Announcer: It's time now for Bible Talk. Join our hosts, Gary Gibbs and John Bradshaw, 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 15 minutes will deepen your understanding of God's word.
John Bradshaw: Hi friends and welcome again to Bible Talk, where we talk about what the Bible has to say to us today. I'm John Bradshaw and with me is Gary Gibbs. Hi, Gary.
Gary Gibbs: Hi, John. I hope you're ready for our program today.
John: I'm ready. This is an exciting program. In fact, let me do something real different. At the end of today's program, we're going to talk about a Bible study that anyone that wants to can get. I'll mention it right now. We've got so much information. I just want people straight away to be thinking about getting this Bible Study because it's so powerful.
Gary: They need to do that because they cover things that we're not even able to cover completely in our time here together.
John: It's called, "You Wouldn't Do This". Listen out for it later because you've got to... All I can say is you've got to get this. Now, let's carry on from where we were on last time, where we talked about God's biblical plan for good health.
Gary: We did John. And you raised some really interesting questions in my mind, and I know in the minds of our listeners, about what we should eat and shouldn't eat. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what the Bible says regarding that?
John: Well, I will. I will tell you more because last time we didn't exhaust what the Bible says abut that.
Gary: You mean, you're going to tell me some other things I'm not supposed to eat? I think you took away probably 90-percent of what most people eat already!
John: Man, I'm going back into your refrigerator and I'm taking some more out of there.
Gary: OK. I hope you put some things back in because we need to survive here. Tell us, what does the Bible say about what we should eat and what we shouldn't eat in order to have good health and to glorify God?
John: Now, the key principle is that our body is a temple of the Holy God. Let's remember that because when we remember that, then we get the horse before the cart. We recognize everything we do, we're doing because we love and want to glorify God.
Gary: So we're not our own. We just can do anything we want. When I was growing up, when I was teenager I got a motorcycle and there was this whole debate about whether motorcyclists should wear helmets or not. If you don't wear helmets you're hit. That was the idea. Well, not really. If you don't wear a helmet and you get an injury, that affects everybody around you and society and medical bills and all that. I'm not my own. I ought to treat my body with respect with reference to everybody around me and you're saying, in reference to God because God died for us in his son Jesus Christ.
John: Absolutely. And we're redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus and God spoke and it told Noah, "When you get on the ark, take seven of the clean animals, two of the unclean animals," indicating the difference between clean animals and unclean animals goes way back before the Jews. Because last time, of course, you came on at me with this thing about, "Well, this is just for Jews." But Noah was not a Jew and there were no Jews on Noah's Arch.
Gary: In fact, you pointed that out in the Bible in Genesis, Chapter 7, didn't you?
John: Yes, that's where it talks about that. Then in Leviticus 11, God repeats these instructions and he enlarges on them a little bit for the benefit of the children of Israel. He says, "There are animals that are clean, unclean and the things that one should not eat include things like camel." Now, since we were here last time, you haven't been getting back into the camel food, have you?
Gary: I have sworn off all camel, John.
John: All right. So you're a good learner. What about the Coney, that'll be a badger. You're not having any more badger steaks?
Gary: Not at all.
John: All right, what about these, now we get a little closer to home, what about the rabbit. Leviticus 11:6 talks about the rabbits, then in Verse seven it talks about Ms. Piggy now - that's the swine. I know this is going to burst a few bubbles, but according to the Bible and medical science and research bears this out, pigs are just flat unclean animals, you see. God said so and the best scientific research we have available today validates that. That they're just not really good for human consumption.
Gary: It really is true. I was in a town one time. My car broke down and I went to a meat packing plant. I took a tour of that meat packing plant and the manager there, he was really proud of his process there, and he showed me his pigs. These were clean pigs. He would be offended if you called his pigs unclean, John. And he said, "These pigs, they live on his concrete slab. We feed them pure healthy grain. They love to be washed. They love to be hosed down and cleaned off."
I said, "These are really clean pigs."
And he said, "Oh yeah."
I said, "If they're so clean, do you have less occasions of trichinosis with them? You don't have to worry about that because they're so clean. They eat good food, they're not rummaging in the garbage and all that."
He said, "Oh, no. They have trichinosis. In fact I caught it from these pigs before butchering them. We have to be very, very careful."
It's just endemic in this swine family; they're going to have these worms crawling in them.
John: It's got nothing to do with what you feed them or how you hose them; God said they're unclean because they're inherently unclean. You know those little things, they don't sweat. So they don't get those toxins like another animal might. Where does that sweat go? The impurities end up on your plate.
Gary: Well, they stink enough to have sweated.
John: God knew what he was talking about. I've got a sister-in-law whose husband is a meat inspector. He worked at that job as a meat inspector for a few years, vegetarian now. He saw enough of it; it just put him right off. He knows what's in this stuff, you see, because he inspects it everyday.
Gary: So you said no pig, no camel, no rock-badger, and no rabbits.
John: Now, God said this.
Gary: What else? God said that.
John: Let me add this as quickly as I can to make this as painless as possible. When it comes to the animals, the fish that are in the water, it's got to have fins and scales. Leviticus 11:9.
Gary: This doesn't sound like it's going to be painless.
John: Yeah...
Gary: Especially like me, I grew up in Louisiana. We ate a lot of things that came out of the water.
John: Brother, if you grew up in Louisiana, you ate anything you could slow down long enough so you could get a fork into.
Gary: Be careful, there are a lot of my family and friends listening from Louisiana.
John: Well, God bless every one, I hope they're listening carefully. It's got to have fins and scales if it comes out of the water. Basically, if it's an animal that flies, no scavengers. Chickens are clean.
Gary: No buzzards.
John: No buzzards and eagles.
Gary: Bats?
John: No bats, no vultures.
Gary: Crispy fried bat wings?
John: Ah, I know they do them well in the store near me, but I never get them. They're off the menu.
Gary: Tell me, what can we eat out of the sea?
John: Out of the sea? Anything with fins and scales, that would include trout, salmon and fish of that nature. Not the mollusks, they are filter feeders, and just the way they feed it lends them to getting disease. Many of the times, you would have heard of particular shell fish beds being off limits because of disease getting in there. God knew what He was talking about and I'd love to have the time to go into the science behind this and the countless examples of validating this. We don't have time for that, but let's deal with the Bible facts on this - unclean, because we love God, because it is not glorifying God to pollute the body temple. This is why we would want to stay away from that - to be in harmony with His will.
Gary: I know there are a lot of people who are really sorry to hear this.
John: No doubt about it.
Gary: I mean, crawfish and lobster - you're saying we can't eat those things any more.
John: The Bible says they're unclean.
Gary: Now, John, I know that a lot of people right now listening to us are saying, "What do they mean? Putting us under the old Mosaic laws. That's for the Jews. What are you talking about?"
John: Well, let's go back, Gary. Let's pick that up straight away. Remember, there were no Jews on Noah's Ark. And God told Noah, way back before the Jews, that this was important. If you look in the book of Isaiah, talking about the time of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, God says right there in the end of the book of Isaiah, these things are still an abomination. At the Second Coming. So there's not just this one little Jewish dispensation where this matters, you see. This is for all people, for all time. Glorifying God is for everybody, and what a joy to be able to do that.
Gary: But, John, there are still a lot of texts. In the New Testament, Jesus himself, the Apostle Paul, talking about what we eat, and it seems like to a lot of people that these texts are very clear where Jesus is saying, these foods are clean. In fact, let me take you to one.
John: Sure.
Gary: Mark, Chapter 7.
John: OK. Before you read that, keep in mind that Jesus came to this earth not to clean hogs and frogs. He came to this earth to clean sinners, you know. Now, keep that in mind. But, if you've got something to read to me here, let me hear.
Gary: Yeah, let's go to Mark 7.
John: All right.
Gary: Mark 7, Verse, let's look at Verse 15. Jesus says, "There's nothing from without a man" - nothing from without a man - "that entering into him can defile him. But the things which come out of him, these are they that defile the man."
John: No doubt about it.
Gary: So he says it doesn't matter what you eat, John. It's not going to defile you. It's what comes out of your heart. It's how you live your life.
John: Now, a person has got to be careful when they're reading these things in the Bible, Gary. You've got to be careful to make sure you look at these passages of scripture in their context. So why don't we look at the wider context of what is being said here in Mark, Chapter 7. Are you up to that?
Gary: Let's do it.
John: OK. You look in the first verse. "The scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus and they saw that his disciples" - some of them - "were eating bread with defiled" - that's the word you used, right?
Gary: It is.
John: Defiled. That is to say, unwashed hands. Now, these Pharisees and all the Jews, it says in Verse 3, except they wash their hands oft, or in other words, in a certain traditional manner up, all the way up to the elbow - unless they ate after washing their hands in a certain way, or they didn't eat unless they washed their hands a certain way is what I'm saying here. And the Disciples weren't following this thing.
Gary: In fact, I'm reading right there in Verse three it says "Holding the tradition of the elders. So they had a tradition of how you washed your hands, right?
John: Now they had a what?
Gary: A tradition.
John: OK, now let's everybody remember that what we're dealing with here is a tradition of the elders.
Gary: And if they did not follow that tradition, then what you're saying here is the Bible says "they were defiled."
John: Yeah.
Gary: And anything they touched was defiled.
John: Sure. Now, according to the tradition, you see. Now you'll notice that in Verse 8. And I can't read every verse; a person can any old time. This is Mark, Chapter 7. "Laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such things you do. And Jesus said, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition." So they came to Jesus and said, "Your followers aren't obeying the tradition of the elders." And Jesus answered them, and he said this to them. He said in Verse 15 - now, I want you to follow me carefully, OK?
Gary: OK.
John: "There is nothing from without a man that entering into him can defile him. But it's the things that come out of him. These defiled the man." And he goes on later and he describes them. He says "For from within the heart" you see? "Or out of the heart..." Evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness - all these evil things come from within and they defile a man. But, to eat without washing your hands a certain way, that doesn't defile a man. So we're not even dealing here with the food a person eats. We're dealing with his preparation beforehand, and even then whether it was in harmony with a tradition - nothing to do with a commandment of God.
Gary: And I would expect, John, that if Jesus were saying, "You can eat pig and everything else," they would have stoned Him on the spot because that would have been so radically different than everything they understood. He wouldn't have made it to the Cross. They would have killed Him then and there.
John: They would not have tolerated that for a single moment, see.
Gary: And I think what you pointed out earlier, Jesus didn't come to die to change the anatomy of a pig.
John: That's right.
Gary: He came to change our hearts. And that really ties right into what He's saying here.
John: This thing in Mark seven deals with the state of a person's heart. And isn't that the key when it comes to the Gospel and Christian living? How is your heart with Jesus Christ? And if you love Christ, Gary, are you going to delight to follow Biblical principles? Yes or no?
Gary: Oh, I'm going to follow Him all the way.
John: Because you...
Gary: ... Love God.
John: That's right. Now, friend, it's not legalism to honor God because you love Him. And you know, your body is going to love you for this too. Now make sure you get the Bible Study we're offering you. You wouldn't do this - you can't miss that. We've so much more to cover on this. We'll do it next time. Join us here on Bible Talk. [music]
Announcer: If you'd like more information on what we've been studying today, we have a comprehensive Bible Study guide we'd love to share with you that's absolutely free. This study includes many of the texts we've just discussed and expands on the subject including information you'll want to know. To receive this free, informative Bible Study guide, simply call, write, or email and ask for BT113, "You Wouldn't Do This." The toll free number is 866-BIBLE-SAYS. That's 866-242-5372. You can write to us at Bible Talk, PO 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 of Life Talk Radio.