Dietary Laws for New Testament Believers

From Genesis to Revelation, God dictates what humans can and cannot eat. Food sources were a primary portion of God’s creative acts. On the third day of God’s creative work, the earth brought forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the the tree yielding fruit (Genesis 1:9-13). From this point forward until we reach the New Jerusalem, wherein is the Tree of Life (Revelation 22:2), God has much to say about what humanity eats. Eating forbidden fruit caused the fall of humans in the beginning, and even today, there can still be violations of God’s will in this area.

What is and what is not right for a person to eat? We will not focus our attention on diet in the sense of healthy or unhealthy food. Rather our purpose is to study all of God’s Word, as it pertains to each era of time, to determine what is acceptable or unacceptable to Him.

We must rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15). We must determine the age of time to which dietary laws apply. Some things that God allowed or forbade at certain points in time have changed. Focusing on the age of grace will be the main point of this lesson, since this is the era in which we live.

A brief overview of Scripture is essential to understand this subject.