The Effects of Alcohol
Alcohol, the greatest detriment to human nature, is the ruination of life to many people. As a Zambian, our citizenship provides for all our freedoms, as in other countries: freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech, grateful of heritage and conscious of the obligations of citizenship. It seems that our freedoms are not enough to satisfy some people, and they waste away their lives by the use of alcohol.
The effects of alcohol are many. First of all, it reduces digestion by causing contraction of human organs. As for digestion, none of the digestive organs and juices will break down alcohol. It enters the body as pure alcohol; goes to the stomach, as pure alcohol; into the bloodstream as pure alcohol; to your brain as pure alcohol; and so on. Finally when it is passed off it is still pure alcohol. It takes one hour to eliminate the alcohol present in one glass of liquor. YOU ARE NEVER INTOXICATED IN THE STOMACH. It is when the alcohol gets into your bloodstream and goes to your brain that you become intoxicated.
When alcohol reaches the cerebrum one’s willpower is lost. You have no sense of reasoning or judgment, nor do you have memory. When it strikes the mid-brain you lose your source of conduct, sight and hearing.
Road Accidents
Nobody who has read police reports attentively can doubt that the principle cause of accidents is not heavy traffic, defective cars or the faulty condition of the streets and roads, but rather the unfitness of many persons to drive high-powered speedy automobiles.
Divorces
The use of alcohol is the reason for the break-up of many homes. Over two million delinquent boys and girls come from broken homes. From 1882-1906, the divorce rate was one to every thirteen marriages. Today the rate has been increased to one divorce to each four marriages. About half of these divorces give liquor as a contributing cause.
Attention: Kings, Rulers and Governors
“Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness.” Ecclesiastes 10:17.
REMEMBER – BELSHAZZAR, Daniel 5:13–23, 30. “A wise son heareth his father’s instruction; but a scorner heareth not rebuke.” Proverbs 13:1
“‘Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; . . . That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? . . . Thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.’ Jeremiah 22:13–17
“This scripture pictures the work of those who manufacture and who sell intoxicating liquor. Their business means robbery. For the money they receive, no equivalent is returned. Every dollar they add to their gains has brought a curse to the spender. . . .
“Every year millions upon millions of gallons of intoxicating liquors are consumed. Millions upon millions of dollars are spent in buying wretchedness, poverty, disease, degradation, lust, crime, and death. For the sake of gain, the liquor seller deals out to his victims that which corrupts and destroys mind and body. He entails on the drunkard’s family poverty and wretchedness. . . .
“Houses of prostitution, dens of vice, criminal courts, prisons, almshouses, insane asylums, hospitals, all are, to a great degree, filled as a result of the liquor seller’s work. Like the mystic Babylon of the Apocalypse, he is dealing in “slaves, and souls of men.” Behind the liquor seller stands the mighty destroyer of souls, and every art which earth or hell can devise is employed to draw human beings under his power. In the city and the country, on the railway trains, on the great steamers, in places of business, in the halls of pleasure, in the medical dispensary, even in the church, on the sacred Communion table, his traps are set. Nothing is left undone to create and to foster the desire for intoxicants. On almost every corner stands the public house, with its brilliant lights, its welcome and good cheer, inviting the working man, the wealthy idler, and the unsuspecting youth. . . .
“More terrible still, the curse is striking the very heart of the home. More and more, women are forming the liquor habit. In many a household, little children, even in the innocence and helplessness of babyhood, are in daily peril through the neglect, the abuse, the vileness of drunken mothers. Sons and daughters are growing up under the shadow of this terrible evil. What outlook for their future but that they will sink even lower than their parents?
License Laws
“The licensing of the liquor traffic is advocated by many as tending to restrict the drink evil. But the licensing of the traffic places it under the protection of law. The government sanctions its existence, and thus fosters the evil which it professes to restrict. Under the protection of license laws, breweries, distilleries, and wineries are planted all over the land, and the liquor seller plies his work beside our very doors. . . .
“Licenses are granted on the plea that they bring a revenue to the public treasury. But what is this revenue when compared with the enormous expense incurred for the criminals, the insane, the paupers, that are the fruit of the liquor traffic! A man under the influence of liquor commits a crime; he is brought into court; and those who legalized the traffic are forced to deal with the result of their own work. They authorized the sale of a draft that would make a sane man mad; and now it is necessary for them to send the man to prison or to the gallows, while often his wife and children are left destitute to become the charge of the community in which they live. . . .
Prohibition
“Must this always continue? Will souls always have to struggle for victory, with the door of temptation wide open before them? Must the curse of intemperance forever rest like a blight upon the civilized world? Must it continue to sweep, every year, like a devouring fire over thousands of happy homes? . . .
“The honor of God, the stability of the nation, the well-being of the community, of the home, and of the individual, demand that every possible effort be made in arousing the people to the evil of intemperance. Soon we shall see the result of this terrible evil as we do not see it now. Who will put forth a determined effort to stay the work of destruction? As yet the contest has hardly begun. Let an army be formed to stop the sale of the drugged liquors that are making men mad. Let the danger from the liquor traffic be made plain and a public sentiment be created that shall demand its prohibition. Let the drink-maddened men be given an opportunity to escape from their thralldom. Let the voice of the nation demand of its lawmakers that A STOP BE PUT TO THIS INFAMOUS TRAFFIC.” –The Ministry of Healing, pp. 337–346
Influence Even After Death
When Reheboam forsook the law of the Lord he took all Israel with him (2 Chronicles 12:1)
“No man liveth unto himself. None perish alone in their iniquity. Every life is a light that brightens and cheers the pathway of others, or a dark and desolating influence that tends toward despair and ruin. We lead others either upward to happiness and immortal life, or downward to sorrow and eternal death.” –Prophets and Kings, p. 94
You can’t be lost alone. Achan is another example. He didn’t perish alone (Joshua 22:20). Neither will you or I if we say “no” to Christ. “If you choose to turn from the truth, you will not go down alone.” –Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, p. 47
“There are few who realize how far-reaching is the influence of their words and acts. How often the errors of parents produce the most disastrous effects upon their children and children’s children, long after the actors themselves have been laid in the grave. Everyone is exerting an influence upon others, and will be held accountable for the result of that influence. Words and actions have a telling power, and the long hereafter will show the effect of our life here. The impression made by our words and deeds will surely react upon ourselves in blessing or in cursing. This thought gives an awful solemnity to life, and should draw us to God in humble prayer that He will guide us by His wisdom.” –Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 556
There is never a Christmas or New Year’s celebration without an appalling death toll from drunken brawls and drunken driving. Men still die aping Belshazzar’s feast.
“I would rather lose my right hand than sign a document to perpetuate the liquor traffic. Liquor may have defenders but no defense.” –Abraham Lincoln
Signs of the Times—“One Of”
“And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?. . . But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:3, 37–39
Strong drink is one of the signs of the times. “Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.” Isaiah 56:12. We will go deeper into pleasure-loving. But Christ says, “Behold, I come as a thief.” Revelation 16:15
“He that keepeth the law,” wrote Solomon “happy is he.” Proverbs 29:18. “Man’s happiness must always be guarded by the law of God. . . . The law is the hedge which God has placed about His vineyard. By it those who obey are protected from evil.” –My Life Today, p. 163
Go, Stand and Speak
“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.” Revelation 1:7
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:9–10.
“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” Luke 21:34
“And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Revelation 22:12, 14
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things SHALL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.” Galatians 5:19-21 (emphasis mine)
“Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” Revelation 22:7
“In many of the large cities of the East the first and second angels’ messages were proclaimed during the 1844 movement. To us, as God’s servants, has been entrusted the third angel’s message, the binding-off message, that is to prepare a people for the coming of the King.” –Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, p. 98
“We are fast approaching the close of our probation. Let every soul inquire, How do I stand before God? We know not how soon our names may be taken into the lips of Christ, and our cases be finally decided. What, oh, what will these decisions be! Shall we be counted with the righteous, or shall we be numbered with the wicked?” –Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 125–126
“The Lord is coming. Lift up your heads and rejoice. Oh, we would think that those who hear the joyful news, who claim to love Jesus, would be filled with joy unutterable and full of glory. This is the good, the joyful news which should electrify every soul, which should be repeated in our homes, and told to those whom we meet on the street. What more joyful news can be communicated!” –Evangelism, p. 218
The book of Daniel contains four lines of prophecy which unfold world history from Daniel’s day to the time of the end. These are the four great lines of prophecy:
- Daniel 2: The great image.
- Daniel 7: The four beasts, little horn, and the judgment.
- Daniel 8. 9: The ram, he goat, little horn, and 2,300 days.
- Daniel 11, 12: The king of the South, king of the North, and the time of the end.
“The prophecy of the eleventh chapter of Daniel has nearly reached its complete fulfillment.” –Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, p. 14
Soon the trouble and deliverance mentioned in Daniel 12:1 will take place; we don’t have much time left. Before long, Jesus will say, “It is done” (Revelation 22:11; The Great Controversy, pp. 613-614).
We are to put everything we have into winning people for Christ. There is no greater joy than to see people accept our Saviour and be baptized. It is a joy that cannot be described.
“Follow Me,” Jesus invited, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19. Today He needs you and I that we enroll ourselves in His wonderful work of saving souls. Do you accept the invitation? If “yes”, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” Isaiah 60:1-3
“When God’s people so fully separate themselves from evil that he can let the light of heaven rest upon them in rich measure, and shine forth from them to the world, then there will be fulfilled, more fully than it has ever been fulfilled in the past, the prophecy of Isaiah, in which the servant of God declared of the remnant church in the last days: “The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” –The Review and Herald, March 31, 1910
Many promises given to the Hebrew people were never fulfilled because of unbelief. These same promises now belong to modern spiritual Israel – God’s remnant people of today. “To them will be fulfilled all the covenant promises made by Jehovah to His ancient people.” –Prophets and Kings, p. 714
“Ask, and it shall be given you,” Jesus said. Luke 11:9. He especially urged us to pray for the Holy Spirit” (Luke 11:13).
When the latter rain comes, just before the close of probation, thousands will be converted, and the work will be quickly finished. Pray that God will fill you with His Spirit so that you can be a part of the fulfillment of these prophecies.
The grace of the Lord be with you all. AMEN.
Golden Kayawa Hingabantu
Zambia