Q.Why do people condemn drinking wine and strong drink when it is allowed in the Bible?

A This is a good question and it is usually based on a misunderstanding of several verses which seemingly contradict one another but really don't. Just considering the negative verses without looking into what the Scriptures say as a whole, including the context, can lead to the wrong conclusion. What has happened in the last 100 years in this country has shaped what many believe about alcohol. There was a movement at one time that believed that alcohol should be eliminated from American society and proponents of this view enlisted and were even led by religious leaders. They proceeded to find many verses in the Bible that spoke of alcohol in a negative way, trying to convince voters that alcohol was evil and should be outlawed. This resulted in what was called Prohibition. Well, after a few years, this didn't work and Prohibition was voted down. But, these ministers taught younger ministers, who taught other ministers and there are those today who maintain the same mindset as the prohibitionists. They clearly teach that drinking wine or strong drink is sin, but by doing that they have a problem because Yeshua clearly drank wine and even made wine at a wedding, and it wasn't grape juice. The headwaiter tasted it and said it was the best wine. He knew the difference between grape juice and wine, and if Yeshua had made grape juice he would have really complained. These teachers fall into the category of forbidding things permitted to be eaten (1 Tim 4.1-5). The problem is while condemning drinking as sin, they have to get around the fact that Yeshua drank, so they say He drank grape juice, which isn't true. He was accused of "eating (gluttony) and drinking (drunkenness)" and they said he had a demon. People today try to do the same thing. Wine was used for medicinal purposes (Parable of the Good Samaritan) and Paul's advice to Timothy. In Deut 14.26 it says to sell your tithe and buy "strong drink". The word for "strong (chazak) drink (shekar)" means an intoxicant. Now, God would not have commanded something if it was sin. Water, as an example, has many negative connotations in the Bible, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't drink it or use it. You can say the same thing about fire, or just about anything. There is a difference between eating and gluttony just as there is between drinking and drunkenness, which is always destructive. Paul said not to get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. He didn't say to avoid wine altogether. Aside from love, mercy, kindness and justice, one should use moderation in all things. A person should know what their limitations, faults and weaknesses are and act accordingly in good conscience before the Lord. If a particular behavior does not violate righteous behavior, harm your health or violate civil law, then it is most likely acceptable.

Q. What is the Abomination of Desolation and what does it look like?

A. The Abomination of Desolation is an idol that will be placed in the Holy Place of the coming 3rd Temple in Jerusalem. In Hebrew it is called the “Shikutz Somem” and it means “the idol that causes horror.” It will be an image of the false messiah, and it will be standing next to another image, probably of Mary. It is my opinion that this idol will be a crucifix. Now, for those who don’t know, a crucifix is a cross with a man hanging on it, not the sign or symbol of a cross. Let me explain. The Scriptures are full of pictures and types of the false messiah and this image is described in several areas. In Isaiah chapters 40-46, an idol is being described there. In short, it is an image of a man, it’s nailed to a tree, it can be placed in a house, worn around the neck and carried on the shoulder. It is very descriptive of what the Bible calls an “asherim” (masculine plural in Hebrew) and these are forbidden. Portions of Isaiah 40-46 were used in a Jewish prayer called the Oleynu and during the 1500’s the Catholic church forbade the Jews from using those portions from Isaiah in that prayer because they saw it as an attack on the Crucifix. Documentation for this can be found in the Hertz Authorized Prayer Book, under the commentary for the Oleynu prayer. The Catholic Church saw this portion of Isaiah as describing a crucifix, so it isn’t my opinion alone. That has been around for nearly 500 years. This brings us up to the Shroud of Turin. The Shroud is reported to be the burial cloth of Yeshua but it really isn’t and it can be disproved scripturally in many different ways, but that is another article. I believe that God allowed this as a sign and a wonder (Deut 13.1-5) and a satanic counterfeit in order to deceive people (2 Thes 2.11) into accepting the false messiah eventually. It is a documented fact that Antiochus Epiphanes tried to get Israel to accept Greek gods, resulting in the Maccabean revolt around 160 years before Yeshua. Commentaries will tell you that Antiochus made images of himself as Zeus Kyrios and placed them everywhere. Some of these statues exist today. Well, a statue of Zeus was examined by a Dr Wanger of Duke University several years ago and it was dated to the 1st century. He was trying to say that the Shroud was used a model for the face on the statue, thus proving the Shroud was 1st century, thus giving further proof that the image was Yeshua. He said that the statue of Zeus had nearly 70 points of similarity and congruence with the Shroud, thus it was an exact image. The face on the Shroud is the face on the statue of Zeus. But there is another way of looking at this. The statue is the face of Antiochus Epiphanies, who the Bible uses as an example of the false messiah in the book of Daniel, and the Shroud, being the exact image of the statue, is the image of Antiochus, not Yeshua. And, the Shroud has been used for centuries to influence paintings of Yeshua in art and even movies to this day. By doing this, people have been led to believe that Yeshua looked like that. 2 Thes 2. 3-12 warns us about a great delusion that is coming about the false messiah in the last days, and this is part of it. It is this Shroud that influences the image on the crucifix, which I believe is the Abomination of Desolation. I think that this image will be placed in the coming Temple by the false prophet, who will be the reigning Pope during the Tribulation. The false messiah may very well resemble the face on the Shroud, thus “proving” he is “Jesus”. I believe that the Abomination of Desolation will be placed in the Temple alongside a statue of Mary. This has been done before by King Manasseh of Israel. In 2 Chr 33 he places a female “asherah” (feminine plural in Hebrew) in the Temple. We already know that the Abomination of Desolation is an “asherim” (masculine) but here he places a feminine statue. I believe that it is possible that when the Pope places a crucifix in the Temple, he will also put a statue of Mary next to it, the Queen of heaven. If one thinks about this, this happens right now. Wherever the Pope goes there are crucifixes and Mary statues everywhere, and nobody even notices. When the false messiah and false prophet stop the Temple services during the Tribulation, and they will, if they placed a crucifix and a statue of Mary next to each other in the Holy Place, most people will not be surprised, and that’s the point. Many people have already accepted these idols, but not everybody. When this is taught in our congregation, there are handouts and visuals to all this to document this, and there is so much more detail, but hopefully this gives you some idea about this very important prophetic concept and will stimulate you into finding out more about it through the Internet and other sources.