2141.—Forbidding to Marry, Abstaining from Meats. 1 Tim. 4: 1-4.
By Editor
Please explain 1 Tim. 4:4, 5. The Seventh-day Adventists preach that their converts ought not to marry outside of the faith, and also abstain from swine's flesh. If this scripture does not have reference to them, please explain what it does mean. T. L. B. 1 Tim. 4:4 says that all creatures are good. How can you people say that it is wrong to eat pork? R. T. S. 1. Let us not make the mistake that we must make some application of every scripture we find in God's word. Sometimes the application of these scriptures are very clear; sometimes their applications have been in the past and their predictions already fulfilled; sometimes they are yet to be fulfilled in the future. Sometimes one or two specifications of a scripture may seem to apply to a certain class, and yet the scripture as a whole may not apply whatever. For instance, both sheep and swine have four legs, two ears, two eyes, one mouth, cloven feet, but this does not by any means prove their identity. 2. The scripture is not necessarily a last-day scripture. The Revised Version renders "in later times," that is, times later than the days of the apostle, when some should fall away from the faith. 3. In falling away from the faith they would give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, led away by hypocrisy of men that speak lies. One of the most prominent doctrines of demons is that the dead are conscious and communicate in some way with men; out of this has grown a horrible array of pestilential doctrines which have perverted the truth of God and turned men from light to darkness. 4. The class in 1 Tim. 4:1-4 mentioned does not simply teach that one should not marry without the faith, but they forbid marriage. This certainly is not true of any Christian body that we know, save the Roman Church which has enjoined celibacy in its priesthood and its orders, and also among Spiritualists the same teaching has cropped out in the doctrine of free love. It has been the teaching of the Bible in both dispensations and in every branch of the Christian church that Christians should marry within the fold of Christ. Even worldlings will admit the force of that teaching. 5. "Commanding to abstain from meats." The word "meats" comes from a Greek word meaning simply food of any kind, either vegetable or animal. In other words, fasting is not taught or advised, but enjoined. God has given His people the privilege of eating and drinking that which is good, and the food here mentioned is that which God has given to be received with thanksgiving, which is "sanctified [set apart] thru the word of God and prayer." God's word has clearly told us that there are some kinds of food for His children to eat. The prohibitions of the Old Testament found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 were certainly based on sound principles or God would never have given them. The animals prohibited as unclean have not changed their habits or nature since, and even animals that are clean have become so diseased that it is not safe to partake of them. On the other hand, science and practise are continually demonstrating that a non-flesh diet is the very best of diets. So much for the teaching of the word and common sense. We know of no Christian church that absolutely forbids such things, unless it is some of the fasts that are commanded as above noted. The wrong of pork is that it is always unwholesome. It does not best fit the person for service, nor transmit pure blood to his posterity.