“who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” 1 Timothy 4:3-5 ESV
Veganism is contrary to sound doctrine because it calls evil what God has called good. In an age of rising paganism Christians should understand the root of such things since they’re the logical outworking of the rejection of Christ.
Unbelief and sin victimize people. We choose sin and sin victimizes us. Such is the tragedy of all sin…it promises us deliverance and happiness but ends in addictions, shame, and ruin. The reality of this is precisely why Christians should love – absolutely adore – the law of the Lord and the gospel. False doctrine literally ruins lives.
The great danger of sin is its deceitfulness, after all. There is a way that seems right to us when in reality it’s a highway to hell and suffering (Proverbs 14:12). The prudent one, the man or woman of wisdom, sees the warning signs of danger because they know and live in the light of God’s word/law (Proverbs 27:12).
Today, though, the culture has convinced itself that there’s no God. This has led to all sorts of false worship. The thing to remember about all false beliefs is that they have two things in common:
– they dismiss the sinfulness of sin
– they dismiss the need of Christ’s atoning death
In this way all false belief systems become “works” based due to the fact that they convince sinners that their problem is “out there” rather than in the heart. The Bible unambiguously teaches the doctrine of total depravity (Ecclesiastes 7:20), which is to stay that all people – of every race, tribe, and nation – have a sin problem. And the soul that sins will and must die (Ezekiel 18:20). This is the central truth about life. Outside of it, nothing really matters. The strongest proof of the Bible’s veracity is that plain fact that all men die, which proves the its central message. No other worldview, philosophy, or religion bothers to explain where everything came from and why every single one of us dies. This is a world of death because it’s a world under the judgment of sin.
Period. End of story.
To deny this (that is, logically) requires that we provide a rational system of thought to make sense of these obvious facts of life. Only Christianity has the answers (John 6:68-69). And only in Christ do we have the solution to life’s greatest problem: death. In Christ alone, by faith alone, through grace alone, we have redemption.
Outside of this, man becomes busy with schemes. Endless schemes of self-salvation (Ecclesiastes 7:29). Paul mentions a few here to Timothy. In Ephesus then, as we see now, there were movements of self-salvation based around different forms of asceticism. The logic is obvious. If my problem isn’t sin, that is, if it’s not an internal heart issue, then my problem is external. If my problem is external then I don’t need to be born again from above. If my problem is happening to me rather than happening through me, then I can be the catalyst of my salvation.
This is the collision point of Christ against the world. There are not many religions; there is one true faith and countless pretenders…nearly an infinite number of 666’s masquerading as truth. All of the false religions and philosophies have this in common: they believe in man’s ability to fix himself, to measure up, to live well enough. Christianity is the only religion in the world for bad people.
The gospel is and always will be offensive because it alone declares the righteousness of God and the sinfulness of men. It glorifies God in that He’s both just and justifier of the one who believes in Christ (Romans 3:26). Forms of asceticism declare both that God isn’t fully righteous and that man isn’t lost in sin. All forms of asceticism declare that the problem of life is “out there” – thus, it calls parts of God’s creation evil. Jesus said this:
“And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”” Mark 7:20-23 ESV
Paul, in speaking of the doctrine of demons, brings Timothy’s attention to such abstinence. If I don’t need a Savior from above, I can save myself through abstaining from certain things. Severity to the body, or movements of purity – in whatever forms they take – grow in the soil of rebellion against God.
A vegan believes, in contradiction to the Word of God, that eating certain foods is evil.
“I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.” Romans 14:14 ESV
Insofar as it goes, a Christian shouldn’t be offensive to a vegan believer. If you’re invited to such a one’s home and they serve vegan food, eat it (Romans 14:15-17). Don’t bring a hamburger just to make a point. But if pressed on the issue gently correct the flawed theology with all patience. “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.” Christians shouldn’t be known for a disapproving spirit but one of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. Christians should know that God’s creation is beautiful and wonderful and so full of countless things that inspire awe! The spirit of fear is gone because we had death and sin to fear and now Christ has taken all that away and we follow Him with eager and expectant joy.
So, we eat and drink and are merry in the Lord! A miserable, critical Christian is a contradiction in terms because life is literally good in the Lord. Of course, the eating and drinking and living in the Lord is all done within the proper categories at last. What sin does is it misuses parts of creation. Abstaining from one thing and permitting something else. I know of a couple who are vegan and yet antinomian at the same time. They say that Jesus was all love, love, love except, of course, when it comes to killing animals for food. So, this is the problem. Unless our minds are renewed in Christ and the study of His word/law, we’ll always end up calling evil good and good evil.
Recent Comments