- Nov 21, 2008
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I want to add this:
I am reading 1 Corinthians 6, as part of my daily Bible reading plan today and I see this-
Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for foodand God will destroy both one and the other.
Why spend any time arguing about foods or stomachs when both will be destroyed in the end? Why does anyone concern himself about what Somebody Else eats? Can you get between a person and the food he just ate?! Why would you want to???
I don't often see anyone going to someone else and saying "hey no more eating rat sandwiches because the Bible forbids it" -- at least not in America -- they might be doing that in some foreign land though - who knows?
What is more the case here is that anyone who affirms as did Peter in Acts 10 that they honor the health law God had setup in Lev 11 for (as God said) "what is food" -- comes under some form of criticism.
But if one really wants to make the case for the rat sandwich then they should go to Acts 10 through 15 where Peter RETELLs the experience 3 times - to see if Peter ever concludes with "so the lesson is that though up until that vision I was not eating rat sandwiches I am here to say that from now on -- I do".
Yet not once does he do that.
In fact in Gal 2 (long after the Acts 10 event ) we find this
8 (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles
9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
10 Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.
11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
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No reference to Peter eating rat sandwiches but rather Peter is going to the extreme in Gal 2 of customs that are not even in the Bible at all - in pleasing the Jews.
This is a no-rat-sandwich-still Peter in Gal 2.
So not only when Peter re-tells the story 3 times from Acts 10 to Acts 15 does he not ever argue that "the point" was to eat rat sandwiches - but he also continues to bend over backwards to stay in harmony with the Jews such that in Gal 2 he even adopts non-biblical customs and traditions of the Jews as conciliation towards them -- something we would not condone nor did Paul condone it.
as for 1Cor 6 Paul is not accusing the Christian church in Corinth "of every sin" just of some.
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1 Cor 3
16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Is 66
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.
Your question is why would God be concerned with eating mice at all? why not just let it all go as nothing much to be concerned about?
But look at it another way - lets say that Is 66, Acts10-15 etc are all true along with Is 66:15-17 and once people become Christian and then also begin to study this subject to find out what God said about it - what if giving them this information is more "loving" than hiding it from them?
Is 66 is the chapter on the "New Heavens and the New Earth" that John quotes in Rev 21:1-4. It is also the chapter on the 2nd coming and the lake of fire - where God judges all the wicked on earth.
IF it is to be ignored - then we would expect that the post-cross ideal place to address it - is in Acts 10 where God is telling Peter to rise kill and eat the mice, snakes etc. If ever there was the ideal place to make this point - that is it!!.
And yet Peter retells this 3 times from Acts 10-15 as only focused on the serious subject of evangelism of Gentiles. Not once does Peter argue that it is license to eat rats.
And even WORSE - in Acts 15 the rules applied to Gentiles include food laws "meat that has been strangled, meat with blood in it" -- which again is supposed to be a "food subject nobody should care about" under a different POV.
in Christ,
Bob
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