God Created A Vegan World
An all-creatures Bible Message

God Created A Vegan World
 
A Sermon Delivered to
The Compassion Internet Church
 
2 December 2018
 
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor

Scripture References

Genesis 1:24-31
Genesis 6:13
Isaiah 11:6-10
Matthew 5:48
Matthew 6:10
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Revelation 21:4

God created a vegan world, and all through time He has been trying to get us to return to being ethical vegans who have empathy for the whole of His creation.
 
The unfortunate problem actually stems from the religious institutions, most of whom follow the corrupt ways of the world instead of following the heavenly will of God, and as a result millions of humans and billions of animals suffer and die unnecessarily every year.
 
So today we’re going to take a little trip through the pages of our Bibles and note many of the times when God tried to bring us back from our worldly ways to be the vegans He created us to be.
 
Let’s begin by looking at Genesis 1:24-31, and get a clear understanding of God’s creation intent.

24. Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind"; and it was so.

The Hebrew term “living creatures” used here is the same as that used for God’s creation of human beings, and which the King James Bible writers translated this phrase as “living soul;” thus, if humans have souls and spirits, then so do all the other animals.

25. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

This must be what God wanted for we are told that He said it was good.

26. Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

Therefore, the only difference between us and the other animals is that we were also created in the image of God, which in our opinion means that we are also to be acting like God instead of the devil, who most humans seem to follow.
 
Also, let’s hold off discussing what the term “rule” means until we get to the end of this passage.

27. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
 
28. And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Let’s also hold off explaining what the term “subdue” means until we get to the end of this passage.

29. Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

This is the first commandment, for it says “shall”; the plants shall be food for us, and not any other living being.

30. and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food;" and it was so.

And like with us, plants were to be the food of every other animal.
 
This is the way that God created the earth to be, and let’s think carefully about what God did next.

31. And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
NASB

God looked at everything He had made; nothing was left out; nothing was modified; everything was the way that He made it, and He saw that it was very good.
 
This means that the vegan world that He created was very good.
 
Some people use the term “plant-based” which means the same thing when it refers to food, but the term vegan implies a lifestyle that includes more than food, but whatever term you use is okay, for it specifically says you don’t raise or kill animals for food.
 
Therefore, and this is important to think about and remember, the term “subdue” can only mean that we are to do everything we can to subdue any and every force of evil that tries to corrupt the vegan world that God created.
 
Similarly, the term “rule” can only mean to guide God’s creation in the path of righteousness, which is also the heavenly will of God.
 
And while we are talking about this, the term “dominion” which is also misused can only mean the same thing.
 
So with these things in mind, let’s think about what we are told in Revelation 21:4

4. and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."
NASB

Now let’s return to the book of Genesis and look at Genesis 6:13…

13. Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.
NASB

God wanted a peaceful world in which there was no violence or killing so He had Noah build an ark for his family and the animals, and since there were only two of every animal they could not have been eating each other, nor could the humans have been eating them; they must have only eaten plant foods.
 
And if we couple this with the fact that Noah and the animals were on the ark 361 days, and perhaps even another 55 days, as we are told at the end of Genesis chapter 7 and in chapter 8, the only way they could have all survived would have been if they ate only plant foods.
 
But then something tragic happens, Noah sacrifices some of the clean animals, and while God accepted his repentance, Noah had returned to violence and killing.
 
And as a result, God said that Man was evil from his youth.
 
Everything God tried to do, Noah destroyed with the slice of a knife.
 
For a long time after this, God let the people stew in their own evil ways until He led them out of Egypt.
 
In the wilderness, He gave them manna, a vegan bread from heaven, but the people didn’t want it; they wanted to continue their flesh eating, and they grumbled against God, and once again God let them stew in their own worldly ways.
 
Then hundreds of years later in Isaiah 11:6-10, he wrote…

6. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the kid,
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.
 
7. Also the cow and the bear will graze;
Their young will lie down together;
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.
 
8. And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.
 
9. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
As the waters cover the sea.

This prophecy is a reflection of the vegan world that God created.
 
The fact that this peaceful kingdom has not come about, to us it is proof that most people aren’t as full of the knowledge of the Lord as they think they are.
 
But then Isaiah tells the people when this will happen…

10. Then it will come about in that day
That the nations will resort to the root of Jesse,
Who will stand as a signal for the peoples;
And His resting place will be glorious.
NASB

The root of Jesse, the father of David, if we follow the genealogy back far enough, we find that the root of Jesse is God; so what this passage is really telling us is that we will never have this peaceable kingdom until we whole-heartedly return to the Lord our God with every part of our being.
 
However, the people never really returned to God; they continued to do their own things.
 
With this in mind, think about what we are told in Jeremiah 33:14-16…

14. 'Behold, days are coming,' declares the LORD,' when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
 
15. 'In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth.
 
16. 'In those days Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she shall be called: the LORD is our righteousness.'
NASB

God promised to send the world our Messiah.
 
So finally, hundreds of years later, God sent His own Son, and while Jesus had a sizeable following, the bulk of the people didn’t follow His teaching about living in the heavenly will of God, and this continues to this very day, but that never changed the fact that God created a vegan world and wants us to be an integral part of it.
 
However, to this very day, we have not seen the rest of Jeremiah’s prophecy come to pass…the world is still corrupted and we don’t have true justice and righteousness, particularly when it comes to animals and those who care about them.
 
Think about what Jesus said in Matthew 5:48…

48. "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
NASB

This sure sounds like a commandment, doesn’t it, but I have serious doubts that any of us have lived up to that standard.
 
We may be vegan and have true empathy for the whole of God’s creation, but we still seem to stumble over the corrupt ways of this world even when we don’t want to.
 
Jesus even taught us how to pray in what has become known as “The Lord’s Prayer,” but while most Christians seem to know it and recite it, relatively few of them actually live it.
 
As an example, let’s take a look at just the second verse in that prayer, Matthew 6:10…

10. 'Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
NASB

As we looked at previously, there is no pain, or suffering, or death in heaven, which to us means that if we say this prayer, or believe in what it says, then we should be doing everything in our power to help bring it to a reality, not only in our own lives, but in the world around us.
 
To us, this is a direct call for us to be ethical vegans, and be peaceful witnesses of God’s heavenly will to the world around us.
 
God created a vegan world and we should be doing whatever we can peacefully do to remind others of this truth.
 
We can do it.
 
We can.
 
Amen?
 
Amen.

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