is a teetotaler. Yet Ellen White claims the Bible nowhere sanctions alcohol.
The Bible nowhere states that consuming any alcohol whatsoever is sinful. What is forbidden is drunkenness (Ephesians 5:18, Romans 13:13, 1 Corinthians 6:10). Some other verses you will never hear the Adventist Church quote are those such as Psalm 104:14-15 that speak positively about wine and to “drink it with a merry heart.”
