Clean and Unclean Meat – Charles Haughee lifehopeandtruth.com

This link offers a series of articles on the Biblical food laws. The meats God defines as clean and unclean are differentiated in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Most nominal Christians consider the food laws regressive legalism and mistakenly conflate Orthodox Jewish Kosher rules with what the Bible actually says. The scriptures they cite to dismiss the Old Testament instruction are taken out of context. Rather than permitting us to eat anything we want, these verses concern extra-Biblical rituals and God’s expansive plan for all mankind. The Jews of Christ’s day had already developed traditions canonized in the Talmud intended to hedge the actual law. These traditions of men took on equal weight to God’s Word and underpinned the pharisaic attitudes Christ so aggressively corrected. Their focus was skewed. Peter’s vision was an analogy to correct the Apostle’s ungenerous, parochial attitude toward gentiles, not license to consume what God calls profane. We know that the Word (who became Christ) designed and created everything – including human beings and food we eat. Further, it was this same being who gave the food laws to Israel. Christ himself never broke His own laws nor was he ever accused of eating unclean meat. He does not change. On inspection, we can see that the food laws have practical physical health benefits; e.g. consider the source of modern disease pandemics like Covid, Swine Flu, and Ebola. However, the most important reason to keep these statutes is spiritual, and given right in Leviticus 11:43-44; Obedience sanctifies and disobedience profanes. The emphasis is not on physical purity, but on setting apart as holy that which belongs to God.