but please also read this whole chapter in context! The whole vision that God gave to Peter was not for the purpose of communicating to the church that God has now cleansed animals and we can eat whatever we want now. It was for the purpose of revealing to Peter, and to the rest of the church, that they are not to call any MAN common or unclean! [Acts 10:28] Peter refused to eat with the Gentiles because he thought that they were "unclean" and would defile him if he ate with them. and if you notice, in the vision, when God called Peter to eat the unclean animals, Peter refused to, and he said that he has never eaten any unclean thing in his whole life. Well, his whole life would mean that even beyond the Cross, he still adhered to the Kosher diet up until this point.

So when Peter said to God, "No, I have never eaten anything common or unclean in my life", and God said that he should not call that which God has made clean, unclean, this vision happened three times. Then how many Romans met with him? THREE! Peter probably wondered at first why God would be changing this law. God did not just pick and choose which animals were clean and unclean, He gave those laws for a real scientific reason, that all the animals which were unclean were scavengers, "vacuum cleaners" for nature. Therefore since they were meant to clean up the garbage left from humans and other animals, their flesh would be totally unhealthy for man to eat, and would cause disease. But then Peter realized, when he met the three Romans, that it had nothing to do at all about whether unclean animals are now fit to eat, but about the fact that Gentiles are NOT "unclean", as the Jews haughtily believed.

So this vision was symbolic of God showing Peter and the rest of the church that God had never called Gentiles "unclean" in the first place, but that this was the result of the bigotry of the Jews against the Gentiles. This was to break down the wall of prejudice that Israel had built up, that God had never meant to have built up in the first place.

Think on this for a while. 

changed on Tuesday, February 20, 2001 5:50:18 AM

[Acts 10:15] says 'Do not call anything unclean that God has made clean'.
Please remember that last five words; That God has made clean.
This is basically why we pray for the food we're about to eat. We ask God to cleanse and sanctify the food, or in other words, we ask Him to make it clean, and then we can eat.
This is no excuse for not praying when you eat foods classified as 'clean' in the Old Testament. God does deserve some thanks for His providence, after all. Actually, He sort of deserves all thanks and for everything, but we all already know that.
So if you're still wondering, the answer is yes, if God cleanses it first. 

changed on Monday, January 08, 2001 6:38:10 PM