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I’m not a vegetarian, but I have no problem with folks who are. My problem is that they want ALL of
us to be on their side. To the point that they don’t want animals killed for food, or to be a fur coat, or to be a belt
or anything else that is made of leather. And that includes a host of things.
Biblically, I see one thing they can point to. Along about 606 B.C, when King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
made captives of King Jehoiakim, king of Judah and his people. Teen-agers Daniel, along with Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego,
were among those taken to Babylon as prisoners. They, among other unusually bright young men, were put on a king’s diet,
with the best to become advisers of the king after their food test. Since that non-kosher food would defile them, Daniel asked
that his group be fed only pulse (vegetables) and water, and this was finally agreed. The four came out looking and smelling
like a rose. Later, they face a lion’s den and a fiery furnace, but those are other stories. We’re talking about
vegetarian versus meat-eaters here.
And the Bible is full of examples of meat being created for food.
It would take pages to list them all, but when Jesus appeared to the Apostles after His Resurrection, he asked,
“Have ye any meat?” and He ate with them. He asked the same thing later when He found them fishing (John 21:5).
Before his death on the cross, he fed 5,000, and later 4,000, plus women and children, from meat and bread. Back in the Old
Testament, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a meat dish. Peter had the vision of the sheet being let down with all manner
of meats on it, and was told “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean, and was directed to eat (it also
was a lesson against prejudice, but again…that’s another story)!
There are perhaps 300 instances concerning meat in the Bible. And a great many of them allow meat to be eaten,
while nowhere in the Bible do I find it wrong to be a vegetarian. All I can say to the vegetable-lovers, is…okey, you
beautiful people…
give us some slack! And let’s all pray together.
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