How many times when you speak out against certain sins, or use the Bible as your worldview and someone gets mad at you and says, “well I hope you obey all the Old Testament, or I hope you don’t eat shellfish, Or I hope you are not wearing certain kinds of fabric?” It happens to me a lot, and if you are a Bible believing Christian and you are saying nonsense like this I think you should stop.
First and foremost in Leviticus 11 there is a list of dietary restrictions that God did give to the nation of Israel. This dietary law prohibited against eating many things such as, pork, shrimp, shellfish and many other types of seafood, insects, scavenger birds and many other animals. These dietary and fabric laws were not intended for anyone else but the Israelite’s. So why were those laws in place, and why was it only intended for the Israelite’s? These laws were made to keep them distinct from other nations.
If we look in the New Testament we will also see that Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19), and we read in Acts 10 about Peter’s vision in his witness to the gentile Cornelius and his family. This was the first step in the gentile mission, and this vision shows the the Lord’s inclusion of the gentiles in the church. In this vision God tells Peter the former restrictions have now been lifted and he is now able to minister to the Gentiles. This vision also illustrates Jesus’ fulfillment of the law and God’s plan for all of His creation. This means that the dietary laws are no longer needed, so to say that we should not eat shellfish or shrimp is not consistent with Scripture.
When Jesus died on the cross He fulfilled the Old Testament law and yes this includes both clean and unclean foods. As you can see not all of Leviticus is written for everyone. A clue that these are for the Israelite’s only is when it says, “speak to the sons of Israel, or say to the Israelite’s” and then a command is given. It is a command given to them, and no other nation.
So why is the food and clothing law only for the Israelite’s and laws such as homosexuality for all then as well as today?
The laws in Leviticus 18 such as intercourse with animals, offering children to Molech, lying with a male as with a female, intercourse with your neighbors wife and so on are for all nations of all times. The laws we read of in Leviticus 19 and 20 such as,lying, stealing, adultery, bestiality and incest. The fact is that these laws such as the idea of homosexuality, adultery, incest, lying, stealing and so on are also in the New Testament and we clearly see the continuation of the Old Testament moral law and the New Testament moral law. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice for sin, and He alone makes us clean so we do not need any of the Old Testament food or sacrificial laws. Sins will still continue to be sins and Jesus fulfilled the law and we are subject to the law of Christ now. The civil and ceremonial laws in the Old Testament are no longer in effect because of Christ, but the moral law does not expire because it is based on God’s character.
We no longer have to offer sacrifices and we do not have to have the regulations of the Mosaic covenant because we have a New Covenant in Christ. (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Luke 22:20; Hebrews 9:15) In Hebrews 8:13 we read that the Mosaic covenant is made obsolete. God’s people are no longer needing to be set apart by not mixing fabrics or not eating shellfish, they are now in the New Covenant set apart by being united to Jesus by faith. So we are not picking and choosing what biblical commands we are to follow as some say, we just know what commands were fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.
keithoconnor 