Did Reported Morality of the Biblical Jesus Improve World Morals? (Part 2)
by SM Yusuf Khan, Shahbad Bhoor, Barielly
The Light (Pakistan), 15th May 1922 Issue (Vol. 1, No. 11, pp. 2–3)
That Jesus himself drank fermented wines is clearly established in his commentary by Dr. L. Abbot, D.D. [Doctor of Divinity]. Jesus never condemned the use of wine and he further established its use by his church as a perpetual memorial of his atoning love; and St. Paul further exhorted his son Timothy
“to use water no more but to drink some wine for his often infirmities.” [1 Timothy, 5:23]
Now, let me ask my Christian friends what the effects of this changing of water into wine were upon the morals of the Christian world.
It is, I believe, no exaggeration to affirm that if ever in the world an evil got so firmly rooted in the very system of society to undermine its morals and to eat into its very bowels, it was this changing, this permission, this free use, this symbolisation of wine, by Jesus.
If anybody differs from me, I would request him to pause and think seriously why Christians are doing their best to uproot this
“symbol of atoning love,”
this
“emblem of fellowship and joy in the world to come.”
Why did America pass a law forbidding the manufacture of this indispensable factor in the Holy Communion?
Is not this, I ask, a standing testimony to the failure of Jesus as a moral teacher? If anybody says that Jesus did not sanction “this excessive indulgence” I would retort that there is not a single verse in the whole Bible proscribing the quantity to be used in daily life.
Let Christians pause and think that Jesus, as the World Lawgiver, ought to have foreseen the evil consequences of this
“symbol of his atoning love,”
for it is foresight which serves as a differentia between ordinary people and moral teachers of the world. Who does not know that wine is the mother of all evils? Failure on the part of Jesus Christ to realise this proves his short-sightedness beyond doubt.
What a big contrast between Jesus and the Holy Prophet Muhammad [pbuh]. The latter not only prohibits the use of wine, but makes indulgence a detested crime, while the former introduces it into a most religious rite.
What has been the effect of this in the Muslim world and Christendom is not a secret. The Western world has begun to look contemptuously upon this favourite beverage and to accept the Prophet of Islam [pbuh] as the free teacher of morality.