Puzzling Over a Bottle...

It was the Summer of 1972. That was the year when a college mate and I flew to Spain. A unique holiday, as it was my first trip abroad without my parents. As a nineteen-year-old, it was a taste of freedom. Yep, that meant getting stoned out of my wits every evening through the cheap wine Spain had to offer. One night, I staggered back to the hotel late at night and crawled into a bath and slept in my own vomit.

All this whilst my college friend remained calm, almost serene. Having a much greater sense of self-control, including his emotions, here was a situation when he slept peacefully in his clean bed whilst I spent that night in a bathtub in a pool of regurgitated wine - a sad reflection of my spiritual and social state as a teenage atheist - especially after being dumped by a former girlfriend. Then, after daybreak and thorough cleanup, we both made our way downstairs to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, followed by the rest of the day sunbathing on the beach.

Just back from Spain, July 1972.

After returning home, I looked at the lifesize mirror that adorned the bedroom wardrobe. Surely, I could put this magnificently slim body of mine to good use rather than squander myself on alcohol. Already a good swimmer, I made the decision to join the Reading Life-Saving Club, where, as a member, not only would I develop the skills to rescue a distressed person out of deep water but also learn about resuscitation with additional knowledge of human anatomy.

By December of that year, then twenty years old, I was one of the candidates who took the Bronze Medallion test, both in rescuing someone in distress whilst fully clothed (in pyjamas) and a practical demonstration on the resuscitation, but also to answer some questions during a theory test as well. I passed. The actual possession of the bronze medallion qualified me to work as a full-time lifeguard anywhere in the UK and perhaps around the world too, whether poolside or on the beach.*

And during one wet Saturday evening in December 1972 and after being stopped in the street by two young lads of my age, I invited these lads to a pub. After buying each a drink, they opened a Bible. Well, fancy that! A Bible in the pub! I was shown some verses, especially from the Gospel of John and also Revelation 3:20. This idea of inviting Jesus Christ into my heart, that is, the heart of my soul, to "sup with me and me with him" - along with being convinced that it was God who brought me to these lads in the first place - began a threefold revolution that would forever change my life. On the spiritual side, a rebirth of the spirit and a new desire to read the Bible and to gain knowledge of it. Church life, however, would not begin until somewhere between several months to a year later.

On the social side, deliberately getting drunk to cover my sorrows over the loss of a girlfriend also drew to a close by my conversion. This was replaced with getting to grips with Dad's old Bible, a King James Version given to him years earlier by a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses (their New World Translation didn't exist back then). This same Bible - which I made every effort to get to grips with its rather archaic language - was literally ripped to shreds by my angry father. This was a prompt for me to fly the nest, which I eventually did in 1976. At the workplace, I wasn't ashamed or embarrassed to declare quite openly that Jesus Christ is the risen Son of God.

The third tenet of this threefold revolution had to do with travel. Gone are the alcohol-drenched package holidays for sunseekers. Getting drunk and being sick in the bath and passing out in my own vomit was replaced with independent backpacking. This was not only much more wholesome and adventurous but also educational, a two-fold embracing of geology and ancient history. That same year - 1973 - not only had I climbed alone up the slopes of Mont Vesuvio and peered into its crater, but I also walked the streets of the ancient ruins of Pompeii. Thus learning much about life under Rome and becoming familiar with their abundance of wine amphorae, one of the key items that got me asking questions springing out from the regular reading of the Bible.

However, also during the Spring of 1973, I left my old factory job to join a team of pool attendants at Reading Central Pool (now demolished and replaced by an apartment block.) Although my job title was Pool Attendant, in reality, I was a full-time lifeguard who had to attend regular in-job refresher training, both in and out of the pool, to keep my skills finely honed. Finally, I was transferred from the Central Pool, at the time patrolled by three lifeguards, to the older and more ornate Arthur Hill Baths at the other side of town. 

Here, I was on my own and at times, in full charge of the pool. It was here at Arthur Hill's where I first qualified as a lifeguard. (Arthur Hill himself was the founder who financed the pool to be built during 1911 and then donated the facility to the town council after it opened in November of that year.)

On a typical weekday during school term, the pool would open early for the Early Bird swimmers. One early bird was an elderly war veteran with one of his arms blown off, leaving a stump ending just below his shoulder. This quiet, friendly chap faithfully arrived on the dot every weekday morning for a thirty-minute swim. After the Early Bird sessions were over, the schools began to arrive. Swimming classes were held here, catering to students from primary to teenagers. Then the lunch break when the pool closed to the public for an hour before reopening to receive more school classes. Finally, in the evenings there was either public swimming or club meetings, including the Reading Life Saving Club, which by then, my day's duty was over.

It was on one of these lunch breaks when I sat alone in the small staff room, still damp from a short swim I had just enjoyed during the lunch closure, with both lunch and the KJV Bible I took out of Dad's bookshelf and brought to work with me.

During one of my daily readings, I came across this:

And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No man having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better. - Luke 5:37-39.

A collection of ancient Amphorae.

Of the entire Bible, what the heck was this? This was Jesus himself speaking. I was astonished! What difference does it make what goes into these bottles? Whether, it's old wine, new wine, warm water, cold water, even urine, what difference does it make? As far as I know, I had never known a glass bottle break under the nature of its contents except, perhaps, boiling water. I was disturbed by these verses, as I've already accepted the Bible as the inspired Word of God. What is going on?

Eventually, I had to come to terms with what these verses were saying. If two millennia in the past, glass bottles were made with either a different material or its composition was different to our version, so be it. How strange was it for someone growing up during the second half of the 20th Century to have his range of imagination limited to what he sees in his own day? All I had ever known, wine bottles were either of clear glass or of coloured glass, usually green. Therefore, it's inevitable that I thought that they were around during Roman times.

Staying with wines, the vineyard, and where the wine was stored, I once heard a story during a sermon preached one evening back in the early seventies. It concerned what Jesus was saying in John 15. A vine-grower who was well experienced in his vocation was converted to Christ as his Saviour, and he started to read the Bible. Eventually, he came across the 15th chapter of John's Gospel, and he was greatly disturbed by what Jesus was teaching here. As Jesus was telling his disciples to remain in him and he in them, he also said that every branch (of the vine) that does not bear any fruit, it will be cut off from the vine altogether (or taken away -KJV) - John 15:2.

The vine-grower was very troubled by this verse. Jesus was a carpenter. How could he possibly know anything about keeping and looking after vineyards? Had he ever worked in a vineyard? Had he got it all wrong? He went to visit his pastor, explaining his trouble over that particular verse.

The pastor had to do quite a bit of research. He went through various commentaries and study aids, then he called the troubled man back.

He explained that what Jesus meant was that if a branch of the vine isn't bearing fruit, then it's not cut off or severed from the vine. Rather, what the gardener does is lift the branch into the sunlight. When the vineyard keeper heard this, he was greatly relieved. He had already known, by his experience, that young branches don't yet bear fruit. Instead, they are lifted up to catch the maximum sunlight for the first year. And then, when it does bear fruit, the first grapes are generally of poor quality, so the gardener prunes, that is, to rid the branch of such grapes. By doing this, he can guarantee that the next year's crop will bring out the best grapes from that branch.

It's a beautiful illustration. A newly-converted Christian shouldn't be expected to bear fruit straight away. Rather, he should learn how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, read the Bible, and join a Christ-honouring church to receive sound teaching, encouragement and fellowship. Unfortunately, the English translators weren't too sure how to tackle the Greek language, as back in those days, especially around 1611 when the KJV was translated, no one in this country knew how to grow grapes, as we don't have the right climate. Therefore, according to the church pastor, the translators assumed that Jesus meant that the unfruitful branch was to be severed from the tree altogether. Instead, Jesus actually meant the young branch is to be lifted up into the sunshine.

Perhaps, the same applied to the "bottles" that would burst if the wrong kind of wine was poured into them. Apparently, in 1611, we had glass wine bottles back then as we do now. Therefore, it came as no real surprise that the English translators had to grapple with the Greek word which means wineskins. It seems that in the ancient Middle East, wineskins were the best way to carry and store wine, and the vintner at the time had to ensure that the appropriate wineskin was compatible with the age of the wine.

I am aware that there are verses in the Bible that may be difficult to understand. John 15:6 is one example. It says that if a man doesn't abide in Christ, then he is like a branch that is cast off and dies. Such branches are then bundled up and thrown into the fire. A branch cast off? There are Christians who don't believe in the eternal security of the believer and instead, insist that salvation can be lost or forfeited. These people are known as Arminians, from the 16th Century Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius, who taught these things.

A wineskin was known by Jesus.

Here, I shall be as simple as I can, mainly for the unchurched. When someone first believes in Jesus Christ and trusts him to save, then the righteousness of Christ is imputed into his spiritual account. That means God the Father sees this man in the same way he sees his beloved Son. The Christian is in Christ and Christ is in him. Paul the apostle writes quite a bit about this, and he devotes chapters 3, 4, and 5 in his letter to the Romans on this topic alone, quoting the case with Abraham, recorded in Genesis 15:6: Abraham believed the LORD and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Jesus himself backs this up when he says,

He whom the Father gives to me shall come to me, and he who comes to me I will in no wise cast out. - John 6:37, also John 10:27-30.

Therefore, to say that a man who doesn't abide in Christ will be like a dead branch cast out, bundled and burned can mean one of two lines of thought:

1. Referring to one who has heard the Gospel but still doesn't believe. Or refuses to believe.

2. He is a true believer, but due to continual disobedience, he dies prematurely. His body goes to the grave, his fruits are burned up at the Judgement Seat of Christ, but he will still be saved and go to Heaven. Due to the righteousness of Christ already credited to him, he cannot perish. And where is this in Scripture? I Corinthians 3:15.

I have written this blog with the hope that a proper understanding of the Bible is very important for a full Christian life. 

Even if a new glass bottle breaks if you pour old wine into it, and vice versa.

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*Later changed when qualification tests were upgraded to a higher level. The Bronze Medallion is now superseded by the National Pool Lifeguard Qualification or the NPLQ certificate. Beach lifeguards are now further trained to a higher grade to qualify as beach lifesavers and are close to being paramedics.