Is it strange to begin a conversation on meat by discussing masturbation and muesli? Perhaps. But follow me here.

Dodgy argument

In the nineteenth century, Mr Kellogg started making breakfast cereals. He was a 7th-Day Adventist who wanted people to give up eggs, bacon and sausages as their morning food. He mixed what was regarded as the science of his day ― along with theological sounding arguments―to fight meat-eating and masturbation. He believed that his newly invented corn flakes were dull enough to kill the lust that fueled meat-eating masturbators. This is where modern, morning cereals began, many of which still bear “Kellogg’s” name.

But the late nineteenth century was neither the first nor the last time religious arguments mixed with the latest elite ideology to pull people away from meat and other animal products like milk, eggs and cheese.

Meat wars: a brief history

Long before Kellogg’s crusade, Paul warned Timothy that the Serpent is prone to attack humanity in both their sexual and gastronomical appetites (1 Tim 4.1-5). Many of Paul’s letters address erroneous teachings or behaviors regarding food and sex. Food-Pharisees or “Judaizers” shamed Gentile congregations into avoiding certain natural foods in the first decades of the Church. The Apostles wrote parts of the New Testament to affirm the freedom of individual conscience regarding what one eats (see Rom 14).

The Apostles wrote parts of the New Testament to affirm the freedom of individual conscience regarding what one eat.

Later, in the age of the Church Fathers, leaders wrote against legalistic plant-only diets. The Church Father Ireneaus wrote against the Encratite sect and took them to task for their false teaching regarding marriage and because they “have also introduced abstinence from animal products.” The earliest church leaders encouraged short-term fasting — which sometimes took the form of a vegetable-only fast. But long-term plant-only diets were seen as pagan and suspect.

The Medieval era was no different. The Reformers, like Christian leaders before them, faced sophisticated-sounding moral arguments from Roman monks against both food and marriage. They not only re-articulated the doctrine of justification by faith, but they also helped reform the Church’s view of marriage and food. They fought against the belief that 'good' Christians should abstain from all animal products on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays ― a cultural norm like the ‘Meatless Mondays’ trend some are trying to advance today.

Martin Luther, the German Reformer, switched from a strict, plant-based diet that he had kept as an austere monk to one brimming with animal products. But he wasn’t alone. The Protestant Reformation’s significant but forgotten battle was against a “Butter Ban” throughout Europe. And Luther didn’t see the eating of meat and animal products to be done only on special occasions. He wrote, “It is permissible to eat milk, butter, eggs, cheese and meat every day, be it Sunday or Friday, Lent or Advent.” Our plates are a realm where angels and demons do battle.

Our plates are a realm where angels and demons do battle.

It’s not that the great minds of Church history hated plants or people who ate them. Many of them ate plenty of grains and fruits. Their primary concern was a Christian’s spiritual and moral freedom to receive any natural food as a good gift from God. And meat, as they saw in Scripture, was a gift given by God to humanity to enjoy.

A Meaty Biblical Flyover

Some plant-based religious activists might speak of meat-eating as if it was only a necessary evil or something that God allowed due to the hardness of hearts like divorce in the Old Testament. However, a simple reading of the Bible will show that meat and other animal products are celebrated―not just permitted―in both the Old and the New Testaments. For example:

• When God leads Israel through the desert, he promises them “a land of milk and honey”—both of which are animal products (albeit derivatives).
• After their time as slaves in Egypt, God promises Israel that when they get to the Promised Land they’ll eat “the fat of the land”.
• In Genesis chapter four, when the first sacrifices are recorded, YHWH rejects the vegetable offering of Cain but accepts the meat sacrifice of Abel.
• After leaving the arc, God specifically gave animals to Noah and all humanity as food (Gen 9.3)
• The Passover meal, where the roasted lamb is central, was a key religious observance God gave to Israel. No one was allowed to refuse this meat and still be part of the community.
• There’s no limit to the amount of meat that the Israelis should eat: “You may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want” (Deut 12.15)
• When David killed Goliath, he was on his way to deliver cheese to his brothers.
• When Yahweh and the angels visit Abraham, he serves them cheese, veal and bread.
• Scripture describes John the Baptist as eating a carnivorous diet of insects and honey.
• In the New Testament, Jesus multiplies fish for thousands to eat.
• After Jesus rises from the dead, we only see him eating animal products: twice fish, once honey.
• When Jesus talks to Peter about letting Gentiles into the church, he commands him to kill and eat animals (and in a tanner’s home, no less).
• Along with fruit and bread, meat and other animal products are mentioned hundreds of times in the Bible as a food to be received with joy (unlike fruit, vegetables are rarely mentioned).

Root of anti-meat ideology

What’s the point? Simply that nobody who reads the Bible front to back would ever conclude that the God of Christian Scripture was less than enthusiastic about his people enjoying animal-based products on a regular if not daily basis.

Nobody who reads the Bible front to back would ever conclude that the God of Christian Scripture was less than enthusiastic about his people enjoying animal-based products on a regular if not daily basis.

The latest anti-meat ideology of today doesn’t stem from first century Judaism, Platonism, Medieval monkery or anti-masturbating Corn Flakes. It comes, in large part, from certain beliefs about the global climate. Apparently, animals exude gas from their bottoms. These emissions, some argue, mean that eating yogurt and bacon is going to bring about St John’s Apocalypse!

In another hundred years there will still be cool kids arguing that moral and sophisticated people should eat lettuce and not chicken wings. And ‘should’ is the key word. There is a moral element to all this that is central to our spiritual warfare. By giving thanks and eating the food God provides in nature, we are prophetically declaring before both men, angels and demons that we are not justified by anything we eat. When we eat with grateful freedom and joy, we demonstrate that our righteousness comes from Christ alone―and not from what we do (or do not) eat.
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Joshua Jones has served in full time ministry at St Nic’s, Nottingham (England), Therfield Chapel (England), and is currently the lead Pastor at Bethel Community Church (Midwest USA). He is also the author of 'Meat: a brief, Biblical theology'.

Endnotes
1 Clearly, this is one particular view on this subject; Prophecy Today is in no way prescribing what people should or shouldn’t eat, nor telling vegans or vegetarians that they should change their diet.