Pork consumption being forbidden is just an Old Testament law that is done away with by Christ in the age of grace right? Well, there is often a reason for every rule. Pork is a primary cause of Multiple Sclerosis as well as liver cirrhosis (liver death) and if it is eaten long enough can harm us spiritually as well. We will do a deep dive into the nature of the pig, how it entered our diets, and why abstaining from it is the better choice.
Old Testament Prohibition
Swine were considered abomination to the Jews and prohibited in the Old Testament. 2 Maccabees 6:18-31 and all of chapter 7 give a sad story of Jews choosing torture and death rather than to eat pork as the Greeks demanded. Pork was also used as a way of desecrating something holy. Antiochus Ephiphanes (the original antichrist) sacrificed a pig on the alter of the Jerusalem temple to desecrate it and show dominance over the Jews’ religion. He then demanded the Jews eat the pig’s flesh or face death. This was the first instance of the “abomination of desolation” Christ mentioned in scripture.
Acts 10:9-16 The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”
And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.
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Peter had a vision where God presented unclean animals to him and said “What God has called clean you must not call unclean.” This is often taken as meaning that God approves us to eat any of the foods that were forbidden in the Old Testament. The truth is though, when we read the next chapter Peter tells us the true meaning of the vision was that God wanted the Jews to accept the Gentiles (heathen nations) when they turned to Christ and not to think of them as unclean. The vision was not about dietary restrictions at all but about broadening Christianity to become a universal religion open to all mankind, not just something available only to Jews.
Now it is true that there are some New Testament verses saying nothing is unclean to eat, but we cannot take this too literally. There are poisonous plants for instance. And food or water contaminated with feces has caused many deaths. The NT was simply saying God will not exclude you from salvation or relationship with him just because you eat pork. So yes, you can eat pork and it will not affect your salvation. But God was not guaranteeing that pork is good or healthy to eat. So if pork is unhealthy as we will later see, then why did God change the rules and allow it? This reason that makes the most sense was to allow Christianity to become a universal religion which could spread throughout the world. It was easy for Jews to avoid pork because everyone in the nation followed the same rules, but in the heathen nations it may have been impossible to avoid pork eating. Christianity would have seemed like an unrealistic religion.
We must keep in mind God’s permissible will is not the same as his perfect will.
1 Corinthians 10:23-26 23 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify…. 25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience’ sake; 26 for “the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness.”
Although the apostle Paul taught we are now free to eat all meats, he also taught that not all meats are “helpful” or “edify.” Paul taught we can eat any meat sold in the market without having a bad conscience before God but again, not all meats will be helpful or edifying. Junk food is a thing. Just because God does not cast us into hell for eating unhealthy, this does not mean he favours this behaviour.
Pigs as vessels for demon spirits
Luke 8:29-33
29 For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness.
30 Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?”
And he said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.
32 Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them. 33 Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.
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The fact that there was a herd of swine being raised shows that the men in this area were in disobedience to God. Remember, at this point all the people know is the Old Testament law, Christ had not yet established the new covenant. Although swine were forbidden to be eaten, the people in the Gergesenes region were happy to raise great herds of them as a business opportunity. Pigs are low-maintenance animals. They will eat any and everything offered. All scraps and leftovers. As a result, this meat is much cheaper than other kinds. The problem is as they say, “supply often creates its own demand.” By raising these pigs and dumping them on the market at a low price, the demand for “clean” meats would be displaced. Consider a poor family in Israel in Christ’s time. They have always been obedient to the law and abstained from eating pork. No one ever bothered to raise pigs either and as a result the temptation was removed. The low-price pork chops would have been too great a temptation for some to resist. After breaking the religious restriction on pork, the Jew would get used to taking the rest of the rules less seriously and thus taking God less serious.
What is fascinating is how the demons had no problem directly possessing swine. Similar to how Lucifer indwelt the serpent in Eden it seems certain animals are cursed. By allowing the demons their wish to enter and destroy the swine it is pretty clear Jesus considered the swine to be worthless as well as their meat. If you keep reading past v33, what is really shocking is the men of that land ask Jesus to leave. Rather than being happy he cured a demon-possessed man or happy he may teach the way to salvation they are more concerned about the lost profits from their drowned pigs.
The pig: a mirror of man’s own fleshly nature
“A cat will look down to a man. A dog will look up to a man. But a pig looks a man straight in the eye and sees his equal.”
- Winston Churchill
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Of livestock animals, pigs are closest to man in their nature. Pigs are the most intelligent farm animals and are smarter than dogs. This mirrors how humans are the highest creature in intelligence. Cannibal tribes and those in survival situations who had to eat their fallen comrades say human flesh tastes almost identical to pork and with similar texture. Firefighters also have been said to avoid barbecues because the smell of roast pork is the same as burning human flesh.
A pig signifies the fleshly nature of man, operating on bodily lusts with his spirit withered and disengaged. In the story of Noah, his three sons allegorically represent the three parts of man. We have the spirit (Shem), and the soul (Japheth), and the flesh (Ham). According to the story, Ham “saw his father’s nakedness” (which was a Jewish euphemism for rape). After finding out, Shem and Japheth both went to cover their father’s nakedness, but yet Shem was the one who initiated the idea of covering the father while Japheth only passively agreed to help. This story illustrates the order our person should be in: spirit as dominant, soul as cooperating with the spirit’s leading, and flesh as the troublemaker we must beware of. It is notable Ham’s name even corresponds to our English word for certain pork cuts. Pork represents the fleshly nature of man. A women may say “men are pigs” after encountering some men who are undisciplined or unfaithful sexually, ie. giving into the flesh.
Stages of overcoming the flesh
As the pig symbolizes the flesh of man, we can learn the three levels of flesh dominance versus spirit in our life:
1. Wild Boar: this is the violent flesh unsubmitted to Christ. It is rebellious and considers only itself and will cause harm to others to achieve its ends.
2. Pig in a Pen: this is the flesh that is kept tamed but still tolerated and has not been crucified. It is not externally violent against others in self-seeking, but the internal is full of selfishness and is fearful to exit the comfort zone.
3. Pig in the Water: we must allow Christ to crucify our flesh and the demonic strongholds which hideout within it. Paul stated “no good thing dwells in my flesh.” We see the demonic legion was quick to move into the pigs (representing the flesh). They then run the herd over the cliff into the water for the destruction of the flesh.
Baptism is key to defeating satanic strongholds. At the point of baptism demons are exorcized as the flesh is submerged just as Jesus did to the possessed man. There are many testimonies of deliverance from major addictions and demonic influence not when saying the sinner’s prayer but at the time of baptism. Baptism should be done immediately once one has made a full commitment to follow Christ for their life. There is no need for classes to figure out the Trinity and esoteric doctrines. A true full commitment to follow Christ without turning back is all that is required.
Swine is always portrayed in a negative light in scripture
In Matthew 7:6 Jesus taught: “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”
The swine here are symbolic of people who are too fleshly-minded to receive heavenly revelation. Their spirit is turned off and is the passenger rather than the one driving.
More Verses:
Isaiah 65:3-4, “3 A people who continually provoke Me to My face,
Offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks;
4 Who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places;
Who eat pig’s flesh,
And the broth of unclean meat is in their pots.”
Proverbs 11:22, “As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout,
So is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.”
Psalms 80:13 “12 Why have You broken down her hedges,
So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit?
13 The boar out of the woods uproots it,
And the wild beast of the field devours it.”
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The Prodigal Son
Luke 15:14-16 14 “But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.”
After wasting his inheritance on the good life the prodigal son was absolutely broke. Not only this, but to add to his misfortune the land experiences a massive famine, causing food prices to skyrocket. The prodigal was given the lowest job, of taking care of the swine, which were considered unclean animals that would defile a person. At this point he has no choice as starvation is the only other option. What is his payment for this filthy work? The lowest quality leftovers on the farm, the most distasteful organs from slaughtered animals that could not be sold in the marketplace and the farmer himself would not eat. The “husks” the pigs left. If he is lucky he may get to eat from the same trough the pigs eat from. But it seems his ration is even lower; the pigs eat better than him. Where the prodigal was once surrounded by loving family, his dining partners are now the pigs. In this story Jesus taught joining the pigs was the lowest of the low a person could get to in life.
A pig will eat anything
We call someone who overeats a “pig.” Pigs are the least fussy eater of all farm animals and will eat practically anything put in front of their mouth. Pigs even roll around in and eat their own feces, which is a major reason pigs are so often infested with parasites. If the farmer falls unconscious in the pig pen, the hog will even eat its owner with no concern. Criminals took notice of this and sometimes use pigs as a way to dispose of a body.
Pork has a tendency to be full of parasites more than other meat. The most famous is Trichinosis, which causes cysts in a person’s muscles and brain. This can lead to seizures in addition to painful muscle movements. Sadly, especially in poorer countries, whole communities can be affected as the water sources and wells become contaminated from feces of pigs being farmed, resulting in parasites even in humans who do not eat pork. One young man did not always cook his pork fully. An X-ray of his body showed more worms than human. You would wonder how the person can be alive with that many worms in their body. Yes, those white lines in the image are all worms, every single one.
Bacon and Masculinity
Canada and the USA in recent decades have gotten a little crazy for bacon. Now it has been culturally tied together with manhood so that if you are a man you are expected to love bacon and want to eat it constantly. Bacon gets added to everything, even the prebought salads I buy for work come topped with bacon that I must pick off. A recent survey found that 65 percent of Americans would favor designating bacon our national food.
Bacon is a slimy fatty greasy leftover that used to sell for very cheap. It was considered food only for peasants too poor to afford proper meat.
In 1977 the USDA almost banned bacon due to the number of toxic additives that must be used in its processing, but lobbying from the pork industry kiboshed this.
How did bacon become so entrenched in our culture? We need to understand corporate lobbying and propaganda. Edward Bernays who wrote the book “Propaganda” was always hired by corporations to trick the public into buying something unhealthy. He advertised cigarettes for women as “torches of freedom,” which could prove a woman’s empowerment by rejecting cultural norms against women smoking. Of course he knew it was just a game of deception but as long as the corporation paid his bills he did not mind. One of Bernays’ favorite tricks was to pay off doctors to advertise an unhealthy product. If you look back at 1950’s cigarette advertisements you can see how doctors were hired to assure the public that cigarettes were full of health benefits. In addition to cigarettes Bernays was also hired to use his understanding of mass psychology and manipulation to promote bacon eating. He resorted to the tried and true trick of hiring doctors to lie, getting them to put their authority behind bacon as healthy.
Pork is a major cause of Multiple Sclerosis
Pork consumption has a 0.87 correlation to causing Multiple Sclerosis. This is a very strong connection. How strong? For comparison, sugar consumption only has a 0.60 correlation to causing diabetes!
Doctors still do not know exactly why or how pork causes MS, but we do know something inside pork is certainly causing it!
There are plenty of donation campaigns to look for a cure for MS but perhaps we should start with the obvious....
The pig’s war against the liver
The Bible teaches that our body is the temple of the Lord. It is no surprise then that just as a sacrificed swine was considered the ultimate desecration to the Jerusalem temple, pork will likewise pollute and harm the temple of our physical body. Swine does not belong in our temple.
Of the bodily organs pork seems to specifically target the liver for destruction.
The first stage of liver disease is called “fatty liver.” It is the pig’s nature to become extra fat in its meat. Fatty liver is fairly easy to reverse though if it’s caught before it progresses further.
Eventually after years and years of abuse the liver will have scarring called cirrhosis and it cannot repair itself at this point which means death will be imminent. Usually cirrhosis is thought of as a disease which afflicts long-term alcoholics. What is surprising is that pork eating actually has a higher correlation to cirrhosis of the liver than even alcohol itself!
Pork is also very strongly correlated to Hepatitis E virus which attacks the liver. This virus loves to lay dormant in pig meat.
Spiritual Importance of the Liver
You may suppose that the pig’s attack on the liver is simply an issue of health for the physical body. Actually it is so much more than this. Our body is the temple of the Lord and thus it stands to reason that the internal organs are the temple furnishings. The table of shewbread is analogous to the stomach which holds the bread we eat. The two kidneys correspond to the Urim and Thummim the priest stored in a pouch at his center and would consult for divine decisions. The name Urim even sounds like “urine” which is the main thing the kidneys produce.
When the organs become diseased due to an unhealthy lifestyle it does not just bring bodily harm, it can also interfere with your spirit which lives in the temple and your connection to God’s Spirit.
What then is the spiritual function of the Liver? The Hebrew word for Liver is Kabed which is derived from the word Kabowd translated as Glory, Honour, Wealth or Heavy. The Bible speaks of a “weight of glory” we are to train ourselves to be able to carry.
2 Corinthians 4:17, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,”
2 Kings 18:15 “15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house.”
The liver is the storehouse of vitamins and nutrients, similar to its name’s meaning of wealth. The liver corresponds with the temple storehouse and as well as the bronze laver the priests would wash in. The bronze laver is the heaviest of the temple furnishings and its function was to cleanse the priests as they stepped in it before entering the temple, just as the liver filters and cleanses the blood supply.
Not only this but the liver also purifies and manages the body’s blood supply, even expanding to store up to one liter of blood. We usually associate the heart and blood, but the liver is what keeps the blood clean and enriches it with nutrients and proteins.
Leviticus 17:11, “the life of the flesh is in the blood.”
Blood is a type of currency. Red blood cells are coin-shaped and blood must always be moving, just like a nation needs currency circulating to have a healthy economy. Again, the liver is the treasure house that manages and stores this currency, the blood.
“Live”—r, watching over one’s life essence.
When Christ was on the cross, the one of the Roman soldiers stabbed his liver with a spear to ensure he would be dead.
The liver has an amazing ability to heal and regenerate itself when damaged (although there is a limit to this ability). The Greeks seem to have been aware of this in creating the myth of Prometheus who is punished by having his liver eaten by birds each day after it continuously regrows.
In the Apocrypha book of Tobit the archangel Raphael instructs Tobias to smoke a fish liver to drive away the lust demon Asmodeus. Indeed the liver is always at war with lust and overindulgence. Ancient Semites associated the liver with character and temper; the ability to have restraint. Proverbs describes how giving into the fleshly piggish nature destroys the liver:
Proverbs 7:22-23 22 “Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks,
23 Till an arrow struck his liver.
As a bird hastens to the snare,
He did not know it would cost his life.”
This man gave into the lust of the flesh; he committed adultery with another man’s wife. Hepatitis A, B, and C are sexually transmitted liver diseases and this is likely what the young man experienced when “an arrow struck his liver” after his sexual escapades.
Liver was used in ancient divination as this organ is specially attuned to the spiritual realm. The king of Babylon used an animal liver to determine the future.
Ezekiel 21:21 “For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork of the two roads, to use divination: he shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver.”
Liver problems happen due to a lack of restraint or overindulgence in fleshly desires. If the liver is fatty, it will begin to block off receiving communication from God. The liver was always used in divination by the ancient peoples and when healthy it guides us toward the right path.
Conclusion
Altogether we have looked at the danger of pork for one’s health in addition to all the evils the swine spiritually symbolizes. While it’s true that God does not decide our salvation based on dietary habits, he does expect that we will honor him with our body and take care of our temple. Knowing how the pig can damage the liver and brain, the best way we can take care of these parts of our temple is to avoid the pig altogether, or at least as much as is possible.