ESCAPING EGYPT PART I: THE BIGGEST SECRET EVER KEPT

Slave Ship Scene at the Griot Museum
Griot Museum of Black History

Why does America hate us? This was once a baffling question to answer and all I could come up with is because we are Negro, because we are Mexican, because we are Hispanic, because we are colored. Now that I’m older and have began my quest for knowledge on a deeper level I do understand the answer, especially now more than ever when it isn’t safe for a black "boy" to take out the trash in their own neighborhood without being shot by a white man (yes, it has happened in recent times). What I’m about to say may fall on deaf ears for those of us who cannot yet accept the reality that most of what we know about ourselves as people who are descendants of those involved in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade is either falsified information or information that has been completely omitted from the history books we used in school.

Were we taught lies about our true ancestry and history?

Our ancestors had a story prior to being kidnapped, beaten, raped, and dropped off on foreign soil albeit our history “appears” to become a bit hazy and undecipherable as to what we were doing prior to being dropped off to North America, South America, Haiti, Brazil, or the West Indies etc; however if you are a person that believes we were slaves and the history begins only at that point, then please most graciously end your reading here.

Now that brings me back to the original question. Why are we being murdered by those who are sworn to protect us? What does the world have against us as people that murdering us has no consequence? It’s time for us to wake up and learn our history and who we are. The answer may shock you. We are the Israelites,the Hebrews, the Jews, God’s chosen people of the Holy Bible there is tons of information which support this fact as well as some honest historians, but you must read for yourself and not allow other people to educate you on yourself because if we’re allowed to be honest with ourselves for anyone who has been educated in America what we have truly done is allow the descendants of our oppressors to educate us on our oppression and nothing more.  It’s time we take the wheel and seek out the truth for ourselves. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I like to use Deuteronomy Chapter 28 as in introduction to who we are and how we are able to recognize ourselves as the Israelites in the Bible.

Ancient Egyptian depiction of a child

Modern day African child

Note that the word Egypt means (land of captivity) by the way. As many of us know so the story goes in the Bible when God lead the Hebrew people out of captivity from the land of Egypt God gave them a set of laws to abide by concerning, worship, foods to eat, marriages, as well as the commandments etc. God asked many things of His chosen people and told us that if we abide by His word as our God he would set us atop all nations of people, but if we did not heed his words we would be cursed and return to Egypt/ captivity. What did we do? We built false Gods for ourselves  placed other Gods before him, we married outside of the nation of Israel , which we were also told not to do. We basically did everything that God told us not to do and now we reap the consequences, curses for disobedience to the Lord our God. I’ve utilized this portion of the Bible as a reference foremost because this passage readily identifies peoples involved in the slave trade and their descendants without question . No other group of people in the history of the world fit the description of being under this curse, but us the true Israelites those involved in the slave trade.

Ancient Egyptian artwork next to a modern day African

Curses on Disobedience- NKJV Holy Bible Deuteronomy 28

 Note for readers: The entirety of Deuteronomy Chapter 28 is applicable to us as a people whom are descendants of those involved in the slave trade as it concerns identifying who we were in Biblical times and now in the modern era ; however I have taken some key points as well as bolded and underlined some which really resonated with me when reading and listed them below.  Please at your own leisure read it in it’s entirety. I cannot paste the entire Bible for everyone. Thank you. 

¹⁵ “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: ¹⁶ “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. ¹⁷ “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ¹⁸ “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. ¹⁹ “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

²⁹ And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.

³⁰ “You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes.

³² Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand. ³³ A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually.

³⁶ “The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone.³⁷ And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.

⁴¹ You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity.

⁴³ “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

⁴⁵ “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. ⁴⁶ And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.

⁴⁷ “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. ⁴⁹ The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young.

⁶³ And it shall be, that just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.

⁶⁴ “Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. ⁶⁵ And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. ⁶⁶ Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. ⁶⁷ In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.

⁶⁸ “And the Lord will take you back to Egypt (captivity) in ships, by the way of which I said to you, ‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you (save you).”

Solely Our Description

"He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you." Deut. 28:48

When reading God’s curses for disobedience it is unequivocally the plight of all peoples involved in the slave trade. No other groups of people can lay claim to this tragedy. I say this not as a way to own tragedy with pride, but as a means of letting the truth be known, the good, bad, and the ugly. It’s high time we know who we are so we can do what we need to do for God so that he can restore us to those blessing which he has promised us in his holy word. As I stated before the word “Egypt” in this context does not mean the literal place, but means “captivity”.  We are the people who were taken away on ships into slavery. We are the people who were taken away with "yokes of iron around our necks". We are the people who bore children only to have them ripped from our arms and taken into slavery as well. We are the people whose men married us only for us to be raped by white men. We are the people

Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. Deut 28:66

who planted fields of cotton, rice, peanuts, corn, and then gathered all of it only to receive the scraps from our master’s dinner table. We are the people who built vast plantation homes yet could not live in them. We are the people who have been only oppressed and crushed continually. We are the people who were taken to a land which we did not know by a people we did not know, who spoke a language we did not know and practiced customs we did not know. Our lives were the ones that would “hang” in the balance both literally and figuratively to this modern day if we’re stopped by law enforcement we have to wonder if they’ll kill us much like slave owners and slave catchers have done in the past, no assurance of our lives as the Bible states.  We are the people who must go to our enemies in need and want of all things including food, water, clothing, and shelter. There is nothing we can get solely on our own without first going through the white man. Only us do these curses fit. No other group of people in the world. I do accept this, but I am not discouraged by it because God does tell us that we will be saved by him and restored also that our enemies will pay gravely for their evil against us therefore there is no need to hate anyone or to seek out any vengeance because God is just, but we must recognize who we are according to the Bible so that we can begin to rise.

Do You Doubt This To Be True?

If you doubt that any of this information applies to the people who are the descendants of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade who are the true nation of Israel today along with others who have been scattered throughout the nations then I implore you with great sincerity to take nothing at face value. Do your own research read, listen, watch documentaries, and begin asking some questions of yourself concerning what you really know about so called black history and then answer them. Some questions that I asked myself as it concerned learning this truth….

We're already behind on knowing our own history, let's research together

•  Why do we trust a people who stripped us of our freedom, land, language, culture, customs, and spirituality to tell us where we’re really from and who we are? Is it not odd that people who did not want us to even know our own names, read, write, or speak our own language will however allow us to consider ourselves Africans and people of African descent?

You can’t have any other knowledge about yourselves, but hey we will tell you that you are Africans. That’s where we stole you from, so that’s what you are. We’ll allow you people that much. I say this not as something against our African brothers and sisters because we are all brothers and sisters essentially even though we are of different nations (the bible speaks in nations not race, even twin brothers Esau and Jacob/Israel represented two completely different nations of people), but it is detrimental that we know who we really are according to God’s word, not according to who we have been told we are by society. Not Africans, but Israelites our oppressors take no issue with us calling ourselves African-Americans, Native Americans, South Americans, Caribbean Islanders, Mexicans, and Afro-Hispanics etc. These are all meaningless nicknames like Negros, niggas, chicos, bodicua , not our real names, not our real nations. We are the Israelites of the Holy Bible, God’s chosen people the 12 Tribes who have been “scattered amongst all nations”, just as stated in Deuteronomy.

• Why do people of European descent have such a an extreme interest in ancient Egypt’s history and excavating various areas, as well as the painting and “restoration” of ancient Egyptian artwork and artifacts, which is actually kept quite secretive amongst themselves and only trifles are openly revealed to the world compared to the knowledge they keep for themselves about it?

Excavating Egypt

The fascination and secretiveness practiced by the Caucasians surrounding Egypt connects directly to the Israelites. How so? Well Biblically we do remember that the Hebrew people spent a significant amount of time in Egypt, also we must recall that Moses who was an Israelite was mistaken as an Egyptian, as was Paul, and Joseph who was also an Israelite blended in with the Egyptians so well that even his own brother’s did not recognize him upon seeing him. It is well known scientific and historical knowledge that the ancient Egyptians were black people. Therefore with the ancient Egyptians being black we know that the Israelites were also black people and that is very pertinent information that once discovered must be kept secret in order to keep us as the true Israelites oppressed. Doesn’t it make sense being that the Egyptians are black, which they did depict themselves as such in their artwork that the Hebrew people were also depicted in much of that same artwork as black people because they were indeed black people. Meaning we can look at ancient Egyptian artwork in a museum without even realizing we're looking at our Hebrew ancestors; however the people doing the digging do know this. They just don't want you learning this information. There comes a point where we must connect the dots, read, research, and understand our own history for ourselves. Not allowing a nation of people who have oppressed us to teach us who we are.

• Why do the Biblical movies such as “Son of God”, “The Christ”, “Exodus”, and “Noah” continuously depict Jesus Christ, Egyptians included as well as several Biblically notable people as white men even though when Bible has passages containing physical descriptions that have nothing to do with a Caucasian person?
  

  

  Well known false image of Christ

  

  Jesus in "Son of God"

  
  

Jesus in "The Christ"

From the book- The Unknown Catacomb: A Unique Discovery of Early Christian Art by Antonio Fuerrua. This picture depicts Christ in the front with his hands raised bringing Lazarus from the dead (Lazarus is not shown). I used a camera phone to take the pic with flash, but as you can see Jesus appears to be a black man with a short wooly fro even his nose and lips. I don't see any Caucasian features to speak of and this is art work from European catacombs from centuries ago. This book is about $130.00 brand new.

 

Cesare Borgia: Son of Pope Alexander VI- The likeness that Jesus was painted in to be falsely worshiped as Christ. He has been the basic mold that all other Jesus images and characters have followed.

From the book- The Unknown Catacomb: A Unique Discovery of Early Christian Art by Antonio Fuerrua.This is a depiction of Christ and the woman of Samaria at the well. Once again this pic was taken with an android phone of my book so it's not the highest quality, but as you can see Negroid features on Christ and a short wooly afro. He's no Cesare Borgia. Get into these books my people.

The purpose of doing this is to constantly implant in our brains that Jesus is white, the Jews are white, and therefore the white man is God like or God. Imagery is a massively powerful device and can deceive people to no end.  People believe what they see more often than not. It plays a grand role in the system of racism and white supremacy here in America. It says never mind the Bible descriptions given or what your own common sense tells you concerning Jews blending in and being confused with BLACK ancient Egyptians in the Holy Bible, nope we’re going to depict Christ and all other Jews as white. There are multiple scriptures proving the blackness of the real Israelites and our Lord. We read Bible verses saying “my skin is black upon me”, “my skin is black unto the ground” coming from Israelites describing themselves in the Bible (some newer Bibles have attempted to take the word black out in exchange for words like “swarthy” or add things to give these statements different meanings.) In reference to our Lord’s description “hair like wool” and “skin like burnt brass”. Brass is already brown, but once you burn it then it becomes even darker brown or black.  Furthermore when someone argues that Christ was black as were the Jews, people quickly clam up with statements like “well no one really knows what color anyone was back then” or “well it doesn’t matter what color he was anyway”. So naturally we end up with either Jesus was white or else it just doesn’t matter.

•   Who are the people that are calling themselves the Jews today?

They are white people, Caucasians,  Edomites, converted Romans, and converted Khazars etc.  The descendants of Esau the twin of Jacob. Jacob later became known as the man named Israel  born to Rebekah. Esau was the twin who was ruddy red and hairy all over whom sold his birth right for some bloody meat to his brother Jacob. He was considered a man of the field who liked to be outside and liked to hunt animals. They are converts to Judaism who converted hundreds of years ago. I liken it to a blonde haired, blue eyed, white person saying my grandparents were born here. I’m a true American; meanwhile they are not a Native or Indigenous American, for example. It has been done several times over when a land or people are conquered and the newcomers stake a claim to the all of its history as if they are the true progenitors of everyone and everything even though science and history says otherwise . Have the Edomites (white people) never done this before in history? I’ll let you meditate on that one if you’re confused.

Authentic Jew to the left and a converted Jew to the right...big difference

• If the converts who are claiming to be Jews today are the real deal the why do they not believe in Jesus Christ?

The true Israelites do believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and our Lord and savior. How can you claim to be true Jew yet you don’t believe in Jesus who was a Jew and only utilize a portion of the Bible.

 

Last Impressions

The more we read and comprehend what we are reading we will see that the Bible tells us many things which are right in front of us yet we do not see them. God gave us the Bible for a reason it’s our guide book, history book, our spiritual book. It belongs to us and it’s time we actually use it to help us as it was intended, myself included. The Bible tells us that we would worship a false image of Christ. It also tells us that the people claiming to Jews are imposters. Here are a few verses and quotes that maybe food for thought….

-          Gamal Abdul Nasser (Former President of the United Arab Republic) said in 1956 that ‘He could not respect the present Jews because they left Israel black and came back white.’

-          Revelations 2:9 - “⁹ I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.”

-          Revelations 3:9- ⁹ Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.

I will end part 1 of Escaping Egypt here hoping that you will continue with me on the journey to discovery as I gain more knowledge and share it with my people. As I have learned who we are I also understand why the others are dead set on destroying us. They do not want us to know the truth about who we are because once you really understand it and accept as truth it will change you forever and we as a people will refuse to tolerate any further injustices by the police or anyone else we will take our place as God’s chosen ones and rise from the bottom to do what he intended for us in the first place and that is a frightening thought for the people who maintain the power. I would also like it to be known that my purpose for writing this is strictly to help wake my people up. I feel it is my duty to use whatever gifts God has given me to open as many eyes as I can to the truth. This is not about hating white people or anyone else because believe it or not there is a very small minority of white people who know this truth and actually try to help educate the real Hebrews about who they are according to the Bible as well. This is strictly about teaching my fellow Israelites who they really are as descendants of those involved in the slave trade from North and South America to the Caribbean and more because it weighs heavy on me daily that I must spread this knowledge. I make no claims to be a preacher of any sorts, but I must share what I learn and not keep it to myself. Please continue to read as I post more. I would also like to add that I am not affiliated or apart of any sect/ group/ organization of Israelites. Shalom.

Escaping Egypt: The Introduction of a Journey

 I am on a journey of understanding. It's a quest for knowledge of sorts. I wanted to know who I was and where I came from beyond the ships of slavery.  I had so many questions for so long as to why black people were enslaved and why we are so despised among all other nations, even still today we endure captivity like no other at the hands of our so called justice system. Why? What went wrong somewhere? 

This was something I long pondered and pained over, until it occurred to me that  if you want answers and you want to understand something this world is not going to give it to you in a classroom. Something told me to pray about it and ask God for understanding. Well I did ask Him and it worked. I began reading more, listening more, and paying attention more. So much knowledge began to be thrown at me that it’s almost more than one can process. Once the Lord allowed me to see who I really was and who my people truly are according to the Bible I knew there was no turning back. Frankly I haven't shut up about it since the day the candle of my consciousness was lit. Now, no more lights out. I make no claims to be a preacher or a saint. I am merely a person on a journey and I find it impossible to do nothing when you feel called to attain a higher level of learning and understanding.

 I am only just beginning to come into understanding who the true Israelites the Bible speaks of actually are within the past year. Why am I writing this? Why do I care about this? It’s simple I love my people. I love our Lord and savior and I wholeheartedly believe knowing the truth about ourselves will set us free. I must play my role in whatever I can do to help wake us up. We have been asleep too long, but now it’s time to rise up. This is not about feeling superior over others it’s about knowing who God created you to be and the importance of fulfilling his desires of us as his chosen people. Knowing your history and knowing that you were meant for greatness makes a difference in how we conduct ourselves and how we view ourselves.  I’m not writing to argue with anyone, nor do I care whether or not people (outside) of the ones I’m trying to reach like it or disagree. Everyone will not always agree or understand. I am strictly here to bring my people along on my journey of discovery as I read, listen, and learn more about the true 12 tribes of Israel and its children which include the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Levi, Simeon, Zebulon, Ephraim, Manasseh, Gad, Reuben, Naphtali, Asher, and Issachar.

I’d also like to point out that many of the Israelite groups (I’m not a member of any particular group or sect of Israelites) do state that they can identify who is from what tribe. I halfheartedly understand how this is possible; however I think I still need to delve deeper to fully understand it in order to be able to explain it to anyone else because if I don’t understand something fully then I won't pretend to. Here is a table which some Israelite sects use to show which groups of people belong to which tribes, just food for thought. Note that not all Israelites agree that you can identify which people belong to which tribe based on the nature of the participants of the slave trade's infamy for dividing families.


Come on a journey with me as I study, learn, and grow. This blog will encompass the insight gained, obstacles, questions, and other topics in between as it concerns my people. ~ Escaping Egypt

YAY OR NAY? SHACKING & EMPTY TITLES

Real Life

The slang definition of Shacking:

Shacking: a slang word meaning to move in or live with someone as a lover without being legally married.

Working in a male dominated field has allowed for some intriguing conversations about relationships amongst co-workers. Recently I was discussing with a group of about four of my male co-workers the pro and cons of co-habitation before marriage. It was an interesting debate, myself being the only woman and the only person who argued that it was not a good idea to live with someone before marriage, while all the men on the other hand felt that co-habitation prior to marriage was not only a positive thing, but should be a norm in today's society.  After moments of heated debate the men pulled in two additional co-workers both women in efforts to prove me wrong for being on the nay side of the argument. One woman was younger and agreed that co-habitation before marriage was ideal, she was on the yay side. An older woman agreed that shacking was possibly helpful, but only from and non-religious perspective, also stating that while it could be helpful she would still prefer to be married first.



The Yay Sayer Perspective: Why Premarital Co-habitation Is Positive
Though I'm against co-habitation prior to marriage I must be fair and present both sides of the argument, below are the points that my co-workers noted while debating on the yay side of shacking.

• Co-habitation allows you to know a person, to see how they conduct themselves daily before committing yourself to them for a lifetime.

• If the relationship is not working for a couple while living together they have more freedom to end the relationship.
• Some argue that co-habitation allows a couple to have the joys of marriage without the struggles of marriage because of a more carefree attitude and less pressure, due to the lack of  societal constraints and titles of husband and wife.

The Nay Sayer Perspective: Why Premarital Co-habitation Is Negative
To read the article where the quoted information below was taken from in it's entirety please refer to this link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/the-downside-of-cohabiting-before-marriage.html

• The co-habitation effect: occurs when couples who live together "tend to be less satisfied with their marriages and are more likely to divorce than couples who do not.
• "Researchers originally attributed the cohabitation effect to selection, or the idea that co-habitors were less conventional about marriage and thus more open to divorce".
•  Shacking encourages "sliding not deciding", meaning that many couples who go from dating to living together say it just happened when asked how it occurred. They simply went from spending the night at their mates house to living at their mates house.
• Shacking depreciates the value of true commitment in a relationship by allowing a quick and easier exit than marriage whenever things aren't going according to plan.
• " Women are more likely to view cohabitation as a step toward marriage, while men are more likely to see it as a way to test a relationship or postpone commitment"
• "men and women do agree on, however, is that their standards for a live-in partner are lower than they are for a spouse." 

My Thoughts

I'm not judging anyone if they've decided to live together before marriage although I disagree with it; however I am making an observation that as we get evolve as an even more modern society we tend to do away with old values and ideals that would serve us well to keep. Just because something is seen as "old school" doesn't mean it no longer applies or is in your best interest, some rules can stand the test of time and I believe marrying before living together is one of them.

Living with someone increases your chances of having a child with that person and then not only will you be living with someone you're not married to you'll also be having a child out of wedlock, possibly with someone your relationship should have ended with a long time ago, but now you're stuck because you live together. I've known experiences where many women execute their wifely duties working, raising children, cooking, cleaning, etc.. while living as a girlfriend for years, acting as a wife, but not given the honor of having the same last name of the man she's with.

It seems there are more negative consequences than positives when it comes to premarital cohabitation. What works for one person may not work for the other but, as a married woman myself I can recall when my husband I were dating. I would cook from him -sparingly- and help him out around his house -sparingly-, but I made sure he knew I would not be spending nights at his house, doing his laundry, and cooking his meals on a regular basis. I jokingly, yet seriously let him know that he was getting a preview and in order to see the whole movie he would have to in the words of Beyonce' "put a ring on it". I allowed him to see that I would make a good and capable wife; however I would not act like a wife until I became a wife, nor did I allow him to call me his wife, prior to marriage...which brings me to another topic of Yay or Nay.

To Be Wifey or Not To Be Wifey? That Is The Question, Empty Titles

I'm an 80's baby and it's not uncommon while socializing or while on social networking websites to hear and see women refer to men who they are not married to as their husbands and men refer to women who they are not married or engaged to as their wives in this generation as well as younger generations. As a married person I find it to be an insult, not to myself, but to the constitution of marriage and how much it really means to be married and what it takes to have a healthy marriage. Many of the very same people who use husband and wife as pet names for each other would just as easily be here today and gone tomorrow if things became a bit rocky in their relationships. Now I'm not saying that if you're in a boyfriend girlfriend relationship with someone you aren't committed to them; however it doesn't hold a a candle to the commitment of marriage, which in today's society is taken lightly on many occasions.


Reader Questions

Do you think shacking up before marriage is a good idea or bad idea? Why or why not? Do you think it's ok to call someone your wife/husband if you're not married or engaged? Why or why not...What are your thoughts on these relationship topics?


Remember: "A man who finds a wife has found a good thing " ~Proverbs. Not a man who finds a girlfriend for life finds a good thing.

This Is A Stick Up! Drop The Pig!

Real Life

When my father was around he would talk to me about God, the Bible, spirituality etc.. He made it a point to note that we as children of God were never meant to eat meat, but rather meant to live on a vegetarian's diet. I thought about it and brushed it off because I figured well if we weren't originally created to eat meat then why does the Bible say we can? Confused, is what I was. Those were childhood conversations, but now as adult reading and studying the Bible for myself (The New King James Version predominantly, sometimes the Old Testament) I see that many of us make the fatal error of not being more cautious and strict about what goes into our bodies.

I think to myself God must be sitting up on a cloud in heaven looking down at me saying "didn't I tell her NOT to eat that?" as I've gone along ignorant to some things and knowing others. Recently while listening to a show I just happened to catch one very early Sunday morning called Amazing Facts: God's Health Plan, a pastor by the name of Doug Batchelor was educating the masses on the importance of knowing what foods were deemed clean foods and unclean foods by God, as well as why it's vital not to consume unclean foods. I was captivated and unbeknownst to me, a change instantly began to take place to catapult me even further into this life long journey of health and wellness. Now I'm no pastor or nutrition expert, but hey we all have to start somewhere and why not start with the basics? The simple list of foods God told us we could and couldn't eat. These are rules for health we can easily pick up the Bible and read for ourselves.

What Does The Bible Say?

Let's take a page from Genesis the first book of the Bible (NKJV). When man was -still- in the Garden of Eden:

• 1:29-30 '' ²⁹ Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

• 2:15-17 "¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”     

As Pastor Batchelor pointed out in the video what we put in our bodies is gravely important to our spiritual health and our souls  because if we take a moment to think about it the entire history of man was changed by someone eating something which they had already been told by God not to eat. In the book of Genesis after Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, :

• 3:17-19
  
   ¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
  “Cursed is the ground because of you;
      through painful toil you will eat food from it
      all the days of your life.
  ¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
      and you will eat the plants of the field.
  ¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow
      you will eat your food
  until you return to the ground,
      since from it you were taken;
  for dust you are
      and to dust you will return.”

*Note that although animals were already created by God at this point and man was given dominion over all things on the Earth that God had created, mention of man eating animals was not made at this point, while man was still in the Garden of Eden. I have yet to read anywhere in the Bible that we are not allowed to eat animals; however if you read for yourself one can draw an understanding that it was not originally intended for us to include any meat in our diets until after man was cast out of the Garden of Eden and even then it seemed something that was more so tolerated rather than promoted in the Bible. In Leviticus: The 3rd Book of Moses we get a detailed list of clean and unclean foods that include animals as a food source. 

 Pastor Doug Batchelor: God's Health Plan, from Amazing Facts

Clean and Unclean Foods Simplified

Reading the Bible in regards to unclean foods and clean foods there are some things that stand out and are easily understood for example, we are not permitted to eat pigs, we are not permitted to eat the fat of any animal, or for all who like to eat meat cooked rare, blood is not permitted to be eaten. However; it is news to me that things I love like crab, shrimp, and calamari are in a biblical sense unclean foods. Eating crab, lobster, shrimp etc is in short eating the roaches of the sea because they are bottom feeders. As far as fish are concerned any fish we eat must have -both- scales and fins.

Here is a simplified list of some clean foods and unclean foods that I've located on the web from The United Church of God's website:

Clean Animals
Mammals That Chew the Cud and Part the Hoof Antelope Bison (buffalo) Caribou Cattle (beef, veal) Deer (venison) Elk Gazelle Giraffe Goat Hart Ibex Moose Ox Reindeer Sheep (lamb, mutton)	Fish With Fins and Scales Anchovy Barracuda Bass Black pomfret (or monchong) Bluefish Bluegill Carp Cod Crappie Drum Flounder Grouper Grunt Haddock Hake Halibut Hardhead Herring (or alewife) Kingfish Mackerel(or corbia) Mahimahi (or dorado, dolphinfish[not to be confused with the mammal dolphin])	Minnow Mullet Perch (or bream) Pike (or pickerel or jack) Pollack (or pollock or Boston bluefish) Rockfish Salmon Sardine (or pilchard) Shad Silver hake (or whiting) Smelt (or frost fish or ice fish) Snapper (or ebu, jobfish, lehi, onaga, opakapaka or uku) Sole Steelhead Sucker Sunfish Tarpon Trout (or weakfish) Tuna (or ahi, aku, albacore, bonito or tombo) Turbot (except European turbot) Whitefish	Birds With Clean Characteristics Chicken Dove Duck Goose Grouse Guinea fowl Partridge Peafowl Pheasant Pigeon Prairie chicken Ptarmigan Quail Sagehen Sparrow (and other songbirds) Swan* Teal Turkey Insects Types of locusts that may include crickets and grasshoppers

* In the King James Version, Leviticus 11:18
and Deuteronomy 14:16
list "swan" among unclean birds. However, this seems to be a mistranslation. The original word apparently refers to a kind of owl and is so translated in most modern Bible versions.

Unclean Animals
Animals With Unclean Characteristics Swine Boar Peccary Pig (hog, bacon, ham, lard, pork, most sausage and pepperoni) Canines Coyote Dog Fox Hyena Jackal Wolf Felines Cat Cheetah Leopard Lion Panther Tiger Equines Donkey (ass) Horse Mule Onager Zebra (quagga) Other Armadillo Badger Bat Bear Beaver Camel Elephant Gorilla	Groundhog Hippopotamus Kangaroo Llama (alpaca, vicuña) Mole Monkey Mouse Muskrat Opossum Porcupine Rabbit (hare) Raccoon Rat Rhinoceros Skunk Slug Snail (escargot) Squirrel Wallaby Weasel Wolverine Worm All insects except some in the locust family Marine Animals Without Fins and Scales Fish Bullhead Catfish Eel European Turbot Marlin Paddlefish Shark Stickleback Squid Sturgeon (includes most caviar) Swordfish	Shellfish Abalone Clam Conch Crab Crayfish (crawfish, crawdad) Lobster Mussel Oyster Scallop Shrimp (prawn) Soft body Cuttlefish Jellyfish Limpet Octopus Squid (calamari) Sea mammals Dolphin Otter Porpoise Seal Walrus Whale Birds of Prey, Scavengers and Others Albatross Bittern Buzzard Condor Coot Cormorant Crane Crow Cuckoo Eagle Flamingo	Grebe Grosbeak Gull Hawk Heron Kite Lapwing Loon Magpie Osprey Ostrich Owl Parrot Pelican Penguin Plover Rail Raven Roadrunner Sandpiper Seagull Stork Swallow Swift Vulture Water hen Woodpecker Reptiles Alligator Caiman Crocodile Lizard Snake Turtle Amphibians Blindworm Frog Newt Salamander Toad

Biblical Clean and Unclean Foods: Leviticus 11

Pork, unclean food

11 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ² “Say to the Israelites: ‘Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat: ³ You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud.

⁴ “‘There are some that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof, but you must not eat them. The camel, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is ceremonially unclean for you. ⁵ The hyrax, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you. ⁶ The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you. ⁷ And the pig, though it has a divided hoof, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. ⁸ You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.

Lobster, unclean food

⁹ “‘Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams you may eat any that have fins and scales. ¹⁰ But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to regard as unclean. ¹¹ And since you are to regard them as unclean, you must not eat their meat; you must regard their carcasses as unclean. ¹² Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be regarded as unclean by you.
¹³ “‘These are the birds you are to regard as unclean and not eat because they are unclean: the eagle,^[a] the vulture, the black vulture, ¹⁴ the red kite, any kind of black kite, ¹⁵ any kind of raven, ¹⁶ the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, ¹⁷ the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, ¹⁸ the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, ¹⁹ the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.

Goat, clean food

²⁰ “‘All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be regarded as unclean by you. ²¹ There are, however, some flying insects that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. ²² Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. ²³ But all other flying insects that have four legs you are to regard as unclean.
²⁴ “‘You will make yourselves unclean by these; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean till evening. ²⁵ Whoever picks up one of their carcasses must wash their clothes, and they will be unclean till evening.
²⁶ “‘Every animal that does not have a divided hoof or that does not chew the cud is unclean for you; whoever touches the carcass of any of them will be unclean. ²⁷ Of all the animals that walk on all fours, those that walk on their paws are unclean for you; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean till evening. ²⁸ Anyone who picks up their carcasses must wash their clothes, and they will be unclean till evening. These animals are unclean for you.

Flounder fish, clean food

²⁹ “‘Of the animals that move along the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, ³⁰ the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon. ³¹ Of all those that move along the ground, these are unclean for you. Whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean till evening. ³² When one of them dies and falls on something, that article, whatever its use, will be unclean, whether it is made of wood, cloth, hide or sackcloth. Put it in water; it will be unclean till evening, and then it will be clean. ³³ If one of them falls into a clay pot, everything in it will be unclean, and you must break the pot. ³⁴ Any food you are allowed to eat that has come into contact with water from any such pot is unclean, and any liquid that is drunk from such a pot is unclean. ³⁵ Anything that one of their carcasses falls on becomes unclean; an oven or cooking pot must be broken up. They are unclean, and you are to regard them as unclean. ³⁶ A spring, however, or a cistern for collecting water remains clean, but anyone who touches one of these carcasses is unclean. ³⁷ If a carcass falls on any seeds that are to be planted, they remain clean. ³⁸ But if water has been put on the seed and a carcass falls on it, it is unclean for you.

Shrimp, unclean food

³⁹ “‘If an animal that you are allowed to eat dies, anyone who touches its carcass will be unclean till evening. ⁴⁰ Anyone who eats some of its carcass must wash their clothes, and they will be unclean till evening. Anyone who picks up the carcass must wash their clothes, and they will be unclean till evening.
⁴¹ “‘Every creature that moves along the ground is to be regarded as unclean; it is not to be eaten. ⁴² You are not to eat any creature that moves along the ground, whether it moves on its belly or walks on all fours or on many feet; it is unclean. ⁴³ Do not defile yourselves by any of these creatures. Do not make yourselves unclean by means of them or be made unclean by them. ⁴⁴ I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. ⁴⁵ I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

Quail, clean food

⁴⁶ “‘These are the regulations concerning animals, birds, every living thing that moves about in the water and every creature that moves along the ground. ⁴⁷ You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.’”

 

 Why Is It Crucial To Only Eat Clean Foods?

From a spiritual and logical perspective the answer is simply that God created us. He knows what is best for our bodies because he made our bodies. I also give much attention to the fact that in the Bible what we are allowed to eat and not allowed to eat was very clearly listed. If God took the time out to tell people item by item what we should consume then you must know it has some serious signifigance, not to mention the poor health of many Americans.

We struggle with obesity, diabetes, infertility, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure...cancers and diseases etc. I agree with Pastor D. Batchelor when he says that many of the health issues we face are due to not doing what we were told do by God. If more of us followed his instructions then less of us would have problems all the way down to minor health issues like joint pain and chronic migraines. I don't know about you, but I'm putting down the pig as well as a host of other foods in the name of health and obeying my father, God.

Reader Questions

Have you recently made any lifestyle changes for better health? What are those changes and what prompted you to make them? Do you feel that eating foods that are prohibited in the Bible isn't really a big deal? And why? Do you have any health tips you'd like to give? Please, give any thoughts and opinions on the topic you may have.


Remember: "Don't just be black, be proud of it"~Lola C.