God gave us some very specificguidelines on what animals we shouldeat, and what animals we should noteat. He is the great Creator of allthings and knows what is compatiblefor our bodies and what is not. Wecan find a list of these animals inLeviticus chapter 11.

We are living in the times de-scribed by Paul in II Timothy 3:1-10,when people would have a form ofgodliness, “Ever learning, but neverable to come to the knowledge of thetruth”; and by Peter (II Pet. 2:1-4)when there would be false teachersteaching pernicious ways. Theywould have many followers, andspeak evil of the Word of Truth. Wewould naturally expect such to try todo away with the things that wouldmake them righteous and separatefrom the world. The things that Godhas pronounced unclean as a food wewould expect them to use, becausethe world is very fond of the uncleanbeasts, as well as unclean things ofthe waters.

To Noah, after the flood, the Lordsaid, “Every moving thing that livethshall be meat for you; even as (or inthe same manner) the green herb haveI given you all things” (Gen. 9:3). Soin the same way He gave the greenherbs, He gave them the movingthings of the earth. Then we turn toGenesis 1:29 and read: “And God

THELAWOF

THECLEAN

ANDUNCLEAN

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said, Behold I have given you everyherb bearing seed, which is upon theface of all the earth, and every tree,in the which is the fruit of a tree yield-ing seed; to you it shall be for meat.”Here God gave to man the herbs witha provision, and only the ones bear-ing seed are we to use for food. Sothe moving things were given us inthe same way. God did not make theprovision when He gave the herbs tothe beast. See verse 30. The tree inthe midst of the garden, which He hadplanted, was forbidden and a deathpenalty pronounced on the offenders.After reading these scriptures, we aresafe in saying that there was a provi-sion made in the moving things to beused for food.

In Genesis, the 7th chapter, whenthe world had gone away from God,and He had decreed a flood to de-stroy them, man knew then the signsof separating the clean from the un-clean, for unto Noah God said: “Ofevery clean beast thou shalt take tothee by sevens, the male and his fe-male: and of beasts that are not cleanby two, the male and his female”(verse 2). Noah knew the law in re-gard to this matter, or this could nothave been possible. After the floodboth the clean and the unclean thingsstill lived. “And Noah builded an al-tar unto the Lord; and took of everyclean beast, and of every clean fowl,

and offered burnt offerings on the al-tar” (Genesis 8:20).

There were foods to be eaten, andfoods not to be eaten at the time ofthe flood, for God said unto Noah:“And take thou unto thee of all foodthat is eaten, and thou shalt gather itto thee” (Genesis 6:21). We read inGenesis that the men of God keptherds of cattle, sheep, and goats, andate of these flocks; but we find norecord of herds of swine being kept,or the pig of the flock being dressedfor food.

After Abraham’s seed had servedthe kings of Egypt for four hundredyears, and had been fed from the fleshpots of Egypt, God led them out andmade known unto them His lawsagain, and gave them the sign of sanc-tification of beasts to be eaten andbeasts not to be eaten. See Lev. 11:1-23.

“Thou shalt not eat any abomi-nable thing. These are the beastswhich ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep,and the goat, the hart, and the roe-buck, and the fallow deer, and thewild goat, and the pygarg (or bison),and the wild ox, and the chamois.And every beast that parteth the hoof,and cleaveth the cleft into two claws,and cheweth the cud among thebeasts, that, shall ye eat. Neverthe-less these ye shall not eat of them thatchew the cud, or of them that divide

the cloven hoof; as the camel, and thehare, and the coney; for they chewthe cud but divide not the hoof; there-fore they are unclean unto you. Andthe swine, because it divideth thehoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it isunclean unto you: ye shall not eat oftheir flesh, nor touch their dead car-cass. These ye shall eat of all thatare in the waters: all that have finsand scales shall ye eat; and what-soever hath not fins and scales ye maynot eat; it is unclean unto you”(Deuteronomy 14:1-10). A list of un-clean birds is also given in this chap-ter. See verses 11-20. Paul says in II Cor. 11:3, “But Ifear, lest by any means, as the ser-pent beguiled Eve through hissubtility, so your minds should becorrupted from the simplicity that isin Christ.” The subtle voice of Sa-tan, speaking in opposition to God,deceived Eve into eating the thingGod told her not to eat, and Paul wasafraid that some in this age would becorrupted in the same way. We aretold the same thing in regard to theunclean things that Eve was told inthe garden of Eden. See Leviticus11:8 and Deuteronomy 14:8. Thesame penalty is pronounced. Isaiah66:15-18 reads, “For, behold, theLord will come with fire, and withhis chariots like a whirlwind, to ren-der his anger with fury and his rebuke

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with flames of fire. For by fire andby his sword will the Lord plead withall flesh: and the slain of the Lordshall be many. They that sanctifythemselves, and purify themselves inthe gardens behind one tree in themidst (or one after the other), eatingswine’s flesh, and the abomination,and the mouse shall be consumed to-gether, saith the Lord.” This has nothappened yet, but will happen whenthe Lord comes with fire. The voiceof Satan can be heard from the pulpittoday saying that God will not destroypeople for eating these things, but weshould remember what Eve did inEden. The Lord speaks of some,“Which remain among the graves,and lodge in the monuments, whicheat swine’s flesh, and broth of abomi-nable things is in their vessels,” andthe penalty is also pronounced again(Isaiah 65:2-8). “Ye shall therefore put differencebetween clean beasts and unclean,and between unclean fowls and clean:and ye shall not make your soulsabominable by beast, or by fowl, orby any manner of living thing thatcreepeth on the ground, which I haveseparated from you as unclean”(Leviticus 20:25). Some may saythat there are other ways to make our-selves abominable. Even so, but eat-ing the abominable is one way. Wefind in the New Testament, “They

profess that they know God; but inworks they deny him, being abomi-nable, and disobedient, and unto ev-ery good work reprobate” (Titus1:16). They end in the lake of fire.“But the fearful, and unbelieving, andthe abominable, and murderers, andwhoremongers, and sorcerers, andidolaters, and all liars, shall have theirpart in the lake which burneth withfire and brimstone: which is the sec-ond death” (Revelation 21:8). So wecan see that the abominable end upin the lake of fire with all the other,classes of sinners. “. . . Whatsoever is not of faith issin.” Rom. 14:23. Anything that Godhas withheld from us and told us not‘to eat, we must first lust after beforewe will eat it. Lust is a violation ofthe tenth commandment; and takingsomething God did not give us isstealing. So in eating things God hasforbidden, we not only make oursouls abominable, but we transgressthe Ten Commandments in at leasttwo points.

Objections AnsweredROMANS, the 14th chapter

Paul, in this chapter, makes an ap-peal to the ones strong in the faith.There are two weak classes men-tioned in the first two verses that weare to receive, but not to doubtful

disputations (or decisions or reason-ings); one believes he can eat allthings, another believes he should eatherbs. The ones strong in the faithare not vegetarians; neither do theybelieve in eating all things. They areinstructed not to let the weak in thefaith despise one another until Godmakes them stand.

In the sixth verse, we have twomentioned. They both eat and giveGod thanks, but one eats to the Lordand the other does not. The only waythat this can be explained is that theone eats according to the will of God,as revealed in His word, and the otherdoes not.

The fourteenth verse tells us thatthere is nothing unclean of itself; thenif not unclean of themselves, theywere evidently created unclean bythe God of heaven. So when anythingis not literally unclean, or unclean ofitself, we have no other way of es-teeming it to be unclean but by theWord of God.

Romans 14:15 states, "...Destroynot him (thy brother) with thy meatfor whom Christ died.” Now, if, assome people assert, the law of theciean and unclean was repealed, itwould be impossible to destroy abrother with meat. Everything Godcreated is pure for the purpose thatGod created it: but it is evil for thatman who eateth with offense. Now,

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if the things that God pronouncedunclean were made clean by the deathof Jesus on the cross, there would beno such language as this in the NewTestament.

I TIMOTHY, the 4th Chapter

In the last days, there were to beseducing spirits. They were to com-mand to abstain from meats that Godcreated to be received with thanks-giving, or in other words, they wereto be vegetarians, and were to forbidto marry. “Every creature of God isgood, and nothing to be refused, if itbe received with thanksgiving: for itis sanctified (set apart) by the wordof God and prayer.” We have manyvegetarians in the world who com-mand their followers to abstain fromall meats.

As the word sanctify means to setapart, there must be two classes ofcreatures in the world. There was asign of sanctification before the floodor Noah would not have known theclean from the unclean in taking thebeasts into the ark. Therefore, theywere (sanctified) set apart, someclean and some unclean before thattime. If all were cleansed by theblood of Christ, there would be onlyone class in the world and no uncleanfor the clean to be set apart from. Ifall the people in the world were righ-

teous alike, they could not be sancti-fied because there would be nowicked or sinners for the righteousto be set apart from; so it remains thatthere were beasts created to be re-ceived with thanksgiving, and somenot to be received with thanksgivingas food, and some sanctified by theWord of God, and some not sancti-fied for food.

MARK 7:18-19 andMATTHEW 15:11-19

Jesus said: “Not that which goethinto the mouth defileth a man; but thatwhich cometh out of the mouth, thisdefileth a man,” (Matthew 15:11).This text is often quoted to justifypeople in eating the unclean things,as well as drinking strong drink. Be-fore a man can get drunk, the strongdrink must first enter into his mouth,but that does not defile him, as theabove text clearly states. Yet we readthat the drunkards shall not inherit thekingdom of God. See Galatians 5:19-22 and Ephesians 5:3-6.

It is easy then to see that lustingafter the things God has forbidden iscovetousness, and is a transgressionof God’s law. Then, since God wasto magnify the law to the intent ofthe heart (Isaiah 42:21), and has mag-nified it (Matthew 5:21, 22, 27, 28and I John 3:15), all transgressions,

both of the Law of the Clean and Un-clean, and the Ten CommandmentLaw, first takes place in the heart.“For from within, out of the heart ofmen, proceed evil thoughts, adulter-ies, fornications, murders, thefts,covetousness, wickedness, deceit,lasciviousness, an evil eye, blas-phemy, pride, foolishness: all theseevil things come from within, and de-file the man” (Mark7:21-23). Thisis sufficient on this point and no moreneed be said on the two texts.

Peter’s Vision - Acts 10:9 - 20

People who eat the things pro-nounced unclean in the Word of Godin order to, satisfy themselves like adrowning man grabbing for a straw,are willing to risk their eternal wel-fare on the above point and go on eat-ing the abominable things God hasforbidden. The part of the texts usu-ally quoted is, “And there came avoice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, andeat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; forI have never eaten any thing that iscommon or unclean. And the voicespake unto him again the second time.What God hath cleansed, that call notthou common” (Acts 10:13-15). This all happened about 41 A.D.,and about eight years after Jesus hadgone to heaven. Peter had been withJesus during His ministry to the

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House of Israel and had been preach-ing the gospel at least seven years,and had never eaten anything un-clean. If Jesus had died to make the un-clean beasts, fowls, and creepingthings, and things of the waters, clean,Peter should have known it; but thefact that he had never eaten anythingunclean shows that he had no knowl-edge of the repeal of the law of theclean and the unclean. The sheet waslet down three times. Three men ofthe Gentiles were there for him to gowith them to the house of Cornelius.Peter went with them as God had bid-den him (Acts 10:16-21). lt was anunlawful thing for a Jew to keep com-pany, or come in unto one of anothernation. In Acts 10:28, Peter said,“God hath shewed me that I shouldnot call any man (not beasts) com-mon or unclean.” So it was the Gen-tiles God had cleansed and not thefoods pronounced unclean. This isall that Peter got out of the vision, andwe can not get any more out of it thanPeter did. We are told not to touch the un-clean in II Corinthians 6:17, whichwas written in 60 A.D., nineteenyears after Peter’s vision. We findunclean birds and frogs fifty-fiveyears later in Revelation 16:13 and18:2. So, it is easy to see that the lawof the clean and unclean was not re-

pealed, but still remains to give us aknowledge of what God has createdfor us to eat and not eat. In II Corin-thians 7:1, 2 we read, "Having thesepromises, dearly beloved, let uscleanse ourselves from all filthinessof the flesh and spirit, perfecting ho-liness in the fear of God. Receive us;we have wronged no man, we havecorrupted no man, we have defraudedno man."

What did God create the uncleananimals for anyway? These animalswere created to help to keep the earthclean. They are nature’s carrion andgarbage disposals. “For thou hastcreated all things, and for thy plea-sure they are, and were created” (Rev-elation 4:11).

We find the law of sanctificationin Deuteronomy 14:2-5, “Whatsoeverparteth the hoof into two claws andcheweth the cud among the beaststhat shall ye eat.” All others are setapart from us as unclean. “All thathath fins and scales in the waters andin the rivers shall ye eat, and what-soever hath not fins and scales, yemay not eat. They are an abomina-tion unto you.” So the fourth chapterto I Timothy is one of the strongestchapters in the Bible to prove thatboth the clean and the unclean are inthe world now.

At Corinth, they had an image oftheir gods in every shamble, and all

things sold in the shamble were firstoffered to the idol to appease thewrath of the gods. So it was almostimpossible to buy anything in theshamble without getting somethingoffered to an idol. It was almost im-possible to eat at anyone’s table with-out eating things sacrificed to an idol.Therefore, Paul told them what to doin such cases as is written in I Corin-thians, chapters 8 and 11. He isspeaking of things offered to idols,and not the unclean meats. SeeHodges, “History of the EarlyChurch,” page 27, and it will be easyto understand the sayings of Paul inthese chapters.

The promises are still unto you,beloved, if you but heed the call:“Wherefore come out from amongthem, and be ye separate, saith theLord, and touch not the unclean thing;and I will receive you, and will be aFather unto you, and ye shall be mysons and daughters, saith the LordAlmighty. Having therefore thesepromises, dearly beloved, let uscleanse ourselves from all filthinessof the flesh and spirit, perfecting ho-liness in the fear of God" (II Corin-thians 6:17, 18; 7:1).

What was added to the Lawof the Clean and Unclean?

Now some will say, “But we are -12- -13- -14-

under grace and that commandmentwas given to Israel under the Law.”That objection carries no weight.Remember, when we read Romans14, that God created animals cleanand unclean. So, from the beginningof creation, this Law has been ob-served by the Family of God. Noahwas not under the laws of Israel, nei-ther was Abraham. Abraham wor-shipped under the order ofMelchisedec. This priesthood wasagain reinstated by Christ after Hisresurrection when Jesus became theHigh Priest of Melchisedec forever.Read Hebrews 10:20-23 and 7:15-17.When we come to Christ, we are par-takers of the promise made toAbraham. See Galatians 3:29.

But more than just the Law of theClean and Unclean, we find theApostles saying the rule still holdsthat we “Eat no Blood.” A bitter con-troversy arose among some peoplethat said the Law of Moses must bekept. A meeting was called and Paulwas sent back to Antioch with thismessage: “Forasmuch as we haveheard that certain which went outfrom us (Notice it was those that leftthe church) have troubled you withwords, subverting your souls, saying,Ye must be circumcised AND KEEPTHE LAW (The Mosaic Law) towhom we GAVE NO SUCH Com-mandment.” Read Acts 15:24, 25.

We are still vexed by such peopletoday that want us to keep all theLaws added to Moses. SeeGal. 3:19.Let us look at the next verse wherethe result is made known: “For itseemed good to the Holy Ghost, andto us, to lay upon you no greater bur-den than these necessary things; (No-tice, the Law of the Clean and Un-clean is one of the necessary things.It is part of the Melchisedec Priest-hood. There are five necessary thingsunder this priesthood: Baptism,Keeping the Ten Commandments,Giving of the Tithe, Partaking of theBread and Fruit of the Vine, and Ob-serving the Clean and Unclean Law."...that ye abstain from meats offeredto idols; AND FROM BLOOD, andthings strangled and from fornica-tion” (verse 28). So from this Apos-tolic Command we must add, that inthe Law of Clean and Unclean wemust not partake of blood or of cleananimals that have not been drainedof their blood. God gave this com-mandment to Noah to ABSTAINFROM EATING BLOOD. Not be-cause he was under the law, but be-cause of the sacredness of the blood.It held during the Levitical time andis still passed down to us today.God’s commands are never arbitrarybut always logical and reasonable.

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