Did God Say All Animals Are Now Clean in Peter's Vision?

I wanted to share this testimony of mine with anyone who has had the same questions as I have about clean and unclean animals and whether or not we should obey the command today to not eat the unclean ones. Did Jesus really cleanse all animals for us to eat? Can we now eat pigs, something that was called an abomination to do in the Old Testament? Did God change the law when He gave Peter that vision?

I’ve been doing my best to keep the Sabbath for many years, but it’s only been the more recent years that I started to dig into the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and realize how much I’ve been missing out on! It truly has changed my life. Before I get into the vision part of this article, I wanted to share how God first lead me down this path, and in such a merciful way!

I first started having questions about why the Bible says to keep the Sabbath on the seventh day, yet most Christians keep it on Sunday, the first day of the week. I didn’t know anyone else who had the same questions. I didn’t know anything about resources like 119 Ministries. I didn’t follow any groups online. I only knew about a few people who taught sabbath keeping on YouTube, and I didn’t watch them that much. My access to internet was also extremely limited at the time, so my study of this subject was mostly spent right in the scriptures.

I would read every single verse about the Sabbath, over and over. I noted that nowhere in the Bible does it predict a change in the Sabbath law, and no-where does it record a change being practiced by the first Christians. This in-depth study gave me such a solid scriptural foundation to go off of, and I was convicted to keep the Sabbath. It was only much later that I began to understand church history better and see that my suspicions were correct. The early church (specifically the Roman Catholic Church) changed God's law and replaced it with manmade traditions. Unfortunately, many of these unbiblical traditions were carried on into Protestantism.

Although all of this extra-biblical information I gathered was very beneficial, the way God limited things for me in the beginning was vital. He didn’t give everything at once, and the process to understand what I do now has taken me years. He first showed me Sabbath keeping. Then He showed me feast remembrance. After that, He led me through the rest, the more difficult laws, such as eating clean. I say they are more difficult because church indoctrination makes it very hard to see any problem with what we have been doing for hundreds of years.

After all this, God finally gave me in this past year online community, likeminded friends, and helpful resources. I feel this has been His protection, because this walk of leaving behind Catholic teachings and manmade tradition is an extremely difficult one. I describe it as entering no-man’s-land. You cannot enter it without being well equipped in spiritual armor and having a firm foundation in scripture. False teaching is everywhere, especially when you step out of mainstream Christianity.

My point for sharing all this is that sometimes we feel pressured to understand everything at once. Sometimes we think we need to study every perspective, gather information from others, or join groups to help us interpret the scriptures. What we need most, however, has already been given through a promise that applies to us all, and that is the knowledge that only the Holy Spirit can impart from His Word (John 14:26). Before anything else, immerse yourself in His word, and ask Him to reveal to you the things that He knows you’re ready to understand. I love many of the resources and people that I’ve listened to over the years, but more and more I’m realizing, my strongest convictions came merely from reading the Word and seeking His answers instead of other’s.

Now, I would like to share an example with you of how God revealed truth to me without the help of any exterior teaching.

A common discussion among Christians is Peter’s vision. I only just started eating clean early last year (2022), and the reason for this is that I didn’t want to do it merely because everyone else I was talking to was eating clean. Before making such a big diet change, I wanted to understand it and be certain it was something God actually wanted me to do. Eventually, as I studied it more, I began to feel a lot of doubt that we can eat "unclean" animals, and for that reason alone I was compelled to stop eating pig and things like shrimp even before I had come to an understanding. The reason for this is that I agree with what Paul said in Romans 14:23, “But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” Even if this verse wasn’t about unclean animals, I knew it applied to me.

The doubt bothered me so much, though, and I prayed constantly that God would help me to understand. I confess I was not happy at all about eating clean in the beginning. I knew I needed to obey not out of compulsion but through faith and understanding. I avoided searching for resources on this subject, and I was bothered by the ones I did stumble across because they didn’t answer any of my questions. The explanation for Peter’s vision in particular troubled me. Everyone said, "oh he’s talking about people not animals," but the vision was clearly about animals! Why would God use animals in the vision if He was only talking about people being clean? Perhaps the connection isn’t hard for some of you to see if you are a Whole-Bible-Believer, but for me I just couldn’t accept the simple explanation. I asked God for His understanding, and one day it just suddenly came to me while reading the passage.

No one else gave me this perspective, so I do believe it is from God, but I welcome you to put it to the test. I also want to say that this is my personal testimony, and I don’t want anyone to feel doubt or judged through reading it. If you are at an uncertain stage, like I was before, you do not need to read further than this. I don’t want to encourage people to rely on the Holy Spirit and then act like my testimony should convict you. That’s not my reason for sharing this.

That being understood, here is my current understanding of Peter’s Vision:

Peter was raised a Jew. He was not a gentile convert who had at one time eaten unclean animals and seen it as normal. It can be hard for anyone who has just converted to Christianity to immediately understand the act of living holy even with the help of the Holy Spirit. For Peter, though, he was always aware of the law and its requirements. To him eating unclean was an abomination, and this command in the vision to kill and eat the animals in the sheet was clearly disturbing to him. This is because even after Jesus' resurrection, he was still fully Torah observant. Despite the fact that Peter was suffering extreme hunger, three times he refused to do what he was told because of its repulsiveness and because of how much he wanted to honor God by keeping the Torah.

Since most people today who are interpreting this vision are coming from a non-Jewish perspective and have been told all their lives that eating unclean animals is okay, they will automatically assume that the vision is confirming their current lifestyle, not understanding the nature of how disturbing the command the angel gave to Peter was. Imagine if God had given this same vision to a gentile in that day - they wouldn't have had any reaction to the command to eat unclean animals since they would be unaware of the dietary laws. Sadly, Christians wouldn’t have any kind of reaction either, because we are not taught the Torah in church. So, Peter’s reaction is key. Let’s therefore keep in mind the perspective of a Jew who has never eaten unclean, because how a vision is interpreted is dependent on the person who was given it and his situation.

The next point to be made is that Peter is also very puzzled by the vision. Most people would agree that the very nature of a vision is to have an unclear meaning initially, so if God was indeed saying that Peter can now disregard the command to eat only clean animals and follow the command of the angel, Peter would not have been puzzled. This makes it evident that the common interpretation mainstream Christianity uses is not the same as Peter's conclusion if he's confused. It was clear he was being commanded to eat them, right?

To help Christians who aren't familiar with the Jewish fear of God that would never allow for breaking any law willfully, I will place something else besides animals in the sheet. This is the revelation that I suddenly had while reading the passage, and please bear with me because it will be a peculiar vision! What if, instead, the angel had lowered a sheet that was carrying prostitutes of every kind and told Peter, "Rise and indulge." Peter, or any Christian for that matter, would have naturally reacted with the same amount of repulsion. A Christian would react with repulsion because they understand the seriousness of the sin of sexual immorality. It would be profane, an abomination. Perhaps this is an extreme comparison, but we need that to really understand just how repulsive breaking the dietary laws would be for a Jew.

With this repulsive vision, God was addressing a problem that Peter and other messianic Jews were facing. They were viewing the converted Gentiles as still unclean. For us, it would be the same as us refusing to eat with new Christians because in the past they had been prostitutes. However, the Jews were treating the gentiles even worse than this! They were treating them as though they were animals and not just any animal - an unclean animal!

Remember how Paul condemned Peter for separating himself from the gentiles? If you understand the revulsion Jews had for unclean animals, you can imagine how wrong this revulsion would be to have towards fellow Christians. In essence, God was in agreement with Peter over the fact that the animals were unclean and that he should not eat them, but He was not in agreement with how Peter treated the gentiles. He wasn't telling Peter, “Now all animals are clean." He was saying, "Now these people are clean, so do not treat them with the same reaction that you treat these unclean animals." This vision only made sense to Peter when the gentiles, the missing puzzle piece, appeared at the front door.

I see God telling Peter to eat the animals like a test. Sometimes God tests His people in very unusual ways, such as telling Abraham to sacrifice his own son. Sacrificing a human being is forbidden by God, right? Each test God gives is unique to the individual and has to be understood by others through that individual’s perspective. I believe Peter passed the test in that he would not break the command to eat unclean, but he would fail the test if he continued to group gentiles with animals. This is confirmed by Peter later when he talks about showing partiality. God was revealing an inconsistency in Peter's obedience of the Torah. He obeyed the law not to eat unclean, yet he disobeyed the many laws that say not to show partiality between peoples.

Something else very interesting to note is that the Bible mentions many gentiles and half-Jews who were keeping the Torah in those regions and attending the synagogues. They were described as God-fearing and devout men, but the Jews still wouldn't accept them as their own even though they ate clean and lived just as the Jews did. The Jews, because of their manmade Talmud laws, constantly showed this kind of partiality, thus breaking the Torah.

Acts 10:28,34,35 And [Peter] said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation [this is Talmud law and not found anywhere in the Torah], but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean [not treat them as unclean animals]. Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him."

James 2:1-10 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing gold ring and fine a clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place," while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there," or, “Sit down at my feet," have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. But if you show partiality [which is forbidden in the Torah], you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

And James is not saying, "It is impossible to keep the law, so we don’t need to try at all." He is saying anyone who thinks he is obeying the law but shows partiality like this is not abiding by the law at all because the law is love, and partiality is a form of hate.

Deuteronomy 16:19,20 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Leviticus 19:34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 13:1-4 If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.

Here's some additional points I want to make, to help with questions in the beginning.

1. If Jesus' suffering and death on the cross really cleansed all animals, why do most people still instinctively refuse to eat bats, dogs, cats, scavengers, or rats?

2. Many people use the verse in Mark 7:19 that says "Thus He declared all foods clean," to defend eating pig, when this is actually a terrible mistranslation that twists what Jesus said. This verse was about eating with unwashed hands, not about eating pig. The following is how the verse is supposed to read, which says nothing about Jesus making unclean meat clean: "This is because it does not enter into his heart, but into the belly, and goes out into the waste-bowl, purging all the foods."

3. The first commandment mankind broke was not to eat the fruit from the tree. Sometimes I think about how we make excuses for why we eat something God told us not to eat, and it reminds me of the Adam and Eve going against God's law. Why is it so hard for us to obey God when He tells us, "Don't eat that."? A plate of bacon may look harmless, even delicious, just like the tree did, but the deeper issue is that we are disobeying God Himself. We should really take this topic far more seriously than we do.

4. A final thought - when Jesus allowed the demons to go out of the demon-possessed man into the herd of swine, He just wiped out an entire market of unclean meat for the ones who kept them. Someone who honored God's law, as Jesus did, would be making a big statement by doing such a thing. The authority and obedience to the law that Jesus showed sends shivers down my spine. I have my doubts He would've allowed this to happen if it had been a flock of sheep. (Mark 5:11-17 And a great herd of pigs were feeding there near the mountain.  And all the demons begged Him, saying, "Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them." And Jesus immediately allowed them. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered into the pigs. And the herd rushed down the precipice into the sea (they were about two thousand), and they were choked in the sea. And those who fed the pigs fled, and they told it to the city, and to the fields. And they came out to see what was happening. They came to Jesus and stared at the one who had been demon possessed, sitting and being clothed, and being in his senses, the one who had the legion. And they feared. And those seeing it related to them how it happened to the one who had been demon possessed, and about the pigs.  And they began to beg Him to go away from their borders.)