BeyondGarden

Beyond the Garden, some thoughts by Gordon Tessler PhD

Calling scavenger fish 'an abomination,' God makes it plain that they are cesspools of filth, and contain high levels of cholesterol, mercury, disease, worms, chemicals, and parasites. They are as unhealthy to eat as swine, rats, or cockroaches.

For several years I have used part of Dr Gordon Tessler's video, Eating God's Way: the Biblical Foundation for Optimum Nutrition, and his book, The Genesis Diet, in our classes. I pointed out that he was not a vegetarian and stopped the video when it no longer served my purposes. I have recently revisited the sections that include the rest of the biblical counsel on food. Chapter 3, called "Beyond the Garden," recounts the story of the flood that brought judgment after God saw that those whom he had created to enjoy him forever were so wicked and violent that every intent of their hearts was "only evil continually." One righteous man, Noah, along with his family and pairs and seven of certain animals were saved in an ark that he built to God's specifications.

Dr Tessler notes that "after the great flood, God no longer limited man's diet to...the original garden diet of grains, beans, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables which were considered clean and healthy by our Creator; God gave man permission to eat certain flesh foods."

When he gave instructions for choosing animals for the safety of the ark, God had distinguished between clean and unclean animals. Afterward, the Noahic covenant [Gen. 9:9] established the eating of clean meats, excluding their blood. Later, in the Mosaic Covenant, the rules for what was clean and thus safe for his people to eat were codified. Jews to this day eat only food they call kosher. The food we were served on the plane during our recent trip to Israel had a certificate of kashrut on each tray.

"Our heavenly Father wanted his children to live healthy, abundant lives for his purposes. That is why he told them what to eat. The whole grains and beans, raw nuts and seeds, fresh fruits and vegetables [of the Edenic covenant] remained through all of the covenants as a clean and healthy foundation. [They] were a must for everyone; the flesh foods were optional. In the garden, God said, 'to you it shall be for food.' The word shall is a command, not a suggestion. The Lord is telling us that ... these seed-bearing plants are essential for our health. When the Lord outlines the instructions for eating clean flesh foods in Lev. 11 and Deut. 14, he says, 'you may eat' these meats. The word may is not a command, but rather gives us ... the option to eat animal foods. We ... shall eat the vegetables, but when it comes to meat, poultry, or fish the Lord gives us a choice: we may eat them. "

Clean/unclean

Clean and unclean foods are not related to whether something has been washed or not. The word clean means edible, and the word unclean means not edible. A person can tell what is edible by observing which animals have divided hooves and chew their cud. These are the plant-eaters. Herbivores are the healthiest of all the creatures God made. Because they don't eat the flesh of animals, they avoid many of the diseases, parasites, and worms that are in the flesh and blood of animals. Not only are vegetarian animals free of most diseases and parasites associated with the eating of flesh, but they have long digestive tracts, 6-12 times the length of their bodies, to insure that they will completely process and eliminate toxins and poisons. An animal appropriate for eating, according to the Bible, is defined by what it eats and the cleanliness of its digestive tract.

The entire group of unclean animals are omnivores, which eat both vegetation and animals. Their digestive tracts are much shorter than those of herbivores, because decaying flesh and by-products are potentially toxic and must be eliminated from the body quickly.

The indiscriminate eating patterns of omnivores like pigs make them disease carriers. Swine are known to carry up to 200 diseases, including trichinella spiralis, microscopic transparent worms so small that only trained inspectors using high-powered microscopes can detect their existence. Trichinosis can cripple or kill those who eat as little as a forkful of contaminated food. Pigs have more incidences of arthritis than any other known animal. A person who eats bacon, ham, sausage, or pork chops is at risk for arthritis and a dozen kinds of worms and other parasites. Note that Jesus who came to destroy the works of the devil, sent unclean spirits to enter unclean animals, described in Mark 5.

Dr Tessler also names the clean and unclean fish based on Deut 19: 9: "all that have fins and scales" -- bass, cod, flounder, grouper, haddock, halibut, herring, mackerel, orange roughy, perch, sole, salmon, red snapper, trout, tuna, and any other fish with fins and scales. The delicacies many people love -- shrimp, lobster, crab, clams, oysters, and scallops are scavengers that God created to clean the bottom of the ocean, not to feed his children.

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