"And as regards health, every one knows that
bodies are
SWOLLEN up and
injuriously DISTENDED by
new wine in new wineskins." Would that be a good pattern for the church?
In 1957 Graham
announced his "inclusive policy" to infiltrate rather than separate. In 1963 he made liberal Bishop Gerald Kennedy the
honorary chairman of his Los Angeles crusade. Kennedy's denial of the
diety of Christ in the book God's Good News felt that Kennedy should
be treated as 2 John states
Whosoever
transgresseth, and abideth not in doctrine of Christ, hath not God,
If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him
not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth
him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
In changing his crusade policies, Graham influenced many pastors and
churches to follow his example of compromise in a new approach to
evangelism called ecumenical evangelism because of the peer pressure
of a brother in Christ and for the sake of souls being saved. The
mixing of belief (hot) with unbelief (cold liberalism) created the
lukewarm condition of the Laodicean church as described in Revelation
3:15,16. In time it has created spiritual blindness, spiritual
poverty, and apathy. Resource.
Jesus spoke wineskin and other parables to fool
the foolish. He never spoke clearly to the gathered masses because
they were deaf and blind for rejecting the Word of the Spirit of
Christ in the Old Testament. It comes as no surprise that people turn
the wineskin parable upside down--it is the plan of Christ.
God does not predestinate our destiny. However,
long before we hear the gospel we have so conditioned our soul that
we will receive or we will reject the total message of Christ. Christ
knew who those who had damaged their souls before He began to
speak.
When asked why He spoke in parables which no
one could understand unless He explained, Jesus said that it was to
keep the insincere from seeing and hearing Him:
Therefore speak I
to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they
hear not, neither do they understand. Matthew 13:13
And in them is
fulfilled the prophecy
of Esaias, which saith,
By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Matthew 13:14
For this peoples
heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their
eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their
eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their
heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Matthew
13:15
All these things spake Jesus
unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: Matthew 13:34
That it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my
mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been
kept secret from the
foundation of the world. Matthew.13:35
The prophets were being Spirit breathed upon by
the Spirit of Christ in them:
Searching what, or
what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow
1 Peter 1:11
This secret knowledge was the wisdom of God
which you cannot buy at Phd U.
Where is the wise?
where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not
God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 1 Corinthians 1:20
For since in the
wisdom of
God the world through
its wisdom did not know him, God was
pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those
who believe. 1 Corinthians 1:21
God was Christ Who was always evident but the
false teachers could not (cannot) find Him there:
He (Christ) was
in the
world, and the
world was made by
him, and the world knew
him not. John 1:10
Fresh (new or old) wine or fruit of the vine
was not stored permanently in old billy goat skins. They just taste
terrible. Rather, wine for the sole purpose of intoxication, was
fermented in the vat and never in the wineskin. Wine or fresh
juice is the fruit of the vine;
intoxicating wine or strong drink is the fruit of the vat. Jesus indicated
that those who drink fermented wine don't much care how it tastes when they
drink for intoxication.
Intoxicants of any form are deadly dangerous
and we shudder to think that men would charge Jesus with the crime of
distributing wine and using it as a model of His spiritual (mental)
and helpful kingdom!
AUGUSTIN in DISCLOSURE OF THE MONSTROUS TENETS
OF THE MANICHAEANS ASKS even of deliberately allowing wine to
ferment:
44. Who does not
know that wine becomes
purer and better by age? Nor is it, as you think, more tempting to the destruction of the senses, but more useful for invigorating the
body,--only let there be moderation, which ought to control
everything. The senses
are sooner destroyed by new wine. When the must
has been only a short time in the vat, and has begun to ferment, it makes those who look down into it fall
headlong, affecting
their brain, so that without assistance they would perish. And as
regards health, every one knows that bodies are swollen up and injuriously distended by new wine? Has it these bad properties because
there is more good in it?
Clay vessels were coated within and without
with pitch to keep the air out and the juice uncontaminated. When
sober Jews found their wine fermenting, they took it out of the
storage jar of clay (amphora) or wood cask and boiled it or fumigated
it with sulphur to stop the fermentation cold before damage could be done. The
old storage jar would be fumigated and the wine replaced and watched
closely because fermentation was one
step toward literal and spiritual rot.
To some degree, old wineskins can be made into
"new" wineskins by boiling in hot water, pounding to add flexibility
for more volume and even sterilizing with fumes of sulphur. Sulphur
dioxide is still used to kill the old yeast and only pure wine yeast
added to produce wine rather than yuk!
Fresh, preserved fruit of the vine would be
stored in a wineskin for short journeys:
And these bottles
(wineskins NIV) of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our
garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long
journey. Jos.9:13
Therefore, the gospel, the kingdom or the
church has never been compared to intoxicating wine. The kingdom
grows and spreads like leaven which does not produce "trees" or mass
movements. Rather yeast produces spores which fly into all the world
producing after their kind and then having the decency to move out
and move on:
And he spake also a parable unto them; No man
putteth a piece of a new
garment upon an old; if otherwise, then
both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the
new agreeth not with the old Lu.5:36
And no man putteth
new (fresh)
wine into
old
bottles; else the new
wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall
perish. Lk 5:37
But new (fresh) wine must be put into new (fresh)
bottles; and both are preserved. Lu.5:38
No man also having
drunk old
wine straightway desireth new: for he
saith, The old is better. Lu.5:39
The old was better for these people than fresh,
helpful fruit of the vine. If "old" includes alcohol it also includes
many other destructive drugs. However, to a drunk, anything is better
than water or fresh juice. They wanted their old, contaminated with
Canaanite Baalism pretending to be faithful Judaism.
New Wine is Fresh Fruit of the Vine or
Juice
New is not
"youthful or of young age" but new here means
fresh:
Kainos (g2537)
kahee-nos'; of uncert. affin.; new
especially in freshness;
while 3501 is prop. so
with respect to age): - new.
Old is
not
good:
Palaios
(g3820) pal-ah-yos'; from 3819; antique, i.e.
not recent, worn out: - old.
Palai (h3819) pal'-ahee; prob. another form for 3825 (through
the idea of retrocession); (adv.) formerly, or (by rel.)
sometime since; (ellipt. as adj.) ancient: - any while, a
great while ago, (of) old, in time past.
Juice preserved several years, as our moms
preserved it, would not be young but it would still be
fresh.
Grape juice 2 years old would not be stored in a wineskin. Rather it
would be preserved in clay amphora. However, if you put the fresh
juice into an old, yeast contaminated skin and go on a trip it will
loose its freshness, ferment and burst an old or new. It will also pick
up the old taste and even molds which cause you to hallucinate. Old
means that it contains leaven because Jesus knew that old skins could store even
fermenting wine if they were not sealed or had their walls broken down.
In fact, ancient "ball valves" have been found
which allow the even tiny bits of carbon dioxide out but do not let
either air
or leaven in. No fool would seal up fermenting wine. Therefore, the
parable was Jesus' warning against
fermenting from ecumenical
leaven.
However, if you take preserved fruit of the
vine out of the storage container and put it into a fresh skin which
has never been
contaminated you can seal it and know
that it is not going to begin even slight
fermentation and burst.
How do you preserve the fruit of the
vine?
Jesus didn't really use the word "spill" to
indicate that the skin would burst and the fermented wine would be
lost. Rather, the loss occurred because the fresh juice was not preserved. Only after it
ferments does it spill. Preserved is from the
Greek:
Suntereo (g4933) soon-tay-reh'-o; from 4862 and 5083 (guard
from injury,
keep unmarried); to keep closely together, i.e. (by impl.) to
conserve from
ruin; ment.
to remember and obey: - keep, observe, preserve.
If the fresh juice is preserved from
fermentation then it will remain fresh for years. It does not need an
expansive
wineskin if it is not all in a ferment.d
Preserve in
english means to "observe to protect, to
keep from spoiling or
rotting, to prepare food as by canning,
pickling or salting for future use." I probably helped in the process
of preserving fruit and juices when I was eight or ten years old.
Sterilize the juice, sterilize the jar, add sugar or salt, add the
high temperature of a pressure canner and seal before any yeast can
get in. You can then have fresh fruit of the vine for
Passover or lunch for several years.
If you are a drunk you can take the fresh
juice, put it into an old wineskin, watch it bubble and go
charismatic and then you can get drunk in the "spirit of alcohol"
which is not "holy."
People have always known how to preserve new
wine (juice) as a food product: we do not have a corner on
knowledge.
Isn't Old Wine Better Because it is
Fermented?
Jesus was fooling the fools. He
did not agree that the old,
antique, worn out, destructive wine really was better because it had
not been
preserved.
However, His blind and deaf listeners thought that Law was better
than Gospel and that poisoned wine was better than water. Jesus did
not agree with their opinion.
Preserved
juice as a food product gets better because of the slight ongoing
oxidization of poisonous byproducts. However, alcohol drinkers would
rather have "old, poison alcohol", even if it is aftershave lotion,
than pure water.
The message is that many would rather have
ancient legalistic feast
days (Sabbaths, New Moons, Jubilees)
and fermenting wine of paganism than the pure "water of the Word"
which you don't have to "send someone across the sea to get and
return to teach. It is near you"-
Wherefore I will
not be negligent to put you always in remembrance (preserved for quiet remembrance!) of these things, though ye
know them, and be established in the present truth. 2Pe.1:12
Yea, I think it
meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting
you in remembrance; 2Pe.1:13
Moreover I will endeavour
that ye may be able after my decease to have these things alway in
remembrance 2Pe.1:15 (The word is preserved)
For we have not followed
cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his
majesty. 2Pe 1:16
We have also a
more sure word of
prophecy; whereunto ye
do well that ye take
heed, as unto a light
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star
arise in your hearts: 2Pe 1:19
Did Jesus Drink Wine to Enforce His
Parable?
No, there is
no evidence that Jesus ever drank intoxicants. Oh, yes they
said that
He was a winebibber or wine drinker but He said: "wisdom is
justified of her children." He meant that they were lying by
accusing Him of manufacturing and dispensing fermented wine. They
accused him of an unsure ancestry but are we willing to build a new
creed based on false accusations that He was a bastard?
Jesus didn't say that he would drink "fermented
wine" with them once
more. He said that the wine would be
new,
fresh, fruit of the vine:
But I say unto you,
I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new (fresh)
with you in my Fathers kingdom. Mt 26:29
The Holy Spirit is careful to note that
Passover wine was without leaven and therefore unfermented. After
Jesus became our once-for-all Passover, He instituted the
fruit of the vine for the drink in the kingdom where "two or three are
gathered together and He is with us as Father and Son in Spirit
form."
The new gospel is
preserved and will always be fresh. It
is only when people take it out of its package, handle it, touch it,
taste it, spit in it and break down the
walls to the leaven of Herod and the
Pharisees that it is no longer preserved and is not new. Remember what we
said: wine is the fruit of the
vat and is never produced on the vine
where it will rot.
New or fresh (even if preserved for years) was
used for the Passover except perhaps among some of the clergy. It is
still what Jesus commanded for the Lord's Supper.
New Unfermented Wine stands for
a New Covenant
The new covenant is preserved only by obeying
it just as it has been delivered by
Jesus, the Spirit of Christ and the
Apostle-prophets.
The "fathers" had substituted unfermented wine
for the blood of the Passover with no apparent authority. However,
the "doctors of the law" demanded that fermented or leavened wine be
used at the Passover. This was a violation of every principle the
non-clergy Jews believed and practiced. They used no leaven in the
fruit of the vine and no leaven in the bread which might have been
leavened by wine byproducts. This is why Jesus said that the doctors
of the law took away the keys to knowledge.
Jesus restored blood as the once-for-all
Passover in which He would be sacrificed as the lamb-without leaven.
Only after the ultimate sacrifice was the fruit of the vine once
again used to symbolize His blood:
And he said unto
them, This is my blood of the new
testament, which is shed for many. Mk.14:24
After the same
manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is
the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in
remembrance of me. 1Co.11:25
Even in a figurative sense, to add fermenting
wine to the blood of the God of the Universe is to pervert the wine
and those who participate.
The Jews would not permit either leavened fruit
of the vine or bread at the Passover. Even when wine was used under
the Law for animal sacrifices, it was poured out at the base of
the alter. A priest who began to ferment and bubble like new wine
would violate the Law. The Jews even had a law for a priest who ate
grape seed. We are all priests, always on duty and cannot go before
Him with the slightest hint of new wine in new wineskins!
New wine will ferment in contact with an old,
contaminated skin. That is, the new (fresh) juice taketh from the old skin
and will expand in contact with the skin. New cloth becomes old cloth
by shrinking. As it does it taketh
from the old cloth and the rupture
occurs. Change, either expansion or contraction, in the product takes
place before the damage is done.
Thou shalt not
offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the
passover be left unto the morning. Ex.34:25
Do not
add to (old
leaven) what I command you and do not subtract from (new
cloth) it, but keep (preserve) the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.
De.4:2
In travelling through the world's wilderness,
of the "church in the wilderness" God said:
Ye shall observe to
do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you: ye shall not
turn aside to the right
hand or to
the left. De.5:32
The command or type is exactly like the
fulfillment in the teachings of Christ. The church must not add any
new element or take from what God has commanded:
Shamar
(h8104) shaw-mar'; a prim. root; prop. to hedge about as with thorns, i. e. guard; gen. to protect,
attend
to, etc.: - beware, be
circumspect, take heed (to self), keep (-er, self), mark,
look
narrowly, observe,
preserve, regard, reserve, save (self), sure, (that lay) wait (for),
watch (-man).
Therefore, the new wineskin means that the
church must not break down the
walls to allow the leaven of fellowship with
destructive leaven during worship to enter in.
When the people in Isaiah 5 turned their food
which was the product of the vine into the product of the vat, God
removed and broke down the walls of His Divinely-given Vineyard.
While moderns may believe that they are breaking down the walls
and opening up the wineskin, they are deluded. It is Christ Who is
taking away His candlestick, removing the briary hedge or walls and
allowing the ferment of paganism to flood. The sign in Isaiah was
"wine and music in their daily religious festivals" while the people
hungered and thirsted for the Water of the Word or pure Juice.
Again, we are not competent to determine
whether we are totally Christ's Sheepfold but we have an obilgation
to allow the walls to remain up for fear that the wolves will come
in. They can still come in through the gate under the watchful
scrutiny of the Chief Shepherd.
Kenneth Sublett
The the
Gospel of thomas on the Wineskins
Wineskins: Drinking The Cup Of God's
Wrath.
Dionysus: The golden Bough
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