THE DIET QUESTION FROM A SCRIPTURAL STANDPOINT.
By H. F. Courter
WHEN God created man in His own image, and gave him the tree of life in order that his existence might be perpetuated, it is reasonable to conclude that he also provided the very best daily diet. Everything in connection with the creation of His creatures was "very good," therefore we must conclude that every provision for their sustenance was equally good. The provision for the diet of man was as follows: "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." Gen. 1:29. What a delicious bill of fare for man in his purity! No death was required to furnish his daily meals. No cries or groans of dying creatures were heard to mar the music of the sweet orchestra of warbling birds, nor to stop the enjoyment of the skipping lambs, the playful calves, or the sporting fish. But after man yielded to the tempter, and, by disobeying God, brought sin upon all the race, together with its consequences upon all the earth, his appetite, as well as every other faculty and function, became perverted. The result was a general apostasy, and the judgment of the Deluge in Noah's time. The long lives which the antediluvians had been permitted to enjoy had proved, under the reign of sin, to be a curse rather than a blessing to them. So, after the Flood, God permitted Noah and his descendants to eat flesh. This permission reads: "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." Gen. 9:3. Not only did this diet beget in man a blood-thirsty, warlike disposition, but it naturally shortened his life at a rapid rate. Notice the decline in the ages of the descendants of Noah. This patriarch himself, being 600 years old at the time of the Flood, lived to the age of 950 years. But his son Shem reached only 600 years; and so on, down to Abraham, who died at 175, and when we reach Joseph, we find him passing away at the age of 110. When God set His hand to lead His people out of Egypt, to be a holy nation, a peculiar people, upon whom none of the diseases of Egypt should come, He took away the flesh diet, and gave them manna, the "corn of heaven." But they murmured at this diet, and longed for the "flesh-pots of Egypt." So the Lord sent them quails in great abundance, and they gorged themselves to the full. But "while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. And He called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah; because there they buried the people that lusted." Num. 11:33, 34. All this judgment was the result of their lusting after flesh. See Ps. 78:18, 30, 31. After Israel refused to obey God and be free from disease, the Lord granted them their desires in part, but they had to bear the consequence—sickness. Then He set apart the clean beasts, and forbade them to eat the unclean. See Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Therefore, while flesh-eating was permitted, and consequently not sinful, it was not an absolute necessity; for Paul says, "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth." Rom. 14:21. Also, in the tenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul cites the example of Israel as a warning to those "upon whom the ends of the world are come." The "admonition" is that "with many of them [Israel] God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness," and it comes to us "to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted." Now the thing after which they especially lusted was flesh food, and the indulgence of perverted appetite led them into other evils—idolatry, fornication, tempting of Christ, murmuring, etc., for which things they were sorely punished in many ways. From this admonition to us, "upon whom the ends of the world are come," it is evident the Lord would have us avoid a course of diet that might in any way make us carnally minded, and unfit us for entering the promised land, upon whose borders we are now standing. It is evident that, as we near the time of restoration to the Paradise of God, He would have us prepare, even here, for the enjoyment of the vegetarian diet originally furnished to those who inhabited that happy home. Our probation here is designed to prepare us for the home over there. Therefore we must learn here to enjoy that which will be for our enjoyment hereafter.