The Bible definitely does not prohibit drinking alcohol. The only people who abstained were the Nazirites (see 284), and they were only a small group within Israel.
Drunkenness and the dangers it brings are condemned, and Proverbs 20:1 nicely summarizes the Bible’s view of drunkenness: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.”
In other words, don’t let drinking turn you into a fool. Proverbs 31:6 reads, “Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart”—a recognition that in the days before pain relievers and anesthetics, alcohol could serve a useful purpose. Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine suggests that He did not disapprove of drinking it (John 2).
The American temperance movement arose in the 1870s, and many Christians were at the front of that movement.
In time there was a shift from temperance (which only means mod-eration) to teetotaling and prohibition. The result was national prohibition from 1919 to 1932—a social experiment that failed.
