What is the Christian view on dietary restrictions?
In Islam, we have rules about which foods are safe and wholesome to eat (halal) and foods which are forbidden (haram), such as pork products and alcohol. There is Koranic justification for following a halal diet (Surah 2:173), so it transcends tradition and cultural norms and is actually a religious obligation.
The Bible also seems to have writings on the subject of dietary restrictions and what is right or wrong to eat. In Leviticus 11 (in KJV version and ESV version) there are specific injunctions against:
- Camels
- Rock badgers/coneys
- Hares
- Pigs
- Any marine creature lacking fins and scales, presumably clams, shrimps, eels, sharks, dolphins and that sort of thing.
- Eagles, vultures, kites, falcons, hawks, seagulls, many owl species, storks, herons, swans, pelicans, bats and "birds on four legs" (Leviticus 11:20); this looks to include mainly predatory, meat-eating birds.
- Four legged winged insects without jointed legs/knees, and any insect that swarms
- Mole rats, mice, weasels, ferrets, "creeping things"
- Turtles and snails, many lizards and geckos
I am curious to know whether these Biblical dietary restrictions are followed by the majority of Christians today. My grandparents and step-father's parents are Christians of different denominations, and don't follow these injunctions when it comes to pig roasts and fried clams, but I don't know if they are very devout either. Do different denominations have different views on this, or is it mainly left up to place and culture? Also, what do Christians think about dietary restrictions like those in Islam?
Personally I like eating halal because it reminds me throughout the day to be focused on God and not superficial things. It also feels like something I can to do demonstrate my faith. However, I know it can be very taxing for some people. As a revert (convert) to Islam it was an adjustment for sure. However, a lot of the restrictions make sense to me. Organ meats and blood can carry a lot of disease, and intoxicants like alcohol remove your ability to think clearly. The food rules seem to have down to earth value as well as spiritual value. Do many Christians feel the same about Biblical food laws?
The fairly basic answer here is that, no, there are no dietary restrictions in Christianity. The biblical dietary laws were given exclusively to the Jewish people as part of their unique covenant with God.
In Christianity there is the idea that the unfolding of history, and of God's work and dealings throughout history, have a particular aim, there is a direction moving forward through history toward an ultimate goal; in Christianity the direction of all things, the goal toward which history has been moving, is Jesus Christ. Thus when Christians read what we call the Old Testament--the Jewish sacred writings from before the time of Jesus which we accept as our own Sacred Scriptures--we do so Christocentrically. Because in Christianity the point of the Bible isn't itself, the Bible isn't self-referential, the Bible itself isn't God's Revelation (with a capital 'R' there); rather God's Revelation, God's
Word, is Jesus Christ. And so the point of the Bible--the entire Bible--is Jesus. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, etc matter because of
Jesus. Why does God tell Eve that one day her offspring would crush the head of the serpent which lied to them in the Garden of Eden? Because Jesus is that Offspring who crushes Satan. Why did God call Abraham out of the land of the Chaldeans, promising him that he and his wife Sarah would give birth to a son, and that through this promise Abraham would become the father of many nations? Jesus, Jesus is the Seed of Abraham, through Whom all would be blessed and Abraham a father of all nations through faith in Jesus. Why does God rescue the children of Jacob--Israel--out of Egypt, give them the Torah, make a covenant with them, and then bring them into the land of promise? The answer, again, is Jesus.
But this particular covenant, the one which God makes with the Jewish people after He brings them out of Egypt by giving them the 613 precepts of the Torah, by which they were to be marked and sealed as His covenant nation and people, this covenant was really only for them. This is why, in Judaism even today, Jews never expect non-Jews to follow kashrut (the Jewish dietary laws), or to observe the Sabbath; not only are non-Jews not expected to do these things, these things aren't for them at all. From a Jewish POV for a non-Jew to do these things is a bit like a someone breaking into your home and claiming your possessions as their own.
The first Christians were Jews, and so naturally they continued to live like Jews--they followed the Torah, they followed Jewish customs and traditions like attending the Synagogue on the Sabbath, and so on and so forth. This wasn't controversial. But it didn't take very long until non-Jews--Gentiles--began to convert to Christianity. The inclusion of the Gentiles into the early Christian communities was a very big deal, and raised a lot of questions. For example, do these Gentiles need to formally convert to Judaism in order to be Christians? Did a formerly Pagan Greek, for example, need to become a Jew, to be circumcised, and to begin observing the instructions of the Torah--on what foods to eat or abstain from, to observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the Jewish days of observance, and so on and so forth.
The answer to this question came from the Council of Jerusalem, the apostles and early Christian leaders met in Jerusalem--the Christian Church's base of global operations at the time, if you will--and the answer they came up with was that, well, no. No, Gentiles don't have to become Jews. When St. Peter, Jesus' Apostles, received a vision from God about not calling unclean what God has made clean, and then went to the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius, Peter watched as God worked a powerful sign and wonder, a repeat of what had happened at the very beginning of the Church's ministry, God poured out the Holy Spirit upon all gathered. Peter immediately understood what this meant, and also the meaning of his vision, and so had the entire household of Cornelius baptized as Christians. Not by first having them convert to Judaism, but baptized them as Gentiles. This was the spark that began the meeting of the apostles in Jerusalem previously mentioned in the first place. And so those gathered concluded that it was clear that God was giving a very clear sign saying that Gentiles, not just Jews, were part of God's work and mission.
This becomes very important, as throughout the letters of St. Paul, the most prolific writer of those books which are part of the New Testament, repeatedly and poignantly state that God's work and mission is truly universal, for both Jew and Gentile, without any distinction whatsoever. Jews, who observe Torah (including food restrictions) and Gentiles, who do not observe Torah (and thus the food restrictions). Thus the question of what one eats has nothing to do with God, but is entirely a matter of personal and individual conscience. Some chose to be vegetarians and abstain from eating meat, some had no problem with eating meat, neither was wrong, as long as one was abiding by their conscience then they were in the right equally. Likewise, some observed the Sabbath, some did not; some recognized this or that as important, others didn't. But these didn't didn't really, actually, matter.
It doesn't matter what we eat or don't eat, what matters is that we have faith in Jesus Christ and abide by our conscience in faith.
With the coming of Jesus, the Christ, that is to say the Messiah, fulfillment of God's promises has come. And in and through Jesus God was establishing a new covenant, a new order; the old passing away and the new coming about. The preaching of Jesus that God's kingdom was at hand covers both the inauguration of that kingdom in Himself and His life, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven where He lives and reigns at the right hand of His Father in glory right now; and also the consummation of all things at the conclusion of history when He returns, as Judge, and the dead are raised, and God makes everything new. So that this newness, this renewal of all things, has already begun, is happening even now through the work of God in His Church by the preaching of this Gospel to all nations, and is finally consummated at the End, when God sets all things to rights, creation is restored, and God is all in all.
-CryptoLutheran
