“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).”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“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<\/strong>‘<\/em>” (Acts 11:6-9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe 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” <\/em>” (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.<\/p>\nIt 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,\u00a0thus purifying all foods<\/strong>?”<\/em>” (Mark 7:18-19). Paul makes the same point. “For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused<\/strong>\u00a0if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer<\/em>” (I Timothy 4:4-5).<\/p>\n“So\u00a0let no one judge you in food<\/strong>\u00a0or 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<\/em>” (Colossians 2:16-17).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nYou are correct that you must consider the conclusion of the whole matter, which I believe I have done.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/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":[20],"tags":[144,240,241,202],"class_list":["post-49927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-acts","tag-diet","tag-food","tag-uncleanness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3851,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/uncleanness\/","url_meta":{"origin":49927,"position":0},"title":"Uncleanness (Article)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Students of the Bible are frequently confused by the Old Testament laws regulating uncleanness. Many do not understand the purpose of the laws and often wonder if they impact the Christian in some way or not. The concept of unclean is certainly an old one. It\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\/2019\/04\/DirtyPig.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":53620,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-wet-dreams-sinful\/","url_meta":{"origin":49927,"position":1},"title":"Are wet dreams sinful?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: On the site, I read \"My wife no longer has a desire for sex. What do I do?\" which says something about nocturnal emissions. I never heard of the word, so I looked it up, and it said something about wet dreams. The truth is wet dreams are very\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":39997,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-jews-forbid-pork-because-eating-it-was-killing-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":49927,"position":2},"title":"Did the Jews forbid pork because eating it was killing people?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why does the Old Testament say certain foods are prohibited? My teacher said it was because people saw that their friends were dying from pork, so they wrote that it was a sin to eat it. We know now it is from undercooking that meat. This makes me scared\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":63630,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/uncleanness-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":49927,"position":3},"title":"Uncleanness (Sermon)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 22, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Ephesians 5:1-8 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Under the Old Testament, there are a series of rules dealing with unclean things \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I am finding that people are condemning as unclean things that God never mentioned. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The rules confuse people, mostly because they do not understand what uncleanness was about.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24714,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-were-the-laws-regarding-food-changed\/","url_meta":{"origin":49927,"position":4},"title":"Why were the laws regarding food changed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm not sure why Jesus changed the law about what is OK to eat. \u00a0Why did he allow us to eat pork? Answer: To understand why the law changed, you first need to understand why those laws were there in the first place. I would like you to read\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":1170,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-masturbation-unacceptable\/","url_meta":{"origin":49927,"position":5},"title":"Is masturbation unacceptable?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is masturbation unacceptable? Answer: This question has been widely debated because the Scriptures do not directly refer to the practice. However, there are a series of passages that\u00a0might\u00a0include it. \"If any man has an emission of semen, then he shall wash all his body in water, and be unclean\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49927","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=49927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}