djanakes said:
Exactly, so what's the connection between unclean foods and unclean gentiles? The Jews understood they alone were God's chosen people, while the common folk, the gentiles, were unclean, common, dogs. Scripture already establishes the definition of food as "Every moving creature that lives is food for you...But do not eat flesh with its life, its blood." Food is never defined as animal droppings, tin cans or anything else that one might decide to try to ingest. We know that Noah already understood the distinction between the clean and the unclean, yet also was given all for food. That much has been clearly established in Genesis.
You really seem to like that verse, and are willing to overlook all the others that don't favor your position.
Please answer these verses, which from my position create no conflict whatsoever. I have to twist nothing, all I have to do is read with understanding.
Isa 65:1 “I have let Myself be inquired of, not by those who asked; I was found, not by those who sought Me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation not calling on My Name.
Isa 65:2 “I have held out My hands all day long to a stubborn people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;
Isa 65:3 the people who provoke Me continually to My face, who slaughter in gardens, and burn incense on altars of brick;
Isa 65:4 who sit among the graves, and spend the night in secret places,
who eat flesh of pigs, and the broth of unclean meat is in their pots,
Isa 65:5 who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am set-apart to you!’ These are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all day.
Isa 65:6 “
See, it is written before Me: I am not silent, but shall repay, and I shall repay into their bosom,
Isa 65:7 your crookednesses and the crookednesses of your fathers together,” said יהוה, “who burned incense on the mountains and reproached Me on the hills. And I shall measure their former work into their bosom.”
Isa 65:8 Thus said יהוה, “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one shall say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is blessing in it,’
so I do for My servants’ sake, not to destroy them all. (right there is the concept of the tares growing with the wheat)
Isa 65:9 “And I shall bring forth a seed from Yaʽaqob, and from Yehudah an heir of My mountains. And My chosen ones shall inherit it, and My servants dwell there.
Isa 65:10 “And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the Valley of Akor a place for herds to lie down, for My people who have sought Me.
Isa 65:11 “But you are those who forsake יהוה, who forget My set-apart mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, and who fill a drink offering for Meni.
Isa 65:12 “And I shall allot you to the sword, and let you all bow down to the slaughter, because I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not hear, and you did evil before My eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.”
Isa 66:16 “For by fire and by His sword יהוה shall judge all flesh, and the slain of יהוה shall be many –
Isa 66:17
those who set themselves apart and cleanse themselves at the gardens after ‘One’ in the midst, eating flesh of pigs1 and the abomination and the mouse, are snatched away, together,” declares יהוה. (hmm, rapture anyone?)
Isa 66:18 “And I, because of their works and their imaginations, am coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My esteem.
Isa 66:19 “And I shall set a sign among them, and shall send some of those who escape to the nations – Tarshish and Pul and Luḏ, who draw the bow, and Tubal and Yawan, the coastlands afar off who have not heard My report nor seen My esteem. And they shall declare My esteem among the gentiles. (hmm, interesting, Shaul was out of Tarshish, one of the places of exile)
Isa 66:20 “And they shall bring all your brothers as an offering to יהוה out of all the gentiles, on horses and in chariots and in litters, on mules and on camels, to My set-apart mountain Yerushalayim,” declares יהוה, “as the children of Yisra’ĕl bring an offering in a clean vessel into the House of יהוה.
Isa 66:21 “And from them too I shall take for priests – for Lĕwites,” declares יהוה.
Isa 66:22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make stand before Me,” declares יהוה, “so your seed and your name shall stand.
Isa 66:23 “And it shall be that from New Moon to New Moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” declares יהוה.
Isa 66:24 “And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm shall not die, and their fire not be quenched. And they shall be repulsive to all flesh!”
I don't know about you, but those verses there make me see that Yahweh really despised such things, and I see nothing that tells me in Scripture that Messiah was coming to get rid of all this. Find me just one place in Scripture that any righteous man consumed anything but of the clean animals, I haven't found one and I've looked. I fear and tremble for those who proclaim that such things are blessed for human consumption, especially in light of the fact that our Messiah whom we were told to listen to said that whoever breaks and teaches others to break his commands is least in the kingdom of heaven. I'm really not sure exactly what that means, but I certainly don't understand why so many fervently are attempting to be least....
