US PRESSWIREThe Dallas
Most people have now heard the news about Josh Brent speeding while he was driving drunk and as a result he flipped his car and his passenger Jerry Brown was killed.
Today I read this below from SB Nation:
While the team embraced the memory of Brown, they also mourned the loss of teammate Josh Brent, who faces an uncertain future with the team. Brent had a rocky past in college in Illinois but was enjoyed a breakout season in 2012 and was highly respected by his teammates. The Cowboys stated on Sunday they will continue to support Brent during a troubling time:
“As far as Josh goes, you know how close we are,” Cowboys defensive end Marcus Spears said. “We all are hurting and in pain and feeling devastated. At this point, you’ve got to be brothers, through the tough times and get to him and try to encourage him and comfort him, because there are going to be some tough days ahead. That’s no secret. We won’t run away from him, probably like the world did.”
Cowboys linebacker Anthony Spencer also stood behind his teammate, stating that the accident could have happened to any of them.
“It could have been any of us. It really could have,” said Spencer. “We’ve all been in that situation where we’ve gone out and had a few drinks and then drove home, whatever the situation was, it really could have been any of us in this locker room that it happened to. It’s hard not to feel for him.”
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I do feel sorry for Josh Brent and I think it would be great to reach out to him at this time. I love the response of Brown’s grandmother who has no hard feelings towards Brent. “Nothing can put more punishment on someone than their own conscience,” said Theresa Clark, 63.
However, I must take exception to one of the comments of Anthony Spencer. Let me look at this sentence, “It could have been any of us.” Surely there are some players on the Dallas Cowboy team that abstain from drinking. There are good reasons to abstain, and the three reasons that I do not drink are as follows.
First,alcohol has brought a social plague on our country not matched by anything we have ever seen in the past. I will never forget the day I heard this statistic in 1975: “Drunk drivers are responsible for 50% of highway fatalities.”My pastor Adrian Rogers shared that statistic from the pulpit. I was only 14 years old at the time, but I was looking forward to driving. It caused me to realize that I had to abstain from alcohol and try to convince my friends and family to do likewise.
Second, the Bible does condemn alcoholic wine. There were three kinds of wine mentioned in the Bible (grapes, grape juice and strong drink). Wine in the cluster which is equal to our grapes. Isaiah 65:8 ” “As the new wine is found in the cluster…” The point I am making here is very clear. The Bible does refer to nonalcoholic wine which is equal to our grape juice. Don’t take for granted everytime you read the word “wine” in the Bible that it is referring to the kind of wine we are used to today.Next we have the term “strong drink” which is equal to our wine today. Strong drink is condemned. .Proverbs 20:1 states, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. ”
- WHAT WAS “STRONG DRINK” IN BIBLE TIMES?
Distillation was not discovered until about 1500 A.D. Strong drink and unmixed wine in Bible times was from 3% to 11% alcohol. Dr. John MacArthur says “…since anybody in biblical times who drank unmixed wine (9-11% alcohol) was definitely considered a barbarian, then we dont even need to discuss whether a Christian should drink hard liquor–that is apparent!”
Since wine has 9 to 11% alcohol and one brand 20% alcohol, you should not drink that. Brandy contains 15 to 20% alcohol, so thats out! Hard liquor has 40 to 50% alcohol (80 to 100 proof), and that is obviously excluded!
For documentation on this subject Google “alcohol” with the name of Adrian Rogers or John MacArthur. These theologians have covered this subject fully with biblical references.
Third, Romans 14:21 states, “It is better not to eat meat (that had been offered to idols) or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.” If a person rejects all the linguistic arguments, there is still Romans 14:21 concerning not causing a weaker brother to stumble..
It is consistent with the ethic of love for believers and unbelievers alike. Because I am an example to others, I will make certain no one ever walks the road of sorrow called alcoholism because they saw me take a drink and assumed, “if it is alright for Everette Hatcher, it is alright for me.” No, I will choose to set an uncompromising example of abstinence because I love them. The fact is that 1 of every 6 drinkers in the USA are problem drinkers. Maybe if my family of 6 drank, that could be me or one of my children?
Billy Sunday told a story that illustrates this principle and I heard this story while Adrian Rogers was my pastor at Bellevue Baptist:
I feel like an old fellow in Tennessee who made his living by catching rattlesnakes. He caught one with fourteen rattles and put it in a box with a glass top. One day when he was sawing wood his little five-year old boy,Jim, took the lid off and the rattler wriggled out and struck him in the cheek. He ran to his father and said, “The rattler has bit me.” The father ran and chopped the rattler to pieces, and with his jackknife he cut a chunk from the boy’s cheek and then sucked and sucked at the wound to draw out the poison. -He looked at little Jim, watched the pupils of his eyes dilate and watched him swell to three times his normal size, watched his lips become parched and cracked, and eyes roll, and little Jim gasped and died.
The father took him in his arms, carried him over by the side of the rattler, got on his knees and said, “God, I would not give little Jim for all the rattlers that ever crawled over the Blue Ridge mountains.”
That is the question that must be answered by everyone no matter what their religious beliefs. Is the pleasure of drinking alcohol worth the life of one of your children?
Here is a scripture that describes what will happen to a person addicted to alcohol:
Proverbs 23:29-35
(29) Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
(30) They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
(31) Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
(32) At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
(33) Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
(34) Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
(35) They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
- More than one-half of American adults have a close family member who has or has had alcoholism.
- Alcohol is a factor in nearly half of America’s murders, suicides and accidental deaths.
- The highest rates of current and past year heavy alcohol use are reported by workers in the following occupations: construction, food preparation and waiters/waitresses, along with auto mechanics, vehicle repairers, light truck drivers and laborers. 95% of alcoholics die from their disease and die approximately 26 years earlier than their normal life expectancy.
- Up to 40% of industrial fatalities and 47% of injuries in the workplace are linked to alcohol consumption and alcoholism.
- Absenteeism among alcoholics or problem drinkers is 3.8 to 8.3 times greater than normal.
- More than three fourths of female victims of nonfatal, domestic violence reported that their assailant had been drinking or using drugs.
- More than one third of pedestrians killed by automobiles were legally drunk.
- About half of state prison inmates and 40% of federal prisoners incarcerated for committing violent crimes report they were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of their offense.
- Long-term, heavy alcohol use is the leading cause of illness and death from liver disease in the U.S.
- Alcoholics spend four times the amount of time in a hospital as non-drinkers, mostly from drinking-related injuries.
Probably the most telling is the last statistic: 95% of alcoholics die from their disease and die approximately 26 years earlier than their normal life expectancy.
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I wish that Josh Brent would abstain from alcohol in the future and spend his time going around the world telling other young people to do that same. That would be the best way he could honor the memory of his good friend Jerry Brown.
The Daily Hatch 