18/11/2006

  • Hunting

    It seems to be a time for hunters out there.  One of my colleagues at work hunts, and several of my Christian friends and brethren hunt.  I've heard and read a lot about it over the past month or so.  It is good to have a Scriptural view on hunting and every other thing in life.

    From Adam until Noah, man was restricted to vegetables and herbs (Gen. 1:29).  From Noah until Moses, man had divine warrant to eat meat (Gen. 9:3-4) .  However, from Moses until Christ, man could only eat certain kinds of meat (Lev. 11).  From Christ until the present day, Christ pronounced all kinds of meat to be spiritually clean for human consumption (Mark 7:10 cf. Rom. 14:20).  Therefore, it is lawful (i.e, Scriptural) to gather meat to eat for ourselves through either butchers, fishmongers, farming, fishing, hunting, or other Scriptural means as we see from Noah's early descendants onward in God's Word (Gen. 10, Gen. 25, Neh. 3, Matt. 15, Matt 17, Luke 5, John 4, etc.) .

    However, with the divine liberty and warrant to eat meat and hunt, we are admonished by God's Word to faithful stewardship of our dominion over the animals (Gen. 1:27) and all other things He provides (Matt. 25, Luke 11).  Hunting for meat and clothing is indeed Scriptural.  However, hunting just for the sake of killing and not necessarily to gather meat or clothing is not Scriptural and is an abuse of our God-given dominion over the animals.

    I do not hunt, but I do support Scriptural hunting.  I don't have any reservations about catching and killing the animal.  The reason I don't hunt is because after the killing of the animal comes the dressing and cleaning, and it is proven that I don't have the stomach for that.  I watched a neighbor clean and dress a deer, and I remember gagging literally all the way home.  (Ironically, I have the stomach to watch and/or discuss medical procedures while eating a snack or meal without gagging or whatever.)