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Transcript 142C — Clean and Unclean Food [1 Tim 4:4]
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes. Tonight I'm calling about the different foods you're supposed to eat. And this comes out in the 14th Chapter of Deuteronomy. And in I Timothy 4:4 it says, "For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving." So this means all creatures. Isn't that right?
HC: Yes. In other words, if you were an Eskimo, and all you could eat was whale blubber, that's food.
CALLER: That's not a fair statement, is it, coming out of I Timothy, because in the Old Testament, in the 14th Chapter of Deuteronomy, it indicates the clean and unclean meats that you eat.
HC: You see, the problem we have before us is that we have to see how God changes His commandments. Now in the Old Testament God gave certain rules concerning the offering of sacrifices, for example. Those have been completed in Christ. We're not to offer sacrifices. He became the Sacrifice.
There were a lot of other laws, also, that were given to Israel in order to show them their need to be a separate people. And they could only ultimately be a separate people by placing their trust in God. And God included in this the matter of the eating of clean and unclean animals. Incidentally, that law was already in motion from almost the very beginning, because on the ark Noah put clean and unclean animals.
But when we come to the New Testament, we find in Acts 9 that Peter in a vision, was commanded to eat of these animals which were on this sheet which was let down from Heaven. And there were unclean animals on this sheet, and he was told to eat of these. God commanded him to do this, because that which has been unclean are now to be considered clean.
Actually, the timing of this vision was the time when Peter was instructed to bring the Gospel to a Roman centurion, Cornelius, who was looked upon as an unclean, uncircumcised heathen by the Jews. But he was commanded that the Gospel is for them, too. In other words, the unclean animals in the Old Testament were a figure of the unclean, uncircumcised heathen all around the nation of Israel. But now that Christ has come, the Gospel is to go everywhere. There no longer is a distinction between the nation of Israel and the rest of the world. There is a distinction, of course, between born again believers. But it's not to be reflected in the eating of meats.
You might also look at Colossians 2:16, where God underscores this same truth. "Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a festival, or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." Now here God is lumping together the sabbath (and the Old Testament seventh day sabbath is the sabbath day that would have to be in view), the new moon, and the festivals or feast days, which had to do with the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles and the Day of Atonement, and so on. And right in the same category He puts food and drink. That is, the food laws of the Old Testament are lumped together with the sacrificial laws and the feast day laws, to indicate that all of these were a shadow pointing to the coming of the Messiah
CALLER: Okay, you made that clear. Now this I Timothy 4:4 isn't talking about the foods, but the creatures, right?
HC: I Timothy 4:4 is dealing with food, really, because the context is food. In verse 3 we read, "who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good." It could be translated "meats," I suppose. "Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with thanksgiving." The focal point is on that which we eat.
CALLER: Okay, thank you.
HC: Thank you for calling. Good night.