Hypocrites Eat Shrimp
Matt Van Teuteberg
"If you are a Christian, and you don't sacrifice animals you don't literally follow the Bible". "The Bible is corrupt because it wants you to sell your daughter into slavery". "If you wear clothes from two different types of garments, but are against gay marriage, you pick and choose". And the Grand Daddy of them all (or should I say craw daddy of them all?), "Christians aren't suppose to eat shellfish"!!! These are typical accusations against the Bible and Christianity that are heard on a regular basis from casual skeptics and Hollywood. Two recent examples of these accusations from Hollywood are “Proposition 8 The Musical”1 and a particular scene from the “West Wing”2. In this article, I am going to show you why these accusations are erroneous lies.
To begin, one must understand the reason for any of the Laws in the Bible to ever be able to comprehend their worth and place in one's life. In the Bible there are many Laws and ordinances which God commands for all of humanity to follow. These Laws are separated into three categories: Moral, Civil, and Ceremonial3. Moral Laws are a reflection of God's character and never change with time, since God never changes and is always good and perfect. The command in the Bible that says, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself"(Matthew 22:39) is a Moral Law, as well as the Ten Commandments. In Old Testament times, the nation of Israel was a theocracy, which is a nation run by divine appointment where God's commandments were framed in infinite wisdom and equity. These commandments framed in infinite wisdom and equity are what people refer to as Civil Laws, and they are in place to govern the life and interaction of God's people (even after Israel ceased to be a theocracy and got a human king, these Laws still applied because of God's special covenant with the nation of Israel). The last set of Laws that are mentioned in the Bible are the Ceremonial Laws. These are meant to restore the broken relationship between God and man, though they don’t do it fully. Since God is perfect and holy, and man is imperfect and unholy, there exists a chasm in the relationship between God and man, and this only gets worse when man continues to sin. As well as being holy, God is just, meaning He must punish sin, with the only fitting punishment being humanity's destruction. Honestly, God doesn't want any to perish, but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9) because He is a good, patient God, so He created a temporary cover for the sins. The Ceremonial Laws consist of God's people sacrificing animals to accomplish temporary removal and forgiveness of sin. Since people sinned, the punishment was death, so God commanded people to sacrifice animals in human's place, since it says in Leviticus blood is needed for atonement or forgiveness of sins4. The animal sacrifices, more importantly, foreshadowed a Greater Sacrifice that was to come.
Now that the table is set (hopefully not at Long John Silver's), I can now start to refute some of the false arguments against the Bible and Christianity. Let's start with my favorite one. Christians aren't allowed to eat shrimp. Leviticus 11:10-11 says, "But whatever is in the seas and in the rivers that does not have fins and scales among all the teeming life of the water, and among all the living creatures that are in the water, they are detestable things to you,". This verse is a specific command to the people of Israel not to eat shrimp and other unclean creatures. The reason for laws like these is that after God's people had been in slavery to Egypt, they wrongly adopted many of the customs of Egypt. God's loving plan for the people of Israel was that they were to be blessed and distinct from other nations so as to make God famous throughout the nations. Deuteronomy 7:6 says, "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth". It's also important to note that many of God's dietary restrictions were put into place to protect Israel from debilitating disease, a horrible standard of living, and a short lifespan. Today, it's common knowledge that certain meats consumed improperly result in disease or death. God forbid the eating of shellfish so His people would avoid shellfish poisoning, pork so His people avoided the disease Trichinosis, and flowing water as opposed to standing water so they wouldn't get sick. But, is it a sin today to eat shrimp or any of these unclean meats? Well, first of all, God and man are operating under a new Covenant as a result of God sending Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world. Today, God doesn't so much so pay extra special attention to one nation, setting the rules of daily affairs, blessing it when it's obedient and cursing when it's not. God has revealed His Son Jesus Christ as the means to a perfect relationship with Himself, and this is available to anyone in any nation! So, no. It is not a sin to eat shrimp. Anyone who says so clearly does not understand what they've read from the Bible, wants to heap void rules on people to give them a hard time, or, my favorite, suffers from memory loss and confusion as a result of shellfish poisoning. Plus, Jesus says in Mark 7:18-19"..."Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")"
Next, I am going to talk about God's strict rules for sacrificing animals in the Old Testament. As described above, God gave the people of Israel very specific details on how he wanted animals sacrificed, which was to cover for the people's sin until a Greater Sacrifice would come along. The Day of Atonement was a sacrifice ritual that Israel was to perform once a year. What would happen is that God's chosen representative would sacrifice a bull for the sins of his family. Then he would sacrifice one goat and let one goat go, for the sins of his family and the people of Israel. It says in Leviticus 16 that this has to be done every year. So, does that mean a faithful Christian must do this? The answer is no. God only allowed the sacrificing of animals until the perfect time when His Son was to be the perfect sacrifice. Ever hear Jesus Christ referred to as the Lamb of God? John 1:29 states, "The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world""! Jesus was a perfect, spotless sacrifice. He lived a perfect life choosing to take on our sins, and with our sins, the punishment we deserved, which was crucifixion and the wrath of God. Jesus exhausted God's wrath once and for all, resulting in for those who believe in Him, a perfect and restored relationship with God and eternal life. This Jesus scenario works because He is fully man (therefore a representative of mankind) and fully God (able to be the perfect sacrifice and rise from the dead). Reader beware though, if you still cling to your sin, instead of Jesus Christ the Savior, the wrath of God still remains on you5. So to conclude, no6, Christians don't need to sacrifice animals because "[Jesus] has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself"(Hebrews 7:27).
Ultimately, these arguments that people lay up against the Bible are just flat-out misinformation. They are lies of the highest proportion against The God of the Highest. They aim to trick, coerce, and lead people into disbelieving in the God that brought them life and everything precious to them. These arguments are a distortion of the truth, an evasion of the inevitable, a falsifying of the facts, a twisting of Scripture, and a sham most certainly. These arguments show that some people have missed the entire point of the Bible: people are great sinners, but Jesus Christ is a great Savior. It would make much more sense to talk about, argue about, and debate about who Jesus Christ was/is and what He did, than spend time in utter confusion about things which the Bible is painfully clear about. So, having said that, see you at Red Lobster.
Sources
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_hyT7_Bx9o
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1-ip47WYWc
3. Friel, T. Herman Who? Read it Right... a Hermeneutics Primer [Message]. United States: Burning Bush Communications.
4. Leviticus 17:11
5. John 3:36
6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDZy6-fMCw4