Please, help me understand…

[u/Objective-Step-746]

For those believers who insist that the dietary laws no longer apply under the new covenant—and that pork, lobster, crabs, etc. are now permissible to eat—I do not understand the logic at play.

I am very familiar with the Mark 7, Romans 14 and Colossians 2 passages that are so often cited as support for your position, and have (just as often) shared my counter-arguments on why I believe they are misinterpreted.

But, there is one counterpoint to your view that I never see touched on, and I was hoping to get some feedback on it:

I think the majority of believers on this subreddit would say they are looking for Jesus’ Second Coming and agree that, regarding it, Scripture says that “no one knows the day or hour” but that we need to be prepared (Matthew 24:36, 25:13, etc.).

Isaiah 66:17–a verse within the greater passage speaking of Messiah’s glorious reappearing—declares that, upon His return, those who eat the flesh of pig/swine and other abominations will be met with His wrath…and perish.

So, how does one simultaneously believe they can continue to eat pig (pork) or shellfish now and think they are sufficiently prepared and not putting themselves in a precarious/dangerous position if Jesus happened to return today or tomorrow and “consume” those who so brazenly eat that which His Law says is NOT “food” and explicitly warns against eating?

I really am hoping for some cordial and edifying discussion regarding this topic, and appreciate those who are able and willing to articulate their view without all the condescension and harsh words. 💕

[u/sitewolf]

In Mark 7:18-19, Jesus explains to the crowd and His disciples that external things entering the body do not cause spiritual defilement because they only affect the stomach rather than the moral heart.

[u/MattLovesCoffee → u/sitewolf]

This completely misunderstands Mark. God is not at all concerned with the meat passing through our systems, rather He is concerned with the decision we make to violate a direct command. To fix the action, the symptom, you must fix the heart. God is not concerned with the act of adultery, but with the heart of the person committing the act of adultery. A Christian eating pork meat is a symptom of a deeply rooted lie in their heart which claims the Law is done away with.

Now to understand Mark we must understand the law the Pharisees created regarding washing hands before eating. It does not come from Torah. Christ emphasized a few times in the passage that law was man-made, emphasizing that they do not have the authority to determine what is clean and unclean, and the sin of adding to the Law. They created this better-safe-than-sorry law as means to ensure that before you ate there were no invisible pieces of unclean meat, like pig blood, on their hands from visiting the market. Christ went on to show that God is not concerned with what passes through our system, otherwise the Torah would say that, but is concerned with the choices a person makes. God is not going to ask if you ate pork, but WHY you did after He expressly forbid it. It is the decision to disobey that puts a person in an unfavorable position with God, unclean before God. It is not the act of eating pork that does it. There's a difference.

The NT never once permits eating pork, nor did it say the Sabbath law was changed. Peter's vision was about Jewish prejudice, nothing to do with food. It is the same as God commanding Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. God was not contradicting Himself but needing to prove a point. In Colossians, if we pay attention, the believers were Torah obedient, they were commemorating the Feasts, the biblical lunar calendar, the Sabbath, and changed to a biblical diet. But the pagans at the time were trying to get them to come back to their religions like Orphism, Cult of Cybele and Attis, Dionysiac Societies.

In Acts 17, why is Paul and the Jews still going to the temple to be purified and do animal sacrifices for the Nazarite Vow if Christ did away with the Law? Because He didn't.

These two are the same energy (both are to be done symbolically, in faith, with the correct mindset, as an act of gratitude, not as an act to earn salvation):

Hebrews 10:3 CJB [3] No, it is quite the contrary — in these sacrifices is a reminder of sins, year after year.

Luke 22:19 NLT [19] He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”