Expert: J.M.J. West - 6/6/2011

Question
I noticed that questions are being answerd using passages from the book of Leviticus.  Is this part of the bible still applicable?  Some have told me this part is no longer practiced and some have told me that parts are no longer practiced.  Trying to answer a question from my daughter regarding the practice of eating clean animals in chapter 11.  Thank You

Answer
With regards to eating clean animals and unclean animals, such prohibitions passed away with the coming of the New Covenant.  Consider Peter's vision in Acts 11, where he is told to eat all the animals, clean and unclean!  Or the Church Council at Jerusalem in Acts 15 where it is decided that the Gentiles do not need to become Jewish to be saved, but only to refrain from some actions which would scandalize their Jewish brothers.

Many of the Levitical laws were circumstantial, given primarily to set the Jewish people apart from those around them, to remind them that they were chosen for a purpose.

Of course, many of the issues in Leviticus are not merely disciplinary, but moral.  Theft, murder, adultery, these issues are moral issues, not merely circumstantial.  Christ addresses all of them, as do the authors of the epistles in the New Testament, and the early church fathers.  They are categorically different.

E.g., Adultery is always wrong because it distorts human sexuality, which is intended to make fully real the image of the triune God wrought in the person of man, created "in the image and likeness of God, Male and Female He created them."

Wearing mixed blends of fabric and eating shell fish are just simply not on the same level of severity, and the consistent teaching of the Apostles and their successors, as well as the scriptures, have backed this understanding.

I hope that helps?

-J.M.J. West