http://www.epctoronto.org/Press/Publications_JRHughes/Why_Meat_Web.htm
I find this insert fascinating-
"The sign of the New World Covenant that God gave to mankind is the rainbow (Gen 9.12,13). All men, everywhere on earth ‘participate’ in the sign every time the rains end and the sun begins to shine again. In the same way, all men everywhere participate in the covenant fellowship meal when they eat the meat of an animal.
I therefore suggest the following:
- Every time a person eats meat, he participates in the covenant fellowship meal of the New World Covenant. This places man under the covenant obligations of the Covenant between God and man and reminds man that he is a creature dependent on the Creator and a vassal lord over creation, under the Great King.
- When a person eats meat, it reminds him that death is the result of sin, which requires punishment.
- Mankind, in general, can continue to eat any kind of animal meat, not just the meat of the clean animals, because the New World Covenant is a universal and perpetual form of the Covenant.
- God introduced the exclusivity of eating only clean animals—those that alone could be sacrificed to God—to point to the requirement for a redeemer who would be holy and a perfect substitute for man. People under the Sinaitic Covenant, mediated through Moses, were called to a holy separation to represent the coming Messiah. The limitation on their meat diet continued the symbolism that sin resulted in death, but added the symbol that substitution required perfection.
- In the NT economy the limitation of physical separation of Jews from Gentiles is removed (Acts 10.1-11.18) and the true implication of the separation—a spiritual separation in Christ—is emphasized. The removal of the one element of symbolism in meat eating—the requirement for a pure sacrificial substitute—does not, however, remove the other—the universal symbol associated with the New World Covenant. Therefore all men everywhere continue to eat meat from all kinds of animals as a symbol of their universal obligation to God
If in fact the provision of meat eating is prescriptive and not just permissive, there may be some implications that have a direct bearing on aspects of our culture and the larger world, in which we find ourselves living in the 21 st century. The following are suggested implications of the God’s provision of meat eating within the framework of the universal Covenant between God and man:
- Religions, such as Hinduism, that reject eating meat, are an abomination to God. Their man-made regulations that require vegetarianism put them in direct rebellion against a universal requirement of God and place them under his curse. A person who refuses to eat meat rebels against the command of God, refuses to participate in the covenant fellowship meal, and denies his subordinate role to God the Creator.
- Vegetarianism, even if not participated in for ‘religious’ reasons, is rebellion against the Covenant. Personal-choice vegetarianism may be a slap in the face of God, and is to go the way of the heathen.
- Islam, Judaism, and Seventh Day Adventism, all reject some aspect of meat eating; albeit for different reasons. They are in rebellion against God’s command. They refuse to accept Jesus as the final perfect sacrifice and they refuse to be placed under the obligations of the New World Covenant.
- Organizations such as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and militant vegans pervert God’s covenantal requirement to eat meat and attempt to position meat eating as a ‘sin’ We should not flippantly dismiss them since they have support from influential people. We need to stand firmly against them because their rejection of meat eating is a direct challenge to God’s perpetual Covenant with mankind."
https://answersingenesis.org/animal-behavior/what-animals-eat/creations-original-diet-and-the-changes-at-the-fall/
The original plan God had for us was the be in harmony with all living creatures, and to eat the plants and vegetation from the earth.
In Genesis 1.29-30 we read:
After the flood, God gave us everything that lives to eat.
In Genesis 9.1-5 we read:
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal.” (NIV)
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. (NIV)
After the flood, God gave us everything that lives to eat.
In Genesis 9.1-5 we read:
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal.” (NIV)
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