Is drunkenness a sin

Answer 1

"Drunkenness is condemned in The Bible. Use of strong drink to the point of drunkenness is strongly censured in the Bible. The wise writer of Proverbs paints a vivid and scientifically accurate picture of the effects of drinking Alcoholic Beverages to excess. He warns: "Who has woe? Who has uneasiness? Who has contentions? Who has concern? Who has wounds for no reason? Who has dullness of eyes? Those staying a long time with the wine, those coming in to search out mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it exhibits a red color, when it gives off its sparkle in the cup [when the wine looks unduly attractive, sparkling], when it goes with a slickness [when it slides down the throat too easily]. At its end it bites just like a serpent, and it secretes poison just like a viper [it can make one sick physically (for example, causing cirrhosis of the liver) and mentally (producing delirium tremens), and it can actually kill]. Your own eyes will see strange things [the alcohol acts on the control centers of the brain, repressing them; attitudes normally repressed come to the fore ...gaps in memory are filled by the individual's telling fantastic experiences in a most plausible way; the person exhibits uninhibited behavior], and your own heart will speak perverse things [thoughts and desires normally suppressed will be expressed]."-Pr 23:29-33; Ho 4:11; Mt 15:18, 19.

The drunkard's personal experience is described as the writer continues: "And you will certainly become like one lying down in the heart of the sea [experiencing the confusion of one drowning, finally passing into unconsciousness], even like one lying down at the top of a mast [as the rocking of the ship is greatest at this point, the drunkard's life is in danger from accident, stroke, a fight, and so forth]. 'They have struck me, but I did not become sick; they have smitten me, but I did not know it [says the drunkard, as if talking to himself; he was insensible to what was actually going on and to the punishment that the experience has inflicted on him]. When shall I wake up? I shall seek it yet some more [he must now sleep off the effects of overindulgence, but he is enslaved by the drink and looks forward to drinking more when he is able].'" He will come to poverty, by spending excessive amounts for liquor and also by becoming unreliable and rendering himself unable to work.-Pr 23:20, 21, 34, 35.

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