Why God Tells Us to be VEGAN in the Bible

Ga-Maleven

Despite what some say, the Christian Bible is very specific about how we are to treat animals and each other. The belief that God wants us to eat animals, be homophobic, etc. actually was created by people who don’t want to obey God, but rather their own desires. These Fundamentalists change religious texts to fit their own hateful agendas, and they are found in every religion.

Fundamentalists once claimed the Bible supported slavery, and used that to protect human slavery for hundreds of years which saw to the deaths of thousands of innocent people, and horrific cruelty dealt to people of color.

The same has been done to defend their hatred of LGBT people, and to abuse animals.

One of the greatest causes of confusion is the many translations and changes in language. The word “slave” was used as the ancient Hebrew word that’s in the Bible doesn’t have an English equivalent. So, translators used “slave,” when the term that really would have been best to use is more of a “butler.” At the time the Bible was written many people would have “butlers,” who were poor, unmarried men. Since so many people had these men working for them Jesus said to take good care of them. But, when the word “slave” was used to translate these verses, people assume Jesus was protecting actual slavery. And this was used by slavers for centuries to defend human slavery.

When God says to have “dominion” over animals, again, the proper translation of the original word is more of “caregiver.” It doesn’t say to enslave and rule over others.

When Jesus fed the 500 the original word was a type of seaweed, but the word for this seaweed is similar to “fish” so it was changed to be fish. Some translations even have it saying that it was a branch of grapes, not fish. Which supports the seaweed meaning as it was a type of plant.

Another term in the Bible that Fundamentalists change is “eunuch.” Fundamentalists claim this word is only used for castrated men, so when Jesus says that eunuchs go to heaven He’s only talking about men who were castrated. But, the ancient Hebrew word used for gay men also meant eunuchs, and in the context of the passage they were discussing homosexuals. Jesus says that gay men go to heaven (“For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others–and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.” Matthew 19:12).

Christianity isn’t the only religion to have hateful Fundamentalists change things to support their cruel ways. The Bible is very clear that God wants us to be vegan, a lifestyle of peace and compassion for ALL. When the world was created it was vegan, and when sin came that is when people ignored “Thou shall not kill” and murdered animals and each other.

God doesn’t want murder, rape, and cruelty. And if you think He does, it’s not the God of the Bible you are following.

Furthermore, if God intended for humans to consume animal products, why would He make us natural frugivores? Humans are unable to actually process the amino acids, lipids, growth hormones, etc. found in meat, dairy, and eggs. 60% of all cancer in humans is caused by animal products, the #1 killer of humans is cardiovascular disease which is SOLELY caused by the saturated fat found ONLY in animal products. Then animal agriculture is literally the primary destructive force on the planet, and is unsustainable, so unsustainable it cannot even feed half of all humans on the planet using the most sustainable methods possible.

God wants us to be vegan. And here are the passages from the Bible itself confirming this:

“God blessed them and said to them, “… Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground”. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground – everything that has the breath of life in it – I give every green plant for food. And it was so.”

— Genesis 1:28-30

God gave us PLANTS to eat and told us to be stewards of the animals. A steward is defined as “an official appointed to supervise arrangements or keep order at a large public event, for example a sporting event.” God never told us to be masters or kings of the animals and planet, but to be CARETAKERS of them, just as stewards would oversee and take care of the animals or lands of their king. In this case, God is our king and we are watching His “property.”

Proverbs 12:10 [KJV]
‘A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.’

The Garden of Eden couldn’t have been peaceful, if Adam and Eve killed the animals for food. If the couple had done that, the animals wouldn’t have been able to procreate AND extinction would have been imminent!

Before the fall of Mankind; which was a sin of disobedience, Adam and Eve had never laid eyes on a dead leaf or flower, let alone a dead animal! It wasn’t until Adam realized he was naked, that God told him to kill an animal for clothing! Now think about this…Adam, who gave each animal its name, was now told he would have to kill one. Can you imagine what he was thinking?

That one sin…caused death to become apparent, thorns to grow on some plants, certain animals to become carnivorous, bees to grow stingers, even spiders to spin webs!

The Garden of Eden was utopia…no death, no disease, no hate and no killing! I believe that dairy wasn’t introduced until after the fall of man. Man didn’t have to work in the Garden of Eden. So, that would mean no milking, no churning…and, no cheese! The Garden was a healthy, raw diet. Even the animals were vegan!

Genesis 1:29 [KJV]
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing ‘seed’, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the ‘fruit’ of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for ‘meat’.

Genesis 1:30 [KJV]
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for ‘meat’… and it was so.

Paradise will one day be restored…

Isaiah 65:25 [KJV]
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord. [Also read: Isaiah 11:6-9 & Hosea 2:18]

Genesis 7:2 [KJV]
Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean [such as pigs] by two, the male and his female.

Genesis 7:3 [KJV]
Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

Swine flesh and shellfish are not to be eaten. Interesting note: the word chicken is not mentioned in the Bible! Deuteronomy 14:4-20

What were the spies told to try to bring back from the promised land?
Some fruit from the land. Numbers 13:20

During the Exodus from Egypt, the Hebrew nation had forgotten the ways of God, since the time of Joseph. What did God feed the Hebrews as they journeyed through the wilderness?

God fed the Hebrews a NON-MEAT diet of Manna ~ The bread of Heaven!

Exodus 16:15 [KJV]
And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.

But, the people murmured for flesh…
Exodus 16:12-14 King James Version [KJV]

12) I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.

13) And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.

14) And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.

Exodus 16:31 [KJV]
And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

Exodus 16:35 [KJV]
And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.

Numbers 11:6,7 [KJV]

Deuteronomy 8:3 [KJV]
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

Joshua 5:12 [KJV]
And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

Nehemiah 9:20 [KJV]
Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.

Psalm 78:24 [KJV]
And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.

Note: Manna was the bread of Heaven. Jesus referred to himself as ‘the bread from Heaven’

John 6:31,58 [KJV], Revelation 2:17 [KJV]

Ezekiel 20:6 [NKJV]
On that day I raised My hand in an oath to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ the glory of all lands.

Note: The phrase: “a land flowing with milk and honey” can also refer to the fact of prosperity, a fertile land. Example: flowing with milk, or breast milk, ensuring the continuation of new generations to come. Honey is the result of bees pollinating crops, ensuring abundance in the future harvest.

Daniel purposed a diet for himself and his companions; Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. [The King changed their names to: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego] these four were chosen to be wise men to the king, they were without blemish. Daniel was given 10 days to prove the diet of ”pulse” [things grown from seeds, legumes, beans, lentils] to eat and water to drink. Daniel 1:8,12 [KJV]

Daniel 1:15 [KJV]
And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat.

Ezekiel 47:12 [KJV]
And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.

In order to kill another living being, or even to cause them pain and suffering, to satisfy our own pleasure (which is what flesh foods are, because we don’t need them to live a healthy life), we must first harden our hearts to the feelings and desires of that individual animal who wants to live the life God created for them as much as we do. And the more we do this, or allow others to do it for us, the more we harden our hearts against the heavenly will of God.

Isaiah tells us about this in 11:6-10
in verse 9, where he explains that the hurting and destroying of any life is caused by the lack of knowledge of the Lord.

It doesn’t matter what a person says about their faith or belief; if they kill and/or eat any animals, they are not filled with the knowledge of the Lord. http://www.all-creatures.org/sermons98/s20120318.html

The following scriptures refer to “a land flowing with milk and honey”

Note: Deuteronomy 6:3 [NKJV] Is referring to a land of prosperity… “multiply greatly as the Lord God has promised you.”

Deuteronomy 31:20 [NKJV]
When I have brought them to the ‘land flowing with milk and honey’, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant.
Deuteronomy 31:19-21

Note: God warns the Israelites that the promised land is so full of abundance [food] that they could grow fat and forget that it was a gift from God and turn away from Him.

Did Jesus Eat Fish? Luke 24:41-43

9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

2 And the fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given.

3 Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.

4 Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
NASB

It is important for our understanding of this passage that we understand what took place in Genesis 8:20-22. (If you are not familiar with this passage and its intent, click on the link.)

This whole passage is a concession from God and does not express the will of God. God recognizes the evilness of the human heart and is allowing humankind to live in a state of being that is less than His desire or ideal.

The whole point of this concession, and the fact that it is a concession, is based upon the comparison to the actual perfect condition of the creation in Eden, in which there was no death prior to the Fall. Eden was a time when all were to be obedient to the will of God.

Following the Fall, the world began to become more and more corrupt until God said that there was no redeeming human quality left upon the earth, save in Noah, who walked with God (Genesis 6:5-9).

God’s first concession was the granting of forgiveness to all who were truly repentant and truly desired in their hearts to go forth and sin no more. This is the redeeming quality that was apparently lacking in the people of the earth when God decided to destroy them.

So, Noah spent 120 years building an ark as a testimony against the people of the earth for their hardness of heart and disbelief. And during this time there was unrepentant killing upon the earth, as reflected in Lamech’s statement (Genesis 4:23-24).

However, upon the ark there was once again no death, and apparent obedience to the Lord. But following the Flood, when there was supposed to be another Edenic way of peaceful living and obedience to God, Noah and his family sacrificed innocent animals, because they supposedly recognized themselves as not pure, and needed to repent. This brings about the mixed feelings of God, as expressed in Genesis 8:21.

Apparently, it is easier to kill an innocent animal than it is to be obedient to the Lord our God. Or, perhaps there is more to this corrupted state of being. Are humans expressing their dominance and power over the animals by killing and eating those who are weaker than themselves (The sin of the boastful pride of life)? Are humans expressing their sins of the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes (1 John 2:16), by eating the flesh that had been denied them as poor people who looked upon the eating of flesh as a status symbol? I believe the answer to both questions is, “Yes!”

Nevertheless, in the hope of their obedient return to His perfect will, once again God concedes to the imperfect human state, and proceeds to bless Noah and his sons (Genesis 9:1). Curiously, the passage does not say that God blessed Noah and his family, but only his sons. Could it be that the corruption upon the ark came about through the women?

For nearly a year, the animals upon the ark had lived in close confinement with Noah and his human family. It must have been as though these animals were also part of Noah’s family. The killing of the innocent animals for the sacrifice was a betrayal of the pre-existing peaceful state, and brought fear and terror to the heart and soul of every animal upon the ark. This is the key point that God emphasizes and expands upon in Genesis 9:2. Not only had the humans lost their perfect state of being with God, but now they had lost the companionship and fellowship of most of the animal kingdom.

God, knowing the evilness of the human heart, further grants the concession of eating the animals, for He acknowledges that the humans are not ready to repent of their evil nature.

Today, many people compound this evilness by attempting to twist this concession into a commandment, and saying that God commanded them to kill and eat the flesh of animals. Nothing could be further from the truth! This can be clearly seen in the impossible condition stated in Genesis 9:4.

The word that is used in Genesis 9:4 for life is in reality “soul,” נפש. In other words, humans were not to eat the animal until the soul, which is in its blood, had departed from the body. And, as every flesh eater and supermarket shopper has observed, it is impossible to remove all of the blood from the flesh.

Furthermore, I believe that God placed this impossible condition in verse 4 as a way of bringing us back to the reality of the evilness of eating the flesh of another being, that we would repent and once again become obedient to the heavenly will of God.

The Hebrew sages recognized this fact, too, for the Jewish people have no prayer of thanksgiving for flesh foods as they do for all plant foods.

It is clear that the eating of animals is a concession and not the will of God.

“Thou shalt not kill.

— Exodus 20:13

“But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.”

— Genesis 9:4

— Genesis 1:28-30

“For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.”

— Ecclesiastes 3:19-20

“It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

— Hebrews 10:4

“Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

— Proverbs 15:17

“Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh.

— Proverbs 23:20

“⁶ The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. ⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. ⁸ The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. ⁹ They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

— Isiah 11:6-9

“He that kills an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrifices a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations.”

— Isiah 66:3

“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats…And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil.”

— Isaiah 1:11, 15-16

“A righteous man has regard for the life of his beast.”

— Proverbs 12:10

“Even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is Vanity.”

— Ecclesiastes 3:19

“Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them.”

1 Corinthians 6:13

“It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.”

— St. Paul in his letter to the Romans 14:21

“Not to hurt our humble brethren (the animals) is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission: to be of service to them whenever they require it… If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.”

— Saint Francis of Assisi (mystic and preacher)

“He who kills, kills himself, and whoso eats the flesh of slain beasts, eats of the body of death and their death will become his death.”

— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Essene Gospel of Peace’ from ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls’

“And some of the people said, ‘This man cares for all creatures. Are they his brothers and sisters that he should love them?’ And He said to them, ‘these are your fellow creatures of the great household of God. Yea, they are your brothers and sisters, having the same breath of life in the eternal. And whosoever cares for one of the least of these, and gives it to eat and drink in its need, does the same to me. And who so willingly suffers one of these to be in want, and defends it not when evilly entreated, does the evil to me. For as you have done in this life, so shall it be done to you in the life to come.

— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Gospel of the Holy Twelve’ Lection XXXIV, 9-10

“And again that one asked, ‘If anyone comes to us who eats flesh and drinks strong drink, how shall we receive them?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Let such a person abide in the outer court until they cleanse themselves from these grosser evils; for till they perceive, and repent of these, they are not fit to receive the higher mysteries.’

— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Gospel of the Holy Twelve’ Lection XCI, 8

“You shall not take away the life of any creature for your pleasure, nor for your profit, nor yet torment it.”

— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Gospel of the Holy Twelve’ Lection XLVI, 10

“You shall not eat the flesh , nor drink the blood of any slaughtered creature, not yet anything which brings disorder to your health or senses.”

— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Gospel of the Holy Twelve’ Lection XLVI, 12

“You shall cherish and protect the weak, and those who are oppressed, and all creatures that suffer wrong.”

— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Gospel of the Holy Twelve’ Lection XLVI, 18

“⁶ He said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see. And when they knew, they said, ‘Six loaves and seven clusters of grapes.’ And He commanded them to make all sit down by companies of fifty upon the grass. And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties. ⁷ And when He had taken the six loaves and the seven clusters of grapes, he looked up to Heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and the grapes also, and gave them to his disciples to set before them, and they divided them among them all. ⁸ And they did all eat and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that were left. And they that did eat of the loaves and of the fruit were about 5,000 men, women and children, and He taught them many things.”

— Jesus of Nazareth ‘The Gospel of the Holy Twelve’ Lection XXIX, 6-8

If God is good and compassionate, then of course He would want us to be vegan! That’s what veganism is. To NOT be cruel or a dick to other living creatures, whether human or not. To say God wants us eating animals means He wants us to kill, imprison, rape, abuse, and make ourselves sick. What all loving God would want that? Sadly, Fundamentalist Christians seem to confuse Satan with God all too often. God doesn’t want us eating animals, hating gays, or being cruel to any living being. He wants us to be loving and kind to everyone regardless of their species.