Some time ago a Seventh-day Adventist pastor asked this question from the pulpit: “Is what you eat a salvational issue?” The response from the congregation was a very loud and overwhelming “NO!’’
Since when does consensus establish truth? Let us take a long and intensive look at this question from Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy and see if we can determine the truth from Inspired writing.
We will first go to the very beginning of Scripture in Genesis, chapter 1.
The original diet was given to mankind by our Creator, who should know better than any other being what would be best for us. Genesis 1:29 states: “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 the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” One can see that the original diet for mankind was a vegan diet. Absolutely no animal products or any refined or artificially manufactured products.
After the fall of man and his/her expulsion from the garden he was told to also eat “… the herb of the field.” This verse gave man permission to now eat things that grow in the dirt, which are assumed to be vegetables.
At this point we need to determine what is a fruit and what is a vegetable. A botanical definition is that a fruit is something that the plant produces and a vegetable is part of the plant itself, such as the leaves, the stem, or the root. Most of what we eat is classified as fruit. All products of trees, vines or bushes are fruits, e.g., apples, pears, peaches, nuts, berries, grapes, tomatoes, and such. Grains are actually fruits of grasses, as is corn. Such things as beets, carrots, celery, cabbage, lettuce, and the like, are vegetables or herbs of the field. These things were probably added since the abundance of fruits in the garden were now not available.
Now we come to the time of Noah in Genesis 6–9. Notice that God instructed Noah to take into the ark, which he had spent 120 years building, two, a male and a female, of every unclean animal, and seven of every clean animal (Genesis 7:2). The distinction between clean and unclean animals can be found in Leviticus, chapter 11. The reason for this is because the flood was going to destroy all life, plant and animal, from off the face of the earth. Following the flood Noah and his family would need something to eat until the new growth upon the face of the earth could be well established. That would take at least a year or maybe two.
I firmly believe that the permission to eat animals was only supposed to be temporary until plant life was reestablished sufficiently to provide what God had originally intended that we should eat. I can’t prove it, but since the Spirit of Prophecy states that man’s intelligence before the flood was vastly superior to ours today that Noah most probably also took a great abundance of seed onto the ark to be able to reestablish a productive garden and fruit trees in the ‘’new” earth after the flood. He also had to have enough stored food for all the animals that were now released upon a devastated world. I personally do not think that God ever intended that mankind would continue to consume animals for any length of time.
There were many things that could make a person ritually “unclean,” not just the use of an unclean animal for food: contamination with blood, or contact with a corpse to name a couple. The penalty for becoming ritually unclean was that the “unclean” individual was to leave the camp, wash himself and his clothes with water and wait until sundown, which began a new day. He then returned to the camp and went to the tabernacle where a specific offering was given. Afterwards he was then accepted back into full fellowship.
However, the penalty for the consumption of blood or fat from an animal was far more serious. Even Noah, in chapter 9 of Genesis, was told that when he began to use “clean” animals for food that he was in no way permitted to use any of the blood for food (verse 4). It was expressly forbidden by God to do so. Leviticus says in three places that it was a perpetual covenant that the fat and the blood were never to be consumed as food.
The penalty for the consumption of either fat or blood was that the individual was to be “cut off’ from the camp.” The Hebrew word used for cut off is karath. Daniel 9:26 states that, “After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.” [Emphasis supplied.] The same Hebrew word for cut off is used here. The penalty for the consumption of blood or fat is far worse than just becoming “unclean.” I dare say that today those who consume animal flesh are not using ritually slaughtered nor ritually prepared animals for the source of animal flesh. Just remember, God NEVER changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Yes, ancient Jews as well as observant Jews and even Jesus ate animal flesh at least on Passover. The lamb that was roasted was certainly ritually prepared so that it was not unclean nor did they eat any of the fat or blood. So Jesus would have eaten animal flesh at least once per year on Passover. We also find a few occasions where He ate fish. Carnivores love to refer to this fact. In His 33 years upon this earth you can count on one hand the number of times that the Scriptures tell of Jesus eating fish. The carnivores use that as an excuse to consume animal flesh usually daily. “If meat eating was ever healthful, it is not safe now. Cancers, tumors, and pulmonary diseases are largely caused by meat eating.” Counsels for the Church, 236.
‘’If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1 Corinthians 3:17). I had a pastor tell me that this verse is in the plural and therefore does not apply to the individual, but the church body. After researching this verse in the writings of Ellen G. White, of the 42 times she references this verse, every time she applies it to the individual. So it becomes abundantly clear that if you do not take care of the physical body given you by Christ, you will not make it into the kingdom of God. Of course this applies to those who should know better, have access to Scriptures and the Spirit of Prophecy, or have the opportunity to find out the truth.
Gene Swanson is a retired Adventist physician living in Montrose, Colorado.