Why does the restored Church forbid alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea, and is that more than nineteenth-century health advice?
The Bible answers
King James Version
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
NRSVUE
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
Our explanation
Your body is a temple. D&C 89 is that verse with a grocery list.
King James Version
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
NRSVUE
But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the royal rations of food and wine; so he asked the palace master to allow him not to defile himself.
Our explanation
Daniel refuses the king’s drink.
Doctrine and Covenants 89:18–21
And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones; And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint. And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.
Doctrine and Covenants 89:4
Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—
Dead Sea Scrolls and related extra-biblical texts that illuminate the same pattern the Restoration restores.
Daniel 1 and the Rechabites (Jeremiah 35)
But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever.
Israel already knew consecrated abstinence. Daniel refused the king’s wine. The Rechabites kept a family command against wine as a sign of loyalty. The Word of Wisdom stands in that biblical line: the issue is holiness and heed, not Victorian fussiness.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Section 89 names strong drink, tobacco, and hot drinks, and it commends herbs, grains, and meat used with thanksgiving. Prophets have specified the current prohibitions. Health research has often caught up with the warning. That is interesting, not the ground of the commandment. Saints keep it because the Lord spoke and because the Spirit is easier to hear in a body that is not enslaved.
The Word of Wisdom is a law of health, but it is also a principle of obedience and a protection against addiction and conspiring interests.
Faithful voices only. Most of these are independent — not official Church productions unless marked as such.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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