It's time to take another journey of discovery to uncover what has gotten lost in transliteration, translation and tradition.
In my Scripture studies I've found if you love The Lord, you have a heart and yearning to follow The Lord God as He has instructed.
When our family began to really study and hear the Scriptures, we noticed something that simply never dawned on us before. Almighty God gives us instruction with Bible basics for "living" life God's way and living it abundantly.
That image of God way includes blessings from what we eat because after all, physically we are what we eat.
The transformation back to the image of God is what Paul wrote about when he penned this referencing the veil Moses wore only after he stood in the presence of The LORD. In the tent of meeting, in freedom from sin he never wore the veil:
But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18
The Father wants to direct us toward a long healthy life and keep us from things that can harm our hearts our bodies and His image. His protection started in Eden, there in the garden, there were clean foods everywhere and then there was the one that was unclean.
God gave Adam and Eve the freedom to eat from every fruit tree except one, He warned do not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, it causes death. The tree of good and evil was like a cancer without a cure.
Proverbs 14:12 tells us:
Almighty God tells us He never changes. The prophet Malachi and the priest Samuel declare:
The Bible gives us Almighty God's constitution for life in His Kingdom image as it was intended from the beginning. Because of that, our Creator teaches us some simple Bible basics tied to His creation design in creation day five and six of birds, fish and animals.
Remember the Greek philosopher Socrates?
Today, modern science proves Almighty God's teaching about good food, good health and good life.
Don't take my word for it, do your own science based research and keep this in mind as your re-check your Bible: "healthy" = clean/good and "unhealthy" = unclean/bad and "polluted" in Biblical terms.
Have you ever thought to try to our your BBQ sauce out on grilled armadillo?
We are not to eat undercooked meat (blood), ask any doctor - undercooked red meat can cause cancer, period. End of story! Our Creator instructs us as our loving, protecting Father.
Proverbs 14:12 tells us:
There is a way that appears to be right,Think about that!!
but in the end it leads to death.
Almighty God tells us He never changes. The prophet Malachi and the priest Samuel declare:
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Malachi 3:6
And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent. 1 Samuel 15:29The concept of change is for people. A Jew named Paul describes the reason:
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 1:9Paul also said this:
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 1Corinthians 3:16-18
We have to discern and understand we need to change our ways if we want to return to "the faith which was once delivered." That's what Jude 1:3 declares.
The Bible gives us Almighty God's constitution for life in His Kingdom image as it was intended from the beginning. Because of that, our Creator teaches us some simple Bible basics tied to His creation design in creation day five and six of birds, fish and animals.
In the beginning, before sin corrupted Adam and Eve, the Genesis account tells us that they were allowed to eat from the garden that God had provided for them. They had plenty of food in the garden that God personally planted for them, but there was one exception.
The Father warned about one tree, the tree of good and evil. They were put on notice because the fruit of that one tree would kill them. Eating from it would mean that they would deliberately ignore God's authority and His instruction.
Beyond that, Genesis does not reveal much about good food. Yet the Exodus story does give us some simple life advice. Much like the tree of good and evil planted in the garden of Eden it's about food that is good for life and food that God says is ṭâmê טָמֵא.
The Hebrew word ṭâmê is translated into English as unclean. Bottomline, it is a pollutant.
Any pollutant can cause long or short-term damage by shortening our lifespan by interfering with and polluting human health by interfering with healthy bodily functions. For that reason, Abba Father tells us what food is a ṭâmê pollutant for us and the faithful scribe Moses wrote down every word of The Creator's instruction in Leviticus 11.
As it was in the beginning, Almighty God gave His teaching and instruction on the food He created for our bodies because He wants us to live a long and healthy life. Scripture gives the most important reason to follow in the way of life. Leviticus 11:43-44 sums it up. We are set apart aka holy by following The LORD's instruction and are polluted and defiled by disobeying Him.
Beyond that, Genesis does not reveal much about good food. Yet the Exodus story does give us some simple life advice. Much like the tree of good and evil planted in the garden of Eden it's about food that is good for life and food that God says is ṭâmê טָמֵא.
The Hebrew word ṭâmê is translated into English as unclean. Bottomline, it is a pollutant.
Any pollutant can cause long or short-term damage by shortening our lifespan by interfering with and polluting human health by interfering with healthy bodily functions. For that reason, Abba Father tells us what food is a ṭâmê pollutant for us and the faithful scribe Moses wrote down every word of The Creator's instruction in Leviticus 11.
As it was in the beginning, Almighty God gave His teaching and instruction on the food He created for our bodies because He wants us to live a long and healthy life. Scripture gives the most important reason to follow in the way of life. Leviticus 11:43-44 sums it up. We are set apart aka holy by following The LORD's instruction and are polluted and defiled by disobeying Him.
Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, Almighty God declares that His thoughts and His ways are different from our ways. You can read that in Isaiah 55:8-9.
Speaking through Moses, Almighty God declares that He is holy and wants us to be like Him. You can read that in Leviticus 20:7. Living in His image is what is meant by living as His sons and daughters. You can read the explanation in John 1:12 and 2 Corinthians 6:17-18, as well as other scriptures.
It all goes back to the beginning. Our Father made us to be in His image. In other words. He made us to be, He wants us to be like Him, set apart, holy and clean. The Hebrew word for clean or pure in body, mind, heart and soul is טהרה ṭâhôr. It's the opposite of טמא ṭāmē'.
Every loving father wants the best for his children, and our Creator God YHVH is The Father.
Abba God does not change!!
It's the original message of the deceiver to fall for the idea that God does. The deception starts out like this... did God really say?
It's the original message of the deceiver to fall for the idea that God does. The deception starts out like this... did God really say?
We put ourselves before God as fake gods when we choose to not accept the voice of the Spirit of God. We pollute our souls. It's a joke to think that anything green is a good fruit or vegetable and it just as crazy to think or that any animal, fish or bird is good for food.
Some things are good ṭâhôr for our health and some are not because they are ṭâmê. Many plants are poisonous just as some animals are. Tâmê animal species are scavengers and carnivores like the tree of good and evil. There are many green plants that may look harmless, but some plants hold some of the most deadly poisons known to mankind.
Some things are good ṭâhôr for our health and some are not because they are ṭâmê. Many plants are poisonous just as some animals are. Tâmê animal species are scavengers and carnivores like the tree of good and evil. There are many green plants that may look harmless, but some plants hold some of the most deadly poisons known to mankind.
Remember the Greek philosopher Socrates?
He is credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. The first philosopher in the tradition of thought arose out of Athens in the 5th century BC. Plato was his most famous student and Plato taught Aristotle who then tutored Alexander the Great. Socrates was considered the wisest man in Athens, yet he died ingesting hemlock after he was tried for this crime:
“Socrates is guilty, firstly, of denying the gods recognized by the state and introducing new divinities, and, secondly, of corrupting the young.”
The hemlock plant contains the highly poisonous alkaloid coniine which causes progressive paralysis of the central nervous system. It has no known antidote. Hemlock is also called the devil's porridge.
We all know plants like the beautiful floral hemlock are unfit to be called food because they contain poisons just as certain meats are unfit to be called food because they too can cause suffering and even death.
The hemlock plant contains the highly poisonous alkaloid coniine which causes progressive paralysis of the central nervous system. It has no known antidote. Hemlock is also called the devil's porridge.
We all know plants like the beautiful floral hemlock are unfit to be called food because they contain poisons just as certain meats are unfit to be called food because they too can cause suffering and even death.
That's the Leviticus 11 lesson.
Throughout the Bible's narrative for life in the Kingdom, God defines those things that are ṭâmê and unhealthy. In the Bible, by definition, food is always something good, healthy and beneficial. Food is not just anything you can fry in a pan or chow down on.
That is where our confusion on food starts... we are focused on ourselves, we think that Almighty God does not really mean what He says, we ask, did God really say?
Throughout the Bible's narrative for life in the Kingdom, God defines those things that are ṭâmê and unhealthy. In the Bible, by definition, food is always something good, healthy and beneficial. Food is not just anything you can fry in a pan or chow down on.
That is where our confusion on food starts... we are focused on ourselves, we think that Almighty God does not really mean what He says, we ask, did God really say?
We "think" He told Moses not to allow people to come up to Mount Sinai were the words of a mean God that would kill anyone that touched the mountain. We forget the real reason He said that. Our Creator gave a simple warning like the one given to Adam and Eve. The warning was for protection and life. Almighty God knew that the sound would shake from His presence. He knew that rocks and boulders would fall off the mountain when He began to speak.
Like Adam and Eve, we discredit our Heavenly Father as the Almighty, all knowing Creator God and we tend to define just about anything that we can stick in our mouth with a lot of butter and BBQ sauce as food, but that's Greek thinking.
Like Adam and Eve, we discredit our Heavenly Father as the Almighty, all knowing Creator God and we tend to define just about anything that we can stick in our mouth with a lot of butter and BBQ sauce as food, but that's Greek thinking.
Almighty God knows what He made and why.
When you read the Bible and see the words למאכל for food, we must know for food must meet God's definition for a healthy life. Food is good for the body but everything you can stick in your mouth is not food.
Some people just don't know. They are like me before I read and believed the Bible. They think that the Biblical food instruction of good and bad, healthy or not is irrelevant, old and done away with.
When you read the Bible and see the words למאכל for food, we must know for food must meet God's definition for a healthy life. Food is good for the body but everything you can stick in your mouth is not food.
Some people just don't know. They are like me before I read and believed the Bible. They think that the Biblical food instruction of good and bad, healthy or not is irrelevant, old and done away with.
The reason, we consume the sermons that are linked to replacement theology. We think that Yeshua-Jesus did away with an old law, but what law?
The only law the humble Messiah Yeshua did away with the oldest law. The law law of sin and death from the beginning that started with choosing to break away from God's instruction by eating what was prohibited by our Creator's love warning, not punishment.
Yeshua-Jesus provided "the way" to overcome the death from sin that results from thinking, did God really say? Yeshua took on the curse we bring on ourselves. Like Adam and Eve, we bring the curse of death on ourselves our sin. Yeshua paid the price and offers the promise of redemption through His own life in resurrection. God's loving gift is eternal life restitution because Yeshua paid the penalty declared in Eden.
The only law the humble Messiah Yeshua did away with the oldest law. The law law of sin and death from the beginning that started with choosing to break away from God's instruction by eating what was prohibited by our Creator's love warning, not punishment.
Yeshua-Jesus provided "the way" to overcome the death from sin that results from thinking, did God really say? Yeshua took on the curse we bring on ourselves. Like Adam and Eve, we bring the curse of death on ourselves our sin. Yeshua paid the price and offers the promise of redemption through His own life in resurrection. God's loving gift is eternal life restitution because Yeshua paid the penalty declared in Eden.
Believe it or not, Yeshua was resurrected by God's unchanging, eternal life giving power.
Jesus' death on the cross does not mean we should eat what our Creator God says is unclean, unhealthy and unfit for food. The reason: God does not change.
Eating what God calls an abomination only opens up the old door to physical sickness and death whether the effect is immediate or long term like it was for Adam and Eve. Disobedience to God's instruction also leads to spiritual death, that's the link to the food lesson, we are what we eat.
If you don't believe Almighty God about food, any registered dietician can tell you the harmful effects of the meats that God declares as unfit for food for the human body. In fact, every dietitian's speciality vocation is the treatment and prevention of disease that results in death. That's why they work in hospitals and health-care (life repair) facilities.
What we have forgotten is that Yeshua-Jesus upheld "the way" of Torah, that is why He's known by His followers to be sinless in the image of God. We are all given the responsibility and accountability to walk and eat like the Jew we call Jesus. That amazing truth is part of the lifestyle of the King of the Kingdom of God.
Before my wife and I understood that God's word does not change, as a family we simply did not comprehend this Bible basic. We lived in a corner of the twilight zone if you will, a false reality thinking, did God really say?
Jesus' death on the cross does not mean we should eat what our Creator God says is unclean, unhealthy and unfit for food. The reason: God does not change.
Eating what God calls an abomination only opens up the old door to physical sickness and death whether the effect is immediate or long term like it was for Adam and Eve. Disobedience to God's instruction also leads to spiritual death, that's the link to the food lesson, we are what we eat.
If you don't believe Almighty God about food, any registered dietician can tell you the harmful effects of the meats that God declares as unfit for food for the human body. In fact, every dietitian's speciality vocation is the treatment and prevention of disease that results in death. That's why they work in hospitals and health-care (life repair) facilities.
What we have forgotten is that Yeshua-Jesus upheld "the way" of Torah, that is why He's known by His followers to be sinless in the image of God. We are all given the responsibility and accountability to walk and eat like the Jew we call Jesus. That amazing truth is part of the lifestyle of the King of the Kingdom of God.
Before my wife and I understood that God's word does not change, as a family we simply did not comprehend this Bible basic. We lived in a corner of the twilight zone if you will, a false reality thinking, did God really say?
We thought that if a meat "tasted" good it was A-OK even if it took a lot of lemon, butter or BBQ sauce to make the shrimp, lobster and pork ribs tasty.
Yet, in reading and believing the Bible, we discovered that eating healthy, is good for life and that is a key to the beginning of understanding God's instruction for life in The Kingdom, walking in His image!
Don't take my word for it, do your own science based research and keep this in mind as your re-check your Bible: "healthy" = clean/good and "unhealthy" = unclean/bad and "polluted" in Biblical terms.
It's that simple.
Think about this too: in the beginning, Adam and Eve fell into sin and were kicked out of the Garden of Eden because they did not heed God's one instruction and command concerning what they were not to eat.
Think about this too: in the beginning, Adam and Eve fell into sin and were kicked out of the Garden of Eden because they did not heed God's one instruction and command concerning what they were not to eat.
We liked to quote 1 Corinthians 3:16 but never tied it to Leviticus 11:44-45 the way Paul actually intended.
The result of Adam's and Eve belief in a serpent's lie was a deadly choice.
The result of Adam's and Eve belief in a serpent's lie was a deadly choice.
It was suicide.
Doubting what God said changed the world and brought the disaster of death and destruction to their descendants. It Las brought thorns, weeds and poison to the full of life planet Adam and Eve were given the command to take care of as the garden of life.
Thanks God, from my Scripture studies, I'm learning to follow God's teaching and instruction. The blessing is life, the curse is death. The choice is ours.
Doing things God's way are what our Abba Father says are "Holy" makes us a 'set apart' people.
Thanks God, from my Scripture studies, I'm learning to follow God's teaching and instruction. The blessing is life, the curse is death. The choice is ours.
Doing things God's way are what our Abba Father says are "Holy" makes us a 'set apart' people.
The Hebrew word meaning "set apart" is the word "holy" and set apart is what God says we should be. Eating healthy sets us apart for life and I now know our Creator wants us to follow His Word, His Torah teaching and instruction for good reason! The instruction that our unchanging God has given as a gift of mercy is for our physical health and spiritual blessing, it is for life.
Numbers 23:19 teaches us that and Malachi 3:6 confirms it.
By reading and doing The Lord's teaching on food that Moses recorded twice in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, we can see how simple His life diet instruction really is and why.
Our Creator's basic training on food is easy and light, its not a heavy burden. Don't eat scavengers or predators whether they fly, swim or walk, they are not food! That's the healthy message of the Bible and the the boot camp instruction from the maker of our bodies and souls. God knows what is good for us and He tells us because He loves us.
I mentioned that the Apostle Paul tells us something very important tied to the foundation of Leviticus:
We are to make a distinction between the unclean (ṭâmê) and the clean (tâhôwr) and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.
We are not to eat vultures or eagles or any sea or lake creatures without fins and scales. Why? They are the same, they are meat eaters, both scavengers and predators.
It's simple, birds fly and fish swim but our Creator made any water borne fish or swimmer without fins and scales as a scavenger or predator. Oh by the way, fish should be cooked too. Ask any doctor, uncooked fish can carry parasitic worms which can bury into your stomach when you eat raw fish or sushi if you want to fluff it up and call it that.
Eating sushi can cause an illness known as anisakiasis and in severe cases, the parasite worms can trigger respiratory failure and guess what, that will lead to death. The disease is caused by an abundance of a parasitic worm known as anisakis in raw fish. Did you know sushi chefs pick out what they find?
God's thousands year old dietary instructions are healthy food basics. The instruction is not heavy, its light - simply not a burden, do not eat fish without both scales and fins. That eliminates a number of lemon juice disguised buttered up, seasoned creatures including shellfish, shrimp, catfish, lobster, mussels, eel, shark, sturgeon and swordfish taste good, but they're not good for us.
We all need to know and believe that our Creator God gives us His teaching and instruction to protect us from harm.
Numbers 23:19 teaches us that and Malachi 3:6 confirms it.
By reading and doing The Lord's teaching on food that Moses recorded twice in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, we can see how simple His life diet instruction really is and why.
Our Creator's basic training on food is easy and light, its not a heavy burden. Don't eat scavengers or predators whether they fly, swim or walk, they are not food! That's the healthy message of the Bible and the the boot camp instruction from the maker of our bodies and souls. God knows what is good for us and He tells us because He loves us.
I mentioned that the Apostle Paul tells us something very important tied to the foundation of Leviticus:
Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. 1Corinthians 6:19-20
For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves... For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” Leviticus 11:44-45Please keep reading ...
We are to make a distinction between the unclean (ṭâmê) and the clean (tâhôwr) and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.
We are not to eat vultures or eagles or any sea or lake creatures without fins and scales. Why? They are the same, they are meat eaters, both scavengers and predators.
It's simple, birds fly and fish swim but our Creator made any water borne fish or swimmer without fins and scales as a scavenger or predator. Oh by the way, fish should be cooked too. Ask any doctor, uncooked fish can carry parasitic worms which can bury into your stomach when you eat raw fish or sushi if you want to fluff it up and call it that.
Eating sushi can cause an illness known as anisakiasis and in severe cases, the parasite worms can trigger respiratory failure and guess what, that will lead to death. The disease is caused by an abundance of a parasitic worm known as anisakis in raw fish. Did you know sushi chefs pick out what they find?
God's thousands year old dietary instructions are healthy food basics. The instruction is not heavy, its light - simply not a burden, do not eat fish without both scales and fins. That eliminates a number of lemon juice disguised buttered up, seasoned creatures including shellfish, shrimp, catfish, lobster, mussels, eel, shark, sturgeon and swordfish taste good, but they're not good for us.
We all need to know and believe that our Creator God gives us His teaching and instruction to protect us from harm.
That goes includes the body, it includes the soul which is the body infused with the life Spirit of God whether we believe it or not.
As the master maker, our Creator Elohim knows everything about His design and purpose. This is something that has taken modern day marine biologists and scientists thousands of years to discover something very old. Fish with scales AND fins have been equipped since creation with a digestive system that prevents the absorption of waterborne poisons and toxins into their flesh from the waters they swim in and breathe each day.
Just like porky the pig, carnivorous fish have very short digestive tracts when compared to herbivorous fish. Both fins and scales are a part of the creation equation. Scavengers like catfish have fins, but do not have scales. Shark do not have scales and every child knows they are predators.
Scavengers are "bottom feeders" like vultures and pigs and they and have digestive systems designed to help clean and restore the environment by absorbing and holding toxins directly into their bodies.
As the master maker, our Creator Elohim knows everything about His design and purpose. This is something that has taken modern day marine biologists and scientists thousands of years to discover something very old. Fish with scales AND fins have been equipped since creation with a digestive system that prevents the absorption of waterborne poisons and toxins into their flesh from the waters they swim in and breathe each day.
Just like porky the pig, carnivorous fish have very short digestive tracts when compared to herbivorous fish. Both fins and scales are a part of the creation equation. Scavengers like catfish have fins, but do not have scales. Shark do not have scales and every child knows they are predators.
Scavengers are "bottom feeders" like vultures and pigs and they and have digestive systems designed to help clean and restore the environment by absorbing and holding toxins directly into their bodies.
Clams, oysters, lobster, shrimp, crabs, mussels and squid do not have scales or fins and they are known by any seafood lover to be potentially toxic. They are designed by God to naturally absorb toxins from water and clean the lakes and seas. They have a good, divine purpose, but that does not mean they are good for you. In our oceans, streams, lakes and ponds the only good fish have both fins and scales are only they are called food in the Bible.
PFAS are a group title for thousands of different chemicals, some of are now banned but they are found in some streams, lakes and rivers. Guess what, catfish can be laden with them.
Friday night fried catfish anyone? No thanks.
Lobster and crabs are crustaceans and they are a part of the arthropod family of water creatures, on land the arthropod family includes the creepy crawlers like caterpillars, cockroaches, and spiders.
Have you ever thought it would be good to try out your favorite hot sauce on boiled cockroach?
Unless you want to put your health at the risk of disease and toxic build-up, we are also instructed by God to not to eat certain birds like eagles (predators) and vultures (scavengers), or chew on animals with toes (aka claws). Clawed animals include armadillos, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, bears, cats, dogs, mice and rats and so on.
Lobster and crabs are crustaceans and they are a part of the arthropod family of water creatures, on land the arthropod family includes the creepy crawlers like caterpillars, cockroaches, and spiders.
Have you ever thought it would be good to try out your favorite hot sauce on boiled cockroach?
Unless you want to put your health at the risk of disease and toxic build-up, we are also instructed by God to not to eat certain birds like eagles (predators) and vultures (scavengers), or chew on animals with toes (aka claws). Clawed animals include armadillos, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, bears, cats, dogs, mice and rats and so on.
Have you ever thought to try to our your BBQ sauce out on grilled armadillo?
Our Father in Heaven tells us we are not to eat animals that have split hooves that do not chew their cud.
These of course include oink, oink -- a pig.
These of course include oink, oink -- a pig.
Pigs, hogs and swine of all kinds are the worst case scenario, they are both scavengers and predators.
Pigs will basically eat anything including dead insects, worms, rotting carcasses, garbage and while in captivity, pigs will eat their own young when stressed. That's why God gave Moses the extra warning to write down for everyone about them: "Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch."
Pigs have a big health problem, one reason is they do not have sweat glands so they are not able to dispose of toxins through their skin. What they eat stays with them, now you know why The Father says don't even touch them.
Perspiration is one way that toxins are removed from the body. Since a pig does not sweat, the toxins they eat remain in the pig's flesh and toxins don't cook out. Toxins are one reason you will see pigs with open sores on their bodies. Pigs also harbor and retain parasites and diseases as well as large concentrations of parasitic worms within their digestive tract.
Pigs have a big health problem, one reason is they do not have sweat glands so they are not able to dispose of toxins through their skin. What they eat stays with them, now you know why The Father says don't even touch them.
Perspiration is one way that toxins are removed from the body. Since a pig does not sweat, the toxins they eat remain in the pig's flesh and toxins don't cook out. Toxins are one reason you will see pigs with open sores on their bodies. Pigs also harbor and retain parasites and diseases as well as large concentrations of parasitic worms within their digestive tract.
Easter ham anyone?
Like all scavengers, pigs have a simple and short stomach and digestive system unlike the more complex, ruminant stomachs found in split hoofed, cud chewing animals.
Our Creator not only designed, He defined four legged animals by two key characteristics of how they walk and eat. Just as our Creator spoke these animals into existence, He also spoke to Moses and He distinguished the “clean” four footed animals that walk planet earth with two distinct physical characteristics of locomotion and digestion aka walking and eating.
Like all scavengers, pigs have a simple and short stomach and digestive system unlike the more complex, ruminant stomachs found in split hoofed, cud chewing animals.
Our Creator not only designed, He defined four legged animals by two key characteristics of how they walk and eat. Just as our Creator spoke these animals into existence, He also spoke to Moses and He distinguished the “clean” four footed animals that walk planet earth with two distinct physical characteristics of locomotion and digestion aka walking and eating.
Hoofs and cuds – it’s as simple as hooves and cuds. Our Creator's diet plan is really simple.
I think this is humor of our Creator... after all part of our walk with Him is how we eat.
God wants us to eat the way He instructs us to, not the way we want to.
God wants us to eat the way He instructs us to, not the way we want to.
Adam and Eve proved that!
The Newer Testament doesn't change or do away with Almighty God's teaching and instruction. Peter's rooftop vision wasn't about food, Acts 10 is about prejudice against people. Don't extract what you want out of context, step back and read it all.
The Newer Testament doesn't change or do away with Almighty God's teaching and instruction. Peter's rooftop vision wasn't about food, Acts 10 is about prejudice against people. Don't extract what you want out of context, step back and read it all.
We are not to eat undercooked meat (blood), ask any doctor - undercooked red meat can cause cancer, period. End of story! Our Creator instructs us as our loving, protecting Father.
When our Creator tells us to not eat certain insects like spiders, flies, worms, scorpions, and other similar "creeping" insects that serve as the scavengers and predators of the bug world. These creepy crawlers are not at all like the grasshopper, cricket or locust which are actually the herbivores of the insect world.
Just consider them the cattle and sheep of the insect world.
It is easy for everyone to agree that "road-kill" is not a delicacy, and that the idea of eating a rat, bat or cat is repulsive.
Today, modern medicine has been able to uncover God's wisdom within His instruction: that consuming scavengers and predators, or under-cooked meat can infect people with exotic contaminants and highly infectious pathogens, carcinogens, bacteria, viruses, toxins and parasites that cause food-borne illness, organ cancers and heart disease. From our middle school biology classes we all know that illness and disease weakens our nervous and immune systems and over time will most certainly shorten our lifespan. While some of us may love eating catfish, lobster, shrimp, sushi or rarely cooked meats we are not to do it because these foods present health risks.
Our family used to indulge in shrimp, catfish, baby back ribs and snack on ham sandwiches before we realized God does not change His mind, His word stands forever.
Fatty foods are bad for you, just ask any dietitian and they will tell you to stay away lobster, shrimp and crab.
Check this out and you will see the common denominator in the prominent bacteria that are responsible for food-borne illnesses and His dietary instruction?
These include:
While many may like the taste of lobster, crab or clams; medical science has found toxins and often elements like mercury in these shellfish that over time build-up in the human body. These possible exposures to these unknown dangers were advised against by The Creator and they are now proven now in our lifetime by medical science. Many say that pork, the swine that is raised for the sole purpose of going to a slaughterhouse, is 'OK' for food. But God, who created that animal to scavenge, says in His wisdom that pork, the other white meat, is not good for food.
Animals that are designed by God to be scavengers or predators are not designed to be food for us. One fact given by medical science today is that pork is closer to human flesh than any other animal. Why?
The pig's digestive time frame is very short at only four hours. This allows all impurities that the pig consumes to pass directly into the fatty tissues and meat of the animal. So, with that said, why in the world would we want to eat them?
The trichinae worm of the swine is microscopically small, and once ingested can lodge itself in our intestines, muscles, spinal cord or the brain. This results in the disease trichinosis. Worldwide, an estimated 10,000 cases of trichinellosis occur every year. Several different species of Trichinella can cause human disease; the most common species is Trichinella spiralis, which has a global distribution and is the species most commonly found in pigs. According to the CDC "Pigs, feral hogs, cougars and black bears can all harbor Trichinella infection."
Pigs and swine are so poisonous that you can hardly kill them with strychnine or other poisons.
In the U.S., the USDA and the Center for Food Security and Public Health is worried about the influenza virus in pigs. I wonder why?
We have all heard the old saying, "you are that which you eat". Then why should we eat anything that God instructs against? This is really simple, don't eat pig!
So What is it About Peter's Vision???
Like me, many Christians have been taught to interpret the apostle Peter's vision as described in Acts 10 to justify eating just about anything including Easter ham.
If you are like me, the simple fact may be that you may have not read all of the message given in the book of Acts.
Many sermons have excerpted verse bytes from the teaching. So, perhaps we have been innocent to a degree, because the Bible was chopped and cut up into numbered verses and chapters around the year 1200 AD. It was god idea so people could find chapter and verse but the downside is people began to read and study God's word in small bits and pieces. This is dangerous, and when this is done mistaken assumptions can be made.
For example, by doing this, many have added or taken away from Scripture and misunderstood Peter's vision as doing away with God's healthy diet plan, but if you read and study all of Acts 10, you too will see it is not about doing away with anything other than prejudice against other people.
The reason God gave the vision to Peter was because he was still stuck in some Jewish customs that did not come from the Bible that led Jewish people to believe that even touching food that non-Jews prepared was a sin. The fact is that tradition is no where to be found in the Bible.
The book of Acts is a small book with a big message and it's not about food.
It is not to read in slices, but rather whole portions. Peter's dream was a vision from God to "show" Peter that he was not to continue holding on to an old oral law tradition of prejudice and discrimination against non-Jews that chose to follow the Messiah of the God of Israel. A big part of that discrimination was from the fact that pagan idol worshipping Gentiles did not observe God's instruction on food. One reason, they did not read the Bible or have any relationship with The Lord.
Because of rabbinic tradition, Peter still harbored a religious opinion all non Jews were defiled as person. He didn't realize they were former Gentiles.
He ignored the teaching of Master Yeshua: “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
Read Acts 10, all of it. God was using this vision to teach Peter the spirit of the Torah is focused on how we treat people and Acts 10 is all about the words of Moses and Zechariah:
Cornelius was blessed and chosen to become a non-Jewish believer. That may have never happened if Peter retained his prejudice. The big lesson of Acts 10 is this: Jewish disciples were not to think of non-Jewish believers as "unclean" period!
God has no prejudice. He loves everyone! The vision's message was simple and not about food because all people are created in the image of God.
We are not to consider others made in God's image as unclean or unfit for relationship with each other or the God of Israel.
Peter already knew that Yeshua did not come to establish a new religion or to do away with God's teaching and instruction. Messiah came to fulfill the word of God... to fill it up with meaning.
The disciples were all Jewish, they never went through a conversion per se, they "received and accepted" Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah, one with the Father YHVH and they witnessed Him in resurrection, but Peter was a leader and he needed some heart circumcision.
In the Exodus account, everyone that chose to follow The Father's shechinah glory out of Egypt in the wilderness became a part of the family, the children of the God of Israel. The crowd included the adopted descendants of Joseph's boys, born on earth by an Egyptian mother. don't forget, her father was a pagan priest of the idol, the fake god On, one of many.
Simon Peter is declaring the revelation in his heart that God does not discriminate, God does not play favorites, but He accepts people from every nation who follow Him and choose to do what is right in God's image.
Peter then explains further, not to define a new religion diet plan, but the opposite as he points back to Mount Sinai and the message God gave to both the people of Israel and the sojourners grafted in with them through the written words Moses:
What we do and how is important to Almighty God.
What we eat is important too, because in the end... God is all about abundant life.
Our Creator made us to live for Him in His image, His way is the way. To do that The Father wants us to be healthy too - so He gave us His teaching and instruction about that to protect us. That's what loving Father's do. They don't want us to each garbage, but good things.
When any living creature on earth, whether on land or at sea dies, they will soon have a visit by God's clean up crew.
When God said the word "life" Noah knew what God meant.
Today, we know why, because the flesh of all unclean animals are mixed as they all absorb and hold toxins, acids, viruses, bacteria, mercury and other heavy metals from what the fish, birds and animals eat.
The first sin involved food, so it is important to consider why don't we just eat "every" plant, fruit and animal on the planet. After all, God called all creation good and Genesis 9 says 'every' thing right?
Let's go back again and see how God might speak of certain animals we can eat. We speak English and think in Greek. God speaks and thinks in Hebrew. So how does God define animals as food? We know from Sinai It is tied to the descriptions of types of herbivores, but what about Genesis? Is it the green herbs and seeds?
So, we can see that in Genesis 9, Noah already knew something. After all, he brought seven pairs of clean and two pair of unclean. How did he know the difference? Moses was not around.
We can know this: Noah did not sacrifice unclean when he built the altar to celebrate the end of the flood under the rainbow with God. And if we consider it, God might have been actually inviting Noah, just like the priests of Aaron to share in the meal on an altar.
Can we imagine the scene with a little humor?
Wow that’s a nice aroma God! OK Noah, I know you are famished, now that you are out of the boat you can eat these clean animals, after all they eat herbs. You can fire up your grill from now on for animals that eat herbs like you do because you are what you eat...
It’s cool to know the animals that eat plants are called herbivores and many of them are called domestics. The World English dictionary tells us that domestic means: "1. of or involving the home or family' 2. enjoying or accustomed to home or family life; 3. (of an animal) bred or kept by man as a pet or for purposes such as the supply of food."
After all, by their very definition, domestic food animals are under the "dominion of man (Genesis 1:26).
Here's an epiphany, you can walk right up to them, herd them, flock them, you know... keep dominion over them.
Funny thing, the herbivores that walk the earth are domesticated plant and seed eaters. They do not kill to eat like predators or eat the dead (carrion). Might we possibly consider God gave the same teaching to Noah that He gave to Adam and later Abraham that Moses wrote down during the 40 days at the top of the mountain of Sinai?
At the end of the day, God created herbivores as cud-chewers and God calls clean. The Bible shows us that predatory, carnivorous animals are not food for logical and simple reasons. Science and medicine now agrees with God's Word.
People like to argue over this, especially those that want their bacon wrapped shrimp, but the truth is God created clean animals to provide food for His set-apart people so that they might live.
God created animals unsuitable to be called food to do the clean-up and sanitation work around the planet.
When Messiah Yeshua returns to this earth there is going to be a "restitution of all things" just as Acts 3:20–21 tells us. This includes not only proper worship, the Sabbath and the Feasts but God's Kosher diet found in the Bible. The good news is we don't have to wait for The Day of The Lord to walk like Jesus.
Simply put, the teaching of the Bible is that God says... hold the bacon, there's danger on the half shell and don't eat the clean-up crew!
Epilogue: I mentioned the beast. Have you ever noticed that the ensigns and symbols of most nations of people around the globe are the same "unclean" animals noted in Scripture? An emblem is a unique symbol that identifies a common group of people. Emblems are important to people because they represent us.
Peter never says that it's okay to eat pork n beans... in fact, he was dealing with the nature of man.
Why then do nations insist on choosing unclean emblems?
Just look at the emblems of the nations:
One last word, consider this...
The Greek word “kai” καί is translated as: “and” in Revelation 14:2... But did they (the translators) perhaps just miss something in the meaning of this word? It also means “indeed”...
“Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, {indeed} the faith of Yeshua.”
Indeed we are to walk like Yeshua walked. There are things He did not eat. They are the same ones noted in the Scriptures He read and taught!
To learn more about God's food plan I can recommend these resources:
God does care. He is all about life and living it abundantly in health. Because of that, He cares about what we eat and He NEVER changes his mind... He is life.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ What's For Supper Updates ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update November 26, 2019: Kosher is cool... just ask the World Health Organization.
From Newsweek: WALMART PORK PRODUCTS CONTAINING SUPERBUGS RESISTANT TO CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ANTIBIOTICS DISCOVERED
"Worryingly, the report found that 27 percent of the resistant bacteria in the Walmart samples would be unaffected by antibiotics categorized as "Highest Priority Critically Important Antimicrobials" (HPCIAs) by the World Health Organization (WHO). HPCIAs are antibiotics used when there are few or no alternatives to treat people with serious bacterial infections.
According to the report, antibiotic-resistant bacteria—commonly referred to as "superbugs"—pose a threat to "all human life." Meanwhile, the WHO recently described antimicrobial resistance as an "increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society."
Update October 3, 2016: Pork in Asda and Sainsbury’s ‘is infected with deadly superbug MRSA’
"The Bureau of Investigative Journalism tested 97 British pork products – and found they carried the potentially deadly bacteria.
MRSA CC398 is less deadly than the strain found in hospitals – but can cause persistent infections and has already implicated in six deaths in Denmark.
People could catch the bug from infected meat if it is not properly cooked, the Guardian said.
In Denmark, the bacteria infects two-thirds of pig farms and is thought to have infected 12,000 people – and current regulations leave an ‘open door’ for infected pigs to arrive here."
Update May 27, 2016: It looks like the prophecy of Ezekiel 33 has come to the headlines of the Washington Post and at least one scientist is afraid the abyss lies before us —
“Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: You have said this, ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy on us, and we are wasting away because of them! How then can we survive?' Ezekiel 33:10
Leviticus 11 was never done away with. It gives simple solutions.
"Smithfield, the largest pork producer in the world, launched “Deli for the Cure,” which donates money to cancer research for every pound sold of the type of meat that, according to the World Cancer Research Fund’s cancer report, causes the most cancer."
Cured meats such as bacon and ham are loaded with carcinogenic nitrosamine producing nitrites and should be avoided. The level of nitrosamines in bacon is so high that they have even been found in the smell of frying bacon. Pan fried pork chops likewise contain carcinogens.
Pork consumption has also been linked to liver failure, due to hepatitis E (which is now known to be zoonotic). Pigs appear to be reservoirs of the virus. Pork tapeworms can take up residence the human brain, and in fact are the most common cause of adult onset epilepsy. They can be contracted through pork consumption or eating food handled by a person who eats pork. Pork is a source of saturated fat as well as cholesterol. Saturated fat has been linked to lower rates of breast cancer survival.
Psychology Today... Is Pork Still Dangerous? Did Leviticus Get it Right?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Code allows restaurants to serve undercooked foods only at a customer’s request. It requires the customer to be informed about the risks associated with consuming undercooked food. This warning is a posted sign in fast-food or self-service eatery or as a posting at the bottom of a restaurant menu.
The consumer warning states, "Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish, or eggs may increase your risk of foodborne illness." Customers need to be aware of the risks involved in consuming raw or undercooked foods. All animal products contain some level of bacteria. Whether that bacteria is the type to cause illness or not could mean the difference between a safe meal and a dangerous one.
From Dr. Ted Broer...
It means we need to know "Who is the One Called Jesus.
Shalom and eat healthy, not one jot or tittle has passed, heaven and earth remain.
Just consider them the cattle and sheep of the insect world.
It is easy for everyone to agree that "road-kill" is not a delicacy, and that the idea of eating a rat, bat or cat is repulsive.
Today, modern medicine has been able to uncover God's wisdom within His instruction: that consuming scavengers and predators, or under-cooked meat can infect people with exotic contaminants and highly infectious pathogens, carcinogens, bacteria, viruses, toxins and parasites that cause food-borne illness, organ cancers and heart disease. From our middle school biology classes we all know that illness and disease weakens our nervous and immune systems and over time will most certainly shorten our lifespan. While some of us may love eating catfish, lobster, shrimp, sushi or rarely cooked meats we are not to do it because these foods present health risks.
Our family used to indulge in shrimp, catfish, baby back ribs and snack on ham sandwiches before we realized God does not change His mind, His word stands forever.
"God's Word is absolute, He keeps His Word through eternity. For I [am] the LORD, I change not..." Malachi 3:6We now understand plainly that God gives us His His diet instructions because He loves us. He wants to give us life that is precious, long and fulfilling, not the opportunity to become sick and diseased. His concern over the food we eat is really simple, He made the "clean" creatures for us to eat and the "unclean" to serve as nature's own disposal and garbage service.
Fatty foods are bad for you, just ask any dietitian and they will tell you to stay away lobster, shrimp and crab.
Check this out and you will see the common denominator in the prominent bacteria that are responsible for food-borne illnesses and His dietary instruction?
These include:
Campylobacter jejuni - found in intestines of animals, shellfish and birds.There are over 1,600 stains of Salmonella, people must burn their bacon for a very good reason!
Clostridium botulinum - found in intestinal tracts of animals and fish.
Clostridium perfringens - found in intestinal tracts of animals.
Escherichia coli O157:H7 - found in the intestinal tracts of some mammals, one of several strains of E. coli found in rare meat.
Listeria monocytogenes - found in the intestinal tracts of animals.
Salmonella - found in the intestines of animals and seafood.
Streptococcus A - found in lobster.
While many may like the taste of lobster, crab or clams; medical science has found toxins and often elements like mercury in these shellfish that over time build-up in the human body. These possible exposures to these unknown dangers were advised against by The Creator and they are now proven now in our lifetime by medical science. Many say that pork, the swine that is raised for the sole purpose of going to a slaughterhouse, is 'OK' for food. But God, who created that animal to scavenge, says in His wisdom that pork, the other white meat, is not good for food.
Animals that are designed by God to be scavengers or predators are not designed to be food for us. One fact given by medical science today is that pork is closer to human flesh than any other animal. Why?
The pig's digestive time frame is very short at only four hours. This allows all impurities that the pig consumes to pass directly into the fatty tissues and meat of the animal. So, with that said, why in the world would we want to eat them?
The trichinae worm of the swine is microscopically small, and once ingested can lodge itself in our intestines, muscles, spinal cord or the brain. This results in the disease trichinosis. Worldwide, an estimated 10,000 cases of trichinellosis occur every year. Several different species of Trichinella can cause human disease; the most common species is Trichinella spiralis, which has a global distribution and is the species most commonly found in pigs. According to the CDC "Pigs, feral hogs, cougars and black bears can all harbor Trichinella infection."
Pigs and swine are so poisonous that you can hardly kill them with strychnine or other poisons.
In the U.S., the USDA and the Center for Food Security and Public Health is worried about the influenza virus in pigs. I wonder why?
We have all heard the old saying, "you are that which you eat". Then why should we eat anything that God instructs against? This is really simple, don't eat pig!
So What is it About Peter's Vision???
Like me, many Christians have been taught to interpret the apostle Peter's vision as described in Acts 10 to justify eating just about anything including Easter ham.
If you are like me, the simple fact may be that you may have not read all of the message given in the book of Acts.
Many sermons have excerpted verse bytes from the teaching. So, perhaps we have been innocent to a degree, because the Bible was chopped and cut up into numbered verses and chapters around the year 1200 AD. It was god idea so people could find chapter and verse but the downside is people began to read and study God's word in small bits and pieces. This is dangerous, and when this is done mistaken assumptions can be made.
For example, by doing this, many have added or taken away from Scripture and misunderstood Peter's vision as doing away with God's healthy diet plan, but if you read and study all of Acts 10, you too will see it is not about doing away with anything other than prejudice against other people.
The reason God gave the vision to Peter was because he was still stuck in some Jewish customs that did not come from the Bible that led Jewish people to believe that even touching food that non-Jews prepared was a sin. The fact is that tradition is no where to be found in the Bible.
The book of Acts is a small book with a big message and it's not about food.
It is not to read in slices, but rather whole portions. Peter's dream was a vision from God to "show" Peter that he was not to continue holding on to an old oral law tradition of prejudice and discrimination against non-Jews that chose to follow the Messiah of the God of Israel. A big part of that discrimination was from the fact that pagan idol worshipping Gentiles did not observe God's instruction on food. One reason, they did not read the Bible or have any relationship with The Lord.
Because of rabbinic tradition, Peter still harbored a religious opinion all non Jews were defiled as person. He didn't realize they were former Gentiles.
He ignored the teaching of Master Yeshua: “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
Read Acts 10, all of it. God was using this vision to teach Peter the spirit of the Torah is focused on how we treat people and Acts 10 is all about the words of Moses and Zechariah:
"Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." Exodus 23:9Peter's assignment was to enter the home of a wonderful man named Cornelius to bring his family and friends the good news of the Kingdom of God. God wanted to use Cornelius as a big witness for truth and Peter got the assignment from Heaven. Cornelius was a Roman Centurion but He loved and God loved him as much as he loved Peter and he wanted Peter to know that.
"One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you." Exodus 12:49
"And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee." Zechariah 2:11
Cornelius was blessed and chosen to become a non-Jewish believer. That may have never happened if Peter retained his prejudice. The big lesson of Acts 10 is this: Jewish disciples were not to think of non-Jewish believers as "unclean" period!
God has no prejudice. He loves everyone! The vision's message was simple and not about food because all people are created in the image of God.
We are not to consider others made in God's image as unclean or unfit for relationship with each other or the God of Israel.
Peter already knew that Yeshua did not come to establish a new religion or to do away with God's teaching and instruction. Messiah came to fulfill the word of God... to fill it up with meaning.
The disciples were all Jewish, they never went through a conversion per se, they "received and accepted" Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah, one with the Father YHVH and they witnessed Him in resurrection, but Peter was a leader and he needed some heart circumcision.
His discrimination defiled him just as Jesus said, "the things that come out of a person are what defile him."
The men of Judah had an assignment, to be the light to all the world, not a shadow in it.
Peter was adamant in his perception of the Kingship duty of Messiah, yet he did not understand he too needed to be clean. When Yeshua told him that He would give up His life for the world, Peter rebuked Yeshua in front of the other disciples immediately after Peter declared that He was the Messiah of God:
It was the mission of the disciples to go to all people. Yeshua came to bring salvation the the Jew first as shown in Romans 1:16, and the Jewish mission to be a light to all the world and all nations is the same assignment that includes you and me:
That is why God had to show Peter a radical vision that's still misunderstood. God had to erase Peter's "reverse" anti-semitism that was embedded in his old oral law opinion, because it was not rooted in the Torah that teaches mankind is made in the image of God.
God’s loving offer to follow Him is open to all people as a matter of choice, not DNA.
There's nothing in the Torah that declares for one that wants to follow God remains impure or unclean.
Cornelius was Roman, he was also a Centurion, but his heart was pure to follow God.
The men of Judah had an assignment, to be the light to all the world, not a shadow in it.
Peter was adamant in his perception of the Kingship duty of Messiah, yet he did not understand he too needed to be clean. When Yeshua told him that He would give up His life for the world, Peter rebuked Yeshua in front of the other disciples immediately after Peter declared that He was the Messiah of God:
"Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Messiah." Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him." Mark 8:27-32 NIVPeter argued because he did not yet understand that Yeshua would give His life and die as the humble Messiah ben Joseph and later return in glory as Messiah ben David for all mankind.
It was the mission of the disciples to go to all people. Yeshua came to bring salvation the the Jew first as shown in Romans 1:16, and the Jewish mission to be a light to all the world and all nations is the same assignment that includes you and me:
"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." Matthew 24:14 NIVIt's the same instruction given to the disciples:
"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15 NIVPeter was a Jewish disciple with a heart stuck in oral tradition that added to the good news of the Torah. He mistakenly believed that others were unworthy of a relationship with Jewish people that walked in the Torah principles of Messiah.
That is why God had to show Peter a radical vision that's still misunderstood. God had to erase Peter's "reverse" anti-semitism that was embedded in his old oral law opinion, because it was not rooted in the Torah that teaches mankind is made in the image of God.
God’s loving offer to follow Him is open to all people as a matter of choice, not DNA.
There's nothing in the Torah that declares for one that wants to follow God remains impure or unclean.
Cornelius was Roman, he was also a Centurion, but his heart was pure to follow God.
In the Exodus account, everyone that chose to follow The Father's shechinah glory out of Egypt in the wilderness became a part of the family, the children of the God of Israel. The crowd included the adopted descendants of Joseph's boys, born on earth by an Egyptian mother. don't forget, her father was a pagan priest of the idol, the fake god On, one of many.
The crowd likely included Egyptians that went with them and all the other strangers from the nations that chose to follow and walk away from the plagues brought on Egypt's fake gods.
Simon Peter was shown something critical in the Acts 10 vision and it was not about food. He was shown that the God of Israel wants to save the world, like the mixed multitude exodus crowd, the Father does not reject people from the nations, the Gentiles, men do.
Simon Peter was shown something critical in the Acts 10 vision and it was not about food. He was shown that the God of Israel wants to save the world, like the mixed multitude exodus crowd, the Father does not reject people from the nations, the Gentiles, men do.
Peter, the Jew from the family house of Judah had to be shown that he too must accept those that turn from pagan ways as God believers and sojourn , adopted in the family of the Kingdom of God.
The purpose, the lesson of the vision is declared in Acts 10 toward the end of the chapter, but many do not read on to the summary. We simply have to keep reading to see the big God picture given to Peter so I've included some clarity for those that think the more of the story is about a meal:
The purpose, the lesson of the vision is declared in Acts 10 toward the end of the chapter, but many do not read on to the summary. We simply have to keep reading to see the big God picture given to Peter so I've included some clarity for those that think the more of the story is about a meal:
"He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our [oral] law] for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean." Acts 10:28As Peter the Jewish disciple explained to Cornelius the former Gentile, calling another person that chooses to love God is like an evil report:
"I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears Him and does what is right." Acts 10:34-35 NIVThe Greek word the NIV translates here as "favoritism" is transliterated as prosōpolēmptēs, it means discrimination much like United States Title VII discrimination, the American law that emulates the Torah teaching of right and wrong right here in the good 'ol USA.
Simon Peter is declaring the revelation in his heart that God does not discriminate, God does not play favorites, but He accepts people from every nation who follow Him and choose to do what is right in God's image.
Those are Peter's words not mine.
This is repeated in the "one new man" message Paul learned just like Peter did.
Paul called discrimination the enmity of the oral law with its manmade religious regulations that add and take away from the written Torah of God. Paul delivered the Acts 10 lesson to the Ephesians. The italics are mine for context:
Acts 10 is rarely taught
beyond a verse snippet.
Perhaps that is because the typical seminary student was taught an oral law to take away from the living Torah saying it was done away with at the cross.
For we are God's handiwork created in Messiah Yeshua to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (which is done in the body by human hands) -- remember that at that time (uncircumcised in the heart) you were separate from Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
But now in Messiah Yeshua you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Messiah.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the (oral) law with its commands and regulations.
His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two (spirit and flesh), thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Messiah Yeshua himself as the chief cornerstone.
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:10-22 NIV
beyond a verse snippet.
Yet, the Scripture Simon Peter came to understand says this about God's constitution for Kingdom life:
"Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God." Deuteronomy 12:28 NIVThat is why Peter said he was shown that every nation who follows Him and does what is right. Peter's vision is teaching anyone with prejudice that the lovingkindness taught in the Torah is not done away with, love your neighbor as yourself.
"See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it." Deuteronomy 12:32 NIV
Peter sees Cornelius as God does. simple put that God accepts all people, native born and sojourner who fear him and do what is right.
Peter then explains further, not to define a new religion diet plan, but the opposite as he points back to Mount Sinai and the message God gave to both the people of Israel and the sojourners grafted in with them through the written words Moses:
"You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Messiah Yeshua, who is Lord of all." Acts 10:36
"God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commanded us to preach to (all) the people and to testify that He is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Acts 10:40-43Hold on to your religious hat, because the Book of Acts including chapter 10 never teaches anyone to do away with the Torah to define a religion, and it never teaches anyone not to do and follow God's principles for living by His holiness code of life in God's image.
Peter's vision simple teaches a "Golden Rule" of Torah that Yeshua taught in Matthew 7:12:
"Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Torah and the Prophets."
As shown in another commentary Messiah's Bible, Yeshua taught this about that:
As shown in another commentary Messiah's Bible, Yeshua taught this about that:
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied:
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:36-40 NIVBy the vision and the encounter with Cornelius, Peter had finally learned the greatest commands.
The disciples without a doubt, continued to eat good food ['oklah], they continued in Sabbath rest without a Roman calendar time shift and they continued to celebrate the appointed times, the festivals of The LORD.
After all, it was Yeshua that shouted this out for everyone to hear at the closing Sukkot (Tabernacles) water pouring ceremony that He is the water of life.
The disciples fulfilled the words given to Isaiah:
Pagans choose their own religion and worship false idols with the choice of perversion and sexual sin so it was the assignment given to Paul to teach them otherwise in the Torah ways of God. Acts 17:16 tells us when Paul went to Athens: "his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry."
The Gentiles like Epenetus are the ones that needed to graft in to Messiah and receive the word of God from the Torah, to do it and repent, to leave idolatry and sin... accept the way of Messiah.
For thousands of years, the Ten Commandments have been known by Jewish people as the "Ten Words." They are the words of Almighty God that were heard by everyone at the foot of Mount Sinai.
The disciples fulfilled the words given to Isaiah:
"You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!”" Isaiah 40:9It was the pagan Gentiles that did not believe God. That is our basic pagan problem, we ignore the first commandment.
Pagans choose their own religion and worship false idols with the choice of perversion and sexual sin so it was the assignment given to Paul to teach them otherwise in the Torah ways of God. Acts 17:16 tells us when Paul went to Athens: "his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry."
The Gentiles like Epenetus are the ones that needed to graft in to Messiah and receive the word of God from the Torah, to do it and repent, to leave idolatry and sin... accept the way of Messiah.
For thousands of years, the Ten Commandments have been known by Jewish people as the "Ten Words." They are the words of Almighty God that were heard by everyone at the foot of Mount Sinai.
With lightning flashes, shaking and the roar of thunder the first commandment starts like this:
"You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth." Exodus 20:3-4Repentance is symbolized in washing, water cleans and it's a process. This fact appears in the Mt. Sinai account as shown in Exodus 19:10-11
"And the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people."Peter taught his lesson from the vision to his kinsmen, the "circumcised" Torah observant Jewish believers that went with him and entered Cornelius' home in opposition to their oral tradition to discriminate against others:
"Then Peter began to speak:
"I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. ... "Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have."
So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Yeshua Hamashiach. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days...
The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God." Acts 10:28, Acts 10:34-35, Acts 47-48, Acts 11:1
When any living creature on earth, whether on land or at sea dies, they will soon have a visit by God's clean up crew.
Everyone knows that when any animal dies, it is consumed first by vultures, buzzards, sometime wild boars, and then maggots and worms. Right?
So look it up for yourself, pigs are "omnivores", which means that they consume both plants and animals... and dead animals in fact. Why? They are scavengers, made by God to keep earth clean!
Other omnivores include: rodents, mice, rats, squirrels, chipmunks, opossums, raccoons and the wily, sly fox.
So look it up for yourself, pigs are "omnivores", which means that they consume both plants and animals... and dead animals in fact. Why? They are scavengers, made by God to keep earth clean!
Other omnivores include: rodents, mice, rats, squirrels, chipmunks, opossums, raccoons and the wily, sly fox.
Oh yeah... barbecue rodent kabobs, sounds yummy! No?
When a sea creature dies, it's consumed by shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, barnacles and other consumers of rotting, dead flesh. These "sea maggots" eat the dead that once lived. In lakes and streams we have other wonderful scavengers to protect the living from the pollution of death. The include catfish and crayfish.
When a sea creature dies, it's consumed by shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, barnacles and other consumers of rotting, dead flesh. These "sea maggots" eat the dead that once lived. In lakes and streams we have other wonderful scavengers to protect the living from the pollution of death. The include catfish and crayfish.
Cajun crayfish boil anyone?
Most people know that the clean up crew are known as crustaceans. But many people do not know that the scientific study of crustaceans is known as carcinology.
Most people know that the clean up crew are known as crustaceans. But many people do not know that the scientific study of crustaceans is known as carcinology.
Just the sound of the word "carcinology" is too close to the word "carcinogen" for me!
According to Dr. Tessler, a well known doctor who wrote this in the book The Genesis Diet:
According to Dr. Tessler, a well known doctor who wrote this in the book The Genesis Diet:
"Pigs are known to carry up to two hundred diseases and eighteen different parasites and worms, including the deadly worm called trichinella spiralis. This worm is commonly called trichinosis and there is no known cure for these spiral worms. The trichinae worms are so small and transparent that only trained inspectors using high-powered microscopes can detect their existence. Trichinosis can cripple or even kill anyone that eats as little as a forkful of contaminated food! Trichinosis can mimic other diseases such as arthritis, rheumatism, or typhoid fever.
Pigs have more incidences of arthritis than any other known animal in the world. Arthritis can make its way into your body from a virus or a parasite that is transmitted by pigs to humans as a direct result of eating the flesh and blood of the hog. Perhaps many other diseases are misdiagnosed and their root cause is roundworm, gullet worms, hookworms, thorn-headed worms, trichina worms, stomach worms, nodular worms, tapeworms, as well as many other parasites found in the flesh of the unclean swine. A person may be committing slow suicide when they eat bacon, ham, sausage, or pork chops."
The American Cancer Society considers pig and pork products like bacon, salami and pork hot dogs to be the number one cancer-producing agent in the world today other than smoking.
Pigs have more incidences of arthritis than any other known animal in the world. Arthritis can make its way into your body from a virus or a parasite that is transmitted by pigs to humans as a direct result of eating the flesh and blood of the hog. Perhaps many other diseases are misdiagnosed and their root cause is roundworm, gullet worms, hookworms, thorn-headed worms, trichina worms, stomach worms, nodular worms, tapeworms, as well as many other parasites found in the flesh of the unclean swine. A person may be committing slow suicide when they eat bacon, ham, sausage, or pork chops."
The American Cancer Society considers pig and pork products like bacon, salami and pork hot dogs to be the number one cancer-producing agent in the world today other than smoking.
Why? Basic animal biology tells us the pig's body tries to fight the trichinosis worm by forming tumors around them. That''s why people hot fry bacon, no slow roasting in the oven.
Incredibly, a whole industry has been marketed around eating Biblically unauthorized, "unclean" food for breakfast.
Eating from a healthy, Biblically image of God based diet (physical and spiritual) can keep unhealthy things from our body and soul, bringing life and vitality back, clearing the mind, memory, muscles, bones and organs and protecting us of life-threatening diseases (Deuteronomy 28). To do this, we need to keep our hearts and minds healthy too because we become what we eat.
Eating from a healthy, Biblically image of God based diet (physical and spiritual) can keep unhealthy things from our body and soul, bringing life and vitality back, clearing the mind, memory, muscles, bones and organs and protecting us of life-threatening diseases (Deuteronomy 28). To do this, we need to keep our hearts and minds healthy too because we become what we eat.
Fried tumor anyone?
The amazing thing is that in modern Israel, laws governing the pork industry date back 50 years. That's when the Knesset passed a law banning the production of pork.
The amazing thing is that in modern Israel, laws governing the pork industry date back 50 years. That's when the Knesset passed a law banning the production of pork.
The Israeli law permits raising hogs only in majority Christian Arab regions in the North as a concession to Israel’s "Christian" minority that miss-reads Acts 10. As a result, today's Christian towns have become hog heaven in Israel.
Think about that.
Think about that.
Sadly, Israel who is to be the light of the world has dropped the ball in their own ballpark, missed the mark, taken way from the Torah of God.
Now, go back to Paul's words in 1Corinthians 6:19 and think about the spiritual reality that our body is the Temple, the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. We are made to be in God's image. Would the God of your Bible ever allow a bacon wrapped shrimp sacrifice? No, it would defile the altar and render it useless in worship and offering to the Creator of life on this planet.
Think about that!
In the same way, would Father God want you to eat the worms and maggots embedded in the tumor of a pig? No way!
God's definition of "meat" in the Bible is the meat that is good for you.
Now, go back to Paul's words in 1Corinthians 6:19 and think about the spiritual reality that our body is the Temple, the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. We are made to be in God's image. Would the God of your Bible ever allow a bacon wrapped shrimp sacrifice? No, it would defile the altar and render it useless in worship and offering to the Creator of life on this planet.
Think about that!
In the same way, would Father God want you to eat the worms and maggots embedded in the tumor of a pig? No way!
God's definition of "meat" in the Bible is the meat that is good for you.
That is what clean means in Scripture... good.
Almighty God is the God of life and that is why He says - NO to animals that are unclean! These are not intended as meat for God's people. They do not meet His definition of good.
You are what you eat.
You are what you eat.
Would God want you to eat shrimp that consume rotting flesh for a living or have an unclean spirit in you? Nope!
Believe it or not, shrimp, crab, lobster, shark and other sea scavengers are the maggots of the sea and catfish, crayfish and snails are the bottom feeders of our fresh water lakes and streams. They are no delicacy, it's no wonder they smell so bad before they are dipped in butter, lemon and seasoning as a disguise to the truth.
The names of "unclean" fish can be confusing, other than catfish and bass here are some names of the most common bottom feeders, the flatfish from the turbid waters at the bottom of the sea that God does not want you to chew: halibut, turbot, flounder, plaice, sole, sand dab, eel, cod, haddock, bass, grouper, carp, hagfish, bream and snapper. There are some 400 species of flatfish, they are called demersal fish by biologists. Demersal fish are bottom feeders and really nasty.
Get this: hagfish coat themselves with the remains of any dead fish they find creating a noxious slime making them inedible to other fish species.
Clean fish are generally pelagic fish, most of them swim in schools. Pelagic fish get their name from the area that they inhabit called the pelagic zone. They live in groups and feed away from the bottom in open water but so do unclean fish like sharks. There's always a tare among the wheat.
We all know that fish oil is what is good for us. Most demersal fish fillets contain almost no fish oil content, but pelagic fish have up to 30 percent of their body weight in fish oil. The word demersal is derived from the Latin word demergere, it means "to sink." Oil is lighter than water.
But don't worry God makes it easy.
He is the architect of creation and His explanation is really simple. God tells us fish need both fins and scales to qualify as food. Bottom fish don't have scales because they are part of God's marine waste disposal system. Have you ever touched a catfish? They feel like slime for a reason.
Why would you ever add the content of a vacuum cleaner bag to your soup or feed catfish and shrimp to your cat? No, it would make them sick. So, why eat a fish designed to clean up the lake or sea? Perhaps now, you understand why some creatures are an abomination to life... they are not bad, they have a purpose not related to food, it just that they just have a nasty job, and thankfully so.
Predatory animals in each link in the food chain can have between two and seven times the mercury of their prey in the previous food chain link. Mercury levels in these top predators can be more than a million-fold higher than in the little creatures at the bottom of the same food chain.
Now you know what I know, let's get back to see just how the apostle Peter described his vision...
The names of "unclean" fish can be confusing, other than catfish and bass here are some names of the most common bottom feeders, the flatfish from the turbid waters at the bottom of the sea that God does not want you to chew: halibut, turbot, flounder, plaice, sole, sand dab, eel, cod, haddock, bass, grouper, carp, hagfish, bream and snapper. There are some 400 species of flatfish, they are called demersal fish by biologists. Demersal fish are bottom feeders and really nasty.
Get this: hagfish coat themselves with the remains of any dead fish they find creating a noxious slime making them inedible to other fish species.
Clean fish are generally pelagic fish, most of them swim in schools. Pelagic fish get their name from the area that they inhabit called the pelagic zone. They live in groups and feed away from the bottom in open water but so do unclean fish like sharks. There's always a tare among the wheat.
We all know that fish oil is what is good for us. Most demersal fish fillets contain almost no fish oil content, but pelagic fish have up to 30 percent of their body weight in fish oil. The word demersal is derived from the Latin word demergere, it means "to sink." Oil is lighter than water.
But don't worry God makes it easy.
He is the architect of creation and His explanation is really simple. God tells us fish need both fins and scales to qualify as food. Bottom fish don't have scales because they are part of God's marine waste disposal system. Have you ever touched a catfish? They feel like slime for a reason.
Why would you ever add the content of a vacuum cleaner bag to your soup or feed catfish and shrimp to your cat? No, it would make them sick. So, why eat a fish designed to clean up the lake or sea? Perhaps now, you understand why some creatures are an abomination to life... they are not bad, they have a purpose not related to food, it just that they just have a nasty job, and thankfully so.
Predatory animals in each link in the food chain can have between two and seven times the mercury of their prey in the previous food chain link. Mercury levels in these top predators can be more than a million-fold higher than in the little creatures at the bottom of the same food chain.
Now you know what I know, let's get back to see just how the apostle Peter described his vision...
Acts 10:34-44 Then Peter opened [his] mouth, 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. The word which [God] sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, [I say], ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, [even] to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God [to be] the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word.So, it wasn't just about food, was it? It was abut people!!
Leviticus 11:1-23 And The Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, These are the animals which you shall eat among all the animals that are on the earth. Whatever has a divided hoof, which is clovenfooted, and also chews the cud, among the animals, that you shall eat. Nevertheless these you shall not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those that have a divided hoof, such as the camel, because it chews the cud, but does not have a divided hoof So, it is unclean unto you. And the rabbit, because it chews the cud, but does not have a divided hoof, it is unclean to you. And the hare (kangaroo), because it chews the cud, but does not have a divided hoof, it is unclean to you. And the swine [hogs, pig and pork], though it has a divided hoof, and be cloven footed, yet it does not chew the cud; it is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcass you shall not touch; they are unclean to you. These you shall eat of all that are in the waters, whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, those you shall eat. And all that do not have fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination to you. They shall be even an abomination to you. You shall not eat of their flesh, but you shall have their carcasses in abomination. Whatever has no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination to you. And these are those which you shall have in abomination among the fowls (birds), they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the osprey, and the vulture, and the kite after his kind; every raven after his kind, and the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after his kind, and the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, and the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat. All insects that creep, going upon all fours, shall be an abomination unto you. Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that goes upon all fours, which have legs above their feet, to leap with on the earth, these of them ye may eat: the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. But all other flying insects, which have four feet, shall be an abomination to you.It's time to make a difference give up the inherited lie... no more ham or other road kill.
Jeremiah 16:19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and [things] wherein [there is] no profit.Even the popular cable TV gets it.
Leviticus 20:25-26 You shall therefore make a difference between clean animals and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and you shall not make your souls abominable by animal, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that moves on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. And you shall be holy unto me. for I, The Lord, am holy, and have separated you from other people, that you should be mine.
An unclean menu as defined by God = deadly parasites... period. Check our this special from Robert Lamb's How Stuff Works. Then watch these Animal Planet Monster Inside Me videos on the subject. (Update September 7, 2009.)
So in Acts 10, we read that Peter saw a vision on the rooftop where he was told to arise and eat unclean animals. Peter knew His Maker's dietary instruction from Scripture hadn't been abolished, so at first he was likely confused about the vision and its meaning but he came to realize he was to not judge another man as unclean.
As you study the Scriptures, you too can understand that the Bible uses unclean animals as ensigns which are symbolic of idol worshiping "nations" aka "Gentiles" while the Word uses clean animals as the ensign or symbol of God worshiping "believers."
So in Acts 10, we read that Peter saw a vision on the rooftop where he was told to arise and eat unclean animals. Peter knew His Maker's dietary instruction from Scripture hadn't been abolished, so at first he was likely confused about the vision and its meaning but he came to realize he was to not judge another man as unclean.
As you study the Scriptures, you too can understand that the Bible uses unclean animals as ensigns which are symbolic of idol worshiping "nations" aka "Gentiles" while the Word uses clean animals as the ensign or symbol of God worshiping "believers."
Every heard of the "beast?"
That system is called a beast for a reason, it's defiled.
Peter witnessed the salvation of Cornelius and he realized how God wanted him to interpret the vision.
Peter witnessed the salvation of Cornelius and he realized how God wanted him to interpret the vision.
The vision had nothing to do with whether or not he could eat unclean food. God the Father was showing him that the people of the nations, the Gentiles, who Peter considered to be like unclean animals, were no longer to be viewed as unclean. Look again for yourself, the Biblical interpretation of Peter's vision is described in Acts 10:28-29; Acts 11:1-18; and Acts 15:6-9.
Like Peter's vision, God's teaching about "clean" and "unclean" are among the most misunderstood instructions found in the Bible. Since Moses, food has been just one mark of identity separating God’s people from the world. Others include the Sabbath and the appointed days of The Lord. All of these have been a source of controversy, confusion and anti-Semitism.
God once told Noah "of every moving animal which is life to you becomes food as the herbs I give." That is from Young's literal translation and the focus is life... this word is "chay" and spelled with the letters Chet and Yod.
Genesis teaches us that God gave some life instruction. No one wrote it down until Moses. We see that with Abraham who obeyed God's voice, kept his charges, commandments and statutes. God taught the difference between clean and unclean animals... Noah took 7 clean and 2 unclean onboard. How would he have known to do that? God told him the difference.
Another key to good food is the Hebrew word the KJV Bible called meat. It is not quite a T-bone. The word is "oklah." It is food. It is seldom seen in the Torah. The first appearance is in Genesis 1:29-30, the fruit and herbs, then the manna of Exodus 16.
Bottom line, good food, "oklah" from God must be clean, that means it is good and not mixed. That is tahowr. That was the problem with the mixed tree of good and evil. The good tree of life only had life chay... Chet Yod.
Like Peter's vision, God's teaching about "clean" and "unclean" are among the most misunderstood instructions found in the Bible. Since Moses, food has been just one mark of identity separating God’s people from the world. Others include the Sabbath and the appointed days of The Lord. All of these have been a source of controversy, confusion and anti-Semitism.
God once told Noah "of every moving animal which is life to you becomes food as the herbs I give." That is from Young's literal translation and the focus is life... this word is "chay" and spelled with the letters Chet and Yod.
Genesis teaches us that God gave some life instruction. No one wrote it down until Moses. We see that with Abraham who obeyed God's voice, kept his charges, commandments and statutes. God taught the difference between clean and unclean animals... Noah took 7 clean and 2 unclean onboard. How would he have known to do that? God told him the difference.
Another key to good food is the Hebrew word the KJV Bible called meat. It is not quite a T-bone. The word is "oklah." It is food. It is seldom seen in the Torah. The first appearance is in Genesis 1:29-30, the fruit and herbs, then the manna of Exodus 16.
Bottom line, good food, "oklah" from God must be clean, that means it is good and not mixed. That is tahowr. That was the problem with the mixed tree of good and evil. The good tree of life only had life chay... Chet Yod.
When God said the word "life" Noah knew what God meant.
Today, we know why, because the flesh of all unclean animals are mixed as they all absorb and hold toxins, acids, viruses, bacteria, mercury and other heavy metals from what the fish, birds and animals eat.
The first sin involved food, so it is important to consider why don't we just eat "every" plant, fruit and animal on the planet. After all, God called all creation good and Genesis 9 says 'every' thing right?
Genesis 9:3 "Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.Let’s go back to the beginning for a minute and dig in.
Genesis 1:29-30 Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.There's that "every" word again, and how about this?
Genesis 2:15-16 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: ‘Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.Yet, we have to keep reading about the tree of good and evil... We can't just stop here at one numbered verse and assume "everything" can be eaten as food. After all, the original Bible never came with chapters, verses or paragraph breaks!
'but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’So, it’s not everything after all.
Let's go back again and see how God might speak of certain animals we can eat. We speak English and think in Greek. God speaks and thinks in Hebrew. So how does God define animals as food? We know from Sinai It is tied to the descriptions of types of herbivores, but what about Genesis? Is it the green herbs and seeds?
Genesis 1:29-30 And God said: ‘Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed—to you it shall be for food; 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 a living soul, [I have given] every green herb for food.’ And it was so.Noah knew about the meat herb connection because God told him: "of every moving animal which is life to you becomes food as the herbs I give." Noah learned from God that herbivores can be eaten, because they are ‘food’ by God's spoken word. Herbivores are herbivores, they eat herbs.
So, we can see that in Genesis 9, Noah already knew something. After all, he brought seven pairs of clean and two pair of unclean. How did he know the difference? Moses was not around.
We can know this: Noah did not sacrifice unclean when he built the altar to celebrate the end of the flood under the rainbow with God. And if we consider it, God might have been actually inviting Noah, just like the priests of Aaron to share in the meal on an altar.
Can we imagine the scene with a little humor?
Wow that’s a nice aroma God! OK Noah, I know you are famished, now that you are out of the boat you can eat these clean animals, after all they eat herbs. You can fire up your grill from now on for animals that eat herbs like you do because you are what you eat...
It’s cool to know the animals that eat plants are called herbivores and many of them are called domestics. The World English dictionary tells us that domestic means: "1. of or involving the home or family' 2. enjoying or accustomed to home or family life; 3. (of an animal) bred or kept by man as a pet or for purposes such as the supply of food."
After all, by their very definition, domestic food animals are under the "dominion of man (Genesis 1:26).
Here's an epiphany, you can walk right up to them, herd them, flock them, you know... keep dominion over them.
Funny thing, the herbivores that walk the earth are domesticated plant and seed eaters. They do not kill to eat like predators or eat the dead (carrion). Might we possibly consider God gave the same teaching to Noah that He gave to Adam and later Abraham that Moses wrote down during the 40 days at the top of the mountain of Sinai?
At the end of the day, God created herbivores as cud-chewers and God calls clean. The Bible shows us that predatory, carnivorous animals are not food for logical and simple reasons. Science and medicine now agrees with God's Word.
People like to argue over this, especially those that want their bacon wrapped shrimp, but the truth is God created clean animals to provide food for His set-apart people so that they might live.
God created animals unsuitable to be called food to do the clean-up and sanitation work around the planet.
When Messiah Yeshua returns to this earth there is going to be a "restitution of all things" just as Acts 3:20–21 tells us. This includes not only proper worship, the Sabbath and the Feasts but God's Kosher diet found in the Bible. The good news is we don't have to wait for The Day of The Lord to walk like Jesus.
Simply put, the teaching of the Bible is that God says... hold the bacon, there's danger on the half shell and don't eat the clean-up crew!
Epilogue: I mentioned the beast. Have you ever noticed that the ensigns and symbols of most nations of people around the globe are the same "unclean" animals noted in Scripture? An emblem is a unique symbol that identifies a common group of people. Emblems are important to people because they represent us.
Peter never says that it's okay to eat pork n beans... in fact, he was dealing with the nature of man.
Why then do nations insist on choosing unclean emblems?
Just look at the emblems of the nations:
* Australia -kangarooAre you surprised?
* Austria - black eagle
* Belgium - lion
* Canada - beaver
* Chile - condor
* China - giant panda
* Czech Republic - lion
* Denmark - lion
* Egypt - Saladin's eagle
* England - lion
* Finland - lion
* Germany - black eagle
* Iceland - falcon
* India - peacock & bengal
* Indonesia - Komodo dragon
* Laos - elephant
* Malaysia - tiger
* Mexico - golden eagle
* Netherlands - lion
* New Zealand - kiwi
* Poland - white eagle
* Romania - eagle
* Russia - bear & golden eagle
* Scotland - red lion
* Serbia - white eagle
* Singapore - lion
* Soviet Union - bear
* Sweden - lion
* Thailand - elephant
* United Kingdom - lion
* United States - bald eagle
These ensigns are seen on the coins and flags of all nations except one I know of.
You've probably guessed it by now, there is no "unclean" animal used as an ensign of Israel! Just the star of David.
You've probably guessed it by now, there is no "unclean" animal used as an ensign of Israel! Just the star of David.
Praise God Peter figured out his dream and I give thanks to the interpretation of his vision and you should too!
So why do so many "believers" so many "followers" ignore these everlasting instructions from our Creator? If we ignore His instruction, whose path are we "following" anyway?
So why do so many "believers" so many "followers" ignore these everlasting instructions from our Creator? If we ignore His instruction, whose path are we "following" anyway?
Think about it, would God ever allow baby back pork ribs on His altar at The Temple?
Think again about what Paul told the Corinthians...
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 1Corinthians 3:16-18Why would anyone ever want to defile God's temple. Why eat scavengers and predators when God instructs us to not eat these "unclean" foods? If this is new news to you, it was for me too but I opened my eyes and believed God when I let go of my Greco-Roman mindset, crossed over and embraced the "real" Messiah Yeshua. I realized Jesus is the Passover Lamb for a reason, not NOT an Easter ham!
One last word, consider this...
The Greek word “kai” καί is translated as: “and” in Revelation 14:2... But did they (the translators) perhaps just miss something in the meaning of this word? It also means “indeed”...
“Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, {indeed} the faith of Yeshua.”
Indeed we are to walk like Yeshua walked. There are things He did not eat. They are the same ones noted in the Scriptures He read and taught!
To learn more about God's food plan I can recommend these resources:
* The Genesis DietIf you only have time for one reference check out Hope Egan's * Holy Cow! Does God Care About What We Eat?
* Holy Cow! Does God Care About What We Eat?
* What the Bible Says About Healthy Living
* The Maker's Diet
God does care. He is all about life and living it abundantly in health. Because of that, He cares about what we eat and He NEVER changes his mind... He is life.
Update November 26, 2019: Kosher is cool... just ask the World Health Organization.
From Newsweek: WALMART PORK PRODUCTS CONTAINING SUPERBUGS RESISTANT TO CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ANTIBIOTICS DISCOVERED
"Worryingly, the report found that 27 percent of the resistant bacteria in the Walmart samples would be unaffected by antibiotics categorized as "Highest Priority Critically Important Antimicrobials" (HPCIAs) by the World Health Organization (WHO). HPCIAs are antibiotics used when there are few or no alternatives to treat people with serious bacterial infections.
According to the report, antibiotic-resistant bacteria—commonly referred to as "superbugs"—pose a threat to "all human life." Meanwhile, the WHO recently described antimicrobial resistance as an "increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society."
Update October 3, 2016: Pork in Asda and Sainsbury’s ‘is infected with deadly superbug MRSA’
"The Bureau of Investigative Journalism tested 97 British pork products – and found they carried the potentially deadly bacteria.
MRSA CC398 is less deadly than the strain found in hospitals – but can cause persistent infections and has already implicated in six deaths in Denmark.
People could catch the bug from infected meat if it is not properly cooked, the Guardian said.
In Denmark, the bacteria infects two-thirds of pig farms and is thought to have infected 12,000 people – and current regulations leave an ‘open door’ for infected pigs to arrive here."
Update May 27, 2016: It looks like the prophecy of Ezekiel 33 has come to the headlines of the Washington Post and at least one scientist is afraid the abyss lies before us —
“Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: You have said this, ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy on us, and we are wasting away because of them! How then can we survive?' Ezekiel 33:10
Leviticus 11 was never done away with. It gives simple solutions.
“And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.” Leviticus 11:7-8 ESVWSJ: The superbug that doctors have been dreading just reached the U.S.
For the first time, researchers have found a person in the United States carrying bacteria resistant to antibiotics of last resort, an alarming development that the top U.S. public health official says could mean “the end of the road” for antibiotics.According to Nutritionfacts.org...
Separately, researchers at the Agriculture Department and the Department of Health and Human Services reported that testing of hundreds of livestock and retail meats turned up the same colistin-resistant bacteria in a sample from a pig intestine in the United States. USDA said it is working to identify the farm the pig came from.
"It's hard to imagine worse for public health in the United States," Lance Price, director of the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center and a George Washington University professor, said Thursday in a statement about the case. "We may soon be facing a world where CRE infections are untreatable."
Scientists rang the alarm bells about the gene in November, but not enough attention was paid. "Now we find that this gene has made its way into pigs and people, and people in the U.S.," Price said. "If our leaders were waiting to act until they could see the cliff's edge -- I hope this opens their eyes to the abyss that lies before us."
"Smithfield, the largest pork producer in the world, launched “Deli for the Cure,” which donates money to cancer research for every pound sold of the type of meat that, according to the World Cancer Research Fund’s cancer report, causes the most cancer."
Cured meats such as bacon and ham are loaded with carcinogenic nitrosamine producing nitrites and should be avoided. The level of nitrosamines in bacon is so high that they have even been found in the smell of frying bacon. Pan fried pork chops likewise contain carcinogens.
Pork consumption has also been linked to liver failure, due to hepatitis E (which is now known to be zoonotic). Pigs appear to be reservoirs of the virus. Pork tapeworms can take up residence the human brain, and in fact are the most common cause of adult onset epilepsy. They can be contracted through pork consumption or eating food handled by a person who eats pork. Pork is a source of saturated fat as well as cholesterol. Saturated fat has been linked to lower rates of breast cancer survival.
Psychology Today... Is Pork Still Dangerous? Did Leviticus Get it Right?
"Pork consumption has a strong epidemiological association with cirrhosis of the liver. Startlingly, pork may be even more strongly associated with alcoholic cirrhosis than alcohol itself!Update November 14, 2013: Even the FDA now recognizes God's wisdom in the Torah on food safety as the U.S. government agency released its amendments to the FDA food code the 2013 Food Code.
The evidence was summarized by Francis Bridges in a recent (2009) paper, building on earlier work by Nanji and French. A relation between pork consumption and cirrhosis of the liver is apparent across countries and has been consistently maintained for at least 40 years."
"We would expect that if pork can cause liver cirrhosis it will also promote liver cancer, since injured and inflamed tissues are more likely to become cancerous.
Indeed, there is an association between pork consumption and the primary liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma."
"There are remarkably strong correlations between pork consumption and liver disease, liver cancer, and multiple sclerosis.
What can be behind those relationships? The relatively high omega-6 fat content of pork may be a contributing factor, but it can't be the whole story. It seems there is something else in pork that makes pork consumption risky."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Code allows restaurants to serve undercooked foods only at a customer’s request. It requires the customer to be informed about the risks associated with consuming undercooked food. This warning is a posted sign in fast-food or self-service eatery or as a posting at the bottom of a restaurant menu.
The consumer warning states, "Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish, or eggs may increase your risk of foodborne illness." Customers need to be aware of the risks involved in consuming raw or undercooked foods. All animal products contain some level of bacteria. Whether that bacteria is the type to cause illness or not could mean the difference between a safe meal and a dangerous one.
From Dr. Ted Broer...
What does this all mean?
It's time for you to repent and return to God's voice, return to hear and do His word and walk in the faith of His Kingdom path so that you can ready your lamp for your coming assignment.
It means we need to know "Who is the One Called Jesus.
Consider a prayer: Please, God guide me by your Spirit as to what I should hear and do.
It's time to repent and return to God's voice, return to hear and do His words and walk in the faith of His Kingdom path so that you can ready your lamp for your assignment.
Stretch out your hand, and take from the tree of life, and live forever.
Open a Bible, read it, listen to God's voice and do Yeshua's teaching about the forever jots and tittles.
You can learn how the things which are written in the Torah, the Prophets, and the Psalms are concerning Messiah and you can teach others to live life like Jesus, it's love in God's way:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." John 3:16-17
Today is the time, open your eyes if you're dead in your own valley of dry bones.
Look up and you'll recognize Messiah from Abraham's promise passed on to Isaac and Jacob as written by Moses in the Torah. You can see Him too in the Prophets and the Writings.
Repent and walk your Emmaus Road with Messiah. Study the Scriptures He taught every Sabbath that are filled with doing life God's way in the Kingdom, and tell others about Him. Be a gatekeeper until the house is complete.
Shalom and eat healthy, not one jot or tittle has passed, heaven and earth remain.