Announcer: It's time now for Bible Talk. Join our host Gary and John, speakers for the Amazing Facts Ministry as they now open the Bible and discuss themes that affect your life today. Stay tuned because the next fifteen minutes will deepen your understanding of God's word.
John: Hi friends and welcome to Bible talk, where we talk about what the Bible had to say to us today. I'm John and with me is Gary. Hi Gary.
Gary: Hi John. We have an exciting topic today. We're going to talk about what the Bible says about adding years to our life in this life.
John: You know if you go back to the beginning of the Bible, Gary, people were living to be what about a millennium, a millennium old, a Methuselah, 969. People lived a long time back then.
Gary: Can you imagine living a thousand years. You know, here we are you know, if we just took the last thousand year period. From year 2000 back to 1000, and look at all the technological advances you would have lived through and all that stuff. It would be phenomenal to live a thousand years!
John: In it was God's plan for us to do so. As a matter of fact, it was God's plan for us to live well, forever.
Gary: Of course, because that's how he created us. But it was sin that shortened our lives but you're saying even after sin, we lived to be a thousand years.
John: A thousand years or so, people were living back then. And today if you lived to be 75, that's great, 85 that's really great. Over 85, and you've exceeded all expectations. There are still people on the world, on the planet today, who live a good long time.
Gary: They really are. In fact, my grandmother, my wife's grandmother that is, visited the people in Northern Pakistan years ago, called the Hunzas, they are renowned now for their longevity. They lived, John, to be a 120 to 140 years old. They are not a decrepit 120 years old.
John: What a lot of people I think, don't understand is that one of the reasons these people are living so long, the Hunzas is that to a large extent, they are following God's program for good health.
Gary: God's program. You know John that sounds like something I would see at the Grocery store, checking out, on the tabloids there. It would say ' Discover God's program for health'.
John: Well you'll...
Gary: Just like, Elvis was spotted.
John: Well you will find God's program for good health but you'll find it in a book of Genesis and not in the inquirer or something like that.
Gary: Well, what's that program?
John: Genesis one Verse 29. God said, "Behold I have given you every herb.' Now. You will notice that that's a herb, not an erb.
Gary: It's not an erb.
John: No way, it's a herb. Since I have come to the United States, I've made a lot of concessions in the way I speak but I'm sorry.
Gary: You're not going to give up that one?
John: Herbs are still herbs.
Gary: All right.
John: It gave us every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth.
Gary: Sounds like cannibalism to me.
John: [laughs] And what about on top of that? Every tree, which is in the foot of a tree yielding seed to you that shall be for meat or in other words, for food.
Gary: For food. So you're saying that the Bible, right here in the very beginning, before sin, mankind was given the permission to eat what? Fruits, nuts and grains.
John: In fact, a higher authority than I is saying that. That's right out of the Word of God. Very clear. That was God's plan in the beginning. You know, in the Garden of Eden, before sin came, there was no death, you know. God never told Adam that when he got hungry to march out there and slaughter himself an animal and fry up its flesh. That just wasn't on the menu in the restaurant there in the Garden of Eden.
Gary: So when did it get on the menu? When did we start filleting fish and cutting steaks and all that? When did that come on to our menu?
John: The bible records it in Genesis Chapter nine in Verse 3, God says to Noah, 'every moving thing that liveth, shall be meat for you, even as the green herb, or herb, have I given you all things. ' And then He says, 'but flesh with the life there of which is the blood there of, you shall not eat'. After the flood, you know, there weren't too many watermelon patches and wheat fields and veggie gardens. God had said, 'Go ahead now if it is your desire, to eat some of these animals now.'
Gary: So is it OK now since all the vegetation was destroyed, now you can eat meat?
John: Well, he had to eat something now.
Gary: Where did they get it from?
John: Well, they had taken all the animals on the Ark hadn't they. And notice something about this, Genesis seven Verse 2, I want you to notice something about these animals now.
Gary: Yeah. I wonder where you are going with this because it seems to me they took these animals on the Ark, I think a lot of people would say they started eating them, you'd wipe out these species, wouldn't you?
John: Well you would, you know. Because we were told as children, the great majority of us, that God told Noah to take the animals on the Ark, how?
Gary: Two by two.
John: Two by two, right. But did you know that's not actually fullness of what the Bible said.
Gary: Really?
John: Get ready for this. This might be the most amazing thing you've learned all week.
Gary: Let's look at it.
John: I mean that too now. Genesis two Verse 7, God says, 'of every', now get ready for this, 'of every clean beast, thou shalt take to thee by... ' . Are you ready?
Gary: OK.
John: 'By 7!
Gary: 7!
John: 7! Its the male or its female and I'm not reading any shady translation of the Bible here. And He says, 'of the beasts that are not clean, take them by two, the male and his female.' God was saying 'Noah, when you get off the Ark, You won't be wanting to eat any of the unclean animals so take plenty of the clean, so you can offer sacrifice, presumably and so you've got some of them to eat when you get off the Ark.
Gary: So that's when He gave them permission to eat meat and this is where they got it from, it was the animals they took on...
John: The clean animals.
Gary: ...they took some by two, some by seven.
John: Right.
Gary: What's a clean animal? Are those the 4H animals, you know how they kiss growing up in the country have 4H animals. They put them through the fair, they scrub the pig, they powder them. They put the bow in his hair.
John: That's one way.
Gary: I don't even know if pigs have hair. Do they put the bow on his tail?
John: I can see the bow in the..., the bristles of the pig right now.
Gary: So he's clean now. Is that the clean animal He's talking about? Is He talking physically clean, spiritually clean, what's the clean, what's the unclean?
John: You know what you're going to discover right here, is that one of the 4H students can scrub a hog till the cows come home and that hog is never going to be clean in the Biblical sense. Shall we look at that in the Leviticus Chapter 11?
Gary: So they tell us in Leviticus Chapter 11? What's a clean and unclean animal?
John: The Leviticus 11 shows us the distinction between clean animals and unclean animals. And listen before I read this, I feel like you or somebody might be about to say 'Stop right there John!'
Gary: That's for the Jews.
John: Yeah...
Gary: Now, because Leviticus, john I know somebody is thinking that Leviticus is for the Jews, it's talking about Moses, the children of Israel leaving Egypt, definitely for the Jews and somebody's thinking right now, what do you mean clean and unclean? That's Old Testament, that's for the Jews.
John: Now let's nail this thing shut right here. God spoke to Noah and he said, "Noah, some of these animals are clean, some of them are unclean."
Gary: Someone might say "Yeah, but wasn't Noah an Old Testament person. Wasn't he in Old Testament Jew."
John: Well you ask, you tell me now. How many Jews got on Noah's ark? The Jewish nation wasn't called into existence for years after the flood; there were no Jews in existence at the time of Noah's ark.
Gary: So, just because that Noah's Old Testament doesn't mean that he was Jewish.
John: He certainly wasn't Jewish. He was anything but a Jew, there were no Jews at the time of Noah, see prove him, beyond the shadow of the doubt, that this distinction between clean animals and unclean animals is way before the Jewish race, it's not peculiarly Jewish.
Gary: Because god is telling Noah take on the clean animal. So Noah had to know in his own mind, what was a clean animal by sevens and what was the unclean animal he would take on by two's.
John: And lets us right now know in our mind, the distinction between clean and unclean animals. God says in Leviticus 11:2, "These are the animals among the beasts now which you can eat. Whatever parts the hoof and its cloven footed and cheweth the cud among the beasts that shall ye eat, so you see it's got to meet some criteria.
Gary: So it has to have a parted hoof.
John: Yeah.
Gary: And do what else?
John: And chew the cud as well.
Gary: What is that, what's chewing the cud?
John: Well like the cow does that right it, it chew and it has a very efficient way of processing and, dealing with its food that it eats there.
Gary: And so it re-chews its food as a second time.
John: Cow has multiple stomachs and I don't want to get, someone might be eaten right now, they regurgitate to take that thing chew out of it, that's gross but it's very clean.
Gary: That's how the cow does, that's not what the person who's listening to TV right now does.
John: I sure hope not.
Gary: OK.
John: Verse four : 'these are the things that you shall not eat that chew the cud and then divide the hoof." God lists some of the things that are unclean right now, starts off... [overlapping talks]
Gary: Now these are some of the things they have one of these criterion they, chew the cud but they don't have the cloven hoof.
John: Or maybe vice versa.
Gary: Vice versa.
John: Now he says that 'camel chews the cud, doesn't have a split hoof, it's unclean'. Now Gary because of what we've read in the Bible, I'm asking you right now, to swear off camel from now on.
Gary: Camel doesn't bother me, I have never smoked Camel cigarettes and I don't eat camels.
John: All right.
Gary: Soufflé of hump of camel doesn't interest me whatsoever.
John: No problem.
Gary: Now there might be somebody somewhere that eats camel.
John: Chewing on a leg of camel right now...
Gary: Sure it's not me.
John: You have been shocked right now, you discover those camels. I'm not clean.
Gary: They stink they, ah, not camel for me, john.
John: All right, good, good,
Gary: No, it's unclean.
John: Its unclean, verse five 'the corny that's like a badger, it chews the cud but it doesn't divide the hoof, its unclean'.
Gary: It's too ugly; I don't want to eat them anyway.
John: Verse 6, now we get a little closer to home here. There are not too many people. All right Ma, I'm off to shoot us some grub and they got to knock off a camel out in the backfield, but there are many people who might go out and shoot themselves, a little bunny rabbit or something like that and the Bible says in Leviticus 11:6 and the hare and that of course would be the rabbit now, this is Bugs Bunny, because he chew it's cud but does not divide the hoof, he is unclean to you now that's getting a little closer to home here.
Gary: Well it really is close to my home because I grew up shooting little bunny rabbits.
John: Tell me what you learned about those bunnies that you shot?
Gary: Well,
John: Where they the cleanest things on the planet?
Gary: They are cute, John.
John: That's about what it is though.
Gary: But blowing them away is not as much fun as I thought it was.
John: Yeah.
Gary: And then you scare them and you eat them and they are really unclean in fact, they can have worms and all sorts of stuff.
John: Diseases like warbles, and these sorts of things, do you think God knew what he was talking about?
Gary: Yeah, very practical here...
John: And so if that is practical, let's read the next verse and see how practical you think that one is. Verse seven says 'and thus swine though he divides the hoof end is cloven footed, he does not chew the cud, he is unclean.'
Gary: Now you are really close to home there.
John: Yeah I know someone is going to say 'oh, he stopped preaching, he went to midland' but the Bible says that you see and when you stop and consider, what science tells us about the pigs today, well we understand that God again knew what he was talking about when he declared them unclean. These are animals which are known to be [indecipherable 12:17] trichinosis or the Trichinae larvae, these little parasitic worms that get into the tissue of the animal, you eat the animal and it ends up invading your system as well. Everybody knows that when you take that pork home, they tell you that you should cook it...
Gary: Real well, very well done.
John: For the purpose of doing what?
Gary: Killing all the worms...
John: Now do you want to eat those worms even though they are dead?
Gary: Well, no.
John: Again we know that from another aspect these animals are very high in fat, cholesterol from them is a real big problem.
Gary: John, with pride I have time to go into it, but you are really starting to sound to a lot of people like your legal instinct.
John: Well I want to assure you that to do anything out of love for Jesus Christ is anything but legalism. Now we don't have time to resource that this time, so join us again next time and be sure you get this week's Bible study offer 'you wouldn't do this' and join us for more next time on Bible talk. [Musical interlude]
Man 1: If you like more information on what we have been studying today, we have a comprehensive Bible study guide, we would love to share with you that's absolutely free. This study includes many of the texts we have just discussed and expands on the subject including information you will want to know. To receive this free informative Bible study guide, simply call, write or email and ask for BT 113, 'you wouldn't do this'. The toll-free number is 866, Bible says, that is 866-242-5372 you can write to us at Bible talk, P.O. Box 1058, Roseville, California, 95678 or email us at bibletalk@amazingfacts.org.
Bible talk has been produced in association with Amazing Facts in the studios on the Life Talk radio.