Re: fasting & energy

Chris,

your quote in genesis was for humans BEFORE the fall.

Once man was ejected from the garden, so many things changed.

Before the flood, people lived hundreds of years. These people ate meat. Cane and Abel were the second generation of humans on earth. Cain was a farmer and Abel raised livestock. Cains sacrifice of produce was unacceptable to God and Abel's sacrifice of a lamb was. We all know what happened after that. This is not to say that eating meat is better than produce. It is to show that immediately after being ejected from the garden, animal husbandry became a trade. People ate meat.

The eating of meat is enforced throughout the Bible. If one is a Christian and wishes to follow the Bible, ONE MUST EAT MEAT. It is part of our testimony. It is to show our appreciation of "the wages of sin is death" and to remind us that we live in a fallen and imperfect world. It reminds us of the world that is to come, where the lion lays down with the lamb. If this is hard to understand, I'm sorry I can't explain it better.

In the Old Testament, striking examples of meat eating are the priesthood being required to eat of the sacrificial meat and the Israelites partaking of Passover, which required eating meat. There are other examples as well.

The Law explained the varieties of meats that God's people were to eat. They were not allowed to eat the "dirtier" varieties.

In the New Testament, all changed. All meat became acceptable. Even the apostle Peter had a dream explaining to him that a new era had entered in. Aesthetic diets, such as the one described in the law, were no longer necessary.

Let's remember, many people live to a ripe old age eating whatever garbage they wish. Others may be more sensitive. I'll never forget a study done in Colorado that surveyed as many of the residents that would participate who were over 100 years old. They wanted to find any common links that may shed light on their longevity. The ironic fact was that the only single link that they could find was that they had all been heavy red meat eaters throughout their lives;-)