Bacon! It is probably one of the strongest contributing factors toward the abandoning of Biblical dietary regulations. Followers of the Jewish Messiah have worked overtime to find or invent reasons why we can eat bacon. Perhaps if the prohibition was about not eating broccoli or collard greens we could go along with it but, "Hey don't mess with my bacon." As we covered in a blog or two ago (See, "Is God upset with vegetarians" Posted Oct. 22, 2014) translators will even intentionally mistranslate and add words to the text to justify their love for bacon. Today we consider the text used by most to show that God did away with all dietary regulations for Jews and Gentiles and, for some, all of Torah as well.
The account is recorded for us by Luke in Acts 10. I encourage you to read the whole passage, Acts 10 and 11. In brief, there is a Gentile named Cornelius who is a Roman centurion. He is said to be devout and fears God. God comes to him in a vision and tells him to send men to Joppa to get Peter. They are to bring Peter back with them. Cornelius does so. As they are approaching Joppa, Peter goes up to the roof of the house where he is staying. God sends Peter a vision as well. A sheet comes down from heaven with all kinds of animals on it, clean, unclean, kosher, ceremonially unclean, all kinds of animals. God tells Peter to, "Arise, kill and eat." Peter says, "Not so Lord, I have never eaten anything common or unclean." God responds, "What God has made cleansed you must not call common". God does this three times for emphasis so Peter is sure to get the vision. Peter is confused and wonders what the vision could possibly mean. Enter the men from Cornelius. God says, "Behold there are three men looking for you. Arise and go with them." So Peter goes with them and the commentators go, "Ahhaa! God told Peter to eat bacon." Well, they really say God told Peter that all animals are now clean and he should feel free to eat any of them. Including bacon. If you care to check this out you can see commentaries by Simon Kistemaker, Ironside, F. F. Bruce, and Charles Carter and Ralph Earl. All respected scholars, and the last three use Mark 7 as the justification for their interpretation, sharing their understanding that Jesus made all food clean. (A distortion of the text if you are at all unbiased in reading the account. See the Oct. 22 post)
Now it is clear that God gave Peter a shocking illustration. A Torah observant Jewish Rabbi eating common or unclean food, how could this possibly be so? The text says Peter "wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen meant" (Acts 10:17). Peter knows what he saw he just doesn't know what it means. The same was true of Pharaoh in Genesis 41, Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2 and for Daniel in Chapter 8, just to mention a few. Visions and dreams can be difficult to understand. God is the one who reveals the meaning. Let's see what God reveals to Peter.
The servants of Cornelius (remember he is a Gentile, Roman, a centurion no less) arrive, spend the night, and then Peter goes with them to Caesarea. Cornelius tries to worship Peter who tells him not to. Peter is a good Rabbi and knows that is taboo. Cornelius has a houseful of people and invites Peter in. Chapter 10:28 "Then he [Peter] said to them, 'You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean." When did that happen? There is nothing here in the text about unclean people. It was about unclean food, right? But Peter understood the vision to be an object lesson about people, not food. Well, perhaps that is clarified a little later in the text. While Peter is speaking the Gentiles believe, evidenced by the Holy Spirit. On this basis Peter baptizes them. They are now a part of the believing community.
In Chapter 11 the apostles and brethren heard that the Gentiles had also received the Word of God. Peter is confronted in verse 2, "You went into uncircumcised men and shared a meal with them." Now take just a minute here and be reasonable. Cornelius is said to be "a devout man and one who feared, honored, God, gave generously and prayed." It seems he is pretty familiar with the God of Israel, familiar with the laws and customs of the Jews. God tells him that a Jewish man named Simon Peter can answer his questions. When Peter arrives, Cornelius is so impressed he bows before him. Having been corrected Cornelius invites Peter to stay for dinner. (Just a side thought. Realistically, what are the chances he would intentionally serve Jewish Peter unclean food?) Having been confronted, Peter shares the vision of the sheet and animals and the house of Cornelius receiving the Word and the Spirit. Chapter 11:18, "When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, "We can eat bacon!" well, no they said, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life." It seems everyone who hears of the vision sees God's message as one relating to Gentiles coming into the Kingdom. They somehow miss the main point of the end to Jewish dietary laws and possibly all ceremonial laws as well.
Let us go back to the two other visions I mentioned. Pharoah has a vision of seven fat cows being eaten by seven skinny cows. God tells him, through Joseph, that these are years of plentiful harvests followed by years of famine. That is God's message. If we follow the logic and exegesis applied to Acts 10 and 11 Pharaoh should have sent soldiers all across Egypt to kill every skinny cow as the dream/vision is obviously about cows not years. Kill off the skinny cows and avoid the famine. If he focused on God's interpretation he would have been legalistic and missed the "kill the skinny cows" message. Nebuchadnezzar also has a dream recorded for us in Daniel 2. God reveals the dream and its interpretation to Daniel. It is a great statue with the head of gold, chest of silver, belly of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay. They are kingdoms God has established before time. The head is of Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon. Nebbie is pleased to know the meaning of the vision. But not so much with the end of his and the coming of other kingdoms. So in Chapter 3, he makes a ninety foot statue of pure gold and calls everyone to worship the statue. Not just a head of gold, but it is all gold. This way his kingdom will never end. He will just modify God's vision and make his own interpretation. It was about a statue of a man after all. Not coming kingdoms, right? If you want a New Testament illustration, both Paul in 1 Cor 13 and James in James 1 use a mirror to make a point. The obvious thing God is revealing to us is that good followers of God and His Son should own a mirror. In fact not owning a mirror might mean we are not being obedient.
I am sure that you can easily see the flaws in all of these applications. Nebuchadnezzar learned that his statue could not replace God's interpretation of God's vision. Yet we have no problem replacing God's interpretation of Peter's vision with our own. Whatever you decide to believe about dietary regulations is up to you. But if you want to justify eating bacon, Acts 10 and 11 offer no help. Unless you don't like God's interpretation of God's vision.
We are convinced that dietary laws don't apply to anyone. Could it be that after years of rejecting God's regulations it is almost impossible to consider a different perspective? A perspective that actually fits better with Scripture. However it is important to please our taste buds. So enjoy a piece of "golden bacon"; I am sure God will be okay with our own interpretation of His revelation, don't you?
