God's Choice?

[Guest guest]

While I find this amusing, it's a case of trying a bit too hard. Still, it

had to happen, hm? And who knows, maybe it'll be the excuse some need, or

the crutch with which to hammer another into submission? LOL

 

from:

http://www.beliefnet.com/frameset.asp?pageLoc=story/127/story_12745_1.html &

storyID=12745 & boardID=59395

 

 

Good Eating

The Bible, Diet, and the Proper Love of Animals

By Stephen H. Webb

 

God Prefers the Veggieburger

 

Christian vegetarianism is a diet of hope, one that witnesses to the Bible'

s vision of our holy future with animals.

 

By Stephen H. Webb

 

Excerpted from " Good Eating " with permission of Baker Book House Company.

 

What does the Bible say about animals and diet? The biblical story begins

and ends with a peaceful creation, but in between, God explicitly permits

meat-eating after the flood, Jesus eats fish, and Paul criticizes

vegetarian Christians for being weak and superstitious (Romans 14-15). Can

there be a consistent biblical position on this issue?

 

Certainly no Christian theologian can argue that the Bible absolutely

condemns all meat-eating. However, there is a good case to be made that

vegetarianism is a valid and valuable way of anticipating the kingdom of

God by practicing what God most intends for the world. It is a sign of our

trust in God’s intentions for the world and our hope in God’s plan for the

world’s ultimate redemption.

 

The biblical narrative is about people who are all too human, full of sin

and greed, and dependent on the mercies of God. Their stories are framed

by an account of peaceful beginnings in Genesis and the restoration of the

world in a new creation in Revelation.

 

In between is the decisive manifestation of God in the life of Jesus

Christ, the second Adam who comes to begin the restoration of the world to

God’s original purposes. Those original purposes did not include

meat-eating, yet after the flood God did allow Noah and his descendants to

eat meat, just as he later let the Israelites conduct their worship

services around animal sacrifices.

 

The Hebrew prophets, however, often criticized these animal sacrifices,

and when they talked about the end times when God’s purposes would no

longer be thwarted by human sin, they portrayed the world in the same

harmonious terms that describe the paradise of Eden in Genesis. It seems

clear to me, then, that God allows for meat-eating as something far below

the ideals that God originally conceived for humankind. A carnivorous diet

is a concession to human sin, not a model for what God always wanted from

humanity.

 

There is an analogy for this in our own lives. Parents often let their

children do things that are less than what is best for them. Parents let

children watch too much television and eat more junk food than is good for

them. All parents know that they have to pick their battles with their

kids by ordering priorities and setting realistic goals. Parents know that

it takes years for children to internalize and fully understand what the

family standards are. Maturation is a process, and what children teach

parents most is the virtue of patience.

 

God too is patient, like a loving parent who does not expect too much too

soon. The question is whether the time has come for us to begin living up

to God’s expectations concerning diet. People in the ancient world did not

have plentiful sources of non-animal protein. They were dependent on

animals in order to get enough protein in their diet. Even today, there

are millions of people in poorer countries who do not have a sufficient

number of protein alternatives to animal flesh, even though they eat meat

rarely. But those of us who live in industrialized countries do have such

alternatives, so we can now expect more of ourselves than what was

possible hundreds of years ago.

 

To be a Christian vegetarian is to see the world as it could be, the way

God intended it, not as it now is, full of pain and strife. Christian

vegetarianism, then, is one small step on the road to the new kingdom of

God.

 

It need not be meant as a sign of moral purity or a new political movement

to split and divide the churches. It is not a new religion, nor is it a

new path of salvation that excludes meat-eaters as irredeemably condemned.

It is a very concrete way of practicing a life of hope, a hope that

respects differences and boundaries even as it radiates outward with the

encompassing rhythms of God’s grace.

 

Christian vegetarianism should not make anybody feel guilty. It is a

joyful diet, a diet for the new millennium, a diet that finds the love of

God in every meal. Eating without inflicting pain on animals can be an

expression of God’s own love for the whole world, as well as God’s

intention to restore the world to its original peace and harmony. What

better way to give witness to one’s deepest hopes than to practice this

less cruel diet of the future, a diet that uses fewer resources and is

less demanding on our planet. Such a diet provides hope that all can be

fed from the abundance of God’s gifts to us, and that none need go hungry

in a just and righteous world.

 

 

" I saw myself from a distance, once, but I got away before I was spotted. "

\

--W.B. Kek

[Guest guest]

all I know was queen esther who was in the old testament was a

vegetarian. she was the queen of persia who saved the jewish people

from slaughter. thats where they get the jewish holiday purim. funny

thing is the reason she was a vegetarian was cause of the jewish

dietary law that says you cant mix milk with meat so she just said

forget the meat and there it is. stay cool Dave