God allowed it all throughout the Bible (post-Flood) in numerous places.
I think we should strongly advise against it, but not view meat-eating as a sin.
Alright Sunrunner show me them
God clearly told Noah and his family that they could eat meat after the flood.GE 9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
GE 9:4 "But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
GE 9:6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made man.
In addition, Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples (see Matt. 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 13)--a feast which involved eating a sacrificed lamb:
EX 12:1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire--head, legs and inner parts. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.
Moreover, Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves and
two fish:
MK 6:39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
In yet another instance, Jesus cooked fish for breakfast for His disciples after He was resurrected:
JN 21:7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord," he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
JN 21:10 Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you have just caught."
JN 21:11 Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
How many examples does it take to show that the Bible does not forbid meat-eating? Jesus Himself celebrated the feasts, which included meat, and gave people meat to eat at other times.
What the Bible
has always forbidden, even in the NT and even for Gentile Christians, is eating blood:
AC 15:19 "It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath."
The reason that I am a vegetarian is not that there is a biblical command to do so; the Bible doesn't say that. I am a vegetarian because in my opinion, meat today is no longer safe to eat. It was different in Bible times--less polluted and diseased, free of genetic modification, growth hormones, antibiotics, etc. I am a vegetarian due to my personal convictions about my health. For anyone who does eat meat, I would suggest that eating organic, kosher, blood-free, non-GMO meat would be in line with biblical principles.
There is no biblical justification to condemn meat-eating as a sin, nor is there any PETA-like animal-rights prohibition against killing animals for food in the Bible. Jesus wasn't a vegetarian.
