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If a Believer Takes Wine Moderately, Does Not Get Drunk and Does Not Weaken His Brothers Conscience nor Hurt His Testimony, Has He Sinned?

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Answered by True Bible Teachings AI on 5/11/2026

1) Direct answer
No—if he truly remains sober, is not under its power, does not wound a weaker conscience, and his own heart is clear before God, he has not sinned. But the higher, cleaner way is abstinence.

2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible shows real wine existed and could be used without sin in proper measure: Jesus made wine at Cana (John 2:10), and Timothy was told, “use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake” (1 Timothy 5:23).
- Drunkenness and being influenced by drink are condemned: “Be not drunk with wine” (Ephesians 5:18); drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:10; Galatians 5:21).
- Liberty is judged by love and conscience: “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth” (Romans 14:21). “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth… whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:22–23).
- Wisdom warns of its snare: “Wine is a mocker” (Proverbs 20:1); “Look not thou upon the wine… at the last it biteth like a serpent” (Proverbs 23:31–32).

3) Simple clarifying logic
- The sin is not in the mere existence of wine, but in loss of sobriety, bondage, and harmful influence.
- If there is no drunkenness, no offense, and no self-condemnation, there is no sin in that act. Yet the safest testimony and the strongest walk is to abstain, to avoid the snare, and to be filled with the Spirit rather than influenced by wine (Ephesians 5:18).

4) Reinforcing statement
You see, the Bible does not command drunkenness; it commands sobriety. But love chooses the higher road. Abstinence keeps the vessel clean and the witness bright.

What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?

Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.

SermonRelevance 42

Hebrews, Chapter 6, part 2

Sunday evening, the 8th of September 1957 at the Branham Tabernacle in Jeffersonville, Indiana, U.S.A.

57-0908E §55

You love God. I wouldn't be ... if I went out and got on a drunk tonight---I never drank in my life---but if I went out and got on a drunk, I wouldn't be afraid of getting a whipping. That isn't the reason I don't go ... don't go to it. The reason I don't do it, is because I love Him. He loves me. It's not a works of law, it's not something that I got to do; it's because He's already done something for me and I love him for it. There you are. So with that Spirit in there which is promised, "I give unto him everlast...

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SermonRelevance 42

Three kinds of believers

Sunday evening, the 24th of November 1963 at the Branham Tabernacle in Jeffersonville, Indiana, U.S.A.

63-1124E §97

And now, as this is surely true, both here and the invisible audience, we are pictured here tonight in one of these classes. Either we are genuine believers ... Test it with the Word. If the Word said a certain thing and the church said something different, what would you take? Look in the glass of God's Word and see which class you're standing in. And if you're not tonight (both here and in the invisible audience)-- if you're not with that believing type, could I offer just a word of prayer for you now that you wo...

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SermonRelevance 42

Hebrews, Chapter 7, part 2

Sunday, the 22nd of September 1957

57-0922 §39

Then if we sin willfully, if we sin (disbelieve) willfully... Not after we receive the truth (been borned again), we couldn't sin then. A sinner cannot commit the unpar... A Christian cannot commit the unpardonable sin. He can't do it. It's the ungodly that does that. It's the make-believer, not the believer. Those Jewish rabbis, oh, they thought they were "starch," and they was D.D.'s and Ph.D.'s. They thought they had it "all sewed up, in a bag," but they was the worst of sinners! Oh, they might ... you couldn't...

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SermonRelevance 42Broader match

The Oncoming Storm

Monday, the 29th of February 1960

60-0229 §33

...eting, and all the Christians sitting around, drinking beer. Well, America, Canada, and England, is the only nations I know that refuses the Christians to drink. They don't get drunk; but we Americans... Then when ... I didn't drink it. So, after a while there come a question around the table, what was the matter that I wasn't drinking my beer. Was it because it wasn't good?

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SermonRelevance 41

Where I think Pentecost failed

Friday, the 11th of November 1955

55-1111 §84

While they're praying, I want to ask you something. "What is sin, Brother Branham?" Smoking cigarettes? That's not sin. Committing adultery? That's not sin. Telling lies? That's not sin. That's attributes of sin. There's only one sin, and that's the sin of unbelief. "He that believeth not..." Saint John 3, "He that believeth not is condemned already." Now you're either a believer or an unbeliever. And if you say, "Well, Brother Branham, I quit drinking." That still don't mean that, don't mean you're a Christian, se...

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