Question:  Dear Greg,

            I am trying to understand why more Christians do not follow a vegetarian diet.  Everything I have learned about diet indicates that eating meat is bad for your health (and consequently the temple of God).  The practice of eating meat is bad for animals that are genetically manipulated to be THINGS grown simply for food with no regard to their lives or living conditions.  It causes unnecessary pollution and wastes the earth’s limited resources and it helps to spread diseases that sicken (and even kill) people.

            Genesis 1:29-30 implies that man was created by God to be vegetarian.  Later in the Bible it seems that God permitted meat eating (some people say that was after sin entered the world—some say it was due to the Flood).  Why would God create man to be vegetarian and then later say that it is okay to eat meat (knowing that it is so bad in so many ways)?  This question has always perplexed me.

            Chuck

Answer:  Dear Chuck,

            Vegetarianism is not endorsed or recommended in the Bible, which may account for the fact that a minority of Christians follow such a protocol.  In fact, not only is vegetarianism not endorsed, there are many references to eating animal flesh in the Old Testament, including when the Lord visited Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 19).  A tender calf from the flock was prepared and they all ate of it.  If he created humans to be vegetarians, why would he eat meat with them?  The dietary code God gave to the Hebrews specifically lists which animal flesh the Jews were permitted to eat (Leviticus 11).  There are many other references about eating meat in the Old Testament.

            New Testament references include responses to the fact that Christians are not bound to the dietary code of the old covenant but in so doing New Testament teaching also sanctions the eating of animal flesh (see Mark 7:19 and Acts 10).  So we must conclude that there is no overt prohibition for Christians to eat animal flesh.  Jesus prepared and ate fish with his disciples after his resurrection (John 21).

            You note that a passage in Genesis (1:29-30) implies that God created humans to be vegetarians, but the fall changed all of that.  Such a conclusion is a weak implication and certainly not a logical or sound methodology by which to study the Bible.  It is an example of proof texting, i.e., taking one passage in the Bible as normative, ignoring all others that mitigate or contradict it.  For example, by the same token we read that animals at that time were tame, Adam and Eve were naked, they lived in a garden, there were two trees they could not eat of, the devil was a snake, etc., etc.  If Christians should be vegetarians then we should, by the same token, revert to practicing and believing everything as it was in the Garden of Eden.

            Such a conclusion is not supported by sound Bible study.  When God came to be one of us in the person of Jesus (called the second Adam by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15), he was not a vegetarian.  The apostles and early Christians were not vegetarians.  So we can safely conclude that no biblical principles tell us that Christians are prohibited from eating meats, poultry, fish, etc.  Does that mean, however, that Christians cannot be vegetarians if they wish?  Nothing in the Bible would say that Christians are not free to avoid eating any number of things and, as you note, wisdom would suggest that we consider how all of our food is grown, enhanced, colored, preserved, etc. before we stuff it into our bodies.  Fast foods were not available (as far as we know!) during the times in which the Bible was written so we have no comment about them.

            One thing a Christian is not free to do—to insist or attempt to enforce stipulations upon others they may personally be convicted about but lack solid biblical backing in doing.  Romans 14 is instructive.  In addition, we should note that Paul clearly told Timothy that no Christian has the right to tell another that 1) they must live a celibate life and thus never marry, or 2) they must abstain from certain foods (see 1 Timothy 4:3).  If Christians wish to be vegetarians according to the Bible that is their choice.  But Christians may not, according to the Bible, take a choice of this nature and tell others that they must do the same.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht