Chapter 16—Flesh Foods
The Facts of Faith 2:120-121
God gave our first parents the food He designed that the race should
eat. It was contrary to His plan to have the life of any creature taken.
There was to be no death in Eden. The fruit of the trees in the garden,
was the food man’s wants required. God gave man no permission to eat
animal food until after the flood. Everything had been destroyed upon
which man could subsist, and therefore the Lord in their necessity gave
Noah permission to eat of the clean animals which he had taken with
him into the ark. But animal food was not the most healthful article of
food for man.
The people who lived before the flood ate animal food and gratified
their lusts until their cup of iniquity was full, and God cleansed the
earth of its moral pollution by a flood Then the third dreadful curse
rested upon the earth. The first curse was pronounced upon the poster-
ity of Adam and upon the earth, because of disobedience. The second
curse came upon the ground after Cain slew his brother Abel. The
third most dreadful curse from God, came upon the earth at the flood.
After the flood the people ate largely of animal food. God saw
that the ways of man were corrupt, and that he was disposed to exalt
himself proudly against his Creator and to follow the inclinations of
his own heart. And He permitted that long-lived race to eat animal
food to shorten their sinful lives. Soon after the flood the race began
to rapidly decrease in size, and in length of years. There were a class
of very large animals which perished at the flood. God knew that the
strength of man would decrease, and these mammoth animals could
not be controlled by feeble man.
The Review and Herald, May 8, 1883 No. 19 (Healthful Living,
96.1)
Meat is not essential for health or strength, else the Lord made a
mistake when He provided food for Adam and Eve before their fall.
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