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Many churches use grape juice for the ceremony they call Passover, the Lord's Supper, and/or Communion. Did Jesus use fermented wine or grape juice when He introduced symbols for the Christian Passover? Did the use of grape juice become popular in the United States after Thomas Bramwell Welch began pasteurizing it? Does natural grape juice start to ferment fairly soon after it is made? Grapes become ripe in the late Summer or early Fall, and Jesus' last Passover was in the early Spring. Was it possible for unfermented grape juice to have been used by Jesus and His disciples? What did 'Christianity Today' publish in 2026 about wine vs. grape juice? Should 21st century Christians follow the same practices as Jesus when it comes to unleavened bread and wine? What about molasses and water instead of wine or grape juice? Did early Seventh-day Adventists originally use wine and then switch to grape juice? What did James White write? What did Ellen G. White later write? Should people change the practices of Jesus if they are real Christians? It has been stated that it was impossible for grape juice to be drinkable and unfermented to be used in the Spring in the Holy Land. If something is actually impossible, then it did not happen. Dr. Thiel and Steve Dupuie go over these matters in this video.
A written article of related interest is available titled 'Wine or Grape Juice for Passover? Plus, here is a Holy Day Calendar' URL: https://www.cogwriter.com/news/doctrine/wine-or-grape-juice-for-passover-plus-here-is-a-holy-day-calendar/
A written article of related interest is available titled 'Wine or Grape Juice for Passover? Plus, here is a Holy Day Calendar' URL: https://www.cogwriter.com/news/doctrine/wine-or-grape-juice-for-passover-plus-here-is-a-holy-day-calendar/
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00:04Greetings, friends. This is Steve Dupuy for the Bible News Prophecy Program with Dr. Bob Thiel,
00:09bringing you news and analysis of world events in light of Bible prophecy. Dr. Thiel, did Jesus
00:15use grape juice for his last Passover, often referred to as the Last Supper or Communion?
00:22No. Christianity Today, a couple days ago, posted something from an evangelical college teacher by
00:30the name of Brad East. And he says he talks about the Lord's Supper and says, should we obey Jesus?
00:37Should we celebrate the meal as he instituted it? Should we do what he said? Should we use what
00:43he used, eating what he ate and drinking what he drank? He says his students obviously respond
00:48obviously, then realize, wait, their churches, maybe they don't do communion like that. So maybe
00:55it doesn't matter at all. Why be a legalist? God doesn't care. It's all about the intention of your
00:59heart. That seems to be a good point, Dr. Thiel. Isn't it really a matter of the heart? What does
01:06mystery say about that? Well, here's what he wrote. Christians agree that Jesus himself instituted
01:14both communion and baptism. He commanded his followers to continue practicing them until
01:20his return from heaven. There's little doubt when Jesus instituted what we call the Lord's Supper.
01:25He and his disciples shared unleavened bread and wine. Jesus refers to having drunk the fruit of the
01:31vine from the shared cup in Mark 14, 25. And that's biblical shorthand for wine. Now,
01:39some Protestants, like some Methodists, many Presbyterians, Lutherans, Anglicans, along with
01:46Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics, they use wine. Those who don't use wine tend to be, quote,
01:52low church, evangelicals, Baptists, Pentecostals, Church of Christ, and a variety of non-denominational
01:58believers. Instead of wine, these groups tend to use grape juice. Far from being a scriptural or
02:06doctrinal matter, grape juice in communion was introduced by the American temperance movement.
02:12It became more possible by Mr. Welch himself, a teetotaling Methodist minister in the 19th century
02:18who pioneered a way of preventing the process of fermentation in the sweet juice squeezed from
02:24grapes. Then he says that Jesus used wine in his institution of his supper. Does that matter?
02:31Did Jesus, does God, care whether what we drink from the communion cup is fermented? And if he does,
02:38why? He says the best way to look at this is to think of these as symbols.
02:45Bread and wine are symbols. What do they symbolize? Well, what they symbolize is significant.
02:53The bread is unleavened because it's a new Passover meal for God's new covenant people.
02:58We've been delivered by Jesus from the Pharaoh of sin, etc.
03:04It's the bread of the new and final exodus, the Lord's own body broken for our sake.
03:10Therefore, as it says in 1 Corinthians 5, 8, let us keep the feast.
03:16Now, if the type of bread is so significant, it would be odd if the contents of the cup were
03:20irrelevant.
03:22Compare the symbolism of the wine and grape juice for us.
03:26One signifies adulthood, maturity, festivity, and celebration.
03:31It's valuable.
03:34It's capable of marking occasions like weddings.
03:38Grape juice signifies children, pre-adolescents.
03:42It's what parents and teachers offer young kids as a treat instead of water.
03:47It's cheap and mass-produced.
03:49Biblically, grape juice signifies nothing.
03:53Jesus instituted both unleavened bread and wine on purpose, and that is to say with purpose.
03:59To use wine in the supper would bring our churches into alignment with Scripture's rich symbolism of the fruit of
04:07the vine.
04:07And finally, it would bring them in alignment with, I want to say, obedience to the teaching and practice of
04:14the apostles and of Jesus himself.
04:16There's no better reason than that, end quote.
04:21He's made some pretty good points.
04:23Can anyone argue with that?
04:25Well, many, including many Sabbath keepers, by the way, do not agree.
04:31In the February 2026 edition of Church of God's Seventh-day West Virginia's Advocate of Truth, its claimed apostle, Warren
04:40Randall, wrote,
04:41Grape juice represents the blood of Jesus for the Last Supper.
04:47Well, so they don't use real wine.
04:51Now, interestingly, despite views in the modern Seventh-day Adventist church saying they've always opposed wine,
04:57the early S.J.'s used wine for their communion Passover service.
05:04In 1867, James White, the husband of Ellen White, wrote,
05:09quote,
05:10But what shall be used at the table of the Lord as an emblem of the precious blood of Christ?
05:15The answer in Scripture's language is the fruit of the vine and the cup.
05:20That the grape vine is here met, no one will call into question.
05:24The prophet, speaking the death of Christ, represents his garments being red as he that treads the wine press.
05:32Some, however, object to grape wine because it's fermented, and they've chosen in its place water sweetened with molasses.
05:40We freely admit that this is a suitable argument to go with rye and bread,
05:46but there is something disgusting in the idea of it representing the blood of the Holy Jesus by molasses,
05:53the cane from which is made, raised in slavery, and its juice pressed and boiled in slavery,
05:59with slave hands barreled and shipped north, free Christians to use instead of the juice of the grape, cultivated in
06:05free soil.
06:07This objecting to a few drops of domestic wine with which to only wet the lips at the Lord's Supper
06:14is carrying total abstinent principles to a great length.
06:18To those who are contentious in this manner, we would recommend pure cold water, end quote.
06:27So molasses is out, but what about pure cold water? Is that okay?
06:34Well, the water certainly is not biblically the fruit of the vine.
06:38So while it was appropriate for James White to condemn molasses, he should never have suggested pure cold water,
06:45because that's also a violation of scripture.
06:47Now, as far as grape juice goes, although there were some before Thomas Bramhill Welch,
06:54Dr. Welch ended up pasteurizing grape juice in 1869, and he called it Dr. Welch's unfermented wine,
07:00and he massively popularized it.
07:04Many Protestant churches, including the STAs, then started using pasteurized grape juice.
07:12But they were still using wine in the STAs until at least the late 1870s in California, for example,
07:20for their communion services.
07:21But that changed, and in 1905, L.M.G. White, their prophetess, wrote,
07:29The Bible no more sanctions the use of intoxicating wine.
07:33The wine that Christ made from water at the marriage feast of Canaan was the pure juice of the grape.
07:38Christ did not contradict his own teaching.
07:40The unfermented wine that he provided for the wedding guest was wholesome and a refreshing drink.
07:45This is the wine that was used by our Savior and his disciples in the First Communion.
07:50It is the wine that should be used always on the communion table as a symbol of the Savior's blood,
07:57end quote.
07:58Now, Jesus turned water into real wine as his first public miracle.
08:03Now, it doesn't even make sense that the wedding guests were drinking inferior grape juice earlier in the wedding.
08:11But what about Passover?
08:13Does the Bible sanction wine, or was grape juice used on Passover?
08:18Well, in the New Testament, the word winos means wine.
08:23It's a beverage from fermented grape juice.
08:27And that's what it is.
08:30Now, related to Passover, in Luke 22, verse 20, Jesus used a cup of wine.
08:36He took the cup after supper and said,
08:38This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.
08:43The cup symbolizes blood.
08:45As blood is red, grape juice back then, by the way, was not.
08:50This was a reference to red wine, not juice.
08:54And the Bible, by the way, teaches that wine is the blood of the grape.
08:58And that normal grape juice, by the way, does not look like blood.
09:03I've crushed it.
09:04You can tell.
09:05Now, I personally prefer the taste of grape juice to wine.
09:09But in the Continuing Church of God, we use a small amount of wine for Passover.
09:14Ellen White says one thing.
09:16You say another.
09:17What does God say in the Bible?
09:21Well, when we read something from the Old Worldwide Church of God,
09:27we said that, you know, the Bible is talking about wine or grape juice.
09:32And if you look at the truth is, there's 13 original Hebrew and Greek words for wine in our English
09:40Bible.
09:41And the Hebrew word for wine is yayun.
09:46And it's first used in Genesis 9, 21, where Noah drank of the wine and was drunken.
09:53This is called being drunk.
09:55That could not have been grape juice.
10:00And he says we read about the same thing in other passages in the Bible.
10:04In the New Testament, the Greek word for wine is oinos, proof that it's alcoholic, is given in the story
10:12of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10.
10:15Again, the Samaritan poured oil and wine on the man's wounds, showing that wine had enough alcoholic content to be
10:22used as antiseptic.
10:23You wouldn't pour grape juice or molasses that way.
10:29And they continue with, the Greek word oinos is used in John 2, where Jesus turned water into wine by
10:36making a divine miracle.
10:37It's used in 1 Timothy 5, 23, at the command of Paul, quote, drink no longer water, but use a
10:44little wine for your stomach's sake and your often infirmities.
10:47This Greek word is also used in Ephesians 5, 18, do not be drunk with wine wherein is excess.
10:55Seems Ellen White failed to check the meaning of the original Greek when she came to her conclusion.
11:01Anything else from the WCG?
11:04Yeah, in a letter they put out, they said in ancient times, it was impossible to preserve grape juice.
11:10Except for the short season, the fruit of the vine was either made into a thick molasses or into wine.
11:16You can check Hastings Bible Dictionary for the full proof.
11:22Then they cite the Pasadena Medical Society who said,
11:26Taken intelligently and with discretion, alcohol in wine and other drinks can prolong life expectancy.
11:32However, even temporary excess or prolonged over drinking can lead to disaster, end quote.
11:38So the article says,
11:40It's for our welfare and happiness that God has commanded us not to use alcoholic beverages in excess and for
11:47wrong purpose, end quote.
11:50Now having said that, you know, some are going to argue about the grape.
11:55But it's not logical to conclude that the disciples were drinking grape juice at Passover, Jesus' time, as grapes weren't
12:03in season then.
12:03Now, I personally have lived in grape country since 1976.
12:10It's a climate similar to that of the land of Israel.
12:15Grapes ripen in the late summer or the early fall.
12:20So what's the significance of that?
12:23Well, I've been to Israel once, and it occurred to me that the ancient Israelites would not have had any
12:30way to store the juice of grapes to prevent it from going bad or fermenting.
12:35They didn't have refrigeration, didn't understand sterilization.
12:41Plus, it doesn't freeze enough there for very much or very long to freeze it.
12:46Now, understand that Passover is in the spring.
12:51Raw grape juice spoils fairly quickly.
12:55It wouldn't be drinkable months after the harvest.
12:59It was not possible for Jesus to use grape juice at his last Passover.
13:05Now, despite the fact that Jesus turned water into wine, which you read about in John 2, and the Greek
13:12term oinos, oinos is used for wine in various places in the Bible, various ones, including Ellen White, claimed it
13:19was grape juice, not wine used at Passover.
13:21But the reality is, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia, by the way, of 1907, the ancient Jews themselves used wine
13:31at Passover.
13:34And Jesus would have followed that practice.
13:37By the way, Hastings Bible Dictionary does point out that it was impossible for Jews to have stored grape juice
13:44from the time of the grape harvest until Passover.
13:47Now, think about this.
13:48Something that's impossible did not happen.
13:51So people like Ellen G. White were wrong.
13:54Therefore, only wine, which can remain unspoiled for even many years, would have been used.
14:01And I will add that the use of alcohol-like wine is specifically endorsed in Deuteronomy 26, 14, for the
14:09Feast of Tabernacles, but it's not required.
14:12Might there be a concern among some that there is a danger of becoming inebriated at Passover?
14:18We only have to use a very small amount, as little as one drop.
14:22So that wouldn't happen.
14:24Look, Jesus used fermented wine for Passover.
14:26We, in the continuing Church of God, used fermented wine for Passover, too.
14:30Thank you, Dr. Thiel.
14:31For more interviews with Dr. Thiel, in addition to written, as well as audio articles, visit our website at BibleNewsProphecy
14:38.net.
14:38This is Steve Dupuis for the Bible News Prophecy Program.
14:41Thank you, Dr. Thiel.
14:41I hope you are loving it.
14:42All right.
14:42Thanks, Dr. Thiel.
14:45Thank you, Dr. Thiel.
14:47You