Is it a Sin to Eat Pork?

When liberal politicians and feminists want to justify abortion, the question they don’t want to talk about is: “Should a woman be allowed to kill her own child?” The questions they want to pose is: “Should a woman have control over her own body?” or “Should a woman have medical freedom?”.  This tactic is called shifting the narrative.  Shifting the narrative is a very clever way to change the focus not on what is actually the issue, but instead make the focus on a slightly related topic that can be more easily argued.  This tactic can be deployed on any number of topics- as we all can imagine.

One time I was eating at a cafeteria, when a woman apparently noticed from my food selection and comments that I made, that I didn’t eat pork or other biblically unclean foods.  I soon ended up sitting down at a table where she was seated and after some group discussions and casual conversations, she made a very directed comment toward me: “Food choices are not a matter of Salvation!”  Her statement implied that I believed that God was going to send me to hell if I ate a slice of bacon. I didn’t know this woman and she didn’t know me.  And my motivation was never based on fear that God was going to strike me down if I ate unclean food.  She was simply shifting the narrative.  For me, it has always been about trust in God, and love of his law- The Torah.

For about a thousand years, from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance, much due to antisemitism, there was a belief held by many throughout Europe that bathing was a Jewish practice and should be avoided. Isabella of Castile, the Queen of Spain, claimed she had only bathed twice in her entire life- at birth and on her wedding day.  King Louis XIV made the same claim.  Due to this and many other biblical health laws being ignored, the average life expectancy in Europe hovered in the mid 40’s for over 1200 years!  

Well after the discoveries of Florence Nightingale, Ignaz Samuelwiew and the acceptance of the Germ theory of Disease, Europe and America entered into the First Health Revolution in the 1880’s.  After practicing basic hygiene, quarantine and sanitation, the life expectancy throughout Western Civilization increased by over 30 years!  These practices included, regular bathing, quarantine of the sick and proper disposal of sewage. 

Claire Ninde, Director of Communications at San Juan Basin Public Health states:

See the real-life saving advancements of our modern era hasn’t come from the laboratory or from a team of engineers, it has come through basic hygiene, quarantine and sanitation.

But what many don’t realize is that ALL of these life saving practices that were responsible for the biggest increase of life were ALL outlined in the Torah, God’s Law, 3400 years before the microscope.  

One of the biggest noticeable regulations we see in the Torah is mandatory bathing.  In numerous situations, an Israelite was required by law to take a bath in running water and wash his clothes before he could come in contact with the general public- like Leviticus 11 when someone touched the carcass of a dead animal. 

“Whoever carries any such carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. It is unclean to you.”
Leviticus 11:28 AFV

This requirement today makes perfect sense considering how we understand how contagions spread. If you touched a dead person, the requirements got even more strict. Numbers 19 gives very specific instructions about anyone that comes into contact of a dead person: 

“He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day.”
Numbers 19:11 AFV   

Also as verse 15 states, if he dies in his home, every vessel that doesn’t have a lid on it is also unclean and needs to be washed and set aside for a week.  We can deduce from this and many other passages that the Author of these statues obviously had knowledge of microbiology.  Like in Lev 6:28. Here YHWH gives a statute that if a kitchen vessel of clay pottery comes in contact with a contagion, it is to be broken- which makes sense.  If you get some infectious slime on unglazed pottery, it is going to be a source of infection permanently and needs to be discarded. But a bronze pot: “it shall be both scoured and rinsed in water”. Once again it makes sense knowing a metal pot would be much easer to sanitize than some porous, unglazed pottery. However in Lev 15:12 states that a wooden vessel can just be washed and reused.  Why is a wooden vessel exempt from being broken?  

So how did Moses know that wood had antibacterial qualities?   Did he perform laboratory experiments in his tent in 1400 BC?  Once again it is obvious that the Creator was the Author of these statutes and He is much smarter than we are. Now 3400 years later we have just begun to understand why many of these statutes are in the Torah but the laws of microbiology have always been in effect whether we acknowledged them or not.

In Leviticus 7 verse 26 YHWH tells the Israelites that you should not consume blood.  This once again makes perfect sense because almost all diseases, toxins, viruses and some parasites of an organism are carried in the blood. Equally sensible is verse 23 that states that the fat or tallow of an animal should not be eaten as well.  Although Pharisaical Jews have taken these commands to extreme measures (nowhere shown is scripture), we know that fat contains many toxins and unhealthy saturated fats that are not healthy to consume in significant amounts.  It is clear this is a health law because verse 24 makes it clear that tallow is perfectly fine to be used for any other purpose.  Tallow throughout the ages has been used as a fuel source (for candles and lamps), industrial grease, leather conditioner and for waterproofing – it has numerous uses- none of which was prohibited by scripture.

And there are numerous other instructions in the Torah reinforcing that the Author of these commands was fully aware of how diseases spread.  Such as instructions to:  

• Lev 22:8-Not to eat an animal that dies on its own.
• Deu 23:13- To bury human waste.
• Lev 13- Quarantine those that have infectious diseases. 
• Lev 14:33- To repair and finally destroy a house that has black mold.

If these laws of sanitation hygiene and quarantine had been observed rather than avoided over the centuries, there is no doubt millions upon millions of lives would have been saved and extended.  

It is obvious God is smarter than we are and he is much smarter than myself!  When I read these commands I immediately think of Psalms 119:  

O how love I Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients because I keep Your precepts.
Psa 119:97-100 AFV.

And so when God tells me that that glutinous mobile garbage disposal, Mr. Piggly, that will literally eat anything, including decomposed road kill, is not fit for human consumption,  I trust God that he knows what He is talking about!  I believe God.  I trust his laws and his statues.  I study God’s law because it can make me wiser than the ancients.  I believe that “Through Your precepts I get understanding”.  (119:104).  I believe God is much smarter than I am and “I esteem all Your precepts concerning all things to be right”! (Psalms 119:128) 

Do you believe the God’s Law is right? (Psalms 119:172) That is the correct question we should be asking ourselves.  

When we ask ourselves “is it a sin to eat pork?”, or “Are food choices a matter of salvation?” we are implying that there is no practical reason for following the biblical health laws and they are simply an exercise to show obedience.  Well, this is a logical fallacy. It is the logical fallacy of “Explained Ignorance” -where we make the mistake of believing that because WE BELIEVE there is no good reason for something- then there is no good reason.  And in this case because we believe there is no good reason to keep God’s health laws then there is no good reason, and therefore we don’t have to keep them.  

My tongue shall speak of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteousness.
Psa 119:172 AFV.