DON'T EAT THAT!!
Lately it seems that everything I read in the newspapers, in books or on the internet is warning me about the hazards of eating certain foods. The foods most mentioned for their negative effects are dairy foods, beef, pork, chicken, soy and basically any processed foods. It seems like the list grows every day. There are some health programs so strict that they are setting people up for failure. I really began wondering if anything is safe to eat anymore! What should I do? In order to live by the high standards of eating right today, I would be limiting myself to eating raw fruits and vegetables and juices. Is this how God wanted me to live, in a constant spirit of fear about what I put into my body? There is so much new “scientific” evidence for the reasons to quit eating dairy, beef, pork, chicken, and eggs altogether. Crab, lobsters, and shrimp need to be off-limits as well. The list can go on and on. I want to do what’s right, so instead of listening to “experts” who have “found a better way”, I decided to research what God, the ultimate source, has to say about food.
The Old Testament gives so many Scriptures about what not to eat:
In Deuteronomy 14, there is a huge list of foods that man is not supposed to eat because they are unclean. These foods are: rabbit, pig, crab, shrimp, lobster or any other fish that does not have fins and scales, eagles, vultures, ravens, owl, bats, and all flying insects. Does God want us to follow these food rules from the Old Testament? I’m sure there are good reasons that God gives us not to eat the above mentioned foods, but do they still apply? If we follow the rules that apply to food, then can we pick and choose which other rules of the Old Testament we want to follow and which one's we want to ignore? That is walking on dangerous ground!
If we base our vegetarian lifestyle on one Bible verse, Genesis 1:29: "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours to eat", then why is it o.k. to ignore what God said a few chapters later in Genesis 9:3: "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you EVERYTHING." I understand that we have discovered that an overabundance of meat in one's diet can lead to many physical problems such as obesity, heart disease, as well as many other conditions. But does that mean that God was wrong in giving us His blessing to eat meat? Or does it mean that we, as humans, have to use discernment in all areas of our diet?
Meat in Bible days was considered a luxury as well as curds, whey, and milk. Deuteronomy 7:13 tells us that God blessed His people by blessing the fruit of their womb, the crops of their land, the calves of their herds and the lambs of their flocks. If God thought that blessing their calves and lambs would be detrimental to their health, He wouldn't have made them increase in number. In another verse of blessing, (Deut. 32:13-14), God nourished them with honey from the rock, with oil from the flinty crag, with curds and milk from herd and flock, and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. Clearly meat and dairy are mentioned in these verses as a luxury, a blessing, a nourishment to one's body. I wonder what Jesus Himself would prepare for us if He were inviting us over for dinner? John 21:9-13 tells us that Jesus prepared a meal of fish cooked over a charcoal fire as well as bread. Jesus prepared cooked foods, not raw salads, to His disciples whom he loved so much. And how about God the Father? Isaiah 25:6 says, "The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine and choice pieces with marrow..." So apparently God isn't following a non-alcoholic diet or an all-raw diet. That kinda puts those who teach that all alcohol should be off-limits in a predicament. God might set before them a glass of refined, aged wine in Heaven. And that also puts those who are only eating raw fruits and vegetables in a bit of a jam because they will have set before them choice pieces of meat with bone marrow!
Why are people today spreading false myths about the food that God has created? Why are they teaching their children that meat is bad or that dairy is harmful? Why are people trying to follow the old rules of the Bible and abstain from pork and certain fish? Does God want us to be concerned about which foods are clean or unclean? Here are some Bible verses to consider:
Romans 14:14- “As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.”
When Peter was having a dream about eating ‘unclean’ things, he said in Acts 10:14, ”Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” Vs.15- The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
1 Corinthians 8:7-8- “But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.”
Mark 7:14-19- “Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, ‘Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean’. After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. ‘Are you so dull?’ he asked. ‘Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.’ In saying this, Jesus declared all foods ‘clean’.
Still some in the New Testament church were spreading false reports that led people to believe that they could not eat of certain foods. Read about this in Acts 15:24-29: "We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said...Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality." Why were there only a few requirements? Acts 15:19 tells us because "we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God."
Paul was very wise in only giving a few requirements. Here we have Paul and Silas and Judas trying to persuade Gentiles to convert to Christianity. Why would the Gentiles want to convert to being a Christian if it was no different than being a Jew? I can't picture Paul telling these Gentiles, who have no knowledge of Jewish custom, "Jesus accepts you just as you are. Come, be saved. Be baptized and washed white as snow. Then you will be clean. Oh, and by the way, you may no longer eat ham, bacon, pork chops, shrimp, and, well, the list is so long... You may not eat these foods because you will be unclean again." See what I mean about confusing?
I understand that in the Bible days, there weren’t pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics injected into the foods. Now we also have genetically engineered foods that have altered DNA. I completely agree that those things are unsafe and should be avoided at all costs by people. Our body was never intended to shuffle around pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, additives, and preservatives. I believe these things are damaging, but unfortunately these things are in many of the foods we eat. If you can purchase organic foods, by all means, do so! The closer you can get to natural foods, the way they were in Bible times, the better.
The Word of God goes on to say: "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink...Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence." (Col. 2:16, 20-23).
The reason God doesn’t require us to live by the unclean food laws of the Old Testament is because Jesus came as our sacrifice. God sent Jesus as a one-time sacrifice to take the place of all the rules and legalities that the Jewish people endured for hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. Galations 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Galations 2:15-16 says, “…Know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ…By observing the law no one will be justified. And in verse 21 it says, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” Acts 15:10 says, in referring to those rules, “Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?”
Romans 14:1-3 says -“Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.” Christ was the sacrifice for us! We should no longer be in chains when we are preparing our weekly dinner menu. Keeping ourselves in bondage to food rules will not make us holier or strengthen our relationship to Jesus or change the amount of days that God has already written in His Book of Life for us to live. If Jesus were concerned about which foods we ate, he would have been teaching the Gentiles how to be more like the Pharisees and to abide by legalistic eating habits. But He didn’t do that! In fact, He preached against that very thing. There are more important things in life to focus on, such as witnessing to others, to expend so much energy on the newest diet trends. This is an example straight from Jesus.
1 Timothy 4:1-8 says, "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For EVERYTHING God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."
God made food for our enjoyment. We must not put ourselves in a burden we cannot bear as the Jews did. Let's remember to keep the focus on the abundance of foods God has created rather than the limits we ourselves have made without God’s approval.