Written by: James Bowen (Alum)
Recently, an Accent article highlighted a local coffee business that has sprung up in the local Collegedale community, and in reading the article, I had to wonder, “Why would we choose to inform the student body about a business that earns by tempting individuals to commit sin?”
It seems that as it was in the days of King Josiah [Jeremiah 3:6], we have forgotten the truth we were given in the past and freely partake in what we have already been given clear evidence is morally wrong, hazardous to the health and incongruent with biblical principles.
In recent years, some have pointed to supposed health benefits of coffee or tea. However, recent studies published in journals such as Psychopharmacology have indicated that “the benefits of caffeine on performance and mood, widely perceived to be net beneficial psychostimulant effects, are almost wholly attributable to reversal of adverse withdrawal effects associated with short periods of abstinence from the drug.”
Caffeine has also been linked to health issues, including insomnia, increased heart rate and digestive problems. In some studies, “a 250 mg dose of caffeine has been shown to reduce resting cerebral blood flow (CBF) between 22% and 30%.”
The Bible cautions against allowing anything to control us, and the reliance on a substance for enhancement has the potential to lead to dependency, detracting from the reliance on God’s strength and guidance.
In the writings of Ellen White, we read, “Tea and coffee drinking is a sin, an injurious indulgence, which, like other evils, injures the soul” (Letters and Manuscripts – Vol. 11 (1896), Manuscript 44). “Many families have cast away tobacco and tea and coffee and liquor, and the ministry of the Word has been brought home to their hearts and convicted them of sin and righteousness and judgment” (The Gospel Herald, Oct. 1, 1899). There are many such similar quotes clearly calling the consumption of caffeine sin that the readers may explore on their own.
From a biblical perspective, Adventists know that the same God who expelled Adam and Eve over a question of diet will not take lightly violations of his will. We find in the book of Corinthians, where the Apostle Paul admonishes believers to honor God with their bodies. From this standpoint, the consumption of substances that may harm the body is prohibited. Similar to Daniel, Adventists have a prophetic calling to prepare in the antitypical day of atonement to have mental clarity to stand up to Babylon 2.0 when a similar test over false worship comes again.
We have been given the benefit of prophecy and scripture. In 2 Chronicles 20:20 we read, “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.”
It may seem like a small matter, but will a just God really allow those into Heaven who refuse to heed the counsel on diet when he expelled Adam and Eve for eating that which was forbidden? Will you join me in asking for the old paths (Jeremiah 6:16)?
James Bowen is a Southern Adventist University alum and practicing board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.
6 Comments
Please Stop
February 8, 2024If we are going to start listing dietary “sins” and quoting EGW, might as well start with the one that impacts the church the most, especially in USA:
Sugar is not good for the stomach. It causes fermentation, and this clouds the brain and brings peevishness into the disposition.—Manuscript 93, 1901.
If we are to walk in the light God has given us, we must educate our people, old and young, to dispense with these foods that are eaten merely for the indulgence of appetite. Our children should be taught to deny themselves of such unnecessary things as candies, gum, ice cream, and other knickknacks, that they may put the money saved by their self-denial into the self-denial box, of which there should be one in every home. By this means, large and small sums would be saved for the cause of God. –Counsels on Diet and Foods, 329.3.
I seem to recall a much larger corporation in Collegedale sitting at the entrance of the campus, “tempting individuals” to imbibe in sugar.
Rather than taking shots at the college, I give Southern kudos for the efforts they extend in supporting young adults through their faith journey.
Gavin Finch
February 8, 2024This has got to be one of the goofiest things I’ve ever read, and it sums up why many Adventists leave the church after graduation. We clearly have different philosophical starting points, so I’ll focus on the more cut and dry parts of your argument.
1. Do you understand how much 250 mg of caffeine is? Of course it has a negative effect on the brain. Most people don’t consume that much caffeine in one setting at a coffee shop. If they do, they probably have other, bigger issues.
2. Do you truly believe caffeine use lowers cognitive function so much that people won’t be able to make decisions about worshipping God? That’s dramatic at best, purposefully misleading at worst.
3. The number of other things that Ellen White calls a sin, which we just disregard, frankly voids that point.
I know I’m coming on strong here, but we have to stop saddling our young people with fear. It doesn’t accomplish anything. At best, it makes the earnest live in terror. I was one of them for 21 years. Then I realized how I was living and have never looked back. Unless that’s what you want, I truly pray you think critically instead of worshipping the “finer points of the law.”
Gerald Dunston
February 9, 2024Lol
Matthew Parks
February 17, 2024Ah yes the self righteous ramblings of a true modern day pharisee. You’re going to have a lot to apologizing to do if you ever manage to grow up and understand how repulsive and counter productive your gate keeping religiosity is to those Christ calls us to minister to. You’d do well to keep your opinions off the internet.
Good to the last drop
March 2, 2024Is it by extension also sinful to work in a cafe/restaurant dedicated to serving coffee? And what about working on a coffee plantation? Presumably it must be sinful to grow, roast, and grind coffee beans?
And people who work for coffee producing companies (Nescafe, Maxwell House, Folgers brands etc) they must surely be transgressing. And heaven forfend that one should own stock in any of these multi-national corporations that are behind these brands.
Surely there should be demonstrations outside coffee houses to stop the selling of this evil brew and that Congress must be lobbied to stop funds being sent overseas to encourage farmers currently growing coca (from which cocaine is produced, a good old fashioned ingredient of the all American Coca-Cola) to coffee crops?
juan karlos
July 8, 2025y tener acciones en la industria de las armas,y tener acciones con dinero de la iglesia en wall street,y el tener aseguradas las instituciones cuando el mayor seguro debe ser DIOS,es como el papa que usa guardaespaldas