ArchivedMeat: Good or Bad for Christians?During a debate about the sin of homosexuality, I was asked this question: Well, don't Christians believe that eating meat is sinful? While it's true that practicing Jews choose not to eat meat that had been deemed unclean in Leviticus, I'd never heard of modern day Christians refusing to eat meat. I, myself, am a meat lover.
Or, as my sister likes to say, "a meatian."
Anyway, I did some research. Not only did I read various Bible scriptures, but I searched for dietary laws in my mother's Bible encyclopedia. Here's what I found.
An underlying reason for excluding animals, such as the pig, may be found in the danger of contracting diseases like trichinosis, carried by swine. The principal reason was a religious taboo against animals whcih the Canaanites and other pagans offered to their gods. Horses, swine, dogs, mice, and rats were connected with idolatrous rites associated with the underworld.
II Kings 23:11- He removed from the entrance to the temple of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the room of an official named Nathan-Melech. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.
Isaiah 65:2-4 - All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations -- a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick; who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat.
Isaiah 66:3 - But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig's blood, and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol.
These and other beasts would be forbidden as food, since animals were slaughtered only in connection with the offering of sacrifices. To eat their meat would make the Israelite "abominable."
Leviticus 11:41, 42, 43 - Every creature that moves about on the ground is detestable; it is not to be eaten. You are not to eat any creature that moves about on the ground, whether it moves on its belly or walks on all fours or on many feet; it is detestable. Do not defile yourselves by any of these creatures. Do not make yourselves unclean by means of them or be made unclean by them.
Many of the prohibited birds, insects and reptiles were worshipped in Egypt in the sense that as totems, they represented Egyptian deities.
Leviticus 11:13-30 - These are the birds you are to detest and not eat because they are detestable: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.
All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however, some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But other winged creatures that have four legs you are to detest.
You will make yourselves unclean by these; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean till evening. Whoever picks up one of their carcasses must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening.
Every animal that has a split hoof not completely divided or that does not chew the cud is unclean for you; whoever touches the carcass of any of them will be unclean. Of all the animals that walk on all fours, those that walk on their paws are unclean for you; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean till evening. Anyone who picks up their carcasses must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean till evening. They are unclean for you.
Of the animals that move about on the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon.
No evidence exists that the game animals and birds not called unclean in the Mosaic code were ever totem gods in the ancient Near East.
Deuteronomy 14:4, 5 - These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.
Deuteronomy 12:15 - Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer, according to the blessing the Lord your God gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.
I Kings 4:22, 23 - Solomon's daily provisions were thirty cors of fine flour and sixty cors of meal, ten head of stall-fed cattle, twenty of pasture-fed cattle and a hundred sheep and goats,a s well as deer, gazelles, roebucks and choice fowl.
The eating of any kind of blood, even of clean animals and birds, was absolutely forbidden on the grounds of the sacredness of life.
Genessis 9:4-6 - But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man."
Leviticus 17:10-14 - Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood -- I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, "None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood."
Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, because the life of every creature is in the blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who its it must be cut off."
Deuteronomy 12:16 - But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.
Acts 15:29 - You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
Of the clean animals, the goat kid was the most frequently eaten, especially among the poor. But the favorite meal included a stall-fed calf or choice sheep.
Proverbs 15:17 - Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred.
Nehmiah 5:18 - Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.
The meat listed in Nehmiah 5:18 would provide one meal for 600-700 people, including the 150 Jews and officials of verse 18.
Roast goose was a national dish in Egypt and may be the "fatted fowl" on Solomon's table. Chickens were known in Palestine by 600 BC, but domestic poultry and eggs were uncommon before the Persian period.
Savory or tasty meat was requested by Issac as he prepared to give his blessing to Esau.
Genessis 27:4 - Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.
The Hebrew word means "delicacies" or "dainties" and was meat, particularly wild game, prepared in an appetizing way.
In Acts, Peter had a vision regarding the ingestion of meat.
Acts 10:9-15 - About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."
"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
Jesus had already laid the groundwork for setting aside the laws of clean and unclean food.
Matthew 15:11 - What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean'.
Romans 14:6 - He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God.
The motivation behind the actions of both the strong and the weak is to be the same: Both should want to serve the Lord and give thanks for His provision.
1 Corinthians 8:13 - Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
Paul would refrain from engaging in the harmless practice of eating meat sacrificed to idols if it would cause his weak Christian brother, who believed it was wrong, also to eat that meat.
1 Corinthians 10:25 - Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."
Even if the meat has been sacrificed to an idol, you should eat it. Why? Because out in the public market, the meat has lost its pagan religious significance.
I just thought this was interesting, and I figured I'd share it with you guys. [/size]
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