7-28-23 The hog is unclean so why do Christians eat pork
The Muslim Challenge:
Deuteronomy 14:8 The hog is unclean, then why Christians eat pork??
My Response:
The answer to your question is given in many places in the New Testament.
Mar 7:17 After Jesus and his disciples had left the crowd and had gone into the house, they asked him what these sayings meant.
Mar 7:18 He answered, “Don’t you know what I am talking about by now? You surely know that the food you put into your mouth cannot make you unclean.
Mar 7:19 It doesn’t go into your heart, but into your stomach, and then out of your body.” By saying this, Jesus meant that all foods were fit to eat.
Mar 7:20 Then Jesus said: What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean.
Mar 7:21 Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder,
Mar 7:22 unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness.
Mar 7:23 All of these come from your heart, and they are what make you unfit to worship God. (CEV, Contemporary English Version)
Notice verse 19 above. It is translated in the ESV (English Standard Version):
Mar 7:18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him,
Mar 7:19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
A careful study of what the rest of the New Testament says about the subjects mentioned in Mark 7:19 and/or Deuteronomy 14:8 will enable anyone to learn that the food law or food restriction given in Deuteronomy 14:8 has been abolished by Jesus Christ because as He said, He came to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:18). The passages of Scripture involved may be found by means of consulting more complete sources of Bible cross references.
Contrary to what some have claimed here, there are many truths taught in the Bible which can only be understood by necessary inference. Many readers who lack inference skills will not understand these truths unless they are taught in a more direct form and understood by the enlightenment provided by the Holy Spirit.
Cross Reference Bible Study from The Ultimate Cross Reference Treasury:
Deu 14:8 And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.
Deuteronomy 14:8
the swine. Isa 65:4; Isa 66:3; Isa 66:17, Luk 15:15, 16, 2Pe 2:22.
unclean unto you. Deut 14:7, %Rom 14:14; %Rom 14:17, %1Co 8:8, Col 2:16, 17, %*1Ti 4:3, Heb 9:9, 10.
touch. Lev 11:26, 27.
My Comment:
When the text of Scripture reads “unclean unto you,” careful readers will know that “unto you” is directed and restricted to the author’s immediate intended audience.
This command, therefore, was given exclusively to the Hebrew or Jewish nation and people.
It applies to no other people outside the territory of the nation of Israel.
Therefore, the dietary law of Deuteronomy 14:8 does not apply to any Christians today, just as Jesus said in Mark 7:19.
Cross Reference Bible Study from The Ultimate Cross Reference Treasury:
Mar 7:18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
Mar 7:19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
purging all meats. Making all meats clean. Luk 11:41, Act 10:14, 15; Act 11:9, *Rom 14:17, Gal 2:12, *Col 2:16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, **1Ti 4:3, *Tit 1:15, Heb 9:10; Heb 13:9.