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“Jesus” Made Pigs Clean
One of the other things that people like to say about “Jesus” is that He changed the dietary laws from Torah. This seems to be important not only to the image of “Jesus” that Christianity wants to adhere to, but also in justifying the rejection of Torah that most Christians want to live by. For whatever reason, it is important to the “grace” doctrines of modern Christianity that we reject at least some instructions from Torah, and one of those things seems to be the food laws.
The go-to passage is out of Mark’s
Gospel:
“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) ~Mark 7:18-19 (NIV)
I have addressed this passage in greater detail in a message titled Does The New Testament Void Old Testament Dietary Laws?, so for now I will just keep it direct and to the point. I would advise going to that article and reading the section on this passage if you want further verification of what I will say here.
Reading this passage in the full context of the entire chapter of Mark 7 reveals that this had nothing to do with clean or unclean animal meats, the “food” called into question was bread. It is also further clarified in Matthew 15 where the same account is recorded and it is clearly stated that “eating bread without washing your hands first” is what does not defile someone.
This was all based on a man-made tradition of the elders to perform a detailed ritual hand washing prior to eating anything. Obviously it is a bad idea to eat without washing your hands first, that’s one of many ways that people get sick. But at the same time, eating a dry food like bread that you take with your fingers has a very low risk of getting contaminated with germs, and your body has natural defenses against moderate levels of potential infections. In short, this was very, very different than allowing for the eating of filth like pork, shellfish, or other things outright called unclean abominations in Torah.
Also, we know that Yeshua had a high regard for food, as He always instructed His disciples to gather the leftovers after feeding large crowds so nothing would be wasted. If that’s the case, one must wonder why He was fine with casting devils into pigs and causing them to be drowned in the sea if He regarded pigs as food. It’s simple really: Yeshua didn’t consider pigs to be food! Maybe the man-made Christian “Jesus” did, but the true Yeshua of the Bible did not. In his book What Would Jesus Eat? Don Colbert, M.D. says:
The foods that Jesus ate were based on Levitical law, the law that was given to the Israelites from God through Moses. The foods that Jesus ate in accordance with the law provided Him with the raw materials to produce a healthy body and a healthy mind. He lived and walked in divine health. The good news for us is this: the ancient dietary secrets associated with Jesus’ way of living can bring us greater health today!
“But,” you may be saying, “ I don’t live under the law. I live under grace!”
Let me respond this way: God is giving you the grace today to learn about His law and live according to it. The law that Jesus fulfilled completely in His own life and death had to do with our spiritual atonement. We no longer need to sacrifice animals or shed blood in order to experience the forgiveness of sins. Jesus became the sacrifice for our sin on the cross. When we accept His sacrifice, we are freed from the bondage of sin in our lives, and we are empowered by God to enter into a new relationship with Him and live a new life.
Accepting Jesus as our Savior and Lord, however, does not “free” us from keeping the Ten Commandments. Rather, we are empowered to want to keep them and to actually keep them! The same is true for the other laws in the Old Testament that are not directly related to our spiritual salvation. Accepting Jesus empowers us to want to keep these laws and to actually keep them. The apostle Paul made it very clear in his letters that we are not freed from the law in order to sin further; we are freed by Christ in order to keep from sinning.
I remind you of the words of 1 John 3:4 (CJB), “Everyone who keeps sinning is violating Torah — indeed, sin is violation of Torah.” The “Jesus” of modern Christianity is a Torah-rejecting, swine-eating, Sabbath-breaking, rebel who takes the majority of the Bible you claim to follow and throws it in the garbage. Yeshua, the true Messiah of Scripture, is a Torah-observant Jew. Which one makes more sense to follow considering the pattern of Scripture?
I also want to follow on where Colbert says, “…laws in the Old Testament that are not directly related to our spiritual salvation.” While it is true that we neither earn nor maintain salvation through obedience to Torah, a rejection of Torah can be a rejection of your personal salvation. When you have accepted Yeshua as your Messiah and then you read command in Scripture, you have a choice to make. You can allow His Spirit in you to drive you to obedience, or you can reject the law and in so doing you are ultimately rejecting Him, as He is the Living Torah. Yeshua and the Word are equated as one in the same in Scripture. You cannot reject Torah, in whole or in part, without simultaneously rejecting the Messiah. You cannot earn or maintain your salvation through obedience, but through rejection, you can place your salvation in jeopardy.
Are Pigs clean or unclean? Why do you think it's ok or not ok to eat pigs?
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