Our View Regarding the Use of Wine
in the Communion Service
Our Lord Jesus Christ lived and ministered in a culture
that used real wine as a common, everyday beverage. Although He condemned its
misuse in drunkenness as a sinful act (Matt 24:29; Lk 12:45;
21:34) He never
disparaged the drinking of wine per se. As a matter of biblical
fact, for Him to have done so would have contradicted His own
behavior. It is clear
that Jesus Himself partook of wine (Lk 7:33-35); He miraculously
created a high-quality wine at Cana in Galilee (Jn 2:1-11) and in
His institution of the Lord’s Supper he spoke of “the cup” as filled with “the fruit of the vine.”
(Matt 26:29; Mk 14:25; Lk 22:18) The term “fruit of the vine” was an
expression “employed by Jews
from time immemorial for the wine partaken of on sacred occasions,
as at the Passover and on the evening of the Sabbath.”
( Davis
, Dictionary, p. 868)
We believe that wine, much more than grape juice,
symbolizes the blood of Christ, shed for our sins. It is the glorified body and
blood of Christ which brings us the blessing of the new
covenant. Wine’s
resemblance to Christ’s blood is found not simply in its color, but
more importantly in its power to gladden the hearts of men. That is why wine’s alcoholic
content, resulting from the transformation of fermentation, is
significant. The
fermentation process turns the mundane grape juice into the wine of
blessing. Grape juice
is dead, but wine has passed from death to life through
fermentation.
Pasteurization, the manmade process by
which grape juice is manufactured, interrupts the God-ordained
process of fermentation by killing the agent of that
transformation. There
is a connection between the modern unnatural manufacture of grape
juice and the modern extra-biblical hermeneutic that requires it for
communion, both of which are 19th century
innovations. By
stunting the development of grape juice into wine, we truncate the
biblically ascribed meaning of the cup of blessing. The united testimony of the
church for over 1900 years unquestioningly used wine for the
communion service, no matter the tradition.
Therefore, in humility before our Lord and
before the testimony of our brethren in times past, we have
determined to return to the practice of using wine in the Lord’s
Supper.
[much of the preceding was adapted from a statement of
Michiana Covenant Church of Granger, Indiana]
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Meeting at the Dows Presbyterian
Church
109 N
Eskridge St,
PO Box
75
Dows, IA 50071
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