From cover to cover, from Genesis to Revelation, nowhere in the Bible do we find an example of a servant of God or follower of Jesus Christ eating the flesh of an unclean animal.
If at any time the distinctions between clean and unclean meats had ceased to exist, shouldn't that have been made clear in the Bible through the example of God's servants?
On the contrary, well into the time of the early Church we find Christ's followers scrupulously avoiding eating animal flesh that God had revealed as being unclean (Acts 10:14But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.
See All...; 11:8). Prophecies of the time of the end make the same distinctions (Revelation 18:2And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
See All...; Isaiah 66:15-17 [15] For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
[16] For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
[17] They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
See All...).
But there's more to the matter than diet. A thorough study of the Bible helps us understand other dimensions to the significance of the distinctions between clean and unclean meats.
God's Word describes the flesh of unclean animals as an "abomination" (Leviticus 11:10-13 [10] And all that have not 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 unto you:
[11] They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.
[12] Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.
[13] And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,
See All..., 20, 23, 41-42) and "detestable" (Deuteronomy 14:3Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.
See All...)—and in that light we are warned against consuming such meat (Leviticus 11:43Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.
See All...). Strong language, but the lesson is that we need to accept all aspects of the Bible, including the basic food laws in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.
In instituting the sacrificial system for ancient Israel, God commanded many specific sacrifices involving animals. Nowhere, however, does He command or allow the sacrifice of an unclean animal, nor is there a record of any of God's servants ever sacrificing such an animal to Him. Such a sacrifice would have joined the holy with that which God had designated unclean and defiled. It would have been simply unthinkable to a true servant of God because it would have been an affront to the Creator Himself.
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