Do I Have to Violate My Fad Diet Just Because Some Jerk from Church Made Me Dinner?

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People are tired of hearing nothing but doom and despair on the radio.

The message of Christianity is that salvation is found in Christ alone, and any who reject

Christ therefore forfeit any hope of salvation, any hope of heaven.

The issue is that humanity is in sin, and the wrath of Almighty

God is hanging over our heads.

They will hear His words, they will not act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment, when the fires of wrath

come, they will be consumed, and they will perish.

God wrapped Himself in flesh, condescended, and became a

man, died on the cross for sin, was resurrected on the third day, has ascended

to the right hand of the Father, where He sits now to make intercession for us.

Jesus is saying there is a group of people who will hear His words, they will act upon them, and when the floods

of divine judgment come, in that final day, their house will stand.

Welcome to Bible Bash, where we aim to equip the saints for the works of ministry by answering the questions you're not allowed to ask.

We're your hosts, Harrison Kerrig and Pastor Tim Mullett, and today we'll seek to answer the age -old question, do I have to

violate my fad diet just because some jerk from church made me dinner?

Now, it might come as a bit of a shock to some, but the Christian life is actually more than just

seeing other people, other Christians, your brothers and sisters in Christ, more than just

Sunday morning, and Wednesday night too, I guess.

It's more than seeing your Christian brothers and sisters more than two times a week that typically span about

two to three hours max, probably.

We see it throughout the book of Acts, we see it in Jesus' life,

we see it in the early church, and we should be seeing it today as well, brothers and sisters in

Christ that come together and spend time with one another, love each other by getting to know one another, and

building relationships with one another that go, like I said, just beyond a Sunday morning or a Wednesday

night class.

We should be in each other's lives, and one of the ways that is easy to do this is by sharing meals

together.

And not only do we use meals as a way to get to know each other and be involved in

each other's lives, but we also use it, or we should be using it at least, as a way to serve other people

when they're in need.

One of the things that I love so much about the church that Tim and I attend is when people are in

need, when people are sick, a lot of people are having babies right now, one of the things that everyone loves to

do is come together and say, hey, let's make a list, and let's put a schedule

together of who can bring meals to the new parents or to

whoever is sick, so that we can take that burden off of them and serve them in that way and demonstrate our love for one

another.

And so meals end up becoming a pretty big part of the Christian life just because

they're so universal.

We all need to eat.

And so this is just a good way to be involved with one another, serve one another.

The problem is that it seems like more and more, with

the invention of the internet especially, there's cropping up all of these different kinds

of diets that you can start.

I feel like there's a diet for everything.

If you want to cosplay as a caveman, there's a caveman diet that you can follow where you just eat raw

meat, and that's supposed to be healthy for you.

There's diets avoiding meat altogether.

There's diets that take it beyond just avoiding meat and involve avoiding all animal

products whatsoever.

Gluten -free diets, sugar -free diets, which to be fair, we should probably all be eating a lot less

sugar than we actually do, but that's a conversation for a different day.

There's tons of different kinds of diets out there.

And on top of that, it seems like there's more and more people who are being either self

-diagnosed or diagnosed by a family doctor or something with various different types

of allergies as it relates to food.

Peanut allergies, nut allergies in general I think is a big one, milk

allergies, that's a pretty big one too.

Gluten seems like the most popular one now.

Now that Gwyneth Paltrow invented the gluten allergy, literally everyone has a gluten allergy now.

Everyone has it now.

But there's all these diets coming up, there's all these allergies that people are getting diagnosed with more and

more, and that seems to create problems when

it comes to other people serving you food.

It seems to create issues where people start to say, okay, hey, I want to make

you a meal.

Okay, well here's what I can have and what I can't have.

And it's like this long, long list of things.

And to be fair, I think there are some allergies that literally are like, hey, if I eat this, I'll die

kind of thing.

I don't know that those are, I think those are probably pretty rare,

but they are out there.

And so you have all these problems, and so we wanted to take some time to sit down and talk about what do we do with all this?

Because we're supposed to serve one another, and food is just such a simple way, it's such a universal

way to serve one another and to bring people over, invite them into your homes.

And so we need to sit down and talk about how do we navigate this, how do we view all these things.

So Tim, why don't we just start with when it comes to my church,

my brothers and sisters in Christ, and they say, hey, we want to have you over for dinner.

And I know I'm on a very strict diet.

I'm on the newest fad diet.

It's the biggest craze right now, and it's going to give me washboard abs.

I'm going to lose 100 pounds off this diet.

But if I break it this time, I'm never going to go back.

I know I'm never going to go back.

So in that scenario, should the person violate their fad diet just because some jerk from the

church who has no idea that they're on this diet right now is trying to have them over for dinner?

Yeah, definitely, man.

Violate the fad.

Diet?

Is that easy?

Is that easy?

One of the things that's happened is that I mean, we obviously, as Americans, we're

significantly overweight and obese at this point.

And so there is a reality that most of us should probably eat less than what we're eating.

Oh, even the children, man.

It's pretty embarrassing.

Yeah, we're all fat, okay?

So, I mean, there's certainly a problem.

And I think many people are right to point out that the

results speak for themselves, okay?

So just go to your neighborhood Walmart, and you will see the reality of what we speak of without too much

difficulty.

So, you know, a lot of people are overweight, and that's a real problem.

And there's obviously a lot of preventable diseases that

could be avoided if we would eat healthier.

And we're in pretty bad shape, you know?

We're getting fatter as a country.

Yeah, heart disease is one of the leading killers in our country.

Yeah, I mean, most of the main causes of death are weight -related.

So, you know, it's a significant problem.

I saw a picture of a guy.

I think it was like a picture of a guy in 1908 or whatever.

The fattest man in the world in 1908.

He just looked like a normal guy at Walmart now.

So it's pretty funny.

But he was the fattest guy in the world, you know?

I need to find that picture.

Yeah, it's pretty funny.

Actually, now that you say it, I feel like I have seen that before because I feel like I have

heard someone make the same comment like, hey, this just looks like my neighbor.

This is my neighbor.

So we're overweight.

And, you know, our diet is, you know, one of the most unhealthy diets in the history of the world for sure.

I mean, that food pyramid thing was way off.

And so I think there's a lot of things that are conspiring to keep us overweight and keep us fat.

And so there's things to be considered at that point.

And, you know, a lot of us would do better, like we'd be better stewards of the body that God has given us if we would

pay a little bit more attention to the kind of foods that we're eating, the quantities that we're eating.

I mean, you could think about, I saw a, I think it was a documentary on McDonald's at one point.

And, you know, that the single cheeseburger with a small drink and a

small fry, that used to be an adult meal, you know?

So we're certainly, like the portions are getting bigger.

We're getting fatter.

I mean, a lot of it's the sugar that we're drinking.

We're drinking a lot of sugar.

You know, the easiest way to gain a bunch of weight is just to drink sugar drinks.

And most of us are addicted to sodas and, you know, in the South, sweet tea.

If you go to other parts of the country, they have no idea what you're talking about there.

But no, I mean, we're addicted to sugar and we have problems and we should try to make changes.

But then on the other side of things, one of the things that's happened is that you do have very

strong expectations in the Bible of both giving and receiving hospitality.

So God's created the world in such a way that food takes a big place in the life of,

you know, what we do.

You know, He's created us in such a way that we need to eat, you know, several times a day.

You know, a couple, three times a day on average is what most people eat.

There's, you know, there's diets out there that try to get you to eat five times a day.

But, you know, it's normal to eat three meals a day.

Life centers around food.

You know, if you just try to eat once in the morning, you're going to be hungry pretty soon.

And I mean, that's part of the way that life works.

And, you know, God's made the world in such a way that it does center

around food.

You know, food takes a predominant place.

And part of giving and receiving hospitality in the Bible, it's unavoidably

tied to food.

That's the way it works.

I mean, when we meet Jesus at the end of, you know, history, we're going to be

invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb where we're going to eat.

You know, Jesus talks about He's not going to, you know, drink the fruit of the vine again until He drinks it anew with us in

His kingdom.

So, I mean, food takes a prominent place in this life and the next.

And we, you know, as you read through the Bible, there's a lot of commands about hospitality.

And, you know, like the idea of hospitality in the Bible, it is very food -centric.

And so there's a lot that the Bible has to say about hospitality, about giving and receiving hospitality, doing so joyfully.

And it really is centered around food predominantly.

And so as Christians, we need to regain like a doctrine of hospitality.

That's part of the point here.

And the idea of just like not accepting food, hospitality from one of your church family members is

just, you know, from a biblical point of view, that's just unthinkable.

That's, like I said, gross insult.

It's the height of entitlement.

It's really just, it's really bad.

And we're getting to a point right now where we're so unaccustomed to hospitality.

The world's getting more impersonal.

We're so unaccustomed to hospitality in general that we just, we have, we do things that

would be unthinkable throughout most of the history of the world.

Yeah, I mean, like, you know, I was thinking about this the other day when I was growing up.

One of the things that would just happen all the time as a kid is I would just, I would go to other people's

houses and I would knock on their door, you know.

And I would, sometimes it was my friend who answered the door.

Sometimes it was friends' parents who would answer the door, whatever.

And, you know, I would just say, hey, do you want to come out and let's play outside?

Or, hey, is so -and -so home?

I want to, you know, see if they wanted to do something.

And that's pretty much, like, an unthinkable thing to do now.

Like, if someone knocks on someone else's door, it's almost treated like a

who the heck could be here, you know.

Yeah.

What is that show, Jerry Seinfeld show with the Cars and Comedians or

something like that?

Cars and Comedians, I have no idea.

All right.

Well, there's some kind of show I saw.

I don't watch a whole lot of TV.

I can't remember what it's called, but there was an episode on there that I saw a brief bit of it.

But he had mentioned the fact that company is one of those words that has been erased from

our vocabulary.

So he used to talk about having company over or something like that.

And he was pointing out that, like, that word no longer exists in our vocab.

Like, we don't even talk like that anymore.

We don't say we're having company over.

And part of that's because we're just—everything's online now.

We've lost any concept of hospitality.

But then, you know, as you read the Bible, one of the things you'll see is—the Bible is very clear about this.

So, you know, 1 Corinthians 10 .27 says, If an unbeliever invites you to dinner and you're disposed to go, the

Bible says, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of your conscience.

Now, I mean, that's talking about, like, you know, if they give you meat offered to idols, you need to eat it.

But then the instruction there is you eat whatever is set before you.

And that used to be, like, a very strong Christian expectation, that if someone's going to cook a meal and you're going to go over to their house and

you know what hospitality means, if they're going to spend their money on that food and make that food for you, right?

Yeah.

Spend the time to make it.

Spend the time, you know, to get their house cleaned up, get the groceries, cook the thing.

Like, it's an insult.

It's like the height of ingratitude to say no thanks.

But then, like, we do that without blinking, right?

Not only do we do that, we give them a list of all of our expectations about the things that we're, you know, willing to eat.

So, we make it difficult for just, like, pure preference issues.

We have all these, like, questionable categories of food sensitivities that we bring up to, you know, make the

process even more difficult.

And then, you know, to make matters even more complicated, you have all the fad diets that are out there and things like

that.

And so, you know, we've lost this idea of just giving joyfully and receiving hospitality

with thanksgiving.

And I think that that used to go

even beyond just, like, the Christian

worldview, right?

Like, I mean, I was raised that you eat whatever people give you.

Right.

No matter what.

And not even you eat it, but, like, you finish it.

And you say thanks, even if you don't like it.

Yeah, now it definitely is coming from the Bible.

I mean, it's coming from the Bible, but it's every society throughout the history of the world.

Even non -Christians recognize that that is the morally right thing to do, to show

respect, right?

To show respect, yeah, and to show gratitude and to show thankfulness and to not embarrass someone.

You know, like, we just had manners, like, we had simple manners.

And so, right now we're living in, like, a unique time where we've just lost the concept.

But then it's not as if we've just gotten more sophisticated as a society.

It's, like, this is a downgrade.

Yeah, we're regressing.

Yeah, even the pagans understand this, you know?

So, like, this isn't something new.

But, I mean, this is one of those things where if you talk about, you'll have no shortage of people who get really, really mad at you

just saying this basic thing.

So, yeah.

So, like, the long story short is that it is a very real biblical expectation that you, you know, you

joyfully, gratefully receive hospitality, even if you're on a diet, you know?

And so, I mean, there's a lot we could say about the, like, your fad diets and everything else.

But, I mean, the short of it is it's just a real expectation that you need to come up with.

But do you have any more questions along those lines?

Yeah.

Relating to diets?

Yeah.

So, I guess relating to the diet.

You know, you're saying, hey, you need to give up the diet momentarily, at least, right?

In some of these cases, probably.

So, that relates to fad diets, right?

Like, I can't, you know, if I'm on my carnivore -only diet and

someone gives me, puts vegetable, puts some steaming broccoli on my plate,

you know?

You expect me, the Bible expects me, God expects me to eat

what my food eats.

Basically, get over yourself.

Just eat the broccoli.

Yeah, no, I mean, there is a very real biblical command.

There is, like, biblical precedent for attempting to

take care of yourself.

But then, what's happening is this is just a massive overreaction that people are having as it

relates to these concepts.

And so, we don't have any self -control is part of the problem.

We don't have any self -control.

And so, then, you know, if you're going to embark on some sort of diet, you treat it like you're some kind of food addict or something like

that.

You're literally addicted to sugar and you're literally addicted to this stuff.

And what you need is you need some sort of, like, food purge and food purity.

And right now, a lot of the diets are, like, a lot of your fad diets are elimination diets in one way or another.

So, it's either a whole foods kind of thing or it's a carnivore diet.

Or, you know, there was the South Beach diet, which was pretty similar to, like, all the paleo

stuff.

So, you know, you have, like, the paleo kind of diet.

Keto diet.

You have carnivore diet, whole 30 diet.

So, all those are elimination diets.

And then, that's where you come into conflict.

But, I mean, there is a very real expectation that you can't just shut your life off and stop being a

Christian and neglect all your Christians and responsibilities.

And so, people really do have to think about these kind of diets, like, how they're going to

approach them.

And, you know, because if you're going to approach them in such a way that, like, what you don't want to do is, like, God's declared all foods

clean, right?

Yeah.

So, there's not, like, clean foods and unclean foods and everything else.

There are foods that are better for you.

And there's foods that are worse for you.

And some people can get, like, way out of control here, where, you know, like, if you're on a carnivore diet or something like that,

you look at something like food cooked in, you know, soybean oil or

whatever, and you call it literally poison, right?

And so, in a lot of these diets, they're planning.

Yeah, if you eat soy, you're going to boost your estrogen levels or whatever.

Boost your estrogen, yeah.

And so, it's poison and all that.

And it's like, this is just dramatic overreactions.

And, you know, this is not really a healthy way to approach food.

Like, there's no such thing as clean and unclean food.

Like, we do have, like, new food purity kind of laws, where you treat certain foods as poison.

And, you know, that's just, I mean, it's just not a healthy way to approach life in general.

Now, if you want to do that, you want to say, hey, I want to, you know, I want to do, you know,

PSMF for, you know, 30 days or whatever and stick to it generally.

I mean, what you need is, like, what you really need is you need, like, some kind of concept of faithfulness in your normal life

that's mixed with just, like, some sort of allowance for feasting, right?

And so, the Bible has a lot to say about feasting and a lot to say about Thanksgiving, a lot to say about hospitality.

So, you don't want to adopt some rigid diet that's going to, I mean, you need a plan if you're going to lose weight, if you're going to get in

shape, if you're going to get healthy.

You need some sort of plan.

A lot of these things aren't sustainable anyways, but you need some, like, most diets have built within them some sort of cheat meal

kind of thing anyways.

So, you know, if 21 meals a week, you eat, you know, your 19

healthy meals and you eat your two meals that are cheat meals where you eat whatever you want.

You really do need to be on the kind of diet where, you know, it does have some kind of….

There's a break somewhere.

There's a break somewhere.

There's, like, that you can show to yourself that you're not being a food legalist, right?

That you're not adopting new laws and that you're able, you're not going to violate other things the Bible says for the sake of

obeying in another area.

You just want to balance life in general.

And the more that you stick to these things, I mean, they're not very sustainable anyways.

And so, you know, as my wife and I, we approach these things.

I mean, what we've always tried to do is just, okay, we're going to make an intentional effort to lose weight.

But if anyone invites us over to their home, we're going to eat whatever they give us with Thanksgiving.

And that'll be our cheat meals, you know.

So you have a good health.

Like, what you need is you need, like, healthy, normal patterns that you establish.

Routines, like, for your family that are life -giving.

And then you need to, like, chill out when people invite you over.

And just give whatever they….

Be willing to eat whatever is set before you.

Because that's not just an optional, arbitrary thing.

That's just part of the Christian life.

Now, I mean, like, it could be that you have so many people, you know, inviting you over one night a

week or whatever.

That you just, if you end up, you know, going to every occasion.

Saying yes to everyone.

You're never going to have a diet at all.

You're going to end up like a Wally person or something like that.

But, you know.

A Wally person.

Lose the ability to walk.

No.

I mean, most people are not anywhere near, like, that kind of problem.

You know, if you have a person over once a week.

I mean, most people need a shoot to have more hospitality in their life.

Not less hospitality in their life.

And so, you know, most people are not anywhere near that.

And, you know, I think, like, God's honored when

you're not a food legalist.

And you haven't adopted new food purity laws.

And, you know, if you're going to do, like, restrictive elimination kind of diets.

Things like that.

You just need to do so.

Not as a food legalist.

But as a person who's just making an intentional decision that has room, you know, to budge.

So, yeah.

I mean, I think that, you know, some of those things you can do those things for a little bit.

And lose a little bit of weight.

Make different lifestyle changes.

But you'll gain it all back if you don't have some way of getting on some kind of healthy scheme long term.

And you just.

So, basically the point, though, is just to say that you need to have some sort of allowance for, you know, God's given us all things for

us to enjoy.

About making new food laws.

And, you know, having some sort of flexibility built within the system.

And hospitality is a good chance to build that flexibility within it.

Okay.

So, that applies to the sort of the person who's saying, hey, I'm making a personal

choice.

You know, to, like, get healthier, whatever.

You know, you can.

Obviously, there's a lot of different ways to go about doing that.

And some are more effective than others.

But with all of those sorts of diets, we're basically talking about someone who is in and of

themselves.

Saying, hey, I want to try and sort of reform, you know, my diet.

Take back my health probably in some way.

What about the person who they go to the doctor.

And the doctor, for whatever reason, tells them, you know, hey, you've really got to cut

back on X.

Or, hey, you've got to cut this out entirely.

Or, you know, you're going to face serious health problems down the road.

Or, you know, possibly even, like, hey, I mean, you could, there's a very real chance that you could die.

If you keep eating whatever.

You know, whatever the thing is.

Is that, like, in a separate category than the person who is in and of themselves?

Just saying, hey, you know, I'm a little bit overweight.

I want to cut back.

Are those different categories in your mind when it comes to the hospitality thing?

Or are they still the same?

I mean, this is just a broad spectrum of the kind of things that you could be talking about in

general.

So, I mean, there are, like, real food allergies, like peanut allergies and,

you know, shellfish allergies.

I mean, there's kind of allergies where if you consume a peanut, you could end up in anaphylactic

shock and go to the emergency room kind of thing.

So there's that.

And then there's just this broad spectrum of food sensitivities that we could be talking about as well.

And then there's just things like diabetes and, you know, those sorts of things where

you have insulin kind of issues and all that.

So, I mean, I think it just depends on what we're talking about now.

I mean, there's been plenty of doctors who have come along and essentially told someone, like, if you don't start making healthy lifestyle changes,

they say to the morbidly obese person, then, you know, you're going to end up either

getting diabetes or you're going to end up having significant health problems.

And what they're doing is they're just pointing to probabilities at that point, right?

Largely what they're doing is pointing to probabilities.

And so, I mean, they could give you like a

really restrictive diet that you're going on and, you know, doctor's orders, right?

You know, here's your new food laws or whatever.

It's like, I think you still need to have some sort of place for

eating your 19 healthy meals a week and you have two meals that are cheat meals.

Like, if you were to stick to those 19 meals, you're going to be fine, you know, in the vast majority of cases.

Now, if it's just a real health emergency that's not just like, I'm the doctor and

I'm telling you you need to make changes or else you're going to be in trouble, you know, in some

nebulous sense.

Like, if there's some real kind of thing, then that's different, you know?

So, I mean, I think what the Bible is describing, eat whatever is set before you,

like what they're describing right there is just the general expectation for human beings.

And I mean, no one's going to look at the person who has a peanut allergy and say, well, you

eat that to the glory of God and go into your emergency room and, you know, greater love has no man than to die,

you know, for his friends kind of thing.

So, that's just not what we're talking about.

So, I shouldn't lay down my life for my friend who's inviting me over to dinner

and asking me to eat like a Reese's cup or something?

Yeah, no, the thing is, like, there's a lot of things, though, in that category that we're just being really dramatic about, you know?

Okay.

Like, we're being really, so, like, there's, I mean, you know, sure, if there's some kind of life -threatening thing, sure, you know?

And there's a lot of stuff that's a lot more questionable and we need to think through what we're even talking about, you know?

I think I was involved in an internet discussion with one of the carnivore guys on the internet

last week and they were essentially describing, you know,

cooking with canola oil or whatever as estrogen producing and poison, literal

poison, you know?

Yeah.

And, you know, you're fine to reject literal poison.

That's just where we've, like, crossed a line and got, I mean, if you're eating 20 healthy meals a week,

like, that's just not sane, you know?

Like, all food is a gift from God and should be received with thanksgiving.

And so, like, you can have people who are very dramatic on this subject and, you know, and

part of it is because we all have interlegalists in us that want to add to God's commands.

And, you know, there's a lot of people who, like, really are viewing food like a new religion right now.

And so, I mean, it used to be psychology was everything, you know, and a lot of people are, I'm surprised at how many people, like, are

tolerating the kind of things we're saying on Twitter as it relates to psychology.

But food is a new religion.

It's like, yeah, it's definitely like a golden calf kind of thing, right?

Yeah, yeah.

You know, go ahead, keep going.

Well, you just have mothers who think that they can essentially control all of, like, his behavior with food.

I mean, you have people who think, like, you know, that it's sinful to eat certain kinds of food and they just

need to wake up and, you know, like, maybe God needs to give them a vision of a sheet like he did for Peter,

you know?

Yeah.

But, I mean, there are people who just really accept these food laws.

And part of it's just because they've realized that, hey, like, they don't want to be fat just like everyone else and suffer from all these preventable

diseases.

But you, like, look, man, you know, you eat your 19 healthy meals a week, you're fine, you know?

Just establish a good pattern of life.

Don't turn it into an idol.

Don't turn it into a religion.

Don't turn it into new food laws, you know?

You know, I think one of the things I've noticed with this is really, like, especially with these fad

diets, they're so strange.

Like, people get so emotionally invested in them and really,

at least when it comes to, like, the keto diet or, like, this, you know, carnivore diet.

I know, I don't know how many people are familiar with this, but there's that Liver King guy who,

you know, was, I mean, he's massive, he's jacked.

And he claims it's all, you know, he's totally clean in terms of, like,

steroids and stuff.

And he's pushing this sort of, like, I think it's, like, nine pillars of holistic living

or something like that.

And, you know, one of the pillars is, like, eat raw meat, you know?

And he's pushing that as, like, if you want to be like me, if you want to be just absolutely massive, you have to

eat all of your meat raw.

And, you know, of course it comes out, like, he's on, I think, like, $12 ,000 or $13 ,000 worth of steroids

every month.

And that's why he's so big.

I mean, I saw him the first time.

I was like, well, yeah, of course he's on steroids.

Look at him.

No one gets that big.

But then it really does feel like a lot of people have almost sort of glorified,

like, humans of, you know, ages past kind of thing where

they're rebelling against the whole, like, processed food sort of

culture that we live in.

But then I think they take it so far the other way that they're, you know, they're like, hey, the only way to be healthy is to, you

know, eat all your meat raw now.

And it's like, okay, all right.

I feel like there's got to be a middle ground in there somewhere.

Yeah, so what's happening is you have several things that are happening.

So the natural path movement is, like, natural path movement is a religion.

Like, it really is a new religion.

And it's a substitute for psychology.

So part of it is, like, when you're having, like, the caveman kind of diet, that kind of thing.

I mean, these are diets that are based on evolutionary assumptions.

Yeah.

And so there's that.

But then, like, with your natural path stuff, this is a different religion.

And that's what people don't understand.

Like, it's totally a different religion.

So, like, the whole idea of, like, the natural path religion is that nature in the raw heals, right?

So, like, you have to give your body what it needs to heal.

Like, that's the thing.

And so when you hear, like, natural path people talking, there's this blind, like, assumption that anything man -made

is bad, right?

Yeah.

And, like, you know, so all the words are code words that don't really mean what, like, they're saying.

It's just like psychology, right?

So with psychology, therapy is not therapy.

Medicine is not medicine, right?

So, like, therapy is not therapy.

Medicine is not medicine.

Like, illness is not illness, right?

Like, all the words are—the same thing is happening with the natural path movement.

So organic, right?

So I took organic chemistry in college.

Like, organic chemistry is a study of carbon -based life forms.

Yeah.

All food's organic, right?

I mean, except for, you know, minerals or whatever.

But, I mean, all food's organic.

Like, that's what it is.

It's organic food.

But what's happening is you hijack a label, right?

And organic means, like, you know, not processed.

But, you know, all the food they're talking about is processed, you know?

So all the words just are not real words.

But then the assumption that undergirds it—like, here's the point.

The assumption is that nature in the raw will heal.

And what they don't have is they don't have a doctrine of, like, sin entering into the world.

So the Bible says that creation's been subjected to futility because of him who subjected it in hope of, you know, the

deliverance that comes from the sons of God.

So, like, the idea is that nature's trying to kill you, right?

So, like, that's part of the fall.

You know, nature in its raw form gives you sunburns.

Nature in its raw form has thorns and thistles.

So it's not as if nature is some goddess Mother Earth that if you can just, you know, get

all the man -made stuff as best you can out of it that then you're going to be healing.

I mean, you have fall.

Like, we live in a fallen world.

And, you know, as part of our job is to do some of the effects of the fall.

So what we do is we fight nature in a Christian world.

And in a Christian worldview, nature is, like, hostile to us.

And we use, like, the creation itself to try to limit the effects of the fall.

And so there's tradeoffs there.

You know, there's tradeoffs in both directions.

But all I'm trying to say is nature on its own, you know, uncultivated nature.

Like, our job is to cultivate it.

And, like, in your natural path worldview, there's no place for man in that system, right?

It's just nature on the raw.

It's whole.

It's going to heal you.

And, I mean, the people who really get caught up in that, they believe that basically every disease is a preventable disease.

And that if you can just tap into nature in its raw form, reject, you know, almost all technology, you

know, all mankind's involvement, you're going to be fine.

But that's just—this is a different religion.

This is a biblical worldview.

And so a lot of these things, like, you just have to ask, where are they coming from?

You know, there's, like—and this is why you have all these new schemes that are,

you know, being set up.

And the Word of God, you know, the grass withers, the flower fades.

The Word of God abides forever.

And, you know, if the Bible says, give us this day our daily bread, it can't be that bread is just horrible for you.

You know?

I mean, I've done, you know, I've done PSMF.

I've done these kind of things.

I lost a lot of weight on that.

But the thing is, like, you do feel miserable because you don't have any energy because you're rejecting all the carbs.

You know, so it's not, like, a great way to live permanently.

You know?

So what you need is you need to, like, use some common sense.

Use some common sense.

Remember, like, there's no such thing as unclean food.

You know?

And then just trust in, like, some of the things the Bible says.

So God's given us—.

I mean, there's, you know, there's all the, you know, vegan stuff that basically—.

Like, a lot of the nutrition science has basically told us for years that meat is so bad for us.

Yeah.

It's just, like, you need to get your protein from animals and plants.

And there's all sorts of agendas that are involved in this.

And now there's a reaction to that with the carnival and stuff.

But the Bible doesn't change.

You know?

So the things that are in the Bible don't change.

And God has given us food.

He's told us what kind of food to eat.

I mean, He hasn't given us, like, a specific plan.

But, like, you know, whatever—if anyone's telling you that meat is unclean, well,

God's given us meat to eat.

You know?

There's all these hormonal problems that happen if you don't eat meat anyways.

And so, like, all that happens is your nutrition science goes, you know, back and forth, up and down.

I mean, I remember when, you know, low -fat was the way to go.

Yeah.

And everything was low -fat.

And then it turned into—now it's, you know, keto, high -fat.

And it's just—you just have to trust the Bible, man.

And not get caught up in the fads.

But, yep.

Yeah.

My impression with all of that, especially, like, the sort of, you know, those sort of, like, caveman -type

diets, has always been, like, do you think that everyone, you know, before,

like, I guess, you know, 3 or 400 A .D., was just—like,

every guy was just 260 pounds of just pure muscle.

You know?

Like, looked like he could bench -press a whole building.

Is that what you think they all looked like?

What is the story in Judges of the King, his Eglon or whatever, where Othniel

stabs him through his gut and, you know, the blade goes all the way?

Yeah, the sword goes all the way through him.

The hilt is engulfed in the fat.

Yeah.

Yeah, clearly everyone wasn't—I mean, maybe he was 260 pounds, but it wasn't pure muscle.

Right, right.

But, yeah, that's—I always laugh at that because I just—I think

that along with, like, you know, we have a lot of entertainment -type

things that also kind of normalize, like, guys being just totally massive.

Like, all the superheroes, they're just insanely big, you know?

I mean, you know they're not real characters, but then you know they are real people who are

acting those guys out, and some of them are just that big.

You know, I don't think it's natural—they're that big naturally, but I think, you know, you spend enough

time watching those kinds of things, and then you see guys online who are saying, you know, if you want to look like

that, you've got to eat this, and you've got to eat that, and you've got to stay away from this, and stay away from that.

I think over time, that can really start to make you think

that it's a lot more normal than it actually is.

When if you look at, like, those BMI calculators, they tell a totally different story in

terms of what's healthy and what's not healthy.

But going back to the hospitality, you know,

rejecting food based off of certain diets, basically what you're saying is, you know, pretty much

outside of, like, hey, if I eat this, I'm going to die.

The answer should be, like, just eat it, basically.

Is that what you're saying?

Yeah, I mean, you know, I think there's some—there's probably some sort of

scale, but, you know, in terms of, like, what we're talking about in the realm of diets at this

point.

Are we talking about the realm of diets?

Are we talking about the realm of, like, food sensitivities, food allergies?

Just any of it, any of it.

Yeah, I mean, in general, like, it's very clear if you're going to eat this and you're going to die, you're going to go to the emergency room, then we're just

talking about a different category of thing.

And then there's some sort of scale with the food allergy kind of stuff to where, you know, I've heard plenty of people

say, if I eat this, you know, I'm going to get gas, you know, for a few days or something.

You know, and then when I say that and I laugh, and it's like, you don't know what it's like to have this painful gas that I have.

And it's like, well, I mean, I know what it's like to eat a Taco Bell.

You know, I think a lot of this, like, you can make a lot of it a lot worse than what it actually is.

And, like, you know, people who are really caught up in it and it becomes an idol for them.

It really, like, there is a kind of person who can train themselves to feel icky when they eat certain things

because they're looking to food to do things that it's not.

And so there's obviously a scale, you know, I'm not trying to say that there's no legitimate, you know, food

sensitivities out there.

I would say that a lot of them are being self -diagnosed right now.

And then, so there's that.

And then, you know, there isn't, like, I don't think we're dealing, like, in the land of food sensitivities with

settled objective science right now either.

So there's some concerns about the way that these things are even being diagnosed at a professional level.

But, you know, I mean, if there are some legitimate stuff out there and that you're really going to

just, you know, be curl up in a ball for several days and it's not all in your brain and

that kind of stuff.

And so I just think we have to ask, what are we talking about?

You know, and there's a lot of people who say that that's what it is.

But then they'll selectively eat, you know, these foods that they're intolerant to, you know,

on their whim when they want to, you know, and they'll just, you know, deal with it.

And I would say that those are the kind of situations where it really does cause you to think, you know, what's going on here.

So, I mean, I think there's some sort of scale there where certain things do affect people a lot more

than others.

And, you know, by and large, I think we need to really

question a lot of, like, I don't think we just have a knee jerk response to trust everyone who says any of those kind of things.

Like, I think we need to rethink, you know, why is it that, you know, one in 10 adults, one

in 13 kids has some sort of food allergy now?

You know, what did they do throughout the whole history of the world before these things?

And, you know, no one ever died, you know, for the most part.

So, I mean, I think as a general rule, you really need to have, like, if you're going to be rejecting food

hospitality, it doesn't need to be because of some sort of diet you're on.

You know, it really needs because you have a real legitimate medical reason that is not just

a, you know, trivial thing that, like, is going to be significant, you know.

Now, what about on the other end of things?

So, we spent a lot of time talking about the person who is receiving the food.

What about the person who is offering the food?

Is there room for them to say, hey, you know, look, I want to, you know, not

because of compulsion.

Like, I just want to, like, serve you something that I know you'll like.

So, is there any room to say, hey, you know, what do you like?

What do you not like?

What do you typically try and avoid?

What do you typically try and, you know, eat?

So, like, for the vegetarian person, you know, I don't

necessarily think that that's, like, a good, like, diet to have.

Especially if your whole reasoning is just, I want to save the animals.

But then, if I'm having someone over for dinner, do I have the freedom to just say, like, hey, I'm just going to make a

vegetarian meal just because I want, you know, that's what I want to do.

Because someone is a vegetarian, basically?

Is that what you're saying?

Yeah, like, hey, I know you're a vegetarian.

You know, am I, like, am I free to just, like, say, hey, I'm just going to make a

vegetarian meal?

One of the things that's complicated at this point is the fact that there's so many things right now.

So, I guess, like, a lot of it's, like, a generational thing, basically.

So, like, meaning, like, when you're dealing with the older generation, these aren't things, right?

Like, these aren't things, like, that you're even talking about when you're dealing with older people.

When you're dealing with younger people right now, there's just no, like,

there's no brakes on it.

It's, like, totally out of control, right?

And so, when you're living in a time where it's just totally out of control and it's, like, anything and everything can

be a reason they'll say no, right?

So, whether it's just pure preference, like, I just don't want to eat that because I've decided I don't want to eat that, right?

Or, you know, if it's, like, I don't like that, you know.

And, like, when you have, like, a list of, like, 20 different demands as it relates to

food, you know, that are just totally arbitrary based on nothing, you know, whether

it's their diet.

And then when you have, like, a group of people like that who all have their competing stuff, at a certain point you

have to figure out, well, how do we approach this sort of thing?

You get what I'm saying?

Because you can't make, I mean, you can't, you know, invite a group of people over and literally make, you know, 14 different

meals to figure out how to get to everyone, you know.

So, like, your question is, should you, like, is it okay to try to be somewhat sensitive

towards it all?

Well, the problem is, like, there's, when it's out of control, like, what's happening is, like, we're just,

like, the only answer is I guess we just never have anyone over because we're going to violate all their either, you know,

preferences or their, you know, their diets.

Like, is it even possible to have a situation at this point where you feel like you can make the

vegetarian meal and it's not under compulsion?

Is that kind of what you're getting at?

What I'm trying to say is, like, okay, well, I can't make the vegetarian meal if I got a carnivore guy

over there.

Do you know what I'm saying?

So, I can make the vegetarian meal for the vegetarian, but I'm going to have to make a vegetarian meal, I'm going to have to make a carnivore meal, I'm going to have to make,

like, 10 different meals.

And so, like, the issue is, like, at some point trying to be sensitive to all of it, like, what's going

to end up happening is that you're just, you're in a, like, you're in a lose -lose situation, if that makes

sense.

So, I mean, I think, you know, if you're living in more of a sane world, like, a very sane thing to do in, like,

most situations is just to say, hey, you know, what's your favorite food?

We're going to try to make it, right?

Yeah.

Like, that's a very normal, that's, like, just being hospitable.

But then when you're, like, running up against, like, just list

of off -limits taboo that are just, like, you know, it's a diet, it's, you know, self -diagnosed

food sensitivity.

It's, you know, it's just pure preference on your part.

It's just a random decision you made, you know, that you're sticking to, you know.

At some point, I think you just have to say, hey, like, we just have to be normal people.

And if you don't want to eat it, then don't eat it, you know, kind of thing.

So, I mean, I think that there's obviously a place as a good host for

doing exactly what you're saying.

But then at the same time, if you're living in, like, crazy world, there's also the reality that,

like, man, this is out of control.

And I don't, like, maybe we need to quit asking so much because we're just coddling a bunch of weirdness.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

So, like, maybe in a different time where it's not this ridiculous thing,

it might be easier to, with a clear conscience, accommodate

that.

But then at this point, it's basically become like a monster

almost in some ways.

Yeah, it really is a monster.

I mean, I think if you're inviting old people over your house and you say, hey, what's your favorite meal, you know, we'll make it, right?

Yeah.

Like, you're dealing with a different kind of animal than inviting a bunch of young people over your house and trying to figure

out.

Like, the more choices you give them, like, the more you'll realize that you're just in an impossible.

Like, no one has the money to do all this, you know, to figure out how to cook 10 different things for 10 different people

that they'll all not only prefer, but like and won't violate.

I mean, at a certain point, you're just like, all right, just here's what we're making.

Eat it if you want, you know.

If you don't, then we're not gonna be mad at you.

But, you know, like, it's just at some point you just have to just say, hey, we're not doing this anymore.

What about in the situation where it's just, like, one person coming over, though?

Like, it's not 10 people coming over.

It's just one person.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not trying to say it's sinful to ask them, hey,

what are your dietary restrictions, you know?

But I do think if you know that, you know, people are out of

control with this and, like, a lot of this isn't as biblical as you think.

Like, one way that you can be speaking truth into their life is not

just to enable this kind of self -centered narcissistic, you know, behavior indefinitely.

So, you know, I think at a certain point, you just have to say, hey, you know, maybe the best thing I can do is

have a conversation with him about it instead of tiptoeing around it.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, yeah.

And maybe just treating them like I would treat a normal human being that lived throughout the history of the world, you know?

And if they get offended by it, then whatever, you know?

Does that make sense?

Like, it may be a real opportunity to speak into their life instead of just being another person coming along and,

you know.

I mean, like, when people get caught up in this stuff, like, they're, you know,

they're dramatically making their lives, like, harder.

You know, for them and for everyone around them, you know, and it's just not a good way to live.

And maybe you can be a person come along and trying to help them to grow up a little bit.

Okay.

You know, so there's that, but I don't know.

Okay.

Well, with the last bit of time we have, Tim, I wanted to ask you about

two passages of Scripture that are basically talking about the same thing.

And those are found in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and then Romans chapter

14.

Both from Paul outlining, you know, basically,

like, hey, telling the two different audiences, hey, eat whatever is set before you,

right?

With a clear conscience.

But then he also addresses this idea of the weaker brother.

And so I wanted to ask you about those two things and how do they

work together?

Well, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Before I ask you about that, I wanted to ask you, do those verses actually

apply to the situation that we're talking about?

Because in both passages of Scripture, he's mentioning,

he's talking about it in the context of meat sacrifice to idols,

right?

Because obviously that was a common thing back then.

It's not really, I don't know that that's really a common thing anymore, you know, to

sacrifice your meat to false gods.

But then do the things that he is saying translate to

this conversation about dietary restrictions and, you know,

various diets that people are on?

So does it relate?

And then if it does relate, then what do we get from these

passages?

How do we understand the whole weaker brother thing?

But let's start with, does it apply in general?

Yeah, I mean, they're just talking about a very different kind of situation there.

So the idea of the weaker brother is the brother who's going to be led into sin

by following you down certain practices, which are theoretically permissible to do.

But then they may make certain assumptions about that and lead them into sin.

So that's the idea of the weaker brother.

So the primary discussion that's being had in New Testament times centered around food was not

this discussion of, you know, rejecting hospitality for arbitrary reasons,

right?

So like the whole, none of it makes sense.

Like none of it makes sense unless you have a robust understanding of hospitality that is present within the discussion

itself.

So like the issue is like there's this assumption in the ancient world, if someone invites you over to their house, you need

to eat what they set before you.

Or you're going to dishonor them, basically.

You're going to dishonor them, you're going to shame them, right?

And you're going to, not only you're dishonoring them, you're dishonoring yourself, right?

Because like you just don't do that.

And so like you have a real conflict because there's just this immutable expectation of hospitality.

But then you have allegiances to God too.

And so then like if you're put in a situation where they're presenting you with food that's been offered to an idol,

then it feels like your fundamental commitment to God is clashing with your commitment to

them, right?

And so Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were basically in that kind of situation while they're in Babylon.

You know, and this is why they requested to only eat vegetables because they were under the Mosaic food laws, right?

So now we're not under the Israelites, we're not under the food laws anymore because when Christ come,

he declared all foods clean.

So you don't have the food laws anymore that they're under.

So there's not a conflict there, but there's still this new issue of food being offered to idols.

And what do they do about that?

So if I eat this food offered to idols, is that a religious act for me?

Is it an act of worship to a pagan God?

So that's the discussion that undergirds all these things.

And there's a certain kind of Christian who feels like, if I eat that food, I'm defiled.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

Like, I'm defiled.

Like, that's an act of false worship.

And like, that's me serving this false God.

I can't do it.

Now, the logic of the New Testament, though, is to say that the earth is the Lord's and it's fullness thereof.

And like, the idol is nothing, right?

So eat whatever is set before you.

Don't ask any questions for your conscience sake.

You know, you don't have to worry about that kind of thing.

You can go to the meat market, and just because they're selling meat at a discounted price that's been offered to an idol, you don't have to

worry about it.

Like, you don't have to worry about it because, like, all the food is God's food.

These idols, these false gods, they don't actually exist.

And so all you have to do is just don't worry about it.

Just eat whatever they give you.

Buy whatever you want to buy at the meat market.

Don't even ask questions.

So you don't even have to think about it, right?

Because it all belongs to God.

So like, that's the issue that undergirds this kind of discussion is the issue of false worship.

And so you have individuals who are coming along.

And the weaker brother thinks, like, if I eat this, that's me serving a false god.

And they have to realize you don't have to worry about that, right?

Like, so you don't have to.

But then if they tell you, like, this has been, like, you know, offered to a false god, are you going to eat it?

Because that means you're going to serve them, right?

Then you're allowed to say, well, no, I'm not going to eat it because my religious devotion to God comes first.

And if you think this is me worshiping this god, I'm not going to do it because I don't want you to think that

I care more about you than I care about God.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

So basically, like, you're free to eat the meat, right?

Right.

Just in a vacuum.

But then you do need to consider, like, hey, how is this going to lead

my brothers and sisters into sin?

Just because they don't have the same, you know, understanding

about all of it, like, they're new in the faith or whatever it is,

this could lead them into sin themselves.

And so for that, considering that, I'm going to give this up, even though otherwise I would be free to do

it, right?

Yeah, basically.

So, I mean, your primary concern at that point is not the lawfulness of eating it yourself.

Like, your primary concern at that point is just to say, like, my allegiance is totally to God.

Like, there's nothing objectively wrong with eating this food off of the idols.

But if it's going to lead someone to sin, I need to not do it in that way.

Because I do want to be concerned about my witness.

That's the kind of discussion we're having at that point.

You're not talking about people who, like, just some new category of, you know, self -centered,

narcissistic, you know, Christians coming along with their, you know, new dietary food laws that they've come

up with.

Or, you know, their fad diets they've come up with.

Or, you know, all these things.

Like, that's, we're just talking about apples and oranges.

So how does that relate to, I'm looking at the passage here, and, you know, like in Romans, let's see,

this is, yeah, Romans 14, verse 5.

Paul's saying,

So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the

Lord of both the dead and the living.

And then in verse 10, he transitions to talking about judgment.

So verse 10.

Every tongue will acknowledge God.

So then each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

Therefore, this is verse 13.

Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another.

Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a

brother or sister in Christ.

So there it seems to be talking not necessarily so much about, or

maybe it is still the same thing, but I wanted to ask you.

It seems like what's being communicated there is going a bit beyond

what is truly sin and what is truly not sin.

And it's going into like a more, I guess, maybe almost like a wisdom

category where, you know, hey, one

person thinks all days are alike, right?

And another person thinks one day is more significant than all the other days.

And Paul's not necessarily weighing in on, you know, hey, it's the guy who

thinks it's one day or it's the guy that thinks it's every day.

He's more just saying those two people need to figure out

how to live in harmony with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

So is that in your mind still the whole, like,

Paul is saying don't do something that's going to lead your brother to actual sin?

Or is that like a different, is that like a slightly different category that's still,

it's pretty similar, but then it's got some different aspects to it?

What's your thought there?

Yeah, I mean, so what's happening is this passage is climaxing to get to Romans 14, 23.

So whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats because the eating is not from faith, for whatever does not

proceed from faith is sin.

So like the idea is, and this is something we try to teach people in counseling in general,

is you don't want to violate your conscience.

Because if you're not confident about it, like you can do something that's objectively fine, but if you

feel like it's like an act that's violating God's word, then you shouldn't do it.

So like, just to give you an example of something like this, like if you have a person who really believes it's sinful to drink alcohol, for

instance, like it's not objectively sinful to drink alcohol.

The Bible says don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit.

But if you have a teetotaler, you have a person who feels like it's objectively sinful to do it.

If they were to go ahead and do it, right, if you were to go ahead and drink the alcohol, even though you feel like it's sin,

what's happening is you sinned in the act of doing it.

And the reason why you sin in the act of doing it, even though it's not objectively wrong, is because like your motive is off.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, you're not motivated by faith, right?

You're not motivated by faith, so that was an act of rebellion.

So your conscience is telling you don't do that, and you're willing to lay it aside, you know, because of pressure

or whatever else.

So what's happening is you have like an act that's not objectively wrong, but you have a heart that's

wrong.

Does that make sense?

Mm -hmm.

So what you should never do, like we tell people don't violate your conscience, right?

Like you don't want to violate your conscience, so if your conscience is going off that this is something that's like a problem, then you

need to, like, don't just go ahead and do it, because that could be coming from a heart that has

a lack of faith, right?

So you don't want to have a defiant heart in that way.

So, like, when you're thinking about this discussion of eating meat, you know, one person may have a weak conscience.

Like, so we're talking about the idea of eating food offered to idols.

You have a person who has a weak conscience who feels like, man, if I eat that, I'm like, I'm setting aside my

fundamental commitment to the Lord here in doing this.

Does that make sense?

Mm -hmm.

In the same way that, like, a person, like, if I, you know, drink, if they went to Bob Jones University and they feel like if they

drink, like, you know, you don't drink or smoke or chew or go with the girls who do.

And so, but, like, if you feel like it's a sin to dance or a sin to, you know,

drink alcohol or all that, you know, maybe smoke a cigar or whatever, if you feel like that's

wrong, like, the issue is if you go ahead and do it anyways, you're rebelling.

Like, in your heart, you have a heart, a rebellious kind of heart.

So, as Christians, we're not supposed to despise people like that or pass judgment on people like that.

Mm -hmm.

Like, so you're not supposed to look down on that and just say, oh, you're so stupid, you know, whatever.

And, like, no, God's died for them.

That's their master.

You know, they may be misinformed about the lawfulness of this certain thing.

But, like, that's between them and God.

And that doesn't mean you don't try to inform their conscience, right?

There's a place to try to inform their conscience.

But what you don't do is you don't pass judgment harshly on them.

And, like, because there could be a rebellious

motive that you're running roughshod over if you just are basically telling them, man, just do it.

You know, it's not a big deal.

Get over yourself, you know?

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

Basically, it's better to be the person who is, you know,

convinced that one of these sort of tertiary issues is possibly sinful when

it's actually not.

But then, you know, their conscience tells them to stick to what they think the Bible is

saying rather than be the person who, you know, thinks that same way but then

violates it and isn't sure what to even think about what they've just

done.

Right?

That's right.

Yeah.

So, basically, what you're wanting to do with those kind of scenarios is you're not just wanting to

thoughtlessly encourage people to do something that feels fundamentally rebellious to them.

And, you know, this is a….

But, I mean, what you want to do is patiently try to inform their conscience so that their conscience doesn't

go off.

So, like, our conscience is not a perfect, you know, warning system.

It's a warning system that we have.

It's not a perfect warning system, but then when you sear it, it stops working anymore.

Yeah.

So, that's the problem.

So, the more that you just ignore it, it'll stop working.

So, you don't want to teach people to do that.

What you want to do is just slowly, patiently try to reason with them about those sorts of things.

But the issue that's at, you know, live right there is, like, this is an issue of false worship in

their mind.

They feel like in eating food offered to idols, they're going to be participating in false worship.

And so, in that way, they'd rather just only eat vegetables.

And so, this has nothing to do with, like, modern vegetarianism or anything else.

It's about….

Like, that's about their fundamental commitment to God that's being violated, not just some kind of, you know, pagan

choice that they're making.

Trying to save the animals.

Save the animals.

It's standing against everything the Bible is clearly saying about His purpose in that way.

But, you know, so, like, just apples and oranges, different discussion, basically.

Okay.

But then, yeah, so, it's basically just a total….

Like, those verses aren't, like, the proof text for vegetarian lifestyle, is

what you're saying?

Oh, no, no.

I mean, like, you know, there's nothing more pagan than the idea that, you know,

animals somehow have some kind of personhood.

You know, I think I watched Avatar or something when it came out, and there's that scene where the animal dies.

And, you know, like, the lady's having some sort of religious moment with, you know, the animal dying on the

ground.

And, you know, I mean, this is just paganism that's coming out.

And, you know, God has given humanity, like, food to eat.

And so, you know, you have to be people who are speaking against that kind of thing.

Okay.

Well, I think that's a pretty good place to wrap up.

And honestly, hopefully the thing that I hope people take away the most from this is,

first, just this idea that we really do have to be a lot more hospitable than we actually

are with each other, especially as Christians.

And, you know, the Bible says that the rest of the world will know that we belong to Christ by

the way that we love one another.

And I think this is just a glaring example of that if we follow through with, you

know, with a lot of the one another commands.

If we're involved in one another's lives and are loving one another, inviting them

over to our homes, going over to other people's homes, providing meals

in times of need.

Because that just doesn't, it seems like more and more in our society that's kind of fading

away.

And so hopefully people, when they listen to this episode, one of the things they're really

convicted about is, hey, I'm not involved enough in the lives of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

And I think the other thing that personally I'm wanting people to hear through all of this is, I think we

really have gotten to a very scary place with a lot of these diets and a lot of

these intolerances as it comes to food or

allergies, however it is.

Obviously there's real ones that are very life -threatening, like we said, but then I don't know that those are,

I don't know that, I think those are probably relatively rare compared to the amount of people who say

they've got some kind of, you know, gluten thing or lactose intolerant thing or

whatever.

And so personally for me, I'm hoping that people hear this and

they say to themselves, you know, I need to be the kind of person who desires more than anything to

honor the people in my life who want to serve me by making me a meal, by giving me

free food.

I want to show them respect and honor.

And by doing that, I know what I'm doing is ultimately I'm honoring the Lord, right?

Because they're just trying to love me.

They're trying to follow in Christ's example, right?

And so I don't want to hinder that, and I want to be thankful for what they've done for me, just like

Jesus was thankful to God the Father.

I mean, when he's feeding the 5 ,000, what

does he do?

He gives thanks to the Father for providing the meal.

He blesses it, and then he hands it out to everyone.

And so in the same way, we should be thankful towards other people who are providing a meal for us,

knowing that our Father in heaven ultimately is the one who's feeding us.

And so if we're not thankful to them, then we're certainly not going to be thankful to God for his provision.

And that goes along with all of the disrespect that you're showing, and ultimately

our culture has sort of become pretty numb to socially overall.

But anyways, with all of that being said, we want to thank you guys for listening to this episode, for

taking the time to support us.

And hopefully you've heard some things that have been challenging for you, that have been possibly really

convicting for you.

And that's always our prayer with these types of things, is that we're helping equip you guys for the works of

ministry, because that's the whole goal of this podcast.

But again, we thank you guys, and we look forward to having you on the next one.

This has been another episode of Bible Bashed.

We hope you have been encouraged and blessed through our discussion.

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Now, go boldly and obey the truth in the midst of a biblically illiterate world who will be

perpetually offended by your every move.