Health - Answers to Difficult Questions

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21. HEALTH – ANSWERS TO DIFFICULT QUESTIONS DIDN ’ TJ ESUS SAY, “IT IS NOT WHAT GOES INTO AMAN BUT ITS WHAT GOES OUT WHICH DEFILES HIM ”? WHY PUT SO MUCH EMPHASIS ON DIET?

 Mark 7:18-20 Here Jesus is saying that it is not what enters into the body from outside that defiles it. But is here Jesus talking about clean or unclean meat?

 Matthew 15:16-20 The very same episode in the gospel of Matthew brings light on this text. It makes clear that the topic here is not about what you eat but about eating with unwashed hands (which thing was considered a sin by the Pharisees because of their tradition, see Matthew 15:6-12).

So the Bible translations that translate in Mark: “Jesus declared all foods clean”, differently from the KJV and the NKJV, are using the Greek text to prove something that the text was never meant to prove, because the topic was not about clean/unclean food, but about clean/unclean hands.

DOESN ’ TTHE APOSTLE PAUL SAY, “MEAT DOESN ’ TCOMMEND US TO GOD, WE ARE NO BETTER OR WORSE IF WE EAT ”?

 1 Corinthians 8:8 Yes, that is what Paul says, but we need to contextualize this verse.

 1 Corinthians 8:1 The topic here is actually about meat offered to idols and not about clean/unclean meat.

DIDN ’ TP AUL DECLARE, “WHATSOEVER IS SOLD IN THE MARKET PLACE EAT, ASKING NO QUESTION FOR CONSCIENCE SAKE?

 1 Corinthians 10:25 Yes, that is what he said, but is he talking about clean/unclean meat?

 1 Corinthians 10:28 Again, the context shows us that the topic was not about a claim of the Gentiles to eat some pork once in a while, but was about meat offered to idols. 6 21. Health – Menorah Mission School – 2018/2019 So the topic is not the kind of meat but if that meat had been offered to idols.

AREN ’ TTHE HEALTH LAWS JEWISH OLD TESTAMENT ’ SRITUALS THAT CHRIST DID AWAY WITH AT THE CROSS AND WE SHOULD NO LONGER BE JUDGED IF WE EAT UNCLEAN MEAT?

 Colossians 2:14-17 This text is actually speaking about things as food or drink that are a shadow of things to come, but the substance (or the body) is of Christ.

The shadow then represents the substance, which means that these food and drink was a representation of Christ.

Now is pork meat, considered unclean by direct order of God (see Leviticus 11:7) a representation of Christ? Certainly not!

So Paul for sure is not talking about the distinction between clean and unclean meat but about the ceremonial law, which included thing to be eaten or drunk.

SINCE GOD TOLD NOAH, “EVERY MOVING THING WHICH LIVETH SHALL BE MEAT FOR YOU ; EVEN AS THE GREEN HERB HAVE IGIVEN YOU ALL THINGS ”, ISN ’ TIT PERMISSIBLE TO EAT WHATEVER WE WANT?

 Genesis 9:3 By the text it looks like God was telling so to Noah, but there are two points that we should take into consideration:

1. God said this to Noah right after the flood (see Genesis 8:18-19), but at this time there was just one couple of each unclean species (see Genesis 7:2), so to eat them at that time would have meant to totally eradicate that species from earth.

2. Noah knew the difference between clean and unclean animals. This means that God had instructed he somehow, before the flood, on how to distinguish one from the other. Why such a distinction if all meat could be eaten?

The text says that the criteria for meat eating had to be even as for the green herb. But we have no suggestion in the Bible that they were eating all green herbs (at the contrary we know that after sin thorns and thistles were going to be present).

So they themselves had to select what they were eating out of the herbs world. So if there must be a selection in what to eat in the herbs world, the same must be applied also for meat eating, because they had to eat meat “even as the green herb”.

DIDN ’ TG OD GIVE PETER AVISION TELLING HIM HE HAD CLEANSED ALL UNCLEAN ANIMALS?

 Acts 10:9-16 21. Health – Menorah Mission School – 2018/2019 7 In this episode Peter had this vision in which he saw a great sheet coming down from heaven containing all kinds of animals, including unclean ones.

There was a voice from heaven telling then: “Rise Peter, kill and eat”. When Peter was refusing saying that he had never eaten anything common or unclean, the voice was replying: “What God has cleansed you must not call common”. This happened three times.

 Acts 10:28,34,35 What Peter himself declared later shows here clearly that what the voice was really talking about was not dealing with diet changes, but with Peter’s way of dealing with the Gentiles, who should have not been considered as unclean, since God had brought salvation to them through Christ (see Ephesians 2:11-13).

DOESN ’ TTHE BIBLE SAY THAT IN LATTER TIMES WOULD HAVE COME PEOPLE TEACHING TO ABSTAIN FROM FOOD AND THAT THESE PEOPLE HAD DEPARTED FROM THE FAITH AND FOLLOWED DECEIVING SPIRITS AND DOCTRINES OF DEMONS?

 1 Timothy 4:1-5 Yes, Paul is warning Timothy of the coming of people that would have forbidden marrying and commanding to abstain from food.

Paul specifies that the foods they were commanding to abstain from are foods created by God to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

Here the text even says that if it is received with thanksgiving nothing is to be refused. Why so?

Because the Word of God and prayer sanctifies it.

Here the text does not specifically talk about meat, but about food (the Greek is broma, which literally means food, not just flesh meat, for which the Greek word would be sarx).

The text does not speak about food in general, but specifically about food that God created to be received.

We find that at creation God created fruits, nuts, seeds and cereals to be received by men as food (see Genesis 1:29). Then, after sin, God included the eating of vegetables (see Genesis 3:18). Then, after the flood, God included the eating of clean meat (see specific question about Genesis 9:3 and Leviticus 11:2-20).

We are not here talking about people forbidding the eating of unclean meats, but about people forbidding the eating of things that the Word of God allows us to eat (fruit, grains, seeds, legumes, vegetables and clean meat). 8 21. Health – Menorah Mission School – 2018/2019 Another important question we should ask ourselves is: how can something forbidden by the Word of God (as unclean meat) be sanctified by it? If it would be so, there would be an evident contradiction here.

This forbidding of eating food must also be done ALTOGETHER with forbidding marriage and speaking lies with hypocrisy.

It is interesting in the prophetic scenario to know that the Catholic Church imposes fasting from eating meat every Friday to all people from fourteen years of age and older (even though in more recent times they have been more flexible on this point) and at the same time forbids his priests and nouns to get married.

DOESN ’ TTHE APOSTLE PAUL SAY THAT HE BELIEVES NOTHING IS UNCLEAN BY ITSELF?

 Romans 14:14 See study 12. Sabbath – Answers to difficult questions the following question: Doesn’t the Bible say that it doesn’t really matter which day we keep holy, but it’s just a matter of personal conviction?

DIDN ’ TJ ESUS HIMSELF DRINK WINE AND EVEN CHANGED WATER INTO WINE?

 Luke 22:15-18 Here the word wine is actually never used (it is said “drink of the fruit of the vine”), but the context (the Passover) allows us to say that it was unfermented grape juice, because the Passover was within the feast of the Unleavened bread (see Mark 14:12) and no leaven or yeast was allowed in this feast (see Exodus 13:7).

 John 2:1-11 Here we find the word “wine”, which in the Greek is the word oinos . This word is used both for fermented wine and for pure grape. The only way we have to know which one Jesus provided for them is by the context.

Here the text specifies the quantity of water that was transformed by Jesus: six water pots of stone containing two or three firkins each, which is twenty or thirty gallons each (see v.6 according to KJV and NKJV), which is about 75 to 110 liters of wine for each water pot, for a total amount of about 450 to 660 liters of wine (about 600 to 880 standard bottles of wine).

If that was fermented wine, such an amount would allow at least one of the wedding attendees to drink a sufficient amount of wine to get fully drunk and to loose control (this might imply, as a consequence, committing sin or killing himself falling from a high place). 21. Health – Menorah Mission School – 2018/2019 9 Jesus came to save the lost, not to be a stumbling block to them. We can surely know that Jesus made water into pure grape juice and not fermented wine.

DIDN ’ TP AUL INSTRUCT TIMOTHY TO TAKE “ ALITTLE WINE FOR THE STOMACH ’ SSAKE ”?

 1 Timothy 5:23 The word here used is oinos and could refer both to fermented wine or pure grape juice. We must take into consideration that Paul is giving this suggestion to Timothy not to have fun, but to help the healing of his stomach, so for medical purposes.

Greek manuscripts of Aristotle show that he called grape juice using the word oinos but saying it has not the effects of wine. Athenaeus, a Greek writer of the third century AD reports that pure grape juice (again the word oinos used) was used for the cure of stomach problems (Aristotle, Meteorology 387, b. 9-13; Athenaeus, Banquet, 2,24) So it would make sense for Paul to suggest Timothy to take some grape juice to help the healing of his stomach, since that was an existing practice of his time.

At the contrary, it would not make sense for Paul to suggest the intake of fermented wine, since alcohol is an irritating factor to the gastric mucosa and would actually worse stomach problems.

DOESN ’ TTHE BIBLE SAY THAT IN SPECIFIC OCCASIONS IT IS LAWFUL TO HAVE WINE OR STRONG DRINK OR WHATEVER WE WANT TO EAT?

 Deuteronomy 14:26 Here the text is talking about the tithe, how it had to be brought to the sanctuary for people leaving far away from it. They were allowed to convert it into money and to buy whatever they wanted in the place where the sanctuary was. Also wine and strong drinks are here included in the list.

The text does not suggest though that they were going to eat or drink ALL that they had brought as offering, nor that they were allowed to bring as offering and eat unclean things.

 Deuteronomy 14:3 In the very same chapter we find again the admonition not to eat detestable things, with a list of clean and unclean animals (see Deuteronomy 14:4-20). So unclean meats were obviously not allowed within the phrasing “whatever your heart desires” in verse 26.

 Numbers 28:7 The wine and strong drinks that they were allowed to bring as an offering were not for them to drink, but were to be poured out in a holy place as an offering to God. So also the consumption of alcohol is not implied nor encouraged in Deuteronomy 14.