3586 - Raising Hogs by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 17, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 41.

3586 — Raising Hogs

By Editor

Please give me Bible proof that it is wrong to raise hogs for merchandise. L. C. B. and E. A. H.

The Bible does not say anywhere, in so many words, that it is wrong to raise hogs. It does tell us, however, that the swine is an unclean animal: "And the swine, tho 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. 11:7, 8. See also Deut. 14:8; and Isa. 65:4; 66:3. Swine's flesh is classed among abominable things, and swine's blood is, in the last scripture referred to, mentioned as an abominable thing in contrast with offering an oblation. We do not understand that God pronounced the swine unclean arbitrarily. He pronounced it unclean because that is the very nature of the beast itself. There are those who use swine's flesh without any seeming injury. They are strong, robust, spend much of the time, perhaps, out-of-doors at hard labor, and the system is able to eliminate the corruption gathered from it; but the swine itself is full of corruption. It is one of the first foods that physicians prohibit generally. It is one of the last that a convalescent is permitted to eat. Doubtless there are many Christians who have eaten it, and are not condemned of God. They knew no better. Perhaps they could get no other food. They may have been in the place that the traveler crossing the "great American desert" was, who came to an eating-house just after a caravan had left it, and the only thing that the proprietor could place before him was pork and mustard. But necessity does not change the nature of the food; and one who wants to eat and drink to God's glory, it seems to us, should abjure swine's flesh. And if it is not fit for food, why should enlightened Christians deal in it at all? Why raise it to sell to the unbeliever? Why not use dairy products for some other purpose? Our Lord did not seem particularly to favor the business of keeping swine when He permitted the demons to enter the herd, and they were drowned.

These suggestions are based on principles, and it is the principles which ought to guide us in respect to a practise of this kind. We are sure that those who adopt good principles and stay by them will find better prosperity than those who disregard them. We can hardly believe that the field of profitable industry is so small as to be confined to raising hogs.