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What Does the Bible Say About..The Ten Commandments and Eating Pork?

I find it interesting that when asked about profanity, you refer to the 10 Commandments to say that we should not blaspheme etc. But in your answer about eating pork you say that the commandments do not apply to Christians.

Yahweh did not create the pig for food but rather as a scavenger to clean up garbage. When the scriptures speak of food it does not include scavengers such as pork and shrimp, lobsters etc.

I believe the Scriptures are given to us as a whole so that we can understand Yahweh's plan for the world. Please look into this as you will be judged by our Father for the answers that you are giving out on your web site.

Answer

You make a good observation concerning my use of the Ten Commandments in my answer on profanity. Looking back, I agree with you that it does look contradictory that I would use the commandment to the Jews as an example of how God feels about those who use his name unnecessarily. On the other hand, when I reread my answer, I noticed that I did not use it as a command but simply as an example of how God feels about his name. There are probably other examples I could have used, but that is the one that made the point most clearly. I also pointed out that that is not a command against profanity, but against using God’s name unnecessarily.

You say God did not create the pig as food. I’m sure God appreciates you clarifying a matter that He left ambiguous. Howbeit, he told Noah that even the pigs were to be food. “Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” (Genesis 9:3) This appears to be the first time man was authorized to eat meat, and no restrictions are put on what sort of meat they could or could not eat. He used the words “every” and “all” rather than “some” or “except.” At this point he doesn’t restrict man from eating catfish, pork, etc. Those restrictions were given to the Jewish people to set them apart from other nations. Many rabbim will agree that it was not for health reasons, but for separation reasons, that the laws of kashrut were given.

I agree with you, strongly and wholeheartedly, that the scriptures “are given to us as a whole so that we can understand Yahweh’s plan for the world.” I can think of few statements that I would agree with more emphatically. The entirety of scripture is written, as Paul said in Romans 15:4, “for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” The point at which we appear to differ is what is meant by God’s “plan for the world.” I contend that that plan is, in Paul’s words, “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:8) If you read the whole context of Ephesians 3, you will see that Jesus was God’s plan for the world. God’s plan was not strict adherence to a set of laws that only the son of God could keep strictly. Instead it was the salvation of the world.

If everyone abstaining from pork and certain other foods was part of God’s plan, then he clearly changed that plan sometime between Noah and Moses. If refraining from cheeseburgers was part of God’s plan, then so was circumcision of all male eight-day-olds. And yet, in Acts 15, the apostles and elders in Jerusalem missed a great opportunity to say those were part of God’s eternal plan. Instead they refrained from requiring the gentile followers of the Messiah to be circumcised or to abstain from certain foods.