Does It Matter What’s In The Cup?

I’ve had this conversation with people dating back a few years now. “Does it matter what’s in the cup when we serve the Lord’s Supper?”

I grew up in a time in American history when few people talked about what was in the cup. It’s like we all pretend it was grape juice on the night our Lord was betrayed. Or we at least claim we can’t serve wine at the church because of the (with a whisper voice) the alcoholics (while we look around to see who’s listening.)

Now let’s be honest about the whole thing. in the mid-1800s, there was a serious booze problem in America. The industrial revolution was building steam, urban living was paving the roads for the coming automobiles, and a growing number of men were spending more time away from family and spending time drinking rather than reading their Bibles to their children. Groups were formed to address the issue. Women began protesting. The pressure was on the whole of society for someone to fix the drinking problem of the nation. By the turn of the 1900s, the world was on the brink of war, our nation was tapping into the taxation of alcohol, and churches were under scrutiny for serving wine at the Lord’s Table and enabling the alcoholic (or so they were told.)

In 1920, the effort to fix the drunk nation was finally in place. Prohibition was here to save the day.

Now understand something… I do think there was a serious problem, and there still is. But maybe there always has been. As a guy born decades after Prohibition, I would grow up in the church era that warned of the dangers of alcohol and that even a sip from the Lord’s Supper would awaken your inner alcoholic beast.

I am thankful to have never had a problem with alcohol. Ever. I’m not bragging about this, but I’ve never been drunk, ever. I have never even wanted to get drunk. But I’ve also, never understood what is meant in the Bible that wine makes the heart happy.

“…and wine makes life merry…”

Ecclesiastes 10:19

Don’t you know this? I actually don’t. I have been happy all of the days of my life without wine.

By now the reader must be thinking I’m about to build a case to give me permission to drink wine. I’m still not interested in awakening my inner alcoholic beast.

But, I have been thinking. A lot.

To keep this from being the kind of blog post that is too long and nobody will read let me get to the chase. (is that a drinking term that I know nothing about?)

Here goes.

My English-translated Bible uses the word wine. My English dictionary defines the word wine as “the fermented juice of grapes.” That is different than what Dr. Welch invented when he began pasteurizing grape juice to give it a shelf life of more than 15 minutes and several years before refrigeration. I think Dr. Welch was motivated by good intentions but it only took about 40 years to replace wine with grape juice among most evangelical churches in America at the Lord’s Table.

Take note of this… Prohibition (1920-1933) did not prohibit churches from using wine. The shift was voluntary. Evangelical protestant churches surrendered the symbol of wine to a substitute symbol of juice. In other words, in my opinion, broke the historic tradition based upon the understanding of Holy Scripture. What Canadian pastor Jacob Reaume wrote about HERE.

Is grape juice an acceptable substitute for wine? It meets the criteria of “fruit of the vine” which is used in the Gospels. But so does “Grapes”. Nobody is arguing that grapes were in the cup. Church history argues that wine was in the cup and the Holy Scriptures describes that wine was in the cup as the Apostle Paul corrected the church in Corinth to stop getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper. One does not get drunk on grapes or grape juice. That leaves one other option for what was in the cup, wine.

My conclusion is to announce and communicate with my church that we will no longer serve grape juice at the Lord’s Table and begin serving wine on the Lord’s Day, Sunday, July 23, 2023. Putting a stop to the broken tradition of nearly 100 years. Neither juice nor wine apprehends or secures our salvation. To serve wine is to practice with the saints of old and put us in fellowship with the Holy Scriptures. This should not be seen as my attempt to tell any other local fellowship what they should or should not do. It is to say we will no longer have our conscience bound by the fear of alcohol when we remember Christ’s death and look forward with anticipation of the wedding feast at our Redeemer’s return.

I welcome any questions and thoughts on this matter. For the glory of God.