When God created the world, everything was designed to
operate in a particular manner. As a
result of man’s sin, many things have changed besides man’s mental attitudes
and abilities. Our diet is one of the
things that has changed. When God
created the world, all animals were vegetarians, according to
Genesis1:29-30. “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which
is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of
a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every
fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there
is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.” With no predators, the animal population
undoubtedly increased very rapidly.
In the garden were all the plants we know today, besides
various kinds that are now extinct. There
were also two special trees that are no longer available, according to Genesis
2:9. “And
out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the
sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and
the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
Created in the image of God, mankind had the ability to make
logical decisions and act on them. The
fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would open man’s mind to other
possibilities besides the logical, possibly in a way similar to how
hallucinogenic drugs enable people to imagine things they would not otherwise
have considered. People would have the ability
to choose between what they knew was right and good, and what was most
interesting at the moment. This results
in and internal conflict we know as the conscience.
The Tree of life, on the other hand, would cure any diseases
or health problems. Revelation 22:2
tells us a little about it. “In the midst of the street of it, and on
either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner
of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations.” By eating
of the tree of life, man could live forever, according to Genesis 3:22. “And
the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and
evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life,
and eat, and live for ever:”
God gave man a definite warning about the danger of eating
the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil in Genesis
2:16-17. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die.” Eating of the fruit of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil would ultimately result in death, just
as using hallucinogenic drugs results in thousands of deaths each year from
suicide, accidents and drug overdoses. Man
could freely eat from all the other plants, including the tree of life.
Today, there are many who believe we should go back to a
strict vegetarian diet. While it is true
that that was what man was originally intended to eat, man’s sin has resulted
in physical changes that make that impractical.
Our body is no longer capable of synthesizing certain things we need
from plant sources. After the flood, God
gave different instructions, in Genesis 9:2-4.
“And the fear of you and the dread
of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air,
upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into
your hand are they delivered. Every
moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I
given you all things. But flesh with the
life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.” After the flood, God said man was free to
eat any of the animals for food, as well as the plants. Later he would restrict what the Jews were
allowed to eat as a means of protecting them from certain diseases, but those
guidelines applied only to Israel.
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