The Eucharist, Lord's Supper, Wine or Fruit of the Vine
"The One we love the most is now our gracious host. Come take the bread, come drink the wine, come share the Lord." Really? A common theme in the Old Testament and continued in contemporary, self-invented (See Amos) songs has always been a way to say explicitly:"We don't want to hear any more from God."
This may not bother me as much as it bothers others because fermented wine or any product of ferment has always been the symbol of God's wrath. This will be fulfilled as secular institutions manned by strange men lusting for the wine and music of the Babylonian religion upon whom God's cup will be poured out.
And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. Revelation 18:14
And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. Revelation 18:21
And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone(the "grinders" were prostitutes and melody really means "to grind into a powder") shall be heard no more at all in thee; Revelation 18:22
For this reason, Jesus prescribed the "fruit of the vine" which is not "the fruit of the vat." This would always distinguish believers from the Jewish professional clergy who wanted to and did get drunk at Passover.
A second view is that of ancient paganism that singing (even quoting the alphabet backward) carried some form of superstitious magic. This is why CCM and most "gospel" songs teach error about God and His Word even as those who sing them claim that the drug-induced feeling is "spirituality" and that saying, "Lord, Lord" is praising God. Jesus will say, "I never knew you." Why? Because God takes no note of what can be seen with the eyes or heard with the ears in making His judgment (Isaiah 11:1-4).
Rubel Shelly quotes George Will quoting John Betjeman who wrote:
- No love that in a family dwells,
- No carolling in frosty air,
- Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
- Can with this simple Truth compare
- That God was Man in Palestine
- And lives today in Bread and Wine.
- Betjeman also wrote:
- Parish of enormous hayfields
- Perivale stood all alone,
- And from Greenford scent of mayfields
- Most enticingly was blown
- Over market gardens tidy,
- Taverns for the bona fide,
- Cockney singers, cockney shooters,
- Murray Poshes, Lupin Pooters,
- Long in Kelsal Green and Highgate silent under soot and stone.
The word "fruit" is from the Greek "gennema" which means "the offspring." Wine is not the offspring of the vine. Christ is the true, Spiritual "Vine." Therefore, it would be outrageous to equate intoxicating wine with whatever comes from the Spirit God. In our world, the vine is the grape vine and not just any vine.
Because replacing the "fruit of the vine" which Jesus and Paul demanded, with "wine" many people are troubled that the new wineskin worship format coming out of the Vineyard and Jubilee movements has been endorsed by their local leadership. The first time I heard some of the songs out of the new "Praise" Book I have to say that I was shocked. The first shock was the clear worship of three "gods" under three names. God has only one name: Jesus or "Jehovah-Saves" and "Father, Son and Spirit" are not names. Thomas Campbell pointed out the foolishness of worshiping "The Holy Spirit" as a person:
"And that, therefore, in the mean time, we ought to reject as unscriptural, all invocations or forms of address immediately directed to the Holy Spirit, as innovations in the worship of God, who alone has a right to prescribe both the matter and manner of his own worship, even of that worship which he will be graciously pleased to accept as right and pleasing in his sight. (Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, Vol. 1, pp. 539-555. Thomas Campbell's "Circular Letter")
Note: the Holy Spirit as a 'person' never addressed devotion to the Father or Son both of whom indwelled Lord Jesus Christ as Full Deity (Col. 2:9). Nor, did the Father or Son ever address love or devotion to the Holy Spirit. This is because the Holy Spirit is the Mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2)
Or as Paul Tillich noted that before the liberal 19th century this would have been heresy!
Contrary to the Jubilee, new wineskins dogma which sees God as "three persons able to hold a conference" in which the Father God and Spirit God "aces out" the Son God so that He is tricked into coming to earth to suffer and die, Thomas Campbell noted that:
"A supposition this, not less repugnant to our reason than to the most express and unequivocal declarations of Holy Scripture, for the divine characters are constantly represented as coexisting in the most intimate and inseparable unity of essential relationship.
The next was number 364. What follows is a very quick response to the question: "Are our preachers teaching what Jesus taught?"
Sorry, folks but this picture is the universal them of music and the vintage of king Dionysus. If you are brave you can find more at the bottom of this link. They always has "old vintage" available which would intoxicate as they sang, played flutes and -- too often -- polluted the new juice. Don't blame me, I am not promoting the new wineskin religion. I thought that Jesus spoke about "the water of the word" and Peter and Paul spoke about the "milk of the Word."
As a result of the "praise craze" many new "vineyard" or "wineskin" type song books have flooded the market. One version popularly labeled the "Jubilee" book includes a collection of poor, one line ditties which one writer identifies as "low-level glossolalia" or speaking in tongues. Many others are the result of a clear, well thought out effort to teach false doctrine. The rest are "old traditional" songs none of which closely answer to "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" practiced by the Jews in the Synagogue, chanted by Jesus, defined by Paul in Ephesians and Colossians, practiced in the historical church about as long as the non-use of musical instruments and still practiced by some groups which don't need "restoration" because they never apostasized from the Biblical, first-century practices.
One of the first to catch on to the trend of song books noted that "church" songs have less to do with the Bible and more to do with commercialism in the church. Evangelistic publishing houses all revert to purely commercial ventures. Therefore, we should not blame the publisher for trying to sell "what is hot" as "what is not."
Songs of Faith and Praise, Published by Howard Publishing Company we believe teaches tolerance for drinking wine, takes away the key to knowledge as Jesus warned, teaches premillenialism and teaches the literal presence of Jesus Christ as THE HOST.
Page 364 entitled Come, Share the Lord, disturbs all literate Christians and carries the line:
- We gather here in Jesus' name,
- His love is burning in our hearts like living flame.
- For thru the loving Son the Father maks us one.
- Come take the bread, come drink the wine, come share the Lord.
- He joins us here, He breaks the bread.
- The Lord Who pours the cup is risen from the dead.
- The One we love the most is now our gracious host.
- Come take the bread, come drink the wine, come share the Lord.
- We'll gather soon where angels sing.
- We'll see the glory of our Lord and coming King.
- Now we anticipate the feast for which we wait.
- Come take the bread, come drink the wine, come share the Lord.
- This song was arranged by Ken Young of the Hallel group.
The Hallel: And when they had sung (no instrument, no tune) an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives. Mk 14:26
And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. Mk 14:27
For the hidden message of "wineskins" and the "hallel" Click Here. There is truly a connection between the Hallal and the repeated slaughter of Christ:
The Muslims use Hallal as lawful meat equivalent to Kosher among Jews:
"Here in USA there seems to be confusion regarding meat; between the technical terms Hallal , i.e. what is regarded as lawful by shariat and the term Zabiha which means the correct method of slauthering an animal for consumption by Muslims. Is it not necessary according to Shariah that the meat we eat fullfil both the criteria? Does the meat available in supermarkets here is Zabiha? Can some one quote the rules for Zabiha from a hiqh text?
Transubstantiation
Page 364 which worships a polytheistic god is billed as the Segue to 365 for communion services. It begins:
How beautiful the hands that served the wine and the bread and the sons of the earth.
- And as He laid down His life,
- We offer this sacrifice,
- That we might live just as He died.
However, an event cannot be a "rembrance" and the actual event. We do not offer our own sacrifice but memoralize that once-for all times sacrifice of Lord Jesus Christ. As lust for the Jubilee repudiates the Atonement, to sing this song is to repudiate the blood because God demanded:
"Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast. "The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning. Exo 23:18
Real wine when it replaced the blood of ANIMALS under the Sacrificial System was appropriately "poured out" at the base of the alter and never consumed or "sipped."
And fittingly, God's wrath will be poured out in the end-time like wine. Wine is the universal symbol of death, destruction and decay: it cannot be the symbol of the Christ.
This treats the Eucharist (we hesitate to associate the Lord's Supper with this) as a sacrament: that is, when associated with communion, this song teaches the legalistic idea that we get spiritual life from the memorial:
- That is, wine which represented blood under the traditions of the Law was poured out
at the base of the altar as a sacrifice.- We again offer the wine as blood as a sacrifice: i.e. Mass.
- From this sacrifice we gain life in the same way He died.
This song was written by Twila Paris a Contemporary Christian Music artist. "Clearly, Twila is serious about her calling as a musical minister, and despite the accolades, she is careful to acknowledge the source of her remarkable gifts." This song could never be derived from Scripture but from the Catholic mass.
Like Most CCM, it is short on Scripture, but being billed as a new Fanny Crosby we might expect to see her become the dominant "pastor" in the present and future church.
While many books contain songs which teach error it is important that leaders be bright enough to sort out the bad from the good.
The Lord's Supper is not a sacrifice. That is, the Lord's Supper is not the Catholic Mass. Rather, the Lord's Supper is a remembrance or memorial for the one time sacrifice of Christ. The bread is not broken again by Christ nor does Christ pour out His blood at every celebration of the mass.
The Host, in Catholicism, is not the one who serves at the Lord's table but He is served up over and over: flesh and blood:
"According to Ovid the word comes from hostis, enemy: "Hostibus a domitis hostia nomen habet", because the ancients offered their vanquished enemies as victims to the gods.
"However, it is possible that hostia is derived from hostire, to strike, as found in Pacuvius. In the West the term became general chiefly because of the use made of it in the Vulgate and the Liturgy (Rom., xii, 1; Phil., iv, 18; Eph., v, 2; Heb., x, 12; Mabillon, "Liturg. Gall. vetus", pp. 235, 237, 257; "Missale Mozarab.", ed. Leslie, p. 39; "Missale Gothicum", p. 253).
"It was applied to Christ, the Immolated Victim,
"and, by way of anticipation, to the still unconsecrated bread destined to become Christ's Body.
"In the Middle Ages it was also known as "hoiste", "oiste", "oite". Catholic Encyclopedia
Because the modern "Jubilee" which according to the Pope who began the movement in 1987, "The Jubilee is always for the atonement."
In Catholicism, Christ literally is present in the bread and "wine" and can, therefore, be broken all over again and handled by human hands. See the idea of Transubstantiation This is clearly a pagan view.
Many of those of the Jubilee band are heavily involved with an ecumenical joining with the Catholic church. For instance, the Walk to Emmaus practiced by some Restoration Movement churches is a "protestant" version of the Catholic movement including a Mass-like Lord's Supper. Click for the notion of the Catholic Eucharist.
Many "pastors" would consider this as "picky" because the "audience" doesn't grasp the false teachings of Catholicism.
However, people believe what they are taught--whether the pastor gives them credit for an IQ as great as their age or not.
Furthermore, Paul never commanded "singing as an act" or ritual. Rather, the commanded "act" is to teach and admonish one another with the Biblical text in poetic form (Col 3). In Ephesians 5 the word "teach" which the identical word the preacher uses when he takes over the one-another role and "preaches."
Therefore, while engaging in an Old Testament-like, and therefore legalistic forms of "praise," the church ignores the thousands and thousands of hours which could be devoted to teaching the Bible one to another while, incidentally, obeying the only "musical" command in the New Testament.
Is singing human improvizations instead of the commanded Word of Christ wrong? Maybe not.
Is playing human improvizations instead of the commanded "one another" teaching of the Word wrong? Maybe not.
However, they are both guilty of the identical "sin" if the church claims (in error) to speak where the Bible speaks and "sing where the Bible sings."
Assuredly, the new wineskin dogma and replacing the pure fruit of the vine with wine go together.
Premillenialism and the Eucharist
The song book is called "The Jubilee Song Book" around my town. When faced with the suggestion to obey Paul's command about using the revealed text, and the urge for the Jubilee Book, our "little dead church in the high woods" choose to be sucked in by the superstition that singing secular "praise songs" can make spiritual changes in those who have been submerged into the "group." The Catholic view of the Eucharist in opposition to what Scripture calls "the Lord's supper" is intimately tied up with the belief that Mary, the mother of the Eucharist, will soon come.
In the Jubilee heresy, codified in The Second Incarnation, the kingdom and the gospel have many phases. The first came from the apocalyptic Book of Jubilees which you may read by Clicking Here. In this view in its second incarnation:
The gospel and the kingdom already existed when Jesus came. Therefore, "it did not begin with Jesus."
Jesus carried the "fermentation" process forward but didn't complete it.
In Vineyard style, the kingdom will come only when we have enabled Jesus through our efforts.
It is logical that the "vineyard" and "wineskin" movement quickly incarnate the pure fruit of the vine into its second form of wine just before the vinegar stage the first false clergy tried to feed Jesus.
In 1992 Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris in The Second Incarnation wrote:
"Thus the church waits for 'his appearing and kingdom.' In the meanwhile, the body bears witness to its head in baptism and the Lord's Supper as 'symbols of the promise.' They quote: "Chapter eleven argues that the end of time brings about the realization of all God ever intended the church to be." (Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris, Second Incarnation, xvii)
"When He returns the kingdom will arrive in its fullness." (p. 235)
The premillenial view is that the Gospel and Kingdom were not fermented or "cooked" into finished wine even after Jesus died. Therefore, Jesus did not complete the kingdom and it is the "now but not yet kingdom." The Jubilee leader even last Sunday called the church "the outpost of the kingdom."
"In its best forms, the church exists in the world now as an outpost of the kingdom of God. The church is not heaven's fully established kingdom, but it is a beginning and is in the process of formation. Its presence in the world bears witness to the cross. It testifies to a view of reality that takes eternity more seriously than time. As a visible community of faith, it senses the call of God to bear witness to life in the midst of death, truth in the midst of lies, joy in the midst of despair, and good in the midst of evil.
Listening to Shellyisims reminds me of Amos and Andy. Outpost from Webster means: " a) a small group stationed at a distance from the main force in order to prevent an enemy surprise attack, c) any military base away from the home country."
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Luke 17:20
Neither shall they say, Lo here or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21
Those who attempt to ferment the fruit of the vine into wine consistently believe that they, ala vineyard style, have the authority to exhibit the kingdom with Christ-rejecting songs.
If the "church" is such an "outpost" of the true kingdom it is no wonder that confusion and too much wine may be a sign of what is confessed by the Navigators (85% clergy feminized) and others who speak of a sissified church.
The kingdom is for time but not for eternity in human terms:
Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power. 1Co.15:24
For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 1 Cor. 15:25
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 1 Cor 15:26
"When we do congregate for worship, we must allow the Spirit of God to be present, to quicken our assemblies with freshness and life, to renew holy zeal in our hearts. Then, beyond those times of spiritual rejuvenation in the larger group,
we must learn to make close contact with each other that allows spiritual intimacy.
This is the phenomenon that had to be created by such twelve-step programs as Alcoholics Anonymous because of the church's failure to be the church. Rubel Shelly
Consistent with this, the "Jubilee" communion theme believes that the "mass" can create spiritual life.
Well, some 12 step programs may work as mind control when nothing else does but we have looked in vain for a 12 step program to give new life. The "program" being repudiated is the "5 step program" which includes baptism to make us "born again."
The gospel and kingdom are not just like wine but are declared to be fermenting wine.
The churches of the turf-protectors not part of Jubilee are "decadent and deliterious." That means rotten and destructive.
These error of those churches is that they have used the old wineskin, 2000 years old.
These wineskins have become brittle and will not expand to fit the ecumenical drive promoted by Catholicism to terminate in the y2k Jubilee.
The 5-step program must give way to a 12-step program of AA. That is pretty wilde fermentation.
Therefore, since the gospel and kingdom are the "bubbling, red wine of ongoing fermentation" we must throw away (burn down in the Aztec paradigm) the old structures and develop a new wineskin.
From beginning to end, this heresy is built on the deliberate ignorance of and misuse of the wineskin parable by many.
If the kingdom and gospel ARE bubbling, fermenting wine which calls for a bubbling, exhilarating worship ritual, this neo-pagan view gives our children authority for drinking literal wine which, they claim, is endorsed by Jesus.
In reality, the whole context of "like the nations" praise often practiced by even David was a boast against God or an attempt to triumph over Christ to prove that we are even more competent than Jesus and His Word. Neanderthal-like preaching and singing is truly the result of boastful pride -- the sin of Lucifer. That is why it is called "Halal."
And it is fitting that the Jubilee theme denies the once-for-all fulfillment of the ancient Jubilee. It teaches a "now but not yet" kingdom and so song 365 clearly understands the prophecy of Jesus "eating and drinking in the kingdom" as not the church but as a premillenial kingdom:
According to Dominion Theology, the world should be, and is becoming, a better place through the efforts of Christians (cf. 2 Thes. 2:1-12). As with many others who follow the teachings of George Ladd, DT believes that we are in the Kingdom age,
but the Kingdom in another sense is yet to come. We are in the Kingdom, and have Kingdom authority, but on the other hand,
we are ushering in the Kingdom through our efforts. "The Kingdom is now, but not yet," is a popular slogan.
According to Rubel Shelly:
"Borrowing Kung's words again: 'Even though it is not the kingdom of God which is to come, it is already under the reign of God which has begun';
the church anticipates the kingdom by being 'its voice, its announcer, its herald.'" (Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris, Second Incarnation, p. 75)
- Again, song 364 reads:
- We'll gather soon where angels sing.
- We'll see the glory of our Lord and coming King.
- Now we anticipate the feast for which we wait.
- Come take the bread, come drink the wine, come share the Lord.
No wonder, then, that where angels sings is taken prematurely as the authority to add instrumental music to the worship.
The book of Revelation treats the realm where "angels sing" as the place of the dead.
Consistent with the earlierst Greek writings and the book of Revelation itself, these are people who have died and have no earthly responsibility. On the contrary, for those still alive the task is to preach the gospel even until the day of judgement. Because all of the ideas being developed in song books as the most powerful "evangelistic" the addition of instruments is just the second step of which "praise songs" is the first step. The Revelation angels are a popular, legalistic proof text. We have watched this literally come true.
The Jubilee - New Wineskin Dogma
Drinking wine, instrumental music and the sacrifice of the "gods" was attempted upon Lord Jesus Christ. They praised (mocked) and played but He refused to sing the Dionysus lament and get involved with the "girls" in the Dionysus "choral." Accusing Jesus of being a winebibber, thinking that John might wear soft clothing (of the male prostitute of the King's house) and trying to get Jesus to sing and dance was not so much a threat as it was an enticement -- come eat the bread, come drink the wine.
If Jesus turned out to be Bacchus or Dionysus the Jewish clergy would be much happier. When they could not deny that He was their promised Messiah they decided to hold a grand Greek fertility ritual (Feast of Tabernacles) and plot His murder. The use of wine and music is an attempt to restore the god of song, instrument, dance and wine:
"dionysus is a strange god. Although
he is best known as the god of wine,
he is also a vegetation deity,
a god of the liquid element, a death god,
a god who comes into and changes, often irrevocably,
the normal community life,
and lastly the god of the theatre.
"The duality of dionysus is related to another of his attributes, which is that of loss of identity. The actors in the plays performed for dionysus were masked; the mask symbolized the submersion of their identity into that of another.
Wine also has the effect of submerging the normal personality of the person who drinks it.
dionysus made a habit of stealing the identities of his worshippers; the bacchants dancing on the mountainside have no separate personalities; they are mad, crazed,
they have been taken over by the god; and they are all alike.
Consistent with the take over by the "girls"
"Agave is certainly not herself when she tears her son to pieces, acting in unison with her sisters. In this respect they are behaving in the same way crowds often do, in which the individual is subliminated by the mob. Dionysus induces mass hysteria, he is the god of mob fury.
This loss of individuality is demonstrated in the theatre not only by the masks which the actors wear, but also by the chorus. They dance and sing in unison, all chanting the same words. The members of the chorus have no identity, each is merely an insignificant part of the whole, with no separate will. All individuality willpower must be given up to Dionysus, when the god choses to take it. From
We have noted that a popular wineskin leader identified drinking wine as a "second order" issue ten times in a short speech. In that article we discuss the Marzeach which is quite identical to the new charismatic wineskins worship. This is identified as a "feast with and for dead ancestors."
And the new "gospel" is identified by the upside down interpretation of the new wine in new wineskin parable claims that the kingdom and gospel began fermenting before the time of Jesus and did not complete its bubbling fermentation when He died. It is left to the vineyard types to build a new wineskin out of rubber, flexible enough to include every form or "sincere" religion.
A key component of this new heresy is that the primary work of the church is "praise." This "exhilaration" gives vent to the fermenting wine so that it will not burst.
This song and heretical theology gives explicit permission to everyone to engage in social drinking -- in the fellowship halls!
However, the world often has to lead the "church" by the hand. For instance:
NEW YORK, May 31 (AFP) - A school principal has been put on "probation" after allowing his students to have a sip of wine while chaperoning a group of students on a field trip to Paris, the New York Times reported Sunday.
After two weeks of complaints against Hornberger from angry parents, district school superintendent Robert Layne Tschirki last week agreed to reverse the decision to remove principal Shawn Colleary, but said he would be placed on probation, according to the daily.
Colleary was stripped of his job at the helm of the School, in a suburb of Denver, Colo., and given a teaching position in another school district after allowing students to sip a little wine with their dinner on a weeklong trip to France.
A popular song gives vent to this view:
- I want to lay down beside you
- I want to hold your body close to mine
- Like a grape that grows ripe in the sunshine
- There comes a time when we must sip the wine
I can tell by lookin ... that you're not mine girl
- I believe everything I told you was true
- There's a child here that wants to start livin
- And you know that this child
- will get it's start from me and you
The Heresy of Replacing the Pure Fruit of the Vine with Fermented Wine
The "fermented" wine for communion is defended on the grounds of chronological snobbery: that the people could not preserve juice until Passover. However, my mother could preserve all kinds of juices simply by sterilizing them and sealing them. My mother-in-law could sterilize apples with sulfur and keep them all year.
47 Jesus said, "A person cannot mount two horses or bend two bows.
And a slave cannot serve two masters,
otherwise that slave will honor the one and offend the other.
"Nobody drinks aged wine and immediately wants to drink young wine.
Young wine is not poured into old wineskins, or they might break,
and aged wine is not poured into a new wineskin, or it might spoil.
Wine is the fruit of the vat: God did not create it. However, the fruit of the vine is the natural offspring of the vine:
Gennema (g1081) ghen'-nay-mah; from 1080 (to procreate); offspring; by anal. produce (lit. or fig.): - fruit, generation.
The vine is not the vat but:
Ampelos (g288) am'-pel-os; prob. from the base of 297 and that of 257; a vine (as coiling about a support): - vine.
Jesus did not say: "I am the vat and you are the bungs." Rather, "I am the vine and you are the branches."
Therefore, the fruit of the vine -- a word reserved by Jesus for the Lord's Supper -- is the natural product of the vine. And when you squeeze the fruit you get pure, unpolluted wine. Vitruvius Pollio wrote:
(2)[64] He therefore said, that in his sleep he saw three clusters of grapes hanging upon three branches of a Vitruvius Pollio, large already, and ripe for gathering; and
that he squeezed them into a cup which the king held in his hand; and when he had strained the wine, he gave it to the king to drink,
and that he received it from him with a pleasant countenance. This, he said, was what he saw; and he desired Joseph, that if he had any portion of understanding in such matters, he would tell him what this vision foretold. Who bid him be of good cheer, and expect to be loosed from his bonds in three days' time, because the king desired his service, and was about to restore him to it again;
for he let him know that God bestows the fruit of the vine upon men for good;
which wine is poured out to him, and is the pledge of fidelity and mutual confidence among men;
and puts an end to their quarrels, takes away passion and grief out of the minds of them that use it, and makes them cheerful.
"Thou sayest that thou didst squeeze this wine from three clusters of grapes with thine hands,
and that the king received it: know, therefore, that this vision is for thy good,
and foretells a release from thy present distress within the same number of days as the branches had whence thou gatheredst thy grapes in thy sleep. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews.
"If there had been no provision of windlasses, pressbeams, and levers for presses, we could not have had the shining oil,
nor the fruit of the vine to give us pleasure,
and these things could not be transported on land without the invention of the mechanism of carts or waggons, nor on the sea without that of ships. Vitruvius Pollio, book X
God gave the fruit of the vine for the good of mankind; it is God's pledge of fidelity and mutual confidence among men.
On the contrary, the fruit of the vat -- fermented wine -- is God's universal symbol that He is pouring out His wrath. And consistently if we believe Isaiah 5, God pours out His wrath with a song.
The fermenting gospel and kingdom is a slick way to deny that Christ finished the work He came to do. This is classic premillenialism:
"That new bags were used in order to resist the expansive force of the carbonic acid gas generated by fermentation. This explanation necessarily admits that the new wine had not yet fermented; for, if it had been fermented, the old bottles would suit just as well as the new; but the new, it is pleaded, were required to resist the force of fermentation.
They thus concede that the new wine had not yet fermented." (Patton, p. 78-78)
However: "Chambers, says: 'The force of fermenting wine is very great, being able, if closely stopped up, to burst through the strongest cask.' What chance would a goat-skin have?" (Patton, p. 79).
"The new bottles or skins, being clean and perfectly free from all ferment (and air), were essential for preserving the fresh unfermented juice,
not that their strength might resist the force of fermentation,
but, being clean and free from fermenting matter, and closely tied and sealed, so as to exclude the air,
the wine would be preserved in the same state in which it was when put into the skins." (Patton, p. 79)
"When it is desired to preserve a quantity in the sweet state, an amphora was taken and coated with pitch within and without; it was filled with the mustum lixivium and corked so at to be perfectly air-tight." (Smith, Greek and Roman Antiquities)
Vine shows that the wineskin idea is an ancient, borrowed, pattern which has always been popular and pops up on the Internet quite often. However, it is based on a total misunderstanding of Scripture which assuredly is not in demand around most churches:
"that the kingdom of heaven is likened to leaven, does not mean that the Kingdom is leaven. The same statement, as made in other parables, show that it is the whole parable which constitutes the similitude of the Kingdom;
the history of Christendom confirms the fact that the pure meal of the doctrine of Christ has been adulterated with error."
"Leaven was forbidden in all offerings to the Lord by fire, (Lev. 2:11; 6:17). Being bred of corruption and spreading through the mass of that in which it is mixed, and therefore
symbolizing the pervasive character of evil, leaven was utterly inconsistent in offerings which typified the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ." (Vine, Leaven, p. 667).
A WineSkins Gospel produces Poison
By breaking down the walls and taking the "wine" out of the "skin" Christ put the gospel into, the change agent of 10,000 yeast types will automatically be included, oxygen will be let in to kindle the fires of fermentation, the new wine might by accident taste good for three or four days but it will turn to vinegar or poison and it can kill you.
"We must bear in mind that there is a success, which, by fermenting, would make to itself a vires out of the must." (Pliny, liber xxii, cap. 24) The translator, F. R. Lees, says that "the strainer (saccus) separates the gluten; for in no other way can it break the forces, the fermenting power."
Modern Jewish school boys still understand that the bread cannot be pure because it is made from a new wine fermenting process.
"Change and newness did not end with his arrival. The wine is still fermenting. Tired forms will not work with an exuberant message. The deep ruts of customary practice are not adequate to be a highway of holiness. The gospel he left to inform and empower his church is 'a new and living way'. (Rubel Shelly - Randy Harris, Second Incarnation, p. 11).
If you drink wine on the Highway of Nashville, the good cop will toss you in jail. Is wine really something which keeps you on the highway of holiness. Haven't we read that "fools will not staggar onto the highway?" Our prophet keeps getting water mixed up with wine:
And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. Isaiah 35:7
And a highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it. Isaiah 35:8
Taah (g8582( taw-aw'; a prim. root; to vacillate, i. e. reel or stray
The writer of the Book of Jubilees felt that the kingdom was already "fermenting" up to 200 years before Messiah Came. This may explain Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris saying that the "fermenting" did not end with the arrival of Christ. The festival of Jubilees involved an Old Covenant Day of Atonement looking forward to the time Messiah would come and complete the process. A modern Jubilee sends the terrible, but attractive, affect image that we are still waiting for the gospel and kingdom.
In this new, yet ancient, gospel Jesus seems to have failed to complete the gospel but it is still fermenting. Perhaps we are testing Jesus by your "pattern" and my "paradigm" and failing to ask whether the least of our flock found Jesus incarnated in a poor woman just looking for a cup of cold water -- or some Spiritual water. This paves the way to say that His kingdom has not arrived --
"The wine is the bubbling, churning gospel. It is the ever-arriving-yet-never-fully-realized-on-Earth kingdom of God. It is the powerful presence of the Spirit of God among believers. The wineskins are the points of contact between the wine and culture. They are the forms and programs we maintain, the organizations and institutions, or the patterns and procedures... (Shelly - Harris, Second Incarnation, p. 11).
If you break down the walls or open the wine skin between the church and its culture (that's the source of leaven) it will surely begin to ferment with halal (self praise) but not the quiet reading of Psalms.
I am not sure that wine will put you on the "highway to holiness,"
"Sour old wine is an abomination, praise it as a man will; the sweet new wine of Jesus remains sweet forever, it is changeless in its purity and excellence, beyond the praise of even those who realize this" (Lenski, Commentary on Luke, p. 320).
The Jews and New Wineskins
The ancient Jewish women built a wall between the crushed grapes and the new wine skins:
"The ancients filtered their wines repeatedly before they could have fermented, and thus the (leaven) which nourish the strength of the wine being taken away, they rendered the wine itself more liquid, weaker, lighter, and more PLEASANT to drink." (Delphian commentary on Horace, Book 1, Ode 17).
"The way to preserve new wine, in the state of must, is to put it up in very strong but small casks, firmly closed on all sides, by which means it will be kept from fermenting. But if it should happen to fall into fermentation, the only way to stop it is by the fumes of sulphur." (Patton, p. 39-40).
"The Lacedaemonians (Spartans) used to boil their wines upon the fire until the fifth part was consumed; then after four years were expired began to drink them." (Grecian Archaeology, Vol. 2, Pg 364, Potter)
"Wine is rendered OLD or feeble in strength when it is frequently filtered. The strength or spirit being thus excluded, the WINE neither inflames the brain or infests the mind and the passions and is much MORE PLEASANT to drink." (Plutarch, Symposium).
Fermentation, according to Jewish sources shows why a fermenting worship lead by musical worship teams takes place:
"Occurs faster in a vessel which isn't full: Bava Metzia 44a
Cold water halts/slows leavening: Pesachim 48b
Once someone drinks from the cup, it is not usable: Pesachim 105b, 106a
Blaspheming Jesus as a Wine Skin Merchant
"those who charge Jesus with manufacturing intoxicants are "eager to mar, if by any means they could, the image of a perfect Holiness, which offends and rebukes them." (Lenski quoting Trench)
"This is one of the most misunderstood, and misrepresented passages in the whole of the Gospels...The misunderstanding has arisen from imposing upon the ancient Greek text, and ancient Jewish habits of food and drink, and relying entirely upon the modern and Northern European conception, that the word 'wine' always means intoxicating liquor." Quoted by J. L. Kachelman, Jr. (unpublished paper)
Vine states what has always been the fact: Fermentation was a sign of evil and was not allowed for anything connected with religion. Therefore, to charge Jesus with introducing a fermenting wine gospel is to display a total misunderstanding of the Biblical parable or history:
"In the Holy Land they do not commonly use fermented wines. The best wines are preserved sweet and unfermented." In reference to their customs at their religious festivals, he repeatedly and emphatically said: 'The Jews do not, in their feasts for sacred purposes, including the marriage feast, ever use any kind of fermented drinks. In their oblations and libations, both private and public,
they employ the fruit of the vine--that is, fresh grapes -- unfermented grape - juice, and raisins, as the symbol of benediction.
Fermentation is to them a symbol of corruption, as in nature and science it is itself decay, rottenness'." (Dr. S. M. Issacs, a Jewish rabbi of the last century, quoted by Patton, p. 83).
Wine was often just unfermented juice unless the effect is drunkenness. However, fermented wine was really strong drink because it could intoxicate as a poison:
"Many Jewish writers say that the word here translated strong drink was meant nothing more than old wine, which probably had the power of producing intoxication" (Albert Barnes, Commentary on Luke 1:15).
If this is true, and there is a lot of evidence, then to suggest that the gospel and kingdom is a fermenting wine produced by God Incarnate is to claim that Jesus produced a strong drink religion.
Not to worry. It will still work for most people as Joseph Campbell says, "Until the mind kicks in."
Change Agents Add New Wine Skins At Passover
The new wine skin religion of Jubilee 99 has no foundation in Scripture. Rather, it is based upon the tradition of the elders which Jesus condemned. Yeast in bread, which came from wine, was absolutely prohibited when the Passover was observed:
"For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. Exo 12:19
Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread." Exo 12:20
"Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast. "The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning. Exo 23:18
"There is no mention of wine in connection with Passover in the Pentateuch; but the Mishna strictly enjoins that there should not be less than 4 cups. Two of these are mentioned in Lk. 22:17,20. 'The cup of blessing' I Cor 10:16 is probably the latter of these." (Smith's Dictionary of the Bible).
By teaching with a high hand that our people should drink wine at communion is their endorsement of the big lie that Jesus endorsed the wine. If you followed the practice of Passover and used real wine you would all be drunk as a skunk. Our song writer says that this is ok.
To get out of Egypt the Israelites had to rise above the Egyptian forms of religion. However, later Jews corrupted the Passover to make it into a literal wineskins Passover. For instance, there was "the tradition of the clergy" and there was the teaching by Jesus. They always differed radically. The tradition of some of the Rabbis was that:
"a man is bound to get so drunk with wine at Purim as not to know the difference between, 'Cursed is Naaman and Blessed is Mordecai.'" (Talmud, Megillah 2:7)
But Jesus said that they were self-promoters, did more harm than good and "took away the key to knowledge." Music can have the same effect.
Wine was NOT used in the celebration of the Passover until Hellenistic times. Then, among the spiritually minded, it must be "boiled" wine or fresh from the vat. The faithful Jews understood this because--
"It may be possible that the use of wine replaced an earlier custom of offering blood; however this may be, wine was often treated as if it were blood,
and was thus poured out at the base of the altar (See Ecclus. 50:15; cf. Jos. Antiq. III.ix.4).
Therefore, the winekins gospel is based on a legalistic, bloody ritual which had already been replaced with wine. Shelly wants the church to bubble or "exhilarate" and others identify a live church as filled with joyful praise the Lords. However, if the wine is poured out at the altar it could have no intoxicating effect upon the sober worshiper.
Jesus is our Passover, His blood has been poured out at the base of the Altar in the True Tabernacle. Therefore, to observe any Jewish ritual is to deny the power of Jesus Christ and therefore to deny the power of God Who dwelled within.
Wine At Passover A Symbol of Bitterness and Slavery
Just as the celebration of Passover, Jubilee with the Day of Atonement and restored Levitical musical worship teams is living proof of the restoration of the worst sort of legalism: trying to find the lost gods and kingdom with music and ecstasy which will sexually attract the gods to "come to your offering like hungry flys."
Passover and wine was connected by Jews who knew that their kingdom had already been lost as they broke down the walls:
"Modern Jews do not waste it. However, it is a symbol of the bitter slavery in Egypt. The wine is used much like a cooking wine where the alcohol content is highly diluted:
Maror: Bitter Herbs
"A blessing is recited over a bitter vegetable (usually raw horseradish; sometimes romaine lettuce), and it is eaten. This symbolizes the bitterness of slavery. The maror is eaten with charoses, a mixture of apples, nuts, cinnamon and
wine,
which symbolizes the mortar used by the Jews in building during their slavery.
Even for the Jewish Passover the wine is for flavor and not intoxication. And in the Jewish Passover the wine symbolizes the mortar of slavery -- not the fresh, fruit of the vine which is squeezed out for the king and sons of the King. Of the Israelites in Egypt:
They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly. Exodus 1:14
The word mortar is the Hebrew:
Chomer (h2563) kho'-mer; from 2560; prop. a bubbling up, i. e. of water, a wave; of earth, mire or clay (cement); also a heap; hence a chomer or dry measure: - clay, heap, homer, mire, motion.
Chamar (h2560) khaw-mar'; a prim. root; prop. to boil up; hence to ferment (with scum); to glow (with redness); as denom. (from 2564) to smear with pitch: - daub, befoul, be red, trouble.
And therefore, real fermented wine is always the symbol of God pouring out His wrath on a people probably lost beyond redemption.
In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. Psalm 75:8NIV
Straight wine is a sign:
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: Revelation 14:10
The praise craze with really outrageous "songs" usually composed for the commercial world and often by women has its total foundation in the Old Testament and with criminal ignorance of the word "praise." It is a deliberate attempt to restore Old Testament Legalism using "proof-texts" from the Monarchy wich describes worship like the nations by a people having fired God in order to live like the nations.
Sober Jews Rejected the Wineskins Rituals
Any reader who has not gone beyond redemption and had their eyes and ears closed understands that Jesus did not make the gospel and kingdom into a fermenting wine in new wineskins pattern. Yes, they accused Him of being a winebibber but He denied it!
The Incarnate God of the universe knows as much as the local highway patrolman who will put you in jail for being as drunk as some are as the result of charismatic preaching and loud, mind-altering vocal or instrumental music.
"The law forbade seor--yeast, ferment, whatever could excite fermentation--and
khahmatz, whatever had undergone fermentation, or been subject to the action of seor." (Patton 85).
"The great mass of the Jews have ever understood this prohibition as extending to fermented wine, or strong drink, as well as to bread. The word is essentially the same which designates the fermentation of bread and that of liquors." (Patton)
The Wineskin Parable of Idolatry
Wine was never God's symbol of His rule. The Jews added wine, music and a lot more. However, it is clear that they were fulfilling their demand to worship like the nations.
"The restrictions on grape products derive from the laws against using products of idolatry. Wine was commonly used in the rituals of all ancient religions, and wine was routinely sanctified for pagan purposes while it was being processed. For this reason, use of wines and other grape products made by non-Jews was prohibited. (Whole grapes are not a problem, nor are whole grapes in fruit cocktail).
Note: there is even a remedy for a priest who ate grape seed!
"For the most part, this rule only affects wine and grape juice. This becomes a concern with many fruit drinks or fruit-flavored drinks, which are often sweetened with grape juice. You may also notice that it is virtually impossible to find kosher baking powder, because baking powder is made with cream of tartar, a by-product of wine making."
Wine Dilution: See Shabbos 77a
Strong Date Liquor is delicious at first, but painful in digestion: Pesachim 107a
Drinking Liquor instead of Wine is Wasteful: Shabbos 140b
Wine of a place named "Perogaisa" is of extra-fine quality; its addictive power helped seduce the Exiled Ten Tribes from the Mitzvos: Shabbos 147b
The End-Time Wineskin Trap
It is common to hear those hired to preach the Word begin to make their living by lading on the burden that they can't, after all, uncage the word. We never had any doubt. However, the uncaged wine of the gospel will begin to ferment if we just take it out of its skin and play with it. For instance, Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris claim that:
Changeless divine truth is thus enmeshed in the ever-changing vehicle of human language. Perfect and eternal wisdom is wrapped up in the inferior medium of historical disclosure." (Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris, Second Incarnation, P. 23).
If God's will is enmeshed in an ancient language it is "entrapped, snared or captured." How, then, can anyone hope to untangle God's "mess?" Didn't the ancient wine and music gospels teach that the god is "enmeshed" or "going aside to relieve himself" and is not able to come to us at the moment? Shudder and double shudder! Read the contest between Jezebel's ranting, raving, dancing and music-playing prophets and compare it with the quiet spoken word of Elijah.
This sense of lostness is a sign that the existing order of Pastor Rule over the flock has reached its end prophesied when they divided the church in the first place:
"based on the concept of an organic pattern in the life course of civilization, a morphology of history: the idea that every culture has its period of youth, its period of culmination, its years
then of beginning to totter with age and of striving to hold itself together by means of rational planning, projects, and organization,
only finally to terminate in decrepitude, petrification... and no more life.
Moreover, in this view of Spengler's, we were at present on the point of passing from what he called the period of Culture to Civilization, which is to say,
from our periods of youthful, spontaneous, and wonderful creativity
to those of uncertainty and anxiety, contrived programs,
and the beginning of the end." (Campbell, Joseph, Myths to Live By, p. 84)
Paul warned the Corinthians that, and we paraphrase, "fools love to be fooled." Therefore, when we turn Scripture on its head it is a supernatural sign to us that God is pouring out His wrath upon the "initiates" of new wine but old paganism.
We will review other songs which do not teach Biblical truth because they are probably sentimential poetry and have no need to be faithful to the Word of Christ. Nevertheless, our youth believe whatever we sing and there is little reason to expect mercy for the deliberate teaching of error.
