For over 1,800 years, the regular use of wine in the celebration of the Eucharist and in daily life was the virtually universal and undisputed practice in Christianity. During the 19th and early 20th century, as a general sense of prohibitionism arose, many Christians, particularly some Protestants in the United States, came to believe that the Bible prohibited alcohol or that the wisest choice in modern circumstances was for the Christian to abstain from alcohol willingly.