Each week will be posted a series of True and False questions, with the answers appearing below. The object of these questions is for you to test yourself--not a test of obscure Bible trivia but a test of whether you are holding to Biblical revelation or myths and legends passed down by ignorant men. You should ask yourself, “If I have believed this myth, what other myths do I believe?” The goal is that you will be challenged to faithfully read and study the holy Scriptures and base your convictions on the holy, eternal, inerrant written Word of God.
True or False - According To The Bible....
Creation and the Fall of Man...
#5 God’s original plan was that we all be vegetarians – False
1) First thing first, the simple fact is that things must die that man (you) might live. In God’s order of things, man cannot live without killing. Rejecting God does not free you from this reality. You may be a pagan, atheist, pantheist, secularist, evolutionist--it does not matter. The fact remains--for you to live things must die and you, either directly or indirectly, are personally responsible for these deaths. If it were not for your need to live, they would not die. God has no problem with this. In fact, He designed creation with this in mind. Man stands alone at the pinnacle of the hierarchy of creation and all other created things exist below him (Genesis 1:27 – 31 and Hebrews 2:14 – 16). For the humanist vegan, the hierarchy of life is arbitrary. That it is somehow immoral to kill an animal but not immoral to kill a living plant or microbe, is based on nothing more than the emotional feelings of the individual. That it is moral for animals to kill animals but immoral for man to kill animals, again, is completely arbitrary. There is, therefore, no moral standard for the vegan--for not only will the vegan kill plants, insects, bacteria and other organisms--he will protect the right of animals, of all types, to kill, in a horrible and cruel manner, their fellow creatures. The vegan/evolutionist will even seek to protect the higher apes’ rights to kill and eat other animals. The vegan is left with a moral madhouse, whereby animals can kill and eat one another-and even men-with no moral compunction, but man cannot kill nor eat those of the animal kingdom. The Christian is not left with this arbitrary and illogical world view. For the Christian, it is unscriptural to choose to be a vegan for moral reasons, for God has given the animal kingdom into the hands of man. The Christian does not have the authority to lift animal life up to the same level as human life. Nor does the Christian have the authority to reclassify animals as a higher form, spiritually and morally, than vegetable life. The lesson here is clear--in the killing of plants and animals, we do not have to be more spiritual than God.
2) If Genesis 1:29 truly limits man to vegetarianism, as some teach, then 1:30 does the same for animals. Are we to believe that, before the Fall, all carnivorous animals were herbivores and there were no carnivores nor omnivores on the earth? Some will argue that the prophetic verses in Isaiah 11:6 and 65:25 point us to God’s original plan, where all animals and humans were vegans. The problem with this is twofold. First, these passages look to the eternal heaven, where God has created a new heaven and earth (Isaiah 65:17.) Secondly, if we are to take these passages about animals literally, then we must also take as literal the statement in Isaiah 11:4, “He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.” And, again, if Isaiah 65:25 is literal, then, not only will the “lion eat straw like an ox” but also “dust will be the serpent’s food.” Is this to be taken literally, that dust will sustain a snake? Last, even if the passages about lips, breath, straw-eating lions and dust-eating snakes are to be taken literally, it does not mean that was God’s order for earth before the Fall. There are many aspects of these two passages--Israel, Jerusalem, homes, etc., which were not a part of God’s first creation. What God may do or create in some future heaven, does not mean that was His plan for Adam and creation before the Fall. Again, there is a reoccurring theme--“We do not need to be more spiritual than God.”
3) In Genesis 3:20 & 21 God kills animals to clothe Adam and Eve. It was completely possible, and within the discretion and power of God for this verse to state, “and God wove clothing from the cotton plant to clothe Adam and Eve” or “and God took wool from the hair of animals to clothe Adam and Eve” in this way the precedent of not killing animals would be set by God’s decision on clothing Adam and Eve. God however does not do this. He kills animals and uses the skins to clothe Adam and Eve. It is inconceivable for it to be sinful or immoral for man to wear animal skins harvested by the killing of animals and yet God creates the first set of clothing from this method. Again, the reoccurring theme, “We do not need to be more spiritual than God.”
4) The next problem that Christian vegans are faced with is that in passages such as Leviticus 11:2, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ' These are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth.” God specifically provides for the killing and eating of animals under the law. There is plenty of room for prohibiting, under the law, the killing and eating of animals and, instead, the institution of a vegan lifestyle. Types of food, types of clothing, etc. are both commanded and prohibited under the law. God could have easily added the eating of meat and the wearing of animal skins to these prohibitions. These are five of the largest books in the Bible, full of prohibition,s but God specifically does not forbid killing animals for eating and for clothing but, instead, God sanctions and gives specific instructions on how to do it. Thus, there exists under the law a spiritually, obedient manner for killing and eating animals. God goes beyond this to include the killing of animals as an act of divine worship with which He is pleased. Notice God’s command in Deuteronomy 12:6-7: "There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. There also you and your households shall eat before the LORD your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the LORD your God has blessed you.” To bring animals from your herd, to slaughter them and to eat them is an act of worship to God. Not only this, God prescribes over and over again the killing of animals for worship. From the earliest recorded time God was pleased with the killing and sacrificing of animals (note Genesis 4:4--it was Abel's animal sacrifice which was pleasing to God.) A simple search of scriptures will find that animal sacrifice was commanded and blessed of God and that all great men of God participated in this. To think that God would ordain a form of worship which is cruel and morally suspect is the height of pride. Again, the reoccurring theme--“We do not need to be more spiritual than God.”
In next blog part two (5 - 8) will be posted
By His mercy, II Corinthians 4:1 Rev. John S. Mahon Director - Grace Community International
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