“The Forbidden Fruit of Eden is Meat. Go Vegan!” By Chapman Chen, HKBNews
Chapman Chen makes an interesting case that the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden was animal flesh. What do you think? Is he right?
[The views expressed in showcased content do not necessarily reflect the views of Creation Care Church]
Summary: In Genesis, after eating the forbidden “fruit” from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden and they went from immortal to mortal. What on earth was the forbidden fruit? Was it really an apple as depicted by Renaissance writers? What’s so wrong with eating a vegan fruit, be it an apple or a pineapple or a banana? Of course, some theologians argue that it was disobedience of God rather than the content of the disobedience that caused the downfall of the first humans. But who has not disobeyed their parents during childhood?
By examining the Hebrew original of the words concerned and their context, this article, inspired by Jeff Popick (2007) and Jane Erwin (2010), argues that the forbidden fruit of Eden is meat; that the original sin is animal-flesh consumption. Because humans are born with less instinct than animals, they need dietary guidance from God in terms of veganism. Diet is the prime issue instead of a triviality in Christianity. “You are what you eat (Der Mensch ist, was er iβt)”, German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach (1863) stated.
In the Hebrew original, “the fruit פְּרִי ” of “the tree ×¢Öµ×¥ of the knowledge דַּעַת of good טï‹×‘ and evil רָע ” can mean the offspring of a family group of living creatures who are so self-aware that they covet life (good) and fear death (evil), i.e., the progeny of a den of animals (sentient beings), like piglets or cubs or eggs.
When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, i.e. meat, and violated God’s Sixth Commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”, Eden or Paradise, supposed to be all love, all harmony and all peace, was disrupted by fear, violence and evil; death entered the world; and humans lost Paradise. This is corroborated by other Bible verses as well as scientific studies. A Christ-like, vegan lifestyle is the key to return to Eden. Jesus Christ actually died on the cross to wake us up to the evilness, atrocity and sinfulness of our meat diet. The horrifying image of His Crucifixion reminds us of the murder of many an innocent animal in the slaughterhouse.
Full Article Link: https://www.hkbnews.net/post/the-forbidden-fruit-of-eden-is-meat-go-vegan-by-chapman-chen-hkbnews
11 Comments
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Kathy
This is one view. But there are others, as well. It's my current understanding that there wasn't any bloodshed until after the first humans were removed from the garden of eden so the forbidden fruit in the garden that they took from was likely that they invaded the proper domain of God in some fashion. It could have been the invasion was a literal eating of fruit from a real tree which some believe, or the tree and fruit was allegorical as in judging for themselves between good and evil that was commanded them not to do. Unsure where the information about Abraham and Paul is coming from, at this time CCC would not agree with either comment. More substantial evidence with documentation would need to be presented and tested for any authenticity and/or validity. Good article by Greg Boyd about what went wrong in the garden of eden: https://reknew.org/2014/10/what-went-wrong-in-the-garden-of-eden/
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Craig
Lots of things have been misinterpreted from a perspective that desires to justify eating animal flesh. We may never know the full story in all its details, but we should live according to His very good will and not eat animal flesh.
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James Carrell
What the Lord showed me about this......... God is ONLY good. He forbade us from eating of from the tree of Good and Evil. He didn't want us to know anything other than Him. The evil part brought Destruction, Death, and a giant list of ugly and cruel stuff . God is Good, the Fall is NOT good . Not really wanting to argue the point. Because folks will confuse God's grace and love, for His approval. The prodigal son disobeyed his father, rejected EVERYTHING from him. But when He returned, the Father ONLY loved him. No judgment, no condemnation. That is how God sees us, His children. We disobey, but yet He still loves us. Even when we kill animals.
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Kathy
Thank you for your comment, James. We agree with you that God only is good. You make a good point about not wanting people to confuse God's grace and love for having to earn his love. God also calls us to be reconciled to him through Christ. We would be remiss if we did not mention this. Of ourselves we cannot be reconciled to God, Christ's work on the cross provides the pathway to reconciliation with the Father. It is a gift because he loves us as you rightly point out. The bible tells us the sun shines and the rain falls on those who do good and those who do evil. In other words, he provides for us whether we do good or evil. At the same time, God calls us to align ourselves with his perfect will. Paul tells us not to go on sinning because there is grace in Romans 6. He says we died to sin, our old man or the flesh, was crucified with Christ, so that in him, we are given his power to no longer live in ways contrary to his perfect and good instructions or will for us. When it comes to our diet, this is one of those things man does that is not in alignment with his perfect will for us or his animals. His perfect will is found in Genesis 1:29. At best, eating animals if it was ever permitted was a concession to the hard heartedness of mankind (Genesis 8:21b "every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood").
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Kathy Dunn
Thank you James for your comment. All good points you make. Praise Him for his love for us and that there is no condemnation in Christ. Really good point about his grace and love possibly being confused with his approval. He love us even as we were still sinners, though he doesn't approve of the sin. And takes us back like the prodigal son when we return to him. Praying people return to him now before the end of the age. He will come like a thief in the night, when least expected.
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James Carrell
Hello again, It's been a little while, but finally found some free time to sit down and ponder things. I have always loved Animals. I guess that God made me different from others. I really do not go to church often. I find it taxing to say the least. It always the same thing. I am honestly looking for a Spiritual home. A place to be myself . And guess what, I love Animals, and No I do not believe that God wants us to kill it and grill it. But whenever I try to communicate with other Christians, it's always a Brick wall of scriptures. Instantly, they show how I am "wrong", and that everyone is called to be different. Of course there are a lot of scriptures to back up their arguments. I have a lot to say about all of this. Firstly, I find Line-by-Line scripture reading the same as Computer programming. There, i said it!!!!!!! I hate it !!!!!!! The BIG PICTURE, the ENTIRE BOOK, doesn't show us to kill animals. And NO, I do not believe that God wanted animal sacrifices. I have a million things to say on that subject. God is NOT cruel. Period. Secondly, we are REDEEMED by Jesus. He broke thr chains of sin and death........our CHRISTIAN world should now be Free of thr trappings of The Fall. Our disobedience destroyed the 3 covenants. God's covenant with Us, broken. Man's covenant with other men,.broken. And our covenant with Creation, the animals, broken. Jesus came and died and rose again........ So, we are Restored with God. We are to live in Love with others. Thank you Jesus. But Creation, the animals are still CURSED!!!!!!! This makes absolutely no sense !!!!!! God must have forgot to love HIS animals. I am a Christian Vegan and animal lover, because God loves HIS animals. Psalms 145:9 is showing HIS heart for this world. And we are created in HIS image, not the Image of The Fall. Seriously, this has destroyed my brain. Destroyed my faith. And isolated me , because I really don't want to be around a big old Feast with a dead animal in front of me. I also will not listen to scriptures of animal sacrifices. Sorry, broken system that DID NOT FIX anything. Just dug a bigger hole. And murdered BILLIONS of animals. But GOD loves His animals.........
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Kathy Dunn
God does love his animals. And he has not forgotten them. All will be restored to his good and perfect will of peace for all his creation when he ends this age. Hosea 2:18: In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.
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James Carrell
Hello Kathy, I do believe that God loves His animals, His creation, and His children. The problem I see, is that His children love the Fall, more than they love Him. When I was saved, I felt amazing !!!!!!! And He told me to Reject thr Fall, not embrace it, not mingle with it, not dance with it. But to Reject It !!!!!!! My thing is, God loves ALL that He created, and the Holy Spirit dwells within ALL Christians, then why are we NOT showing God's love and compassion for ALL the animals???? I will not argue any scriptures on this point, because it isn't necessary. God loves ALL He created, so we as Christians should as well. And we should be taught it, and we should also be taught to NOT be of this fallen world. And I do not believe we need to wait for this age to disappear, for thr page to turn, for the Second coming of thr Lord........ God is doing a NEW thing !!!!! He is already living inside of us NOW !!!!!
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Kathy Dunn
Thanks for your comment. God does love all His creation for sure. The world is under the influence and power of the Powers and Principalities. I think you are right, people need to turn from the fall, repent (turn) and instead follow God's instructions to love (including his created world and the animal creations). I agree, we don't have t wait until the second coming of our Lord. His Kingdom is here now, we are to put it on display.
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NudistPoet.com
Um, I think you're forgetting the basic fact that there was no meat-eating until AFTER Noah's flood, when God first gave permission. Before the flood, we were ALL vegetarian. Therefore, I have no idea how you think MEAT was the forbidden fruit.
Elsje Massyn
Yes absolutely. The Holy Spirit is beginning this issue to the forefront in MANY Christian's minds. Its impossible for the forbidden fruit to be "an apple" it had to be the eating of the flesh of an animal. God would not have specified Adam and Eve's diet in Genesis 1:29 if He did not forbade eating of other living creatures. The ultimate sin in the Garden of Eden was bloodshed and violence - things that were forbidden in the Garden of Eden. The reason why Christianity does not want to make the connection is because the Bible book compilers were meat-eaters and mostly "saved" gentiles following Paul the Apostle who couldnt care less what anyone ate. This could be an investigative article in itself if someone would write it and start asking questions there would be quite a few books to write on this subject because then the Bible will have to be dissected many times. The alert button in my mind started buzzing when I was searching for a wider perspective of what happened before the flood. What was so terrible that a flood was needed to cleanse the earth. If you read the Book of Enoch it fits right into Genesis 6 and explains why God was unhappy about the humans and contravening watcher angels who left their domain to copulate with human women. These angels brought wars, weapons, lust, murders, exploitation with them and spawned into their Nephilim evil off-spring. But of course. The Bible conveniently left that part out so that we will not know more than what the "clergy" is prepared to tell us. Also, Abraham's story has been cut and pasted so that no-one will have the resources to research from the Bible, who Abraham REALLY was. The son of an Idol Worshipper (Terah), who had his own temple with his own idols to whom he sacrifices animals (and if you read the Book of Jasher - also sacrificed babies) Of Course the information is also conveniently excluded from the Bible by clergy-men. When Abraham "heard God's voice" who said: "sacrifice your son" he wasnt hearing God's voice he was hearing the demon spirit's voice that he was accustomed to. Abraham conveniently grabbed the ram in the bush (sacrificed the animal) instead of his son and then "believed (god) said he should do so" Now once again this comes clearly from idol worship cultish beliefs. Hosea 6:6&7 Matthew 12: 7 Isaiah 1: 11-17 Jeremiah 7: 22-23 1 Samuel 15 Read Ezekiel 34 Clearly says God NEVER asked for sacrifices but wants MERCY & OBEDIENCE. But shame, people dont do research and are afraid to question their religion, their pastors, priests, clergy, cardinals, popes, ministers. Because if they do they will be branded as: Strong Willed Rebellious Demonic Unfaithful I know that, because I used to be in that Christianity religious system. Its only when I left that I found the truth