CLEAN AND UNCLEAN MEATS.
By Editor
WE have received from a number of correspondents questions in regard to clean and unclean meats. We are asked if the laws under the Levitical dispensation are still binding upon those who live under the Christian dispensation. These questions we will answer as briefly as possible. 1. The distinction between clean and unclean beasts existed before God gave the laws relating to them to the children of Israel. For instance, we are told in Genesis 6 and 7 that while Noah should take of the clean beasts fourteen in number, he should take but two of the unclean. This provision was made that when the flood was over and he came out upon the barren earth, there would be clean beasts for both food and sacrifice, as well as for the preservation of the species. 2. The Lord then said: "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." Gen. 9:3. And yet this would seem to be limited (a) by the lack of unclean beasts for other purposes than that of propagation; and (b) by the distinction which then existed between clean and unclean animals, and which was known to Noah and his descendants. We have parallels to this in different parts of the Scriptures; that is, we have specific laws prohibiting or limiting certain things; then we also have general statements which seem to include everything, prohibiting or limiting nothing, and yet we understand these general expressions as limited by the specific law. Two illustrations of this will serve to make it plain: In Ex. 16:4 the Lord told the children of Israel that they should go out and gather a certain rate of manna every day. Certainly that general instruction would seem to include seven days of the week without exception, and yet that general instruction was limited by the specific law of God, which declares that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and in it they should do no work, nor should there any manna fall. See verses 26 to 28. Again in Deut. 14:1-21 we have a repetition of the law concerning clean and unclean beasts. There are certain kinds which the Lord permits his people to eat, and there are certain kinds which he forbids. And yet in the 26th verse of that chapter the Lord tells his people that when they came to that place which he had chosen to set his name there, "thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth; and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God." Certainly that general instruction would seem to include everything that was desired, and yet that is to be understood as being limited by the specific law which God had given concerning clean and unclean meats. 3. The Lord would not make this distinction between clean and unclean meats arbitrarily. There was a reason why he did so. That reason is indicated by an expression found in 3 John 2: "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." God is always the same, and that has always been his desire for his people, and he knew that the flesh of some animals was much more healthful than that of others, and therefore he forbade that which he knew to be especially derogatory to health, and permitted that which he knew would be least so. 4. This prohibition of certain meats as embodied in the law continued through the Levitical dispensation, because when God's special people were combined largely in one nation and place and under uniform circumstances and influences, the prohibition could be easily carried out without interfering with the comforts or necessities of the people. But when we reach the Christian dispensation, those laws which had to do with meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances were as such abolished. See Heb. 9:10. 5. The reason for this, at least one good reason, was that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ was to go to all the world. The glad tidings of salvation would therefore reach men in every circumstance and condition of life. Some of them in the very necessity of the case would be placed in those circumstances where the use of unclean meats and unhealthful surroundings were absolutely unavoidable; but if in order to accept that gospel they must first separate themselves from every prohibition that was indicated in the Levitical law, it would have debarred thousands from the free salvation which the Lord Jesus Christ offered. But this does not mean that the laws which God gave are useless; the same reasons, the same principles, underlying those laws exist now, and God would have the well-instructed soul remember the laws which he gave through Moses. God would have his people understand that it is better for them now, even as it was for them then, to abstain from the use of those meats which were unhealthful, and therefore made unclean because they were unhealthful. And the faithful, obedient soul will just as far as possible heed the precious instruction which God has given. While the specific law has been taken away, the real principles underlying those laws remain, and God would have his people people of principle. 6. The better way, speaking generally, would doubtless be to come back to the primal law of God. When man was first created, before sin entered, flesh formed no portion of his food, and in these days of diseased animal life of every kind, it certainly would seem from a purely health standpoint that to approximate God's original law would be the better way. Of course such a change as this cannot be made arbitrarily or immediately. Those who have been living on flesh foods largely may not be able to make the change all at once. The digestive organs must be gradually educated to the change in diet. One of the great difficulties which health reformers have to meet comes, to our mind, from this very thing. Someone will see that a course in the past has been wrong, and he immediately changes to a reform diet. The digestive organs have not had time to adapt themselves to the new burdens thrown upon them, and the result is, generally, ill health and discouragement. Such changes should be made gradually and wisely, but they should be made. Of course there are some who are suffering from diseases of various kinds, whose systems demand flesh diet; at least such seems to be the case. But in all these things the real principle which should guide the child of God is stated by the apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 10:31: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." If this principle controls the life, we will not seek for those things which merely taste good or which will please the appetite, but rather we will eat for strength and not for drunkenness. Eccl. 10:17. Not only this, but this principle should be applied to our own lives. While we may instruct others and teach them the better way, we are not to sit in judgment upon them. Thus writes the apostle: "Let us not therefore judge one another any more; but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way." Rom. 14:13. What God desires his people to be is the very best specimens of humanity, physically, mentally, and spiritually, and wise and temperate living will greatly conduce to such results.