Many advocates for "Christian" vegetarianism and veganism teach that meats of all kinds are an unnatural food. They point out that before the great deluge, vegetarianism and veganism dominated the world; and man reached ages beyond 900 years. These advocates stress the fact that after the flood, when meat was added to man's diet, his life expectancy immediately and drastically decreased to a little over 100 years. Advocates of Christian vegetarianism and veganism attempt to blur the facts by using the passive "was added." "When meat WAS added to man's diet". Meat was not simply added to man's diet passively. It was added BY someone. Who is that someone? That someone is the Lord Himself. (Genesis 9:3)
Examining Christian Beliefs on Vegetarianism and Veganism
These arguments for Christian vegetarianism are in sharp disagreement with the Bible. When Noah and his family exited the ark, God spoke to them saying, "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb" (Genesis 9:3). If meat is unnatural, and if eating it is so harmful that it severs hundreds of years from the lives of those who eat it, Christian vegetarians and vegans must declare that God gave people bad advice!
If the return to vegetarianism and veganism has even a remote power to restore man to the longevity he enjoyed before the flood, why has no one, including vegetarians and vegans from birth, ever lived even a couple of hundred years?
Again, meat was added to man's diet by God, not by man. To advocate against meat eating is to advocate against God's commandment. Some Christians argue that they don't see God's addition of meat to man's diet as a commandment, but rather as an option. Nevertheless, they do see his original word to eat fruits, vegetables and herbs as a commandment in Genesis 1:29. What is the difference? When God is giving the command to eat plant life in Genesis 1:29, he uses the word "shall" in speaking to Adam. When he gives command to Noah and his family to add meat to their diet in Genesis 9:3, he again uses the word "shall." To say that one is a commandment and the other is not is to make arbitrary use of the scriptures to support what one wants or does not want to believe.
It's also claimed that no ingredient required for health is missing from a vegan diet--except vitamin B12 that is. Does God cause vitamin B12 to just miraculously appear in the bodies of Christian vegans? Does he just miraculously remove the need for vitamin B12 from the bodies of his servants?
The practice of vegetarianism and veganism for short periods of time can be very beneficial to one's health. It is the life-long practice of vegetarianism and veganism by God's post-flood servants that cannot be found in scripture.
In conclusion, there's a question that all Christian vegetarians and vegans might ask themselves. The twelfth chapter of the book of Exodus, verses one thru eleven, records the institution of the Passover. God instructed Israel to take a lamb without blemish (defect), a male of the first year from the sheep or goats. The lamb was to be killed and its flesh consumed. The end of verse eleven reads, "...it is the Lord's Passover". Any of today's Christian vegetarians and vegans can ask themselves what it would have been like for them had they been a member of Israel during the Passover. Would they have refused the Lord's Passover saying, "Lord, I cannot partake of your Passover, because I'm vegetarian. I'm vegan."
The scripture of 1 Timothy 4:1-3 says, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith; speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats...."