Eating Swine's Flesh by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jun 24, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 24.

Eating Swine's Flesh.

By Editor

"Does the Seventh-day Adventist Church forbid the use of pork as a food?" C. E. L.

No; The Seventh-day Adventist Church has no authority to give commandments. "There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy." He has said, "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 divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven-footed, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you." Lev. 11: 4-8.

This is a commandment from the Lord; it is no more binding on Seventh-day Adventists than it is on other people; it is binding on everybody. God says that the swine is unclean, and everybody who has seen the beast must assent to the statement. God says that we shall not eat of his flesh, and he has a right to be obeyed. The distinction of clean and unclean beasts was not peculiar to the Levitical economy; it existed from the earliest ages. See Gen. 7:2, 8; 8:20. And it is certain that the change of dispensations, as it is called, made no change in the nature of animals. The hog is just as unclean to-day as he was four thousand years ago. Those who wish to know how the Lord regards the eating of this filthy beast, may read Isa. 65:3-5; 66:17.

The commandment of the Lord ought to be of sufficient authority to settle any question, nevertheless we expect that some one will now quote Peter's vision to us as authority for pork-eating. When that is quoted to us, we shall have something more to say.