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God “imposed” food and drink laws on Israel, not on us (Hebrews 9:10) until the time of reformation. The time of reformation is the New Testament age under Christ. Under Christ, the earthly food laws of the Old Law are not binding (you can go ahead and eat pork and shrimp, etc.). But why were they imposed on Israel to start with? They may seem arbitrary and meaningless to us at first glance but look closely. They had symbolic value pointing to a deeper spiritual reality that was coming in Christ. Now that Christ has come the symbolism needs not continue. The Israelite should have learned to be careful to distinguish clean and unclean foods (not that some foods are germ-ridden and others more healthy) but were categorized this way to keep the Israelite conscious of always being careful of what was ingested. Some things are designated clean and some things are unclean. Working with the physical and earthly foods this way was illustrative or symbolic of the more important food that endures unto everlasting life (John 6:27).<\/p>\n
In Christ, we are to be discerning about what we ingest into our hearts and spirits. Our food is spiritual, but we are not to believe every spirit (I John 4:1f). We have to be discerning between clean and unclean thoughts, truth and error. Murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy, etc (Matthew 15:19-20) starts with ingesting into the heart the unclean thoughts of anger, jealousy, envy, hatred, lust, etc. What you eat with your heart determines attitudes and actions. Unclean and clean thoughts are the food of the soul. They determine your life in Christ. There was symbolic value in the Old Testament pointing to the greater spiritual values in Christ. We don’t have the earthly temple, animal sacrifices, earthly priesthood, nor the earthly food regulations of the Old Testament. Those things were imposed for symbolic purposes until the “time of reformation.” When that time came in Jesus, beginning in Acts 2, the shadows and symbols, find their spiritual fulfillment in Christ. Eat what you want in terms of earthly selections in animals, but be very discerning and careful about what you ingest and digest into your mind and heart. Don’t contaminate your heart with unclean things. Be careful of words, actions, and images that contaminate good and blessed thoughts. Those are the things that ruin your mind and your usefulness in Jesus’ kingdom.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry W. Benton God “imposed” food and drink laws on Israel, not on us (Hebrews 9:10) until the time of reformation. The time of reformation is the New Testament age under Christ. Under Christ, the earthly food laws of the Old Law are not binding (you can go ahead and eat pork and shrimp,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[240,241],"class_list":["post-32916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-diet","tag-food"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":87517,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/but-you-mix-your-fabrics\/","url_meta":{"origin":32916,"position":0},"title":"But You Mix Your Fabrics","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Often, those who want to justify their ignoring the Bible on sexual sins will retort with how silly the Bible is and how inconsistent we are since the same book said not to mix your fabrics or not to eat lobster or pork! So, if you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/fabric-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":33424,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/limits-of-the-old-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":32916,"position":1},"title":"Limits of the Old Testament","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The Old Testament was the inspired, God-given rule of law for the nation of Israel. It was not given to all people. \"The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us\" (Deuteronomy 5:2-3). Nehemiah spoke to God about the history of Israel:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21142,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-colossians-216-prove-that-drinking-alcohol-is-permitted\/","url_meta":{"origin":32916,"position":2},"title":"Does Colossians 2:16 prove that drinking alcohol is permitted?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The church of Christ uses Colossians 2:16 to teach against Sabbath-keeping and dietary laws. But the same verse says to not let anyone judge us regarding what we drink as well. This New Testament verse proves the drinking of alcohol is not a sin. Answer: \"When you were dead\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86423,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-time-of-reformation-prophesied\/","url_meta":{"origin":32916,"position":3},"title":"The \u201cTime of Reformation\u201d Prophesied","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton In Hebrews 9, the Holy Spirit tells us that the tabernacle and its furnishings were imposed \"until the time of reformation\" (Hebrews 9:10-11). The physical items used were merely teaching items to illustrate the spiritual things that would come into play in a new and better\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42821,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/on-stoning-adulterers-and-not-eating-shellfish\/","url_meta":{"origin":32916,"position":4},"title":"On Stoning Adulterers and Not Eating Shellfish","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh Fulford via\u00a0The Fellowship Room Periodically - at least three or four times a year - someone feels compelled to demonstrate his or her lack of knowledge of the Bible by writing a letter to the editor of the local newspaper railing against Bible-believers who oppose homosexuality. (Capital punishment\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Oysters.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":69739,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-sabbath-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":32916,"position":5},"title":"The Sabbath (2)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The Sabbath was the seventh day of the week. It was designated to Israel as their day of rest, patterned after the fact that God rested from creative work on the seventh day (Exodus 20:11). The rules for Israel were expounded upon in other parts of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}