Using Grape Juice Instead of Wine Is Like Using A Butter Cookie From The Girl Scouts Instead of Bread Some Might Say

Using Grape Juice Instead of Wine Is Like Using A Butter Cookie From The Girl Scouts Instead of Bread Some Might Say Jesus used fermented grapes to remember his blood sacrifice (Matt 26:26-28) but many churches use grape juice like Thomas Welch said. The Welch’s vs. Jesus and the Welch’s won? Hmm. Many have argued just how weird it is that churches use grape juice for communion when (1) Jesus said to use wine and (2) Scripture does not condemn the consumption alcohol by Christians. If you’re going to use grape juice you might as well use a cookie or something. What’s the difference? Unbiblical reason not to use wine no. 1: the Bible says that Christians should not drink alcohol at all. Myth. Find the verse. Unbiblical and dumb reason no. 2: people who struggle with alcoholism shouldn’t be tempted. What? The evangelical church is one of the most gluttonous and overeating communities you’ll find in America. If anything, we should worry that the bread will tempt people to go to Old Country Buffet and eat from the various troughs as they stuff themselves after church on Sunday. There are more overeaters in your church than alcoholics. Few pastors have the courage to address overeating however. SIDENOTE: What would happen if the church treated people with drinking problems and over-eating problems the same way? Ok, so the weaker brother argument won’t work here. Next? Stupid reason no. 3: we’ve always done it like this. Ahh, not really. Using grape juice is new folks. The United Methodist started this during the women’s temperance movement in the 1870s and 1880s. Here’s the real reason: people don’t know the history, they don’t like change, and many claim that doing what Jesus actually said would now dissension. I think we heard about this before in Galatia (law vs. grace). Fellas, AGAIN, remember that it was the temperance movement, that initially pushed Christians to never drink alcohol, even during communion. And United Methodist Minister Thomas Welch introduced the grape juice oddity (yes of Welch’s graps juice folks) embracing this feminist project. Why do churches still use grape juice? The only church I’ve been to that literally uses bread and wine like Jesus did was Intown Community Church in Atlanta. It was the most memorable time of celebrating the blesssed sacrament I’ve ever experienced. Maybe, that’s because I grew up United Methodist. The other times have been at an Anglican monastery I used to frequent in Michigan. Also Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church uses wine like Jesus said instead of grape juice like the Welch’s said and the OPC’s explain why. Ahh, ya gotta love the OPCs!! The burden is on those who divert from what Jesus used by using grape juice. You cannot biblically justify using grape juice, can you? And P—-LEASE don’t offer the fiction about the wine Jesus used being non-alcoholic. There is no evidence for this at all. None. Christianity Today tells more of the story of how churches, driven by the women’s temperance movement, were dooped into switching from what Jesus actually used to what Thomas Welch, of the Welch’s Grape Juice empire, pursuaded churches to use. Fellas, what have you heard when it was explained to you by your church leaders when they justified following Thomas Welch by using grape juice instead of what Jesus used? Just curious. Wait a minute, don’t tell me you’ve never asked.