A Bit of Old-Fashioned Preachin’
Old West movies conjure up a lot of images. Fast draw gunfights in the streets. Outlaws with bandannas over their faces robbing banks. Lawmen jumping off horses onto backs of fleeing bad men. Goodhearted women of easy virtue. And the town drunk full of demon liquor.
Ike Clanton
Not all the images are accurate. I’m sure most western settlements had more than one town drunk. And not the harmless old fool who slept in the unlocked jail cell. More often demon liquor fired up a man or woman to be cruel and violent.
For instance, it is my opinion that Ike Clanton was a vicious, reckless drunk. His abandon to demon liquor got his brother Billy, plus Tom and Frank McClaury, killed at the shootout with the Earps and Doc Holiday in Tombstone.
Demon Liquor Destruction
Alcohol destroyed whole tribes. Alcohol devastated numerous families. Alcohol toppled towns. Alcohol decimated good people’s lives. Demon liquor warranted many names. Aqua ardiente. Bug juice. Coffin varnish. Firewater. Mescal. Prairie Dew. Redeye. Snake poison. Strychnine. Taos lightning. Tarantula juice. To list a few. By any name, in the Old West, alcohol addiction did more destruction than all the outlaws and renegades combined.
Not much has changed today. Here’s some recent reports.
A twenty-one-year-old mother of two and her thirteen-year-old sister were shot and killed by a guy who the newspaper noted “is a nice guy until he gets drunk.” A drunk driver plowed through a stoplight and critically injured three children as they waited for a school bus. 
A seventy-eight-year-old lady died in a fiery collision with a pickup going the wrong way on a one-way street. The autopsy revealed the driver had twice the alcohol content considered legally drunk.
You have your own tragic stories of demon liquor. These come from our peaceful, low-density population areas of the U.S.
Good and bad medicine
To take a drink is not a sin. In fact, a little wine is considered good medicine. To get so drunk you can’t think or remember what you say or do is. Many are deceived that getting bombed out of your mind is no big deal. To call it demon liquor comes close to the truth. The Bible warns drunkards make the list of those who won’t inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9,10).
Whoa, to even suggest the above is so way out of fashion these days. It was in the Old West too. To say such a thing labels me as a narrow, insensitive fundamentalist. Can’t help it. What’s in The Book will be true for all eternity.
Sure don’t want you to miss out on the purest, most satisfying high of all. A clear, alert mind with a busy and full of the Holy Spirit focused life now. And heaven to come. Getting soused or tanked won’t get you there. Won’t get you anywhere but a deep pit of a dead end.
Stephen Bly
Copyright©1993
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Related Resources
Ever wonder what heaven will really be like? Check out this book by Randy Alcorn HEAVEN by RANDY ALCORN
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Email from Richard: Thanks for the ‘good gospel’ about the demon liquor. Have had plenty of experience with it along the way: family, relatives, certain ones. Saw plenty of problems it caused for our American Indian neighbors too. Never did get into drinking myself. For those who do, a good dose of old fashioned ‘born again’ cures it every time!
Thanks for your note, Richard. Appreciated!
Blessings,
Janet