Is Our Food Important to God?
The laws of God have a lot to do with health. The ancient Israelites didn’t understand about germs and basic cleanliness and hygiene, so they had to be told.
Douglas S. Winnail “Curing the Global Crisis in Health Care”, The World Ahead – Oct-Nov 1995, p. 24
“Woven primarily through the books of Leviticus and Deuteuronomy) but augmented elsewhere in the Scripture) we find a code of health statutes that deals with diet, environmental safety, sanitation, sexual relations, quarantine, waste disposal, exercise and mental health. These statutes are not treatment oriented but preventative in nature.”
Reginal Cherry, “The Bible Cure”, Orlando Creation House 1998 p.78
“Medical statistics report that six of the ten leading causes of death in America deal with the issue of diet. The wisdom behind the biblical dietary regulations is especially apparent in restrictions against fat and blood.”
Lev 7:23, 24, 26 ”Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat.”
“And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use: but ye shall in no wise eat of it.”
“Moreover, ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.”
Kathleen Baldinger, “The World’s Oldest Health Plan” (Lancaster, Pa., Starburst Publishers, 1994) p. 259
“Not only is animal fat a storage center for toxins, it is also a major supplier of LDL (low density lipoprotein) popularly called bad cholesterol.”
This bad cholesterol is the stuff that clogs arteries leading to stroke and heart attacks, it also can affect the kidneys, the brain, and other vital organs. It has taken the medical establishment quite some time to come to this conclusion. Even though God instructed his people thousands of years ago not to eat animal fat.
A common misconception is that the laws concerning foods that are clean and unclean originated with the Levitical code. Not so. The laws concerning clean and unclean were known to Noah. In Gen 7:2 before the flood, Noah recognized the difference between the beasts which were clean and unclean.
Douglas Winnail, Do You Really Want to Eat That? P.24
“The dietary laws regarding cud-chewing beasts also prohibit the consumption of all carnivorous animals and omnivorous animals for very logical reasons. God created clean animals to provide food and by-products for human use. He created animals unsuitable for human consumption for other purposes. Carnivores, as beasts of prey, play an important role in controlling the populations of other animals. As an example, wolves and mountail lions, which feed on herds of deer, control not only the herd by culling out older, sick or infirmed animals. That’s one reason why we shouldn’t eat carnivores. They may eat sick animals and transmit diseases to humans.”
“Although a grain-based diet is healthier than a diet based on clean animals, there are many types of vegetarian that are not directly accessible to humans for areas of grasses and rangelands that are not digestible by people. However, cud-chewing animals with four- chambered stomachs (ruminants) are specially designed to digest these grasses. These animals are the specific type, which God designated as clean for human consumption. In this way, these grasslands are indirectly accessible as a source of food for humans.”
Pork is definitely the most commonly eaten of the unclean foods. But, the bottom dwellers of the oceans and lakes are eaten too.
Berkow, The Merck Manual, p. 245
“Pork is the primary source of trichinosis – an infestation of the parasite Trichinella Spiralis. Once ingested, the worms breed and reproduce in the intestines of the host. The offspring then penetrate the intestines and travel through the bloodstream to various parts of the body. In order to survive these larvae must become in cysted within the skeletal muscles of the host. The muscles most commonly infected are the tongue, diaphragm, pectoral, eye, and intercostals muscles. Cooking does not always kill the parasites. The most common source of trichonosis in America is ready to eat pork sausages.”
“As a result of their ecological niche, bottom dwellers tend to accumulate toxins in their flesh and fat. Catfish caught in the Ohio River are strictly prohibited for human consumption because of the high levels of organic toxins in their bodies. However, certain basses in the Ohio River are safe for consumption because of a much lower level of toxicity. The toxicity levels in these fishes are directly related to the environmental niches they occupy.
Simialrly, shellfish frequently accumulate substances poisonous to humans. Paralytic shellfish poisoning can occur from June to October when mussels, clams, oysters, and scallops ingest a dinoflagellate (“redtide”) which produce a neurotoxin resistant to cooking. Symptoms of infection, include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, followed by muscle weakness and paralysis. Respiratory failure may cause death.”
The Food and Drug Administration FDA Consumer June 1991
“raw oysters, clams and mussels – so savored by gourmets – account for a whopping 85% of all the illnesses caused by eating seafood.”
There are two Greek words that have to do with uncleanness or defilement. The words are koinos and akthartos
Koinos simply meant in that day the opposite of “holy” Meaning “unhallowed” or “unholy”.
Arthartos is th opposite of clean. Having more to do with moral or physical uncleanness or corruption.
There are several scriptures which some say prove that the laws of clean and unclean are no longer in effect.
Matthew 15:11-20
“Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying
But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable
And Jesus said, Are you also yet without understanding?
Do not ye yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man.”
Same account is in Mark 7:15-19
Yahshua in the above scripture is not even talking about food, but about a bit of dirt on ones hands cannot defile the heart.
The word defile in this scripture is from the root of the Greek word Koinos. It has to do with spiritual defilement of the heart, not the physical defilement of the flesh.
All foods are purged from the body and has nothing to do with a change in the law.
In Acts 10: 1-48 Peter was being taught not to consider any man unclean. While Peter was wondering just what the vision meant, three men arrived to provide his answer. The vision had nothing to do with convincing Peter to eat shellfish, catfish or pork; it was given to change Peter’s view toward humans he considered to be unclean. This is the only interpretation Peter offers for this vision.
Rom 14:14 “I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteems anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.”
Here Paul uses the word Koinos or “common” here, not the word akthartos or “unclean”. He is referring to vegetarianism versus meat eating.
I Cor 6:17 “Wherefore come out from among then, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.”
The word used here for “unclean” is akthartos and is the same word used in application to unclean animals. It is strange that Paul would exhort a gentile church to avoid the unclean if he believed that Jesus had abolished the laws concerning clean and unclean.
I Tim 4:1-5 “Many shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.
Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.”
Which foods did God create to be received with thanksgiving? Which foods did He create NOT to be eaten?
The Greek word “broma” means food in general. This cannot refer to a command not to eat the ‘unclean meats’ of Lev 11. If it did it would be calling Lev 11 a doctrine of demons!
“For every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified [set apart] by the Word of God and prayer.”
Where in the Bible are foods “set apart” for human consumption?? In Lev 11 and Deut 14.
Paul did not say that everything created by God was good for food without qualification. Some things are not fit for human consumption. Paul was referring to those who go beyond the Word of God to prohibit “clean” foods.
Isa 65:3-4 “A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrifice in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick.
Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh; and broth of abominable things is in their vessels.”
Isa 66:15-17 “For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh; and the slain of the Lord shall be many.
They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.”
The time setting is plainly the end-time. Evidently God is not going too be too happy at this time. And He specifically mentions the eating of unclean foods. Must still be an important issue, even at the time of the very end.
God's Diet Plan for Healthful Living by Ronald Dart
