What I see is that we have: 1) the best food, 2) acceptable food, and 3) unacceptable food.
So, at the time God permitted meat to be eaten, although clean meats were not the best food, they were still acceptable as food, while unclean meats were decidedly unacceptable.
Today, the use of even clean meats is becoming unacceptable:

“Flesh was never the best food; but its use is now doubly objectionable, since disease in animals is so rapidly increasing” (MH 313).

I think quality and quantity should be considered. God permitted, and even required (according to the sanctuary service) a moderate consumption of meat in a time when the quality of meat was not so objectionable as today.

But unclean meats were never acceptable:

“This command [Deut. 14:8] was given because swine's flesh is unfit for food. … Never, under any circumstances, was their flesh to be eaten by human beings” (MH 314).

Some research seems to point in that direction.

http://www.alanlam.demon.co.uk/dyk2f.htm

http://www.killian.com/earl/rfv/LifeExpectancyOfVegetarians

Actually, meat-eating started before the flood.



If you chart the lifespan of men as listed in the Bible, you'll find that there was a steep drop-off after the flood. It eventually levels off at around threescore and ten.

If we consider the fact that men started poisoning themselves with dead animal flesh before the Flood, we should realize that sin brings its own judgment upon its practitioners. If Gen 6:3 refers to man's longevity, it constitutes a huge change. That's equivalent to the modern lifespan dropping to about 10 years.

But another possibility is that Gen 6:3 refers to the coming Flood. God allowed them the benefit of Noah's preaching for 120 years before pulling the trigger.

I agree. And as I understand it, after man's fall, that translates to 1) fruits, nuts, grains, vegetables, 2) clean meat, 3) unclean meat. Furthermore, although clean meat became acceptable after the Flood, it is inherently unhealthy.



Yes. And my meat-eating friends inform me that Jesus ate fish, and that there are uncivilized societies that must include meat (even unclean) in their diets. Strangely, these city-dwellers don't limit themselves to eating fish or bloodless, fatless, kosher sanctuary animals. I have a feeling they are driven by factors other than necessity. Maybe they just can't find the grocery's produce department....

As I think of the priest's obligation to eat life-shortening meat, it makes even more vivid the truth that Jesus took upon Himself our curses that we might have His blessings. We should study the sanctuary more often.

That might have been, if the time between God telling Noah to make the ark and the beginning of the flood had acctually been 120 years. But it seems that Noah built that ark in 100 years, does it not?

Although I believe in the benefits of vegetarianism, and have been experiencing them for 35 years now, I consider some facts intriguing, like the angels and the Lord eating meat with Abraham, Jesus eating meat, the miracle of the multiplication, Jesus preparing fish for the disciples, the priests having to eat the sin-offering, and all the people having to eat the Passover lamb.
Don’t you think that if we classify meat, at that time (as opposed to our times), as an unhealthful article of food we create a problem in view of the above incidents? I mean, would Jesus, for instance, multiply something unhealthful for the people to eat? Would He prepare something unhealthful for His disciples to eat?

Those are some good points. Godordained meat eating is difficult to match with a view that meat is slowly working poison. A view that eating meat would make anyone less a christian is difficult to match with Jesus eating meat.

I'm not sure. I haven't dug deep enough to get a solid answer to that. And I'm not sure that such an answer exists, since it would be based on "WWJD" rather than "Thus saith the Lord."

But I have a couple of questions for you that will help me see where you're at.

1) Based on PC 1.3, do you agree that one reason flesh-meat was allowed by God was to shorten man's life?

2) Do you agree that meat after the Flood (just a few generations removed from Eden) was LESS UNhealthy than meat during Jesus' life (4000 years removed from Eden)?

Isnt this reply most of all due to careless quoting? There is a "thus saith the Lord" in Rosangelas complete post, or even two...

I’m not sure where I’m at.


As I see it, God allowed flesh meat to be eaten because this became necessary at that time, although He knew beforehand that man wouldn’t consider this a temporary measure, but would adhere to the meat diet permanently, and would commit excesses in meat eating, which in turn would lead to the shortening of his own life. So it seems to me that the main factor involved in the shortening of man’s life-span is probably his intemperance. But, granted, meat has a stimulating effect on the body, so its consumption, even moderately, wouldn’t seem to be entirely free from objections.


I understand that there are two factors which make meat-eating dangerous. The first, as I said, is that it easily leads to excesses; and the second is the diseases which afflict the animal kingdom. But until Jesus’ time, and even many centuries after that, the animals seemed to be relatively free from diseases. This is basically a modern problem.

“A very serious objection to the practice of meat eating is found in the fact that disease is becoming more and more widespread among the animal creation. The curse because of sin causes the earth to groan under the inhabitants thereof, and every living thing is subject to disease and death. Cancers, tumors, diseases of the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, all exist among the animals that are used for food. Until late years we have never heard of anything approaching to the variety of diseases now apparent in the animal creation. It is stated that out of a herd of twenty cattle, the inspectors accepted only two; from another herd of one hundred, only twenty-five were accepted as having no apparent disease. The only way to avoid contracting disease from the use of flesh meats is to discard them altogether. Persons will do this much more readily if they have an intelligent knowledge of the dangers that attend the eating of the flesh of dead animals.” {7MR 421.1}