Richard Roberts, President Emeritus of Oral Roberts University, was arrested just past midnight today (Jan. 24) on DUI. He was clocked driving his Mercedes 93mph and was pulled over by a state trooper. A report from the Tulsa Co. Jail indicates the trooper smelled a strong odor of alcohol and administered a horizontal gaze sobriety test but Roberts was unable to follow directions, according to the trooper. The report says Roberts was taken to the Jenks Police Department where he submitted to a breathalyzer test and blew .11, which is over the legal limit of .08.
What a sad testimony to the unsaved, and the many who struggle with this liquid lie!
When will Christians start to realize that their “social drinking” preachers are in direct disobedience to the Word of God? If anything is clear in the Scripture, it is that “Wine is a MOCKER and strong drink is raging, whosoever is DECEIVED thereby is not wise.” (Prov. 20:1) We got a ton of “sipping saints” and “prickled preachers” who twist the Scriptures to their own destruction! That verse clearly states that alcohol deceives! And it’s deceiving a ton of believers into thinking it is perfectly okay to drink. I’m just thankful that Richard Roberts got pulled over before he slammed into some innocent person and killed them because he obviously was DECEIVED thinking he was just fine driving at that speed under the influence of a liquid sedative drug.
Ministers are told to avoid alcohol many times in the Bible. And yet, we have several examples of preachers ignoring its truth. We can see what happens when preachers and alcohol mix, from Noah getting drunk and the shame that followed to this statement from Isaiah the prophet, “But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; THE PRIEST AND THE PROPHET HAVE ERRED THROUGH STRONG DRINK, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.” (Isaiah 28:7-8)
Instead of being in the way, to block the advancement of sin in our nation and instead of being loud voices of reason, calling America back to God, these preachers are “swallow up with wine” and are “out of the way through strong drink”! Their nasty lifestyle is like dogs going back to the vomit of their alcohol! This is a disgusting evil in our day! It is ruining homes, marriages and futures all over this great country of ours! And it has made its DECEPTIVE ways right into our pulpits!!!
Preachers, PUT DOWN THAT STUPID CAN OF BEER and pick up a Bible and get something done for the Kingdom of God instead of trying to live like the devil and his DECEIVED followers!! God help us!!!
Sadly, Richard Roberts is not the only preacher that has fallen for this DECEPTION! Scores of “full-Gospel” preachers have followed the same error. And it won’t change unless believers start requiring their leaders to live up to the standard of the Scriptures! If you got a preacher in your pulpit that doesn’t rail on sin and call alcohol what it is, you need to run as far as you can from that church!! 25 million alcoholics can testify to the fact that preacher isn’t helping at all.
In several ways, Roberts has been able to “get around” the Scriptures and disobey the clear teaching of the Word of God for being a church leader. But God is always right, and if we don’t obey it, we will all find out the hard way that God knows what He is talking about! Read this passage and see if it doesn’t plainly state he has no right to be an example of a church leader? Paul stated if a man wants to be a church leader, he must be…“If any be blameless, THE HUSBAND OF ONE WIFE, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, NOT GIVEN TO WINE, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, SOBER, just, holy, temperate;” (Titus 1:6-8)
Maybe it’s about time for us to get back to the Bible and lay down these ridiculous ways we have chosen to walk in!
UNSEALED PROPHECY 
So – what do you do with 1 Timothy 5:23?
Or with the fact that our God; who has never sinned made wine? He turned water into wine. If the answer is, as my pastor growing up said, “well they didn’t have to drink it!” that is also a theological problem because that is indicating that Jesus was tempting people….
And then there’s Passover – which was wine, again.
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FYI – I’m taking a class on Addiction right now and based on what I’ve learned – really; anyone with such a high BAL that gets pulled over is likely very much a chronic drinker (ie has a problem) and not someone who is socially drinking a glass or two. A social/ once in a while drinker will feel euphoric, etc… with a BAL of .02 (well below the legal limit for drinking) but a chronic drinker won’t have the same effects until their BAL is a .10 (well above).
Using a BAC calculator you can see that if someone were to only drink a single glass of wine they could easily stay under the limits. This incident is not proof that moderation doesn’t work – this incident is proof that he’s not practicing what he preaches.
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Well Leslie, if you speak to the older generation in my country, they will tell you that they always had brandy in the medicine cabinet. It was only later on that they realized that South Africans must be very sick as they downed the stuff by the gallons. This may sound funny, but it is the truth. That takes care of 1 Tim 5:23 as brandy is made of wine.
There are many theories on what the wine was that Jesus made. I can tell you this, whatever happened, He would not have made people drunk.
Passover wine; even if it was the same as the wine we know today, if taken in moderation (one glass and not getting intoxicated!) I do not foresee a problem. But there are many write ups to proof that wine in the Biblical times meant the fruit of the vine or grape juice. I do not know if it is true, but again I can not see God ever tempting people to get drunk.
To tell the truth, I had the same arguments as you when I did not want to leave my beloved beer… (No indication to you)
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Nope, no indication to me. I have actually never drank wine, beer or other alcohol except that which might by in Nyquil or other medications. But after having to attend an AA meeting for my Addiction class I’m even more convinced the people who become alcoholics due so for very sinful (whether their own or someone’s sin against them) reasons; but if alcohol didn’t exist they would have turned to something else.
I know there are a lot of people who claim it was grape juice etc (ie had no fermentation) but I honestly believe that is revisionist history. Fermentation kills germs. As my Addiction text book pointed out – historically most places had bad drinking water. It was better for someone to die at age 40 from liver disease than it was for them to die at age 10 from a water-diseased illness (like cholera). If someone wants to argue “we have clean water therefore we don’t need alcohol anymore” then I wouldn’t fault them for that logic.
Goodness – even the Puritans when they came to America had beer on the ship 🙂
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For someone that is convicted that they should not drink – I would agree with them you should not drink. For someone who is not convicted that they should not drink – I would say you should not drink to the point of intoxication, and you should not drink if it would be a stumbling block to someone else.
For the reasons Leslie cites above I am not convicted that it is not permissible for me to have a glass of wine or a beer with a meal. I however, and this is personal preference but I think a sound one- will not drink something with alcohol in it just to have a drink, nor will I go into a bar and have a drink, or drink to be “sociable”. During the “cocktail hour” I personally think it sends a better message to have a plain soda or a glass of ice water. I had an experience with a gentlmen I worked with, where I frequently travelled to visit clients with him. He habitually drank heavily while we were out together (as I’m certain he had a serious alcohol problem). I chose that I would never drink in the presence of a person that I thought drank heavily or might drink heavily, or has struggled with that again.
I am also not a pastor so I guess the above does not apply to me. If I were a pastor I guess I can see how people would frequently be watching for what I did, and tempted to sin with alcohol if they saw me enjoy that liberty of a drink. I think the above message goes a bit too far into legalism, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing to emphasize the dangerous nature of alcohol and its seductive hold upon many – and we who don’t struggle with consuming it in excess should not lead our brothers and sisters into that sin.
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I think John Muncie needs to review his bible a little more carefully – since he makes the statement “Ministers are told to avoid alcohol many times in the Bible.” which is completely contrary to 1 Timothy 5:13 as mentioned above. It’s not even as though that advice about a “little wine” applied just to the believer but not to the pastor – since 1 Timothy was a Letter from the older wiser pastor, to the man he had left to shepherd the flock as he traveled on to spread the Gospel. We need to be careful that we do not put on people more than the scriptures say – (1 Corinthians 4:6).
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Let me tell you from what I know about the Roberts’ and their whole organization, they had a whole lot of big issues before this one.
I am sure some here must know the history of all of that. Unfortunately they are thought to be sound Christians by many, but not if examined by the word of God and it has nothing to do with this last escapade of Richard Roberts.
Having grown up with the Southern Baptist doctrine of no alcohol at all, and the teaching that the wine in the new testament was grape juice, if examined you can see this is not scriptural. New wine was not just grape juice, if it were then why would this have been spoken on the day of Pentecost and recorded in the scriptures?
Act 2:6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
Act 2:7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Act 2:8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Act 2:9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Act 2:10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Act 2:11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
Act 2:12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?
Act 2:13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
Act 2:14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
Act 2:15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
Many can argue this all they want but if you read this scripture for exactly what it says new wine was indeed able to make someone drunk.
I have never been a drinker, thanks to the Lord, but I do not think the actual drinking of wine is the sin,
Paul said do not get drunk,
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I’m really getting tired of a select group of Christians so confidently stating that the Bible teaches complete abstinence from alcohol. Psalm 104:14-15 CLEARLY states that it is God who gave wine to “gladden the hearts of men.” Sorry to burst your bubble with the clear teaching of Scripture. I’m sure those verses will be shocking to those who believe that the Bible “obviously” teaches complete abstinence from alcohol. But these verses along with the few others mentioned are clear on the matter. If you would like to remain abstinent to honor the Lord (as I do) then praise God our Father! DO NOT however twist the Bible to make yourself holier than others or to support an un-Biblical “law.” Bible twisting Pastors who say that the Bible forbids alcohol consumption are simply not teaching the whole counsel of God and they teach others this perversion of scripture. These people then write blogs like the one above which teaches falsities. Also this notion that Jesus only drank grape juice is equally hilarious. Grapes are harvested once a year now just like back then. Grape juice naturally ferments almost immediately in the presence of warm temperatures (i.e. the climate of Israel). Therefore unless there were fridges around that archeologists have yet to dig up, Jesus (along with everyone else) drank wine, not Welches grape. Stop teaching otherwise, at least for your own sake.
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geeze, you folks r makin’ me thirsty,…..well, moderately thirsty. Cheers! /// Be of Good Cheer and overcome overuse. Moderation is the key,..nuthin’ in excess. /// balance
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