John 2:9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,

10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

This seems to indicate that when the wedding guests were ‘well drunk’ – possibly slightly inebriated, they would be less likely to notice that the wine was not as good. The governor was asking the bridegroom why he served the best wine last.

Why do we strain at gnats?

Which is weird since our church is built on the idea of continuing revelation.

Amen, Kim! We’re probably just overly comforted by the idea that important things never change.

Brother Kimball spend one day explaining to my class that we should realize and understand that Jesus likely drank alcoholic wine and to think otherwise was not realistic, not should it affect our testimonies of the gospel of the 20th century. Brother Kimball reminded us that refrigeration as we knew it was recent innovation and grape juice would naturally ferment. He reminded us grapes and wine were a major staple of the middle east in the time of Jesus.

In another lesson, Brother Kimball went to great length to explain and insure we clearly understood that the Word of Wisdom applied to “tea and coffee and no more.” Specifically Coke and Pepsi were not restricted by the Word of Wisdom. He had written short song we all learned. The main verse was “tea and coffee and not more.” The stressed that we didn’t drink tea and coffee because of caffeine.

Brother Kimball taught us many other valuable lessons about the gospel and how to properly apply it to our lives. He wanted us to focus on the important and leave the trivial, and speculative alone so our energy would be applied to the significant and directing teachings of Jesus. He mentioned none of us were capable of living all the major principles perfectly while here on earth, so until we had achieved perfection with those, he encouraged us to leave the trivial and “made up” alone.

The question then, Anonymous, is whether the Word of Wisdom is doctrine. Is it doctrine in the same way that God loves us is doctrine or doctrine in the same way the Lehi had to sail to the promised was doctrine for the Lehites?

It also seems to be in In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days.

It is hard to for me to think that there is anything wrong with wine when it fits so well into our symbolism and even the sacramental prayers in the Book of Mormon use the term wine. Wine is a much better symbol of blood than water.

Regarding the prohibition on yeast, that was only during Passover. The scripture specifically says that eating anything with yeast in it, so a pedantic argument could be made that fermented wine was not included since it is one drinks it, not eats it. Even if that argument was flimsy, the prohibition was only during Passover.

Regardless, you do not need to add yeast to grape mush to ferment wine. It can ferment naturally by the yeast that is omnipresent in the air around us. I presume this yeast is not referred to in the scripture.

Finally, if all wine referred to in the scriptures is unfermented, yeast-free grape juice, how was it stored?