05. Biblical Health Part 1 - Worldly Health vs. Biblical Health
Preface
There are a number of topics which I hope to share regarding the current climate of health among Christians. These are my own observations and interpretations of scripture regarding these topics of health.
My goal in writing is to offer a different perspective for Christians furthering their walk in Christ. I offer my argument for why we should be approaching health in a new way based on my interpretations of scripture, new discoveries in health sciences, and a mutual understanding that Satan’s goal is to destroy God’s creation and sever our relationship with our creator. “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8 NIV).
You’re probably wondering how and why somebody would write a paper on such a controversial topic within our culture. It started with a simple question, “Does scripture say anything about diet and health?” I honestly had no clue. This paper began as the accumulation of notes and annotations of bible verses while listening to the bible cover to cover throughout the course of a year and ten months; listening specifically for versus regarding health, diet, meat, food, and nutrition. When I finally finished my read-through, I went back through my notes and something began to percolate from the information gathered. I can’t say exactly how or why this was put on my heart to write this paper other than I felt commissioned by the Holy Spirit. In the same way this seed was planted in me to share, I hope this small seed can be a continual presence which grows to glorify God’s kingdom and ultimately makes a larger impact on the Body of Christ, if it be in His will.
Worldly Health vs. Biblical Health
As Watchmen in Christ, it is our duty to hold one another accountable in all things including diet and exercise; yet it seems the world focuses more on health and fitness than Christian men. Men’s morning bible studies begin with donuts. Men’s afternoon bible studies consist of pizza and soda. Men’s retreats have seemingly endless supplies of comfort food. Men’s monthly breakfast is near all we can eat buffet of mostly unhealthy options. After God said all is acceptable and safe to eat, have we misused God’s gift to us?
In the beginning, when God created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden there was no sin in the world; therefore, the diet God originally intended for us did not include the consumption of animals because death did not exist. I wonder, if we can describe the perfect body, the perfect health, and the perfect food in the Garden of Eden, shouldn’t we strive to model our health and diet off of a perfect model; in the same way we strive to make who we are more like Jesus who was perfect?
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. – Genesis 3:14-24 NIV
We will discuss the different types of consumption; as well as, when the bible talks about a dependence on meat it is often made in connection to death or disconnection from God. I discuss the importance of upholding our bodily health so may have the strength and fortitude to carry out the challenging calling God has for us. We will look at common arguments used to justify the way we eat within scripture, new ways of looking at the same scripture, and trying to uncover deeper meaning within. In addition, a topic often not shared is the importance of fasting as soldiers in Christ. As Christians we believe God created and creates all things; that nothing is outside of his understanding, thus I share the recent wide-spread changes across the secular medical industry due to their discoveries which have only been possibly because of divine intervention. Furthermore, us as the Body of Christ, need to take a hard look at the discoveries of the scientific community and ask ourselves, should we not also follow in the footsteps of the medical community if we believe all things happen in accordance to His will.
It is our duty to put the health of the Body of Christ first. The collective health of the body of Christ is reflective of the individual bodies making the whole. We are placing the Holy Trinity first – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Therefore, the temple of the Holy Spirit outranks our body because our bodies do not belong to us. Our life is not our own. “Lord, I know that people's lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps” (Jeremiah 10:23 NIV). We see this said again in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
We are the stewards of our body and the temple of the Holy Spirit. I could be wrong, but it seems to me the current way we look at diet and health as Christian men is broken. We live in a broken world and I know it’s not possible to fully live the way God intends us to, but if this was the original plan shouldn’t we try our best to live that way until the day He comes again?
1) The diet God originally intended for us was primarily made of plants and it’s biblically based because death only existed after the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. The existence of meat only exists because of death. In Genesis 2: “The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.” I think the New King James version actually says it best in its translation:
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. - Genesis 1:29 (KJV)
It is probable to discern God’s voice clearly telling us everything born in the ground from a seed upon the Earth is good to eat and will be the for consumption. Moses does not write about animals being good for consumption.
Now this second part where it is repeated slightly different in verse 30 is where I think people get confused. But let us break it down so we can better understand how God is telling us the story.
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. - Genesis 1:30 (KJV)
I believe it probable, in the second part of the sentence, God is clearly telling us every green herb was given for food for all animals in the Garden of Eden without discretion to Class, Order, Family, Genus, or Species. Arguably, it sounds like God is telling us He created all things to have life, and all the plants, fruits, and herbs from seeds are the food for every living thing.
Something else of note is in Genesis Chapter 2. The author does not say when God made animals, God brought them to Adam to be named which were pleasing to the eye and good for food.
9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.” – Genesis 2:9 and 20 (KJV)
God did not create animals to be eaten in the Garden of Eden. The first verse of the Bible acknowledging death is Genesis 3:21 where God kills the first animal to give Adam and Eve something to cover their naked bodies:
Genesis 3:21 (NIV): "The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them."
Genesis 3:21 (KJV): "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them."
Jumping to after Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden, they give birth to two Son’s Cain and Abel. Cain kills Abel in Genesis chapter 4. This is the second time we see death in the bible and from here on marks the turning point of death’s introduction.
In the book of Daniel, we see a man, a deportee from Judah, enslaved by one of the most lavish and wealthy kings of this time period.
“5 The king, [Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon], assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service… 8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way… 12 Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food and treat your servants in accordance with what you see. 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.” – Daniel 1:5-14
Then in verse 15 it says at the end of the testing period “they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.” Scripture says immediately after seeing the results of this, the guard took away the royal food and wine and gave them vegetables instead. The first diet case study was performed over 2,000 years ago and no Christian man has ever taught me this in Sunday school, in a church service or at a mends retreat. If God wanted this omitted from the Bible because it was insignificant, He would have. Lucky for us God made sure to leave this story in the bible loud and clear. Even the King and Guards in the most pagan kingdom on the earth took notice and immediately changed out the diet of their men because of a case study lasting ten days. But the story doesn’t stop there.
God in his infinite wisdom and clarity points out something so profound it should jump out to us, yet no one has ever taught this lesson either. God timed the next verse perfectly. Verse 17, then after the men changed their diet to vegetables and water and removed the wine and the king’s food, “to these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.”
It goes on to say in verse 20, “In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.” The simple yet profound act of removing the food from the king’s table and the wine because he didn’t want to defile himself in any manner. By being in prayerful union with God and by eating this diet, David found favor with the Lord. It wasn’t just the prayerful union, nor the diet alone which made him capable. By being in prayerful union with the Lord, David was able to hear the Holy Spirit and then act upon what he heard. This is the act of faith – listening and taking action. Gideon hearing God’s voice and acting in preparation to remove members of his army because God said he had too many men. Moses hearing the Holy Spirit in the burning bush and then acting upon God’s command to free the Israelites. By choosing to eat a diet consisting of only vegetables and water he became ten times better than the smartest and brightest individuals in the most successful kingdom in the known world. Therefore, to be successful in the calling God has for us, we must be in prayerful union with the Holy Spirit and reflect a diet to service the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Like myself when I began this journey, you may still be skeptical, so please allow me to continue.
In Jeremiah 31 God talks about the bounty of the supply overflowing for the people of Israel being gathered in Zion:
12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. – Jeremiah 31:12 (KJV)
I wonder, if the fall of man hadn’t happened, if the mention of the young of the flock and of the herd would be included? For additional perspective, let’s refer to John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible for this verse 12:
“…rich provisions which are made in it for the comfort and refreshment of his people; hence it follows: for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock, and of the herd; not for temporal blessings, which are for the good of the body only; but for spiritual blessings, signified by these, which are for the good of the soul, as the next clause shows: "for wheat"; for the Gospel and the doctrines of it, which are the finest of the wheat; and are as preferable to false doctrines as chaff is to wheat, and are soul nourishing and strengthening; see (Jeremiah 23:28).
Moreover, Christ himself is compared to wheat, and was typified by the manna, the corn of heaven, and angels' food; and is the bread of God, and the bread of life; and to be had in the church and ordinances of it; see (John 12:24) ; "and for wine"; the precious truths of the word, which, like the best wine, go down sweetly; the discoveries of the love of God and Christ, which are better than spiced wine; and the blood of Christ, signified by the wine in the Lord's supper, which is drink indeed, (Song of Solomon 7:9) (Song of Solomon 2:2 Song of Solomon 2:4) (John 6:55) ; "and for oil"; the grace of the Spirit, and larger measures of it; which is the golden oil, that through the golden pipes of ordinances is emptied out of the fulness of grace in Christ into the hearts of his people, (Zechariah 4:12) ; "and for the young of the flock, and of the herd"; the best of them, which being slain in sacrifice, typified Christ the Passover lamb, and fatted calf, and which makes the principal part of the Gospel feast, (Matthew 22:4) – John Gill (Gill, 1771)
For both of these indications have to do with Christ dying on the cross for our sins; as well as, the fattened calf being sacrificed for the gospel-feast (gospel-supper). What is the Gospel-feast you might ask? It is referred to in Luke 14:16-24, “Then said he to him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:” J. W. Reeve’s, M. A., commentary regarding the gospel-feast concludes the following:
o “The excellence of the feast — He [Jesus] sets before you salvation, pardon, peace, eternal life. Are not these things worth having? Are they not necessary to the welfare of your soul? Where can you get them, but in the way, you are called to accept now?”
o “The blessedness of partaking of this gospel-feast.”
o “The misery of refusing — of never tasting the gospel-supper — never, never! — never knowing pardon of sin — never knowing peace of conscience.” (J. W. Reeve, 1860)
Neither of the references to the young of the flock or of the heard would be necessary if Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned. The fall of man was the cause of the need to include these two references forms of sacrifice as atonement. God knows all of our wants and desires, but He knows exactly what we need in order to live freely and in unity with Him. Having an abundance of chickens and ribeye steaks doesn’t seem to be part of the deal. I also wonder if this is reference to an abundance of flocks and herds was for the shepherds, not as a form of food but, an abundance of supplies to live on during this time period. The nomadic lifestyle during the 18th to 6th centuries B.C. relied heavily on livestock to provide ample supply of wool, fur, leather, sinew, bone, and supplies to protect the people from natural conditions.
There is; however, reference of eating dairy, honey, and animals in different parts of the bible but as a reminder the eating of animals only occurs because death entered the world:
Genesis 18:8 (NIV) - “He [Abraham] then brought some curds and milk and the calf [foreshadowing of the gospel-feast] that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.”
Genesis 18:7 (NIV) – “Meanwhile, Abraham ran to the herd, selected a tender, choice calf, and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.”
Deuteronomy 32:14 (NIV) – “with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine [referencing goodness of the Lord in Zion in Jeremiah].”
Isaiah 7:15 (NIV) – “By the time he knows enough to reject evil and choose good, He will be eating curds and honey.”
Isaiah 7:22 (NIV) – “and from the abundant milk they give, he will eat curds; for all who remain in the land will eat curds and honey.”
I believe it is highly probable, eating meat was by choice because sin entered the world. Ultimately, with God providing all the food we needed, there was no need for meat.