Hi, I was wondering if it is a sin to eat meat.  I have come across a video that says it uses Bible verses to say that it is wrong; it would take too long to type them all out, but here is the link to the video that I am talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb6dWrace38&feature=related

Please help me understand this; thanks and God bless!

Sincerely,
Bring On The Bacon

Dear Bring On The Bacon,

The video that you referenced is a great example of false teaching.  It uses a few Bible verses out of context and combines them with a lot of quotes that look like Bible verses – but aren’t actually from the Bible.  Jesus’ teachings are clear; it is okay to eat meat.  Mk 7:19-20 states that all food, including meat, is clean to eat.

While Jesus walked this earth, He regularly ate the Passover (Lk 22:15), which was a Jewish feast.  Part of the Passover meal involved eating lamb (Ex 12:5-11).  Jesus ate the Passover every single year; Jesus was definitely not a vegetarian.

5 minutes a day
5 days a week
1 New Testament in a year

There are 261 weekdays in a year, and there are 260 chapters in the New Testament. By reading one chapter, Monday through Friday, you will read the whole New Testament by the end of the year. The Daily Cup series is to help with that goal.

Happy Studying!

"The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup." -- Psalm 16:5

Click here for a pdf of the study schedule - CLICK HERE

If I have denied God to someone, and I am a christian, does it mean I will not spend everlasting life in heaven?

Sincerely,
Mum’s The Word

Dear Mum’s The Word,

A single act of denial will not condemn you to hell, but a lifestyle of denying Christ will.  Christ warns against being someone who will not confess His name before mankind (Matt 10:32-33).  Christ teaches us to be courageous and not timid with our faith (2 Tim 1:7).  Peter denied Christ three times (Lk 22:34) in a single night, but Peter also later repented and changed his ways (Matt 26:75).  It was a sin for you to deny God.  Repent of that sin, chart a new course of brave faith, and seek God’s forgiveness (Jas 5:15).  If you draw near to God, He will faithfully draw near to you (Jas 4:8).

5 minutes a day
5 days a week
1 New Testament in a year

There are 261 weekdays in a year, and there are 260 chapters in the New Testament. By reading one chapter, Monday through Friday, you will read the whole New Testament by the end of the year. The Daily Cup series is to help with that goal.

Happy Studying!

"The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup." -- Psalm 16:5

Click here for a pdf of the study schedule - CLICK HERE

     Why would God allow the torture of innocent children?

Sincerely,
Appalled

Dear Appalled,

This world is full of all sorts of disease, pain, violence, and strife – but God didn’t cause those things; sin did.  All bad things are a result of sin.  When God made the world, He placed mankind in the Garden of Eden and gave us a joyously blissful existence in that paradise.  Who caused the pain?  We did.  It is sin that has brought all of the death, disease, decay, pain, suffering, troubles, and heartaches into our world.  We all, in varying degrees, are reaping the benefits of a world with sin in it.  Sickness is a consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden.  One of the curses of their sin was that we all must face our own mortality – life is finite.  Sickness, disease, and pain are a part of the human existence.

Sadly, this is true even for our children. When God gave us freewill, He gave us the right to cause problems for ourselves and others, and if He simply removed all the consequences for our actions, He would be removing our freedoms as well.  The flip-side to this is that all children go to heaven, so after a child dies, God immediately comforts them on the other side.
 God gives mankind the freedom to make decisions, but He also has the wisdom to know how those choices will affect the future (Job 12:13).  God planned before the foundation of the world to save us by sending His own Son to die (Eph. 1:3-4).  Even though He isn’t responsible for our choices, God sent the perfect cure. This world isn’t fair – if it were, it would be heaven.  Instead, we live in a fallen world where man has been exiled from paradise.  This world is not our home; Christians await a better world where the most innocent don’t face such things. (Heb 11:16).