Is It Wrong To Eat Meat?

A Question of Right and Wrong

When it comes to questions of right and wrong, people often try to imagine a law they can use to decide between right and wrong. Or instead of formulating a law, many people go by “gut feeling” — they may consider their feelings about whether something feels right or wrong, then they go along with their emotions. As a result, we can see so many people with different opinions of right and wrong, and we often see arguments because of disagreements. In either of these methods, the final judge of right and wrong is the person themself.

So how can we truly know what is right and wrong? Instead of making ourselves the final judge, the word of God our creator says we should trust God as the judge of right and wrong:

For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

Isaiah 33:22

5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Proverbs 3

The wisdom in trusting God in matters of right and wrong is one of the first lessons the Bible teaches. God created a world without death in it about 6,000 years ago, and our great grandparents Adam and Eve, the first two people, were in the Garden of Eden which God planted for them. God told them they may eat of any tree except the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because when they ate from that tree, they would die. Adam and Eve ate from the tree in disobedience and by doing that, they showed that instead of trusting God, they thought they knew better and would decide right and wrong for themselves. When people think they can decide right and wrong themselves instead of trusting God, the result is death, and that is why people have been dying ever since that first act of rebellion. So we should not consider ourselves to be the deciders of right and wrong, but instead we should trust God. We are the work of his hands and his creation, and he loves us more than any person could, and he is more wise than any of us, so we can be assured that his judgments are best for us.

Follow a Lawgiver, Instead of a Law

Whereas people often try to think of an unchangeable law as the highest standard, the Bible tells us that God is our law giver. Instead of following a law, we should be following the law giver.  And throughout time God has given different laws to people.

A History of Our Dietary Laws

In the beginning, about 4,000 B.C., God our creator gave mankind and animals the plants to eat. People and animals were designed to be vegetarian, as we can see in the bible:

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Genesis 1

Prior to the great flood which happened around 2300 B.C., God told us that there are clean and unclean animals:

1 And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

Genesis 7

Then at the end of the flood, which lasted about one year, God changed the dietary laws and people were given the clean animals to eat:

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

Genesis 9

Around 1400 B.C., God gave Moses and the Israelites the Book of Law which included the dietary laws found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. This book details which animals are clean and unclean:

24 And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,

25 That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying,

26 Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.

Deuteronomy 31

In the future, after Jesus returns and death is defeated, God will create a new earth which will be like the original creation, where the disciples of Jesus and the animals are vegetarian and there is no more death:

20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

1 Corinthians 15

17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.

22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.

24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.

Isaish 65

This timeline may be referenced on http://timeline.biblehistory.com

In Conclusion

We live in a time period after the flood, but before Jesus returns and creates a new earth. So in this time period, our creator’s laws say that eating meat is not wrong by itself. Eating meat would be wrong only if there are other circumstances that make it wrong, such as if eating is motivated by the lusts of the flesh and not by a legitimate need for food.

Animal abuse is wrong, as can be seen in Proverbs:

A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

Proverbs 12:10

So in a certain situation where people are abusing animals to save money expense while raising them for food, and then the flesh food is consumed by people in lust and also leading them to unhealthiness, the breaking of God’s laws may be seen.

We must be watchful to believe in God as the lawgiver, and not purport ourselves to be lawgivers.

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