Table of Contents
Eating Pork
The Bible says that eating pork is wrong because the swine is considered an unclean animal. God gave health rules in the Bible because He created the human body and knows what is best for it. In Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, God very clearly points out the clean and unclean animals, and pig is among the unclean animals. God made the big as a scavenger to clean up garbage.
Following God’s principles results in health. “The Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive” (Deuteronomy 6:24). “You shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you” (Exodus 23:25).
The Bible says that anyone who eats pig meat (pork) and other unclean things that are an “abomination” will be destroyed at the coming of the Lord. “Behold, the Lord will come with fire … and by His sword the Lord will judge all flesh; and the slain of the Lord shall be many. Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves … eating swine’s flesh and the abomination and the mouse, shall be consumed together” (Isaiah 66:15–17).
Some argue that the death of Christ did away with the health laws of the Mosaic law but Christ’s death did not in any way affect or change these health laws. In fact, these health laws were given even before the Jews, for “The Lord said to Noah, … ‘take with you seven each of every clean animal … two each of animals that are unclean’” (Genesis 7:1, 2). Noah lived long before any Jews existed, and he knew of the clean and unclean animals, because he took into the ark the clean ones by sevens and the unclean ones by twos. These health laws are for all people for all time.
Acts 10
But some may ask: didn’t Jesus cleanse all animals in Peter’s vision, as recorded in Acts 10? The answer to this question is no. The object of this vision is not animals, but people. God gave Peter this vision to teach him that the Gentiles were not unclean, as the Jews thought. God had asked Cornelius, a Gentile, to send men to talk to Peter. But Peter would have objected to talk to them if the Lord had not given him this vision, because the Jews prohibited dealing with the Gentiles (Acts 10: 28).
After the vision, when these men did arrive, Peter greeted them, showing that naturally he would not have done so, and saying, “God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean” (Acts 10:28). In the following chapter (Acts 11), the church members censured Peter for talking to Gentiles. So, Peter narrated to them his vision and its meaning. And Acts 11:18 states, “When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, ‘Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.’ ”
Pork and Health
Pigs are considered the garbage and waste eliminators of the farm, often eating literally anything they can find. For this reason, the meat of the pig becomes more saturated with diseases – viruses (swine flue), parasites (Trichinosis), bacteria (Yersinia Enterocolitica) – and toxins more than many of its counterpart farm animals. Therefore, the consumption of pork can lead to cellular damage that can cause cancer, heart disease and a poor immune response. For health information on why we should not eat pig meat (pork), check out What is the reason we cannot eat pork or ham?
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
