What was the purpose of the food laws?

RaymondG said:

Yes God can do all things without limitation. Daniel had a strong conviction and belief in what He could and could not eat. I would advice anyone who has a strong belief in something, to follow the positive side of that belief no matter what it is. E.g. If you believe that you must give a certain amount of money to a church or god with remove your finances....you should continue to give it, no matter how many people tell you that your interpretation of the scripture, which formed this belief, is wrong.

I am not in the business of trying to get anyone to go against their beliefs. If you believe pork will kill you or make you sick....you do not need to show me a scripture to get me to believe you....I believe you already......because you believe you.

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What we "believe" is right gives us a romantic sense of authority over our life; it is a very dangerous mentality when you are talking about discipleship to the Most High. The Most High send His Image down here to tell us exactly how to behave, and what to do (i.e. His exact life is how we should lead ours at base). The Word of the Most High didn't bemoan and question the quality of the Law of the Most High with respect to modernity: He just did what He was supposed to do.

We have grace so that while perfection is expected of us, we have the opportunity to repent and receive forgiveness and Salvation. The following of the Law doesn't save you: it is the understanding that one must follow the Law of the Most High, and that if one fails to follow one of them s/he is in danger of damnation - but by the Grace of the Most High and the works of His Image, we can receive redemption when we come to true repentance. I don't know anyone who advocates obedience to the Law that actually endorses the idea that following the Law is the thing that gives salvation (real legalism). That is dogma that doesn't line up to what the Most High said.

They were protected because they believed they would be.....And they knew that, even if God did not protect them......He still could. Even if I eat a pork chop and die, it is not because God couldn't save me.....for He is all powerful and is not bound by any laws.

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Daniel and his friends weren't protected by the Most High because they ate unclean food and hoped in the restorative power of the Most High. They were protected because they were willing to be obedient to the Most High even unto death - no matter how socially, politically or morally dangerous it may be.

Yes this is a very natural thought......I told you to do this and you disobeyed therefore I will not help you.

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The Most High will allow one to be deluded into believing one can disobey His Laws and still prosper. But, I don't believe He would help anyone who knowingly and willingly breaks His commandments and laws with no regard or thought of changing (repenting). This would include a pork-only diet.

Yet if we only Help those who help us.....how are we any better than the rest of the world? God is not like Man. You can ask for your inheritance.....go out and waste it, and He will still be happy to see you come back to Him. His love is incomprehensible....and not at all comparable to the love of man....

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Help is about getting people out of hell and getting them to salvation - not about what they prefer. In other words, the help comes by telling people what to do to escape death, not allowing them to wallow in their filth because they are more comfortable. If someone comes to one of the Most High, those have an obligation to tell them the Truth - and the entire Truth (without misinformation or parts and pieces). That often means telling people what they have been doing in their life may not be what the Most High wants - and the subsequent disdain from the hearer (5 stages of grief).

Love means if you believe with all of your heart you know the way out of Hell, you try to share that with as many people that desire (and understand the consequences of) the Truth. But, people need to want to know, or ask: I don't believe in casting pearls before swine, and I am a firm believer that some people want no parts of the Most High. Since the Word of God didn't impose Himself on anyone (though, people imposed on Him), we who claim to follow Him should follow in the same pattern.

dqhall said:

...eating beef is also risky as the World Health Organization categorizes red meat as a Group 2 carcinogen.

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Kosher rules had an extensive process for preparing beef, so that is not inconsistent.

The OT food laws exist to teach us about the Kingdom of heaven. The different animals are symbolic and instructive. Same as the sacrifices. They don't exists to keep your flesh healthy and strong.

Tania11 said:

Will you lose your salvation if you eat pork? What saves you?

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I don't want to find out when it is to late.

Adam and Eve disobeyed God as a result they sinned

Genesis 26:4-6 King James Version (KJV)
4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

John 14:15
If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Revelation 14:12
Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Why where certain animals unclean? For example, Camels. What exactly made them "unclean"?

In Peter's vision, was it really just uplifting a ban or was it symbolic for the welcoming of gentiles (who did eat unclean meat despite believing in God). When you think about it, how can that vision include ALL meat.. there are animals who are poisonous such as frogs, japanese blow fish.. we also know (with out that passage stating) that human meat isn't ok. So should we take that verse as "all meats"?

God always knows best for us... He designed us..

Here:

Daniel 1:8-16

8 Daniel decided not to eat the king's food or drink his wine because that would make him unclean. So he asked Ashpenaz for permission not to make himself unclean in this way.
9 God made Ashpenaz, the chief officer, want to be kind and merciful to Daniel,
10 but Ashpenaz said to Daniel, "I am afraid of my master, the king. He ordered me to give you this food and drink. If you begin to look worse than other young men your age, the king will see this. Then he will cut off my head because of you."
11 Ashpenaz had ordered a guard to watch Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
12 Daniel said to the guard, "Please give us this test for ten days: Don't give us anything but vegetables to eat and water to drink.
13 After ten days compare how we look with how the other young men look who eat the king's food. See for yourself and then decide how you want to treat us, your servants."
14 So the guard agreed to test them for ten days.
15 After ten days they looked healthier and better fed than all the young men who ate the king's food.
16 So the guard took away the king's special food and wine, feeding them vegetables instead.

I don't know as God didn't state the why on most of them. He did state the why in regard to uncooked meat. It could be health reasons.
I cook my meat anyway.
But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.

We are back to what God told Noah.
Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.

Hi tania,

Well, I've read over most of the posts and I can see that there is a lot of division concerning 'why' God gave Israel dietary laws. Here's my 2¢ worth:

God called a man by the name of Abram of Ur in the Chaldeas. We don't know why God chose Abram, just that He did. Over the course of time, God made a number of promises to Abram. One of which was that He would make of his progeny, a great nation. That through that nation begun with Abram, the entire world would be blessed.

So first off, I believe it quite clear that God was doing something through Abram. On the day that He first called him, living with his family, as far as we know, Abram had no special relationship with God prior to his being called. There is no claim, prior to his calling, that God considered Abram somehow a particularly pious or righteous man. But God has a purpose and it was through Abram that God was going to fulfill His purpose on the earth.

God's purpose, which I think we see fairly clearly unfolding as we continue studying the Scriptures, was to raise up a specific group of people, who God Himself says, will be His people of all the people on the earth. According to Paul, the very most important purpose of one even being a Jew is that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. So, it isn't like God was just going to drop various tidbits of His revelation to just anyone on the earth. Paul says that it was specifically the Jew who was responsible for hearing and receiving the oracles of God.

So now, in looking backwards from Paul's words, I think we can see that the Jews were to be seen and understood as special to God. This is why God said to Abram, "I will make you a great nation. Through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed."

Secondly, according to Daniel's prophecy, it was the people of God who were to bring in everlasting salvation. This specially and specifically chosen line of people, according to God's word, were going to bring in the salvation that would be available to all the peoples of the earth. This was how God was going to use the progeny of Abram to bless all the nations of the earth. They were responsible for keeping and writing to all the future generations the revelation of the God who had raised them up to be a people, and they were to bring in God's eternal salvation to all the people of the earth.

So, it was important that this group of people remain separate and apart from all the other peoples of the earth, as God worked out His perfect plan. In order to do this, I am firmly convicted, God gave them special 'rules' to follow. He gave them special instructions as to how they were to relate to Him. All of this to keep them from assimilating easily with other nations. I think it worth considering that there were other religions. Other nations served other gods. Yet, even today, there is no nation on the face of the earth, whose entire history is so entangled and intertwined with serving a deity. The God of the Jews is the most prominent God that has ever been recorded throughout all of history. I believe that's because God's plan to separate, and God did say that His people were to be holy unto him, the Jews from other cultures and societies through these various laws of dress and eating and worship, worked as well as it did.

Yes, as someone earlier pointed out, God did tell Abraham what kinds of animals to carry on the ark.
But pretty much immediately after the ark journey, God had a sit down with Noah and revealed to him that he could now eat any living creature. No list of clean or unclean. God just says to Noah, "Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything". Just as God also seems to have shown Peter in that rooftop vision. God said that he was not to call anything that God had made, unclean. Now, either God changed His mind, twice, or there was some other purpose in the dietary laws given to the Jews. I believe that it was for a purpose, and that purpose was to cause and ensure separation.

Finally, this perfect plan of God to bring His way of salvation to all mankind was completed. Jesus looked up into the heavens and declared to his Father, "It is finished!" What was finished? God's plan that He had begun by calling that man Abram of Ur. All of the old covenant Scriptures had been recorded and the Jews had brought in the salvation that Daniel had written about. The plan was in place and perfectly completed. Now we live in the days, according to Peter, of God's patience. He is patient with us. Not wanting that any should perish, but that all should come to salvation.

God bless,
In Christ, ted

Original Happy Camper said:

Matthew 4:4
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Malachi 3:6
For I am the Lord, I change not;

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The covenants do change, because society changes and people change:

Hebrews 8:13
In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Revelation 21:4
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

timothyu said:

Oh sorry. I thought you meant the ones to protect the fake processed food industry.

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And Christian wedding cake bakers.

Tania11 said:

We are justified before God by faith, not by works (Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:8-9.
Romans 4:4‭-‬5).
The reason we do good works or obey a command is because we are saved, not to get saved and not to keep ourselves saved.

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We cannot obtain sanctification unless we have accepted Jesus as our Saviour and have His Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Then by faith and the surrender of our will to Him our characters are transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible says we must believe the truth “because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

What is the truth? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). He also said, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17).

We must have a personal relationship with Jesus and this is obtained through the study and acceptance of God’s Word, the Bible. The Holy Spirit helps understand God’s Word and convicts us that we are sinners in need of a Saviour. We are then pointed to Jesus who is our forgiveness if we confess our sins. Then we undertake the change of character that enables us to keep God’s law as we begin to grow in this new birth experience.

This is a work of a lifetime. It is not instantaneous. Jesus described this by giving us the example of how corn grows:
first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear (Mark 4:28).

Sanctification | Keeping God’s Law

ViaCrucis said:

How much did you pay for your mezuzah?

-CryptoLutheran

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Do not have one do you?

SkyWriting said:

society changes and people change:

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You are correct

GOD does not change man does.

Original Happy Camper said:

You are correct

GOD does not change man does.

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God's promises change
His gifts change
His appearance changes
His way of relating to us changes
His prophets change
His angels change
His forgiveness changes....

Tania11 said:

Were they to make the Jews a distinct people?

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Peter's dream reveals the hidden purpose of the food laws.

Original Happy Camper said:

Do not have one do you?

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No, but then I'm not the one saying Christians have to observe the Torah.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9
"And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

-CryptoLutheran

Tania11 said:

Were they to make the Jews a distinct people?

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Yes, but they were also given to show the health benefits of eating only those things that are clean in nature. That is why even now we are told there is wisdom in eating only those things that are expedient for us and that edify all(Colossians 2:20-23; 1 Cor 6:12-13;1 Cor 10:23; Romans 14:13,15,16,19). Though we may eat all things if we are strong in the faith and believe that all things are good to be eaten and cannot defile us.

StephenDiscipleofYHWH said:

Though we may eat all things if we are strong in the faith and believe that all things are good to be eaten and cannot defile us.

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Why contradict the first two sentences? The last sounds like a soundbyte from the processed food industry

timothyu said:

Why contradict the first two sentences? The last sounds like a soundbyte from the processed food industry

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No contradiction, as Paul says
1 Cor 6:
12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

Romans 14:
14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

All things are lawful to eat since they cannot defile the man, but it is better to eat only those things that are good for you and bring edification to all. It is not a sin to eat any kind of food, but if a man deem something to be unclean then to him it becomes unclean.