Acts 11 does not prove we can now eat pork

Question:

You said we could eat pork and pulled Acts 11 out to debate your cause, but you see that that vision was talking about the Gentiles if you keep reading on. The Bible tells us to get the conclusion of the whole matter.

Answer:

In "Uncleanness," I said:

"While many of the items selected in the Old Testament were things people naturally found disgusting or useless, we realize that the things themselves were not sinful. It was the breaking of the laws in regards to handling uncleanness that was sinful. A pig has a dirty lifestyle and is willing to eat anything. It became the poster animal for uncleanness. But a pig isn't sinful. Eating pork was a sin under the Old Testament, but the pig itself wasn't sinful. Those laws of physical uncleanness came to an end with the end of the Old Testament (Colossians 2:13-17). God cleansed the animals used for food (Acts 11:6-9). All meats are now sanctified (I Timothy 4:4-5). Nothing is unclean of itself, but it can become an unclean thing for an individual (Romans 14:14)."

In Peter's vision, we find:

"And when I had fixed my gaze on it and was observing it I saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the crawling creatures and the birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat.' But I said, 'By no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' But a voice from heaven answered a second time, 'What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy'" (Acts 11:6-9).

The vision regarding food was to illustrate that Peter was not to consider the Gentiles unclean. "Then he said to them, "You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean" " (Acts 10:28). But it remains that the way God illustrated His point was to state that what was once unclean animals is no longer unclean. If that was not true, then the application to the Gentiles would also not be true.

It is nothing more than a continuation of what Jesus taught. "So He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?"" (Mark 7:18-19). Paul makes the same point. "For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer" (I Timothy 4:4-5).

"So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ" (Colossians 2:16-17).

You are correct that you must consider the conclusion of the whole matter, which I believe I have done.

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