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.”
- 3:17-1917 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 |
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| 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 |
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 |
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| 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
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| 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.
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.
Lobster, unclean food
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.
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.
Goat, clean food
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.
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.
Flounder fish, clean 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.
Shrimp, unclean food
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.
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.’”
Quail, clean food
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.
