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God instructs Man to eat meat
Introduction: When trying to be too politically correct can go wrong
In late October 2009, Prince Philip convened a meeting of leaders of the world's major religious faiths — Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, Taoist, Bahai, and more — in order to discuss with them and work out a strategy to combat climate change.
Not wanting to offend any of them, and to be as correct as possible, the Prince had arranged for a vegan meal to be served.
Oh dear!
A vegan meal might be the preferred choice of a Hindu, but it wouldn't, or shouldn't, be the choice of a committed Christian, Jew or Muslim. The Bible and the Quran, which form the bases for all three religions, make it very clear that meat is the correct food for a devout follower of the religions of 'The Book'. The evidence is everywhere. I have listed some of it below and am indebted to pastor and Bible teacher Stephen Van Nattan (www.blessedquietness.com, for most of what follows from the Bible, and to a Danish muslim for the quotations from the Quran.
All biblical quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Biblical evidence for meat eating
The first clue as to what we should eat are found early on in Genesis with the story of Cain and Abel and the account of the first recorded offering to Jehovah.
And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.'
This story's message is obvious: meat and fat were regarded as far superior to vegetables.
Further on in Genesis 45:17-18 we learn by inference that both Jews and Egyptians thought well of a high-meat-fat diet:
'And Pharaoh said unto Joseph . . . Take your father and your households, and come unto me; and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.'
And from Isaiah 25:6:
'And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things . . . of fat things full of marrow.'
(That's marrow from animal bones, not the vegetable kind. You will find no praise of vegetables in the Bible.)
And after Noah rode out the flood, and after he and his family left the ark, God made things even clearer:
Genesis 9:
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Blood eating was forbidden, but this seems to be because ceremonially the blood was later to become exclusively part of the animal sacrifice after Moses' Law was given. Or perhaps it was meant to stop the eating of living animals.
In the Post Flood era, (which is still in progress) Noah could eat anything that moved. Neither Moses in his day, nor Jesus in his day, changed that except to prohibit pork and some birds. Possibly for ceremonial reasons.
The Passover-
In Exodus 12, God told Moses that each Hebrew family must kill a lamb and eat it all in one evening, and the next day they left Egypt. This Passover has never lost its highest ceremonial significance to Jews. It now includes eggs with the lamb, which was probably already the case in Jesus' day.
Christians are to kill and eat meat in the Church Age:
Peter, who was to become one of the great Apostles of the Church Age, needed to realize that God was setting aside the law of Moses so that Gentiles could believe the Gospel and be included in the Church. God chose to deal with one area only out of around 360 laws of Moses — food:
Acts 10
9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:
10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,
11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:
12 Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.
14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.
15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
16 This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.
No carbs and not veggies! Imagine that.
The Apostle Paul put it another way in a letter to the Christians at Corinth.
1 Corinthians 10:
25 Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake:
26 For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.
27 If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake.
The 'shambles' was the market place. In those days nothing was processed. Eat it all, says Paul. We are not to let our conscience deny us from enjoying food that is offered to us. Of course, again, the food was all 'organic' and cooked without being corrupted by General Mills or Nestlé.
This 'conscience' issue Paul mentioned: Modern doctors are trained to put people under guilt to force them to change their diet. Guilt is only useful if it is based on truth and reality.
Evidence from the Quran
"O mankind, eat from whatever is on earth [that is] lawful and good and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Indeed, he is to you a clear enemy." (Quran 2:168)
"He created cattle that give you warmth, benefits and food to eat." (Quran 16:5)
"It is He who subdued the seas, from which you eat fresh fish." (Quran 16:14)
"It is He who sends down water from the sky with which He brings up corn, olives, dates and grapes and other fruit." (Quran 16:11)
"In cattle too you have a worthy lesson. We give you to drink of that which is in their bellies, between the undigested food and blood: pure milk, a pleasant beverage for those who drink it." (Quran 16:66)
"There emerges from their bellies a drink, varying in colors, in which there is healing for people. Indeed in that is a sign for a people who give thought. ." (Quran 16:69)
"And it is He Who produces gardens trellised and untrellised, and date palms, and crops of different shape and taste (its fruits and its seeds) and olives, and pomegranates, similar (in kind) and different (in taste). Eat of their fruit when they ripen..." (Quran 6:141)
"…and from it (the earth) we produced grain for their sustenance." (Quran 36:33)
"Forbidden to you (for food) are: dead animals — cattle-beast not slaughtered, blood, the flesh of swine, and the meat of that which has been slaughtered as a sacrifice for other than God..." (Quran 5:3) So roadkill is out, and so is pork
You will notice the heavy emphasis on meat, milk and sweet fruits. Grains are mentioned. But if you know the context: " One sign for them is the dead land: we revive it and produce from it grains for their food." (Quran 36:33). The verse is part of a story that narrates how a people was utterly destroyed for their disobedience to God and his prophets. After the punishment came the grain for food. Compare this to The Bible in which Adam is told that because he listened to his wife in a matter in which he should not have, he now had to labour the soil under much hardship, and bitter things will come out of it as his reward. (Cursed soil (Bible, Genesis 3:17-19))
Conclusion
It would appear that having to eat grain was regarded as a punishment! The correct diet according to the religious texts is milk, meat and fruit. If you behave properly, that is. If you don't, it's cereal grains for you, buddy!
It is abundantly obvious that a devout Jew, Christian, or Muslim, particularly if he or she is a fundamentalist, believing in the literal word of the Bible or Quran, can never be a vegan without denying the word of his or her God.
Last updated 20 November 2010
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