Bible Gateway Romans 14 :: NIV. Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.
Mark 7 – Jesus declares all foods clean
Most Christians maintain that Jesus's teaching in Mark 7 demonstrates that Christians can eat whatever they want, that dietary choices are a matter of "Christian liberty", and that therefore vegetarianism or veganism could never be obligatory for Christians.
In 1 Corinthians 8:13 Paul said, "Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend." So for Paul vegetarianism was a way of not offending vegetarian hosts, but was not an explicit command of God.
Romans 14:2-3 New King James Version (NKJV)
For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. ' And it was so. In these verses, God institutes a plant-based diet for both humans and non-human animals alike.
In Leviticus 11, the Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron and sets out which animals can be eaten and which cannot: “You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud. There are some that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof, but you must not eat them.
Many biblical scholars believe that Jesus was a vegetarian. Jesus' message is one of love and compassion, and there is nothing loving or compassionate about factory farms and slaughterhouses, where billions of animals live miserable lives and die violent, bloody deaths.
You are not to eat any creature that moves about on the ground, whether it moves on its belly or walks on all fours or on many feet; it is detestable. Do not defile yourselves by any of these creatures. Do not make yourselves unclean by means of them or be made unclean by them.
Proverbs 15:17 Amplified Bible (AMP)
Better is a dinner of vegetables and herbs where love is present Than a fattened ox served with hatred.
but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. '" "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Typically, Christian vegetarians do not deny that eating meat in some circumstances is ethically justifiable, but they portray vegetarianism as an obligation for those who have good alternatives to meat readily available to them.
Vegetarianism is consistent with leading a life of nonviolence. Many faith traditions teach a common principle—thou shalt not kill. The Golden Rule implores us to do unto others as we would have others do unto us. If we apply this to our lives, it means that we would not want to kill others.
In the Bible, however, Noah is the world's first meat eater. Everyone was vegetarian before the Flood. Not long after the ark settled on Mount Ararat, God gave Noah the right to eat animals as well as exercise dominion over them.
The story of food begins in Genesis, God told Adam and Eve what food to eat. He said that “every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it” is theirs to eat. He also added, “everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.”
"Friday is a day of penitence, as it is believed Christ died on a Friday. Everyone has the right to either eat meat or not.
Jesus essentially ate a Mediterranean diet rich in whole grains, fish, fruit and vegetables and with modest amounts of olive oil, meat and wine, Colbert says.
The seven species listed are wheat, barley, grape, fig, pomegranates, olive (oil), and date (date honey) (Deuteronomy 8:8). Their first fruits were the only acceptable offerings in the Temple.
"Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything. "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"--but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
According to Leviticus 11:3, animals like cows, sheep, and deer that have divided hooves and chew their cud may be consumed. Pigs should not be eaten because they don't chew their cud. The ban on the consumption of pork is repeated in Deuteronomy 14:8.
Any animal that has cloven hooves and chews the cud can be eaten. Aquatic animals can be eaten so long as they have fins and scales. Winged insects are permissible so long as they have joints in their legs above their feet. All other animals falling outside of these definitions were seen as 'unclean'.
It is only in Leviticus 11:7 that eating pork is forbidden to God's people for the very first time—“… and the swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.” This is where and when pork in all its forms (including ham, bacon, sausage, etc.)
WE LEARN in the New Testament that Jesus ate fish from the Sea of Galilee, and, after the resurrection, that he even cooked fish and bread over coals for himself and his disciples (John 21.9). “We certainly know that Jesus ate clean unpolluted fish almost every day of his life,” Colbert concludes.
In Nicene Christianity, including Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and Reformed Christianity, there exist no dietary restrictions regarding specific animals that cannot be eaten.
It's certainly true that some of our greatest saints were vegetarians, including Sts. Anthony the Great, Catherine of Siena, John Chrysostom, Francis of Paola, Hilarion, Angela de Merici and Richard of Chichester.