Are Christians Supposed to be Vegetarians or Can We Eat Meat?
Steve, I have a question regarding whether or not Adam and Eve ate meat while they were in the garden.
This subject keeps coming up in conversation, and is used as an excuse by my vegetarian friends as to why they take up being a vegetarian.
To me they are making it a religious thing, and I’m telling them vegetarianism is not a Biblical concept, but instead, a Pagan concept.
I know that Daniel ate a vegetarian diet during captivity, because he had too.
I also tell my friends that the Israelites sacrificed and ate meat all through the Old Testament.
But they’re claiming they’re eating like Adam and Eve did before the fall. How should I dispute this?
Rose
Steve’s Answer:
Hi Rose,
As St. Paul once noted about vegetarianism:
Rom 14:1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
Rom 14:2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
Rom 14:3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
In other words, St. Paul is saying that some folks who are new to Christianity, and who, therefore, are still a bit weak in the faith (verse 1), might believe that following a vegetarian diet is an important part of the Christian faith.
But why would a Christian entertain such a belief?
Well, in Paul’s time, people brought religion into virtually all aspects of their lives. As an example, meat purchased in the marketplace was often first dedicated or sacrificed to an idol before being sent to the market and put up for sale. Then, part of the monetary proceeds from the sale of the meat were donated to a pagan temple.
Such a thing was very common back then; so much so that Paul found it necessary to address the issue again, in I Corinthians 8:1-13, where he states that a mature Christian would know that eating meat sacrificed to an idol — if that’s all that were available to eat — is no big deal, because idols aren’t real in the first place. They’re just pieces of carved stone, or wood.
But, as Paul goes on to say, influencing a new or otherwise immature Christian to eat the sacrificed meat might place an unnecessary burden on his conscience while he’s still trying to grow as a Christian (see 1 Corinthians 8:1-13).
It could even end up becoming a stumbling block to that person’s faith, before the individual has had a chance to mature enough in God’s Word to understand that meat is…well…just meat, and that any hocus-pocus muttered over it by a pagan believer isn’t going to affect the meat at all, for a Christian.
So, in such matters, we’re supposed to care more about the spiritual welfare of our fellow Christians — especially the new or immature ones — than about being right about some relatively petty matter like eating meat versus eating only vegetables.
As Paul wrote in I Corinthians 8:1, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” In other words, as mature and well-studied Christians we’re not to let our superior knowledge of God’s Word lead us to act judgmentally toward a less mature Christian.
Instead, we’re to have “charity” for that new Christian, meaning love and compassion, because those characteristics are what help build up Christians in the faith, whereas a snooty, superior and judgmental attitude can only tear down.
That’s why, in Romans 14:1-3 above, St. Paul says we should never allow argumentation over this issue to develop and thereby drive the weak Christian out of the fellowship before he (or she) has had a chance to get up-to-speed in God’s Word.
Indeed, in 1 Corinthians 8:1-13, Paul says he’d rather abstain from eating meat altogether rather than inadvertently influence a new or otherwise immature Christian who believes eating meat is wrong, to eat it anyway, and thus offend his conscience before he’s had a chance to grow and mature in God’s Word.
So, we’re not to argue or bicker with an immature Christian who chooses to be a vegetarian. Nor to judge. Nor to push them to eat meat. And nor are they, as newcomers to the faith, to judge our eating habits, nor push us to become vegetarians.
There’s no sin, or wrong-doing, in eating meat. And there’s no sin, or wrong-doing, in not eating meat. We’re to recognize each other as fellow servants of Christ, and do our part in helping build up the body into an effective tool for the spread of the Gospel. That’s the most important thing.
Continuing in Romans 14, Paul adds the following:
Rom 14:4 Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
When we act judgmentally toward a fellow Christian over his vegetarianism, we’re judging someone that God, through His Holy Spirit, took the time and effort to draw to Christ. St. Paul is saying it’s not our job to “judge” (i.e., Greek, krino; condemn) any of our fellow Christian servants over their food choices or other petty habits.
God is able to make the weak Christian stand strong. He knows how to strengthen them in His eternal truth, over the course of time, via the power and might of His Holy Spirit.
In other words, as God nourishes the weaker Christian with His Word and with the power of the Holy Spirit that flows forth from that Word, He’ll shape that weak Christian to be whatever He wants and needs him to be. This is something I can firmly attest to as being true, for He did it for me, and He probably did the same for you, if you think about it.
Sometimes we just have to get out of the way and let God do His work, as He did with us when we were first called into His service and we likely clung to many ideas, habits and traditions that we later learned were erroneous or unhelpful in terms of growing in the faith.
We had to unlearn those old ideas and habits as we learned more and more from the Bible. And we had to willingly discard those old ideas and habits on our own. We didn’t need some judgmental overlord to berate us over it. Father and His Word were quite sufficient. Right?
As mature Christians, we have much bigger fish to fry, so to speak, than disputing with, or worse yet, judging or condemning a fellow Christian over their proclivity to eat only vegetables and fruits, and no meat.
New Age Nonsense
As in pagan times, in these end days we now see many strange ideas creeping into Christianity, including the idea that eating a vegetarian diet can supposedly accelerate our spiritual development while eating meat can supposedly stunt our spiritual development.
Of course, that’s utter nonsense. It’s a New Age concept that’s being inculcated into the Christian religion in order to get us to look toward physical things, rather than spiritual, for our growth and development as Christians.
But the various foods our flesh bodies use for fuel have nothing to do with our spiritual growth and development. The “food” that matures us, spiritually, is God’s Word. God’s Word is our spiritual manna. Pure and simple, it’s what sustains our soul and spirit. Physical foods like meat, fruit, vegetables, herbs and grains merely sustain our physical body and its physical functions.
And, of course, God foresaw that this New Age breach with the reality of His Word would happen, and warned us of it, a long time ago. As it’s written:
1Ti 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
1Ti 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
1Ti 4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
1Ti 4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
1Ti 4:5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Here, Paul is saying that we’re allowed to eat all of the foods which God “created to be received with thanksgiving.” In other words, if God said it was good for food when He gave His food laws in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, then it’s still good for food to this very day.
So, in spite of modernistic New Age rhetoric to the contrary, nothing has changed. The things God specifically created for us to eat are still the very foods our physical bodies are sustained by.
Again, that includes fruit from the trees, as well as vegetables, grains, various herbs, and, yes…even animal meat (Genesis 9:1-3).
Those who believe that eating animal flesh limits our spiritual development are often caught up in the idea that the sin in the Garden of Eden is what directly led to eating meat.
In other words, it’s often claimed by Christian proponents of vegetarianism that only after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden was meat-eating allowed, and thus, meat-eating was ushered in by sinful behavior and should be eschewed by the modern, “woke” Christian.
But there’s no Biblical basis for that idea. Indeed, if it’s plausible that Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden ushered in meat-eating, then it’s just as plausible that Adam and Eve’s previous (alleged) vegetarianism in the garden led to their weakness, sin and subsequent banishment.
Both ideas are silly, and unworthy of a mature Christian’s consideration.
Again, of all of the foods that God created “to be received with thanksgiving,” none of them have been taken off the menu by God, including meat. It’s not God, but man who comes up with such ridiculous concepts about meat-eating being a detriment to our spiritual development.
In the Garden
The debate over whether or not Adam and Eve were strict vegetarians in the garden has been raging for centuries. Many of the church fathers — Origen, Augustine, Justin Martyr, Tertullian and others all had different views on the subject.
And the reason it’s still up for debate is that we don’t have a clear Biblical statement saying Adam and Eve didn’t eat meat in the garden. Nor do we have a clear Biblical statement saying they did eat meat in the garden.
There are Biblical allusions that could easily lead one to believe Adam and Eve were vegetarians. But all we really know, for a fact, is that God told Adam and Eve that the fruit trees were theirs, for food. As it’s written:
Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Now, think for a moment. That statement from God Himself doesn’t exclude meat, any more than it excludes the vegetables, grains and herbs which it also fails to mention.
It simply relates to us that God told Adam he could eat from the fruit trees (except for the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil).
Indeed, there’s no written admonition against eating animal flesh anywhere in the Genesis account. There’s no passage containing a command that says “Don’t eat the meat.” So we can only speculate as to whether or not Adam and Eve actually ate animal flesh in the garden. Maybe they did. Maybe they didn’t.
In Genesis 2:16 above, Father didn’t even give Adam and Eve permission to eat the vegetables, herbs or grains. He only told them about the fruit trees. Right? Read it again, if you have to.
So does that mean our heavenly Father restricted Adam and Eve from eating vegetables, grains and herbs, as well as meat? Of course not.
You can’t take a single verse from the Bible, out of context, and turn it into a universal law. You have to take the context into account, as well as what the rest of the Bible says on the subject, which is exactly what we’re doing.
I think Father was simply telling Adam that he could eat fruit from any fruit tree, but to stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — the family tree of Satan himself. That’s it.
After all, Adam had clearly been placed by God in the garden of Eden to…yes…garden.
He wasn’t there to play hop-scotch. He wasn’t there to chase butterflies. As it’s written, “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it,” which means he was supposed to till the ground, grow the plants, and guard the garden from weeds and other encumbrances.
So, yes, God told Adam he could eat the fruit of the trees. But He certainly didn’t restrict Adam to a dull diet of fruit. Just because He didn’t specifically mention vegetables, herbs and grains when He told Adam that it was okay to eat the fruit from the trees, doesn’t mean fruit is all that Adam was allowed to eat. And, quite frankly, just because He didn’t mention meat, either, likewise doesn’t mean Adam and Eve were restricted from eating it.
Now, check this out:
As we’ve seen, in the account of Adam’s creation, Adam was told by God that he could eat of the fruit trees in the garden. But in the account of the sixth day creation, which is to say, the creation of the various races other than the Adamic race, God clearly stated that both fruits and vegetables were indeed meant to be their food. Let’s take a quick look:
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Gen 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Gen 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
As you can see in verse 29 above, during the sixth day creation, God gave the people of the various races the following foods to eat: “…every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed.”
That’s your fruit, your veggies, your herbs and your grains.
What’s more, in verse 30, God also gave “every green herb” to the animals for food. Now, that’s fascinating to me. An immature Christian might look at those verses and say, “See, it states right there in Genesis 1:29-31 that humans, and even animals, were vegetarians back in Adam and Eve’s time, and therefore we’re supposed to eat a vegetarian diet.”
But it doesn’t say that. Not at all. It merely gives permission for the various races of the sixth day creation, and the animals, to eat fruits, vegetables, grains and herbs.
So let me ask you a question: How many animals do you know of that eat veggies or fruits? Horses, yes. I’ve seen horses eat carrots and apples. Cows, yes, which mostly eat grasses and grains. Some birds are known to eat fruits, veggies and grains.
But…other animals eat meat. For example: Crows. Ravens. Lions. Tigers. Bears. Snakes. Lizards. And many other creatures. They were created to eat meat. In other words, that’s the kind of food that sustains their bodies. It’s why birds give worms to their young, in the nest, for example. They’re meat eaters.
Yet, with just a few clicks of a mouse, you can find, online, all kinds of Christian websites claiming that Genesis 1:27-31 prove God originally intended all of His creatures — man and animal alike — to be vegetarians.
They even claim that this is why God deemed His creation to be “good” after He was done. God’s creation was “good,” they say, because eating flesh was forbidden to both humans and animals alike at that time. God’s creation only became bad, they claim, after Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden ushered in meat-eating among both man and animals.
But if that’s true, why, when God created the animals, did He give the lions, tigers and bears sharp teeth and claws for tearing flesh? Or why did He give the ravens and crows sharp curved beaks for the same purpose?
And why did He give certain birds, such as cranes, long legs for wading out into the water, and long, pointed beaks for grabbing fish right out of the water and eating them? And why did he give certain snakes poisonous fangs for debilitating their prey, if all they were originally allowed to eat were veggies?
For that matter, why do certain species of fish eat other fish, while other species of fish eat only plankton?
My point being, once again, you can’t take a couple of lines out of the Genesis account and turn it into a food religion. Yes, God gave both humans and animals vegetation for food. But that fact doesn’t mean vegetation was the only food God’s creation was allowed to eat. It only says they can eat those kinds of vegetation. Not that they’re restricted to them.
In other words, the animals that God said were to eat vegetation were the farm animals like horses and cows and sheep. The other animals, quite obviously, were designed from the very beginning to be carnivores, which is to say, they eat meat.
And if the animal kingdom clearly was not restricted to eating vegetation, then were humans?
The bottom line is that there’s a point where we just have to accept the fact that the Scripture doesn’t tell us whether or not Adam and Eve ate meat in the garden. We can draw our own personal conclusions from the various verses, but without a hard-and-fast Scriptural statement one way or the other, it’s all just rank speculation.
Often, vegetarian Christians are simply trying to make God’s Word fit their own personal biases and agendas.
So, if a fellow Christian wants to be a vegetarian, that’s fine with me. No problem.
But they shouldn’t claim it’s Biblical. Because it’s not. It’s their legitimate dietary choice. But it’s not something the Bible foists upon them. They’re foisting it upon themselves, and then trying to use the Bible as cover for their own biases, beliefs and decisions.
Were There Animals in the Garden of Eden?
Some folks claim Adam and Eve were clearly vegetarians, because there were no animals allowed in the Garden of Eden. No meat to eat. But what saith the Scriptures?
Gen 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Gen 2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
Go traipsed those animals right into the garden and set them before Adam, and asked him to name them.
It would make no sense whatsoever for God to parade all of these animals (i.e., “all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field,”) before Adam, and have him select names for them, if Adam was never going to see these animals in the garden, again.
In other words, God brought those animals to Adam, right in the garden, for a purpose. They may or may not have been for food — it simply doesn’t say. But they were there, in the garden. And we can’t argue about that, because it’s clearly stated. There was indeed a source of meat in the garden.
Genesis 9: Eat Your Meat!
Scripturally, it’s not until Genesis 9 that God very specifically tells Adamic man — in this case, Noah and his family — to eat meat. As it’s written:
Gen 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Here, God juxtaposes eating meat from living animals with the vegetation He’d given mankind for food in the first three chapters of Genesis.
And some folks conclude from this passage that this is the very first time Adamic man was given permission to eat meat. But again, that conclusion is speculative. Nothing in the Scriptures actually states “And now, for the first time ever, God gave Adamic man permission to eat meat.”
Genesis 9:3 might have simply been instructions from God, to Noah and his family, that they should eat the meat from some of the clean animals they’d brought on board the ark, until they could get some vegetable gardens and fruit trees planted and grown, for dietary variety.
In other words, one could make the argument that in Noah’s time, the plants had all been wiped out by the flood, and would take a least one full growing season to come back, and probably more than one season for the trees to start bearing fruit (as fruit trees often don’t bear fruit during their first year or two).
So, while waiting for food plants to grow, God told Noah and his family to just stick with eating the meat from some of the clean animals they took on the ark, until they could grow some fruits and veggies to add to their diets.
And, of course, that brings up the question of why God told Noah to bring clean animals onto the ark, in the first place. “Clean” generally refers to animals that are approved of by God for sacrifice, and for eating.
Gen 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
Gen 7:3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
Noah was told to take only a single pair of each unclean beast. But he was told by God to take seven pair of each kind of clean animal.
Hmm. Sounds to me as if some of the clean animals were actually meant to be sacrificed and eaten, which is why more of the clean beasts were brought along onto the ark than unclean beasts. (See Leviticus 11 for a list of clean and unclean animals, straight from the mouth of God the Father.)
And yes, that too is speculation. Speculation is really all that both sides — i.e., Christian vegetarians and Christian meat eaters alike — have to offer on the specific question of whether or not Adam and Eve were vegetarian while in the garden.
The bottom line is that we just don’t know, for sure, whether or not Adam and Eve ate meat in the garden or Adamic man ate meat after the fall.
We can draw inferences. And we can even draw our own conclusions from the Scriptures. But we can’t say for a fact, one way or the other, that Adam and Eve were strictly vegetarians, or that they ate meat in the garden, because there’s no verse specifically saying such a thing.
The arguments for and against it end up being silliness. And that’s certainly one reason why, in Romans 14:1-3, which we looked at earlier, St. Paul said to avoid “doubtful disputations” over this matter and other equally trivial matters.
The more important thing is to study the Word of God diligently, and to gradually mature in it, as such study bears fruit of its own in our very spirit and soul.
Jesus Christ Condones Eating Meat
So, rather than trying to figure out what Adam and Eve’s diet was in the garden, which no one can fully prove, let’s instead take a look at what we CAN prove from the Bible about eating meat.
And that’s that the Lord of all Creation Himself, Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3), fed men and women and little children with both bread and…meat.
Yes, Jesus Himself, the Creator of all things, condoned meat-eating and even miraculously supplied the vast majority of the meat that 5,000 of His followers ate when listening to His teachings in the wilderness.
As it’s written:
Mat 14:14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.
Mat 14:15 And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.
Mat 14:16 But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.
Mat 14:17 And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.
Mat 14:18 He said, Bring them hither to me.
Mat 14:19 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.
Mat 14:20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.
Mat 14:21 And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.
So Jesus fed well over 5,000 people with bread and meat. He had no qualms whatsoever about supplying the meat.
You’d think if eating meat were as awful a practice as some Christian vegetarians seem to believe, the Good Lord would have said so, right then and there when He had the opportunity. But He didn’t. Instead, He prayed over the meat and bread…multiplied both foods many times over…and had it all served for dinner to His followers.
Fish sandwiches. Straight from God. Think about it.
Another Example
What’s more, in John 21:1-14, Jesus, having resurrected from the dead only days before, caught some fish, cleaned and dressed them, and laid them on the coals to cook while the apostles were out fishing.
He then called out to the apostles, and told them where to drop their nets in order to take a big load of fish. And after that He commanded them to bring their boatload of fish ashore, and come dine with Him.
In fact, here are His exact words: “Come and dine.” (John 21:12)
When the apostles reached the shore, He then took the bread and the fish off the coals, and gave it to them to eat. It’s assumed from the text that He dined along with them, but I’ll let you decide. As it’s written:
Joh 21:1 After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself.
Joh 21:2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.
Joh 21:3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.
Joh 21:4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
Joh 21:5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.
Joh 21:6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
Joh 21:7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.
Joh 21:8 And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes.
Joh 21:9 As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.
Joh 21:10 Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.
Joh 21:11 Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.
Joh 21:12 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.
Joh 21:13 Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.
Jesus caught, cleaned, dressed, cooked and served the fish. He likely ate it, as well, as He sat there at supper with His disciples.
What’s more, He blessed their fishing trip, multiplying their catch many times over by telling them where to cast their net when a big school of fish was swimming by.
So, instead of admonishing them to quit fishing for food and to become vegetarians “like Adam and Eve in the garden,” He blessed their fishing efforts, and prepared a meal for them which included meat.
God the Father Ate Meat
Even if the case could be made that when Christ served the disciples fish, He didn’t eat of the fish Himself, what about God the Father coming to earth to visit Abraham and Sarah, and eating veal sandwiches with them?
As it’s written:
Gen 18:1 And the LORD appeared unto him [i.e., Abraham] in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
Abraham is sitting in the doorway of his tent, in the heat of the day, when our heavenly Father, YHVH, appeared to Him.
Gen 18:2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
The “three men” traveling with the Father are angels. They’re all on their way to scope out Sodom and Gomorrah before its destruction. And all four of them — God and three angels — come marching right through Abraham’s camp, and stopped outside of his tent. And Abraham ran out to meet them, bowing humbly as he did so, because he knew exactly who they were. As it’s written:
Gen 18:3 And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
Gen 18:4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:
Gen 18:5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.
Gen 18:6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
Gen 18:7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it.
Gen 18:8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
“And they did eat.”
The “they” in this verse is God the Father and the three angels who were with Him. Abraham “stood by them under the tree,” while they sat and ate the freshly cooked calf meat (veal) and the bread.
In other words, God and three angels stopped in at Abraham’s Fast Foods, and had a veal sandwich, along with some butter and milk.
So, we see from verses 7 and 8 above that God (and the three angels with Him) ate cow meat — indeed, tender veal from a young calf that had just been slaughtered and butchered — plus butter and milk (which are byproducts of cows), plus the cakes made of fine meal that were baked over an open fire by Sarah.
So…if God the Father and His faithful angels ate veal sandwiches with Abraham…if Christ not only ate meat, but fed it to thousands of others…and if none of them said “Hey, this is wrong. You should all become vegetarians”…then it seems to me that those who claim being a vegetarian is “Biblical” are all wet behind the ears, which is to say, they’re just a little bit immature as Christians.
They’re not yet as familiar as they should be with Father’s Word. And that’s okay. As we learned earlier, we’re not to judge them. We’re not to argue with them. Instead, we’re to love and help nurture them in God’s Word.
We’re to remember the misunderstandings and short-comings we might have had when we were first called into service to the Lord, and treat the weaker Christian with compassion.
And finally, we’re to let Father mature them in His Word, over the course of time, just as He continues to mature us through His Word over the course of time.
Regards in Christ,
Steve Barwick
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