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Maribel
Jun 30, 07 - 8:54 PM |
Animals
Since God loves and values animals too, will he also resurrect them? Some people kill them for food and others for sport. How does God react to them? Doesn't he send his angels to care for them just like humans? |
Mike Burke
 Jul 1st, 2007 - 12:42 PM |
Re: Animals
[Quote] Since God loves and values animals too, will he also resurrect them? [unquote] Speaking of animals, George MacDonald (a 19th century Universalist) wrote: I know of no reason why I should not look for the animals to rise again, in the same sense in which I hope myself to rise again-which is, to reappear, clothed with another and better form of life than before. http://www.johannesen.com/HopeoftheGospelComplete.htm [Quote] Some people kill them for food and others for sport. How does God react to them? [unquote] Christians today are permitted to eat meat (Romans 14:1-2; 1 Cor. 10:25; 1 Tim. 4:4-5.) It seems there will be a Temple, and animal sacrifice during the millennium (Ezek. 40-45; Zech. 14:20-21.) These sacrifices must be a memorial of Christ's sacrifice, as His is the only one that can truly take away sins (Heb. 10:4.) Perhaps this is why Paul was led to imply that the Christian communion service would only serve as a memorial until Our Lord's second coming (1 Cor. 11:26.) John saw no Temple in the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21:22.) On the new earth: The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain (Isa. 11:6-9.) But I believe that's over a thousand years away. Right now we're living in a fallen world. Animals kill animals for food, and men are allowed to kill animals to feed themselves and their families. I believe this is meant to remind man that sin has consequences, and making things right does not come cheap--it cost more than the lives of animals, it cost the life of God's Son. If that is the lesson, man was never meant to take the killing of animals lightly. Scripture says: A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. (Prov. 12:10.) The prophet Nathan reached David's hardened heart with a parable about a poor man's beloved pet being slaughtered for food by a selfish neighbor (2 Sam. 12:1-4.) Notice he said the lamb was like a daughter to the poor old man (verse 3.) Did David, who grew up tending sheep, think it was silly for this old man to be emotionally attached to a little lamb? No. He became so angry that he ordered the man who had killed the lamb to be put to death (verse 5), and Nathan was able to use this story to convict him of his own sin (verse 7.) I fail to see how this could have happened if Israelites were as cold and calloused toward animals as some people are today. Did Israelites and their children become attached to the animals that had to be killed to feed the family? Did they become attached to the animals that were raised for sacrifice? I'm sure they did. (The parts of the sacrifice that were not burned were eaten BTW--usually by both the offerer and the priests.) That said, God gave laws to Israel about how animals could be killed (for food and sacrifice), and they were much more humane than the methods used in our slaughter houses: [Shechita UK: FAQ] Why can't animals be stunned first and still be kosher? Shechita does stun, but other methods of stunning, for example by captive-bolt shot into the brain, or by electric shock, or by gas, cause injuries to an animal and delay the slaughter unnecessarily. In order for an animal to be kosher it must be healthy and uninjured. Since shechita is the only permitted way for Jews to obtain meat for food, the other methods are not kosher and render the animal treifah (literally 'torn') - it may not be eaten. If there was no option, could Jews eat pre-stunned meat? No. The only permitted way for Jews to eat kosher meat is to despatch a healthy animal humanely and painlessly by shechita. Other methods cause unnecessary injury and suffering, and needless delay, before slaughter... http://www.shechitauk.org/faqs.php#a3 As to hunting: [Ask Rabbi Lerner: Hunting in Judaism] Sports hunting violates the mitzvot against cruel treatment of animals (tzaar baali chayim). If hunting is the only alternative to dying oneself, then it is permitted. A hunted animal is not kosher (trayf) because it was not killed in the strictly humane way that Jewish Law mandates. http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_c/bl_hunting.htm Christians are not under The Law of Moses, but we're not free from "the spirit of the law" (and being under Grace, we should be at least as graceful to animals as our Jewish friends.) Hope this answers your questions. G-d Bless. P.S. It's interesting that the encyclical letter of the Jerusalem Council (the Apostolic council that removed Gentiles from the Mosaic Law) seems to uphold shechita: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell. (Acts 15:29.) |
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