Month: September 2017

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“And on the next day, as they were on their way, and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.  And he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he beheld the sky opened up, and a certain object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.  And a voice came to him, ‘Arise, Peter, kill and eat!’. But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean’. And again a voice came to him a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy’.”  Acts 10:9-15

Here is another example of a viewpoint or interpretation I have always accepted as true without really studying it out.  I believe many other Christians are in the same boat.

I was listening to an interview with a Christian couple who are very involved in Biblical dieting.  They were remarking about this passage and said that it has nothing to do with God saying everything is ok to eat now.  They pointed out that Peter realized that the vision was telling him that he should not call any man unclean or unholy.  The couple said that it was never in the Law for a Jew to view people this way.

I have always accepted the contention that in this passage God says that all animals are now ok to eat and that God’s law that forbade certain animals was now nullified.  It was then somehow equated symbolically to the notion that Jews could also now associate with non-Jews. 

So, I decided to study all this for myself.  I found that the aforementioned couple was correct.  However, they did not complete the picture.  There was something much deeper and more profound that God was communicating to Peter.

Peter goes into a trance and sees a vision.  A great sheet comes down from heaven and all kinds of unclean and unholy (dirty and impure) animals are in the sheet.  A voice tells Peter to arise kill and eat.  Peter is appalled and says to the Lord that he never has and would never eat anything unholy and unclean.  The voice says ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy”.

Peter is greatly perplexed about the vision.  This is a devout Jew who understands that there is purpose in the law.  God did not create the law arbitrarily.  The law describes and displays God’s righteousness.  How could something God has designated unclean become clean?

Peter continued to ponder the vision and while he was reflecting on it, men showed up at the door asking for Peter to go with them to see the centurion Cornelius.  When Peter is told that God sent an angel to Cornelius, a Gentile, the light went on for him.

Verse 28 is very important.  Peter tells Cornelius and his household that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or visit him.  Yet, Peter says, God showed him that he should not call ANY man unholy or unclean.

The point is this, what Peter realized is that no man should be considered unclean or unholy.   When God said to Peter, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy’, He was telling Peter that He had made atonement for all men.  He had not changed the law about what animals were edible!

Atonement is Cleansing

This short statement from God to Peter, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy”, sums up what Christ’s death on the cross means to the whole world.  His death was the atonement for all mankind.  It satisfied the debt or the penalty for original sin. 

It’s also important to mention here that the law that Peter was talking about in Acts 10:28 in terms of associating with a foreigner is not found in the Torah anywhere.  But we will discuss that later in this article.

Look at Leviticus 16:29-30.  This chapter is all about the Law of Atonement.  It is the definitive statute regarding the annual ritual for Israel to make atonement for the nation.  It symbolically reconciled the nation to God.  It also foreshadowed the perfect atonement that would be made by Christ for all of mankind (see Heb. 10:10-12).

“And this shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls, and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you shall be clean from all your sins before the Lord.”

In other words, atonement is a cleansing! 

This is what God was telling Peter.  Christ’s death had atoned for the sin of all mankind.  Peter realized that nothing had changed regarding what is good or bad to eat.  God had not cleansed those things, or made them suitable for eating!  Jesus Christ atoned or cleansed all of man.

This does not mean that all people are saved.  Christ’s death paid for the sin of the world, but individually we are justified by faith.  Faith alone is what determines whether we become righteous in God’s eyes.  Christ’s death, or atonement, is a free gift for all men.  It allows for justification for all men individually by faith (Rom. 5:11-18).

The point I’m trying to make about Acts 10 is that nothing changed from God’s perspective about what is good to eat.  He used that vision to help Peter understand what God had cleansed or atoned for.  God forced Peter’s mind into a quandary so that when the men from Cornelius showed up Peter would automatically understand.

Now, I am not saying that we are still under the law.  I am saying that what God laid out in the law as unclean to eat was still unclean or bad to eat.  In other words, there was purpose behind God declaring certain things bad to eat.  Nothing changed with that.

In Leviticus chapter 11, God details which creatures can be eaten.  At the end of the chapter it says, “This is the law regarding the animal, and the bird, and every living thing that moves in the waters, and everything that swarms on the earth, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean, and between the edible creature and the creature which is not to be eaten.”  Lev. 11:46-47

This is why Peter was so perplexed.  He could not understand how something that was bad to eat could suddenly become ok to eat.  Then he figured it out when the representatives of Cornelius showed up.

While we have technology to protect from the hazards of certain unclean animals, there are still good reasons to avoid them.  You can find the exhaustive list in Lev. 11.  Pork, shellfish, rabbits, and fish without scales like catfish are the usual suspects on American tables, but you can do your own research on what’s healthy and not.

Going back to the law that Peter cited about association with foreigners – it was a man-made law or tradition.  It was not a law of God.  In fact, if you go back through the books of Moses, or the Torah, there are numerous passages that talk about welcoming the foreigners or aliens, and being hospitable to them.

Here are just a few:

“The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.”  Lev. 19:24

‘There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the LORD your God.'”  Lev. 24:22

‘If an alien sojourns among you and observes the Passover to the LORD, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its ordinance, so he shall do; you shall have one statute, both for the alien and for the native of the land.'”  Num. 9:14

“You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns.”  Deut. 24:14

And don’t forget the one above that I quoted regarding the Day of Atonement, Lev. 16:29-30

There are many, many more.  God has always intended that Israel be a light to the nations.  The Jews were never supposed to treat people with disdain.  They were told not to inter-mingle in marriage or to follow other nations gods, but if a non-Jew was seeking friendship there was no law against it. This tradition of the Jews to not associate with Gentiles was something concocted by corrupt religious leaders.

Guess what? It’s the same with the Church.  We are to be in the world, but not of it.  We are to be just as hospitable to non-believers as Israel was to be to non-Jews.  But we are not to marry unbelievers.  God is the same yesterday and today!

Acts 10 is really about Christ’s atonement!