p. 7 | Eating and Drinking

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 7, 1908

Eating and Drinking

A LUTHERAN minister has written a tract with the title “Why I Am a Lutheran and not a Seventh-day Adventist.” Among the twelve reasons presented are these:—

The Seventh-day Adventists forbid all tea, coffee, wine, beer, and tobacco. While it is true that many people abuse these things, and while it is praiseworthy to fight the abuse, it is not right to forbid as sinful what God does not forbid. The Bible says, “Let no man judge you in . . . drink,” Col. 2:16.

The Seventh-day Adventists forbid pork, and many of them eat no meat at all. Pork was indeed forbidden to the Jews in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament we may eat anything that agrees with our stomach and purse. The Bible says, “Let no man judge you in meat.” Col. 2:16.

The Seventh-day Adventists make it a religious duty to keep in good health. Herein they are right. Many of the sicknesses are due to eating and drinking wrong things, or right things at the wrong time, in the wrong manner, and in wrong quantity. This is a plain sin against the Lord’s commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.”

Taken altogether, this is certainly an extreme case of Bible exegesis run mad—a queer mixture of sense and nonsense, with the latter predominating. We advise this Lutheran minister to learn more about both the Seventh-day Adventists and the Bible before attempting to set forth the doctrines of the one or to apply the teachings of the other. Festus would never have said to this tractarian, “Much learning doth make thee mad.”