Part 6- Eating a Biblical Diet

Leviticus 11:29-30
“‘Of the animals that move along the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon.”

Finally we have come to the last grouping of animals that God doesn’t want us to eat. On this list are rodents, pests, cute little pets, and great monsters.

First up on our list, rats and weasels. Rats are very social and affectionate creatures. Contrary to myth and popular belief, they are very clean animals. They take great care in grooming themselves and each other, removing parasites and dirt from one another. But, they have poor eyesight, a short life span, and can become cannibalistic! Weasels are very stealthy little hunters. They are quick to move, silent, and deadly. They eat small and young animals. Both rats and weasels are nocturnal creatures.

It’s not hard to pick out the rats and weasels of today’s church. The rats, well, they correspond to the churches that are great in number, seeming to be clean and perfect. Their pastors never seem to miss a beat or falter, their worship band sounds exactly like a CD recording, and they pride themselves on their social skills. Unfortunately, like rats, these churches have poor vision and they seem to operate in the dark, blinded by the glitz and glory of recognition and notoriety. They fail to see the truth of Jesus’ grace and spend all their time functioning out of the rules and requirements society dictates. They’ll tell you how to look, act, and speak, how old you can be to serve and what team you’ll serve with. Eventually these churches will become cannibalistic and consume themselves from within. They’ll kill their brothers and sisters, driving them away from God and His Truth, in the name of self-preservation.

Weasel churches aren’t any better. They are sneaky and divisive. They prey on the young of society with slogans like, “This ain’t your mama’s church”. They try, desperately, not to look like a church, luring and wooing in today’s youth with worldly gimmicks, giveaways and concessions. But the truth is they are warping the hearts and minds of the young, not giving them the gospel of Jesus’ grace, but rather the image of the world wrapped up in a “church-like club”. These churches are leading the youth to destruction!

What about the reptiles? Chameleons, geckos, and the monitor lizard are all represented by today’s churches. Monitor lizards are fierce predators. They have amazingly sharp claws, strong teeth, and a powerful tail. Monitor lizards are efficient killers; whether killing with a quick bite to the jugular or injecting venom and bacteria-laced saliva to slowly rot their prey to death, they always get a meal! Chameleons are able to change their appearance to suit their environment. They are masters of disguise. Geckos come in a wide variety of colors and sizes. Some, just like the chameleon, are capable of changing color to suit their environment. Other species are parthenogenic, meaning that the females can reproduce without a male.

Reptile churches are not healthy on many levels. Starting with Genesis 3:1 (Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” ) we learn that the devil came in the form of a serpent, crafty and deceiving. Reptile churches try to blend in with society. They change their appearance to suit the trends, removing the cross because its offensive, maybe talking about God but no longer proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ because He’s offensive. Instead they strive to be culturally relevant while being spiritually lost. A group of fun-loving, “good Christian people”, who are actually fierce predators working in disguise. Interestingly, some of these churches are able to grow and sustain a large population, and they to do this without Jesus. These parthenogenic churches teach Biblical principles and doctrines derived from an intellectual interpretation of scripture, but fail to marry those doctrines with the blood of Christ and the gospel of His grace. Instead they grow based on their own merit, out of their own work, through their own ideas and theologies. This type of church is dangerous! The church that continues to grow and reproduce without Jesus, while claiming to be of Jesus, is genetically flawed. It’s body is full of sickly, weak, pseudo-Christians that will eventually succumb to disaster.

God’s desire for us, in every aspect of our lives, is to be healthy. The laws that He gave 6000 years ago about eating food still hold true today. Pork, rats, vultures, and monitor lizards are unhealthy for literal consumption. They are full of fats and bacteria that our bodies are not meant to process. But when Jesus died on the cross, He became our High Priest for eternity and fulfilled all of the literal laws through His blood and death. We are made clean through Him; however, because the law was not abolished, but fulfilled (Matthew 5:17), then there is still Truth to be found in the law. (Hebrews 7:12 For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also.)

I am convinced that these laws no longer represent the requirements for our physical bodies to remain clean and healthy, but for our spiritual bodies to remain clean and healthy. (2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ) The key to it all is at the end of the verse: “in righteousness”. We who have professed faith in Jesus, who call Him Savior, have been made righteous because of His blood. The scripture isn’t about making us righteous, but about teaching us in His Righteousness.