Why "The Bible Never Says" Is Not Always the Best Guide

An internet meme I’ve seen a couple of times now features a picture of a pig and an open Bible with this statement, “Most people were taught this… PORK WAS MADE CLEAN… but Scripture never says that.” It then lists three Bible verses (Leviticus 11:7-8; Acts 10:28; Isaiah 66:17). The implication of the meme is 1) you can’t trust what you were previously taught about the Bible; 2) the Old Testament prohibition against eating pork still stands.

There is of course some merit to that first implication. Jesus began His first recorded sermon in Matthew by addressing six things his audience had “heard that” were “said to those of old” (Matthew 5:21; cf. Matthew 5:27, 31, 33, 38, 43). Jesus wanted to make sure that people knew 1) the antiquity of an idea alone does not make it right or wrong; 2) what people hold by way of tradition is not always in harmony with God’s will. While it is important to recognize that Christianity is a tradition which we have received from the apostles of Jesus (2 Thessalonians 3:6), man has a way of subtly supplanting divinely inspired traditions for human ones (Mark 7:1-13). So no, you can’t simply trust whatever is “received by tradition from your fathers,” because often this tradition contains “aimless conduct” from which you need to be “redeemed” (1 Peter 1:18).

With that being said, there are any number of voices in today’s world that seek to gain credibility by denouncing the wisdom of the past. The aim of the person(s) who made this meme was to take advantage of 1) people who had accepted this teaching without establishing in their minds what the Bible says, and 2) the fact that people don’t often consider how the Bible does and does not teach. So, let’s walk through this topic and try to address both of these things.

To the “Scripture never says that” point, it is of course correct. However, it should immediately be added that there are a lot of things that Scripture never says that are nonetheless true. If the New Testament outlined verbatim everything that was true and false and everything that we could and could not do as Christians, as John said of Jesus, “I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). Jesus’ aim in creating the New Testament was not to create a following of legal experts who would carefully adhere to volumes of codified commandments and prohibitions, but to create a family of believers with renewed minds, changed hearts, and transformed lives. The test of whether something is right or wrong is not always dependent on whether or not the Bible says something word for word, but rather whether that thing is in harmony with what the Bible does say.

As we turn our attention back to our meme example, of course the Bible does say in Leviticus 11:7-8 that animals such as pork were declared to be unclean under the Law of Moses. The citation from Isaiah 66:17 perhaps gives us some insight as to why swine in particular were unclean. While some people believe that the dietary restrictions of the Law of Moses dealt purely with health concerns, this passage seems to indicate that the bigger problem was that eating swine flesh was associated with idolatry. Remember, the Law of Moses was not created merely to protect people from diseases (although I can’t deny that this might have something to do with it given what Deuteronomy 7:15 says); it was created to create “a holy people,” a nation distinct from all the other nations that surrounded it (Deuteronomy 7:6; 14:2, 21; 26:19; 28:9).

The inclusion of Acts 10:28 though is intriguing as this passage says nothing about swine or dietary restrictions at all. However, if a person were to go to a New Testament passage to demonstrate that pork were clean, he or she would likely go to Acts 10:11-16. In this passage, Peter is shown a large cloth full of all kinds of unclean animals. He is told, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat,” and further, “What God has cleansed you must not call common” (Acts 10:13, 15). By drawing our attention to Acts 10:28 though, the meme seems to be implying that because Peter’s eventual take away from the vision was, “God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean” (Acts 10:28), the vision is not really evidence that God declared any unclean animal to be clean.

There is a big problem with this line of reasoning though. If this is in fact the reason that Acts 10:28 has been included, the meme is accusing God of doing something ridiculous: falsely claiming that animals are clean (remember, according to the meme, this is a lie) to establish the truth that people are clean. The fact of the matter is though that God does not lie to establish truths; He doesn’t lie at all (Romans 3:4; Titus 1:2). Make no mistake about it: though the vision taught Peter something about people, it was a vision about animals. The instruction, “Rise Peter; kill and eat” makes absolutely no sense if the animals in some weird way only represented people. So, if God said the animals in the sheet are clean, then they are, and pigs were undoubtedly represented among, “all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air” in Peter’s vision (Acts 10:12).

Though the meme is attempting to misdirect people by including Acts 10:28, its premise is built upon an entirely false assumption: it assumes that we are still living under the Law of Moses. There are literally dozens of passages in the New Testament designed to help us to understand that we are not. Jesus came “to fulfill” “the Law” and “the Prophets” of the Old Testament (Matthew 5:17). He “wiped out the handwriting of requirements” these Laws contained, “And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). The Law of Moses “was our tutor to bring us to Christ […] But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor” (Galatians 3:24-25). Jesus “takes away the first” covenant “that He may establish the second” (Hebrews 10:9). This is just a small sample of New Testament teaching on the subject. To pick and choose anything from the Law of Moses and bind it as a religious practice is “to become estranged from Christ” and to “have fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4).

Further, Acts 10:11-16 is not the only passage to which one might go to establish that Jesus has done away with Jewish dietary restrictions under His New Testament. Paul acknowledges that some Christians might follow their consciences and avoid certain foods, but asserts, “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking,” before adding, “All things indeed are pure,” and that it is only “evil for the man who eats with offense” (Romans 14:17, 20). Further, he tells Timothy, “For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4, 5). The words “all” and “every” in these passages of course include pork.

I hope this helps you to work through this meme (and things like it) and encourages you to cultivate a habit that sees you looking deeper than 1) what you have been previously taught about the Bible and 2) a superficial view of any New Testament teaching. As Peter demonstrates in Acts 10:28, God often expects us to glean principles from what He has taught and learn through deductive reasoning. As Peter came to Cornelius’ house, it dawned on him: if animals had been declared clean by Jesus, then what he had always been taught about Jews and Gentiles could not possibly be right. You see, the law requiring “a Jewish man [not] to keep company with or go to one of another nation” (Acts 10:28) was not the Law of Moses, but the laws of tradition. So, in effect, Peter had to learn the very lessons we have to learn as well.