God’s Covenants Changed the Food Laws

BEVERLY QUINN BESSADA | Former Adventist Contributor |

As a former Seventh-day Adventist, I am occasionally asked by a professing Seventh-day Adventist what I think about a text. Peter’s vision in Acts 10 is one that is popular among vegetarian SDAs. 

These questions often end up in arguments unrelated to Scripture. I do not like to argue thoughts and opinions and prefer to understand the Bible in its purpose, its entirety. In response to this question about Acts 10, I did a response to a friend using the history of food from the Old to the New Testament—no health research documentation, just the Word of God.

The recent Dr. Daf  Show with Kalea, an evangelical Christian and Three Seventh-day Adventists, reminded me of the prideful indoctrination I experienced as an Adventist (By the way, every Christ-following believer is an adventist as we believe Jesus is returning to this world someday). Their well-rehearsed answers made me ill. I am submitting a response to one of several flawed arguments—food laws!

Let’s begin with the text of Acts 10 as understanding the actual words of the passage informs our response; the words reveal the context and the truth:

Now [there was] a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the people and prayed to God continually. About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had come in and said to him, “Cornelius!” And looking intently on him and becoming afraid, he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. “Now send [some] men to Joppa and summon a man [named] Simon, who is also called Peter; he is lodging with a tanner [named] Simon, whose house is by the sea.” And when the angel who was speaking to him had left, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants, and after he explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. 

And on the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat. And while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all [kinds of] four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the sky. And a voice came to him, “Rise up, Peter, slaughter and eat!” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything defiled and unclean.” Again a voice [came] to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no [longer] consider defiled.” And this happened three times and immediately the object was taken up into heaven. 

Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate; and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was lodging there. And while Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. “But rise up, go down and accompany them without taking issue at all, for I have sent them Myself.” And Peter went down to the men and said, “Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come?” And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was directed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and hear a message from you.” So he invited them in and gave them lodging. 

And on the next day he rose up and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went with him. And on the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. And when Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped [him]. But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am [just] a man.” As he talked with him, he entered and found many people assembled. And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and [yet] God has shown me that I should not call any man defiled or unclean. “That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was summoned. So I ask for what reason you have summoned me.” 

And Cornelius said, “Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour; and behold, a man stood before me in shining garments, and he said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. ‘Therefore send to Joppa and invite Simon, who is also called Peter, to come to you; he is lodging at the house of Simon [the] tanner by the sea.’ “So I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here present before God to hear all that you have been ordered by the Lord.” 

And opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most truly comprehend [now] that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the one who fears Him and does righteousness is welcome to Him. “As for the word which He sent to the sons of Israel, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ–He is Lord of all– you yourselves know the thing which happened throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed. “[You know of] Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and [how] He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. “And we are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree. “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He appear, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, [that is], to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. “And He commanded us to preach to the people, and solemnly to bear witness that this is the One who has been designated by God as Judge of the living and the dead. “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” 

While Peter was still speaking these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the word. And all the circumcised believers who came with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and magnifying God. Then Peter answered, “Can anyone refuse water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we [did]?” And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for a few days.—Acts 10:1–48, LSB

In The Beginning

God is a holy God. He is a perfect, eternal, everlasting Creator. Adam and Eve were created perfect human beings. The world was good. There was no death. All living things were vegetarian. We discover this fact in Genesis:

Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food “; and it was so. 31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.—Genesis 1:29

The Fall

When Adam and Eve sinned, they did not need to be told that they were separated from God. They inherently knew evil and feared their Creator. They hid from God. They knew that sin deserved death, and they were afraid.

The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”—Genesis 2:16

Adam and Eve did not die, at least physically, that day. Did God lie? If God did not lie, what died? Adam and Eve died spiritually. They were spiritually DEAD. Their physical death would come later, but their spirits’ relationship with God changed immediately. Their relationship with each other changed. Their relationship with the creation changed. They saw their shame, their guilt before a HOLY GOD. They could not enter His presence in their shame, and they covered themselves and hid. Their attempt to cover themselves was inadequate—as are all works of mankind. 

The Mercy, The Grace

God is a God of justice. He must punish that which is evil: sin. He is a God of wrath which is His love in action against sin. While Adam and Eve hid, and rightly so, the God of love sought them out.

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.—Genesis 3:21

What Adam and Eve could not do, God did. While Adam and Eve had immediately died spiritually with their physical death coming later, death in both realities reigned over the world. The first physical death in this world was that of an innocent animal, killed by God Himself, to clothe—to cover Adam and Eve. This was a taste of the substitute concept preceding the sacrifices initiated in the Mosaic Covenant and was a shadow of the Reality that God would someday kill the One and Only ultimate efficacious substitute, His own Son, the God-Man, to redeem sinners.

Global Wickedness, The Flood, and the Noahic Covenant

From the time of the Fall, the world became increasingly corrupt.

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.—Genesis 6:5

God’s judgment on the sin, corruptness and violence (6:11) of the world was to destroy it by flood while saving the one man and his family who believed in God. God established a covenant with Noah and would repopulate the earth through him.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.—Genesis 9:1–3

The earth had changed. Relationships had changed. God now gave man and animals other living creatures to eat. Animals feared man, and both man and animals went from being herbivores to carnivores. 

God Chooses a Man—Abrahamic Covenant

As time went on and mankind continued in its sinful state, God continued to reach out in love. He eventually chose Abraham to establish His covenant (agreement/promise). It was a unilateral, unconditional covenant of land, nations, and blessing from which a Messiah would eventually come. This blessing was reiterated with Isaac and Jacob (Israel). 

God Establishes a Nation—Mosaic Covenant

God was going to establish a nation to be set apart from the wicked nations He would destroy (God’s wrath is holy, unlike sinful, human, emotional anger) in judgment due to their willful rebellion. Because they were to be holy, God gave them the CONDITIONAL COVENANT (a two-way agreement between the covenant parties: if you do this, then I will do this) in which He spelled out the demands that would keep them from associating and polluting themselves from the evil nations they were to destroy. He set out blessings for obedience and cursing for disobedience. (Exodus, Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28). It was strict because only God is perfect and holy and mankind rebels, naturally. Only by perfect obedience can man attain a perfect, joyful, beautiful, loving life and relationship with God. 

The Law REVEALS Sin – It Does Not PREVENT Sin

The pagan nations from which Israel was called were full of all kinds of evil idolatry and sexual sins. Extra-biblical history reveals additional details of the evil manifested. God desired to keep Israel apart (holy) from associating with them in any way, and the food laws were useful for that purpose. Socializing begins with partaking in meals together. Perfect, clean animals necessary for sacrifices to God symbolized the state in which man can enter the presence of a holy God. He is very specific. There is a differentiation between holy and common, clean and unclean. (See Side Bar)

The history of Israel shows the depravity of all mankind in spite of God’s demands. National Israel was specifically and uniquely given the law of God. It proved no one could be righteous as no one but a perfect, holy God could keep His perfect, holy law. The law reveals sin and the depraved nature of all fallen man.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.—James 1:23

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.—James 2:10

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”—Romans 7:7

The Consequences of Israel’s Disobedience Against God’s Commands

In spite of being the privileged nation having God’s law, Israel consistently and repeatedly rebelled against God, just like the other nations. (Read the book of Judges). When they sinned, God punished. When they cried out to Him, He saved—until their sin became so great, His glory left the tabernacle, the place of His earthly dwelling among them (Ezekiel 10) and the curses of Leviticus 27 and Deuteronomy 28 were realized in the captivity of northern 10 tribes of Israel by the Assyrians (732 BC – 2 Kings 17) and of the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin by the Babylonians (586 BC – 2 Kings 24; Jeremiah 29). They had God’s law that the other nations did not have. AND STILL…

Israel’s inability to obey God demonstrated the sinfulness of man and the need for a Savior. In His mercy and faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham, Judah’s punishment was only 70 years after which He sent them back into their land. But they never completely turned to the Lord (although they did not resume idol worship) and their sinfulness increased. They were arrogant and proud thinking they were a special people in and of themselves. They despised the Gentile nations. They disobeyed God and made up their own rules. They needed a Savior as did the rest of the world but did not acknowledge that need either through ignorance or willful disbelief.

God’s Ultimate Sacrifice Satisfying His Holy Wrath Against Sin

Christ came. The Israelites refused to recognize Him. The pharisees even pointed the Magi to the prophetic birthplace of the Messiah but did not go to inquire themselves.

• Christ was the Son of God—only God can forgive the sins done against Him.
• He was the Son of man—only a man can take the place of a man on behalf of man.
• He lived the perfect life in perfect obedience to the Father.
• He died the death every sinner deserves to die so that the one who puts their faith in Him is no longer under judgment but is covered (saved) by the blood of His death.
• He rose from the dead to give evidence of who He was, the Divine God, who alone has power over death. His eternal life assures eternal life for the believer.

The New Covenant

Christ is establishing a new people under a New Covenant. No longer is Jew separated from Gentile. God is faithful, and He cannot lie; His promises are true. God has temporarily set aside the nation of Israel who failed to be a blessing to the world and is bringing that blessing to the world through Christ, the promised Son of David.

Someday God will draw the Jews back to Himself, and they will finally recognize Christ as their Messiah. This yet-unfulfilled prophecy is looking forward to the time of the Tribulation when the anti-Christ makes a pact with Israel and then breaks it. 

In the meantime, the church was established on the Cornerstone of Christ with the apostles as the foundation. The church began with the gospel to the Jews, and they had to be taught the fundamentals of the New Covenant.

Peter was the apostle to the Jews (“…for He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles”—Galatians 2: 8), and He had to unlearn His Jewish attitude toward Gentiles. 

Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”—Acts 10:15

And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.—Acts 10:48

When Peter was commanded to go to Cornelius, he was learning two new things:

1. There is no distinction between Gentile and Jew in the eyes of God
2. There was no distinction between Gentile diet and Jewish diet

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.—Galatians 3:28

Peter, a Jew by birth, was to meet with Cornelius, a Gentile whom he would previously have known only to be unclean and would never have defiled himself by entering his house.  Peter was to stay in the home of Cornelius—and that meant he would also eat his food.

Though this command came from God directly to Peter, Peter still had to struggle in overcoming his former belief system and the fear of man rather than the fear of God. 

Even after this experience with Cornelius, staying in his home and eating his food, Peter needed further reminding. He was reprimanded by Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, for his hypocrisy. In the New Covenant, Paul had to remind him, there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, but there were barriers to overcome—legalistic Jews who tried to impose restrictions upon Gentiles.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.—Galatians 2:11–13

Furthermore, Gentiles who were now young in Christ but were turning from their old idolatry were fearful of meat offered to idols:

Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience’ sake; FOR THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND ALL IT CONTAINS. If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience’ sake. But if anyone says to you, This is meat sacrificed to idols,” do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience’ sake;—1 Corinthians 10:24–27

This new permission to eat whatever is set before one was of the law of Christ in which we live for others instead of ourselves. If a new Gentile believer, in his newness and immaturity of faith, reprimanded a more mature believer to avoid meat offered to idols, the mature believer should keep quiet and err on the side of love for the one growing in Christ.

No longer were Jews to separate from Gentiles but to love and share the gospel of Christ. The mystery was being revealed—the Gentiles were a part of God’s plan! No more temple, no more veil. Christ had entered into the veil. It was torn. Through Him we can all enter God’s presence—Jew and Gentile—the Church made one in Christ.

The church, made up of individuals born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, are not to judge each other in choices that are contained in our freedom under the New Covenant in Jesu Christ.

They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.—1 Timothy 4:3–5

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.—Colossians 2:16

Summary

 Just as the Mosaic Covenant dietary laws separated Israel from the nations, the New Covenant nullified those dietary laws as Jews and Gentiles were united in Christ. In Christ, there are no unclean individuals and no unclean foods. 

But ALL are sinners. 

And ALL are unclean. 

Only in Christ are we made clean – sinners saved  by grace. †