Good Food?
by Herbert W. Armstrong
Were all
animals made clean? What about the unclean animals shown to Peter in a vision?
Here is a straight-forward Bible answer, giving the New Testament teaching.
This subject is important to your health and well being!
AFTER thousands of years of human
experience on earth it seems there still is nothing people know less
about than food.
Observe a little baby. It seems to think
that anything and everything its little chubby hands can get into its mouth is
good to eat--and everything baby gets his hands on goes straight to his mouth!
How often must young parents take things away, and try to teach the lovely
little bundle of humanity that everything one's hands can touch is not
necessarily good for the digestion!
Well, one might wonder if any of us has
grown up! Most of us adults still seem to think that anything we can stuff in
our mouths is good for food. About the only difference between us and the baby
is that baby puts into his mouth whatever looks good, and we employ the
sense of taste in deciding what goes into our mouths.
Your stomach is your fuel tank. Your
automobile's fuel tank is its stomach. You wouldn't think of pouring just any
old thing that will pour into the "stomach" of your car. You know
that your car was not made to consume and "digest" fuel oil, water,
milk, or kerosene.
Yes, we are very careful what we
"feed" our automobile--and totally careless and indifferent about
what we feed ourselves and our children!
What happens to the food you eat?
In the stomach the digestive process takes place. And, once digested--if you
have eaten fit and digestible food--a portion of the essential minerals,
vitamins, and carbon--the life-giving properties in the food--filter through
the intestinal lining into the blood stream to replenish and build up decaying
cells, to provide energy, body warmth, good health.
Your body is WONDERFULLY MADE! It is the
most wonderful mechanism in the world.
But, just as you must use the right kind
of gasoline in the gas tank and the right kind of oils and greases in the other
parts of your car or impair its performance, so you must put the right kind of
food into the most delicate mechanism of all, your body.
If you tried to oil a fine watch with axle
grease you wouldn't expect the watch to keep good time.
And when you put into your stomach all
kinds of foul things which the Great Architect who designed your human
mechanism never intended, you foul up your body and bring on sickness, disease,
aches, pains, a dulled and clogged-up mind, inefficiency and inability-and you
commit suicide on the installment plan by actually
shortening your life!
The God who designed, created, and made
your body has revealed some essential basic knowledge about what meats will
keep that body functioning in tip-top shape. Why does humanity refuse His
instructions?
You don't eat every plant that grows out
of the ground. Some things that grow are POISON, not food.
But did you know there are many kinds of
poisons? Potassium cyanide will kill you very quickly. Some poisons will result
in death within a few hours or a few days. But very few seem to know there are
other poisons people mistakenly eat as foods which result in premature death
after continuous usage for, say, ten, or thirty, or fifty years.
The only difference between these poisons
we falsely call foods and potassium cyanide is the relative number of minutes,
hours, or years it takes to accomplish its mission.
Just as every plant that God caused to
grow out of the ground was not de-signed for food, so it is with animal flesh.
Some will say, "Well, if swine's flesh isn't supposed to be eaten as food,
what did God create swine for?" You might as well ask, what did God create
weeds and poison vines for? Everything may have been created for a purpose, but
not everything for the purpose of eating.
Now some believe that in the original
creation--in the Garden of Eden--God did not intend any animal flesh to be
eaten. God's revelation on that point is vague, and many have argued it both
ways. However, God has revealed that certain animal meats are to be eaten as
food now, in this age, and Jesus who came to set us an example did eat flesh as
well as vegetables and fruits, and so do I.
When the first written revelation of God
came to man through Moses, God instructed man as to which kinds of animal flesh
man ought or ought not to eat. You will find this list in Leviticus 11 and
Deuteronomy 14.
This is a basic law--a revelation from God
to man about which kinds of flesh will properly digest and assimilate in the
human system, and which will not. It is not a part of God's great SPIRITUAL
LAW, summed up in the Ten Commandments. Neither is it part of the ceremonial,
ritualistic, or sacrificial laws later abolished at the crucifixion of Christ.
It is necessary to recognize that God is
the author of all law, and there are countless laws in motion. There are
laws of physics and chemistry. You know of the law of gravity. There is the
great immutable SPIRITUAL law to regulate man's relationship to God and to
fellow-men-the law of LOVE--the Ten Commandments. God gave His nation
And then, we must realize, THERE ARE
PHYSICAL LAWS WORKING IN OUR BODIES, REGULATING OUR HEALTH. This MEAT
question has to do with these laws.
I know of men who make a hobby of bitterly
accusing others of SIN for eating pork, oysters, and clams.
Let us get this straight and clear!
We usually speak of SIN in its spiritual
aspect. That is the aspect in which it usually is considered in the New
Testament. The Bible definition of it is this: "Sin is the
transgression of the law."
The penalty for violation of that
spiritual law is DEATH-not the first, or physical
death, but the second, or spiritual and ETERNAL death in the "lake of
fire" (Rev. 20:14).
Now the eating of wrong food is not a
transgression of this spiritual law, and is not a sin in this sense. To
violate the physical laws of health brings the penalty of disease, disability,
pain, sickness, and sometimes the first death. It is not necessarily
spiritual sin.
That is what Jesus made plain, as recorded
in Mark 7:14-23. Here Jesus was speaking of spiritual defilement, not
physical health. Not that which enters into a man's mouth, but the evil that
comes OUT OF HIS HEART, defiles the man SPIRITUALLY. What defiles the MAN--and
he is speaking of defiling the MAN, not injuring the body--is transgression of
the Ten Commandments--evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
covetousness, blasphemy (verses 21-22). These things have to do with the
SPIRITUAL law, and not with the physical laws of health. Specifically he was
referring to a possible particle of dirt which might get on the food from dirty
and unwashed hands-He was not here speaking of clean or unclean meats at
all. But he was speaking of SPIRITUAL defilements, not physical health.
The animals whose flesh
properly digests and nourishes the human body were SO MADE IN THE
ORIGINAL CREATION. No change was ever made in the structure of men's bodies at
the time of the flood, or at the time of Jesus' death, or any other time.
Neither did God make some sudden change in the structure of animal flesh, so
that what once was unfit for food will now digest properly and supply the
body's needs.
The unclean animals were UNCLEAN BEFORE
THE FLOOD.
Notice, before the Flood, Noah took
into the ark of the CLEAN animals, to be eaten for food, by SEVENS; but of the
unclean, of which he was not to eat during the Flood, by TWO's--only enough to
preserve their lives. The inference is inescapable that the additional clean
animals were taken aboard to be eaten for food while Noah and his family were
in the ark.
Prior to the flood clean animals were usually offered as
sacrifices. Those who ate the sacrifices often partook of the animal flesh, but
vegetables were the main constituent of diet. After the flood God gave
Noah not merely the green herb—vegetables--as the major part of diet, but of
every type of living creature
--clean animals, clean
fish, clean fowl. (Genesis 9:3 and Leviticus 11).
This verse does not say that every living,
breathing creature is clean and fit to eat, but that "as the green
herb have I given you all things." God did not give poisonous herbs as
food. He gave man the healthful herbs. Man can determine which herbs are
healthful, but man cannot by himself determine what flesh foods are harmful.
That is why God had to determine for us in His Word which meats are clean.
Since the flood every moving clean, healthful, non-poisonous type of
animal life is good for food-just as God gave us the healthful, non-poisonous
herbs.
This does not give us permission to do as
we please!
The instruction in the 11th chapter of
Leviticus, then, is not some ritualistic regulation for the Mosaic period only.
Why do so many people have the idea that God is some great unfair monster who
imposes foolish hardships on His people? Whatever God instructs us is for OUR
GOOD, not some nonsensical restriction for one period to be changed around some
different way for other people of a different period.
Swine flesh--pork, ham, bacon, sausage,
etc.-- is simply NOT FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION. The
same is true with oysters, lobsters, clams, crabs, shrimp, crawfish, dogs, snakes,
rats, and skunks.
The only seafood fit for food are fish having both fins and scales. Halibut has
both and is clean. Catfish is a skin fish--unclean.
It's all a matter of what we have become
accustomed to doing. It seems strange and horrifying to hear that some
Orientals eat mice as a delicacy. But many Orientals are horrified to hear that
we eat nasty, slimy, filthy oysters! But some human grown-ups, like little
babies, will eat anything they can get their hands on and stuff into their
mouths.
At so-called "quality" grocery
stores in large towns and cities, specializing in rare delicacies, you can
purchase "delicious" canned rattlesnake--if you care for it.
So far as I am concerned, you may have my
portion if you wish to try it. I do not care to eat it for the same reason I do
not eat slugs, skunks, cats, or eels—for the same reason I do not eat poison
ivy or weeds. Yes, and for the same reason I do not put fuel oil mixed with
sand in the gas tank of my car!
The day will come when the learned
(so-called) doctors will at last learn that eating greasy hog flesh and other
unfit "foods" has been a prime cause of cancer and other deadly
diseases.
But what about the sheet of unclean
animals shown to the Apostle Peter in a vision? Did this vision change the
entire composition of all unclean animals, or of the human apparatus, so that
these unfit things suddenly become nourishing food?
NOT AT ALL!
The purpose of this vision was NOT to
change God's food and health laws, which have been inexorably in motion from
the beginning, but to show Peter "that I should not call any MAN COMMON
OR UNCLEAN" (Acts 10:28). Why? Because the Jews had been taught to regard
Gentiles like unclean animals--to have nothing to do with them.
It is time you fully understood this
vision. It may well affect your health, happiness and eternal life. Open your
Bible to the tenth chapter of Acts.
Notice that Cornelius was an Italian
soldier--an uncircumcised Italian--a Gentile by race. To the strict Jews, he
was to be regarded as an unclean man. But God looks on the heart. Cornelius
gave "much alms" to the Jewish people (verse 2). God remembered his
alms and revealed in a vision that he should send some of his servants to Joppa
to contact Peter.
In verse 9, we find Peter was also a man
of prayer. While praying on a housetop, Peter became very hungry. Just before
Notice this carefully. This sheet
contained every type of animal imaginable, including wild animals--lions,
tigers, hyenas, monkeys, skunks. And creeping things--snakes and lizards, vermin and spiders. And
fowl like vultures and crows and eagles!
Peter was shocked by the sight of all
these creatures. Then, of all things, God commanded Peter to kill and eat of
these creatures! What did Peter say?
"Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten
anything that is common or unclean" (Acts
Peter had lived day and night with Jesus
for over three years. He certainly understood from Jesus' teaching that there
were some creatures which are simply not fit for human food. That is why that
when this vision came ten years after the rituals and ceremonies were
abolished at the cross, Peter refused to eat. He knew that God's law of clean
and unclean meats was still in full force and effect!
Now notice what the voice from heaven told
Peter when he refused to eat: 'What God hath cleansed, that call not thou
common" (verse 15). It does NOT say that what God cleansed were these
revolting unclean reptiles, fowl and wild animals. It does say that what
God cleansed is not to be called common! But WHAT did God cleanse?
In this vision which Peter saw, the voice
from heaven spoke three times, then the sheet was received up into
heaven again. And what did Peter do? "Peter doubted in himself what
this vision which he had seen should mean" (verse 17). He did not
immediately assume like so many people that God suddenly changed His laws ten
years after the crucifixion!
Now notice what happened! "While
Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, 'Behold, three men seek
thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing:
for I have sent them'" (verses 19-20).
The voice from heaven in the vision spoke
unto Peter three times because three gentile men--two servants
and a soldier (verse 7)--were at that moment on their way to see him! Peter
went with them to see Cornelius. This is when Peter understood the vision! He
confessed in verse 28"... God hath shewed me that I should not call any man
common or unclean."
Now Peter understood! WHY don't all
the "popular" preachers understand? Maybe it's because they are
afraid of offending their congregations and losing their salaries! "What
God cleansed" were not those unclean animals, but those Gentile men,
formerly regarded as unclean by the Jews.
Those unclean animals in Peter's vision
were used to symbolize the Gentile races of men. The Jews had been
forbidden to associate with them because of their abominable practices. But now
this wall of spiritual separation had been broken down and salvation was
extended to the Gentiles. Peter finally realized that this was the meaning of
the vision and said, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of
persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is
accepted with him" (verses 34-35).
Yes, to be accepted with God, we must fear
Him and work righteousness. What is righteousness?" ...All thy commandments
are righteousness" (Psalm 119:172). And among those commandments are the
laws which tell us which kinds of flesh are clean and which are unclean!
But suppose God had been trying to tell
Peter--and us--that he should eat all the things contained in the sheet that
was let down in vision. Would you eat those "creeping
things"--lizards, snakes, spiders? Would you eat skunks and hyenas? Of
course you wouldn't! Why? Because you have your own law of what you think
is clean and unclean!
Common sense tells us that God did not intend for us to eat
every creature. But we just aren't willing to let our Creator tell us which
meats will give us lasting health and strength, and which ones are injurious to
our bodies, and will eventually bring on more sickness and disease. It is time
we let God tell us what is clean and what is unclean instead of using our
faulty human reason!
Some people, however, still want to argue
with God! One text they will bring up is found in I Timothy 4:1-5. Read it
carefully.
Notice that these "doctrines of
devils" include "commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created
to be received with thanksgiving..." By whom? "Of them which
believe and know the truth." What is truth? Christ said, "Thy
Word is truth" (John
Notice that the false doctrine is
commanding to abstain from meats which are thankfully received by those who
believe and know the truth--who know God's Word. But God's Word--the Holy
Bible--tells us that there are some meats which are "unclean,"
and are not to be received with thanksgiving!
Now consider what verses 4 and 5 tell us:
"For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it
be received with thanksgiving; for it is SANCTIFIED by the word of God and
prayer." What does it mean to be SANCTIFIED by the Word of God and prayer?
"Sanctify" is a word meaning to
make holy, or set apart for a right use or purpose--to set apart as fit for
human food.
Now which meats has God sanctified
for human food? The only passages in the entire Bible showing which meats
GOD SANCTIFIED are found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Here you find that
it is the "clean" --healthful --meats which are good for food.
These are the only meats that can be received with thanksgiving and prayer!
There is not a single scripture showing
that God ever set apart as fit for food any unclean creatures--snails, oysters,
clams, snakes, octopuses, eels, horses or swine! Yet people eat these creatures
without realizing the harm they are doing to their bodies.
Paul's letter to the saints at
Turn to the beginning of the 14th chapter
of Romans. Notice what the apostle is writing: "Him that is WEAK in the
faith receive ye"--don't dispute with him and sit in judgment on him
because of his weak understanding of the faith, Paul continues. "For one
believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak, eateth herbs
[vegetables only]" (Romans 14:1-2).
Of whom is Paul writing? Of those who were
VEGETARIANS, as well as those who believed in eating both flesh foods and
vegetables.
Paul was confronted with the same problem
that we encounter today in carrying the gospel to the world. You would be
surprised at the number of people who do not eat MEAT or even any animal
products--milk, butter, cheese, eggs. Some have meatless days or days on which
they will eat fish only. These are all people who, because they are WEAK in the
faith, abstain from those clean meats which God originally SANCTIFIED or
set apart in His Word for man's physical nourishment.
The question confronting Paul was not that
Christians at Rome contended that all unclean animals had now been cleansed by
God--the common false assumption of today--but the real issue, according
to verse two, was over the vegetarian belief held by some that NO MEATS
whatsoever should be eaten!
Paul was straightening out the brethren on
this matter, telling them that none of those clean meats which had been created
by God to be received with thanksgiving should be refused. He pointed out to
them, however, that it would be wrong for the vegetarians to eat meat if they
had doubts about it, thereby defiling their weak consciences. For he wrote,
"...happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he
alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth
not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Rom.
We must follow what God has revealed to us
to be right ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF GOD. This does not mean that our
consciences always tell us what is right-not at all. We have to continually
study to learn what is right and wrong. But God thinks more highly of a
vegetarian who might sincerely and conscientiously deny himself the clean
meats, because he does not know the full truth, than He does a person who would
do the right thing according to the letter, but who really believes in his
heart that he is doing wrong.
So "to him"--the
vegetarian--"that esteemeth anything to be common, to him"--the
vegetarian--"it is common." That is, it seems so to him. But
it is not common in fact, nor to us, for we know that ALL clean
meats are good for food. That is why Paul wrote: "I know, and am
persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing common of itself"
(Romans
Notice that in this verse Paul used,
according to the margin of the King James Version, the Greek word for
"common," not the Greek word for "unclean." Why?
Many have carelessly assumed that Paul is
writing about unclean meats in this 14th chapter of Romans. He is not! He is
writing about the difference between vegetarians who regard that clean meats
are common, and those who know that clean meats are of themselves not
common.
In the Greek there are two different words
used which are often carelessly translated "unclean" or
"common." Notice that in Acts
The Greek word for "unclean" is akarthatos.
It means unclean and impure BY NATURE. The Greek word for
"common" is koinos, which means polluted THROUGH
EXTERNAL MISUSE. (See any of the Lexicons.)
Paul used the Greek word for "common
throughout Romans
Notice Paul's conclusion: "For meat
destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure"--that is, all
things that God sanctified and gave us to eat are clean--"but it is
evil for that man who eateth with offense. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor
to drink wine, nor any-thing whereby thy brother stumbleth …" (Verses 20
and 21).
Paul is not recommending eating unclean
meats! Quite the opposite. He is recommending not eating any meat at all in the
presence of a vegetarian brother if he is offended!
The only circumstance in which clean meats
are ever common or polluted is when the clean animals have died of themselves
or when the blood has not been properly drained. That is why the apostles and
elders who gathered at
Such animal flesh was called
"common" because it could be given to strangers or aliens in Old
Testament times if those people wanted to eat it. They were the common and
polluted people--the Gentiles--not the chosen and clean people,
In New Testament times, clean meat offered
to idols was prohibited if it had been polluted by strangulation or if the
blood were remaining in it. Otherwise the meat was permitted to be eaten
if it did not offend anyone.
Paul devoted the entire 8th and 10th
chapters of I Corinthians to instructions on not raising the question of meats
offered to idols. "But if any man say unto you, 'This is offered in
sacrifice unto idols,' eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for
conscience sake" (I Cor.
That is why Paul said in Romans "But
to him that esteemeth any thing to be common, to him it is common" (Romans
What does the Bible say the people would
be doing today? Notice: "They that" eat "SWINE'S
FLESH"--that is what most people are doing today--"and the
abomination, and the mouse, SHALL BE CONSUMED TOGETHER"--in the wrath of
God--"saith the Lord" (Isaiah 66:17).
This is the fate of those who lust after
the foods which God forbids you to eat because those meats will harm you. This
is the fate of those "whose God is their belly"! (Philippians 3:19).
Is it any wonder today, that with all our
supposed scientific knowledge, we have more doctor bills, more sickness than
ever before in the history of the world? It is time we returned to God and
began to obey His laws. He is our Creator. He made us. He and He alone knows what our bodies were made to utilize as good,
healthful foods. He set laws in motion regulating clean and unclean meats. It
is time we began to obey them as Jesus and the apostles did!
Two other points to be briefly mentioned.
God condemns also the eating of animal FAT, or BLOOD (Lev.
It may not be spiritual sin to eat unclean
meats. Yet, if one deliberately does it out of lust of appetite, that breaks
the tenth command and becomes sin. But in all events wrong food injures the
body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It defiles the BODY if not the man,
and if we defile our bodies God will destroy us (I Cor.
. . .