Actually, the word to keep in mind is moderation. Avoid things that are flat out dangerous, and of the rest take in moderation. It is far better to eat a diet which includes meat and vegtables, then it is to eat all meat or an improperly prepared all vegaterian diet.
"If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statues, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that health thee." [ EXO 15:26 ] God's not saying "obey me or I'll strike you down." He's telling us that He has provided a suitable guideline for better physical and emotional health, if we follow it, we won't get run down or sick.
Mark's statement that Jesus "declared all foods clean" [ MARK 7:19 ] does not mean that He abolished the distinction between clean and unclean foods. The discussion between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes had nothing to do with the KIND of food, but with the MANNER in which the disciples ate. The issue was whether or not the ritual of wasing of hands before meals was necessary. [ MARK 7:2-5 ] In effect, Jesus said what defiles a person is not the food eaten with unwashed hands but the wicked things from the heart [ MARK 7:20-23], because the food "does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is elimated." Thus Jesus decalred that all foods eaten with unwashed hands are "clean." [ MARK 7:19 ] The Greek word for food (bromata) used here is the general term for food that refers to all kinds of foods for human consumption; it does not designate just flesh foods.
Peter's vision of animals, recorded in Acts 10, did not teach that unclean animals had become fit for food; instead, it taught that Gentiles were not unclean and that he could associate with them without being contaminated. Peter himself understood the vision in this way, explaining, "'You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.'" [ ACTS 10:28 ] Two more points, it was a vision, not a real meal, and secondly Peter didn't eat the unclean food in the vision, either.
One-third of all cancers in the human body occur within the stomach. And one-half of all cancers are found in the organs of digestion, including the liver, pancreas, small intistine and colon. Except for the lungs, which are bombarded with hot tobacco tars, the stomach is the most abused organ of the body. The tomach is lined with a single row of rather delicate epithelial cells. The sole safe conslusion to be drawn is that all forms of abuse of the stomach must be avoided if the high mortality from this disease is to be reduced.
The great test of today seems to be wether or not it tastes good, or else wheter it gives a pleasant after-effect. No wonder 50 percent of the population is suffering from obesity and that more than three million dollars are spent each year on diet formulas and exercise gadgets. The best dietary program known to man is available free in the Bible. The amazing fact is that the average American consumes 1,488 pounds of food every year. This is undoubtedly a large factor in the one and a half million patients who fill American hospitals every day of the year. Have you ever noticed that three-fifths of the word DEATH is EAT? (And that two-thirds of the word PUN is P.U.)
Paul Bragg, in his famous cookbook stated: "The average person is poisoning himself day by day with the food he eats. Most people eat with their eyes. If the food looks good, they do not question wheter it is healthful or death-dealing. Few people know the right knid of food to put into their bodies to keep them well and strong or take the time to select this food if they do know. From birth to old age the average individual never experiences the taste of real natural food. Our tiny sensitive taste buds have been for generations so polluted by unnatural, artifically seasoned and stimulating foods that most of us are unable to appreciate the fine, selicate flavor of the natural foods. Foods must be fixed, hashed, mashed, smashed, boiled, broiled, stwed, backed, pickled, perserved, flavored, salted, creamed, dried, roasted, fried, greased, peppered, vinegar-laden, smoked, toasted, crushed, rolled, mealed, oiled, fermented, beaten, sweetened, spiced, soured, peeled, shreeded, steamed, braised, colored and otherwise seasoned in order to offer an appeal to the civilized man." Then, he adds, "Civilized man is not satisfied with the food the Maker has supplied him and must do something with it before he feels it is fit for him to eat."
Small wonder, then, that 25 tons of aspirin are swallowed every day in the United States.
Though people fear sickness above every other enemy, they do almost nothing about taking care of their health until after the disease has already struck. In one out of every medical dollar spent by the American people, 95 cents was spent to get well, and 5 cents was spent on preventive medicine.
A group of tourists in Spain who had gone there to visit one of the historic sites. Up on the side of a cliff, there was an ancient monastery which they wanted to visit. The only way to get up there was in a basket which was pulled up over a pulley by some of the monks. After they had toured the monastery, they were being lowered back down the side of the cliff. As they were getting into the basket to be lowered back down, they noticed that the rope was rather frayed. So they asked the monk in charge, "How often do you change the rope?" And the monk said, "Well, we change it every time it breaks, of course." ..which wasn't much comfort to those being lowered down in the basket.
The old adage is almost literally true: millions are digging their graves with their teeth.
Right at this point you may be wondering what all this has to do with religion. Why would God be concerned about my eating habits? Isn't it a man's personal business as to how he cares for his body? "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." [ 1 COR 10:31 ] God is concerned about such small matters as what and how and when we feed our body system. The Bible reveals that God did not fabricate the delicate human machine and then leave it to operate alone. He has never released His ownership of the creative process or of the product itself.
The apostle Paul wrote: "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." [ 1 COR 6:19, 20 ] When we accept to follow Christ, to receive eternal life, we also accept the responsibilites that come along with it. We are looked on as ambassidors of God's message. These words reveal that the proper care of our body is not only a spiritual obligation but a moral requirement. When though we have full control of our bodies, they do not really belong to us -- if we let them degrade and go to ruins, it interferes with our personality, character, and ability to work.
No man has a right to say, "I'll so as I please with my own body, and it is my business alone." We can rob God by violating the divine purpose of the body temple to be the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Paul refers to both the curch and the individual member when he says: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. [ 1 COR 3:16,17 ] This forever settles that a person can be lost for defiling the property of God.
Remember, when you do something in ignorance, that is not knowing; God will forgive that. When you slip and do something wrong, and repent (not just go through the motions), God will forgive that. But if you fully understand the ramifications of your actions and outwardly defy what you know is right, then you stand on thin ice. If you later relaize your mistake and attitude, and you repent, you are forgiven, but if you don't regret or repent... then it is held accoutable to you.
What are the guildlines laid down in the Bible about caring for and feeding the body? God asks the question, "wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? ... eat ye that which is good." [ ISA 55:2 ] And how can we tell what is good? Certainly not by taste, advertising, or colorful labels. As little baby birds open their mouths to whatever mama puts in, so the gullible consumers blindly accept the choices of the media marketers.
God designed the body, and he provided the operators manual to go with it. "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." No one has been able to improve on it. Nuts, fruits, grains and vegetables are still recognized by the best nutritionists as the finest possible diet.
Today the average eater's plate is loaded with heavy meat protein, carbohydrates and pasteries. In the beginning God did not even allow for the use of meat. Appaently flesh was permitted in man's diet for the first time only after the flood waters had annihilated all vegetable matter -- but only certain meats.
God gave this instruction to Noah: "Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of the beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female." [ GEN 7:2 ]
Don't miss the signfigant fact that the law of clean and unclean animals extends all the way back to the beginning of human histroy. Many have assumed that only the Jewish people were forbidden to eat the unclean animals. Not so. There were no Jews in Noah's day, yet the distinction is clearly made. Why were extra clean animals taken into the ark? Because all vegetation would be wiped out in the flood, and for the first time, God would allow man to eat meat. But only the clean meat.
Had Noah and his family eaten any of the unclean animals, that species would have ceased to exist because only a male and a female had been preserved to perpetuate the species. There were seven pairs of clean animals in the ark. Only they could be spared for foor without endangering the continuity of their kind.
Since it is evident that some of the Genesis-animals were unclean, how do we determine where the line is drawn beteen the clean and unclean? In Leviticus 11:3-11 the requirements are clearly laid out: "Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is colvenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divided not the hoof; he is unclean to you. And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean to you. ... These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fines and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all the move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you ... ye shall not eat of their flesh."
Beasts that have parted hoofs, are colvenfooted, and chew cud (all three at once) are clean. Whatever swims in water, has fins, and has scales (all three at once) are clean.
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