Some of my vegan friends say God doesn’t want us to eat meat. What does the Bible have to say about eating meat?
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. ~Genesis 9:3
One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. ~Romans 14:2-3
These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep…. ~Deuteronomy 14:4-5
When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, “I will eat meat,” because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. ~Deuteronomy 12:20
The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” … ~Acts 10:9-15
They gave [Jesus] a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. ~Luke 24:42-43
And [Jesus] said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) ~Mark 7:18-19
So if you don’t want to eat meat, that’s fine. Just don’t say “God told me not to eat meat, and you shouldn’t either.”
