Is It A Sin To Kill Animals

Q: I have an ongoing problem considering I'1000 living every bit a hypocrite. I'm an beast lover but I eat meat. I don't eat veal or lamb considering they are from young animals, only I eat meat, fish, fowl and eggs. Is there anything in the Bible that refers to this or to Christ's personal practice? Did Jesus consume meat? I'm aware that I'm looking for absolution for eating meat, but I can't become rid of this conflict in my mind. Every bit I say, it is hypocritical. I would never hunt or fish, but I eat what someone else kills to put meat on my table. Is killing and eating animals a sin in the eyes of God or Jesus? What would Jesus have said? -- From L

P.S. I contribute to many animate being groups, specially to assist farm animals and to ban dog racing, etc., but it doesn't erase the guilt.

A: In Genesis one:29 God speaks to Adam,

"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 food."

In the second chapter of Genesis (2:xvi-17) vegetarianism is re-affirmed every bit people'south spiritually proper diet. However, ane tree in the Garden of Eden bore forbidden fruit,

"And the Lord God allowable the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not consume of it: for in the twenty-four hour period that thou eatest thereof 1000 shalt surely die."

Nothing could be clearer. God does not want us to eat meat. People are made in God'south prototype and animals are not, but this spiritual difference is not sufficiently morally significant to let killing animals for nutrient. Killing another person is a capital criminal offense and a sin. Killing an creature is just a sin.

The moral and spiritual ambiguity about eating meat is made more explicit in the ninth chapter of Genesis (Genesis nine:3-6) when God tells Noah in the covenant made with him afterwards the Great Flood,

"Every moving affair that liveth shall be meat for you; fifty-fifty every bit the green herb have I given yous all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I crave; at the mitt of every beast will I require it, and at the manus of man; at the hand of every human'due south brother will I crave the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man'south blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the paradigm of God made he man."

So God has a alter of heart and strikes what I consider to be a perfect spiritual balance. God is saying that existence a vegetarian is clearly the higher way, merely it is not the only mode. Meat is not murder, but it is not the highest moral level to which we can elevate our nutrition. Eating meat too makes us comfortable around claret, and blood is life. Spilling the blood of animals makes us less revolted by spilling the blood of people.

This nuanced position that eating meat is a concession to human carnivorous urges but not our highest level helps united states of america to learn that the Bible offers usa many levels of spiritual practice. We tin live a life on as high a level every bit we desire.

The question of whether or not Jesus was a vegetarian is complicated. In that location is no direct statement on the subject by Jesus in the New Testament. The story of Jesus feeding fish to people would support the view that Jesus may take been a pescatarian. Paul seems to have been more open to meat eating, but fifty-fifty Paul was open to vegetarianism. In one Corinthians 8:13 Paul said, "Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I volition eat no mankind 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.

Modern Christianity has produced the vegetarian 7th Mean solar day Adventists who are vegetarians because of the teachings of their co-founder Ellen Thousand. White.

So what can I say to ease your carnivorous guilt? I would suggest that y'all experiment with meatless Mondays, and and then no meat till dinner, so peradventure a menstruum of fourth dimension when you eat no meat for a catamenia of time. Your moral intuitions are right. At that place is something hypocritical about the fashion we profess life and and then eat the world to decease. Retrieve that your journey to God has many levels and you ought to have no shame or guilt most the stage of your journey that you have reached then far.

Send questions and comments to The God Squad via electronic mail at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the writer of several books, including "Organized religion for Dummies," co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman.

Source: https://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/local/blogs/2018/06/22/bibles-stance-eating-meat-may-surprise-you/721359002/

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