“Why are unclean meats unclean?”
“God said so.”
“Well why did He say so?”
“Because He knows something we don’t.”
“DUH! Is that the best you can do?”
“Well … maybe it’s because they’re unhealthy…”
*****
You know, that’s the best answer I’ve ever heard on this subject. And yet this is one of the major things that sets a true Christian apart from the rest of the world. Didn’t you ever want a better answer? I did. So… why are unclean meats unclean?
Genesis 1:29-30 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Back in the garden of Eden, just after creating man God laid down dietary laws for him. God instructed him that he could eat all plants and all fruits freely. God told Man, in effect, that these were “clean” for him. (Of course, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was excepted from that. It by inference was unclean).
At this time God also set down dietary laws for animals as well; just how He enforced them is at the moment beyond me, but He clearly said that EVERY beast of the earth, and EVERY bird was to eat every green herb. We can back this up in a rather unusual way because we know that in the future God will restore the Earth to the paradise-like state it was in then, and in that time…
Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
When this day comes the wolf will be eating the same thing as the lamb - grass and herbs - and the lion will be eating the same thing as the ox - grass and herbs. So however God makes this possible, it seems that the entire Earth both was and will be again, vegetarians. So God told man that every green herb was clean, and we can infer from that that every animal was unclean, and not to be eaten! Read the rest of this entry »