Regarding Peter's vision in Acts 10

Someone recently sent this question to our website:

Good morning! I LOVE your website and all of the information and explanations that you make so easy to understand. I am hoping that you can help me...I am inline with your beliefs but am still trying to stand firm in what I believe. Therefore, I have a question.

Please, please, please could you explain to me Acts 10, where Peter receives the vision on the rooftop. I believe that the Word of God never changes, so this is where I become confused....why would God use the images on unclean animals to make a point? Especially when He tells him to get up, kill and eat them? How can I understand this so that I can explain the truth to others who believe that this verse is permission to eat any foods we wish?

MY RESPONSE:

YHWH never said pork, shellfish, etc. were food. People called these animals food in rebellion against God.

In Peter’s vision (Acts 11), Peter would never have eaten the kosher animals that had been in contact with treif (non-kosher) animals.

The vision was to show that, as Peter knew which animals were clean and which were not because as God had shown him, Peter was to accept the Gentiles as God had now shown him they were “clean”. The rest of the passage in Acts 11 shows that this is the correct interpretation and what the vision was all about (see Acts 11:18).

Concerning the passage to which you referred, the footnote in the Aramaic English New Testament on Acts 10:10-16 says this:

Gentiles are called to enter into the Malchut Elohim to follow Mashiyach and observe Torah; this is not about the consumption of unclean food. Y’shua casts demons into a herd of swine Matthew 8, Mark 5, Luke 8. Swine meat is unclean, demons are unclean; Y’shua destroys both. Peter never ate unclean animals before or after this vision; followers of Y’shua don’t eat unclean foods. The Hellenized Christian church endorsed eating unclean foods, because non-Jews have always eaten it as a cultural normative. It is a continuum of pagan culture.

Isaiah 66:17-24 clearly prophecies of a rebellious people who dine on swine’s flesh, eat mice and choose to defy the Word of YHWH and His Mashiyach. Gentiles must not assume that these teachings single them out as unclean; Yehudeans are equally as unclean when choosing to defy YHWH and His Mashiyach (see Haggai 2:14; Ezekiel 44:22; Ezra 9:10-10:1; Isaiah 30:6-12; 65:2, 3; Jeremiah 5:22-31).

It is very important to differentiate between that which is Kosher according to YHWH, and religious “tradition.” If unclean food is prohibited for Jewish followers of Y’shua, it is also prohibited for non-Jewish followers; the Kingdom of Elohim is not divided. If unclean food has been proven unhealthy, then it is unhealthy for Jewish and non-Jewish bodies alike; there is One Mashiyach and One Torah.