Any driver knows that the effect of fermenting wine in
new wineskins is to produce an unreasoning over-confidence, the cause
of many accidents, and this would be dangerous ground on which to base a
theory of mysticism.
Christianity includes many symbols or parables
which must be explained by Christ to the truth lovers. If you will,
these parables are paradigms which most do not study. The study of
the symbols have great value and when they are lost by
pseudo-scholars who deny God's power to "communicate in human
languages," the people just "crack away" or, in the words of Amos,
"hunger and thirst for the Word" but they cannot find it. The "New
Wine in New Wineskins" is one such parable which is deliberately
"turned upside down" to form the paradigm of a new doctrine. Jesus
knew that and therefore illustrated it by ejecting the musical
minstrels.
Writing about ancient myths which are now
adopted by many churches, Joseph Campbell noted that when the "Great
White Fathers" tried to change the religion of the Indians, they lost
the symbols of their ancient religion and didn't want to live in the
new stockade. However, they were forced to play the "game." The
resulting religion was not Christian but was imported from the land
of the Aztecs. The new drug symbol was not new but reverted to
archaic (Babylonian) failures. The new religion became a "wineskins"
religion with peyote buttons used to enhance the wine --
"Within the span of
a decade the religion had become archaic; and it was then that the
peyote cult, the mescal
cult, came pouring in from Mexico, onto and across the plains, as a
psychological
rescue... they would
gather in special lodges
to pray, to chant,
and to eat peyote buttons, each then experiencing visions, finding within themselves what had been lost from their society." (Campbell,
p. 89) Click Here to see how this is done.
Campbell calls the new symbols "affect images."
For instance, in history, a "living hero" who composed a song or
invented a musical instrument became a "god" after death. By reciting
the song or playing his instrument this "dead affect image" produced
a form of magic. You followed him to Jones Town even if the new
"gospel" was spiked koolaid. Wine was like a "god" because it was
once "bubbling and churning" and alive. When fermentation was
complete the sweetness was dead. However, when the leader "dispensed"
the wine the ignorant felt that they had contacted the gods. There
was even a god of wine and his rituals appear in many churches where
manipulators have learned to produce the same effect without the
wine. Paul warned against this old wine skin religion in
Ephesians.
When people lose their "food" supply (the Word)
they turn to "wine" or other mind-destroying drugs to fill an empty
belly and dull the pain they cannot fully understand. Ancient "myths"
are popular because of the "affect image" common to the "dead hero
becomes live god" superstition. Wine is the strongest and just the
mention of the code "intoxicates" the simple as it bypasses the
rational part of the mind.
Alcohol is a very dangerous, addictive drug.
Those who use it are drug addicts and those who promote it are "drug
pushers." The "wine" model of the gospel and kingdom has to have some
destructive effect on our children. To find justification for the
practice people implicate Jesus and Paul as being "wine pushers" but
--
"The New Testament
attitude towards intoxicating drink is shown by the injunction to be
NEPHALIOS, translated 'sober'. This word is used only 3 times in the
New Testament ( I Tim. 3:2,11 and Titus 2:2), but it is used
regularly in the classical authors meaning 'free from all wine'." (J. P. Free in Archaeology and Bible
History) (Or, "don't even be near wine.")
Paul told the Ephesians not to fill up with
wine as preparation for their singing. Rather, they were to fill up
with the spirit (the word of Christ in Col. 3 and in John 6:63). Only
then could they speak to one another as a way to instruct from the
Word. He knew that it was dangerous to promote a "feel good" religion
because it is both destructive and overwhelmingly popular --fools
love to be fooled. However, the watching world saw Israel in the
wilderness as a "laughingstock" and in Corinth as insane because
--
"Many kinds of
drugs cause a change in consciousness and the most popular, and with
some people the most respectable, is alcohol.
Alcohol
fairly quickly produces a feeling of confidence, expansion and
enlightenment.
William James said that its
popularity was due to 'its power to stimulate the mystical faculties
of human nature,'... Any driver knows that the effect of alcohol is
to produce an unreasoning over-confidence, the cause of many
accidents, and
this would be
dangerous ground on which to base a theory of
mysticism."
Parrinder, Geoffrey, Mysticism
in the World's Religions, p. 176, Oxford University Press, NY
Parrinder, and the local Highway Patrol, would
tell you that this "would be a dangerous ground on which to base a
new doctrine."
Next, we will look at the creedal statements of
the new "wine" and "wineskins" paradigm to replace the Biblical
pattern. The New Paradigm
In the book, Second Incarnation by Shelly/Harris, they suggest a gospel based on the "wineskins" parable
of Jesus. While it is offered in the midst of self-evident
suggestions, it is provocative because it seems, in Paul's words, to
"turn the Word upside down." Understanding the parable is important
because we remember a visual "prophetic model" when Israel formed an
ecumenical movement with the Gibeonites who lied with the symbol of a
wineskin and "fermented" bread (Joshua 9). This was one step to the
wholesale adoption of Canaanite Baalism which brought the "wine and
music" power devices to Israel to destroy it.
We should not pick on this book because the
theme is a common ancient pattern. Parrinder would understand the
"kernel" of the new gospel that we repeat for emphasis --
"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 and
Randy Harris, Second Incarnation, p. 11).
The only reason for "still bubbling" or
fermented wine is to get drunk. The Britannica, for instance,
identifies even mildly-fermented wine which has not been diluted with
water as riotous. Doddridge indicates that "riot" or "excess" is the
inherent quality of
fermented wine. A gospel which produces
a mental state like that of wine must also, sooner or later, become
riotous beginning with music (just try running a tavern without
music). Larger and larger "fixes" are required to get the Sunday
night crowd back.
Another common theme of the wine/music
religions was nakedness. When Noah drank the first wine (Gen 9:21) he
got drunk and Ham "saw his father's nakedness" and bragged about it.
The curse of Ham was Canaanite religion which depended totally on
wine and music-induced homosexuality. This may be literal or it may
be spiritual or emotional nakedness --force the paying public to
"become vulnerable" and feel embarrassed when they "wake up" having
been seduced with what the ancients called the "effeminate
art."
Didn't God get tired of the old rituals and
have Habakkuk pronounce the same woe as Amos when he wrote --
For the earth will
be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters
cover the sea. Hab 2:14
Woe to him who
gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk,
so that he can gaze on their naked bodies. Hab 2:15
One reason for pouring "still fermenting wine"
from a wineskin and calling it "gospel" is to manipulate the
"audience" for the benefit of the manipulator. Those who try to feed
the church with "excitement" rather than the Word of God will surely
expose their own nakedness. However, you cannot get away with it
long. In addition to wine being the symbol and cause of drunkenness,
it is also the common symbol of God pouring out His wrath --
You will be filled
with shame instead of
glory. Now it is your
turn! Drink and be
exposed ! The cup from
the Lord's right
hand is coming around
to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. Hab 2:16
Next, Habakkuk reminds us that wine and music
were the primary "revivers" of the dead gods or idols. The leaders of
charismatic (bubbling, fermenting) churches are often held to be gods
--you can criticize Christ but you must not criticize the leader with
whom we are having a relationship.
What profiteth the graven image that the maker
thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that
the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? Hab
2:18
"Yobal
made reed instruments, and harps, and flutes, and whistles, and the
devils went and dwelt
inside them. When men
blew into the pipes, the devils sang inside them, and sent out sounds
from inside them.
Of the Transmission of the Art of Playing the
Harp, that is to say of Music and Singing and Dancing.
Yobal (Jubal, rimes with...). (Note: Jubilee or "a blast
of trumpets" is from Jubal which means "to lead with triumph or
pomp.") and Tobalkin (Tubal-Cain), the two brethren, the sons of Lamech,
the blind man, who killed Cain, invented and made all kinds of
instruments (or metal weapons) of music.
Denominational preachers who depend on the
"wine" model also "come alive" or are "aroused" by the stirring
music, handclapping and enthusiasm. However, Habakkuk asks --
Woe to him who says
to wood, 'Come to life!' Or to lifeless stone (or lifeless church),
'Wake up!' Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver;
there is no breath in it. Hab 2:19
But the LORD is in
his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him." Hab
2:20
Some of the most ancient "idols" are built as
harps in the form of a bull. They are "set" with gold and "engraved"
with lapis-lazuli. The musician pretended that the "voice" from the
harp was a message from God.
The word "Exuberant" of the new pattern carries
the meaning of "high-spirited, brash, bubbling, fizzing, gay." Didn't
Solomon say something like "don't look into the vat or you will get
your nose struck by a viper?" Just can't see Jesus in these
words.
The "new way" in the pattern is the wine
gospel. However, the "new way" is not "fermenting wine." Rather, in
Hebrews 10:20, the "new way" as a shadow was the "curtain" of the
tabernacle. In its fulfillment it was the body of Christ. "Pure
water" was the liquid used by this writer to "wash" before getting on
the Holiness superhighway. This Way "does not change like shifting
shadows" and certainly does not ferment.
The goal of being exuberant may be an
artificially induced form of madness. In Corinth, maddening meant
crazy as Paul disparaged tongues by comparing them to the most
logical example: instrumental music which cannot teach. Maddening
also means "raving." The charismatic prophets from the high places
raved with their instruments.
Some used "resounding gongs" or echo chambers
to get a message; others used the harp and tambourine as "tinkling
cymbals." The motive was to get a feeling or a message from the god
--for a price. Paul would say "there is no love." Naba is to speak or
sing (Strong). The word literally means to rave. Its counterpart was
seen by Tatian who spoke of many when he said that the man was
--
"giving himself
excessive airs of daintiness and indulging in all sorts of
effeminacy; sometimes darting his eyes about; sometimes
throwing his
hands hither and
thither, and raving
(Tatian to the Greeks, Ante-Nicene, Vol. II, p. 75).
The writers of the letters (guided into all
truth) did not promote a wineskins religion. Wine is mentioned in a
judgmental way. In Revelation it is used in connection with the
end-time Babylon form of "falling down" religion which is spiritual
adultery --
A second angel
followed and said, "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made
all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries." Rev
14:8
In Rev. 14:10 and in 16:19 wine as the symbol
of God's wrath is poured out upon those who worship in "her." The KJV
makes the point by saying that the wine of God's wrath is "poured out
without mixture." Wine that was not diluted (up to 20 to 1 by some
accounts) was the wine of the riotous drinkers of wine. That is the
type which God will use. When Jesus comes many will be drinking the
wine straight from the skin. In 14:19 God will judge the earth when
"the grapes are fully ripe." In 18:22 the music connection is made
when the "flute-players" and musicians are silenced in "Babylon."
This is not the city band because --
"In Greek it is
auleo or auletes which means "a flute-player" which in the papyri
writings of the time the word is chiefly associated with religious
matters" (Vine, Flute-players). (Often young girls)
God will purge the church of the two primary
Babylonian ingredients: music and commerce as in the Tyrian "song of
the prostitute" (Isa 23:15-16). This destiny was predicted of the
literal and spiritual Babylon when Isaiah 14:11 said that the king of
Babylon (as a Satan type) would go into the grave along "with the
noise of your harps." Therefore, the ancient wine patterns informed
Paul when he said "don't get drunk with wine but be filled with the
spirit." He knew the common patterns where men like --
"Apollo at Delphi
had to pay for the guilt of slaying the powers of the underworld
which have their own rights. Then there are the methods of
introduction through psychological means. Intoxication is brought
about by a change of light and darkness, by ascetic
fasting, by incense, sounds, music, etc." (Tillich, Paul, A History of
Christian Thought, Touchstone, p. 14).
The Second Incarnation mentions wineskins and
"the highway of holiness in the same breath." However, God's new way
is not a "highway" for the "fermenting wine" gospel. Rather, Jesus
said of the new way --
Enter through the
narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is
the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. Mat
7:13
But small is the
gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Mat 7:14
The problem is that "doctors of the law" stand
by the gate and "take away the key to knowledge." They have no
intention of "going in" but stand there only to hinder those who are
trying to find the gate (Luke 11:52). They stood by the "gate" to
heaven as Jesus was dying and tried to feed him wine but He refused
(Matt 27:48).
A primary way the wine merchants kept the truth
hidden was with the magic of music. It is beyond the scope of this
article, but the "mocking" of Jesus also implicates murmuring songs
with music. It was like "responsorial" singing with music --mimicking
the words of Jesus with instruments. Therefore, in Matt 7:22-23 Jesus
speaks of the "prophesiers" who drove out demons and performed
miracles. This was the common practice of those who recited "lord,
lord" as a mantra. Jesus said that they were evil. They were like the
"familiar spirit" of the Witch of Endor where --
Hebrew
owb "the idea of prattling a father's name;
prop. A mumble, i.e. a water skin (from the hollow sound): hence a necromancer (ventriloquist as from a jar {wine skin}) (Strong's)
In time, the "familiar spirits" were summoned
with more sophisticated musical forms, choirs and whole bands. In the
same way, the tongue speakers and "wineskin toters" in 11:21 damaged
Corinth and were condemned in 13:1f by the terms "resounding gong"
and "clanging cymbal." The Greek chalkos carries a meaning similar to
the "familiar spirit" and of the mocking of Jesus. Vine says that it
is "figurative of a person destitute of love."
God says to "quit mocking and pay attention to
what I say" in Isa 28:22f and this was used by Paul to define
speaking in tongues as the same method of "speaking to God" but they
were just "speaking into the air." According to Amos 5-6, Isaiah 5
and many other warnings, music always follows the wineskins and leads
to the token preaching of the Word remade "in our own image." Ezekiel
made the wine and commerce connection in 27:18 and, like Amos'
warning, God gave him advance warning that --
My people come to you, as they usually do, and
sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into
practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts
are greedy for unjust gain. Ezek 33:31
Indeed, to them you
are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not
put them into practice. Ezek 33:32
In the civilized "pattern," if you drink wine
and drive on the "highway of Nashville" they will put you in jail,
shame you on TV and in the papers, and expose you to MAAD. Isn't wine
and the "highway of holiness" an oxymoron?
Again, we are told that this "wine" has not yet
been "fermented" by the same Jesus (God, Spirit, Life). In the same
way Premillenialism holds that Christ was defeated and high-tailed it
back to heaven when "Satan murdered Him" (in one popular book) so
that the kingdom was not established. This is why we must aid it in
its continuing fermentation --
"The wine is the
bubbling, churning gospel. It (wine) is the ever - arriving - yet -
never - fully - realized - on - Earth kingdom of God. It (wine) is
the powerful presence of the Spirit of God among believers. The
wineskins are the points of contact between the wine and culture."
(Second Incarnation, p. 11).
To be filled with the Spirit in Ephesians 5:18
is directly opposite to "be filled with wine." To be filled with
Spirit (read: Mind of Christ re 1 Cor 2) is to be filled with the
Word of Christ in Colossians 3:16. The Spirit of Christ spoke of "the
water of the Word" but I couldn't find that passage about "the wine
of the Word."
Every word related to the Spirit of God conveys
the idea of the "Mind of God." We have the Mind of God Mind of Christ
which has been revealed (adequately, thank you) in His literal words.
Jesus said it so that it can be ignored but not misunderstood:
It is the spirit
that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Jn 6:63
Bubbling is defined as "simmering, boiling
over, percolating or distilling." Paul to the
Ephesians and Colossians made just the opposite point: wine and
spirit are mutually exclusive. Jesus said in John 7:37: "If anyone is
thirsty, let him come to me and drink wine." No, He did not. The Jews
were getting drunk on wine but Jesus offered water. Believers will
overflow with the gospel but it is not wine. When one has the spirit,
Jesus said that "living water will flow from within."
Kenneth Sublett
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